February Vacation Week Recap

Well, it's snowing out right now. Kind of a bummer after having enjoyed some spring-like weather. 

We've had a great week so far, and tomorrow is Jonah's sixteenth birthday! I honestly cannot believe it. Or rather, I honestly cannot believe that I am old enough to have a sixteen year old. Wasn't I just sixteen?

Ethan's soccer league has its first tournament today, and it's outside, in New England, during the first week of March. Whoever planned that either doesn't know NH very well or just wasn't thinking. It's below zero out with the wind chill today. No fun. Bill is taking him down this morning and then they're allowed to leave, so they'll come home for lunch before Ethan heads out on his own for the last games. I hate to miss their games. Jonah played last night too- and scored!- and I had to miss that game, too.

Lots of slow mornings, which suit me just fine. Levi has had an incredibly rough week of sleeping, or not sleeping would be more accurate. It was nice to not have to rush out anywhere.

At least he's completely adorable when he's supposed to be sleeping still...

Plenty of time for yummy, hot breakfasts every morning

Last weekend, the guys went to a hockey game and Isabelle and I introduced Levi to the happy world of bubbles. I don't think he was too impressed.
It was a Civil Air Patrol/Armed Forces celebration night there

These boys of ours need to stop growing. They're making their parents look like runts.

It was such a fun, mellow night. I let Isabelle play Little Mommy and basically I just sat back and let her do everything. ha ha ha
#winning

On Monday we headed up to some outdoor outlet malls. The weather was pretty nice that day so it was fun walking around, and I found some great deals on sneakers for the guys, so, yay! I haven't decided on Levi's or Isabelle's Easter attire, and in case I don't end up making their outfits, I bought some back-up options, ha! Isabelle was super excited because I took her to Claire's and let her pick out some new earrings - they are cute!

I don't remember Tuesday so I guess it wasn't that eventful, ha ha. Wednesday night we had a pizza and ice cream sundae party- of course this all transpired the day after I'd decided that I was going to do something for Lent for the first time in my life. I'd never even heard of Lent until college, which surprised me because I have gone to church my whole life. Anyway, I decided to give up candy and desserts for forty days because I feel they have too much of a hold on me. And yes, that is totally embarrassing and humiliating for me to say, but I think it's true. So I'm choosing to focus on God's ultimate sacrifice and rely on His strength when I'm aggravated or feeling tired and want something quick and yummy to satisfy me- really it's Jesus that I'm carving to satisfy those dark and empty spaces inside.

Boy, that was rough not to even take a bite of all the candy I was chopping up for the sundaes, but I didn't!

The guys watched a Fast and Furious movie downstairs in "the cave" and the girls, plus Levi and Dad, watched... something about a man becoming a cat, starring Jennifer Garner and Kevin Spacey - admittedly, I watched about twelve minutes of said movie because of my cranky little boss.

His little personality isn't really little at all! We're discovering that he has a very big personality indeed, and he is so funny. He really makes us laugh, a lot.

We ordered pizza for movie night, but the weekend before, we had a big Make Your Own Pizza Fest and it was awesome. I mean, it was so, so good. Maybe we'll do that again next weekend!

I had a fun field trip planned for Thursday. My Dad was going up to Maine for the day, so he brought along Jonah, and Ethan spent the afternoon with Bill while I took the younger ones to a museum just over the border in Vermont. What a pretty drive there, and it isn't even spring yet so the trees were still bare.

 Bill has been wanting to sell a grey and pink stroller he bought years ago for who was to one day be our second daughter, but I wouldn't let him. It's much smaller than the jogger so it's super convenient for indoors. Real boys can handle pink, right?

Well, someone was not happy in this new stroller and he cried and cried so I had to carry him the entire time. Yikes. He is a big boy!

 Like the rest of us, Levi isn't a fan of big, loud crowds.

#introvertsunite

 Brothers. Sigh. Love them so much.

Levi was so done at this point, ha ha - I think he is smirking at me, telling me in his own way, Let's go already, Mom!

 I could watch these turtles all day long.

Much like the dolphins everyone had to drag me away from at Sea World.

I guess I have a thing for water creatures. Except sharks. Nooooooooo.

The drive home was nice and quiet - Levi was asleep before I even turned onto the highway. Isabelle was so worried about him because he was pitched forward at a funny angle and she was terrified that he was going to damage his neck. Her concern for him was so cute. She has been such a sweetheart recently, and very helpful around the house. I have noticed her trying, and I've been so encouraged.

Here she is helping me make chili for dinner - we also had Cheesy Herb Bread, so good!

 This lucky little guy never lacks for attention. Here he is being contained in "Ethan jail," a term coined by big brother himself. ha ha

 But he won't be contained for much longer.

And he's having so much fun testing out the laws of gravity! :)

Oh wait. Maybe he is attention-starved after all.
Yeah right!

And he doesn't get spoiled, either

Isabelle had a sleep over at my parents' house Thursday night, and the plan was to move the crib into the new room.

Fail.

It was all too rushed, the room was still messy from Caleb moving out, and I just didn't have any peace about putting Levi in there like that. I want it to be just like I've dreamed about when we finally move him in there, not a work in progress. So he stayed put. It was a horrible night anyway.

Then yesterday morning I brought Caleb to a local airport so that he could have his first training flight for the Civil Air Patrol...and he flew the plane! My son flew a plane!

He has dreamed of serving in the military and flying planes since he could first speak in sentences, and it feels so good to watch him not only reach his goals but oftentimes surpass them.

#proudmom

 It was SO cold yesterday morning, and the flight commander hadn't told them they were allowed to wear a coat and gloves for the flight. I knew he wouldn't consider wearing my girly sage green fingerless gloves my Mom made me, but I somehow convinced him to take my jacket...maybe my telling him that it was actually a Men's had a little something to do with it. It isn't, but if it got him to take it, then okay. 

When I picked him up a couple of hours later, he handed it to me, smiled sheepishly, and the commander informed me that it stayed stashed away in the back of the plane. Figures.

Funny thing is, afterwards I got thinking about it, and I don't think he could even fit into my coat. He is so tall now! Look! I'm 5' 9" for reference. I can't believe how much he towers over me suddenly. He's going to have to take over our selfies because my arm isn't long enough to get us both in the frame!

 Caleb said his flight was incredible! I felt so, so bad for him not having a camera- our small one died a couple years ago, and since we have iphones and the Nikon, I never really felt the need to replace it. Much to Caleb's disliking, we haven't gotten him a phone and so he had no way to capture what he was seeing from the air. I felt like a total loser Mom. I promised him that he would have a camera for his next flight.

Since we'd been baking and cooking hot breakfasts all week, we didn't have our usual coffee and doughnut day on Wednesday, so I picked up these yummy things on the way back home.

I was supposed to mail some nightgowns off to customers, too, but I completely forgot that I'd put my wallet in the diaper bag from the day before, which for some odd reason I'd decided to leave in the garage. Maybe I was going to go through it and make sure he had the right size diapers in it- we hardly use it so I rarely look inside it. Who knows? I'm just plain exhausted and can't keep a straight thought to save my life these days. 

Donut those look so good!?! ack ack ack

I did have half of a cruller and a bite of the chocolate donut later that morning. It isn't candy, and it wasn't dessert, so I'm good. And I'm not going to get all legalistic about it, either- it's more of what the idea in general represents, which is focusing on the sacrifice that changed the whole world.

Ethan just headed out for his next game, and he grabbed the face mask and extra gloves. Poor guys. It's too cold to play today.

Another fun thing this week, for me anyway, was making a birth stats sign for Levi's nursery. I was happily browsing Etsy for different ones, but I just couldn't find any that I love. Plus, while I'm all for supporting local artisans and fellow Moms, the last few things I've purchased from Etsy have been kind of a disappointment. So that's not great.

Anyway, I ended up playing around with PicMonkey's Design element, which I'd never explored before, and made my own. I LOVE it! I was so excited about it that I designed some Scripture art and printed those as well. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll share them here as a free printable. I think they turned out so well!

Okay, now YOU probably need a vacation after reading this novel! I'm off to clean up the huge mess I made in the kitchen making Jonah's cake for tomorrow. I guess I can only hide out in here for so long before having to tackle that, ha ha! Happy Saturday! Can't wait to celebrate all day long tomorrow!

**updated**
I can't believe I forgot to mention my Dad's birthday! Sorry, Dad.
His birthday is on the 28th, missed Leap Year by a few short hours. :)
My father is just one of those really great guys you hear about, always willing to help out, always looking on the bright side of things. He grew up with basically nothing- think back woods of Maine- and I'm so proud of how hard he worked to give my brother and me so much.
He is always there for me and our family, and I appreciate and love him more than anything.
Happy Birthday, Dad!

 Ethan was working but he came over later :)