To CJ on your Birthday...

Dear CJ, Cee-jie, Ceej, C Monster, Cee-jie Pants...

What a blessing you are to your family!  I love your mischievous smile, your "cheese ball" face, that twinkle in your eye when you are having fun or up to something!

I love how you are all boy, yet so affectionate with your brothers and your mommy & daddy!

I love that all you want to do is have fun, and will do anything and take any risks in order to accomplish that!

I love that you go up to strangers and look at them with your big blue eyes, stare them down and say "Hi!  Hiiiiiii!!!" until they say hi back!  I love that when the grout man came over to fix our tile, you spent the entire hour or so that he was here trying to make him say hi to you, and you wouldn't back down :~)

I love how you love your brothers.  You imitate everything Toby does, and love to play with him!  You are generous in your hugs and kisses to Bo, and are such a good big brother to him!
I love how excited you get about cars & trucks, Spiderman, and balls!  I love that when we go to a friend's house who has girls, you are so flabbergasted by dolls and pink!  I love when you use your "man voice" and when you "vroom-vroom" around the house, pushing your little cars and trucks, on all fours, with your tushie straight up in the air!

I love your little goofy faces you make, and how you will do anything for a laugh!

I love how you live your little life to the fullest, and do everything with your whole heart!
I love that you turn anything to a song, when playing with your cars, you sing, "Cars, cars, cars, cars...!"  I love that you are always humming a happy little tune!

I love that you talk to inanimate objects!  I love that the other day, you put your see-through plate up to your face, stretched out your arms in front of you, and said, "I see you, hands!"

I love how you can have me laughing hysterically with just one of your silly faces!

I love that you practice these faces in the mirror!
I love that the other day, when I was unkind to you, and asked you to forgive me, you went from sad crying, to a genuine smile, and looked at me in the eyes, and said "I forgive you!" (without being prompted!)  I love how quickly you do forgive, and when you are disciplined, you don't stay angry!  I love that you can be crying one minute, and then happy the next.
I love when you tell me someone is sleeping, and then you start snoring loudly!
I love watching you play with your Daddy, how you love to tackle him!  I love that you curl up and suck your thumb and cuddle when I hold you!  Oh, there are so many other things I love about you!  CJ, I am so happy that I get to be your Mommy!  I can't believe how much you have grown this past year, and we are having so much fun with you!  You are a blessing to all who know you!  Because of you, my joy has increased, and I laugh much more often!  I love you SOOOO much!

Happy Birthday, CJ!!!

Our little Carson Jack is two years old!!!  I can't believe it... in some ways he seems older than two, in other ways, I can't believe it has already been two years since his birth!  So, on Saturday, we woke him up with balloons, and came downstairs to eat his favorite, cinnamon rolls, for breakfast.

He liked the balloons.

A lot.

At breakfast, we helped him put on his birthday hat.  For weeks now, he has been obsessed with birthday hats, and even made up a song about them (it has only two words, "Birthday Hat!"  Repeat over and over!)

The boys had so much fun with "Tay-Tay, Twevo and Ry-ee!"

...and had way too much chocolate birthday cake!

He also scored some GREAT birthday presents!

And at the end of the day, it's really just all about the balloons!

Happy Father's Day, Keith!

I always knew Keith would be a great dad, even before we had kids.  I used to watch him play with Taylor, and dream about how much fun it would be to see him playing with our own kids.  When Toby was born, we seriously had NO idea what we were doing.  We were both a *little* frieked out by everything!  I mean, everything!  Keith has grown SO much over the years with Toby, by being comfortable with letting Toby become more daring and adventurous, and by recognizing when Toby is trying to work him, and has especially grown in disciplining Toby when he needs it.  It's so cool to see how much of Keith is in Toby.  He's like a little Mini Me of Keith...

I especially love watching Toby "tackle Daddy" now that he's old enough to really wrestle and be a boy with his Daddy!  

Then, about 6 months after Toby was born, we were unexpectedly blessed to find out we would have another little one.  I will never forget nervously telling Keith, and how excited he was!  There was absolutely nothing but complete joy in his reaction!  We were much more relaxed with CJ, and didn't friek out quite as much... 

We still have no idea what we are doing, though!  As the above picture shows, Keith is always ready and willing to get into the boys' world, whether that's messy spaghetti, or Thomas the Train, or making up little stories about Bert & Ernie, he will go to great lengths to make the boys laugh.  CJ is our crazy, hilarious, adorable, get-into-a-big-mess-and-love-every-minute-of-it boy, and Keith loves to get right in there with him!  He is such a combination of toughness while wrestling with them, and tenderness when they wake up from a bad dream, playing guitar and singing them lullabies before tucking them back in.

And now, he gets to start all over again with Bo.  Bo is already enthralled with Keith!  If I'm holding him, and Keith is around, Bo's eyes follow him around the room, like he just wants to see what Daddy will do next.  When Keith talks to him, his whole face lights up and he gets this huge smile!

My favorite, though, is watching Keith play with the boys all together!  There is just something so adorable about a Daddy playing with his boys.  I love how he gets down on their level, and just loves them, whether that's playing with their toys with them, pushing them around on their cars, reading them a Dr. Seuss book, or looking them in the eye and telling them they need a Savior.  I can't wait to watch these boys grow up to be men, as their father leads them and guides them in wisdom.  There is something that Keith has with them that I will never have, and I love it!  They are always watching, as he teaches them so faithfully what it means to be a man, and I am confident that we will one day reap a bountiful harvest of the faithful, day-in and day-out leadership that he provides our family!

Keith, I have SO enjoyed seeing you become a father these past 3 years, and there is no one else I would rather be on this crazy, wonderful journey with than you!  Thank you for how faithfully you have trained our boys.  Thank you for your gentle but firm leadership you provide our family!  Thank you for your intentionality in how we raise these boys.  Thank you for being the sole provider for our family, so that I get to stay home with them all day!  Thank you for being humble, receiving input from me, and for all the encouragement you have given me about how to train our boys!  You are the most amazing man, and the best father I know of!  Our boys are SO blessed to have you as their father!  I love you!

Daddy's Monkey

Keith had to work late tonight, so I made dinner for the boys, and was helping CJ pray before eating.  It went like this:

Me:"...and please bless Daddy at work"

CJ: "Bless Daddy work"

Me: "And give him wisdom for how to provide for us"

CJ: "And give him monkey"

I'm not quite sure what that meant, but it made me laugh!

Happy Anniversary!

Friday was our 5 year anniversary!!!  A couple months ago, I asked Keith if I could plan what we would do to celebrate, because I kept getting these random ideas of fun stuff we could do.  Like, decorating our van...

... and going a scavenger hunt!  So, we were blessed to find a sitter for the boys (all 3 of them!  Thanks, Rach and Emily!) and got to go on a daytime date.  To start, I gave Keith a wrapped present, which he had to open to find his first clue for where we were going.  It was a pair of corduroy slippers.  He soon figured out that this meant our first stop was where it all began, East Valley Bible Church.  Keith and I taught a kindergarten Sunday School class, and he always used to wear these black corduroy slippers, and I, in my ever-so-subtle way of flirting, used to make fun of him... "Oh, Keith, wearing corduroy slippers to church again?! ::bat eyelashes::  You are so funny!" lol.  Yeah, I liked him.  A lot.  (Still do).  It was so fun to relive that nervous excitement feeling, remembering those first butterfly feelings!  So, we took our picture at EVBC and, at each place we went to, I gave him a card, encouraging him about something I admire about him related to each memory or location.

 The next gift he opened was a Starbuck's card, to be used at the Starbuck's I used to work at, on Rural & Baseline...

Keith used to come in, when I was working and order water.  I didn't quite catch on that he was really coming in to talk to me, but whatever!  Actually, several months before he started doing that, we bumped into each other at this Starbuck's and he told me that, despite what I may have heard, he did not like me!  My response was something like, "Good... I don't like you!"  We were both lying.  Pretty soon after his regular visits for water, however, he came in during one of my breaks, and we talked for a while, and he ended up asking me out on a date that night...

me with my wonderful iced grande nonfat caramel macchiato

Keith and his tall Java Chip Frappuccino

Keith's next present was a gift bag full of Laffy Taffy.  This one was kind of random, it was more to symbolize all our great conversations and laughter we've shared.  So, our next stop was at the place we had our first date, a little coffee shop in Tempe that overlooks this beautiful lake.  It was my first date ever, and I have to say, it was perfect.  It was beautiful March weather, not too hot, not too cold, and we sat at a big table outside, facing the water and really got to know all about each other.  We didn't know anything about each others' families, or really life history kind of stuff.  It was so funny to look back and remember all those nervous feelings!  I was frieking out!  I mean, really frieking out!  I literally had the thought cross my mind "What would our kids look like if we get married?!"  Yeah, did I mention it was my first date ever?!  So, I couldn't eat or drink anything because my stomach was in knots, but I ordered a bottle of water just to see if he would pay for it, to make sure it was an official date.  Then, I kept tripping over myself and made some lame joke about how it must have been "vodka water" I was drinking.  Can you believe he married me?!  

Keith's next present was another gift bag, this time full of Hershey's Kisses.  He knew right away where we were going... Gililland Middle School, the place we had our first kiss (in the parking lot... so romantic!)  This was where we used to meet for church, and one late Sunday night, after church, we were talking in the parking lot about whether we should start kissing or not, and all I remember is saying "I think I'm ready," closing my eyes and hoping for the best.  And then frieking out when he kissed me.  Ohmygosh!  He's kissing me!  Ohmygosh!  He's kissing me!  Yeah, this also happened to be my first kiss ever, too!  Good times, good times.

My original plan was to then go to our old apartment, our first home, but we decided to get lunch instead, and then head back home.  It was a great day, and so fun to reminisce about all the fun times we've had.  It's so easy to forget what our lives were like before we had kids, and it was also encouraging to see all the ways God has worked in our marriage in the past 5 years, and am very thankful for how He has changed us.  Keith has been so patient and kind to me these past years, but God has also grown him so much in so many areas!  We joke about how he used to give me "sermons" until I would fall asleep over the phone, and now he asks me really good questions, drawing me out and really listening to me and seeking to understand me.  When he comes home, often the first thing out of his mouth is "How can I serve you?" and actually wants to clean up and let me relax.  He has grown so much with taking care of the boys by himself sometimes so that I can feed Bo or do other stuff.  He has become so much easier to talk to about difficult things, and when I bring things to him, I often see immediate change.  I could go on and on, but all that to say that I am amazed I get to be this man's wife!  I am equally amazed at how faithful God has been to preserve us and our marriage... us being more in love today has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with God!  To Him be the glory!

CJ's Morning Prayer

This was CJ's prayer before breakfast (which was leftover apple crisp)...

Me: Say, "God..."

CJ:  God

Me:  Thank you...

CJ:  Ga Goo...

Me:  For apple crisp...

CJ:  Apple craps

Say Cheese!