Sweet Haynes

Haynes was SUPER whiny the other day, beyond anything I have ever experienced. Finally that night we gave the kids baths around 7:30 and when he got out I told him to sit on the couch until he had some joy. I walked by a few minutes later and found this....I thought he was kidding, but he was out for the night! Let's talk about exhausted...I've never put any of my kids to bed that early before!!

The next morning he crawled into my bed super early. He cuddled up next to me and said, "Mommy, I'm your prince right?"

I reply, "Absolutely!"

Haynes says, "but then who is Daddy's princess?"

"I am...."

"I guess we can share you..." he says and then kisses me on the cheek.

Let's talk about a moment that melted my heart! He has been super clingy to me lately, which Brian isn't the biggest fan. (I just remind him that in a few weeks no one will want anything to do with me when I bring home a new little one.) Haynes is constantly telling me that "I am the best mom in the whole world!" I sure do love this season:-)

SnOw DaY!!

After much anticipation, we got a TON of snow!! Ella was so excited she kept going to the backdoor and eating the snow off the window!

Port decided to join in on Ella's fun too! Unfortunately Brian and I were pretty sick on our snow day, so it was not near as fun as we had hoped....

Although it was scary cold outside, everyone got bundled up for a good 10 minutes outside. Port lasted the longest, he was the winner!

I couldn't stop laughing at Haynes...not only is he wearing Ella's 18 month ski pants, you can't even tell that it's him!

Ella really didn't enjoy the cold or the snow as much as the boys:-)

This was her after walking around the house, she came in immediately requesting hot chocolate.

The boys were pretty pumped for some hot chocolate too! I had some fun snowman marshmallows that were the real hit of the day.

This was what the house looked like after 30 minutes of dressing everyone, 10 minutes outside, and back indoors for the rest of the day:-)

The boys put together a lego set that I had been saving for a fun day. (This was the most lively daddy looked all day...what a trooper!)

We headed to Lolli and Champ's for dinner. The kids made snow icecream...snow with sugar!

The highlight of the night was definitely when Champ started a snow fight in the house. My boys LOVED it!

Daddy's Girl

Ella LOVES her Daddy!

There is really nothing sweeter than watching Ella fall in love with her Daddy.

Lake

Our family decided to stay Sunday and just spend the day together-maybe the best decision of the year! We got to spend the rest of the day playing, hiking, cooking, and enjoying uninterrupted family time.

Port and I took a hike on Saturday afternoon and I had to keep track of some of our sweet conversations. We started walking and he informs me that we are looking for people to pray for and tell about Jesus. I started leading him down our normal walking path and we started discussing how there is a woman that doesn't like for us to walk on her road and we have to honor her. He stops and looks at me and says, "Do you think she would like it if we told her she couldn't walk on our road by our house? The bible tells us to to treat others the way we want to be treated...I don't think she would want to be treated the way she treated you. That's a really hard lesson to learn for me, but she needs to work on that!" I had been just feeling like I needed to push him a little in the things God's gifted him. It was super sweet to see him learning to apply God's word to his life.

He decided he didn't want me to lead he wanted to lead us on a "hike." I started to follow him wondering where he would lead, but he was COMPLETELY confident in where he was going. He took me to a new spot and lead me to a ravine he wanted to hike up. He would stop every few minutes to check and see how I was doing. Eventually I was pulling myself up by the roots of a tree and I told him that we were going to have to head back to the road...it wasn't wise for me (a very pregnant mommy) to hike. He found a bench and made me sit down and rest. Then we headed back and he never got lost! It was absolutely amazing watching him become the leader I know that he is. It was maybe my most favorite moment with Port of all times...my baby is growing up!

Lake Retreat

We took some of our house church to the lake this weekend for a retreat. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL weekend and great to cast vision for our semester. Port was so much fun this weekend...he truly is SO big!

I always forget to take pictures while we are at the lake! I think this was after our morning walk with the girls.

Brian and I each got a little time with the kids during Saturday afternoon. It was so beautiful...it might have been our favorite weekend at the lake ever. Port decided to take me walking, which I thought I would actually end up leading....He ended leading me on about 2 hours of walking and hiking! Literally as we are scaling a ravine, I had to remind him that I was VERY pregnant and Daddy probably wouldn't be pleased:-)

Our family all shared a room, Daddy made pallets on the floor for each of the kids.

Haynes got really sick on Saturday night. He kept saying he didn't feel good, but I just thought he was tired. I finally believed him when I walked into the bedroom to find Jake catching all of Haynes throw-up in a towel! (Jake won the best friend award for the weekend!) We proceeded to throw up every hour for the entire night...

Some of our friends stayed Saturday night too. We played a few fun games in between checking on sweet Haynes! Love all the fun memories at the lake!

Welcome Baby Noles!!

We have anxiously awaiting the arrival of sweet Baby Noles! We traveled up to Lakeside to be the first to congratulate Dax and Crew on their new brother. We ended up meeting all the cousins there too!

Although the kids didn't actually get to see sweet baby Luke...they loved seeing Dax, Crew, and Jade!

We had to wait in the waiting room to go in and visit sweet Angie and Luke. Kooper is the best entertainment for my kids! We love you guys and can't wait to love on sweet baby

Luke Cross Noles!

Gingerbread

The boys had their "Movie Party" this week. We decided to stop by and visit Port's for a little bit. Ella joined in just like she belonged in the Scotty class. They got to watch Toy Story....as you can tell Port was quite into it!

*My sweet friend Murphy has always told me her favorite party was the "Movie Party." My guess is that my kids will be telling others that someday...they love it!

Next we stopped by to see Haynes and his friends. They were having a birthday party and pinata. The weather was absolutely beautiful!

Haynes was one of the first few kids to get a try at the pinata...and he knocked it down!!!

We love going to visit the boys at school. I have learned that when we are up there multiple times a week, Ella has a difficult time understanding why she doesn't go to school there too:-)