John & Kate + 8

I LOVE this show! John & Kate Gosslin are the amazing parents of 2 sets of multiples: Twin 7 year old daughters and 3 year old sextuplets! Can you imagine?? Well, they are such a neat family to watch--they open their home and their lives for the rest of us to take peeks at how they do it through their show "John & Kate + 8". You can check out their website here: http://www.sixgosselins.com/Home.html

They also take time to travel around the country and often do speaking engagements in local churches. This Sunday they will be in Avondale, PA at Elk Creek Church (check out my link for Pastor Mike Silliman's blog!) and I have two tickets for it!! Unfortunately, I forgot that I will be singing this Sunday at our own church and won't be able to attend. If anyone would like to go to this (or know any other BIG Fans of the show) let me know as soon as possible! You can comment here or email me your interest. I'm sure you'll be blessed by their testimony!

Lessons From A Three Year Old

Last week M was able to paticipate in 3 seperate Easter Egg hunts. (At his preschool, in our neighborhood and then at a friend's house on Easter Sunday).

The first to take place this year was at his preschool which is actually housed in a church.   It was the church who put on the hunt and M was sooooo excited to participate.  I was too, until I heard the age breakdown they would be using.  You see...they decided to split the hunt into 2 different age groups--2 1/2 and under and then 2 1/2 and up.  What this meant for my newly turned 3 year old was that he was at a serious age disadvantage!!  He was up against 9 and 10 yr olds and this was really the first hunt that I think he  could even comprehend what he was supposed to do!  

Needless to say, he didn't get many eggs (4 total and two of them just had pieces of paper with a # on it) and meanwhile I'm hearing all of the other kids bragging "look, I got 10"..."Oooo, well I got 14!" and things like this.  So, in my human/mother nature...I was pretty miffed about the whole thing!  Afterwards, M was looking at his eggs (and realizing that a couple of them had candy in them) when up walks a little girl from his class named Claire.  Now Claire and her brother had just walked in, which meant that they had missed the whole hunt and didn't have any eggs.  I don't know why, but I felt prompted to ask M if he would like to share with her. Without a second thought he reached in and grabbed an egg for her and then proceded to try and give ALL of his eggs away!  Wow!  What a lesson for mommy!  Here he was, excited to share whatever he had, and all I could think about was how unfair things had been for him!  I was humbled and so proud of his sharing spirit!  How much more do I need to be like that with all of the "things" God has blessed me with?  Not just material possesions, but my faith, forgiveness, peace, true joy!!  Sometimes, I just want to live in my bubble and focus only on what God can do for me, instead of what God wants to do with me or through me!  God doesn't want me to hold on too tight to all that I have, but rather look for opportunities to give!!  What a cool thing that God can use our kids to teach us lessons!

Love This Church!

Check out the AWESOME new look of Fellowship! This past Sunday was the "rollout" date for the new lights and design and I'm so pumped! Of course, these are just material things, but it's one more step for Fellowship, and it's one more step in our process of "Redefining Church in the Deleware Valley"! Sunday's service was amazing with God receiving all of the glory! I'm so grateful to be serving in such an awesome ministry and am really looking forward to what God will do this Easter Sunday!

31 week Pics

Well, here it is...my first online belly shot! This is from today (31weeks,3 days). Only 8 1/2 weeks left until our second little man is due. Please be praying with us for a safe, speedy and successful--as natural as possible--birth! I'll try to keep the belly shots coming (no matter how big I get!) :-)

Party Time!

Saturday was M's birthday party and it was so much fun!  We had great weather and a wonderful time!  The kids all LOVED the Moonbounce and we were sooooo glad that we had it there. (My coworker was kind enough to lend it to us for the occasion...thanks Laura!!) We also had the special treat of being able to offer horse rides courtesy of the Berkeyheisers--how cool is that??--thanks guys!! :-) I think we ended up with about 17 kids which was wonderful and M had a blast!  Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate him with us!  I'm gonna try to add a slideshow of the party pictures so keep checking back!  

Another Day To Celebrate

Today my wonderful husband turns 34!  Not much time to post tonight, but wanted to get that out there and give everyone the opportunity to leave some birthdays comments for the birthday boy!!   Love ya honey!!

Happy Six Years!!

Yesterday, March 9th, Jeff and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary!  I don't think either of us could have imagined how blessed and full our lives would be in such a short time!  We both have wonderful jobs, Jeff is part of an AWESOME, KICKIN' Church and staff and we both are so thankful that God led us to ministry at Fellowship! You can check out our church here:  www.fellowshiptoday.com  We have a wonderful little boy and another due soon, a great home, rich friendships, the love of our Creator and most of all a deeper, more wonderful love for each other than we could have dreamed possible! Last night we took the time to describe the top 10 things that we love about each other and it was a neat thing to share...here are some of my favorite things about Jeff:

• His unshakable faith and life as a Christ follower.  Without this, our life and the fullness we experience daily would not be possible.
• His loyalty as a friend.  Not just to me, but to many all over the US.  He has such a tender heart for his friends.
• He is SUCH a wonderful Daddy!  He is so encouraging to M and loves his little boy!  In many ways, he balances me out and it's wonderful to be on the same page in the way that we are choosing to raise our children.  I can't wait to see him with two boys!
• He is so wonderful for putting up with me and all of my "stuff"!!  He is so patient with me and my life is so rich having him as my very best friend!
• He is so gifted and talented and I love that we both share such a passion for music and for praise!  He has grown so much in this area since coming to Fellowship (all glory to God!) and I can't wait to see what the future holds for him in this area!
• He is so much fun to be around!!  Always, always being silly or making me/others laugh.  I love his sense of humor and his zest for life!
• He is such a romantic...even more so than me, I have to admit!  He is wonderfully thoughtful in this area and I learn so much from him!

God, thank you for my wonderful husband and for the years you've blessed us with.  You are to be praised for all that you have brought us through and for what you are molding us/shaping us into.  May we always be used by you, as individuals and as a couple, to show others your perfect love and may we strive to live out this perfect love in our lives as well!

Happy 3rd Birthday M!!

Today, March 7th, our sweet little man has turned 3 years old!!!  We are still in awe of what a precious gift he is from the Lord and praise God for the privilege it is to be his parents.  To celebrate this occasion I thought I would bullet some of the things we love most about M:

• He's such an entertainer!  Two weeks ago at Sunday School, he got up with his "air guitar" and announced "Okay ev'ry buddy...I gonna lead music...We gonna sing about Jesus" and proceeded to sing "Santa Clause is coming to town!" at the top of his lungs...(we still have some work to do, I know)
• He has such a tender heart.  This little boy who doesn't stop for ANYTHING will immediately come to our aid if hurt or expressing sadness of any kind...."Aww...you ok mommy??"
• He is super, super smart! Now I know every parent thinks this, and I don't think he's quite ready for the Mensa High-IQ club yet...but he truly amazes us!  This morning he was teaching ME about the planets in our solar system!!  I always ask him, "Sweetie, who made you so smart??"  To which he responds with a grin, "God and Jesus!" :-)
• He loves to give hugs and kisses.  I know this won't always be the case so I'm soaking it all up now and don't even want to imagine the day when this won't be the case!
• He is becoming more independent everyday!  He can brush his own teeth and dress/undress himself.  Of course, this can sometimes lead to other issues (just see my previous blog) but it really frees up our hands and gives him such a sense of accomplishment.  I know this will also make a big difference when Hudson arrives. 
• He loves school and learning and seems to make friends easily.
• He loves to read and spell out the letters in words.  I know it won't be long before he's reading like a champ!
• He can't wait to be a big brother!  He'll talk to my belly and say things like "Hi baby, I'm your big brother!" and "I can't wait to meet you!" and gives my belly kisses.  I'm glad he's gonna have a brother to grow up with!
• He's such a happy kid!  Granted, he has his moments like everybody else, but really is such a joy and makes us laugh all the time.

God, thanks for our sweet boy.  Thanks for keeping him safe and healthy and for teaching us so much about ourselves in our daily calling to parent him and shepherd his little heart!  Thanks for using days like today to remind us of how much you've blessed us!

Surprise Load

I love to watch American Idol!  Rarely, however, am I through with M's bedtime rituals to sit in front of the TV by 8:00 to watch it live, so of course, we DVR it (or digitally record it) with our cable box.  This works out great, because every now and then I get the urge to do a little laundry between putting M to bed and "relaxing" for the rest of the evening.

The other night was no exception.  I knew that I was running low on clean pants for M and the uniform I needed for work the next morning was in the hamper.  So, I grabbed his hamper and a few of my things and threw them in.  

Finally, onto my show!  Well, I also sometimes have the very bad habit of becoming soooo tired while "relaxing" to A.I., that by the time it's over (usually 10:00 or so by now) I don't want to get up so I'll end up watching something else we have "saved" on our box, or the news...whatever. 

 The other night was also no exception to this habit.  Needless to say, somewhere around 11:00, I finally drug myself off of the couch and headed upstairs to change the clothes to the dryer, wash my face and thankfully sink into my warm bed. 

Very groggy at this point, I walk to the laundry room and squint as I turn on the light and open the washing machine lid.......

Now for those of you with small children, or for those who've ever had one of your child's diapers get "too full" with fluid...you'll understand what I'm about to describe next.  What I saw when I opened the wash was nothing less than an entire tub and load of clothes COVERED in slimy, gooey, "nuggets" of diaper crystals.  The kind that are supposed to stay tucked away in the fabric of the diaper and absorb the moisture.  Yeah...those...

Well, in my haste to throw the laundry in and sit down to my show I had neglected to sort through M's clothes which by now, it was clear to me, had contained a USED diaper!!

So, here I am, EXHAUSTED, just wanting to go to bed, but I can't because the uniform I need for the next morning has Gooey Diaper nuggets stuck all over it!  

It took about 45 min. and  a quick search of Google to come up with a plan:

I basically shook off every single piece of clothing I had just washed back into the washing machine (no small feat when you're washing an ENTIRE load of little toddler clothes!) and threw them into a basket until all that was left was a tub bottom covered in goo.  Then I wet a wash cloth and scraped it all out.  Then I threw in a completely different load (with my uniform included of course) on HOT with two BIG scoops of OxyClean (a Google suggestion) and went to bed praying my efforts would work.  Well, it did the trick!  On one of my several nightly trips to the bathroom I opened the wash to discover nothing but clean clothes and joyfully changed them to the dryer.

Whew!!!  

Moral to the story....

Just because your toddler can dress himself or put on his own PJ's...doesn't mean that he will think it necessary to take the used Pull-Up out of his pants BEFORE tossing them into his hamper!!:-)

One lesson painfully learned and now passed on to you!

Life is good :-)))

Monster JAM!!

This picture is a couple of weeks old, but I wanted to share our "Monster Jam" experience. M is totally into watching the big trucks on TV with Daddy and was sooooo excited to find out that we were going to go see them live in Philly. Daddy made sure we had the ear plugs, we invited some of our other friends with small boys and off we went! Needless to say, even with lots of prep of reminding M how loud the trucks were going to be (he was telling everyone "yeah, they goin' to be REALLY loud!) this picture says it all. Total sensory overload!! :-) The loud noise, the smell, the flashing lights...the heights!! it was all a little too much for him and he spent the first 3o min. not too sure about the experience. We had a hard time getting his earplugs to stay in and eventually we put the hood of his jacket up to help hold them in. After that, he wouldn't let us take it off! I was SWEATING with him sitting in my lap with his big, winter coat on, but he would NOT let it go! :-) So funny... Eventually, believe it or not, he FELL ASLEEP! (As you can see below). Too bad since he missed the most exciting parts! Better luck next time I guess :-)

Finally in Blogger Land!!

So....drum roll please.....this...is...my first blog, EVER! (Jeff is definitely the veteran blogger!) I think maybe I've posted a comment here or there, but forever I have wanted to start our own family blog! And now, here it is! With this I hope that Jeff and I can keep all of you posted on all of the cool, not so cool, quirky, funny, hectic, stressful, wonderful things that go on in the Ream household! Keep checking in for updates :-)