The Weekend is Here

I am such a baby. After much internal fussing around, I made it through my two days of work this week. Yes, two days, but I am back full-time now. I whine and I fuss, and I wonder, is it ok to miss my babies so much? I was talking to one of the other teachers and referred to both my children as 'my babies.' She asked if I was still calling Natty, my baby, and then it hit me. Natty is turning 2 in less than 2 months! She is growing up SO fast!!! She definitely is NOT a baby anymore, how sad!

I think what has been hardest on me going back to work is that, everyday I realize just how fast Natty and Nathan are growing, and I don't want to miss it. Fridays and Mondays are always exhausting because Tim works late. I come home to see him leave, and am with the kids until they go to sleep. The hard part is I am so exhausted from work that I don't feel I do them justice sometimes. But for now, it's what we do and I am doing all I can to enjoy both my 'babies.' :)

Hope you guys are off to a great weekend! The best part of ours is that Nathan is now TWO MONTHS OLD!

Happy Birthday to our WONDERFUL 2-month old Lovebug. :)

I Made It!

Well, yesterday was my first day to work.  Getting up in the morning was so hard!  I think Natty had the hardest time though.  She has grown quite accustomed to me being home the past 2 months.  She was me walking up the walkway to our apartment in the afternoon, then I went out of view for a minute, and I could hear her screaming in the apartment.  It's nice to know I am missed.  Nathan seemed to miss me too.  He sure gave me the greatest smiles to come home to.  He sure is a happy baby - smiles a whole lot - and he's starting to giggle.  It is so wonderful to see how he's developing.

Work went, well, FAST!  I have a different schedule this year.  First off, I have all 8th graders, which I kind of like because I don't feel like I'm spreading myself too thin.  Next, I like not having students first thing in the morning, because they are in exploratory.  The downside is my lunch goes by real fast because I have academic support right after lunch.  I teach 2 pull out classes this year, so I feel like I have some nice breaks in between the day now, instead of running back and forth between 7th and 8th grade, depending on who needed what.

I trade today - Thursday with another teacher, so I don't have to go in again until Friday.  That kind of make returning a more smooth transition.  Next week will be my full week back, along with Saturday school duty at the end of the week. 

Oh well, I'm just so thankful to be home with the kids AND have our anniversary off!  I cannot believe Tim and I have only been married for 3 years.  With 2 kids now, it sure feels a lot longer, but I am so thankful to have Tim in my life.  We are loving every minute of our newly found chaos.  :)

Happy Tuesday!

"If He brings you to it, He'll bring you through it!"

For Nicole

Well, this post is dedicated to my very awesome friend, Nicole.  Nathan has been growing out of all his clothes and he is not even two months old yet.  I was going through his bigger sizes and found this outfit.  At first I thought it would be too big.  It's 3-6 mts., but I tried it on, and needless to say, it fits PERFECT for the time being.  SO, Nicole, thanks for the outfit, and here's a picture of Nathan smiling in it just for you!

Update Update!

Boy! Where does the time go!!! Natty and Nathan are growing so fast. Just yesterday I realized just how fast Natty, especially, is growing. She has graduated from toddler bed (her convertible crib) to a full out TWIN bed! Boy is she loving it! When did our 7 lb. 4 oz. little princess get to be so big now? She is also putting works together and forming simple sentences. She is always cracking me up with words she's learned to put together. The other morning, we were playing in my room. She grabbed a blanket, laid it on me, and said "Mama, go night night!" :) How cute! Well, here are some of her BIG GIRL pictures in her BIG GIRL BED!

Here, she is posing in her BIG GIRL BED, with Bow-Wow-Wow, Lulu, BoB, and Lamb. There are her special friends we've taken her to make at Build-a-Bear Workshop. She LOVES them to pieces.

Check out Nathan's smile!!! This is at about 4-5 weeks old. Nathan is such a love bug. He certainly is a happy clam, but also let's his voice be heard. Especially when we are stuck in traffic or are not moving fast enough. He loves constant movement. So, we get to cuddle with him and walk him around a lot.

James MacDonald

I was very blessed by yesterday's sermon by an awesome visiting pastor, James MacDonald.  If you have never heard this man speak, you are missing OUT!  I don't generally play favorites with Pastors, but I am always very blessed when James visits Harvest.  Check out the sermon here.

I think the biggest part of being blessed yesterday is that I feel like I have been struggling a lot.  Most of them are inward struggles.  And I have been praying, praying for something, anything to help me get through and move forward.  For a while I having silently been giving myself a pity part. 

It's not fair - we didn't get our house.  It's not fair - I have to go back to work.  It's not fair - that I'm so tired.  It's not fair - that everyone moves up and moves on, and we're stuck.  It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair.  These are the things that have been going through my head when I wake up in the middle of the night, and I am ashame of them.  Ashamed because I have been given a ministry to take care of my family and what really isn't fair, is me not happily doing what needs to get done.

I, in no way, could ever compare myself to James.  This man has battled cancer, has dealt with a prodigal child, and has a dying mother.  However, what encouraged me the most was that when he said he reached a point when he thought he could go on, and prayed that the Lord would just give him something.  God has always come through for him.  I can definitely echo that God has come through for me too.  Also, James reminded us that this isn't the way things will always be.  I am holding on to that with all that I've got right now.

My 6 weeks of maternity leave is over, and it has just been crushing me.  I am taking 2 weeks of unpaid leave to be home just a little bit more with the kids.  Every night I am praying for peace to return to work - 2 weeks from today.  Even as I am typing this, it's so hard.  My two beautiful children are asleep.  I've enjoyed just sitting here just watching them for the past hour.  They are so peaceful, without a single care in the world.  That is exactly how I'd like to be. 

I feel like the past couple months, we have just been hit with trial after trial.  Sometimes I cannot help but laugh. I was searching for verses tonight on trials and tribulations and came across James 1:2-3 (how perfect is that).  It says...

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

A couple different translations end with endurance, hope, or patience instead of perserverance.  But I like the NIV translation.  I need to perservere, not just survive.  I looked up perservere.  It means.. to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.  The 3 key words in the definition for me were:  persist, purpose, and steadfastly.  I feel lately I've just let everything kind of boggle me down and wear me down.  I was persisting.  I lost sight of the purpose.  And there was nothing steadfast about it, except me going steadfastly in the wrong direction.

There are so many reasons why so many things happen to us.  James shared that there is always something going on, something that forces us to rely on God, and maybe that is because it keeps our hearts humbled.  Boy, I sure needed reminding of that. 

Well, I think this is my longest post ever, but I want to update you guys on the kiddos real quick. 

Nathan is growing like a weed.  He's over 12 lbs., starting rolling over (tummy to back), smiles (a bunch!), and giggles.  He is starting to take longer naps - usually in the evening, and is a great sleeper at night.  Still has his wicked appetite during the day.  But that's ok, it's our special Mommy-Nathan time, and I wouldn't give it up for the world.  He's started tracking us - he definitely knows our voices.  He is one strong little man.  He tries to hard to push up with his legs when we hold him up.  He may be an early walker - we'll see.  He is outgrowing many of his clothes, and I am constantly resorting items we've received and switching out his drawers.  He is such a huge blessing to us and we are so very thankful for this wonderful person in our lives.

Natty is ALSO growing like a weed.  I cannot believe how heavy she feels after having Nathan.  She is getting so incredibly big.  I am a little sad because she is growing up so fast, and I don't want to miss a single moment.  She continues to master most of her alphabets.  Let's see, we are up to A, B, C, D, F, H, L, M, N (sometimes), O, P, S, X, and W.  More than half way there!  She seems to be learning new words everyday.  We are so surprised by the things she learns and comes up with.  Our favorite has been "apple juice."  It is so cute.  I haven't been able to catch it on video yet, but hope to post that soon.  She loves to read and draw.  I cannot wait for her to start school.  She is going to love it.  I sometimes wish she was in Thailand, then she could start school next year like mommy.  I can already tell she is going to have a blast.  She still loves her Curious George and VeggieTales.

4 Weeks!

Baby Nathan is 4 weeks old today!!! Boy! Time sure flies now with 2 kiddos. The days are pretty crazy now in the Fanning Household. But I am loving every minute of it. Even on days, like today, when Natty would not nap and got hesterical during bedtime. :) Anyway, Tim and I are definitely enjoying our little man. He is quite the cuddle bug. He LOVES to be held. I don't think we held Natty this much, and I thought we held her A LOT!!! He's got a wicked appetite during the day, and a pretty good sleeper at night. Enough to let mommy get some good chunks of sleep at night, which I appreciate so very much. Natty is still in love with her brother. She really loves to copy us, so we have to be careful. Recently, she has taken it upon herself to burp him for us. She is too cute. The other day, while driving somewhere, Nathan was crying and Natty looked over and said "No! No! No!" Sometimes she just looks as him like, What's your problem? But she is so good in the car with him, and such a caring sister. Here are some pictures to google over from bath time tonight. Surprisingly, Nathan loves bathtime as much as his sister does - can you tell by the way he's beached out and relaxed?

Only 4 weeks, and he's gettin' his rolls! :)

My little man - he's so handsome!

This would be Natty dunking her head in the water.

She loves rubbing the bubbles all over her face.

As I was taking pictures, she wanted me to take one of her say "Hi!"

So HERE it is!

Our beautiful blessings - Natty and Nathan

HAPPY 4 WEEK BIRTHDAY NATHAN!

You've really captured our hearts little man!

A Mommy of Two for Three Weeks

So I've been a mommy of two for 3 weeks now.  This is what I have discovered:

• No matter how tired you are, you will always have enough energy of either child that is begging for your attention. 
• If one has a dirty diaper, the other is soon to follow.
• I am capable of bathing 2 children at once - in different tubs of course.
• Your heart grows 100 times when you have another child.
• You feel guilty if you can't always be with both children at once, but they are just happy to know you are there.
• Babies can sleep through their sisters putting a princess hat on them and putting teething rings on their ankles (wish I had taken a picture of THAT!).
• The kids' room will now always be messy - until Natty gets used to picking up.  She does good with the books, but that's about it.
• It's possible to go through 200+ newborn diapers in less than 4 weeks. 
• And I am thankful for all the diapers we got at the shower, as we're using the HUGE box of 1's that are, now, nearly half gone as well.
• Just as soon as the kids get cleaned, either one will almost instantaneously get dirty - milk, juice, diaper blowout, spit up, you name it....
• It's possible to go through 5 onesies in less than an hour.

So this is just a LITTLE bit of the fun I've had the past 3 weeks.  I am most definitely NOT looking forward to going to work, so I'm trying to savor all this wacky, crazy moments.  :)

Happy Tuesday!