Henry's newest!

So when Henry was first born, and I mean like right out of the womb, he started putting his fingers in his mouth and sucking on them. I was so impressed!

Well he is now 12 weeks and on and off he has randomly sucked on his fingers, however about a week and a half ago he decided he wanted to be a thumb sucker!

Honestly, I love it and think its adorable! He calms himself down without and put himself to sleep with it!
He still will use a binkie but more and more he prefers the thumb!!
I am not gonna worry about him still sucking his thumb years from now, that's just silly. Right now I think it is so adorable and I love it!!

Date Night!!

So on Monday, Shane called me and asked if we had some extra money, he wanted to take me out on a date!! He was very excited about it and he wanted it to be a surprise! So we got my parents to come down on Wednesday and babysit BOTH kids!! Not just Owen, but Henry too!! So this was actually a real date! He decided to take me to The Melting Pot. Its a fancy fondue restaurant  and very yummy!!  Sp we got all dressed up and hit the town!

 The meal we decided to go with was 4 courses. The first course is a cheese fondue! Very yum.  The second course was a iceberg wedge Gorgonzola cheese salad!! Definitely  need to recreate this salad at home! We both loved it. Then came the main course! You get to cook the meats all yourself and dress them up with whatever dips you want. It was really fun and it was nice that you could eat at your own pace and truly enjoy the meal!! It didn't seem like a ton of food in the picture, but we barely had enough room for the chocolate fondue course!!

 Shane's favorite was the steak and shrimp. My favorite was the pork and steak. The marinade was a Caribbean style and it was so goo, it didn't even need the dips!

Then came dessert!! We made a chocolate fondue with peanut better and peanuts! It was a good choice! We didn't even come close to really finishing the dessert, but is was delish!! 

The entire 4 course took about 2 1/2 hours to finish. It was a nice treat and very relaxing.  We enjoyed talking about our future, how many good things 2011 brought, what 2012 will bring and the fact that we will have been married for 4 years this summer, total of 7 years together!! Wow how time flies!! It was a nice grown up night and i very much enjoyed it!!Thanks to my sweet husband for caring about our marriage and wanting to still be romantic!! It was just the night we needed! 

And thanks to my parents for driving  all that way on a school night and taking such good care of our kids!!  

<3 Amanda

My word for the year: Kairos

So i stumbled upon a blog the other day that was linked to my friend's facebook page.
 The blog is momastery.com and the blog entry is dont carpe diem.  
You may have even seen it somewhere, but it was about Carpe Diem and how in the stage of her life, she was finding it hard to Carpe Diem every moment! As a mom, people are always telling you that you "need to cherish every moment" "i loved every minute of it, and i miss it" And of course they mean well, but is that really true!! And as much as I love being a mom, there are times where it is like, OK am i really loving this right now?! So this blogger proposes something different. That we take time every day to see the Kairos moments.  Kairos means"the appointed time in the purpose of God".  It is that moment where you all of a sudden look around and truly feel and see how blessed you are and take a moment to take it all in, because it goes as fast as it comes. 


So since we are in the beginning of a new year, i wanted to set a goal for myself, and this is it. To always recognize the Kairos moments in my life and my they be marked in my memory.  In that moment of frustration, sadness, overwhelmed , i want to find the Kairos in it. Rather than being frustrated,when Owen will not stop whining to get something he wants [like that ever happens, come on, he is perfect, right ;) ]  I appreciate him, for who he is; a beautiful, fun, smart, loving and healthy two year old. Because that right there is worth everything; and many people are dealing with much worse.  You can find Kairos without it being crazy and overwhelming. I think it probably even better to see it when nothing is going wrong.  Like today, Owen, Henry and I went to the Zoo.  It was fun, no problems, they did great. But there was a moment, when Owen started walking backwards, eating his snack, and trying to turn his head to see if he was gonna run into anything, where i just tried to breath it all in and thought: Kairos. How wonderfully imaginative Owen is, he is so fun, and he makes me laugh! I love him! And I just took a moment to mark this.  It was God's time, His purpose.  
So every day find the Kairos in your life, look for the moments and stop and take it all in. They will come and go to fast.  This is my word to live by for the year! I just wanted to share!!


Be blessed, 
Amanda 

Mr. Owen is growing up!

So Owen just turned two last month!! And Man has it already brought some serious changes! And i am not talking "terrible Twos" because i refuse to acknowledge this age as that! We are going to make the best of every age, for they will all bring new challenges!
Well about 2 weeks before owen turned 2, we decided to attempt potty training again! (the first time was in the summer and it didn't go as well as I had hopped!) So here we go again...but this time was different! This time it worked ! haha It took about 3 days for him to be consistent, but he was excited this time, and fully understood! We understood the result of going to the bathroom on the potty, you get a treat, only 1 and only if i go! Of course we are still working on the night time training, but even that is starting to come along! He will wake up and say potty, or if his diaper is a little bit wet, he cant sleep. I am loving this!! He is so good about it too, and aside from the first potty training attempt(we were not very consistent and with me being pregnant, it wasn't a good mix), it was relatively easy!! 
So on to change #2...nap/bed time. Owen has been out of his crib since he was 11 months old...yea i know we are crazy, but he hated the crib, and would wake up several times a nice in terror...anyways, to make a long story short, he has been in his big boy bed ever since.  So since he was so little, i didn't want to pressure him to the whole " stay in your bed, don't get up, go to sleep" thing just yet. Well a few weeks ago, I thought, I am gonna see what he does if i just read him a story, kiss him goodnight(for his nap) and just leave! I was nervous, but I told him Henry needed me, which was true, and to close his eyes and take a rest!!I am not kidding you...5 mins later, he was out, and without the back and forth of him getting up, me putting him back to bed. He has been amazing!! I am not sure if it is because he is used to his big boy bed and understanding he is not trapped, but I am loving it!! Rather than bedtime taking up to an hour, because I would have to wait for him to fall asleep before i could escape his arms that were clenched around my neck, I have just been enjoying a few stories with him, prayers and a bedtime song(Thanks Mom!) and he is good to go!! Sometimes we will hear him flipping through the pages of his book, but that is ok with us! I know that all this could go in the opposite direction very fast, and I will still be ok with that, but i am going to give Owen the benefit of the doubt and say that I am confident this is going to last!!  He sure is growing up incredibly fast!! I am loving it though and I hope to share more stories with you!

Christmas time events

I can hardly believe that all the end of the year holidays have come and gone! Yikes, it went way to fast!!

December seems to be a busy month for us..and pretty much everyone! We celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday! We didn't have a party. But my parents did take him bowling when we were in town visiting and shane was in florida. and then on his actual birthday, me, Shane and Henry celebrated Owen at home! It was fun, nothing over the top, but it was still special. I can hardly believe he is 2 already!! He is such a big boy!! Potty trained(except at night), taking naps on his own, talking up a storm, learning so much!! Ah, it just goes way way to fast!! But it has been magnificent, fun and the best thing that has happened to us!

Celebrating at home! 

Celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa at the bowling alley

This was our last Christmas/New years living here in Michigan.  So originally we were just going to stay home, and not go anywhere for Christmas.  It just seems easier and we wanted to be able to enjoy opening up gifts in our own home. Well, about 5 days before christmas, it all changed!!

Our first stop of the holiday weekend was to my parents house, for a Veit Christmas party. This in its self is very strange to me! My whole life, my mom's side of the family never really celebrated Christmas, so never have we gotten together to celebrate. So that was a first for us. And we had a good time playing games, exchanging gifts and eating way way to much food. Let me side track and say I would so rather be prego during thanksgiving/christmas time, vs just had that baby and are trying to get back into shape!! Food temptation overload!!  Anyways! We stayed the night and spend Christmas eve, relaxing at my parents house. It was actually so relaxing, I sorta forgot it was christmas eve and we didn't even really watch any christmas movies or do anything christmasy! It was very nice though and Owen loves to play there, so it was a nice day. That night we headed over to the Reed family party! Again, food temptation overload! It was nice to see family that we don't usually get to see, and they all loved meeting Henry.  We didn't want to stay in town too long, because we still had a 2 hour drive back home!!

So when we got back home, got the boys back in bed, we finally got to all the wrapping we still had to do!! Shane bailed on me after only a few mins and went to bed....I guess i am just used to staying up late and getting up 3 or 4 times at night...he on the other hand is not! i was up way to late, wrapping, organizing, arranging gifts under that tree and taking pictures of it all!! But its way fun and I love to do it!! So it was no big deal! The tree looked magical with all the gifts under it and stockings hanging above! I couldn't wait for Owen to see it!!

Staying up late, watching Elf, wrapping gifts! 

 He opened up all of Henry's gifts, which was much appreciated and sweet.

 He was most excited about the "bug game"!

So i finally went to bed around 3...and everyone was ready to wake up around 7! I am used to lack of sleep, just put on the pot of coffee and I will typically good to go! The boys were actually in our bed, but still sorta sleeping! Shane however was ready to get up and get it started!! Before we got out of bed, we read about the birth of Jesus in the book of Luke and had a little family prayer. Then came the gifts! Since Owen just had his birthday, he was very good at opening gifts! It didnt matter if it was his, he just wanted to open it! and once he opened it, he got excited for a second and then just wanted to open the next gift! Opening up gifts took a lot longer than we thought! We skyped with Aunt Ally for a little bit and then had to get ready to hit the road again!! 

We traveled to Shane's parents house to see that side of the family, exchange gifts, eat way to much food again! But it was nice to see everyone and visit for a little bit.  It seemed like once everyone  got there we had to leave again and get on the road!  

We traveled back to my parents house for the Elliott Christmas. It was good to see that side of the family as well!! Owen really likes playing with his cousins that he doesn't get to see much! He opened tons more gifts and passed out more gifts as well! Grandma and Grandpa didn't go overboard, but they did get them some special gifts! We were all overly blessed; not just by gifts, but by the amount of love shared! 

They all have matching hats! 

We headed home later that night and brought everything in and it looked like a tornado went through our home!! It was a fun, and busy christmas, but i am really glad that we decided to see all the families, since who knows if we will be coming back to MI to visit at Christmas time :/  

For New Years Eve we decided to ask my parents to babysit Owen for the night. This was the first time he stayed over there without us, and aside from when Henry was born. I think he was excited! We were planning on going to visit some good friends of ours in Ann Arbor, and we did..but we had to leave earlier than planned because shane became super sick with the flu or food poisioning...not really sure but leaning more towards the flu :( It was still a good weekend and we just relaxed!! 

2012 promises great things. But it is my hope that my family makes a difference in 2012 and we are blessing to others