So Much Joy!

My life is full of joy!

Even in the midst of the chaos that often shows up in our world, there is joy!

I am so thankful for the blessings that I have been given in this life. God is so incredibly good to me and I want to be sure to always give Him credit for everything. Because, ultimately, He is the source of my joy. Without being able to acknowledge that everything I have comes from His great storehouse, there is no way I would even begin to recognize the blessings I have nor have the amount of joy that I do in the midst of the chaos. Praise be to HIM!!!

Let me just share with you some of my joys.

My little artists....

They still have so much fun with their paints.

This time I actually caught Ryne in action with paint on his "canvas."

Kade was still working on getting his paint ready to go.

Friends!

We have been so blessed with great friends here in Washington.

Our Life Groups always end up being so much fun.

This past semester of Life Groups we actually had three different groups that met at our house.

We finished up the end of April and have been taking a break for the month of May before starting back up again in June.

Our Wednesday night Life Group got together for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate a great semester of Life Group...

Look at the "kiddie table" chowing down!

8 Kiddos! ALL BOYS!!!

What are the odds of that?

I promise it was not a requirement to have children of the male gender to take part in the Wednesday night Life Group, but it happened!

The "grown up" table getting started.

The noodles....

The sauce....

We had "Carozza Spaghetti" that night.

I'm not sure our friends knew what a treat they were in for. Real deal Italian family recipe for spaghetti sauce with meatballs. Sure made me miss my Carozza family....haven't made this sauce and meatballs in quite sometime. I think partly because I was afraid of how much it would make me miss them. And it did just that. But it also made me happy to know that they are a part of my life, still, no matter how far away they may be. We love our Carozzas!!!! And not just because they passed on a delicious recipe.

Our friend Holly brought these to dinner.....

Aren't they beautiful?

Everyone who came had to investigate and find out if they were real. They were! And we certainly enjoyed looking at them! THANKS HOLLY!!! You are such a sweetheart!

Our spaghetti dinner was a great night of fellowship with some great friends who bring much joy into our life.

Our boys have friends, too....

I didn't put my shoes on to go down to the sandbox to take a good picture so this is the best you get. Corbin and Aeden came over to play for while their Mom and Dad went to some farewell event. Yes, I said "farewell" event. That means they are moving! Well, at this point they have moved already. Boo!

That is the world we live in here! The military doesn't tend to let their people stay in one place forever. But what joy we have had from friendships we have made with people as their journey in the military brings them our way for a period of their life. With these friends, it really hit home with Kade that they were moving. He was super sad when we told him. Immediately made him think about his friends Will and Carson who moved to Kansas, and his friends Brooke, Raelyn, and Natalie who moved to Georgia. I was afraid he might have a meltdown. But he didn't. Instead, he requested that we get to have a sleepover with Corbin and Aeden before they left. Kyle quickly told him that we would try our best to make that happen. Kyle already know that Corbin, Aeden, and their parents were actually going to be moving in with us for a week after their house got all packed up! Quite the extended sleepover! Kade was thrilled.

And we were happy to have some extra time with Jenny and Regi before they left.

It actually worked out where Kyle and I got the best end of that deal....I'll fill you in on more about that later.

Two more babies on the way!

Twice the joy!

Well, I guess I should say quadruple the joy at our house!

We are getting excited and trying to get ready. Kyle got the first color of paint on the walls of the nursery and we are getting ready to put the rest of it all together.

After looking at the last pictures that I took of the nursery design and realized just how difficult it was to see any of the detail, I decided to take some more close up pics for you.

Tesa's wall.

Tyce's wall.

Changing table wall.

Window and rocking chair wall.

The floor plan.

A close up of some of the extras.

Super excited to get it all together and show you the finished product!

My very special day!

Mother's Day!!!
Mother's Day was definitely a joyful day for me.

Not only because I have two beautiful, crazy at many times, but oh so much fun little guys as my sons with two more sweet babies on the way, but also because I got to celebrate having an amazing mother of my own and great mother-in-law as well.
My boys treated me well that day!
Took me out to lunch...

Kade worked on this beautiful coloring page for me.

Ryne smiled big for a self portrait!

He was enjoying his lemonade too much to completely let go of it for the picture.

I'm okay with the smile behind the straw!

My other two fellas!

Seriously, being a Mom would not be near the joy it is without having Kyle as such an amazing Daddy. I am so thankful for the joy he brings to my life as my husband, as my boys Daddy, and ultimately as my very best friend! Yet another amazing gift from my amazing God!

I got presents.....

This is SO the definition of my boys!
Come on and just tell me it isn't!

I also got some beautiful flowers for the front porch.

I'm thinking this is going to be a Mother's Day tradition because I got some last year, too!

We had a very special night at church for Mother's Day!
We had Baby Dedication and since we had never had the opportunity to publicly dedicate Ryne with the recognition that he is our gift from the Lord and announce our commitment to raise him in such a way that we are constantly trying to point him to Jesus, Ryne got to be a part of that dedication ceremony.

This is our "baby" dedication picture with our sweet Ryne.

Kade was there, too....

And he smiled nicely at the camera for me! I think he was being sweet just because it was Mother's Day.

And we tried our best to get a picture of me with my boys....but if you've been keeping up with my blog for very long, you know that doesn't usually turn out to well.

Case in point!

We did try a few more times....

Got a thumbs up from Kade on this one....but Ryne was more worried about that basketball that I made him put down.

And this was the best we could do....

Hey, at least we are all looking at the camera, right?
Who cares about the silly basketball or the stunned look on Ryne's face?
I am crazy blessed by my amazing Father in Heaven who has given me so many good things in life! So. Much. Joy!!!

I cannot wait to tell you why it took me so long to post this....I was a little busy on a spur of the moment vacation last week. We will just say it involved sunshine! Check back soon to find out more!

All things BABY!

I know you guys have just been itching to know how the twins are doing.
Well, I have an update!
Went to the doctor this week and got to have and ultrasound to measure our sweet babies and make sure their growth is progressing as it should.
They are doing GREAT!!
Tesa weighs about 2lbs 7oz and Tyce weighs about 2lbs 4oz.
Yep, right now our little girl is a wee bit bigger. Of course, the ultrasound tech told us that at this point they can still change so much that by the next ultrasound the baby boy could be bigger. But the good news is just that they are both doing well. And so am I!
Blood pressure was nice and low and the doctor said everything looked good. I did my glucose test and got a shot that I had to have (the whole blood typing rH factor being different with me and Kyle shot). Our doctor even gave us the thumbs up to make a trip down to California next week. Will save the details of that for another post because one is all about babies.
I was hoping to have some new ultrasound pics to show you but Tesa and Tyce weren't in a very photogenic mood. Maybe next time.

The next big bit of news that I am super excited about is getting the nursery ready!
Look what came in the mail last week...

This is our design in a box!
Created by our friend Hayden at Haven by Hayden.
You can totally go check out her stuff there.
I could hardly wait to open the box and see what she had put together....

I wish the pictures were better but I think you can still get the idea.
I was so excited about it all. I would NEVER have been able to put all of those ideas, patterns, colors together and made anything out of it. Guess that's why Hayden is the interior designer and I am not!! Ha!

Here is a look at some of the components that go in the room.


And the layout and design of the room.
Look what else she did for us...

Their names!
Of course I wanted to have everything at that very minute and get it all put together right away. But I have to admit it is a work in progress.
We have a second baby bed, Kyle has taken down the border and getting prepped to paint. Our sweet friend Kayla is lined up to do the custom painting on the walls for us. Bedding is ordered. We found a steal of a deal on the very lamp that Hayden had picked out for the room. Found it brand new on Craigs List for 40 bucks and it retails for 160 bucks!!! You bet we scooped that one up! Still working on getting the rest of the items gathered up. We've only got a couple of months to get all ready so I am getting a bit anxious about getting it all done.
I am excited to see how it is all going to come together. I will post more pics for you as we work on making it happen.

And one more baby thing...
A baby shower for our friend Jaclyn!!

Look at the adorable cake!
Yes, you totally know by now that our friend Kristy is the cake making genius in our world and this is another of her creations.


We played some fun games.


And, of course, let Jaclyn open gifts.
Here she is letting Mason model a new outfit that he got. Ha!
We are excited about sweet Mason getting here the end of this month.

To be honest, I actually missed most of the shower because my poor hubby was home sick as a dog and I didn't want to leave the boys with him for him to have to take care of. So, I tried to make sure they were napping and just ran over to be there for the shower for a little while. I am so glad I got to go. It had been a crazy morning. Sick hubby, boys due at a birthday party on post, baby shower games and food to get ready, uncooperative children....I wondered a couple of times if I'd even make it through the day. I did! And it was all worth it! I'm way too blessed to be complaining. Here's hoping you have a blessed day today!

Our Little Artists

Our boys love art!
They love to draw, color, play with play-doh, and most recently they have come to really take an interest in painting! YIKES! Yes, this momma is well aware that painting is the messiest of all the art forms. But what can I say, they really do like it. And who am I to stifle their creative juices, right?
So, when Kade requested that he use his Easter money from Grandaddy and C.G. to buy paints and paint brushes I agreed. Of course, Ryne had to have some, too.
And here they are putting their paints to good use for the first time.....


Ryne really seemed to be more interested in mixing his paints. I guess we didn't have just the color he was looking for so he was creating it himself. Ha!



The boys painted while I was getting dinner ready. I only stopped once to take pics so it looks like they were working on the same piece of art the entire time. But, oh NO, by the time I had dinner ready they had each created 4 masterpieces! And a little bit of mess. I must admit though that Kade's mess was quite minimal. Ryne's was a bit more extensive but nothing too major. I may have a couple of successful artists on my hands.
They still really enjoy drawing on their drawing pads, too. I will have to take some recent pics of things that Kade is drawing. He is really improving. Seriously, I can recognize the things he draws now without any hints (most of the time).

We went to a birthday part on Saturday and one of the party gifts they got was another cool art project. It included markers....maybe worse than paints, right?!
But we didn't end up with too much marker on us in the end....



I look at these pictures and see how nicely my little guys are occupied when they get to do an art project and wonder to myself, why in the world to we not do that more often?
Well, honestly, it is probably because I am not very artsy myself so I just plain don't think about it. I'm going to try to do better! And remind myself that I need to help them let their creative juices flow!