First day of school

Yesterday was Owen's first day of school for this year. He is attending the school through our church again this year two days a week. We had a countdown again from day 10 down to day 1 to help Owen get ready. When there were 2 days left he felt sad because he would miss me and B. By day 1 he was ready. By day 1 I was sad that I was going to miss him! As long and hard as our days are, I love having him home. SO...many tears were shed Tuesday night in a good conversation with Matt and then when Wednesday came we were ALL ready. He enjoyed his first day and his friends and teachers. We are excited for him to have the chance to learn and grow and be loved on and to be taught about Jesus. We look forward to what the Lord has in store this year! We love you O!

p.s. you can also be praying for us as next week we will begin some homeschool things on the days that he is at home.

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

One of those few days!

It's been a rough few days with our sweet #1. I don't even know how to describe it. But it feels like we took a step back about 6 months. Such a strong clash of the wills (mine and his) at every turn. "Buddy, we're done watching that show now, please turn off the TV and we'll go do art." "But I want to watch one more." "Buddy, we talked about only watching one, and that is what our plan is. Turn off the TV and let's do art or..." "NOOOO....I WANT A SHOW!!!" That would ensue for a while. I would discipline him throughout it all and finally he'd calm down enough to listen and talk, we'd pray (again) and move on with newness of life. But yikes. At every turn.

So, I say all of this, not to complain about my precious son or to vent a hard few days, but to process through it all and ask for your prayers for God to work in his heart and ours through this process. I feel like I constantly tell him "do this" or "don't do that" etc. It's hard to know when to give a little and when not to. IT's hard to know that I"m really teaching him about the love of God through Jesus in the Gospel when I am constantly correcting him. But I guess that shows him that I care and that I don't want him to continue in that sin and that my love for God my obeying God comes before a smooth series of events in a day.

Perhaps it would be good to remember to " casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7) and "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)

Some sweet shots for me to hold onto in the hard moments!

Fall is here!

And with it, long sleeves and Chick Fil A jersey day!

I love fall and so the first day we could wear long sleeves, we did! We pray that the love between these two would grow and grow!



Thanks to our friends the Brocks, we were all decked out in our family favorites! JMU for Matt and I, Carolina Panthers for Owen since he was born in Charlotte, and the Redskins for Baxter because he was born in Virginia and because he's a Purdy. (Owen's shirt is actually 24 month size like Baxter's...it was a little snug to say the least, but he loved it) We failed to get a picture of the Brock family all decked out in Denver Bronco gear, even little Gray! Oh, and for dressing this way, we all received a free Chick Fil A sandwich! How can one turn that down?!



Another one of Owen's great shots of Matt and I!



Again, we love to see their love grow and pray that they will be close friends and dear brothers in Christ!

Belle Isle

As one of our last family day activities before the fall, we ventured to the James River for the FIRST time. We loved it! We went to a place called Belle Isle. You walk over a BIG suspension bridge over to the island and walk around trails and play on rocks. We'll certainly be going back again soon. Owen especially enjoyed it. He even got to go "peeps" in the "James River Forest" (a group of bushes next to the rock we ate our lunch on. Makes sense if you think about it.)

Here is some of the fun we had.





Here is a video too.

Fun around the house

Here are a few fun things that we have done around the house recently.

One of our homegroup friends is a police man! He came by for a quick visit the other day before he was called away to protect our city!



Enjoying a little snack/show time together. Usually B is still strapped into his booster for snack time, but every now and then he gets to sit on the couch too.



Owen has enjoyed making "MIGHTY Fortresses" a lot recently. It has evolved into a "Might Fortress Library." (It was only a matter of time with the amount he and his daddy love books and libraries!) Here are O and B in the library.

Mom of two BOYS

While we have very many crazy BOY moments around here, this was a sweet one on the calm side.

A neat givewaway

I don't normally do this type of post, but I found a neat blog that is doing a jewelry giveaway. Click here to find out more.

Another who's who?!

Any guesses?

1.




2.

Then and Now

Just a little comparison. Two Years is a big deal for little ones!

CC 2007




CC 2009

A few days at the beach

A few days after we got back from Cousins Camp we were able to head out to Nags Head, NC for a few days at the beach with Matt's family. We also were able to attend baby Ava's baptism on the Eastern Shore of VA. It was a good time of visiting with family and enjoying God's creation of the ocean and beach.

There is nothing like sitting on the sand hearing the waves crash (unless you are Owen and are overwhelmed by the hot sand and the "loud" ocean!). The boys were both more timid about the whole thing than we anticipated, but it was a reminder that this life and even our vacations are not primarily about us and our rest but about finding our rest in the Lord and being used by Him to love and lead our boys. Tough lesson, but so much worth it!

Some fun on the beach:









Some from the dunes (thanks to a little help from iPhoto!) The boys LOVED hiking up the dunes and running around and playing in the sand. It was a beautiful sunset too.

(Side note: When I was little, we went to the beach every summer and did something called "The Loop". The Loop consisted of fun at a water slide park, delicious NJ pizza and ice cream. This night was reminiscent of that for me. We had Matt's favorite beach pizza from Dare Devils Pizza, went to the dunes, and then after the dunes we all went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed some delicious ice cream. It as great. Owen kept saying - I don't have to go to bed yet?! He asked Matt if he could eat his ice cream all the way down to the bottom.)













Some cousins photos:

(Owen, Baxter, Madison (3), Ava (4 months) and Ashley (3))


(Madison, Baxter, Owen and Ashley)

CC 2009

Wow! What a week we had. For those of you who don't know, CC 2009 stand for Cousins Camp 2009. Cousins Camp is held at my parents house in Harrisonburg, VA and includes my whole family (my grandparents even made it down for a few days!). It is a week full of being together and having fun and being exhausted! 7 children 11 and under (5 of which are 3 1/2 and under) make for a lot of fun and a lot of work! I included A LOT of pictures below - how do you choose just a few?!

We are thankful to the Lord that we all want to be together and that He makes a way for it to happen each summer. We love you all Gillan Family!

Here we go...

Becky made some neat sponges that we played with our last night.





We made these neat shirts with spray paint and contact paper - it was very fun (for the adults :) )





Cousins!







A little playtime!



Candy Land with the big cousins.



B especially loved the air hockey table.



We went for a "hike" with the whole family and then a bigger hike with just the big kids.