We held the 2nd annual Easter egg hunt at Granny’s house on Good Friday and had a great turn out again. Everyone enjoyed the time outdoors and the weather did not disappoint.
Here are some pictures from our full weekend, as well as a link to the full gallery.
Happy Easter!
Christmas was lovely. Truly a wonderful day filled with WAY too many presents and lots of fun family time. I won’t bore you with a bunch of commentary, all we really want to see are pictures, right?
**That first picture is of our family lighting the advent candle at church. We were truly honored to be invited to perform such an important role in the Christmas advent season. Thank you for offering this opportunity Pastor Laurinda.
*Reed was in 7th heaven when Mark took him out on stage to welcome the congregation to the 11:00 service. I couldn’t wipe the smile off his face until nap time.
Thanksgiving was pretty unevenful for the Baldwins this year…except that we got to share the news of baby #3 with all of our family. It was truly a gift to be able to share the news in person with most of our family in the same weekend.
Wednesday afternoon we loaded up the kids and headed for Victoria, TX. Randy’s grandmother lives there and go to Victoria for either Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve every year. It is about a 3 hour trip, so this year we decided to spring for a hotel room in Victoria Wednesday night to break up the driving. And wow. It was a fantastic decision!! We had a great day eating good food with family and playing outside. It felt more like Easter weather than Thanksgiving weather, but I’m not complaining!
Saturday morning we had brunch with my grandmother and family while Randy went to the UTSA/SWT football game with his sisters. We all had a great day. Sunday was the end of the festivities and we spent it at Randy’s Aunt and Uncle’s house. All around a great weekend. Pictures are below.
My mom had the brilliant idea of Reed and Alison dressing up as Hansel and Gretel for Halloween. When my dad was a little boy his dad was in the military and they were stationed overseas. He has an authentic German hat and mom just found it at my grandmother’s house. This hat is awesome. In great condition and over 50 years old. We had to put it to good use.
Reed is a punk and always has been. He does not want to do ANYTHING he doesn’t want to do. (No idea where he gets that from. Seriously). Alison was so sweet to him and always tried to encourage him to wear his costume. On Halloween night she even gave him her candy so he would wear the hat and take a picture. My sweet girl…and my punky boy. Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch as well as Halloween night.
This Mother’s Day was wonderful. It started off by Randy sending me flowers to work on Friday. They weren’t just flowers…they were amazing. Then on Saturday I spent the entire day alone with my kids. I’m not going to lie…it wasn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows. Having these 2 all to myself for the day is a ton of work, but it made me feel like a good mom. Then on Sunday we went to church, came home for lunch and naps, and then went to my parents house. We went swimming in the pool and grilled pizzas. There was nothing special or amazing about it. It was just the perfect way to spend my mother’s day. With my mom, relaxing and enjoying all the happiness I have been granted.
I am truly living my dream. I couldn’t ask for more than I have at this very moment.
This year I am going to intentionally focus on Thanksgiving for the wonderful opportunity it is to give thanks for all the blessings in our life. I will not skip right from Halloween to Christmas and I will intentionally give thanks for (at least) one thing every day. It might be a single picture, or only a sentence, but I am going to try to post one thing to be thankful for every day this month. Any one want to join me?
Today I am thankful for Reed’s infectious laugh at the breakfast table. He is a morning person like his momma and I love how happy he is every morning. Helps me start every day off on the right foot.
No trip to the lake this year, but who needs the lake when there is a perfectly good swimming pool just down the road?
We took it easy this year and decided to hang out at Duke and Ya-ya’s new house with the pool in the back yard. It is certainly easier than packing for the weekend at the lake, and with two little ones, it’s really the most logical choice.
Last year, we couldn’t keep Reed out of the water. He was fearless…literally. This year, he has developed a good, healthy fear of the water, but he swung 180 degrees the other way and would not go near it. That is, until Reed spent an afternoon at the pool with Miss Kate Pike.
You see, Kate has been taking swimming lessons and she knew how to jump into the pool to her dad. Reed saw this and refused to be upstaged by a girl, so he wanted to get his swim trunks on and jump into the pool to dad as well. Ever since that weekend, Reed has been just as fearless as he was last year… pushing his boundaries in the water. First he was falling into my arms from the side of the pool, then he began jumping at me, so I moved back. Most recently, he has added a running start to his jumps and getting several feet out into the water.
Ali likes her time in the pool as well. She is usually grinning from ear-to-ear while Mommy holds her. She will kick a little, but she really just likes to be a part of the action.
We spent the weekend in Leakey, Texas with 2 other families that have kids. In a cozy 3 bed/2 bath hill country house, we set in for a 3-day weekend with 6 adults and 5 kids under 3yrs old. This may as well have been traveling daycare.
We had what you would expect from a weekend with kids involved: some sleepless nights, toddler meltdowns and scheduling events around nap time. However, we did have a great place on the river to relax and get wet, as well as plenty of good food to cook and grill.
Below: Reed and Kate set out to find some deer that were all over the property. At first, Kate calls the deer on the phone, and then she and Reed set out. Among the notable finds: deer poop.
Mother’s Day truly is the most important holiday (except Easter) for me. I would rather celebrate Mother’s Day than my birthday, and I don’t think that will ever change for the rest of my life.
My entire life all I wanted was to be a mom and raise a family. That sounds so archaic, but it is also 100% truth. Like most girls I had a timeline in my mind from the time I was a high-schooler. I would go to A&M, meet my future husband in our sophomore year (freshman year was for partying). We would get engaged at the end of our junior year and get married after we graduated. We would both have steady jobs right out of college (and I didn’t want to live in San Antonio). 3 years later we would have the first of 5 children. Yes, I wanted 5 children.
Obviously that isn’t how my life turned out. I met a boy and we were on the right path to be engaged in college and married right after. Too bad God kept telling me he wasn’t the right guy. Problem…there was nothing wrong with him! I walked away from a perfectly good man, and a perfectly good relationship. Then I proceeded to work in a job I hated, in a city that didn’t fit me. After several stupid career moves and 2 changes to my city…I landed back home. In good old San Antonio. Low and behold…there was this other boy there. He had always been there as my friend, but this time it was different. This time everything was perfect. Everything was easy. This time he was the RIGHT boy. Luckily he thought I was the right girl, too! 🙂
Back to the Mother’s Day part…we got married after dating for a measly 10 months, because when you know, you know. Why waste time? We got married in December 2005 and started trying to get pregnant in January 2007. 18 LONG months passed with no success. Those 18 months were very long, and very dark for me. My faith was rocked more in those 18 months than in the 3 years I spent without a single date. Somehow I knew I would find the right husband, but I didn’t know if I would ever get my one true desire…a house full of children. We talked about fertility treatments and I had a referral from my OB. In the end I just couldn’t make myself do it.
We all know that God has his perfect timing, and I just felt like if I went in for fertility treatments I wasn’t relying on God’s perfect timing. I don’t have any judgment for people who do fertility treatments…it just wasn’t what God wanted from us. My good friend Jill gave me the perfect encouragement in that horrible and scary time. She said that God is capable of anything, and that if he wants me to do fertility treatments he will change my heart. She was 100% right, and her conviction gave me such incredible peace in a very scary time.
We all know the rest of the story…Reed was born in March of 2009. Light of my life, joy of all joys. Even how he was born was orchestrated by God. God wanted Reed to live, and God wanted me to have Reed. His timing is perfect.
Since we had so much trouble getting pregnant with Reed we intentionally did not prevent getting pregnant again. Now we have Alison too! Praise the Lord for his goodness!
So that is why Mother’s Day is better than all the holidays put together. God has given me everything I could have ever hoped for. Even on the really challenging days I am usually able to keep my gratitude at the front of my mind. It helps to keep me from getting too frustrated with that little 2 year old when he wants to wear shorts in January, or with Alison when she thinks it’s time to play at 3am.
Being a Mother is the single greatest gift I have ever received. Now my job is to make sure I honor this gift by honoring this gift. All I want is to raise kind, generous, loving children…who love football and Jesus!!!
JB