Kyle's Birthday Eve

Here it is, the eve of my second-born's 9th birthday, and I feel compelled to write.  I can't believe he will be 9 tomorrow; my sweet, big-eyed, big-eyelashed, big-lipped baby is turning 9.  Where does the time go??

Motherhood is crazy.  I don't know how I would survive this journey without Jesus.  It is way, way harder than I ever would have imagined.

Last Sunday night, God showed me something big, really big.  I have been struggling majorly with being the mom to my sweet 9-tomorrow's little brother.  He is HARD.  He is DIFFICULT.  He is nothing like I imagined a child would be who is growing up in a striving-to-be-Christ-centered family.  But, God showed me that I should be grateful for him.  VERY GRATEFUL!  Because of precious 7-year-old, I am closer to my heavenly Father.  Because of him, I have prayed more than I ever would have prayed without him.  I have talked to God and poured my heart out to him so much on behalf of my precious Ian.  For that, I am grateful.  Very, very grateful.

I will persevere in doing good and press on!!!!  I love that my God is faithful!!

teeth brushing

me:  hey, has everyone brushed their teeth??

Kyle:  Yes, I brushed 3, I mean 4, spits.

me:  WOW!  They look great!  (inside laughing...that kid is funny)

I love my kids!!

bad blogger

I'm getting so bad at this blogging thing!!  We have had such big things happening in our family, and I haven't even blogged about it!!

For example, last week, Kyle lost his first tooth!!!  The day before that, I caught him outside in his UNDERWEAR swinging from swing chain to swing chain.  I asked him what in the world he was doing.  He replied, "I'm George in the jungle."  They had just checked that movie out from the library.  What a character he is!!!

Then, last weekend, my brother Bill proposed to his girlfriend Amanda!  I am SO excited and so praising the Lord for bringing her into his life!  What a "beauty from ashes" and "mourning into dancing"-type story!!!  I was able to drive down last Saturday and be there for the proposal.  She was so surprised and it was such a sweet, sweet proposal.  I am so glad I was there!!

Then, yesterday, my Ian started riding his new bike ($5 Diego bike from a garage sale) WITHOUT training wheels!  He's only 4! This is way earlier than the older two boys!  It's amazing how different they all are!

Now, Mike's sister Maria is here for a short visit!  See, there is tons and tons going on in our family...I need to get on this blogging thing and get some pics off my camera!!!!!

Kyle

I love my Kyle! We are having a kind of random July thunderstorm right now that has caused the kids' swim lessons to be canceled.

Anyway, Kyle was just outside on the patio. He came in and said to me, "I didn't get struck by lightning because I had something on my head." To which I asked, "What did you have on your head?" He said, "A frisbee."

Funny kid. It's funny, yet scary all at the same time. Little ones just think they are invincible!

Sledding and scripture

Today my boys tried out their new sleds for the first time. We started out going down our driveway a few times and then eventually moved to a bigger hill in our neighborhood. They had a blast!!! It was a beautiful, sunny day...just VERY cold (upper teens/lower 20s).

They had a GREAT time! Ian went down the hill once...he went extremely fast! He said he had fun, but didn't want to do it again! Here are Nate and Kyle going down...which ended in a collision!


My sneaky five-year-old had the privilege to write the following scripture TWICE today.
I don't know how well you can read it, but it is Proverbs 14:2 which contrasts an upright and a devious person.

Well, Kyle is one SNEAKY guy!! I walked by his room today and could very clearly hear the "Star Wars" theme song coming from his supposed-to-be-quiet room. When I tried to open the door, I had to push pretty hard because a blanket was at the bottom of the door to "block the sound." He was playing a game on the computer after I had specifically told him that he couldn't. Sneaky, sneaky!!

Anyway, things like this have been happening pretty frequently with him...pretty normal for this age, I think...you know, like taking gum out of my purse and then denying it while smacking away. I've been using this verse with him, reminding him that because he says he loves God, he shouldn't be devious. Today was the first time I had him write it (twice because he later hid a candy cane under his shirt and asked if he could go take a nap...I knew that sounded pretty fishy.)

I have a feeling he is going to have this scripture written on his heart in no time.

2 funnies

Nate came out of the bathroom crying last week after we got back from getting his hair cut. His hair was getting WAY long and desperately needed cut. Anyway, he said through tears, "MMOOOOMMMMM, I don't like my hair. It looks TOO CHURCHY!!" This made me chuckle.

I was playing a game with the boys when I said something like, "Kyle, I mean Nate, I mean IAN. (I never seem to get their names right!) To which Kyle replied, "Mom, maybe we need to wear NAMETAGS." Hahahaha

Funny kids.

my little Indian

Since Thanksgiving is next week, we have been doing lots of art projects during our school days! Here is one example...

goofy Kyle

less goofy Kyle

I also plan on posting pictures of Nate's pilgrims...it has turned into a big project, literally!!

Kyle funnies

Today we had pajama day at school (yes, that means we were in pajamas all day during home school). The older two showered and then asked if we could have pajama day. I thought, what the heck? We had nowhere to go today...sounds like fun! (I was actually wearing work-out clothes, which was a good thing b/c the doorbell did ring today!)

So, tonight before dinner, Kyle was telling Mike about our pajama today.

Then, Kyle says, "Can tomorrow be underwear day? AAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA (laughing VERY hard)"

That kid cracks me up, seriously! Love him!!

BTW, if you want to see a family picture we had taken on Saturday...head on over to LE Portraits blog, and scroll down a little and there we will all be! I am excited to see the rest of the pictures!

I LOVE THIS!!!

Here are pictures of my second and third-born eating their SECOND helping of salad tonight at dinner!! I was so excited that I HAD to grab my camera!! Of course, you know me, it was an organic spring mix blend with an organic ranch dressing (trans fat-free and high fructose corn syrup-free)!! I thought I was going to cry; I was so excited! Now, if only my first and fourth-born would join in the salad-eating fun!! :)

Sweet...eating those vegetables!!

journal entry and some honesty

This is Kyle's journal entry for today.

Yes, this is a picture of me. This is my 5-year-old's interpretation of what I looked like coming down the hallway into MY bedroom where all 4 of my children were SCREAMING at each other. So, of course, in a very tantrum-like way, I threw open my bedroom door, sending the door stopper flying THROUGH the door and the door knob INTO the wall. Yes, I broke my bedroom door and my wall today in my 1 1/2 year old house. I really, really didn't think I opened the door that hard. I started crying, hard, and proceeded to YELL at the boys to go to their rooms. They looked completely scared and freaked out and RAN to their rooms, all except Caden who helped me pick up the pieces of door and wall off the floor.

Wow! Once again, my anger, my disgusting sin nature, took over and temporarily reigned. And once again, I feel so defeated. Just in the last couple of days, I have been reading about sanctification. I just read this Sunday night from the book Systematic Theology:
"A Christian should never say, 'This sin has defeated me. I give up. I have had a bad temper for thirty-seven years, and I will have one until the day I die, and people are just going to have to put up with me the way I am!' To say this is to say that sin has gained dominion. It is to allow sin to reign in our bodies. It is to admit defeat. It is to deny the truth of Scripture, which tells us, 'You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). It is to deny the truth of Scripture that tells us that 'sin will have no dominion over you' (Rom. 6:14)."

Well, I know that I am not defeated for real. I know that sin does not have dominion over me. But, I also know that I definitely just failed this test...I failed miserably in front of my 4 precious blessings. I know that I still have lots more sanctifying to do and lots more of God's grace and mercy to receive.

taxes

On Mondays, I introduce the week's spelling words to Kyle and Nate. One of this week's words is "taxes." I try to get them to guess the word, so I said something like, "this is what the government takes out of each of daddy's paychecks. Do you know what it is called?" Kyle pipes up and says, "STEALING." To which, I laughed, of course. Perceptive little kid, that Kyle!

conversation today

me to Kyle because he was being VERY disrespectful: Do you think Jesus is pleased with your behavior??

Kyle doesn't answer, but Nate speaks up: NO, but I bet SATAN is pleased.

me: WOW! I bet you're right!!

bragging on my Kyle

The boys have been learning all about Joseph at church lately. Just now when I was tucking Kyle in for bed, I saw this awesome coloring sheet that he colored today at church. I totally think it is BLOG-WORTHY!! Check out his awesome coloring skills...

It's even better in real life!!

check the weather

me to my boys: Somebody check the weather and see what it feels like outside. I was just trying to get them to GO outside!

Kyle then runs to the COMPUTER! He was going to "check the weather"!!

me: Noooooo!!! GO OUTSIDE and check the weather!!

Kyle: Oh. He then runs outside!

Wow, computers...I don't even know what else to write...computers are taking over!

boost of confidence, not

Today in the van we were listening to some Hillsong worship music. Darlene Zschech was belting out ever so awesomely "Shout to the Lord," when I hear these words from the back of the van:

Kyle: Is that mom singing?
Nate: No, mom's just a little good, but this lady is REALLY good.
Kyle: Well, I've heard mom sing this song before. (Just a side note since I know I have some newer readers...I used to lead worship at our church in Maine. I am humbled that God could ever use little me in that capacity.)

Wow! Thanks for the boost of confidence, Nate, hahaha! Of course, Kyle even thinking it could possibly be me singing was very sweet of him. However, I totally should have switched the music because this conversation happened again almost word-for-word when the NEXT song played. Nate just continued to say that I was "just a little good." Awesome.

Flashback Friday

These pictures were taken in September 2003. I think Kyle is just a couple of months old in the pictures, and Nate is about 18 months old.

Kyle was seriously all lips as a baby!

Handsome boys!

Wow! Where does the time go??

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Our Kyle is 5 today. Wow! I can't believe it! Kyle started the day with a 5-shaped pancake, the traditional Lowry-household birthday breakfast!

Here is a slideshow from this last year!

If you want to see the one I put together for his 4th birthday, go here. It is pictures from birth to age 4!

thoughts of a baby

Today I went to see my dear friend Alyson and her precious newborn baby girl Alayna at the hospital. What a treat it was!! I just love little babies...their tiny hands and feet...so sweet! Lately, the boys have really been asking me for a little sister. Almost every day one of them talks about it. I must confess, that even though my life is SO CRAZY with my four little guys and I often seriously feel insane and overwhelmed, I still would love to have another baby. Yes, that would mean I would have 5 children, 5 CHILDREN. That is craziness!! Maybe it's just because Caden is really not a baby anymore. He is almost 21 months old, which is the same as the gap between Caden and Ian. So, this is the first time that I haven't already had another baby when the next older one is 21 months old...did that make sense?? Mike and I talked about it last night. He asked me if I have been praying about it...I said, no, actually I haven't been. Well, duh! That is exactly what I need to be doing!! Oh, and we would have to adopt which is very near and dear to our hearts since Mike's little sister Marissa is adopted. Oh, the craziness! Here are pictures of each of the boys the day they were born.

Nate

Kyle

Ian

Caden

Hmmm....what do you think? Am I crazy? Will I ever have a "we are done for sure" feeling?? For those of you who definitely aren't having any more, did you have that feeling??

I CHANGED MY MUSIC!!

I finally changed my playlist, but I must confess that I didn't actually listen to all of these songs. So, they may not be super-cool, which is what I am going for, of course!!!

We are all doing good! I really am not very good at this whole blogging thing anymore! Our last month has been filled with some excitement, including 2 head injuries in the same week! First, Kyle needed stitches on his forehead from hitting his head on the corner of the piano bench. Then, just 4 days later, Ian fell in my bedroom somehow (he was by himself, so I'm not sure how it happened) and split his head open in the back. He needed staples. The kids' pediatrician, who we love and are helping to ensure that he stays open (haha), said that he could see his SKULL after he cleaned it out! Let's just say that next time, Mike is taking a child with a head injury to the doctor, not this mommy. Here is a picture of Ian's head!

Then on Sunday, Caden also had a horrible thing happen to his precious head. His daddy, while I wasn't home, cut his hair...a number 4 buzz cut. I seriously, seriously cried off and on for the rest of the day and wouldn't talk to Mike or Caden for quite a while (not that it was Caden's fault, I was just upset). All his beautiful blond hair is basically gone. I know, I know, it will grow back and everyone just keeps saying he looks so grown up and like such a big boy...but I don't want him to look all grown up! He's only 17 months old...he's my baby...sniff, sniff. I'll try to take a picture soon.

Kyle

Yesterday, Kyle was sitting at our kitchen table doing his math. The window shade was open and the sun was shining.

me: "Kyle, do you want me to turn the light on?"

Kyle: "No, I'll just use God's light."

I love that kid!