Intentional

Being intentional as a parent is hard stuff!  It's sometimes mentally exhausting for me as a mom.  To be on my a-game, to be consistent with things, to be one step ahead of the kiddos, to be able to give answers quickly and all the time, and in all of this just to love my children well.  I know I fail all the time too.  Not getting down on myself, just know that I mess up.  Some days I am just so exhausted it's just easier to give in and not be consistent, not think of a consequence or deal with attitude or a kiddo not listening, or even just to lose patience quickly when I am exhausted. 

This holiday season we wanted to be intentional in our focus on Christ being born.  My best friend Erin has an advent that she does with her family with daily scripture and sometimes crafts, books or outings that go along with the scriptures.  She was wonderful and sent me a copy and I took a look at it and used it as a base for our advent calendar.  It's great!  Thank you Erin.  Every night we have a time together to read scripture or a story and do what we are going to do that day-if there is something like a craft.  I can say that we have already missed a few days and it's not perfect, but I like it.  And Cale gets it.  He understands the story of Jesus and I pray that as time continues to go on he understands more and more the love that God has for him and the sacrifice he made with sending his son. 

I have to remember as a mom, that I am not perfect and that God loves me regardless, whether I mess up as a parent or whether I am not perfect in getting all the advent days in.  My hope is that I can remember that with my children and have that kind of gracious love with them in living out God's grace and mercy in my everyday.  So while being intentional is not always easy-it takes a little work, it's worth it to me.  And when I mess up, I get back up and try again tomorrow.  For no matter what the day, I am loved and so is my family!

Talk, talk, talk

You know that song that says "and all she wants to do is dance."  Well for Aiden I would substitute and say "and all he wants to do is talk."   He is starting to put words together little by little and man can he have a conversation.  He will talk and monologue for 1-2 minutes and be looking at us as if he is telling the best story ever.  Now, while I can't understand what he is saying, I can say that by his facial expressions and energy he puts into his stories, I have to believe he is telling me something very exciting.  He's our little daredevil-loves to climb stairs, climb on tables, stand up on things, pull him self up on the kitchen chairs, and so much more.  Let's just say that he has heard the word no quite a bit lately!  He is seriously one of the happiest kids I know.  You rarely find him crying.  Most always you find him laughing or smiling.  And oh man does he have those dimples when he smiles.  I cannot stop kissing his sweet little face!  That's the truth.  He has a "blankie" that he sleeps with at naps and night time now.  It's pretty much a must.  His fine motor skills are developing. Just today my mom said he is putting pieces of train tracks together now.  He is also stacking things well and feeding himself with a fork or spoon.  We just love having him in our sweet family! 

And now he is 4!

Cale turned 4 on December 2nd.  We celebrated his birthday in Branson and then on December 8th with a train themed party for friends and family at the condo.  It was lots of fun!  I wrote this as a reminder of where he is at at this time in his life. 

Cale, I was just looking at some old video of you from a little over a year ago of you reading The Little Red Caboose.  Oh my how you have grown.  You still have that sweet little voice, but it has changed and matured some.  You are a joy my son.  You are strong willed and don't like when things don't go your own way.  That is sometimes a mental challenge, but it is growing and stretching your father and me and sometimes bringing us to our knees in prayer for guidance.  We so want to love you well and have all the answers and sometimes it's frustrating when we don't or don't know how to handle certain situations.  So with that being said, there are plenty of times we mess up as parents, but I hope you will know how dearly loved you are.  

I am amazed by how smart you are.  You just pick up things from your environment so quickly.  You ask lots of questions daily in trying to better understand your world.  You love trains.  Can't get enough of them.  I wonder what you will be when you grow up-maybe a train engineer.  I wonder what your likes will be a few years down the road-will it still be trains or something else?

You are a sweet boy that is full of energy.  You amaze me by your energy and I wish I could sometimes just bottle some of it up for myself!  You love to run around.  You love to be chased and tickled.  You are a great big brother.  You love wrestling with daddy.  You are a great big brother.  Although sharing is sometimes a tough thing, you overall love your brother well.  I look forward to seeing the bond between you and your brother grow as you get older!  

You are beginning to understand that things in life are not always happy or good,  that sometimes we live in a sad world and you ask great questions to try to better understand your world around you. While I wish daily that I could keep you from seeing the hurts of the world, or getting hurt, I know that we live in a broken world.  I pray that you would trust God through everything in life, the ups and the downs, the good and the bad and know that He loves you and that we will always love you!

Don't grow up to fast on me sweet boy.  We continue to be so proud of you, the person you are and look forward to where God will take you in the future and seeing you continue to explore and understand the world.  

Love,

Mom

 

Polar Express 2012

 The first weekend in December we went to ride the Polar Express again in Branson.  What a beautiful weekend-weather again in the upper 60's lower 70's.  We didn't even wear coats when we rode the train the night of December 1.  We also celebrated Cale's 4th birthday there by hanging out outside all day on the 2nd and just chilling as a family. It was a great trip! Here are some pictures from the Polar Express. 

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a pretty low key Thanksgiving this year.  We actually spent it with my family this year.  We went over to the lakehouse Thanksgiving morning and had lunch with Grandma Benz (Gigi as Cale calls her), Bill, Lisa, Jodie, Dale, Diane, and Michelle.  It was nice to see everyone and hang out.  Then Jeff had to head back to St. Louis to work the rest of the weekend so me and the kiddos stayed with my parents.  The Caubles came over that Saturday and we enjoyed our time with them.  Cale cooked hotdogs in the firepit and made us smores!  He also went fishing, even though it was pretty cold outside.  Didn't catch anything, but he sure does love to fish with his PaPa!

Train watching

If you haven't figured out by now-Cale loves trains and Aiden is quite into them too.  We have been to Kirkwood station many of times.  Here's some pictures from a November visit to the train station.

Family photos

Jeff get's better and better at photography everyday!  He's really got an eye for it and does great work!  We went to Tower Grove Park on November 10. The weather was actually in the upper 60s and beautiful! Jeff set up his tripod and got some great family shots.  Here are a few.