The Adventure Begins...

About a year and a half ago, God started to press on our hearts that He wanted to take us on an adventure.  We weren't really sure what that meant but our hearts began to be very open and excited to whatever He had in store for our family.  The first step in the adventure was to sell our house. The home we bought 2 weeks before we got married, the home that Matt adopted Jack in, the home we welcomed two children in, and where our little family became oh so close in our 1,000 square feet over the past 4 years.  We worked all last summer to fix it up and get it ready to put on the market.  A year later we are here...

Drawers turned row boat during moving week

I needed to add this pic because this is Jack action face for the rowing.

First night in their basement bedroom.  All three boys are ecstatic to be in the same room and side by side!

Moving Day!

Remember those Schwarz boys?  Here they are on moving day, all the boys are eating pizza in the back of the truck.

 We close on the house tomorrow.  So what is the next part of the adventure you may ask?  WE WAIT.  God told us to wait.  Mama generously asked us if we would like to stay with her for a while as we wait on the Lord to tell us where He wants us to go.  We are all now in a 600 square foot space in her basement (which we think will bring us even closer than the 1000 square foot one :) and we are waiting for the Lord to give us direction.  And we honestly do not know what that looks like.  We hope it's a house in the forest for the boys to run and play and dig but it could be on the mission field in Africa, in another state that God calls us to with Matt's job, or on a farm in Texas but whatever it is we know that we get to go together and we know that the Lord will be leading us!

Boston on the trail today.  The little spec way in front is Jack on his bike.  

The Adventure Begins...

Boston's 3rd Birthday

Boston is going to be 3 years old on Friday!  Since we will be packing and moving on Friday, we celebrated a little early. 
He had a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Party on Saturday.  A party which was planned entirely outdoors until the rain began 15 minutes in!   This made Captain Matt's treasure hunt a little harder than anticipated...

It ended up being very loud but great fun!!!  Isn't he handsome in his pirate get-up?  He even had a tattoo with my name on it. :)

We did make it outside for the pinata.

Then back inside for cake and ice cream!

That night he had his annual sleepover with his cousin, Grayson.  I am not gonna lie, it was hard to let him go.  I realized that to have a sleepover meant that he is growing up and can do big boy things now even without Mama.  I knew he was in wonderful hands, they even took him to the zoo!  This picture pretty much emptimizes Boston, he has such a sweet little heart and loves all of God's little creations.

Today we had our family celebration!!!

Boston's birthday breakfast request: pancakes

the park in the morning

 At lunch we had our tailgate birthday party with Grammy and Andma to watch the Thunderbirds!  After last year, we decided to make it an annual event!

Birthday Party!!!

Grammy's Birthday Present...this picture of us makes me so happy!

Matt put the little guys in the back of the suburban.  He called it the Texas Pack n Play...ahh, a man after my own heart.

This was Boston right after he saw the jets for the first time!  He was so excited!!!

Dancing in the kitchen

Activity of his choice for the night: Play-Doh with Daddy

One more birthday cupcake for our big 3 year old!

I love you dearly Boston boy!  You fill your nickname of The Boss perfectly but surprisingly on the other side of your strong will and stubbornness you have the sweetest spirit which is why the nickname we use most often use for you is Little Bird. 
You love to try to catch birds in the backyard by walking very slowly and bending down quietly to their level, you sneak into my room almost every morning about 4am "to snuggle", you began praying for baby sister months ago all on your own (we shall see about that one), you take care of Moses with such love and compassion, and you follow Jack around playing cowboys with such delight.  Tonight as Daddy prayed over your life and talked about the miracle of how you came to be, you leaned down, with your new little birthday bird that we got you in hand, and whispered that you wanted me to hold you in my lap.  I shall never grow tired of hearing those words sweet little bird.  We love you so much and pray God blesses you greatly in your 4th year of life!

Moving Fun Begins...

The rocket that Daddy built for the boys out of our moving boxes!

Moses pulled out all the spaghetti noodles and proceeded to play with them for half an hour.  But...how do you get upset with that face?

Mother's Day and an Announcement

Matty V did an amazing job this year for Mother's Day.  It was so wonderful and relaxing.  He got me a new kind of Blue Bell on Friday night (which I have been wanting for about 6 weeks but don't want to pay $7 for since no one has it for sale anymore)!  It was Coconut Fudge and delicious!  He and the boys made me breakfast in bed on Saturday.  I got to read my Bible and book and eat french toast in bed...perfect morning!
Yesterday, he was drumming so I headed to church with the boys.  They were so sweet and precious all morning telling me "Happy Mother's Day" and loving on me.  The sermon spoke right to my heart.  Hebrews 12:2 is our family verse, it's on a large piece of barnwood in our living room and we pray it over our boys every night.  I was so excited to hear a sermon on Hebrews 12 and from one of my favorite ladies! In the afternoon, I got some time to journal and read while everyone else took a long nap.  Then we had Chipotle, my favorite.  Here are my presents from the boys, they are quite the artists.

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mamas!

As for the announcement, which is perfect for my Mother's Day post.................

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For those of you who haven't guessed by my growing butt and belly, we are pregnant!  We had our second ultrasound this morning so Matty V gave me permission to officially announce the news! As you can imagine, there have been a lot of emotions for each of us through this pregnancy but we are confident the Lord is walking beside us and that His hand is protecting our little one.  This morning was a huge blessing for both of us to see the baby's heartbeat and see how much it had grown from a couple weeks ago.
Thank you so much for all of you who have prayed for us during this season.  I will share more about what God is doing in our lives through this miracle and how we are healing in the weeks to come.  Let me just tell you this though...God and His timing is absolutely impeccable!  Thank you for journeying with us.

a couple books worth reading

On my Mother's Day (more to come on that later), Matty V gave me some alone time to journal, write a thank you card for the amazing sermon I heard this morning, finish a book I have been glued to for a week and of course, do a little blog post!  I just finished this book...

I got it at Mardel on the clearance rack months ago for like a dollar!  Which is a steal because its been recommended to me several times over the course of the past couple years.  God has such perfect timing though.  I finally picked it up and then I couldn't put it down!  It met me right where I am at about the miscarriage and a couple other things I have been struggling with lately.  I marked at least a dozen pages that I want to write down quotes from.
Here's my favorite quote:
"I don't always change my clothes just because I'm leaving the house. I wear yoga pants 99 percent of the time, and I pretend that other people don't notice that I'm wearing my pajamas in public.”
                                                                                             ― Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet
Why do I love this quote...about 2 months ago a mom came up to me at Jack's school and introduced herself because Jack and her daughter are "bff" this year in class.  I was in my regular weekday attire, yoga pants and sweatshirt.  I left and immediately text Laura to ask her if not getting invited to a play date by someone could be a direct result of the fact that I am in yoga pants and a sweatshirt everyday of the week and particularly this day when I finally met this mom.  After she finished laughing hysterically, she assured me that it could not and that meeting the mom of a child that your son is friends with does not always lead to a play date, usually they just want to meet you.  Sidenote: I am in yoga pants and a sweatshirt every second Thursday morning of the month when Laura and I meet for coffee.  I apologize every time and she assures me that she wishes she were in the same thing.  Although she looks more adorable in her cute hats, jeans, and pigtails!   This book inspired me to be who God has created me to be and be proud of that (yoga pants and all), which by the way is a constant theme and lesson in my life right now.  God just seems to be shouting it over and over at me and this book was no exception.

These two books are changing the lives of our family, marriage, and our life group.

 Matt and I got the book because our dear friends told us that it spoke greatly to them and was a way to connect in their marriage and in the word together each day.  It has done the same for us.  We each read it every morning.  We pass it back and forth in spots we know one another will see it and in that way, encourage each other to have our devotional time each day.  I read the children's one to the boys at breakfast or lunch time and then the whole family is reading the same devotion which is pretty cool!
The women in our life group have also begun reading it each day.  We encourage each other throughout our weeks when we are struggling through the passages we have read together.  Three of us were discussing one of the passages this morning at church and how it related to each of our weeks and encouraged our hearts.  One of the girls said how incredible it was that each day just hit you exactly where you are at.  And that is the truth, it absolutely does.  It's as if the Lord is directly speaking to my soul each day.  Get it, you won't regret it!

The Dance

All our dancing in the kitchen and the living room has paid off...look at this handsome dude in the spring program this morning!!!  He was chosen to be the boy who got to dance with the girl.  It was the cutest thing.  Can you tell that I am one proud mama right now?!!!

Why Not?

A few nights ago, we had all the boys bathed, in PJs and ready for a little storybook reading and bed time.  And you know this time of the day ladies, all is right with the world and everyone is about to go to bed.  You have done your job for the day and you are 20 minutes from getting to lie down with your hubby and a good book!  Well, said hubby put the sprinkler on in the backyard to water the grass and the boys just started going nuts.  "Please, please can we go run in the sprinkler?!"
Matt looks at me and says, "Why?"  And I say, "Why not?"  We both laughed and just said...SURE YA CAN.  What proceded was a bunch of fun even for Daddy!

So the next time you are asking yourself, "why?"...make sure you ask "why not?" too because the answer to that could provide a lot more fun than the answer to why?!

Ode to the Schwarz Boys

With all the festivities last weekend, we got to see the Schwarz boys a couple times!  Let me just say, I love these boys.  They are so sweet to my children.  They are all teenagers and they still come to Jack's birthday parties.  Jack looks up to them so much and I am grateful.  I want my boys to be just like them, they have the biggest hearts and they love their God with a passion!  Here's a picture that encompasses how much I love them (and trust them), this is Jack on top of Nate's shoulders running through downtown!

Jack is on the far left

These are all the cool guys outside the ice cream shop

Wrestling Match

Moses and Caleb

Caleb refused to hold Moses at first but we eventually ended up having to ask for him back!  You can't resist the charms of MoMo.

Love you Schwarz boys!