too bad it's tuesday

Oh what a wonderful long weekend we had! I was a homebody all weekend which is very odd for me.  It was somewhat of the calm before the storm of the summer so maybe that's why I felt like laying low. 

I'm sure glad I did because it provided lots of good quality time. At the end of every day of the weekend I made the comment, "It's really been SUCH  a good day together!" No serious plans of any kind. My to-do list was long but things like "play," "relax," and "enjoy each other" were mixed in. And that we did. All of it!

Too bad it's Tuesday now.

I feel like I would still like to be in this state...

Paci, Doggie, and all just hangin' out.

We did a whole lotta cleaning up and cleaning out, yard work, games, cooking, slip n' sliding, and popsicle eating. Matthew and I may or may not have participated in every one of these activities...let's just say i have bruises.

We are gearing up this week for a busy, fun summer. There will be lots of traveling, lots of friends and family, and lots of popsicles and watermelon. And I'm sure lots more slip n' sliding!

yeah yeah for summer!

hip hip

Hooray for the holiday weekend!!!

TEC.2 years

my second born son. 

 

you could get lost between the first and third but there you are.

bright, loud, silly, passionate, with a big smile! there's no way you could get lost. your personality is big.

you love big trucks. you love popsicles. you love big planes, trains, and boats. you love rocks and sticks. you love yogurt. you love people. you love hugs. you love your bear bear and doggie. you love tractors. you love dirt. you love the hose. you love your big brother grey. you love to ride your 4-wheeler. you love will. you love to teach him how to make big truck sounds. you love your mommy. and you love your daddy.

and we love you! happy 2nd birthday big boy!

in recent days

wow may. it's a busy month around here. dare i say busier than a summer month?! maybe this year it is.

last week matthew traveled to idaho with the church staff. he loved the trip and i loved that while he was gone, we took a trip back to the ol' simpsonville. i got to spend some time with ashley, grant, and lydia at the zoo and we had a picnic. The day could not have been more perfect. 

we also got to spend some really good, and funny time with abby and cady while we were there. i took a few maternity shots for abs and cady and the boys played hard. it's so so strange to think about me and my friends from a different part of my life having kids together. i love it. i loved watching them play and seeing all their little personalities work together. that cady is a stinker. a cute stinker!

as usual, we enjoyed our time at poppie and marmie's. grey cried because he didn't want to leave. if i were him, i wouldn't have wanted to leave either! we eat good, we sleep good, we play a lot, and spend time with gram. what could be better?!

 tuck man has been singing "happy birthday" to himself for days now. he's gearing up for his second birthday on thursday. i can't believe that boy is going to be two. he's such a mess.

i have been editing wedding photos for what seems like 4 years now. i'm really enjoying the process and trying to stay organized. one extremely unfortunate event that has occured is that my editing program inserted a copyright symbol on all the pictures so i am in the process of going back through them to remove that. other than that, i am making my way through! i hope to share some on here when i am finished.

will is 10 weeks today. here's a few shots from this morning before matthew left for work. the three biggest boys were making will smile so very big. melt my heart...

i have piles of laundry to sort and put away, our floors are filthy, and our bathrooms are dirty but we are really enjoying each other these days. 

in the quiet

quiet moments happen rarely around here. when they do happen, i steel all the life out of 'em. 

like last night. 

after a crazy sunday of rushing from this to that, spilled milk, scraped knees, head locks, unkind words between brothers, laughing between brothers, time with 10th grade girls, playing outside, games with grey, very little time with daddy...i was ready. so very ready for the quiet moments.

i finally got the big boys to bed and my entire body let out a sigh. 

will and i proceeded about the night in much quietness. only the sounds of the warm running bath water, little coos, a quiet song from mommy, and prayers of gratefulness from my lips. 

gratefulness for the day that had passed us. for all the busyness, the arguing, the laughter, young girls' hearts being changed and renewed, the fresh air. for the fact that I need Him every moment of every hour. gratefulness for my precious baby boy who held my finger so tightly and would not let go of my gaze. and he smiled for a solid 7 minutes in such innocent joy of spending quiet moments with mommy. 

the tears welled up as i sucked all the life out of that moment with my third born. i could do nothing but praise God for giving me the precious gift of will. praise Him for creating will in His image for Him to do great things for Him. and i get to watch.

happy two months baby boy.

pickin'

We took all the boys strawberry pickin' yesterday morning. They had already been with Marmie this season so they were prepped and ready to go. 

One thing I was not aware of was Tucker's undying love for holding the basket. When it was time to give Grey a turn, the Tuck Monster broke loose...

Grey decided it wasn't really such a thrill to hold the basket so he let Tuck hold it 95% of the time. I was very impressed with his decision. His love was really eating every strawberry he picked.

Instead of referring to Tucker as Tuck Monster, we decided The Strawberry Nazi was much more fitting. Not only did he have to be holding the basket, he had to be the only one to put the strawberries in the basket and they definitely could not have stems. And oh heavens, if he saw you eating one...LOOK OUT.  The Strawberry Nazi was in full force. 

I spent a lot of time laughing at him. And taking pictures of him in all of his Nazi-ness. 

Here he is checking for stems. He was all smiles when they checked out to meet his standards.

He definitely would attack if things were not as he wished. The joys of a little brother. Or The Strawberry Nazi.

Oh man those strawberries tasted like they were coated in sugar. I have eaten almost half a gallon on my own!

8 weeks, a storm, flowers, and a good read

On Tuesday Will was 8 weeks old. He is a champ baby. We are loving on him lots. Most people think he's more like 4 or 5 months old. Then I inform them he is in fact only 8 weeks and they are amazed. What can I say? I have big boys. Love that chunker.

Tuesday night I checked on all three boys before slipping into my own cool, comfy sheets and everyone was peacefully sleeping. Just a couple hours later we were awoken to the most terrifying wind I have EVER heard. I was certain our house was going to blow away and I am not exaggerating one bit.

Matthew and I don't normally get scared during storms. In fact, we really like storms. This was different.

Immediately I jumped up and said, "this is not good, this is not good" about a million times.  We tried to wake up enough to figure out what to do next. After I regained composure, I went in and scooped up Will from his room, Matthew got Grey and Tuck up, and we used our cell phones for light to make our way to our closet under the stairs. 

I ended up calling my dad and having him check the weather (they are in Greenville) for us to confirm we were not in a tornado. I was confident it was and we were in the center of the storm. It was THAT bad. The lightening lit up our house like the middle of the day. It was constant. I can't even describe it.

In the meantime, Tucker pooped his pants and wouldn't quit asking for oatmeal, Grey was singing songs with me in the closet while I fed Will, and Matthew was trying to look out of the window every now and then to assess our situation. He couldn't see a thing. It was insane.

Grey and I continued to have a discussion about storms and how God sends the lightening, thunder, wind and He is always in control. To this he replied, "well God sure is sending us a whoooole lotta lightening mommy! And He knows what He's doing right?!" He never shed a tear. I'm pretty sure the flashlight combined with "hiding" in the closet helped the situation.  Although yesterday he asked me 11 billion times if there was going to be another storm :) 

Wednesday morning we still had no power and Tucker never went back to sleep. I think the 1 a.m. wake up call was morning for that little fella. And at about 6:30 he finally got his oatmeal. Not because we had power to turn on the stove or microwave to make the oatmeal but because I have a very resourceful husband. He even brewed me fresh coffee which was much needed after a night like that. He boiled some water on our grill and we had a french press which I think instantly turned my teeth brown. 

This is how Tucker spent most of his day after missing most of his night time sleep the night before.

We finally got power back last night after our jaunt to Chick-fil-a. Sweet relief. The power pole {I have no idea what to call that thing} split in half and trees had fallen on all the power lines. It's amazing how much we depend on electricity and I am all the more grateful today for it!

I love spring and I love watching our yard in bloom. This was a shot I took before the storm. Unfortunately things aren't standing quite as tall today.

Okay, on to one more thing I wanted to share with any mother who may read this blog. I read this and this yesterday and both encouraged me right where I am in motherhood. It's no easy task being a mom. I'm thankful the Lord encourages me daily in one of the most self-sacrificing jobs around.

the weekend in short

I can't keep up these days. I can't keep up with the every day routine, the very quick pace in which my boys seem to all be keeping, and much less this blog. 

Here's the thing, I love blogging about "the wonderful adventures of us." I hate that I am not keeping up with it like I intend to. 

So in an effort to not neglect creating and being a part of "the wonderful adventures of us," I'm going to go short and sweet style so I can see if I can keep up a little better.

So, here it goes...

This weekend I did not celebrate Mother's Day with my children but celebrated by photographing my first ever wedding for a beautifully stunning couple. Have a look.

Beautiful I tell ya!

I would be lying if I said it was an easy task. Whew. Thank goodness I had my husband by my side.  Really he was everything BUT by my side. And good thing he wasn't because we were a fantastic tag team of photography! It was a blast doing this with him and let's be honest about the fact that I could not have done it without him. I am the furthest thing from a professional but I don't know how anyone would do that alone!

The wedding itself was gorgeous, a May day in Charleston wedding day!  The sun was shining bright, the bride and groom were beaming with the joy of their wedding day, the moments were filled with a God given grace of two becoming one. It was a pleasure to celebrate even behind the camera!

I got to be on the inside of all the activity and it was awesome. One of my most favorite times of the day was when I met Mr. and Mrs. Anderson downtown Charleston after the wedding to grab a few shots in one of the most gorgeous cities around. I truly felt like I was with two celebrities. Everyone was staring, taking pictures, giving marriage advice, honking horns. I played it up and waved along with them like I was something special too. I'm not, but it sure was fun to be walking the streets with them holding a camera like I totally knew what I was doing! 

Thank you Aaron and Carly for this opportunity and congrats on a beautiful life TOGETHER!

GLC.4 years today!

Happy 4th Birthday Grey Bear! 

We have a fun filled day ahead and have already had quite the eventful morning celebrating our four year old! 

Quote of the morning: {in a very sad voice} "Daddy and Mommy, I don't think my legs got ANY longer."

Apparently that was supposed to happen overnight :)