Author: Jenny Irvine

Mr.Smiles 3rd Birthday

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It is hard to believe that Mr.Smiles is ‘3’ today!  
Mr.Smiles is still such a joy. He has great personality and a super disposition. He is always jumping at the opportunity to make someone laugh or put a smile on their face; a ‘ham it up’ kind of kid. He is super affectionate; full of butterfly kisses, nose rubs, squeezes, and cuddles. He loves to be in the kitchen with mommy (he even helped make his gluten free/dairy free butter cream cupcakes). Most days he is obsessing over the garbage man, trains, fire trucks, or horses. His imagination is out of this world. A creative style with a punch of spunk. I have no doubt Mr. Smiles future is bright and that God has great plans for my sweet little boy!  I am so blessed to be his mom and watch all his ‘dreams’ unravel before our very eyes.
Happy, happy birthday to my favorite ‘3’ year old!! Love you to the moon and back buddy!

For a step back in time be sure to check out Watch me Grow!

Finding strength within

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It’s 4AM (YES, Im blogging at 4:00 AM) and I am holding my squirming babe who appears to have a  belly ache. As I try to rest my heavy eye lids this sentence keeps popping into my head (oh, this head of mine I tell you).

‘What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.’

Really? Most people are sleeping at 4:00 AM not getting poetic and writing blog posts. Seriously, I must be losing it! I’m coming off a particularly emotionally draining week and heading full force into a physically demanding one.  So maybe I’m not losing it after all..…
Last week I struggled with many ‘heart issues’ but jealousy ranked among the top. What an ugly thing it can be. It hardens the heart something terrible. It’s like lava spewing out of a volcano. It pours out with no direction at all and hardens; leaving a path of destruction everywhere it has been. 
Now, as I enter this week my husband is away for business and I am here to ‘man’ the camp. He does not travel often (thank  God!) but when he does it is filled with late nights, sleepless nights, and early mornings. My expectations of myself run high on a daily basis but when I’m flying solo they are ‘over the top’!
I am not super human; so why should I expect to become such? 
However, this week I will try to be ‘different’ I will try to lean on ‘Him’ more and ‘me’ less in an effort to keep the storm at bay I might even try to schedule some me time. Focusing on what is truly important  and not the other 1000 things fighting for my time.
So I leave you with this ‘what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.’ This week will certainly not ‘kill’ me. I will be challenged. I will be tired. I will work extra hard. I might feel frustrated. I might get cranky. However, I will come out stronger because I will not do it alone!!

Busy-bee 9 months

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My lovable,totally squeezable, sweet baby boy is 9 months old. Busy-bee was truly the missing piece to our family. He completes us! He is an absolute joy and has a personality already much to be desired.
 
Growing up I always ‘dreamed’ of having 4 kids never really thinking for a second that it might actually happen. I now know my ‘dream’ of having 4 children was not something I simply thought up for myself but rather something God had planned long before my childbearing years. You know those dreams; the ones that sit etched in the back of our head just waiting for us to say “YES”. Yep, that is Busy-Bee!  He is everything and more than I could have ever dreamed of on my own. He is a true blessing from God himself and I am forever grateful my heart said “YES”.
Busy-bee loves his siblings. He amazes me daily with his ability to interact and ‘play’ along with them. Whether it is playing ‘kitchen’, Duplo-Legos, or just joining in the plain chaos of living in a big family you better believe he is in the middle of all the action. He also loves playing with his BFF homeschool friends. He doesn’t even entirely mind shopping quite yet.

He is my brown eyed and blond haired bouncing baby boy (not to be confused with his (almost 3yr old) green eyed/blond haired bundle of  sweet spunk brother. 
He say’s; Momma (the first one of my kids to say Momma first…way to warm a mothers heart), Dadda, bababa clapping, he signs ‘eat’, craws everywhere, stands like a champ, and laughs with the sweetest of snorts. Weighing in at a whopping 18 lbs (10-15% tile) and just barely cut his first tooth on June 3rd, 2013. 
His favorite foods are pears and spinach (really, spinach?) he must be my kid: a true health nut from the beginning!  Food is not his love language as he also appears to have some food sensitivities much like his older siblings. We trudge along none the less one ‘baby step’ at a time.