Heard Around Here

These days go by quickly.  They are full of reading books, driving to and from school, loads of laundry, church and a million other things.  Sometimes I feel like there is hardly ever silence or that I can't hear myself think. I also know that sometime, all too soon, I will miss the ridiculous jokes, the fits of giggles from the back of the minvan and the pudgy toddler legs dancing around while singing songs.  I'm sure I miss lots of it with the busyness of life.  So I am trying to stop more often in the middle of this busy life and enjoy the funny, clever or repeated things that my boys are saying.  During this first week of December, this is what is being heard around here.

Aaron:  "My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Caleb:  "Cayeb, Cayeb Jump up and down.  Jump up and down" (also includes skipping and dancing).

Andrew: "I'll have the cheeseburger and french fries."
Waiter: "Its actually mini cheeseburgers, Is that okay?"
Andrew:  "As long as there is more than one."  (The boy LOVES his cheeseburgers).

James:  "Great Thing!"  (His current expression, similar to "Great Scott" from Back to the Future.Used multiple times a day).

Andrew:  "What do they sell in that store called God's Will?"
James: "That sign says GoodWill!"

While I'm documenting current obsessions, I'll add these to this list.

Caleb's favorite food is pepperoni.  He can be found digging in the fridge as early as 9 am to help himself to this spicy treat.  Its horrifying how much he likes pepperoni.

Aaron is obsessed with all songs written by "Mr. Matt Redman" (he never shortens it, he always calls him Mr. Matt Redman).  He sings the songs loudly and sincerely.  He also enjoys Chris Tomlin songs, but doesn't refer to him as Mr. Chris Tomlin, just Chris Tomlin.

Grandma's Gone Back Home

Grandma Mary has been at our house for the last 8 days.  She attended Grandparent's Day at the twins' school.  She took Aaron bowling and for a lunchdate by himself.  She gave Caleb baths and laid with him in his bed to help him fall asleep at bedtime and bathtime.  She taught Caleb how to wrap Elmo and his stuffed Larry up in blankets and tuck them to "bed" as a game.  Andrew read to her every night.  The boys entertained her with our nightly "dancey-dance" game that we made up.  She showed the boys videos of their cousin Harvey (who lives in Delaware).  They told her ridiculous jokes that didn't make sense.  They laughed with her and provided her with many laughs.  They gave her bedtime hugs and kisses.  The twins came running to the car at school pick-up when she was in the car.  Caleb chose to have her carry him instead of me.  She taught and practiced Awana verses with the boys.

She and I made Starbucks runs in the afternoon and talked for hours.  We went shopping together--walking around the mall, visiting the play area with the boys and just talking some more..  She helped me get laundry and dishes done (is there any more practical way to show love to me at this stage of my life?).  She also gave Jon & I permission to sneak out for three movie nights and a late night dinner while she was here.

Clearly, it was a glorious week for our family.

It ended this morning when we took Grandma to the airport and she flew home.  I woke Aaron up so he could ride with us and he immediately dissolved into tears about her departure (this is no surprise).  I thought he'd quiet down when he realized we'd be seeing her in a month for Christmas, but it made the pain no less painful for him.  A month is FOREVER in a five-year-old's life.

On the way home from the airport, Aaron sang his favorite song through tears and sobs.  I still hear it echoing in my head.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won't turn back
I know you are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

Eventually, he stopped crying and now all he has is happy memories of a great week with Grandma.  Its hard when you live far apart.  You can't just stop in for a cup of coffee or a dinner.  Making it to the kids events like soccer games and Grandparent's Day doesn't usually happen.  It takes coordinating schedules, making travel arrangements, spending---basically all sorts of intentionality on all of our parts as well as time, money and energy. 

In this month of focusing on Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for these times when we are able to have a week of "normal" with Grandma.  I'm thankful for this week where we intentionally focuses our schedule on soaking up with with Grandma Mary.

The conversations over cups of coffee, the bedtime rituals, the laughter over the boys antics, reading books together--these shared moments when you spend most of your time miles apart are precious.  These are the memories that fill my heart and put smiles on my boys' faces.  These moments turn into the family stories that we tell each other in the coming weeks and year.  These are the moments that are etched into my mind as snapshots and end up in the boys' scrapbooks.  It may be cheesy, but its true.  There is no gift that I could be given that is better than the gift of time with those I love.  I plan on soaking it up as much as possible, especially as we head into what has become the most consumerism-driven and materialistic time of the year.

Thanks for visiting Grandma!  See you in a month!

Three years ago

This afternoon I was re-tucking my Caleb back into bed (he'd been up a few times) in an effort to get him to nap.  As I was laying next to him stroking his hair in an effort to calm him to sleep, I was overcome with tears.  Sometimes this sweet boy can drive me batty with his never-ending getting into things, but I cannot imagine my life without him.  That dimpled smile was one of the first things I noticed about him when he was born and that same smile melts my heart these days in about two seconds. 

Three years ago, I had just learned that I was pregnant with Caleb.  It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.  Caleb was my first pregnancy after I had experienced the loss of a miscarriage.  Because of our previous loss, that positive pregnancy test brought up a bunch of conflicting emotions.  So much that I kept the news to myself for a full THREE days before I told my husband.  Keeping any news, especially BIG news like that, to myself for three minutes, let alone three days is amazing.  I'm pretty sure that the other 3 times I discovered I was pregnant, I waited all of 3 seconds before I shouted the news to my hubs. 

During those three days, we went to a reunion party.  We had three young children at the time (4 years, 4 years and 2 years), so several people were asking if we were done or if we might have more.  Little did they (or Jon) know!

It seems kinda silly now that I kept it to myself but at the time, my heart was tentative.  I didn't know what the outcome would be and knew I wasn't in control.  I had hoped it would be good.  I had no idea how blessed our family would be to have this 4th little boy added to it. 

When I see this boy, all I can think about is how good God is!  The verse that comes to mind is
1 Samuel 1:27 "I asked the LORD to give me this boy, and he has granted my request." (New Living Translation)

The Apple Orchard (Part 1)

This year, my big boys are in school full-time which means that they aren't around for all-day fun outings on weekdays.  Usually we go to the apple orchard each fall to pick apples and pumpkins.  This year was no exception.  In fact, we actually made two trips.

The first trip was to Royal Oaks Orchard in Hebron.  I just had my two "littles" with me.  It is still a little strange to me to be on an outing like that and just have 2 of my 4 boys along.  I miss James & Andrew but its also fun and special to be building some memories with Aaron and Caleb.  They are three years apart in age but as Caleb is getting older, I see their friendship growing.

Caleb wanted to hold Aaron's hand, not mine, and every few seconds, he'd stop and say "Hi"

This was Caleb's first time apple-picking.  I never get him to eat sliced apple at home, so I was sure he would have no interest in eating them whole.  As usual, he proved me wrong.  Not only did he love biting the whole apples, he went through about 20 of them.

We also found some pumpkins.

And I did my best to try to get a few pictures of me with the boys despite the fact that there weren't many other people there.

Aaron loves taking pictures and took this one.

Selfie grimaces

We also played in the playground area.  The pirate ship was our favorite because we are all about pirates.

But the train was pretty cool too.

We ended the day with a trip to the petting zoo because I figured, we hadn't gotten dirty enough yet, why  not add some filthy animal germs to the mix.  Both boys LOVED this.  Caleb called each animal a "puppy" despite my explanations that they were goats and sheep.

Harvey's 1st Barnyard Birthday Bash

On September 2, 2013 my sweet nephew Harvey turned one.  Its hard to imagine this little guy not being part of our family.  Over the last year, we've got to watch him grow from a newborn peanut into a toddler.  We've gotten to experience all the "firsts" of that first year along with him--first smile, laugh, tooth, taste of food, crawling, and walking.

To celebrate the big occasion, his parents (Natalie & Mack) threw a birthday bash that puts pinterest to shame.  Harvey has a barnyard-themed nursery so they continued the theme for his birthday.  All the decorations were made by my sister (I had no idea how crafty she was) and the theme was carried out in all the food and drinks too.  It was adorable and you could sense the love that they have for this boy in their desire to celebrate him.  The party was also a great testament to their ability to work together.  It was a fun day of celebrating the blessing of Harvey in our lives along with lots of family and friends.  Here is a picture of the proud parents.  Its no surprise how cute Harvey is with these gene pool.

So, without further delay, here are the pictures from the day.  First up, the Food.

And a picture of Harvey's smash cake.

Next up is the decorations.  She made this chalkboard sign that was "All About Harvey."  Not only am I impressed with the sign itself, but the ribbon is from her diaper cake that she received at her baby shower over a year ago.  I'm impressed that she not only kept the ribbon, but was able to find it.  I rarely execute saving something for a year AND actually remember where I stored it.

There was also a large photo collage in the shape of a number one (Clever!) and a homemade birthday banner.  A lot of the other decorations were the toys that he plays with on a regular basis that happened to be farm-themed.  Cute and resourceful!!

One of the highlights of the party was that some live farm animals visited.  Aaron loved it because he got to help walk the sheep (Crimpet) through the house to the backyard.  Its not everyday that you have a literal black sheep in your home.

The Birthday Boy

The Shane Family

Harvey eating the carrot he's suppose to be feeding to the bunny.

We sang Happy Birthday to Harvey while he was atop his daddy's shoulders and then we moved on to the cake.

 He was skeptical at first but then did a pretty good job smashing it.

He finished off the day snuggling with mom. 

Happy 1st Birthday Harvey Allen Shane!  We love you more than words can express.  We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays, milestones and special occasions with you!

My Trip with Aaron

Last weekend, I got to take Aaron on a four-day trip to Delaware to visit my sister Natalie, her husband Mack and their son Harvey.  It started out with a cancelled flight.  Instead of a direct flight, we ended up flying to Balitmore via a connecting flight in Miami.  Needless to say, it was not ideal.  However, we went with it.  I told Aaron I had great news, instead of one airplane flight, we got to go on two.  He was all for it.

This was the first time I've had 4 days with just one of my kids (with the exception of when they were brand-new infants).  It was beautiful.  There were still moments of spilled drinks, disobedience and frustrations, but it was really special, relaxing and fun.

All smiles as we rode a train across the Miami airport in an attempt to make our connecting flight.

Aaron was my little travel buddy.  In keeping with our frugal tendencies, we decided not to check luggage but instead use carryons.  This meant that Aaron had to wear his backpack of toys and roll his own suitcase.  He did great--never running over my feet or knocking into others.  The only thing he was scared to do was take his suitcase on the escalator by himself.

He loved the speed and noise of take-off and landing.  It was like an amusement ride.  The bumpier and noisier, the better.  We made weapons out of bendaroos and played superheroes.

During our weekend, he peppered me with all sorts of interesting questions.  Is the sky made out of water since rain comes from the sky?  Does Pa Lynn put people's eyes back in after they've been poked out?  How do you poke your eye out?  Getting dunked in water is called baptism, right?  If baptism is to show that you believe in God and follow Jesus, why did Jesus get baptized?  Do numbers never end?  What comes before zero?  People can't be less than 0, right?  Letters don't do on for infinity, right?  Did it hurt when the doctor cut your stomach to take babies out?  How do you put stitches in?  How do you take stitches out?  The list of questions was endless.

I was actually fascinated by his questions.  Even more amazing, I had the patience to attempt to answer them even when my answers seems to prompt even more questions from him.

We had a great weekend full of playing with Harvey.  Also, Aaron discovered on this trip that he and Harvey are cousins.  For some reason, I assumed he already knew this but it really clicked for him when he realized that he is cousins with anyone who has the same Grandma as him.

Silly boy, I came in to find him asleep with his blanket stuffed under his shirt.

We had a weekend of bedtime and morning snuggles.  We celebrated Harvey turning one.  Aaron learned how to play cornhole.  We learned how to eat freshly steamed crabs (and clean out the yucky parts). Well, I learned how to do that although I'm still a bit squeamish about the innards.  Aaron was willing to hold the crab, but not eat it.

Natalie gives us a tutorial on how to clean the crabs.

His favorite part of the weekend was seeing Natalie & Mack's dog, Bailey, wrestle and play fight with Kevin Bacon (one of their friends' dogs, not the actor).  He thought it was awesome and is still talking about it.

This is right before the tears set in upon realizing it was time to leave Harvey.

The only thing I wasn't totally prepared for was the level of sadness Aaron had about having to head back home (I thought he'd be excited to get on the plane again and go home).  He actually hid while I was loading our luggage into the car.  He was hysterically crying when we left and for a good twenty minutes in the car.  Thankfully he recovered and went back into question mode on the drive to the airport.

At the airport, we picked out crab-shaped lollipops for his brothers, ate dinner and took turns playing angry birds (he is so much better than me).

It was a weekend full of ordinary things but will forever be special in my heart.  All those hours of one-on-one time are a blessing if for no other reason because how rare it happens.  I don't know when I'll get that again with my middle boy, so I'm definitely going to treasure it in my heart.

Landed in Chicago.  Waiting for Daddy to pick us up!