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!