What is Good

• Helping Grandma Gerrie decorate her apartment for Christmas and getting inspired to pull out our decorations
  
• A good laugh... We were decorating our house and Alex kept asking what things were as we were unpacking the Christmas decorations. When he asked what all the white paper was I told him tissue paper - and he says "Oh, I should throw it in the toilet", I said "No, not toilet paper, it's tissue paper." Alex - "Oh, for my boogers!!" He wads up a handful and brings it to his nose and immediately realizes it's a little rough for his tender little nose then smooths out the crinkles, sets it down and moves on to something else.
  
• Having friends over for playgroup
• Waking up this morning to find a light blanket of snow that fell during the night
  
• God is Good!
  

Wordless Wednesday - O' Christmas Tree

Alex and I decorated our Christmas tree! We had so much fun unwrapping all the ornaments and putting our little found treasures all over the tree.

A trip to the Station

A few days before Thanksgiving we had Andrea and the boys over to make some brownies, banana bread and cards to take to our local fire fighters to show our appreciation and thankfulness for all that they do to help keep us safe.

Adin and Alex had fun using all sorts of colors and stickers to make the cards and even helped make the banana bread. But the boys favorite part came when we got to the fire station to deliver the goodies!

A few of the firemen gave us a tour of the station and Adin, Alex and even Isaac were in awe! They've all seen fire trucks a dozen times before but this time they got to sit in the drivers seat, touch the controls (the firemen kept insisting that they could touch all they wanted to, they could do no harm, but the boys all were a little skeptical to get too close to the huge buttons), see where the firemen eat and sleep and they even got some firemen hats to take home!

Isaac isn't very fond of strangers holding him but he didn't mind the nice fireman!

Alex and his racers

Alex has reached the age of race car toys! Anything that has to do with cars he's all over it. Several months ago he started his collection of race cars, race tracks and monster trucks. We recently got the GX Racers Super Jump from JAKKS Pacific and he found it to be a blast! As soon as he saw the box Alex tore it open and he and daddy got right to work building the GX Race Track.

The extreme car is designed with interchangeable gyros that race up to 600 scale mph to create awesome performance on the track!

He has his collection of Hot Wheels which I have to say is pretty impressive for a three year old! The good thing about it is that he must keep them all together, otherwise I know for a fact that they would be found all throughout the house! (I would have a picture of them all but Alex has them in bed with him :)

Alex is 3!

I can't believe it! My baby turned three! We had a wonderful celebration with friends and family. Alex is really into construction vehicles right now and our theme for the birthday party was "construction site". On the morning of his party we had fun decorating the house with "Caution" tape, streamers, balloons, and we even used his tractor toys as props. But the icing on the cake was literally

the icing on the cake.

By far this was, the most time consuming yet, best cake I have ever made. Alex loved his dump truck cake!

We had an awesome day celebrating Alex and I thank Jesus for blessing us with an amazing little boy!!

"Honey, you have to come see this!"

... and much to my dismay this is what I saw...
My dear husband took the boys for a walk while I was making dinner and about a half hour after they left he called me and told me that I just had to come see something. So, I set the dinner preparations aside (fortunately I hadn't started the cooking process yet) and met him and the boys where he told me they were. At first seeing Isaac drenched in rain water from the previous nights storm, I was horrified to think that Dustin had let him get all wet and dirty for nothing. Then I saw how much fun Isaac was having and I couldn't help but snap some pictures. He thought it was just the greatest thing in the world to be playing in the muddy water. Dustin had told Alex to stay dry since he had on his nice shoes, for that I am grateful for daddy's parenting skills! So, Alex was content to just sat back at cheer his brother on!

Despite the warm evening I had grabbed a sweater on my way out the door so as soon as he was done in the mud I took off Isaac's wet clothes and bundled him up!

Wordless Wednesday - Nick's in the U.S. Coast Guard

My little brother Nick is in the U.S. Coast Guard and is away for the next three months training on the East Coast. He is doing fantastic and has gotten 100% on his tests so far! I love and miss you Nick and I'm so proud of you!

What is Good

• Sitting at the computer and having Alex come up to sit on my lap, start playing with my hair, while saying to me "Mommy, you're pretty!"
• Spending time with Christine, Ethan and Zach while re-organizing the boys room at the Young household
• Alex and Isaac love playing outside, what boy doesn't, right? It's been fantastic fall weather lately and we sat out on our little porch today, they both had a blast filling up Alex's new toys with dirt and dumping it all over the place!
• Watching the boys both dancing around as I sing little made up songs
• Vitamin C to boost our immune systems during this time of the year
  
• God is Good!
  

Wordless Wednesday - It's raining, it's pouring...

A few weeks ago we had our first rainstorm of the season and Isaac absolutely loved it! He thought that it was the greatest thing in the world to just watch the rain come pouring down. We wanted him to enjoy watching up close (fortunately it was a warmer storm) without getting soaking wet so Dustin sat in the Tahoe with him just enjoying the blessings of rain!

The 30-Day Giving Challenge

My sweetspot is definitely found in giving. I feel the most fulfilled when I know that I have made someones day brighter by doing something to help them. The Lord has blessed me with so much and I love to share those blessings with others. Very seldom does my giving have to do directly with money (I wish it did, but, like so many, we don't have a lot of it right now), but rather of my time and talents.

My sister Christine invited me to participate in The 30-Day Giving Challenge beginning today. I took a few days to think about it and I decided to accept the challenge. Alyssa at Kingdomfirstmom.com shares that the idea of this challenge is to give of yourself every day during the month of November. We can give our time, talents, money, assets, or just do something nice for someone. Part of the challenge requires me to keep a personal journal and write down every time I feel prompted by God to give something, for all of 30 days! The other part encourages us to write down every time something comes back to us.

Alyssa says:
"Keep this verse on your heart all month: 'Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.' Galations 6:9 It is my prayer that we would all gain a new freedom from the grip money has on our lives. At the end of this 30 days, I would love to hear how your heart was transformed!"

To be honest, I don't really know how much I'll actually blog about, I'm not doing this so that I can fill up a journal and blog about it. I'm merely doing this challenge to grow spiritual and put to use the talents God has given me and bless others through Him. In doing so I'm sure to be blessed because I know I'll be pleasing my Savior!

Here's what you can do if you feel led: For the month of November, make it a point to give in some way each day. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. Get creative. Just give. If you would like to participate in the challenge you can learn more here.

Wordless Wednesday - Self control

At my nephew Elliott's birthday party Alex was very excited to watch during present time, however, he really wanted to "help" and he was told not to touch the birthday boys gifts. This is how he controlled himself from touching.

Yogurt Face

I never have understood how it's possible that babies get food all over their face. I was feeding Isaac some yogurt and had to jump up for something and apparently I left the bowl within arms reach of him because a minute later this is what I saw. I guess it will have to remain a mystery to me how it got ALL over his face because I missed every bit of the action!

My baby turned ONE!

It is truly amazing that Isaac is already a year old! It seems that his first year has gone by so fast, much faster than I remember with Alex.

Isaac is full of life and our family is brighter with him, he certainly brings all of us an unspeakable amount of joy and happiness!

We had a party for him at the park. I was a little apprehensive having it outside since we never know what temperatures to expect around here in September. We could not have had better weather, it turned out to be a beautiful day with nice cool weather!

The day didn't start so well right off though. I arrived at the park early to set things up only to find all the picnic tables already in use. I kinda' had a melt down, all I could think about was all my efforts and planning quickly shatter to pieces. I called Dustin (he was still at home letting the birthday boy nap), he suggested setting up some tables on the grass so I quickly called mom to see if we could borrow her folding tables and chairs. Of course she ran to her attic and pulled them down form me. Then I called my brother Jake to see if he could pick them up for me, of course he rushed out the door to come to my rescue! I certainly had a ton of help from all my family pulling together for me and our birthday boy. Chris and Ray got there early to help me out, Andrea being 9 months pregnant still was running all over doing things to help. I certainly am extremely grateful to you all! Thank you!

We had a blast celebrating our big boy turn One! Happy Birthday Isaac!

Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to take very many pictures, usually I'm snapping away capturing all the fun, but I took a few then completely forgot to continue, hopefully someone else took some and I can get them from them!?!

What is Good

• Family who is willing to do anything to help us out
• Isaac running all over the place with a smile from ear to ear
• Alex extremely grateful for his new jigsaw puzzle. That kid is truly amazing with puzzles!
• Awesome friends who brought us dinner last night giving me a much needed break from an entire evening of dinner preparations
• A husband who loves me for me
• God is GOOD!