Angels Among Us

It has been a crazy week... I have been packing for a trip for the past few days, Stephen has been working a lot, which leaves me taking care of both kids all day and night by myself... on top of that Brody is on his 3rd round of antibiotics for an ear infection that wont go away, meaning we are preparing to have tubes put back in his ears when we get back in town... so needless to say I have been a bit frazzled today.

Tonight I was getting the kids ready for bed, which is always tricky by myself because they never want to read the same books and both have their own bedtime routine that is usually fine if there is one parent to each child. Tonight Reagan made it very easy for me because she was very busy "writing" in this blank journal that she had found. After I got Brody to bed and went and found her she proceeded to show me the book that she had just written. Every white page had been scribbled on with green marker. I asked her if she would read it to me and that is where the story starts.

As I am sitting there listening to the book it was like one of those cartoons when there is a little angel and devil on each shoulder. (I feel the need to intreject and say that I dont know that really one was an angel and devil but there were definitely two different sides of me present for this book reading). One side of me was a little annoyed that I had to sit there and listen to every single page of this 150 page journal because I had so much to do, the other side of me was saying to stop and enjoy this moment... it wont be long before she doesnt want me to put her to bed anymore. I am so glad that I made the "annoyed me" poof away because what I experienced with Reagan for the next 20 minutes was pure magic.

She had written an entire book about God and Jesus. A few excerts from the book include:
* We love God from everything to everything.
* God is so special and we love him so much
* God made the whole world and all the trees and the sun and he messed up a little when he made bugs but we still love him.
* Jesus is Gods son
* God is so beautiful to us
* We love Jesus so so much
* God is in our hearts forever

You get the idea. It was sweet and innocent and precious but the best was yet to come. About halfway through the book she stopped and looked at me and said,
"I see God."
"You do?" I said
"He talks to me." she goes on to tell me.
"What does he say?" I asked.
And without missing a beat she looked up at me and said, "You are my angel."

And suddenly everything else in the world didn't matter because that moment was perfect.

I believe God talks to Reagan... and I believe he thinks she is his angel, but I also know that she is mine.

***I realize it has been forever since I posted last and I dont know when I will post again but this was one of those moments that I didnt want to forget... so I had to jot it down!

Game Over

A few years ago Stephen bought this shirt:

He wears it around the house and to sleep in and I think it's pretty funny but it is really funny when Reagan gives her interpretation on it.

Reagan: "That shirt is when mommy and daddy got married."
Me: "Why does daddy have a sad face?"
Reagan: "Because he isn't the boss anymore because he married mommy."
Me: "Why is mommy smiling?"
Reagan: "Because she is the boss and she tricked daddy into marrying her."

If she only knew....

Big Boy Room

Here are some pictures of Brody's big boy room. It turned out great and he loves his big boy bed. I built and covered the cornace boards over the windows and my grandma sewed me the black pillow shams and the "G" pillow to match his bed spread. Stephen loves it and so does Brody so thats all that matters!

Snot Shirts

One of the things I gave up when I became a mommy was "looking cute." My tight low rise jeans were replaced with looser higher wasted ones, and my shirts that barely graced the top of my pants had to be thrown out to make room for the longer ones that didnt show my stomach or back everytime I bent over to pick a screaming child off the floor.

Dont get me wrong... I dont look like a slob all the time but with two small kids at home it seems like the amount of time I have to spend on myself is far less than it used to be. I am lucky to take a shower most days, much less dry my hair, put on makeup and god-forbid put on a pair of pants that dont have an elastic waist. I usually look nice for the appropriate things: church, date-night, and school functions of Reagans, but other than that I find that I dot really care what I look like if we are just playing around the house all day.

Every once in a while though, Stephen and I get away for a few days and I remind myself, and more importantly, my husband, that I dont always look like a bum. (Although Stephen swears he likes me best with my hair up, my sweats on, and no make-up on). We went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago for Stephens birthday. It was a much needed trip for both of us and we had so much fun with eachother. Just me and him, doing whatever we wanted, on whatever time table we wanted. We layed out at the pool, walked the strip, shopped, went to a few shows,took as long as we wanted to get ready, and took hours, yes I said HOURS, to eat our meals. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

It's little trips like this that make me realize just how in love I am with Stephen. How pefect we are for eachother and how I cant wait to spend the rest of my life with him, traveling, laughing, and growing together. He is a great father, but he is also an amazing husband. We love our kids beyond measure, but every once in a while, its nice to just get away fom it all and remember the days when every shirt I put on didn't have snot on it.

Not really a dress I could take care of kids in... barely a dress I could move in =)

Because we were by ourselves we didnt really take very many pictures... so here are a few of the ones we did take.

Brody Jammin' Out

Reagans Wedding Dress

Today THIS came in the mail:

To some of you this may not seem like a big deal... but to those of you who know Reagan, you know that this is the dress she is getting married in (or at least that is what she thinks).

See, a few months back, my sister Megan got engaged and she asked Reagan to be her flower girl. That meant nothing to Reagan until I showed her the dress she would be wearing when Megan got married. That is when Reagan decided that, and I quote "When Meggie gets married, I will get married!"

Sometimes it is to Damian, sometimes Brody, sometimes Daddy but by gosh, when Megan gets married she gets to wear the "most beautiful white dress and get married too" Now if only I can figure out how to convince her that this day will be about Megan and not her.

More importantly... how in the world am I going to keep her out of this dress until August. She has already requested to wear it 3 times and it just arrived an hour ago...we are in for a long few months.

Only time will tell...

Time is a funny thing. It always seems to do the exact opposite of what you want it to. When you want it to go by quickly, it takes forever. When you want it to slow down, it flies by. But I guarantee that if you ask any mom, on any given birthday, of any given child, they will all say the same thing.... "it has gone by so fast."

Thats because for the most part, while we spend so much of our"time" worrying about and planning for other "time" the time we have right in font of us slowly slips away, and right in front of our eyes.... it's gone. And we cant get it back. No matter how hard we try. Events pass, people grow up, lives change and at the end of all of it, you wonder when it all happened.

Today... I am one of those parents. Today, Brody turned 2. And while I can remember his birth like it was yesterday, I have to wonder how this happened so quickly. How in what seems like such a short amount of time, he has grown up. (I realize 2 is not exactly grown up) but nonetheless.... here I am, wondering where all the time has gone.

I cant go back, I cant slow down, or speed up the clock, but what I can do is cherish every moment, every second. Hold on to, take it in, and try as hard as I can to remember it. I am excited to see what the next year will bring with Brody. He is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. I am blessed and humbled everyday that he is mine, part of me, part of Stephen, part of something bigger... and only time will tell what that will be.

I love you Brody! Happy Birthday