5 year wedding anniversary!

happy 5th year of marriage my love. i joyfully hold on, let it carry us, and embrace the love we have every day.

i am grateful for the 5 wonderful years i get to call you my husband, thank you for loving me, giving me grace upon grace, and pointing me to Christ.

i am the luckiest.

bigger and bigger

A friend of mine posted this article a couple of weeks ago and the words have stuck with me. It was written from a mom of 5 to a mom of one or two, and I was so encouraged by her words. She said it well, no matter how many kids you have you are maxed out - emotionally and physically. I feel maxed out and it's encouraging to know that others with one kid feel that way too. :)

I was also reminded of two amazing truths:

1. I must trust God to be Lincoln's ultimate protector, He loves him more than I know.

2. Life will only get easier if I let God get bigger and admit that I need His help. She mentions that she raised her kids in a land of "I Can Do This" (you know with all the books and gizmos), and having that "I Can Do This" mentality will only bring on guilt and shame. It's so true. I don't have the strength, wisdom, and love for Lincoln that I should, but He does.

Lincoln grows so quickly.

7 months: army crawling

8 months: pulling up and falling down

9 months: strangers are strangers now, it takes him a while to warm up to people (and bears :)).

Thankful for these two gentlemen.

Precious gift of life

A dear friend had her little boy last week. For me, as long as I can remember, I always knew I wanted a family. In the mind of a young girl, of course it was a long way off, lots of things had to fall into place before that day would come. If my friend is anything like me, it's a moment in time that she's been waiting to meet for quite sometime.

My friends' little boy was quickly taken to the NICU, where he was dressed in a "cooling" hat to prevent brain damage. My heart hurts for this family and it reminded me of the preciousness and frailty of life. I was taken back to our early days in the hospital, the anxiety, fear, overwhelming emotion and physical exhaustion offset by joy for the long awaited arrival of our baby, our son.

It's hard to describe the emotion, but having the weight of concern for his life lifted off my shoulders when I'd hear his cries all night long made the hard night a good hard that I wouldn't trade for any alternative, well, except maybe a perfectly sleep trained baby that smiled, laughed, and communicated perfectly as a newborn. But in reality, if he didn't cry I would never have known or understood his unforgiving need to feed him or change him or hold him. And, I would have never known how truly selfish I am at heart.

Newborns are hard, and to add to the feeling of helplessness, concern for his life, brings me to my knees to plead with God to remove this trial from the little ones life and the life of the family. Put it on me, God. I can handle it. The truth is I can't handle it, I just want to try. In my ignorance and thinking I can fix things, I quickly lose sight of the one that does fix things. Jesus heals souls. He gives life. He knows, loves, and provides.

"Some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"-he then said to the paralytic-"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men." Matthew 9:2-8

Thanks, Lord for the gift of life, both spiritual and physical. Heal the baby's little body and convince us of your goodness for your glory.

6 months and growing!

Life is so fun with a 6 month old! I can't get enough of his smiles, especially when he shows his new two little bottom teeth.

He is sitting up on his own, grabbing at anything and everything, and slowly learning how to eat.

My favorite thing is seeing and hearing him communicate. When he sees his bottle, linc responds with lots of arm flings and leg kicks. And, he is getting good at saying "dadadadada" and "hida" to which Nic responds  "Hi Lincoln".

Last weekend, Lincoln met his great grandpa Kline while I was at an amazing women's conference at church (more on that soon!).  And, he also had his first swimming adventure!

I still don't see who he resembles most, he may be a 50/50. Here is a little comparison of baby pictures. A picture of Nic next to Lincoln and then one of me below that.

Boy/Girl Twins Baby Shower

I've recently discovered that I love love love throwing baby showers. The idea of a baby shower brings me such joy. I think it is wonderful for friends to gather and celebrate a new little life that we haven't even met yet. We get to love on the family by providing for them and letting the soon to be mama know that we love her and are here to help.

Our dear friends are having their first babies soon, boy/girl twins! The mama is a reader, so a book themed shower was perfect for her. The invitations for the shower were designed around classic fictional brother/sister characters depicted as babies, Jack and Jill, Raggedy Ann and Andy, & Dick and Jane. My husband is a talented artist. The drawings were done digitally by him, and I printed and assembled them. Beneath each drawing is the year the characters were "born". The final drawing is of the boy/girl twins to arrive in 2013. 

The drawings are also going to be used in the little ones' nursery. :)

Thanks to the help of many friends (especially my wonderful friend ever who watched our little linc so I could focus) we got the house decorated.

Flowers are a must.

I made book page streamers out of colorful ribbon and hung them over the dessert table. You can find really cheap old books at the salvation army. I think this one cost me $.50.

The mantel was decorated with some wooden blocks stacked like books, fun kid toys, paper garland repurposed from my baby shower (thanks friend!), and some coral and green (nursery colors) card stock quickly transformed with the help of a stapler into books displayed in a lantern. Doesn't everyone display books in a lantern??? It worked for me.

As favors, I used 4oz mason jars filled with M&Ms. To give the family a keepsake, the guests wrote down little thoughts or prayers for the two babies to read someday. They are stored in "wish jars". Oh, and not only can my husband draw digitally, he also created this masterpiece using chalk. So amazing.

It was such a fun afternoon! I loved celebrating this lovely lady and her two kiddos with people who love her. 

Have a mortgage? Consider refinancing.

Nic and I are working on refinancing our mortgage, we had an appraiser come out this morning. Our entire house is (well was) clean for the first time in at least 5 months!! An amazing feeling and almost makes me want to clean more, almost. Speaking of 5 months, here is our little guy on his 5 month birthday. He is full of smiles and baby talk these days. His new thing is rolling on his back from side to side. His hands are constantly in his mouth and he loves to observe what is going on around him. He tends to look around to find the person that is talking, sometimes when I am holding him and talking to Nic across the room he will turn his head and peer up at me. It's adorable.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little bit about our mortgage situation in case it could help someone else. Everyone has a different fact pattern, but here is ours. Refinancing your mortgage is worth looking into, you may be able to save yourself LOTS of money down the road.

We bought our home in 2010, entered into a 30 year mortgage with a 4.75% interest rate. If we made minimum payments over the next 30 years we would have paid over double the amount of our loan. For example, if our loan was $200,000, by the end of 30 years we would have paid over $400,000. I understand that borrowing money is expensive, but my goodness paying double the loan amount. Just hurts.

So, we looked into refinancing. We ended up with a new loan for 15 years with a 2.75% interest rate. The total interest or cost of the loan was cut by 75%. Our loan amount is smaller (since we've been paying on it for three years), we shortened the time on the loan (30 years down to 15 years), and we got a significantly lower interest rate. The kicker, our minimum payments stayed flat under the new loan. We will end up saving over $100,000! It's incredible!

Prior to refinancing (and pre-baby), we had been intentional about paying off our mortgage, however now with a 2.75% interest rate on our mortgage we plan to take any "extra money" that we'd want to put toward the loan and invest it. Once the invested money reaches the loan amount, we plan to make a lump sum payment. It will be an amazing day when we fully own a home.

If you have a mortgage, look into refinancing.

black bean, sweet potato quesadillas

I cannot tell you how much I love these things. I saw this recipe on a blog about a week ago and immediately gave them a try that night. Incredible.

Ingredients

2 8-inch whole wheat tortillas

3/4 cup roasted sweet potatoes chunks (see below)

1/2 cup cooked black beans

1/4 cup roasted/sautéed onion, optional

2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions

2/3 cup shredded Colby jack cheese, or the combo of Monterey jack cheese and cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Place a tortilla on the baking sheet. Scatter the sweet potato chunks on the tortilla, and then fill the spaces between the sweet potato chunks with black beans. Top with roasted/sautéed onions, if using them. Sprinkle the green onions and cheese. Top with the other piece of tortilla and press it gently. Bake for 6-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and the top tortilla is golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve with guacamole or salsa if desired.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 teaspoons brown sugar (optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Toss together those ingredients, single-layer them on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 F degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Oh, and for the super easy wheat tortilla recipe, click here. I'm not sure it can get any better than this.

staying at home

It's so fun for me to look back at pictures of the last four months because my memory of it is a blur. It's been a long four months, caring for a newborn was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Come to find out, it's a pretty big deal to keep this little man alive everyday. I constantly wonder why I didn't know how hard it would be. I am incredibly thankful for all the friends and family that helped, it truly does take an army to raise a baby. AND, it's OK to ask for help. That was huge for me.

God has been teaching me lots through this transition to parenthood, but the biggest thing I'm learning in the day to day of being a stay at home mom is that my time and agenda belong to God. I have been forced to open handedly approach the day. I can no longer do what I want when I want. I have no control. And, the beautiful yet painful thing is that I must submit entirely to God's grace to make it though the day. My time and agenda are not mine and they aren't Lincoln's, they belong to Him and are to used for His glory. Lord help me.

Right now, that looks like a lot of providing for baby Linc. He is so dependent on me to provide, but even at this early age I can see him growing more and more independent. It's an amazing thing to watch and remember where we've come in four months.

A little snapshot of past and current baby Lincoln.

Can't wait to meet future Lincoln.

baby kline gender reveal

a little late, but excited to share how we found out whether baby kline was a boy or a girl.

there are lots of ways to find out the gender of the expected baby. we heard of an idea from a lovely couple where you throw a party and the guests watch you cut a cake with the baby's gender revealed inside with either blue or pink frosting. both of us immediately loved the idea.

so, on august 25, 2012 we invited family out to a local park to find out with us whether baby kline is a boy or a girl.

we had a sealed envelope in our possession for a couple of weeks.

i set out to find a bakery that would bake us a cake in secret. mission success.

dolce bakery in prairie village did an amazing job with the cake.

the night before we met with the bakery, nic thought it would be nice to, instead of cutting a cake to reveal, open a big box in front of everyone filled with balloons.

loved the idea. 

he quickly reassured me that we could still have cake and why not also have the inside of the cake be the gender color as well. so, we kept the cake appointment and the following morning enjoyed a delicious cinnamon roll and coffee discussing cake decorations. and why not add some fun cookies while we are at it. :)

so balloon unveiling it was. next task was finding a big box... harder than you might think. we asked around at a couple of stores and finally the thursday before uhaul came through for us and $13 later we had a box.

then came decorating it. i was a bit overwhelemed as i had no idea what i wanted on the box. nic in a matter of fact tone, said, oh, let's just wrap it up like a present. perfect. done. 

i found some ribbon at walmart, ended up being the sheerest ribbon i'd ever seen, oops. he whipped up the present just in time and it looked perfect.

throughout this process, i learned a couple of things. first, we are currently in a a helium shortage due to lack of natural gas mining or something, and two, helium only lasts a max of 8 hours, so we needed to be sure to get the balloons blown up close to the event so they would actually fly out.

thanks to some WONDERFUL friends, we got a box filled with balloons.

everyone gathered,

and ate,

and caught up on life - it had been about four years since all these people were in the same place,

and soon found out with us that.... 

it's a BOY!!

it was a wonderful way to find out and so the planning began for our little soccer player. :)