February in Texas

We headed south for the opening weekend of Husker Baseball. Then EJ & I got to spend some time with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Michael.




I got a Sandlot game going with all the little boys at the game. It was a blast and EJ had fun when it was his turn with the bat. It truly was a Sandlot experience as we had to host one of the older boys over a fence to retrieve our ball! Thankfully, there wasn't a huge dog waiting for him on the other side.



I learned that this season is going to be a very busy one for me. EJ is very busy during the games. He likes to run around, play, meet people, explore, etc. Basically, everything but sit and watch the game!



We got to see Uncle Brian a couple times during our visit.



Our dear friends, Kevin & KJ, met us after a game one night. They used to live in Colorado and life has taken them to San Antonio where KJ is in law school and Kevin is a Physical Therapist in the Army. It was a fun reunion!



After the weekend, EJ & I headed to Austin. EJ loved the fish pond and playing with Max. How he knew to listen to the shell is beyond me! (since originally posting this my mom told me that she taught EJ to listen to the shells while he was sitting on the potty in her sea-shell themed bathroom at her house during potty training sessions!)





Poor Max. You can see him looking at Carol thinking, "Really? You're going to make me take a bath with the kid?" He was such a good dog and played with EJ endlessly. They were quite the pair!



EJ had a great time "driving" one of Grandpa's trucks. He honked the horn a dozen times--couldn't get enough of that. He also got to climb on the trailers which was a big hit too.



One of our days included a visit to the Austin Children's Museum. EJ liked rolling the florescent colored golf balls down the "hills."



Our second weekend of baseball took us to Huntsville, Texas where we played in a tournament at Sam Houston. Kaye & Rick's son, Matt, plays for the team so we got the added treat of seeing their family! Here's EJ with "KK" at the beginning of the game...



Here's EJ with "KK" at the end of the game! She got some good snuggle time when he finally passed out!





Here's their son, Matt, with EJ. Matt was the starting pitcher on Friday night but he didn't face us. That's a good thing for NU because he has a great arm! The school thinks so too as they put up a huge banner of him at the stadium. It was really cool!



On Saturday, they took EJ bowling. He LOVED it! Rick did a great job teaching him how to bowl. After raising three boys, he has the patience of a saint!





EJ was happy to report that he got a strike! Here's a spare that he picked up and then high fives all around!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was a fun Valentine's Day! EJ had a party at preschool and we got to be "Snack Helper" so heart cupcakes were in order!



Here's EJ after preschool. I brought him the balloons and all the rest came from his preschool party.



Once inside, EJ dumped out all is love letters and candy. We used his Lightening McQueen Mailbox to store most of the candy for "later."



During naptime I set up the dining room for our own family Valentine's Party. We had streamers, balloons, heart plates, the works! I also made a two-hour playlist for the occasion since we're known to have dance parties. The list had some new songs, some sentimental songs and some old school songs making it a rockin playlist!



E.J.'s favorite balloon was the monkey balloon. However, he's happily used all of them as punching bags.



At the party E.J. got a Lightening McQueen suitcase that will come in really handy for all his travel this spring.



Once our "steaks & cupcakes" dinner was finished the boys decided to have some fun with the frosting.






I posted this picture because I couldn't believe what a great shot EJ took during our dance party! He took four pictures with his fingers in front of the camera but this one was just perfect!



There was lots of love all around! Hope you had a nice holiday too!

10th Anniversary!

We celebrated our 10th Anniversary yesterday! Here we are on our wedding day in Colorado as the sun was setting. We had been married a whole 20 minutes at that point! Here's our unity candle. It's yellowed a bit but still burns bright!




Our 10th anniversary was a fun-filled day and we both worked hard to make it special. Eric was so sweet. He brought home balloons and two dozen roses at lunch time. He made quite the display in the kitchen!



We celebrated by going to dinner at one of our favorite places. We had a great dinner and rich conversation. We were really touched when we thought back to all the people who have supported us and been there for us all these years. Eric also shared a Bible verse with me and said that it's his prayer and hope for me. It's from the book of Ephesians:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Marriage is hard and it forces you to go "deep" and there's no better direction to head than towards Jesus. He has answered so many of our prayers--not always in the way we hoped or expected but He has been faithful beyond what we knew could be true. My marriage is what it is today because of Jesus' grace, mercy and leading. To really know "how high and deep the love of Christ" was a precious wish from Eric and one I will treasure for the next ten years and beyond.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's Eve!

As the new year approaches I find myself in Colorado on a snowy afternoon. EJ is asleep next to me for his afternoon nap. Thankfully, he is still napping every day and somedays, like today, I get this precious snuggle time with him. My love for EJ continues to grow and expand every day. I love his innocent and sweet spirit. I love his hugs and kisses. EJ is very loving and tells me every day that he loves me...music to my ears. Lately he’s also been saying that I’m his "favorite." He hasn’t indicated what favorite I am (lunch maker, candy giver, fashion advisor, etc.) but I am his “favorite” something nonetheless. I know this time is fleeting and someday I'll be his least favorite so for now I will lavish in the affection.

As his language developed this year I was constantly amazed at how he sees the world. This has also reminded how powerful our words can be. I have written tens of thousands of words this fall on my dissertation and nothing has been as humbling as EJ putting me in time out for saying the naughty word…”stupid.” I sure must think a lot of things are stupid because I go to time out on a daily basis for saying it.

It’s quite humbling to be put in time out for language use, after all, I am a communication professional. I have learned to be careful with what I say because EJ is always listening…and then repeating. It’s not just about EJ listening, though. The truth is that I should always be careful how I use my words. Proverbs 16:24 says, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” While I always want to use gracious words, I find that often fall short of that goal. I’m working hard on it though because Proverbs also says that gracious words promote instruction (16:2). As EJ’s primary educator right now I need to communicate with grace, wisdom and intelligence. That’s my goal in the coming year—to be a better communicator and thus a better educator—in my home and at work. Whatever goals or ideas you have in mind for 2011, I wish you the best as you journey towards completing them.

Happy New Year!

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Colorado this year. We started with a couple days with the Sorensons. The guys did some great hunting. Eric worked hard to master his duck call and he earned his stripes.



Here the kids are by the Sorenson tree.



Next we headed to the "big" city. We met up with the Knabenshue's in downtown Denver. We had dinner at one of our special spots and then enjoyed the lights on the 16th Street Mall.





It meant a lot to me to take EJ down to the City & County Building as I have memories of doing that as a child and Eric and I went there the night we got engaged--10 years ago! How fun to share that with EJ. He loved the lights and ran up and down the blue stairs with other kids.





We had so much fun downtown that EJ and I took grandma and grandpa back downtown but this time we took the "train" (light rail), rode the bus up and down 16th Street Mall, and took a horse and carriage ride with Mr. Sox, a beautiful black clydesdale with white hooves. Here's EJ on the light rail. His favorite part was looking at the tracks and passing other "trains."



Grandma got this shot of us next to our carriage and Mr. Sox.



Here's Grandma and EJ ready to ride.



EJ was sufficiently worn out from our adventure and had to "rest" on the ride home.



One night we headed to the mall to see Santa in the Narnia globe. The wait was three hours so thankfully we had already seen Santa in Lincoln and we could simply enjoy seeing the globes.



We took EJ to Christmas Eve service and had a nice dinner when we got home. Then we tracked Santa on the Norad website. EJ got quite a kick out it.



Thankfully, Santa made it to our house and left EJ the rocketship he had asked for. Christmas was a fun day of playing and relaxing. I can say that because Eric made breakfast and my parents made dinner. Somehow I got out of cooking duties this year!



Eric made vanilla custard french toast. It was wonderful!


It's was grandma's goal to have a "sparkly" Christmas and it was accomplished. Christmas with a 3 year-old was magical and fun. We all enjoyed it greatly.