Just some observations of Blessings

Lauren is a morning bird, rises early and quick to bed at night. Beau is a night owl and rarely goes to sleep on the first request. Waking up in the morning is the most difficult task in his life right now. Lauren eats a lot, Beau hardly eats. Lauren is always putting shoes on, Beau is always taking shoes off. Beau got a much needed haircut, Lauren's hair is really starting to grow and come in thick. Beau likes to start off and end his day in someones lap, preferably rocking. Lauren is a Mama's girl and prefers to stay in my lap when we're out and about. I love to see the differences and similarities in my children. They are so special. Watching their personalities develop is indescribable.

Beau is somewhat of an old soul. I see this most at ballgames. He is so welcoming of people's attention and will carry on a conversation with anyone. There is a family on our team who recently experienced the huge loss of their mama because of aggressive cancer. We never mentioned it to Beau. However, as sure as I'm sitting here, the Lord lead Beau to her widow, Chris. Beau now sweetly greets him every game. Often, Beau is climbing up in Chris' lap and when I look up at them Chris is smiling and chuckling over Beau's antics. It puts a tear in my eye and lump in my throat of gratitude that my child can bring this grieving family a little piece of joy on Monday and Thursday.

Do not deny someone a blessing. Our Grandpa has said this before and while I heard the words, it has taken a little bit of living to let that statement sink in. If I choose to micromanage every detail in my life to the minute, there's a good chance I'll miss a blessing or worse yet, Deny a blessing. While planning is imperative to mothering small children, I need to remember to find a balance of going with the flow. Blessings are hard to see through the fog of stress. If I insist my children sit in a seat right next to me the entire ballgame, we would have missed the opportunity to minister some love to the Jewell family as well as the other basketball families. Do I let them run the gym? Absolutely not. Have I finally accepted the extra helping hands? Yes. I believe those people helping me gather my children and belongings will be blessed as they are blessing me. I received a compliment from someone that the children behave so well at the games. Hallelujah! This compliment is so appreciated and important to me. I work really hard and bribe them with food to be good!

My prayer is that our family may be a blessing to others because so many of you are a blessing to us.

Carrieisms

I have a few of my own... 

I love the fabric softener aisle at the store, it smells glorious.
I totally avoid the pet food aisle at the store. The smell is nauseating to me.
I get absurdly nervous about doctor appointments.
I bite my lips together really hard when I start losing my patience.
I love McDonald's. A lot. I just do.
I want to get a spray tan for when Mike and I go someplace amazing to celebrate 10 years this summer.
My Heroes:  Big Sexy Hair Rootpump, FreezeIT Hairspray, teasing comb, Clinic Even Better Foundation and concealer, and Maybelline Volume mascara.
I'm not brave enough to wearing leggings with anything other than a dress. Loosely fitted dress.
I CANNOT drive well in snow and ice.
I will never be ok with rodents in my house. Never.
My hands are starting to show age in the sunshine. That's alright.
Sometimes I dream happy dreams about my truck being vacuumed.
My greatest blessing, happiness and stress is being a Mama.

Crewsy Christmas

Christmas is so very special to me, always has been. I have the sweetest memories about Christmas. My parents excelled at making this holiday special for us growing up. It wasn't special because of gifts. It wasn't special because of Santa Claus. It was special because they honored the season by celebrating the birth of Christ, creating traditions, and opening our home to host family and friends.

My memories revolve around family. In 1988 an ice storm hit the evening our Baker family celebrated Christmas at our house. They all spent several nights with us until they could safely drive home. It was awesome!! All of us kids tied wax paper to our hindends for make-shift sleds. One year Jenny and I had Chicken Pox and had to miss Christmas, so the whole family got in the car, drove 30 minutes and caroled us in the front yard. Sniff sniff. My Mama, her sisters and my Grandma would literally spend days in the kitchen preparing a feast. My cousin Stevie and I hid under the table and swiped sweets. We made ourselves sick on Holly Berry Cutouts. My family would kick off the Christmas season with the Springfield Symphony Christmas concert. We would go out to dinner, see the Symphony and then go home and decorate the tree. Christmas to me is obviously Jesus, it is traditions - like Philly Sauce Superb for Christmas breakfast, it is family, it is joyful, it is Important.

Now that I have my babies, it makes me think about how I want to celebrate Christmas with Beau and Lauren. They know Christmas is celebrating Jesus. The church we attend is amazing. They handed out CD's of the Christmas program music so the children could learn the music. We are still "... Tellin' it On the Mountain". He loves it!  A Happy Birthday Jesus song has lyrics that hit home, "...all the tensile and lights, they make the holidays nice, but it's all about You. Happy Birthday Jesus. Jesus, I love you." The Playschool manger scene continues to be the center of attention under our tree. I put it out as soon as the tree goes up. Beau said, "Mom! I can't find Jesus' Mom!" Mary was recovered and we sang, "Away in a Manger" with the light up Angel again. Whew!

Yes, we will celebrate Christmas with gifts for our children - but not overboard. My sister said, Jesus got three gifts, can't see why the kids need a whole lot more than that... Agree. Christmas is about giving. Giving not only tangible gifts, but gifts of love, time, service. I want to stand somewhere and ring a bell with Beau. I bet our bucket would be full! Yes we talk about Santa Claus, he is bringing gifts to celebrate the biggest birthday of the year! We'll start making a birthday cake when they get a little bigger. You should hear Bear sing, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" he sings to sissy that she better not pout, better not whine! I'm too much of a kid at heart to squish Santa entirely, sorry.

"Fortunate are the children of tradition, for theirs is the ability to savor the finer points of life, to understand the often subtle difference between greatness and mediocrity" - Unknown 

Merry Christmas

Fremily or Famends

However you combine Family and Friends, I couldn't effectively come up with a new word... these are the people in your life that unfortunately have no shared blood lines, but are very much a part of your family.

I've posted previously about The Party Barge. It is a standing tradition to kick off our Christmas season with a trip to Silver Dollar City. I couldn't think of a better way to spend an evening with my Family.

3.5 Beauisms

I can't fit my baby's personality into a blog post. I'll just list some Beauisms so you get the idea of what he's like at 3 1/2 years old. He is awesome. He is hard-headed. He is inquisitive. He is a deep thinker. He is charming. He is sturdy. He is hilarious.

Beau prefers to be helping - doesn't matter what it is; decorating cookies, dusting the house, in the kitchen, make hot chocolate, picking up toys - he is the Big Helper.  He is slowly coming out of Incredibly Picky Eater Beau. Less things are Nasty. However he continues to dislike; tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, green beans. He loves sugar (ugh), beans of any kind, water, fruit, anything breakfast, McDonald's cheeseburgers - minus the pickle.

Beau is what you call... SOCIAL. The Willard High School Girls Basketball Team is aka The Beau Fan Club. Holy love buckets Batman, those girls love my babies! Seriously, they are so good to him, toting him around, buying him snacks and laughing with him and his quick wit. He high fives or rocks every person sitting on the aisle seat going up the stands when we're finding our seats at a ballgame. Once he asked a lady for a bite of her candy bar. Sheesh! I am affectionately known as 'Beaus Mom'. I love that.

He is now an average size at 39lbs and the only physical trouble we have are the ears. He is LOUD. I think this is his personality but also a hearing thing. Mama is watching it. Beau is sharp as a tack, starting to make jokes, tease, tell stories, can recognize every letter of the alphabet and count to 13. His face is animated when he's talking followed close with hilarious body language. He'll shrug those little shoulders, flip his hand over and go "Eh?" or shake his head approvingly, "sure Mama, that's a good idea.." He raises one eyebrow just like Daddy and those big ol' chocolate truffle eyes can well up some tears in a snap! Three year olds are incredibly emotional. They try so hard to rationalize and attempt to begin arguing. Some days aren't so happy for Beau as he's learning the boundaries. But most days are fun. He is mostly good to Lauren and enjoys her company. When they eat at the table, he scoots his chair close to hers... Love this boy, so so much.