A Beautiful Vue: Castles out of Cushions

Nothing is more fun these days, for the twins, than totally pulling all and I do mean ALL of our couch cushions off our couch and building a castle in the middle of the living room!  Watching them brings back my own memories of spreading sheets all over my parents living room to build a fort.  There was something awesome about crawling through tunnels of cushions and having lunch under a sheet tent in the living room.  Our boys like to make a mound of cushions leading up to the couch just so they can scale it.  They'll spend an hour just climbing and jumping into a pit of cushions.  

I love watching them play and pretend.  Yes my living room looks like a wreck for a little bit, but the time it takes to pick up a few cushions is so worth the time they spend laughing and playing.  And isn't that what children are supposed to do?  A happy and healthy childhood where they can be creative in their play, helps them to be happy and healthy grown ups who are  able to have fun and be creative as adults.  

I think our job, aside from raising them up right, is to also make it easy for them to play and laugh and just be kids!  Our boys' childhood is a precious gift and I hope they always have fond memories of being young as they grow up to the men that their Daddy God has called them to be.

Share your favorite childhood memory or what you love about watching your own children grow and play!  

A Beautiful Vue-Winter Roadtrip

My vue on our way home from visiting family.  We left early Monday morning to be back to work and school stuff that needed to preped.  We had a pretty eventful trip in the 6 hours it takes to get home.   Everything from a flat tire at 5:30 in the morning to not one but two car sick episodes.  The word "projectile" was used!   By the end of the trip J and I just had to laugh and joke about it.  But this picture captures a peaceful in between moment, when all the kids slept quietly and we were able to enjoy it.  We made some memories for sure!  Happy Friday!

A Beautiful Vue: Our Heart

This photo was  taken by a friend and local photographer.  She's been taking the twins photos since they were very little.  She took these right before Christmas & I love it because it captures our heart as a family. This pose was her creative idea!  It's been a beautiful Christmas Season and I'm grateful for the many amazing blessings, especially these precious boys and my best friend.  A "Beautiful Vue" for sure!

A Beautiful Vue: Tea for Two

It started out tea for one, but how could I resist sharing with this sweet little guy.

A Beautiful Vue: Sleepy Heads

My beautiful Vue this week...

J kept the boys home the other night so I could do the grocery shopping kid-free, a luxury these days, and when I got back this is what or rather who I found in our bed.  All three boys camping out with their Daddy.   Precious boys!

A Beautiful Vue: Book Worm

My beautiful vue this week...

This is what a homeschooler hard at work looks like.  He is making some major headway and I'm am one very happy homeschooling mama!  Definitely a beautiful view from where I'm standing.

A Beautiful Vue: Growing Boy

Wow! Look at this kid...where did our baby go? I took this picture after his last night of soccer camp. He had a blast and he's played hard, can you tell? I looked at this picture later on and thought to myself when did he get so tall and that I can see a glimpse of the boy face giving way to a man face. It's crazy to think how fast time has passed since he was born. I could go on and on but I wont! Tru you are one awesome kid who never ceases to amaze us and we are so grateful God blessed us with you. Man I love this growing boy!

A Beautiful Vue: Liam

He loves to swing!

A Beautiful Vue: Our Song

Today or maybe yesterday depending on how fast I get this post out, J & I had our ninth wedding anniversary! We're going to celebrate this weekend, but he did do something really special for me. He had one of our best friends, who is a very talented artist, paint the lyrics of our wedding song. Check it out...

Our friend, Jessica, painted these pieces and did a great job. Some of the words have flecks of gold shimmer to them and the colors are exactly what I would've picked out. I just love these pieces! She is so talented. I am always amazed at what she can do. She has a really great blog, TechnaChroma, where she writes about all the projects she is working on, the different artists who inspire her and pictures of it all from murals she's painted to individual pieces you can even purchase. Check her out here!

The lyrics are from the song, The One, by Skillet. We listened to a lot of Skillet through our dating years...I don't think in J's mind we were ever dating though. He says he knew from early on that I was the right person, so I guess he was just biding his time waiting on me to catch up. It took me a little longer to know. So anyway this song was the song I walked down the aisle to at our wedding. We knew from the first time we heard it that it would be our wedding song...it didn't take me long with that decision. Anyway, I think he did great job with this one. I know he put a lot of thought into it and it means something to him,too. Whenever we look at these paintings it will remind us of our beginnings and the story of US. But best of all that our story has got many many years to add to it...I'm thinking at least 50 or 60 more! Thank you Jody. I love you & Happy Anniversary!

A Beautiful Vue--A day in the lives of Liam & Levi

After I laid the little boys down for bed tonight I walked down our hallway and into the living room only to be met by a mess of toys, a couple mismatched baby shoes, random kitchen items(they love to play with our kitchen stuff), and a few more odd and ends from the day. There was a trail of these things from the family room to the kitchen. I started to pick up thinking to myself I know I picked these things up earlier. Now our little boys didn't do all the mess, but they did do most of it and just like any little boys their age they are curious and full of energy. I told Jo while I was tossing toys in the toy box that other than their nap after lunch Liam and Levi hadn't stopped all day. So what do two 17 month old toddlers do all day. Well let me show you just a little bit...

they "help" put away groceries...

they drive buggy carts...

they try their very best to open anything they might be able to reach after rummaging through the kitchen cupboards(see the open cupboard on the right)

and most of the time they are in too much of a hurry to stop and take a picture(see very blurry photo). Now that's just a tiny bit of their busy day. I don't think five little pictures could really sum it all up. When I look at that last picture of Liam it reminds me that our time with our boys, while they're young, passes in a flash and how I should cherish every minute of it. Even on our craziest days when my energy is spent and I just push the toys and clutter aside, I can still find joy just in the simple fact that I got to spend my day with our kids. Our boys make life so much more interesting and fun. What an awesome privilege we have to get a front row seat in watching it all.