things i'm excited about!

My little darling boy at the park this morning. (learning to "pump his legs" so he can swing all by himself) Such a sweet heart!! :)

Things I am excited for....

 Number one, FALL. And all the things it brings with it. 

The parade and fair next week. 

Baking.

Making apple sauce. 

Boots.

Jeans. 

Early evenings.

Open windows.

Pumpkins. 

The breeze, the sunshine, the desire to be out and do something in the beauty.

[Just to get you excited for fall too, here's a recipe I am dying to try! (this is for you, Cara!) 

Pumpkin cookie dip: 

1 15 oz can pumpkin pie mix

2 pkg. cream cheese

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of allspice

dash of nutmeg.

mix all together and use as dip for gingersnap cookies]

Speaking of recipes....

Number two, this friday I'm starting my first "series" on this blog :) When I introduce it friday I'll explain it a bit more, but basically it will be a whole week of sharing recipes that are some of our favorites each day. :)

Number three, photo shoots. 

I have two of them (well, actually four) this coming week. 

One tonight, one saturday. And if you count that we are doing our family photos and Isaiah's one year photos in the next week too that makes four. And this amazing weather is SO inspiring! Can't wait to share them with everyone in another week or so. 

Number four, playing with my kids. 

I am kind of just repeating myself here... I already said I'm excited for fall, and for the fair, but the reason is because I get to take my babies to it. One of the best parts of having kids is you get to play again. You get to see the world through their little eyes. Their joy, their excitement over the tiniest things. I want them to look back on their childhood and smile. I want them to remember all the places we took them, the things we did together, the fun we had. This morning I took the boys to the park. We woke up, got dressed, and had nowhere to go, but I knew we weren't staying inside on this perfect day (even if I had other things I needed to get done... they can wait) So we drove to the park. I pushed Drew on the swings. We fed the fish. We played. Isaiah was trying to crawl up the slides instead of going down them, and he actually succeeded by the end. 

I don't like to share the negative... I like to focus on the positive. But can I just be real for a minute? 

Want to know something I am not excited for? I don't ever want to send my babies to school. :( Drew will be three soon, and it's making me start thinking about it. At the park this morning there were two other, older kids there playing. And they were not the nicest. Drew has a favorite slide to go down. It is not the biggest. It is not the tallest. It's a medium sized slide. But to him it is huge and so exciting, and he is all smiles when he gets to the top and calls "Mommy! Watch me!" As he climbed the steps up to the top the two other kids ran on past him to the bigger slide and called him a scaredy cat as they ran past (and continued to call him that at different times from then on). Drew doesn't even know what that means. And what's more, he wanted to be friends with them. He would offer for them to go down "his" slide first. He was so innocent and oblivious. But my mother's heart was hurting that they would dare call my sweet two year old boy names. He's not a fearful child at all, he's brave, adventurous, and creative. This morning as I saw everything unfold, I thanked God that Drew is so confident in who he is that he didn't even have a clue that anything they said to him wasn't nice. He assumed they were talking to him because they liked him. And I took comfort in the fact that I was right there beside him to protect and defend him, or just to leave the park if we needed to. The incident was so fleeting, and those kids left soon after we were there, but it all got me thinking about how in a few short years, when he goes to school, I won't be there for him. My first reaction was (sadly) fear. My second reaction is this: the God of the universe created Drew. He loves him even more than I do. And when I have to let go of him, God is holding him in the palm of his hand. I will continue to pray that he will be so confident in who he is in Jesus, that nothing anyone ever says to him will shake his identity. 

And my other prayer?

 God help hold me back if anyone messes with my boys. ;) 

Ok, moms who have kids in school already, please give me some positive feedback and things to be excited for when school age gets here for us... Thanks!