Char man

We've had a crazy busy month of April so far... with no signs of slowing down.  There's lots to catch up on, but for now, here are some sweet pics of Char man that my sis in law took while they were visiting last week.

Happy Easter

  He is risen!

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken.  I'm accepted.  You were condemned.  I'm alive and well, your spirit lives within me.  Because You died and rose again!  Thank you, Jesus.

Char's first Easter basket!

I'll call this 'Emma's take on Charlie"

I took this video several weeks ago, initially trying to get Charlie to coo.  He didn't perform very well so I almost deleted it. But then I listened to the lyrics of Emma's original song and knew this was a keeper.

Translation:

and you are the one who eats food from Mommy's boobies
and you are the only one that dos it
and every time you have a nappy
you alone (something something) clappy
and you know how to nap, nap
and nap and nap and nap
and you know how to nap
and you know how to nap
and you nap and you nap
and you cry and cry
you don't every high
and you always spit up someday
and you never see what you never hide
never see what you never hide
never see
never hide
anyhow

Char is 3 months!

At 3 months old, here's what our little guy is up to..

• Smiling and LAUGHING. It kills me. Sweetest sound ever.
• Starting to reach for objects - including my hair :)
• Sleeping (on his tummy..shh! don't tell!) each night from 6:30 pm until 7:00 am - getting up once during that time to nurse (usually around 3 or 4 am)
• Rolling from his tummy to back - this wakes him up a lot at night.  He hasn't figured out how to roll back to his tummy yet.
• Loving his paci
• He stayed in the childcare at the YMCA for the first time today (which meant Mommy got to work out.  Life changing... for reals) - hoping he'll stay in the church nursery now, too!
• Hardly ever cries.. he is sooooo laid back.

I am just l-o-v-i-n-g this third baby boy.  He has brought an unexplainable amount of joy into our lives.  Thank you, thank you, thank you God.  Charlie James is such a gift.  

Adoption is beautiful

It has been an amazing blessing to follow my friend Stacy and her family along on their adoption journey.  They brought their sweet, easy-going, and adorable 3 1/2 year old son Noah home from China about a month ago.  The first time we saw them I just couldn't hold back the tears.  Just such an amazing picture of the way God loves and adopts us into his family.  It was beautiful to see Noah calling for his mama, stroking her hair, sitting on her lap, playing with her necklace, finding comfort in her arms when he got hurt.  Just.so.beautiful.

Today was our first time really getting to play together.  It was amazing.  So thankful for people like Stacy and Luke... who encourage me to follow Jesus through their obedience to Him.

We were expecting these two boys to arrive into our families around the same time.  Miraculous to see them here, together, healthy.  God is so faithful.

12 weeks

This sweet thing is 12 weeks old today and decided to celebrate by doing a 10 hour stretch last night.  I fed him at 6:30 pm and put him to bed and he slept until 4:30 am!  ah-ma-zing.  After a quick feeding, he slept until waking up for the day at 7:30.  

I can't believe how good it feels to get a good chunk of sleep.  Keep it up, little guy!

Springtime

Ready to conquer spring in our new sunnies.  

Grandparents in town!

Last month, Justin's dad and stepmom made the long trek down to visit us.  It was nice to have them here and to show them around our new home state!  They were here over Valentine's Day weekend, so Justin and I even scored a date night out of the deal!  :)

The girls were so excited to have them here and had all kinds of things planned to play with them.  Dance parties, walks/bike rides around the neighborhood, school, yoga, going to the park.. you name it!

Thankful we have family willing to make the long trip down to see us!  It is always special to have visitors.  Thanks for coming to visit, Grandpa and Grandma!

A few pics

We've really been pretty busy the last couple of weeks.  Justin was gone for 7 (yes, 7) nights in a row for a work trip and then a mens' retreat.  My parents were in town for a few days on their way back to Iowa from Florida.  We hosted playgroup (8 moms and 17 children).  We had my aunt and uncle stay with us on their way to Florida.  And we're currently in the middle of a one week period with four birthday parties to attend.  Life is busy, y'all.

Anyway.  Here are a few sweet moments we've had over the last week.  
 

Loving those smiles from Char!  He even laughed out loud for the first time this week.

Donut date with Grammy & Babu

Sisters deep in conversation.

Date night!

She was so excited to hold him while standing up!

Lent 2014

Lent was not something I grew up participating in.  I had many Catholic friends and most of them would give up something during the Lenten season each year.  Because my Catholic friends did it and we didn't, I assumed it was a 'Catholic' thing.  On the contrary, it's a Jesus thing.  I'm excited to be participating for the first time this year.  

I watched this video recently and loved learning about how World Relief started.  World Relief is the organization that helped bring our Iraqi friends here from a refugee camp in Lebanon. Before watching, I had already decided to give up Facebook during Lent this year.. because truly, I spend way too much time on Facebook.  But, after watching this, Justin and I decided to also choose to give up something that would allow us to free up resources... just like the people in that Boston church did.  What an awesome way to observe Lent... to give up something that will allow us to focus more on Christ but then to use the resources from what we gave up to do something meaningful.  Those people were brilliant!  We will be fasting from lunch each Sunday and using that money that we would have spent going out to lunch and donating it to World Relief.  I'm truly excited to, in a very, very minor way, disadvantage ourselves for a greater purpose.  

I'm hoping that the break from Facebook allows for more quiet space in my life.. to both talk with God and hear from Him.  

Curious to hear from y'all.. do you observe Lent?  Are you giving up anything this year?