Wrex – Page 13 – The Bless Your Heart Blog

One Track Mind

This cute little fella…

has a one track mind these days…..and I LOVE it!

He’s said “Momma” now for a while…remember? He’s just making it known that it’s pretty much his favorite word and I am totally ok with that. Watch this…and try not to melt. I know the link just makes it look OH SO EXCITING (in opposite land) but really, it’s cute. You’ll probably want to watch it twice.

IMG_3475

Are his little facial expressions and eyebrows not the best? He is definitely an emoter!

When we were 16 weeks, we had an early ultrasound and our doctor was 80% certain we were having a girl. We picked out a name, finished up our announcements and sat around and waited for the 20 week because Wrex just wasn’t so sure. There was a little something between the legs but the doctor was almost positive it was the umbilical cord. Ahem.

Fast forward to 20 weeks. I hopped up on the table and she put the sensor on my tummy and immediately asked if we wanted to know what we were having. Wrex replied with a, “That’s the only reason we’re here today!” Geez. She replied, “Well, it’s most definitely…” and I cut her off and said, “A girl!?” She looked at me and said, “Uh, no…a boy.”

I cried. Not in a bad way; all babies are blessings and miracles and I’ll take as many as He wants to give me…but I was just so………..shocked and unprepared. I had the girl thing down! We had all the stuff we needed for another girl! I’d already picked out a name and finished my announcements; a boy just didn’t fit in my little type A plan.

Little did I know how incredibly WONDERFUL he would be! He is such a sweet, smiley, snuggly little guy! He loves his momma and doesn’t really ever want her to leave the room without him. He’s sensitive and loving and just down right fun!

By the way, he can say “da-da” and “bubba”…but apparently he has a favorite. 😉 I’m totally digging his one track mind!

More Than Worth It

I love my kids…something I think you all know by now, yes?! I love them enough that I don’t want to leave their futures’ up to chance in the event that something should (God forbid) happen to Wrex and I. As NOT fun as it is to talk about, I’m a firm believer in being prepared so we spent the day meeting with a lawyer and drawing up our will, naming guardians, estate executors, etc.

The very thought of any of this actually having to happen just about makes me ill but I also know how very important it is. We’ve been witness to a couple of situations where the parents were not prepared and the children ended up with guardians that weren’t desired, huge legal bills were incurred, the children were pawns in a money game…ugly, unnecessary things.

If you haven’t drawn up a proper will that is legal in your state, I highly encourage you to do so. (Unfortunately, making your wishes known on a piece of paper shoved in your fire safe doesn’t stand up in court, even if notarized.) It literally took about two hours to get this drawn up, signed and printed; time well spent.

Take the time to pray and ask the Lord who you should name as guardians of your children in the event you both pass on and have your spouse do the same. The Lord will not impress something on one of you and something different to the other.

Find someone you know and trust that will have your family’s best interests at heart to act as the executor of your estate and a financial genius to act as your trustee.

Invest in life insurance. For you younguns, a million dollar term life policy for someone in good health is running about $1 a day…TOTALLY doable…so do it!

We had put this off long enough and I have sooooooo much peace that this is done. My plan is to be around for a long, long, long, long time and have a few more babies…but we’re never guaranteed tomorrow. We did, however, want to guarantee that our children would be taken care of to the best of our abilities in our absence. These {sweet, cute, kissable} faces are MORE than worth it!

Bye Bye Love

Daddy’s Christmas break is coming to a close. (Insert big, pouty, wailing cry here.) He had a short sale Monday on our way back from Nebraska, so I didn’t really count that one…and I shouldn’t really count tomorrow because we’re going with him…but still, my heart is mourning not having him around all day, every day. We were incredibly fortunate to have him home for 16 days! How awesome is that?! I am sooooo incredibly blessed by his job and his schedule and how much he loves doing what he does. There aren’t a lot of people out that there that can say that, ya know? So while we will miss the added help and his silly jokes and his playful spirit and his uncanny ability to do or fix ANYTHING, we shall hand the local sale barns back their “cute Wrex/Superman/sheriff.” I’m sure they miss him, too. 😉

In celebration of our last day together, we went to town and ate Chinese and played at the park before the cold sets in again.

Who doesn't love that face?! — Who doesn’t love that face?!

Tonight, we’re cooking up some yummies to take to a special new mommy in Denver. My bestie had her baby 2 agonizingly long weeks ago and due to several unfortunate incidents I have yet to meet her and IT IS TIME.

You will be seeing LOTS more of this face soon... — You will be seeing LOTS more of this face soon…

So, if you don’t hear from me for a few days, it’s because I’m snuggling new babies and snuggling my man. I’ll be back soon enough…

Christmas Eve Eve

Since Christmas Eve will end up being a little busy for us with church and all, we decided to let the kids open a fun little present tonight, on Christmas Eve’s eve. I put together a box with new pajamas, snuggly animals, popcorn, pop, cocoa and a little note saying that we were going to have pizza, pop and popcorn for supper while we watched a special Christmas movie!

Sawyer woke up with a fever this morning and hasn’t felt great today. Poor girl. I think the present made her feel a little better.

She was really excited about her new jammies and her teddy! She has a soft place for all things cozy and cuddly.

Brother looked pretty cute in his santa jammies, too. Who doesn’t love a little something on a baby’s tush!?

We had to take pictures in front of the tree, with our new animal friends, no less.

Daddy read one of Sawyer’s favorite Christmas books while I got the pizza ready and Wryder sort of paid attention.

One of Sawyer’s Boz movies had a preview for a movie called The Very First Noel. We are BIG Boz fans and it’s produced by the same company so I assumed it would be good, but I couldn’t find it anywhere! They aren’t producing them anymore and the only used ones I could find were $35. YIKES. Enter YouTube. We found it online and I am sooooo glad we did! If you have the chance to watch it, DO IT! It’s the Christmas story told from a wiseman’s perspective and is incredibly well done. Sawyer loved it, as did the rest of us.

I love having special time with my little family. My parents always did a good job of making Christmas memorable for us and I hope Sawyer and Wryder say the same about us one day.

HE is worth making a fuss about…as are they.

Christmas Cards

LOVE

CHRISTMAS CARDS!

I love receiving them and seeing everyone’s cute families and hearing the lastest and greatest in their lives. We have a lot of friends throughout the Midwest that we don’t get to see or talk to near enough, so when the cards start pouring in, it’s fun to reflect on where we’ve been with them and what they’re up to now.

I like to send Christmas cards, too! Every year, we attempt to set a limit (those things aren’t cheap, especially once you add postage!) and every year we always order more! I think next year, I’m just going to order 250 and be done with it! Ha!

This year, we couldn’t decide on a favorite……so I printed five different versions. Ahem. You’ve seen all the pictures here and here, thanks to the lovely Stormie. Below are the five cards we sent out – which one is your favorite?

This one is cute of the rest of the fam... — This one is cute of the rest of the fam…

This one was Wrexy's favorite... — This one was Wrexy’s favorite…

I ADORE this one! I just wish you could see Wryder's face better... — I ADORE this one! I just wish you could see Wryder’s face better…

This is probably my favorite, though... — This is probably my favorite, though…

This one didn't make the cut, but it's funny! — This one didn’t make the cut, but it’s funny!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Light Lookin’

Tonight was such a good night, in my book. Sawyer has been dying to go look at Christmas lights so when everyone woke up from nap, we got Wryder fed, threw some cookies in the oven and headed to town!

Someone was quite proud of her sprinkling... — Someone was quite proud of her sprinkling…

Mom wasn't paying attention on this one... — Mom wasn’t paying attention on this one…

I’m not sure what spurred it on, but little miss was insistent upon cookies and hot chocolate while we went light looking…and that was right up everyone’s alley!

Holyoke has quite a few houses with good lights so we paraded up and down the streets with our snacks, Sirius Christmas tunes and a light falling snow – could it get any better?!

We tried to go look at lights last year on Christmas night. We had had such a wonderful day celebrating with just the three of us and we decided that if we wanted to see lights, we better go that night before people started taking them down. So we loaded up and headed to town. It had snowed off and on for days and as we were driving into town, we met up with a black cow. Someone’s cattle had gotten out and were all over the road. Wrex slammed on the brakes as soon as he saw it but with oncoming traffic, we ended up not being able to go anywhere except right into the side of the cow.

It was incredibly scary for me. I don’t do well with surprises, especially unpleasant ones and hitting a cow is a pretty dangerous thing. We smacked it hard enough that it went 50 feet or so, the air bags popped out, ambulances were dispatched (the county rule if airbags pop)…it was not a fun experience. BUT…the Lord was so incredibly gracious and good to us. None of us had a scratch on us or were even sore the next day. Our neighbors (whom we love like family) left their family Christmas celebration and picked us up, drove Sawyer to the one house out here in the sticks that had lights and then took us to their house and fed us supper. Jesus in the flesh, those people.

Wrex’s truck was smoked; the radiator was almost in the cab. It was only a 2011 so it wasn’t totaled, but there was like $14,000 in damage.

Very thankful tonight turned out differently. We made it home safely, ate some soup and then we all curled up to watch The Sound of Music.

We have MUCH to celebrate this Christmas. We have a Father that sent His Son to earth over 2,000 years ago so that we may live with Him eternally. We have a God that protects us and looks out for us and spares us. We have a warm house and food in our pantry and gifts under our tree. We have two healthy, compassionate children who love to spend time with us and whom we love to spend time with. We have daddy all to ourselves for 14 out of the next 16 days – a daddy who has a job that he loves and that loves him back.

We are a blessed people, no doubt about it. Praying your night has been as enjoyable as ours!

Never in a Million Years

Yesterday, you got to revel in the complete preciousness of Sawyer and Wryder. Today? The whole family! Stormie took soooo many – it was hard to choose just a few to showcase here but these are my faves – enjoy!

Honestly, that last one might be fave because it’s just sooooooo Wrex! I chickened out using it for our Christmas card because I didn’t want to offend anyone. 😉 If Wryder was looking at that camera, you might’ve had to shield your eyes opening your envelope.

I am so thankful for these photos. They are the first official family photos we’ve had done with kiddos and I love that Stormie captured this season of our life. Even more so, I’m thankful for my little family. Never in a million years did I dream I’d be this blessed. Never in a million years did I expect to have a husband as wonderful and kind and patient and forgiving and gracious and loving as Wrex. Never in a million years did I think I’d have kids as sweet and kind and smart and cute and compassionate as these two little loves. Never in a million years did I think I’d be this divinely happy to share my life and my time and my resources and my energy with such wonderful beings. Never in a million years would I have really believed that this kind of love existed. But I assure you – it does.

I have delighted in Him and He has given me the desires of my heart. I am forever grateful…forever singing His praises…forever turning my gift back to Him…forever…for a million years plus forever…

Cute Toots

Man, I’ve got cute kids! I mean, I’m sure I’m a weeeeee bit biased, but these guys are just melt-your-heart preciousness! These pics are from a family photo shoot that the lovely Stormie did for us at Thanksgiving. I ADORE them….

So. In. LOVE…with the pictures…and with these kids. I am a blessed momma.

Share with me which one is YOUR favorite or else I might print them all!

Daddy’s New Do

We switched toys on Monday so there’s been a lot of beautifying going on around here.

There's not a ton to brush... — There’s not a ton to brush…

Sawyer really likes to do daddy’s hair because she can load it full of product.

Please hair, grow! — Please hair, grow in the name of Jesus!

Mousse is her favorite – what fun!

You can see what's left of it on her fingers... — You can see what’s left of it on her fingers…

Anything that sprays out of a bottle is pretty fun, too.

She gets busy snipping with her little pretend scissors. We have lots of talks about how we only do that with these special scissors and no others…ahem.

That's some fast scissor action! — That’s some fast scissor action!

Daddy’s a really good sport!

She's a gentle little beautician... — Doesn’t he look handsome?!

He was fine that I posted all of these shirtless pictures, by the way. Pictures of what she’s done to his toes…those are a different story.

Tree Time

Before we left for Denver, a certain little girl pleaded to put up the Christmas tree. She was quite convincing, so despite the extra work, we did just that!

Daddy has no problem setting the tree up…

But he’s not a fan of “fluffing” the branches…

Our house doesn’t have just a ton of open space, so our tall skinny tree fits perfectly!

DSCF0814 — Seeing this everyday makes me smile.

I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas; I like traditional colors and ornaments that mean something or were passed down or tell a story.

Our tree is full of Wrex and I’s ornaments from when we were younger, along with ones for the kids and ones we got when we were first married, etc. I LOVE the rich history that is hanging on that tree!

My favorite ornament of Wrexy's...a little hereford calf! — My favorite ornament of Wrexy’s – a little Hereford calf!

We went a little more woodsy this year and added this tree branch garland. We made this for a friend’s wedding this summer and re-used it as part of our Christmas decor.

We collected branches and then Wrex cut them into disks, drilled holes and then threaded twine through them. I really like how rustic and organic they look.

garland — We might be seeing this at MOPS meeting soon…

I’ve never owned a tree skirt. I always end up finding something fun (fake snow, felt, etc.) and making due. This year, I grabbed a couple of burlap feed sacks from the stash I have that is still BEGGING to be made into curtains. (I’ll get to that…in all of my spare time, ya know. HA!) I wrapped them around the base and voila! Cute enough for me!

I love this time of year and all that it represents. Let us not forget that if we make it about anything other than Jesus the Christ, then it is not Christmas. He IS the reason we celebrate and decorate and give and feast! Merry Christmas, friends!

Keep an eye out for a full living room tour this week!