May days!

Here is what we have been up to in May!

Barb and Denny got Jace a trampoline that they keep in the backyard! Yep, a trampoline! It's for all future grandkids! And Jace LOVES it. It reminds me of a dog run, because he literally just wants to run in circles while we run in circles on the outside. It's hilarious. Now that it is starting to warm up, we get the trampoline wet and spray him with the hose while he is on it! It's been a fun outside activity this summer when we are at my in-laws house, which has been almost every weekend.

For Mother's Day and my birthday, we went to church, then to in-law's house for homemade pizza. Before church though, we stopped by Dutch Bros for a free birthday iced tea. Since it was Mother's Day too, they gave us Matt's coffee and my iced tea for free because we had "so many celebrations going on"! One reason why I love Dutch Bros! Later that night, my family came to my house to celebrate birthdays and Mother's Day with my mom! I don't have any pictures from that (they are all on Jenn's camera!).

 I love this pic of Barb and Jace

 Sisters!

Here are some other randoms of Jace swimming and playing at my in-laws house the last few weeks.

 He loves playing with the hose!

Swimming with Uncle Marcus.

We didn't have his suit, so naked it is! This picture just cracked me up!

While Jace napped at my in-laws one day, Matt and I went to the Starbucks up the street for an afternoon date. Starbucks and cards! This is seriously one of my favorite things to do. Sit in a coffee shop and play cards. :) It's a very cheap date. :)

Reading books with Grammy!

On Memorial Day, we got a blow-up pool for our backyard and we played outside for a bit. Jace didn't love the pool as much as I was hoping. But we will keep trying.

 His hair is getting lighter and lighter every time we cut it. It has turned from dark brown to light brown/dirty blonde depending on how clean it is. Haha. I'm not too surprised since he took after Matt with so many of his features. 

 How did I have such a pale baby??

We watched Blake and Kade last week so that Matt and Jenn could go to their small group. The boys loved singing "My God is so big". My son gets too shy to face us when he wants to do the hand motions, so more times than not, he turns around and does them. haha.

National Donut Day for a free donut! YAY!

 He seriously has so many faces. I have never seen such an animated kid.

So I found a new group that we have been listening to a lot of! They are called "The Rizers" and it is simply Bible verses in song form. They have some music videos on YouTube that Jace LOVES! He loves to dance to the songs. It makes my heart so happy to see him loving these songs that are just Bible verses and truth! They have 21 songs, and I'm excited to start memorizing verses through these songs too. Good for my heart as much as it is for his. It is our new car sound track. Anything to expose him to God's Word. Plus the tunes are super catchy and Matt and I keep finding ourselves singing them throughout the day. Haha. This is him dancing to one of the songs.

Not a whole lot else going on currently. Just enjoying watching Jace grow! He is starting to mimic words when we ask him to say something. Granted, they don't sound exactly like the word, but he attempts it, which is great. He has learned to say the names of some of our family members, and some random words. Some words I would only know because they sound nothing like the word (Smoothie=Moomoo, Up=ba, All Done=Gaga… but I know he thinks he is saying the words, because those words are the same each time!). He knows many animal sounds (Cow, sheep, dog, cat, tiger, chicken, duck, bee, monkey, horse). He has mastered his shape sorter and can do some chunky puzzles by himself now. His attention span lasts all of 3 minutes at best, so that makes it challenging. But that's just his character! When we say the word "Jesus" he folds his hands to pray (apparently we must say "Dear Jesus" a lot when we pray) and whenever we say the word "God" he does the 'so big' sign with his hands (from the song our God is so big!). We never taught him to do those things, so it's been reassuring to realize that he is in fact hearing what we are saying and taking some of it in, whether he makes it look like he is or not. He LOVES to dance and he has a few songs that are his favorite. He loves "Uno Uno Seis" which is from a Christian rapper--he comes running into the room when that song comes on and just goes nuts! Other than that, He's just a little climber who is into everything and hates discipline (in fact, he found our swat stick and threw it in the trash when I wasn't looking!) 

But we sure do love him and we praise God for the opportunity to raise him! It's so sanctifying raising a child.

I am so thankful for my family! I've been blessed beyond what I deserve!

 This is what he figured out he can do if he doesn't want to take a picture. 

Take 2!

The House!

Ally, this post is for you, since you asked to see pictures of the house! :) 

Here is the laundry room.

 I found door knobs at Hobby Lobby that I used for hooks in the laundry room for our bags and purses, etc. 

Here is the kitchen!

 Here is the Living Room. And Jace working on blanket time. Haha.

This is the entrance to the master bedroom. Our room is a work in progress. We decided to go with greys and purples (ironically Matt's idea!), but besides painting the walls those colors, a couple of pictures we got from Kohls, and a comforter we got off of ebay, that's the extent of the decor. Down the road, we will add to it, which will be fun.

 Here is the master bathroom. we kept with the grey and purple theme. I found the towels at Ross, which was a win! I love Ross and Marshalls!!!

This is the office. We had quite a few black and white pictures that we got when we were first married. We never had a place to put them at the last house, so we decided to paint the walls grey in the office and to use them in there! This room is right off of the living room/kitchen, so I'm not sure we will ever use this room as a bedroom. We are contemplating turning it into a playroom down the road, which I think would be fun (and so awesome to have kid toys in one spot!). But we aren't at a stage where I see the benefit of this quite yet with Jace's age. 

This is the front door entrance.

Here is the guest bath. It was nice being able to use all the decor from the old house in this bathroom. 

Here is the hallway leading to the 2 rooms in the back of the house.

This will Lord willing be a future baby's room. We had 3 walls painted grey, and one left white when we first moved in. Depending on the gender of the baby, we will paint the white wall a different color. 

 And here is Jace's room! Everything is the same from the last house, except for the 2 pictures above his  crib that I found at Hobby Lobby. There were exactly what I was looking for and just happened to stumble upon them one day. Also, he has new grey curtains that block out the light. So necessary.

And here is the back yard. All of this was here when we got it, except the baby swing. Jace got that from his Grammy for his birthday. It's pretty much a blank slate since its just rock and fake turf. No water system or anything. I'm actually really excited to design the back yard and make it what we want it down the road. 

Well that's the house! Some of the pictures are dark because of the time of day I took them. But like I had mentioned, I had to clean the house for company so it was the perfect day to take pics! haha. :) 

Easter!

For Easter this year, we went to church and then to the Pagel's house for brunch! Jace was able to nap there, which was great. They bought a big floaty tube for the pool this summer, and we were able to sit in it and put our legs in the water without getting all the way wet. It was a lot of fun. We then went to my family's house to spend the afternoon and evening there. It was a packed day, but a lot of fun. Jace did very well for being on the go all day. At my parent's house, we had an egg hunt for the boys. Surprisingly, Jace was all about it! He would pick up the eggs and put them in his basket. He loved banging them together and then throwing them. He would take them all out of his basket and put them back in. It was really cute to watch! 

April 6th

April 6th is such a special day for Matt and I. It was the day we started dating and the day he proposed. Every April 6th we go back to the same Starbacks that it all happened at. This year, Barb and Denny watched Jace and we had a little date day after church. We went to lunch, and then played some cards at Starbucks! It's such a fun tradition and we plan to keep the tradition going! :)

Pagel Wedding 2014

I officially have a new sister!!! Sam and Ashley got married on March 21st. It was such a sweet ceremony and awesome to see the testimony of God's grace in their lives! I just love Ashley and am so excited to have another sister! :) Here are a few pictures from her Bachelorette Party, Rehearsal dinner, and the wedding!

Faithful God

I'm not sure if any of you have a song that you listen to that just speaks truth about God's character when you are just down or discouraged. Well I have one. "Faithful God" by Shai Linne. It is one of those songs that just has me shaking my head in total agreement with the words he speaks/sings. 

Faithful God (Hopefully the link works--it has the lyrics too so you can follow along)

My favorite part of the song is

 "From the things You say, You don’t budge

You’re faithful to save and You’re faithful to judge
The God who is just is not one of us
The faithful God is the God we can trust
We can’t trust us, on You we rely
Everything we need, Lord, You will supply
Even when we’re faithless, You remain faithful
You cannot deny Yourself" 

This song seriously just slaps me across the face and gets me out of the slump I'm in. Today is one of those days, but as I sit here listening to this song I'm reminded about God's character. He is faithful. His ways aren't my ways. I can be so faithless, especially during trials. But I'm thankful for trials because it's during those times that I am being refined. One of the verses hanging on my fridge is Psalm 66:10-12. "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance." Trials are temporary. As it also says later in Psalms, He remembers our frame and remembers that we are but dust. Praise God for momentary trials. And even if they last a lifetime, they truly are only momentary in the grand scheme of eternity. 

Anyways, those are my random thoughts for today. The last 6 months have been so good for my heart--difficult to swallow, but good in the aspect that God is faithful to reveal sin in my life and through this trial, He has been sanctifying me greatly. 

With all this said, I really need to post some pictures from Easter. Jace was all about looking for eggs, which I wasn't sure if he would even care. I'll get them off my phone this week and post again.