Luke turns SIX!

Look at that sweet little face! 

Can you even believe this little guy is SIX! Me either! Look at the handsome little boy he's turning into!

We celebrated twice because that's how we do it! Since his birthday was on a Tuesday we had cake and he got to open presents from us and his grandparents. Everybody should get to celebrate on the actual day, right? Then we celebrated with more family and friends on Saturday for his party. We decided to do something different this year and asked all of our guests on Saturday to not bring a gift.  Luke was a little upset at first but accepted it. We are trying to curb the little materialist we have on our hands. We want him to learn to value people more than things! And do you know what? He had a GREAT day! He didn't once mention presents! He really enjoyed the most valuable, tangible thing we have, our friends and family! Here are a few photos from that day:

 

Luke having fun squirting a friend at the party!

Getting ready to blow out his #6 candle on his Millennium Falcon cake! 

This was actually after the party. The boys just played and played all day long!

And this next picture needs a little more explanation. After the party the whole family went to some friends of ours 5K fundraiser run for their adoption. The Hubs ran and did great. I helped out by pointing! Haha! The boys hung out and played with all of the kids. After the race Luke was upset that he didn't get to run in the 1 mile fun run, so he, Eli and a few others had their own race around the church. Well, Luke tripped on something and hit the cement! It scared me so bad! It turned out he was fine (took a little trip to the ER because neither of us saw him hit the ground and he had a pretty nasty knot on his forehead) but he was pretty scraped up. His face already looks so much better! I took this the next day before church.

My sweet boys face!



It's healing so well though....

This was taken yesterday, a little over a week after the accident! 

Happy, Happy Birthday my little guy! What an amazing little boy you are!

Here we go!

My friends, the rumors are true! I am pregnant with a sweet little person! It's still very early, only about 4 1/2 weeks. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on why we've told everyone so soon, being pregnant after a miscarriage, ect. So, here goes.

Yes, I took all these tests! It was a 3 pack, so might as well take them all! 

First of all, I am extremely excited! A new baby? Yes, please! When the Hubs and I found out last week we were both sort of in shock. It's been a year and a half since my miscarriage and a little over a year since we started trying again. So, after 13 months of not getting pregnant, a positive test was a little different! Great news, but out of the ordinary! I knew that I could have children and in the past it had been so easy to conceive. That lead me to believe that God just wanted us to wait. I'm still not sure why, but He knows and that is good enough for me! He is always faithful. So, many people who
have had miscarriages wait to tell the masses of their little blessing and that is perfectly okay! In fact, the Hubs and I had conversations and prayers over what to do. Who do we tell? When? What about the boys? Well, of course we were going to tell our parents, but what about the rest? I knew of a few select people that I definitely wanted to know because I coveted their prayers. I have friends who I could call at any time of the day or night with a prayer request and they would drop everything they were doing to pray for me. Oh, how thankful I am for them! But as we talked it through, my wonderful man said, "Crystal, let's just trust God." Yes, trust Him. So we are. We want our boys to hear our prayers and to see our trust. We want our boys to know that we aren't afraid of what might happen, whether it does or not, but that ultimately it's in God's hands and we trust Him to the fullest.  I think of Ann Voskamp and how she often speaks of living with an open hand, not a closed fist. Take what He gives, for He is always good. That's not always easy, but it's how I want to live.

"Open-handed living is the only way to take God's hand." ~ Ann Voskamp.

"For I am the Lord who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13

That doesn't mean that fear doesn't want to creep up. It does. So, pray for me. I am so grateful for those who I know are already lifting me and this sweet baby up. That is really the only other reason we wanted to go ahead and tell everyone, especially our church family. We want their prayers! And we know they pray! I am confident they will pray for us during this pregnancy and I am confident that if something were to happen, they would be there to pray and encourage us as well. We need our church family and I would do the same for each one of them. We really are so blessed!

I do want to say a special thank you to those of you who have prayed for me during this past year. Many of you have been so sweet to lift us up and help us pray for a baby. You've encouraged me so much! Please keep the prayers coming!

 I love the LORD, because he has heard
  my voice and my pleas for mercy.
 Because he inclined his ear to me,
  therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2

Linking up with Women Living Well Wednesdays and The Better Mom!

Honey Mustard Chicken

We are 3 weeks into our summer vacation and we are enjoying it so much! We've had some really nice days, nothing too hot yet! I know it's coming though, this is Alabama! We've had three play dates at the park, library programs, a birthday party, two services at our new church plant, bridal tea, an ER visit (!) and a 5K race so far! And I'm sure I'm leaving some things off the list. It's been busy but it's been the good kind of busy... well, minus the ER visit! I hope to have some more time this summer to get back to blogging more regularly, there are lots of events and things I want to share with you all!

But instead of sharing more about those things, I'm going to do what comes easy to me... share another recipe! My last post was a yummy recipe for honey mustard dressing. I enjoyed it on a few salads and it really is so good! I haven't been very good at meal planning here lately, though and the dressing really helped me come up with a great, weeknight meal. One night last week I had laid out some chicken to thaw, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it! Don't tell me that never happens to you! I was also crunched for time so I needed something quick. So, I thought, I'll chop up the chicken breast so they will cook fast. Now what? Honey mustard dressing! I poured the dressing over the cooked chicken pieces and it made a glaze over the chicken. It resembles sweet and sour chicken. I served it with steamed broccoli and cheese toast.. yes, I know. I told you I was pressed for time. Next time I make it I will make brown rice, because the chicken would have been great over rice!

Honey Mustard Chicken

2-3 chicken breast, chopped into bite sized pieces
1/3-1/2 cup honey mustard dressing
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oil in skillet on med high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Let the chicken sear on one side about 5 minutes and then stir. After stirring and making sure the chicken pieces have flipped, let cook another 5 minutes. I did this about 3-4 times before all of the chicken pieces were browned and cooked. Once chicken is cooked, turn heat down to med-low and add honey mustard dressing. Stir to coat and continue to stir as the sauce turns into a glaze. This took a 3-5 minutes for me. Serve alone or over rice.

Some extra info: I used two chicken breast. This fed me and my boys (Hubs had already eaten some leftovers) and then I had some left for lunch the next day for me. If the Hubs would have been eating I would have used three chicken breast. Eli enjoyed it and ate all of his. Luke ate it but was not really pleased but hat is typical. I used about 1/3 cup of dressing but I would up it to 1/2 cup for three chicken breast, maybe more if I wanted some 'sauce' for the rice (one entire batch of dressing makes about 2/3 cup total). It really is an easy weeknight meal! By the way, the leftovers were great, I put them in a pan with the leftover broccoli and added a little low sodium soy sauce. Great, healthy lunch! This is a recipe you could play with, maybe add a little more honey if you want it sweeter, add some soy sauce for a more Asian feel, add some stir fry veggies to the pan.. you get the idea! Enjoy!