Just a bit of randomness

Chris took this picture of the boys while we were having our home inspection at the new house last week. I just thought they were very cute. Grant is pretending to be a lion. I love the natural light in our new house. Hopefully it'll make for LOTS of great pictures! :-) You know me and pictures...

04.07.2009 Packing For Our First REAL House!

For some reason, packing up our house this time seems monumental - we are packing up our things to move into our first REAL house - the first place that we are actually going to OWN! And we're very excited about that!!

So to commemorate this momentous occasion, I have been taking a few pictures along the way. Most of these were taken last week, and I must say that now the boxes have moved from the hallway to the garage and I have probably tripled the amount of boxes that I have stacked up now. The kids don't seem to mind that most of their toys are packed away. They've found new toys in the boxes scattered throughout the house. They're great for hide-and-seek!

I must also admit, that I type this as I sit at our desk with my foot propped up because I just tried to carry the bookcase (it's not big or heavy; just awkward) in the playroom out to the garage and ended up dropping the corner of it on the top of my foot and taking a big chunk out of my foot. It's swollen and throbbing, and so I sit, making the most of my time - blogging. :-) Hopefully this won't be a major set-back and the ibuprofin will set in soon! Having Chris on Inpatient medicine this month has proven to be difficult...it's leaving me to do all the packing and take care of all the business associated with this whole moving process. Not that I'm complaining; we're both very excited about this; it's just difficult, that's all. So pray for stamina, strength and for few (and minor) injuries sustained by me! :-)

04.10.2009 Dying Easter Eggs

So I know it's not quite in chronological order, but I never did get the pictures up of Grant dying Easter Eggs this year. It was a gorgeous day, so we took a box outside and set up shop! We threw an apron on Grant and he went to town! They were all such pretty colors at first, but after we were all out of eggs, he decided he wanted to do more and so he started mixing colors, and they all ended up an ugly green color. :-) But he had a ball, and that was what was important. We had fun, too. And after it was all over, we filled up the pool and Grant rinsed the dishes for us! How efficient!

04.12.09 Easter Egg Hunt

After Mason woke up from his nap today, we had a wonderful surprise! The Easter Bunny came to visit our house and had left all sorts of eggs in the backyard! Both boys had a blast searching for eggs. Mason was content to find 3 or 4, but little Grant was on a mad-dash to find as many as he could! He was surprisingly good at it, too! He obviously has the Beutler blood in him. I had to laugh that when Mason turned his back at one point, Grant ran over to Mason's basket to pillage the treasures he found inside and transfer them to his own basket! It reminded me of the first year Chris and I were married. We had an Easter Egg hunt with my family, Chris walked away from his basket, and my siblings brazenly stole his eggs with smiles on their faces. I even warned him before hand that egg hunts are ruthless in my family! Well, the same is true for our children. Grant certainly takes after his momma in some instances, that's for sure!

Grant was so cute. After he thought he had found all of the eggs, he went over by Mason, sat down, and immediately started opening up the eggs to see what was inside. I said, "Let's go inside. Mason's too little!" Whereupon Grant took a blue Robin's Egg (my favorite malt balls covered with a candy coating), plucked Mason's paci out of his mouth and stuffed the Robin's Egg right into Mason's mouth. My first instinct was to get it out of Mason's mouth, but then I decided I'd see how he'd handle it. Of course, Mason absolutely loved it, as evidenced by the very blue drool in his pictures. :-)

After our egg hunt, Granny and Grandpa Worley had sent some Easter treats, so the boys opened those. They had fun finding the treats inside, and Mason loved the plastic eggs that looked like baseballs. Immediately after that, you ask?? Grant hit Mason by accident in the forehead really hard with a walking stick that I had out so that I could pack it. By the time I made it to the playroom only seconds later after prompted by the blood-curdling screams by our youngest son, he already had a large goose-egg on his forehead that was immediately black and blue. My first comment after the screams had subsided? "Well, at least the pictures are over!" You can tell he's the second, huh? :-)

04.12.09 Easter

Well, Happy Easter! I don't know about you, but we had wonderful Easter Services here at our church in Jacksonville, FL today! The Lord is risen - he is risen indeed and we have much to celebrate!

Chris was on call yesterday and so he didn't get home until after our services had already started (plus he only got 40 minutes sleep last night, so he just came home and slept) so the boys and I had to go to church by ourselves today. I ironed their clothes last night, and so when we got up this morning, we donned on our Easter best and went to church early so that we could take some pictures. They boys looked absolutely adorable - I had so much fun finding their Easter Outfits and was amazed that both of them loved their hats and wanted to wear them all day long. Neither one of them tried to take it off. Wow! They were certainly a hit at church, and I must say, I was very proud of them. All the old men kept coming up and making over the two boys, asking if they could borrow their hats, etc. It certainly made me beam with pride. It's always been a tradition in my family to get a special new Easter outfit (usually my dad took us shopping for that "perfect" dress) so we had fun finding the "perfect" little outfits for our little men this year. Aren't they absolutely adorable?

Grant and Mason

Mason Alexander

Grant Christopher

This was the promised treat at the end of our picture taking. Since it was just me taking pictures, it worked well to entice Grant to smile!

On a side note, Friday night I tucked Grant into bed and was talking to him about Good Friday, what it meant, etc. Now Grant is 2...I know he doesn't really understand, and wasn't even sure if he was paying attention because he was rolling around in the bed, completely distracted. Anyway, I explained that Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the cross lots of years ago for our sins - Mommy's sins, Daddy's sins, Mason's sins, and Grant's sins. But, I explained, it was so exciting because he didn't stay in the grave! He conquered our sin and rose from the dead! As I was saying this, Grant clapped his hands and squealed, "Mommy, I want to die for your sins too!" So I guess he was listening afterall...but obviously he didn't really understand what it meant! :-) At least the seeds are being planted...

We got a house!

Well, we received a call last Tuesday, April 2, that the bank had accepted our offer, and that we were getting our house! So now we're in the process of working towards closing and hope to move in by the end of this month! So, here's our first home - all brick, 2280 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2-1/2 bathrooms, a nice open floor plan, dining room and office. It has a screened-in lanai on the back with double sliding doors that open into the family room with a beautiful view of the lake with a natural preserve behind it. So we'll be busy putting up a fence before we even move in to keep my babies safe! But we're very excited and are looking forward to painting, decorating, etc. Yay for new home-ownership!

A New Past-time

The boys have found a new favorite thing to do while I'm cooking dinner. Inevitably, the metal bowls and wooden spoons come out, as does the drumset, and the music begins! They're so cute to watch together. Grant loves teaching Mason new things, and if Mason's in the right mood, he plays right along with his big brother. Between the banging and the giggles, it's truly music to my ears!

Water Works!

I have found that whenever these boys get a bit antsy from being inside, a nice day does wonders because we can go outside and allow them to play in the water! They LOVE it! And it's fun to watch them splash around (and even join them!). Thank goodness for water and warm weather!!!

Grant's new "bed"

We have been having trouble with Grant staying in his bed after we put him down for his nap or for the night. So for the time being, we have moved Grant from the boys' shared room to the guest room so as not to wake Mason from sleeping until we can get this under control. So Grant knows well the rule that he is not to get out of his bed. If he does, there are unpleasant consequences. We're trying all sorts of things (any suggestions are welcome). One day I had put him down for his nap. I had gone in a couple times to check on him and he was awake, but in his bed, so I was feeling like perhaps we had made some headway. I was working around the house doing all sorts of things. I went in the guest room to check on him again and he was nowhere to be found! He wasn't in his bed. I looked on both sides of the bed and he wasn't there. I opened the closet and he wasn't there. I looked in their shared bedroom and he wasn't in that bed, either. By this time I was nearly in a panic, searching the house over, wondering how he could have disappeared when I was here the whole time. And then I decided to look behind the bed. And sure enough, that's where I found him - between the bed and the wall, snuggled up on all the pillows that he had piled like a mattress. I took a video. Unfortunately, I can't upload it to this computer. Once we get our regular computer fixed, I'll have to share it. :-) For now, you can see Grant's new favorite place to sleep almost every time he goes to bed. At least it doesn't send me into panic any more.