Gone Fishing!

spring is here, which brings longer days, more sunshine and....FISHING!! more afternoons than not after ben gets home, he loads up the boys in the bike trailer, i pack them a picnic supper and they trek over to our neighborhood pond. it is great fun involving worms, dirt....all the things boys love:) the boys have gotten pretty good...they can cast their own rods and have each caught many fish on their own! below is a pic of ben david's most recent catch!! while james enjoys fishing, and is actually quite patient while waiting for a bite...he favorite part is the worms. he loves to dig for them, hold them....even chase me with them!

here's to a great season...and the one that got away!:)

Celebrating Ben David!

"For the LORD is good

and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues

through all generations."

Psalm 100:5

Four years ago today at 11:20am we welcomed Ben David into this world!!

He weighed 3 lbs. 10.9oz and measured 14.5 inches

He was perfect in every way.

what an amazing gift he has and continues to be to us...gentle, kind, sensitive, thoughtful, creative and loving. when i think back on this day 4 years ago, i am flooded with emotions. most of you if not all have heard the story, but i think it bears repeating every year, as i believe it is a true testimony to the goodness and faithfulness of our God.

for truly, ben david was a gift from the lord.

my pregnancy with Ben David was completely normal, so Ben and i were both shocked when my water unexpectedly broke at 29 weeks. within a matter of hours i was admitted to CMC and was informed i would be on bed rest until the birth of our son. doctors were explaining to me the complications my son might have, the problems with lung development, etc. within a few short hours, my life had ben turned upside down. this was not what we had planned for...this was not the way it was suppose to be. we were overwhelmed, afraid and uncertain.

we have all come to place like this in our lives when we are suddenly and abruptly reminded that we are completely out of control. in times like this, it would seem we have two choices:

1) live in fear of the unknown 2) trust the lord of the unknown.

while we did trust him, it was still hard. those days on bed rest were some of the most difficult of my life. each day was essential and invaluable for the development of our son, but each day i lay in a bed, unable to get up for more than a few minutes at a time, constantly fighting the urge to give in to my own thoughts of fear and anxiety.

no one, not even the "experts" had answers, no one had certainty, no one could give me any absolutes. no human was able to give me what i needed. in those days, i learned many things. one of the most important was this. life often does not go as we expect it will. our plans are often interrupted by things we do not understand, and if we look to the world for answers during these times...we will be disappointed. every time.

it is so easy to think we are in control of our lives until something like this happens. the truth is, we are not in control of our lives. not today, not tomorrow, not yesterday...never.

and the sooner we can understand and embrace this, the quicker we will know the true peace that comes from trusting the "lord of the unknown."

it was a constant battle for me in those days, but yet...there was a constant undercurrent of peace. the lord was in control, he could handle what i could not.

after 2 long, but very needful weeks...we meet our firstborn son...benjamin david wright II. named after his father...it was the name i always wanted to use. it took 48 hours to convince his daddy:) but i think we agree it fits perfectly:)

the days and weeks that followed were not easy. ben david stayed a month in the hospital and i cried every night i had to leave him there. it was a process of him gaining weight, learning to breath and learning to eat on his own.

he was our firstborn and i wanted nothing more than to take him home and care for him. but the lord was faithful. on april 23rd we brought ben david home with us!

my hope is that wherever this blog entry finds you today...you might be encouraged. while we cannot control our lives today anymore than we could yesterday, we can rest in the One who promises to be with us and never leave us. to give us the peace that passes all understanding. to walk with us through the "waters and the fires" of this life.

may each of us choose to trust the lord of the unknown,

for he is good, and his love endures forever, and his faithfulness continues to all generations!!

happy 4th birthday ben david...we love you! you are a continual reminder to us of the lord's faithfulness!

"It's a Great Sunny Day!!"

this is by far one of my favorite quotes from ben david. he will often on days like today, take a peek outside, look up at me with a big smile and say, "Mommy...it is GREAT sunny day!!!" and today i could not agree more. here are a few pics of the crew playing outside...

THANK YOU LORD FOR THIS FINE DAY!!!

One Wild Ride

what can i say...this is yet another of my wonderful husband's great inventions for outdoor playtime.

what you need to replicate this:

-one tupperware storage box

-one rope

-one pair of special FHG saftey glasses

-two very cute passengers

HANG ON FOR A WILD RIDE!!!!!

Going Private

well...after much deliberating, i have finally made the decision to make our blog private. we've had a few too many random comments from total strangers and i'm getting a bit uncomfortable with the fact that just anyone can find us on the internet. so...while i HATE adding an extra step to the process of your viewing our blog, i hope we won't lose you as readers!!

you should just be able to login with no problem, but if that is not the case...please let me know!

Let the Games Begin...

and if crawling wasn't enough...caroline has decided to add "pulling up" to her repertoire of skills!! coming to get her from her nap the other morning i was met with this picture:

she is almost 9 months, and this is certainly an age appropriate skill, i think what makes this so funny to me is that she is so little...she can hardly see over the top of the crib!!

this antic has added some additional fun to my life specifically at naptime/bedtime. that is when we begin our routine of...caroline stands up, gets stuck, cries till i can't stand it anymore...then i rescue her. repeat x587.

then...yesterday...i heard james giggling in the playroom and saying..."mommy, mommy...car-line stand up!!!" i run in there to find this...

this little expression says it all...watch out mom!!

my baby does not want to be a baby anymore!!

so needless to say, my life has changed dramatically in the last week. baby proofing, round three has begun.

another new pasttime in our home consists of the boys going upstairs together, changing clothes all by themselves and coming down in some very interesting ensembles. this was james latest choice: (please note the PJ shirt he is wearing stylishly over his PJ pants, neckhole around his waist. don't be surprised if you see this in the next issue of vouge.)

ben david continue to amuse me with his bedtime prayers. most recently he has prayed that a fox would not come into our house at night, and that his mom would feel better (he's prayed for my broken toe every night for over a month now)...this is generally followed by his closing line "just like i always ask you!"

and then..as i am walking out the door, he asks me if we can go to a parade. i have no idea why...but he generally asks me that either before nap or before bed.

our lives continue to be full of the fun and unexpected with our three little munchkins:)

March Madness!

aims...this one is for you!!!

("mamie" has lovingly deemed this caroline's "sexy pose":)

so...i promise, the argentina blog is coming! ben is going to have to work on his pics this weekend.

meanwhile...quick update on our little caroline! while still "little" according to the percentile charts...she is already 8.5 months old! she actually started crawling about a month ago, and i have yet to get a video of it..but here are some "still" shots:)

catch me if you can!

speaking of still...that she is NOT!! little miss c is very busy these days getting into her brothers toys, locating every electrical cord in the house, saying "da-da-da" over and over along with various other syllables and loud shrieks/noises, and most recenty...she has started waving bye-bye!! she continues to thoroughly enjoy the unlimited free entertainment supplied by her big brothers, and they in turn think they are pretty cool for being able to make her laugh at well...just about anything! the past week, that included ben david's robot impersonation (actually...that's kind of been ben david's preferred method of communication as of late, james of course doing his best to imitate). we continue to enjoy this little girl and her sweet demeanor!

while we are all pretty ready for some warmer weather, the boys did get our for a few moments to play in our march snow tuesday morning...

little miss c was content to watch from the window. actually...i think she secretly wanted to join her brothers, but that will have to wait until next year!:)