Ring Bearer

I am so happy for Josh and Lauren Burzynski!  They are 2 people I love very much and we felt so blessed to play a part in their special day.  Crider was asked to be the ring bearer and they asked Kory to perform the ceremony.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony.

Crider did a great job and looked so handsome too.  He had a big bag of gummies and a green ring pop waiting for him.

Kory used the same vows that were originally written for our wedding and they brought tears to my eyes as I listened to them all over again.  It was also so special that their kiss at the alter was their very first kiss as a couple.

A few family photos!

So proud of our little ring bearer

Love Crider's and Finn's expressions in this picture

Sweet Sisters

Crider helping Unc with the music

The Coffee Diaries

This morning Finley decided to wake up at 5:15:(  For those of you who know me this is a huge deal because I am NOT a morning person.  I tried and tried to get him back to sleep but he was looking at me with those wide eyes that said "Mom take me out of this swaddle I want to play!!!" After saying a quick "Lord, help me do this" prayer we headed downstairs to start our day.  Side Note: we were at my parent's house because Kory is at m Fuge, my parents were out of town and my sister and brother were there with us.  Needless to say lots of coffee was involved.

Cup 1: 5:45am I went with Newmans Old Extra Bold K Cup due to the fact that I was way too exhausted to even make a pot of coffee.  After this Finn and I watched some christian music videos (who knew they were on at 6:oo in the morning.)  I was just trying to keep my eyes open at this point.

Cup 2: 6:20am Brewed a pot of Peets coffee (Erica brought it from San Fran delicious!) while brewing I fed Finn his breakfast.  After this Finn played in the floor while I got in the Word.  Right now I am studying through Kay Arthur's Lord, Teach Me How To Pray.

Jessi Hutchens recommended it to me and I am so grateful.  I have learned a lot so far about prayer and how God has perfectly instructed us how to pray within his word.  I think I do fairly good at praying and talking with God throughout my day when certain situations arise but I often times neglect quality time in prayer where I spend significant time just praising God for who He is and all he does for me.

Cup 3:  7:00am Refill my cup of Peets and eat a blueberry muffin,  Finn is starting to get pretty fussy at this time so I attempt to pacify him while finishing up my bible study.  Also Erica woke up around this time so we spent some time together.

Cups 4 and 5 occurred after Crider woke up sometime around 8 and Finn was already taking his first nap of the day at this point.

What began as a frustrating groggy day turned out to be a great morning.  I spent quality time with the Lord and both of my boys individually.  I lucked out too, both boys took super long naps in the afternoon and I got to nap too.

Also wanted to share another book I have been reading, 50 People Every Christian Should Know by Warren Wiersbe.

I feel like since having kids all I have read is parenting books, which is great but I was in need of a change.  This book has been the change I was needing and I am loving to learn about all of the Christian men and women who have gone before me and helped to shape the faith as we know it today.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day:

Love this picture of my boys and their amazing father.

Craziness

I originally began this post last week and haven't had the chance to post due to the craziness that sometimes can overtake our lives so here it is... better late than never:

This week has been crazy!  Kory was at camp all week with the youth so it was just me and the boys.  Monday was soooo hard, it was one of those days where I prayed a lot "God, are you sure you want me to be a stay at home mom."  For some reason Crider was extremely needy and wanted my attention at all times which is very hard when you have a 6 month old who likes to be held a lot.  There were a lot of times where I would be trying to pacify Finn and Crider would be clinging to my legs.  But we made it through the day and there were some small victories like Crider peeing in the potty twice and it was completely his idea.  So I will look back on Monday and think of that and try not to remember the melt downs.  Tuesday was my birthday and that morning I had a little pool party at Kory's Aunt Gina's house with Jen, Jack, Jaye, Kayla, Owen, Lora and Jack J.  It was a blast and Crider is starting to get a lot better at swimming without always having to be holding on to me.  That night Kory had someone fill in for him at camp (camp was at Jonathan Creek only 30 minutes away) so he could take me out that night.  Kory and I went out to eat at Doe's in Paducah and it was soooo good.  That place is pretty special to us because that is where we announced to our parents that we were pregnant with Crider.  Kory made the evening very special for me!  On Wednesday morning Crider tripped over some toys and ended up with a huge knot on his head.

The swelling ended up going down before he had his big ring bearer debut in the Burzynski wedding (Stay tuned for more about that).
That night we headed to Marion to spend some time with my family and my parents had a little birthday party for me there.  The trip to marion wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be because Finley slept terribly, and Lucy (our dog) got very very sick (I will spare you the details).  Also Finley cried the entire way there and the entire way back to Murray.  An hour in a car with a screaming baby does something to your nerves.

This was right before Lucy jumped in Finley's seat and he started pulling her hair so I had to reach back and move her to the front with me.  Also shortly after this he started screaming.

Marion wasn't all bad...  my mom made my favorite foods for birthday dinner and we got to visit my friends Leigh, Josh and Jude Hutchens who have been missionaries in Moldova for 2 years.  Also Crider and Pappy (thats my dad)  threw out the first pitch at the Marion Bobcats season opener.

I debated on whether I should put up a somewhat negative post like this but then I realized that if I want to be real on this blog (which I do) I should.  My life isn't always rainbows and sunshine (even though pictures can make it seem that way sometimes) it can be hard and oh so challenging.  I love being a mom and one who stays at home but there are days when its a struggle just to make it to nap time.

Sticker Torture

I have learned to celebrate those small precious moments in the midst of a hard week.  This weeks little moments include pee in the potty, rolling over for the first time, songs sang in the car, precious moments with the grandparents,

 brothers who love each other,

pool parties, date nights, Crider's giraffe pool at Grammy's house,

mom's lasagna, visits with close friends, sleeping in Aunt Erica's big bead

and daddy coming home after a long week.

Best Friends and Boat Babies

A few days ago after watching a Little Einsteins episode about best friends, Crider came up to me and said, "Mommy do you know who my best friend is?  It's Owen."  I thought it was so cute and considering that I am good friends with Owen's mom, Kayla and Kory is great friends with Owen's daddy, Caleb we were pretty happy in his choice of a best buddy.  These pictures are of Owen and Crider walking into Cody and Kara Brown's wedding reception.

They thought it was so funny that the wind was blowing their hair

Cody and Kara's wedding was beautiful and we had a fun time at the reception.  Kory was honored to perform the wedding ceremony.  He did a wonderful job as always and added a part to his normal wedding message to the couple about how sin is our enemy in marriage.  Instead of looking at your spouse as the enemy when things aren't going the way it should recognize that sin is the enemy and defeat it together.  I loved this and thought it was such a great message to share with a young couple.  They held their reception at the CFSB center in Murray and it was the perfect venue.  It was also fun to see all the people from Marion that came to the wedding, it felt like I was right at home.  Cody has been a best friend to my little brother for as long as I can remember and it was so sweet to share in his special day.  I am proud of the man he has become and am so happy for him to have found Kara to be his bride. I look forward to many grill outs with the two of them:)

Logan and Stevie

I loved the yellow tie that Kory was asked to wear for the wedding

Crider dancing with the bride and a little girl he met at the reception

On Sunday we headed to the lake to celebrate memorial day with our families.  We went to Pattis on Sunday night with Kory's family and then spent Monday on the lake with my family.  It was Finley's first time on the boat and I decided that both him and Crider are boat babies.