3 and 1 - part one

Both of the boys had birthdays recently in the last 3 months. Up until now these two precious days have been undocumented.

We will start with Nolan's since it was in April. For his birthday we had a surprise party.  It ended up being a sweet gathering of a few very dear friends and family.  We played in the backyard, munched on sandwiches and cake and celebrate Nolan's beautiful first year.    

And yes, when he woke up from his nap he was completely surprised!

One!

A little help blowing out the candle

At one, Nolan had a few words like Mama, Dada, Bubba, poop and ball.  All of which he uses sparingly except ball.  He wasn't walking quite yet, but started just a few weeks later on my birthday, May 19th. He had just had tube put in his ears and was just starting to sleep through the night again. 

Nolan, I have failed and failed at documenting your first lightning fast year, but I know that you know I love you like crazy.  You are my sweet Smush! You are so silly and so set in your ways.  You absolutely love your momma best of all and although that presents challenges its perfectly adorable too.  You love to give raspberries and have a laugh that fills my soul. When you laugh with your brother I can hardly handle it. You are a great imitator and love to copy movement, including swinging a golf club and sweeping the floor.  Pretty funny tasks since you were doing these things before you could walk.  You are my physical boy, climbing, diving, dumping with little fear or hesitation.  You have kept me awake so many nights, but those hours alone with you in a dark and quiet house have taught me more than I could have imagined. I love you my sweet boy, my light, my Smush!  

{SMILE}

Have you heard this song by Uncle Kraker?  Of course you have.

Since having G, I can hardly hear it without tearing up.  If I am singing it to the boys the lump in my throat comes about 3 notes in.

Nolan even has a sign in his room with the lyrics.  These boys absolutely make me smile.  Hundreds of smiles each day. But this absolutely made my heart explode!

He was supposed to be napping, but was standing on his bed singing Smile instead.  I tried to video the monitor, but as soon as I got the video ready he slipped out of his room to come find me and sing.   Then I had to ask him to sing it again.

 

He really is better than the best.

The Sweetest Day

The morning was spent snuggling Nolan for an hour before G would wake. We snacked on Cheerios and enjoyed some sweet time with our little guy.

An hour later G was up and the day took off like most Saturdays.  Eggs for breakfast, daddy mowing the lawn while the boys and I played inside and out.  When daddy was done, he entertained the boys while I finished this massive project I decided to take on yesterday. I'm blaming it on Jen Hatmaker.

Yes, I went through the boys closets and through all of the storage boxes I had already created in order to purge and reorganize now that a couple of more stages have passed.

Funny thing is that I hold no personal attachment to my clothes or almost all of my things.  I LOVE to purge and clean out and reorganize.  But when it comes to the boys clothes the attachment is strong.  For most every outfit I have a memory.
Bringing them home.
The picture with the sideways smile.
Getting stuck crawling backwards.
Learning to walk.
Easter Sunday.
I know what they were wearing on these occasions and so many more.  Just looking at their outfits its like I can push play on those little moments that just flew by.  So for me making that pile into those bins was a sweet, sweet walk down memory lane.

Then it was off to church for a convicting sermon and heart stirring praise and worship. Nolan even made it through the entire service in the nursery for only the second time ever.  G was fired up when we picked him up telling us all out his heart and that Jesus came to save sinners.  He even wanted to listen to this on the way home.

After dinner this happened...

And I couldn't have loved it more. It was a full on concert with booty shaking, screaming into the mic, an encore and all.

Soon after we tucked the boys and settled on the couch to watch the Ranger game.  But an hour or so later both boys were up again.  This is extremely rare. Neither one typically wakes back up, but I am pretty sure that one woke the other so we had both boys back on the couch watching the game at 9:30. Very shortly after I could tell Nolan was ready to be back in bed, so we snuck off to his room and I rocked him back to sleep.  It has been months and months since I rocked him to sleep.  He grabbed on to my shirt and fell almost immediately into a deep sleep.  I had forgotten how he used to always hold on to my shirt when he feel asleep.  It was bliss.  After a day full of sweet baby memories he gave me another one.

Thank you Lord for this sweet family and these three boys I get to share it with.