The Night Watches

My sweet boys turns 2 today! The time has flown by, and he is no longer a baby, but a little boy... He brings us so much joy, with his funny ways and delightful giggle. I cannot begin to imagine our life without him in it. Tyler at the hospital- a few days old... Hard to believe that two years ago, I was at the hospital hours away from meeting our first baby boy... and now, today, we are playing with play doh and singing songs. How the time flies. Tyler at Mimi's house a few days ago... We love him more and more each passing day- even on the tough days! It is funny the things that make your heart melt... his sweet face when he is kissing his baby brother, his little chubby hands, the way he calls my name in the morning... the way he runs, to the way he laughs... he is a treasure and we are so grateful! Happy birthday my Big Boy!

Again, I am being made aware of how I deserve so little and have been given so very much. Christmas Eve service was such a fresh rem inder of why we celebrate this ho liday season. We are rich in deed, being heir with the Savior. Gratefulness fills my heart today. This Christmas day is no exception to the fact that I hav e been given MUCH more than I deserve... my family lavishly blessed us with a new computer! Our current computer has only 40G of memory total, s o you can imagine with all the photos we have take n over the past two years, that memory is getting slim! We cannot believe how generous they are, and are so grateful for this gift. That was more than enough for us... Christmas should have ended there! But then my husband surprised me with a new camera!!! Yup- I get to join those who have a Nikon D40. What a blessing and surprise. He knows how much I love to take pictures, and we have two adorable subjects to captur e. I cannot believe it! He is so generous and has worked s...

The past few days have been "one of those days"... you know the kind, where you are made a little more aware of how completely weak and helpless you truly are. In the midst of trials, I find that God has been ever faithful to lavish grace on me, and I am so grateful for these moments, as they are teaching me so much. The following tales, have been filled with moments of temptation, weakness, weariness, but also marked by laughter and grace.... God is good to teach with a gentle hand... The past 4 weeks had been actually going very well, things were going quite smooth- two kids- home alone- not too bad ... perfect set up for me to learn a lesson and grow in my faith. Day one of the week of tantrums started with a rough going nap time.. Tyler fell asleep in the car on the way to Sam's club, and I had to wake him up for our little shopping trip. Once we got home, he didn't want to nap... after an hour of tears (his not mine) a diaper change, and some songs, he finally o...

I have been wanting to post for a little while now, but between naps, a crazy toddler, and a nursing baby, I have had little time.... well, the free time I do have is being filled with finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts, and trying to keep the house in order! I have many pictures and some funny stories to tell, but no time! So today, I wanted to post our birth announcements , and let the loyal few readers know that we are indeed still alive!! I would have mailed one to all of our friends, but stamps are expensive! Below are the front and the back, courtesy of the gifted photography and design work at Perceive Design . front~ back~

My sister-in-law, Megan , took some photos of Jack, last week, celebrating his 1 week old b-day! Here are just a few of them, there were so many wonderful ones to choose from. She did a fabulous job! I wish we had these kinds of pictures of Tyler too! If you just had a baby, I would highly suggest you have her take some pictures to capture the first weeks of sweetness. They pass too quickly!

Hard to believe a week ago we were at the hospital having this little baby! Goad has been so kind to us this week, as we have begun to make the adjustment from one child to two. I have been snapping away, trying to capture sweet moments.... a friend of mine said to me, "New life is so amazing isn't it?" I couldn't agree more! Special visit from Hemi and Siena ! Lots of time spent in mommy and daddy's arms... I love this stage when they are just a big ball of baby! First bath at home. He didn't like it too much, until I washed his hair! Daddy reading to his two boys... Notice Tyler's concerned look... he still doesn't know what to make of Jack's little cry. Shaggy, pre -hair cut!!! I didn't realize how long it had gotten until I saw this picture! Pre - cry face... Sweet little angle baby... My parents came for a visit... Tyler seems so massive to me now. Every time I change his diaper, I think, man... he is too big to be wearing diapers!!! Wha...

Wow, so where to begin.... so this is our son Jackson Chase... isn't he cute? So, we took a lot of photos of the day/weekend... Here is the day in a nutshell.. with photos to capture what it was all like! We called the hospital at 8 am to make sure they had a room for me, and were given the green light to come! Tyler was already at my parents house- we left him there the night before. We realized we needed to drop off a movie at Blockbuster, and grab something to eat, so by the time we got to the hospital, it was 9:30... ooopps ! We got the last room open too! We got checked in, waited in the waiting room for a little, and finally got taken to our room, by the best nurse Karen. Room #3! So they hooked me up to the heartbeat monitor, and contraction monitor. Our room seemed to be missing a lot of supplies, so getting everything in place took a while. We also had a broken contraction monitor, so after 45 minutes of them recording nothing, we got one that worked! At this point ...