It's Almost Over

I know that I haven't had a genuine post in awhile. I haven't touched my camera for about 2 months. Life is very, very busy with the beginning of school. Then, I coach on top of that. Our season is over sometime next week (whenever we end in the tournament). I can't wait to have a life or resemblance of one. We're almost there. I feel like I miss out on so much of my family's life right now, but I enjoy everything that I do (just not all at once). It is sooo hard to get things done. I have no free time between the hours of 8am and 6pm. BUT enough complaining. We might be taking the boys to a pumpkin patch on Saturday.

We are using the pumpkins as a bribe. Malachi has not been sleeping well at night, and he has been wanting to get in bed with us (which we don't condone at all). Anywho, Malachi has been talking about pumpkins a lot lately. So, we decided we would take him to a pumpkin patch if he sleeps in his bed all night this week. So far, so good. He slept through the night last night and went down "fairly" easily tonight:) He's only got a few more days to go. Now we have to figure out what we can afford and plan it out. We also want to plan to get a real Christmas tree this year, too. Malachi is at the age that we need to start these "traditions" and stick with them. We are trying harder to do more family things on the weekend, now that Daniel is off most Saturdays. We are also pretty tight fund-wise, so we look for the cheap. We had a blast at that local park that I had lots of pics from. And that was all FREE!

So, I say all that to say that we are really trying to make a conscious effort to do family outings that don't cost a lot of money. We spent about a year to six months burning ourselves out. Now it's time to work on our family and less on the "job."

God is ALWAYS good. At times, lately, I have wondered what he could possibly have in store for us, but we are seeking his will for our lives always. We want God to lead us and be the best examples of Jesus Christ to our little boys. They are wonderful (and wonderfully different) little boys. Many days I am reminded of how precious and impressionable they are. At those times, I thank the Lord for teaching us the "right way" to raise our children in His image.

Ezekiel has been struggling with sickness still. It seems that he may have asthma. He still gets one breathing treatment a day. He's got a snotty nose now, which worries me, but God will protect him and keep him safe. We will have to pay almost $150 for a chest x-ray back in September, but I guess that's what we have insurance for, right? Oh, wait, that's after the insurance "adjusted" it. Ok. Sorry. Complaining, again.

Malachi has been fortunate to move up to Kids, Jr. in September. He has "church" and not just nursery. AND on Wednesday nights, he has Tender Paws (a branch of Royal Rangers). He has already earned a dolphin badge and is working on the next. He loves learning like that. At his "school" during the day, he is being taught letters, and he can recognize and sort of spell his name out loud. He still can't form the letters of his name by himself, but he's making huge strides.

Ezekiel is saying more and more and more. He has so much more of a vocabulary than Malachi did at this time, but he also has a big brother that he adores. Z does think of himself as a "big kid." If only I could get him potty-trained already. We would be in good shape:)

I hope you all have a great week, and I hope to take (and post) some pictures soon.