Life... it happens!

(us at Disney this past month)

 

So, its obvious and it goes without saying (but I'm gonna say it anyway) that I am horrible at this blogging thing!  I started it just to clear my head whenever I REALLY needed to get something off my chest or out where I can see it.  But I've blogged a little bit of this and a little bit of that, so this blog is not really about anything specific except for our life as a family.  That being said, here is an update on our family! 

We've grown by one!  Our beautiful little Liam was born in August 2012.  He's added so much love and joy and laughter to our house.  We love him as if he had always been there our whole lives!  Christian and he got off to a bumpy start.  Well Christiand did.  He didn't know how to share the spotlight.  So it was hard those first 3-4 months trying to find our balance and rhythm again.  Its not for weak I tell you!  Whenever Liam cried or we had to do anything specific to Liam, you can be sure Christian would be there in 2.3 seconds to say "Look what I can do!" and it would be something like spanking his own bum with a smile or jumping or whatever.  So weird.  lol!  But we finally got it under control and he understands that we have to do things for the baby, but he'll get his time too.  So here we are 10 MONTHS LATER!!!  Christian is the best little helper I could ask for.  He keeps Liam entertained when I need to grab something real quick in another room or he helps bring me stuff from the other rooms when I can't leave Liam on the changing table or what have you.  He also just finished his first year of Kindergarten.  And boy was that a rollercoaster!  New baby, new school, new structured day, he was not liking it.  He was bringing home bad reports weekly and we were at our wits end.  Finally, after a conference with his teacher, we decided to give positive reinforcement a chance.  And there is something to be said for that.  We decided to focus on his good days because it seemed, for him, bad attention was better than no attention.  Well, let me tell you, night and day in Christian's behavior.  His first reward was a family camp out in the living room, complete with fort, hot dogs, and smores.  From that week on until the end of the school year, not. one. bad. report.  NOT ONE.  Thats about 10 weeks worth.  I'm one super proud mama.. and now I've gotta get creative in the rewards dept...  Free and fun!  Its all they care about.  It works!  So now off to 1st grade he goes in the fall.  I can't believe it!  Also, small brag, he was the best reader in his class.  No big deal.  ;)

And then there's Liam.  Oh my goodness, I've fallen in love yet again. Yes I'm his mother, but I've got plenty of people reassuring me... HE'S SO CUTE!!!  He loves, loves, loves to laugh.  Always looking for the next thing or person who is going to amuse him.  Seriously, the kid cracks up at anything, lol!  Its pure joy!  I love it!  He also comes with his little temper though...  He hates changes.  He, of course, doesn't like to be told no.  He DEMANDS food.  Especially MY food.  He literally yells for the next spoonful.  He loves music though!  I mean, can you expect anything else from our children?!  He can't hear a beat or music without rocking.  I love it!  He will stop crawling to rock to music, lol!  I can't wait to see what he does music-wise.  Christian is already a singer.  A great ear, always in pitch.  Maybe Liam will play piano or drums!  But anyway, after waiting for 3 years for him, he's made us so happy!  What a little blessing he is!

As far as Fifo and I go, same old there!  Happy and healthy!  Working!  God is good. Fifo lost 50 lbs on weight watchers.  Actually, correction, he had already lost 20 lbs prior and got on WW and lost an additional 30 lbs.  I'm super proud of him!  He started playing football for our church'es flag football league.  His team made it to the "super bowl"!  Team G-Unit!  He's taken up playing racquetball again.  He's doing great.  He's kinda slowed down after football finished, but I'll know he'll get back in the saddle.  I lost all the baby weight and 10 lbs more.  WOOHOO!  Thank you breastfeeding, lol! My fear is once I stop nursing.  Speaking of, I've made it 10 months nursing Liam!  I'm super proud of that!  I barely made it 3 months with Christian.  I was bound and determined to make it work for Liam.  I didn't even keep formula around to fall back on.  I have nothing against forumla... except for the price!  But thank God Liam is a GREAT nurser.  I'm going for a year and probably start weaning then.  Its an amazing thing to experience.  I love the bond and the beauty of knowing I can provide for my son in that way. Unfortunately breastfeeding still has quite a bit of taboo with it.  Not sure why people give it such a "side-eye" but I feel sorry for those close-minded people.  I love it and it makes me sad to think our breast-feeding journey is near an end.  At the same time, I'll be happy to have my body back.

On the ministry front, Fifo and I are no longer youth leaders.  We were both so sad to see that part of our lives come to a close, but God has other plans for us.  We are being obedient and waiting.  :)  To clarify, it was nothing bad that we did, its just our future is on a different path.  Hopefully I'll be able to expand on that more in the near future.  For right now, Fifo is pursueing his ministers license!  And I am in limbo...  haha!  Its all good!  We are excited about "our garden" as pastor preached this past Sunday.  It wasn't easy to accept the fact that we weren't youth leaders anymore and to be honest we felt very lost and confused for a minute. But God is good and He's not brought us this far to let us down now!  So, on blind faith we go!  :)

And here I thought I had nothing to say...  haha! I don't know who I'm writing this for.  If I even have followers.  If I do they probably already know all this.  But oh well.  Its out there now.  I'm gonna try to post more regularly.  Shooting for once a week.  Believe it or not I haven't finished Liam's nursery and maybe this will be an incentive for me!  So I can show it off!  Now I'm excited!  Oh also I want to start doing "my week in pictures".  So that will be my next post! 

Alright, till next time peeps.  Love to all...  (sorry for typos, my fingers go faster than my brain).