Caedmon is ONE

My sweet little boy.  It has been one full year since you joined our family.  Longer than a year since I've known you but one year since you were placed in my arms.  My boy.  My second boy.  You surprised us all by coming a month early but have done beautifully and nothing about that has slowed you down.

God knew (of course he did) that we needed another little boy in our family and you fit that role

perfectly.  I pray you and Lincoln will grow up being best buds.  

We are so blessed by this year and will be extremely grateful for each day

we get with you, our son.  We know we are not promised tomorrow and will

cherish each day, each hour soaking in every bit of you that we can.

Being a second time mom has been so much easier.  Partly because you were/are a super easy 

and laid back baby.  I don't even have to entertain you like I had to Lincoln.  You have your own built in entertainer ie. Lincoln.  He's doesn't always appreciate his role or that you follow him everywhere and I foresee using my mom's line from my childhood to my sister and I "God made you sisters brothers for a reason" :)  I always hated it when she said that.  But after all that fighting we are now best friends.  

If you had it your way you would be attached to my hip 24/7.  Seriously kiddo you are 

a mama's boy (and I really secretly love it).  But lately you have finally realized you have a dad too.  He was the first one that you waved to.  You were so excited when he got home from work and waved excitedly to him from your high chair.  Sweetest sight.  

You are busy.  That's all there is to it.  This age is just a busy age.  Curiosity lends itself to constant

moving and exploring.  Something that wears me out but I know it's only for a season and then I'l be missing it (or not) haha.

As these pictures show you have this thing with you tongue.  You stick it out quite often and always to the side like that.  Silly boy I love your little quirks and seeing little bits of your personality shine through as you get older.

You will be walking before I know it and then running, going to school and graduating. 

Yes it will go that fast.  I'm bracing myself.  

You won't remember this but I'm doing something I swore I would NEVER do since you have

a december birthday.  I'm combining it with Christmas -gasp!- But there is a reason.  The reason is family.  Good enough reason?  You get two parties this way!  One with Daddy's side and one with mommy's side.  So really in the end you win :)

Grandma Hunni got to give you your first birthday present.  

what is the paper stuff?

I think your brother thinks it's his.  Don't worry I'll defend it for you.

He only pushed you off once.  Watching your brother get gifts for the first time and you 

don't get any is hard, but it'll get easier.  It was good for him.  

and just for my reference:
-you cruise everywhere and will stand alone occasionally.
-you are completely switched over to whole milk.  Thankfully that was an easy transition!  now to switch you from bottles to a sippy cup.....and the hunt continues for the perfect one :)
-you aren't afraid to surprise attack your brother.  It's quite fun to watch actually.  Lincoln doesn't find as much humor in it though.
-You stand on your own here and there and accidentally took one step yesterday :)
-you scarf down any kind of food that's put in front of you.
-you go to bed around 6pm every night.  No that's not a typo.  You seriously love your sleep.  And you usually wake up around 7-8am everyday.  Yes that's 13-14 hours STRAIGHT that you sleep every night.  It's a tough job trying to keep you awake long enough so daddy can see you each night, but it's worth it.
-{will update more after your 1 year check up on Tuesday}


and just because I love to look back...

Happy 1st Birthday Caedmon Jay.  I love you to the moon and back!

-mommy

all is calm, all is bright

Luke 2:1-20

"2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Saviorhas been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

Did you notice there are no presents under our tree yet?  The main reason for that is because I'm behind on my wrapping : /  But as I thought about it more I realized that I kind of like it that way.  This way we can look at the tree and think about and remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas and not focus on what's underneath the tree (focusing on ourselves and what we want and hope to get for Christmas)  I'll put the Christmas presents out at the last minute before we leave to see family but this way I don't have my toddler thinking all about himself and all the presents he's going to get.  This way I can help him focus on Jesus and HIS birthday.  

And while we are talking about presents we've decided as a family to start doing presents like this:

something they want

something they need

something to wear (jammies on Christmas eve!)

and 

something to read

I've heard of a lot of families doing this and wanted to give it a try!  

tiring, overwhelming, daunting, exhausting, scary...

just a few of the ways I'm feeling right now about parenting as a whole.

some of them describe the current days of endless correction and discipline.

and the rest are how I feel about thinking of the end goal we have with raising our boys.

and the fact that what we want and pray they become is only partly in our hands.

we will do the best that we can to provide an environment full of love, truth and grace

and then hope what we've done sinks in.

right now we are in the middle of a parenting study with our small group on sunday evenings.  it's chip ingram's "effective parenting in a defective world."  and it's good.  so good.  it's not the first one we've done, but now that Lincoln's old enough for us to apply some of the things we're learning, it's different this time around for us.

Tyler and I have learned so much and I wanted to share some of the things that have really stood out to me. {that may mean this spills into a couple posts} :)

The main thing so far is that we as parents need to recognize that our child's primary responsibility is to learn obedience.
Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, it is your duty to obey your parents, for this is the right thing to do.  Respect your father and mother is the first commandment that has a promise added: so that all may go well with you and you may live a long time in the land.

Obedience is defined as teaching your child to come under the hearing of your voice.

The end goal of obedience to mom and dad, is for our children to learn to submit to the voice of God.
They learn to obey us (who they can see) so that they can learn to obey God (who they can't physically see).

No pressure huh?
So that they shift their dependence (eventually) from us to God.  We aren't teaching independence in a sense, just redirecting their dependence.
I can remember in my own growing up when that switch started to happen.  It was the whole situation when my dad was forced out of farming, we had to move and switch schools.  To my 15 year old self (who had unfortunate pressure from teachers and coaches at the time) it was earth shattering.  I know, I know, this was pud compared to what a lot of 15 year olds have had to endure in their already short lifetime but to me (in my very sheltered life so far) it was as if the earth was crumbling beneath me.  It didn't take long for me to realize that a lot of things in the world, my parents couldn't control.  Like this situation, it was out of their control and for me to see that as their child, really played a significant role in my relationship with Christ.  Until then I had a very surface level faith.  I grew up learning all about God, asked him into my heart at a young age and followed the rules because my parents taught me well.  We went to church every Sunday and I was a "good" little Christian girl :)  But I had never made my faith, my own.  It took these circumstances to really shift my dependence on my parents to dependence on God.  He got me/us through that terrible (to me) situation.

Wow, that was quite the tangent.  So back to teaching obedience... :)

But the main point that I've had to focus on as we figure out this whole parenting thing is that obedience is a process.  Ugh, seriously?!  I can't just snap my fingers and he automatically obeys right away, all the way and with a happy heart?!?!  Unfortunately, with a strong willed child it'll be a looooooooooong process.  And boy do we have a strong willed child.  Maybe it's a first born thing.  I don't know but I know I can be little stubborn at times....

There are good days and there are bad days.....like a couple days ago when I had to drag my kicking and screaming child out of the library because he was not obeying when I said it was time to go.  Oh my goodness I don't think he's ever thrown that bad of a tantrum before.  My blood was boiling to say the least.  We had a 30 minute ride home and over and over again we talked about why he is to obey the first time, that God wants him to obey his mommy, the consequences that will happen when he throws fits.  Over and over and over and over and over again.

A child's responsibility ties right in with their needs.  They NEED significance (love) and security (boundaries).  Children CRAVE boundaries.  They need them.  So we give them.

And as hard as some days are, they are all part of this whole thing called parenthood.  This wonderful, beautiful time of our lives :).

So thankful for my preemies!

Very thankful for my very healthy preemie today on

World prematurity awareness day!  

One of his former NICU nurses asked if they

could put up a little display of him in their NICU 

Hall of encouragement.  That's what I like to call it.

When Lincoln was in the NICU I would stop in this hallway, 

on my way to pump, and read each of the babies stories

and find encouragement in all of them.  They were all doing

so well now and had come such a long way.  

When she asked if Lincoln could be put up there I cried.

I cried because he is one of those that is doing well 

and has come such a long way.  I'm so blessed 

and happy.  So many times, things could've gone SO, SO wrong

for both he and I, but it didn't.  It wasn't time for either of us 

to go.  And I'm so thankful I have the chance to be his mommy. 

Here is the display that's hung in the hallway: 

and since the writing is super small here is what it says:

"After Lincoln's mom experienced her water breaking at 24 weeks in her pregnancy, everyone prepared for him to make his entrance into this world far too early.  When labor symptoms never appeared, doctors took extra precautions not to introduce infection and his mom was ordered bed rest here at the hospital until delivery.  Although her water had broken, a mother's body still continues to produce amniotic fluid, and amazingly, Lincoln always had just enough near his mouth so he was able to continue to develop his lungs.  He waited another 7 weeks before her body decided it was time.  She had come down with pre-eclampsia and later, HELLP syndrome.  Lincoln was born via emergency c-section at 31 weeks 5 days. He weighed 3lbs 6oz and was 15 3/4 in. long.  Everyone expected his lungs to be severely underdeveloped but he shocked everyone when he didn't need oxygen and was breathing on his own.  After 6 weeks in the NICU, struggling to learn how to eat and a hernia surgery, he was released to go home!

Lincoln is now a very energetic, curious and tender-hearted 3 year old who definitely keeps his parents on their toes!"  

I love BOTH of my preemies! :)

friday photo dump

my instagrams from this week:

{if you want to follow on instagram I'm @thelincbetweenus}

GO BIG RED! // 9 month appointment //

stylin' // all snuggled up on a chilly morning

baby gates are reappearing here // Iron Man takes coloring very seriously

if only I could freeze time like this forever // he brought me his cup and the jug of milk

caed is my new headband model, isn't he pretty :)

{he is gonna hate me someday for this}

happy weekend everybody!

Tyler's hidden talent {playdoh animals}

Lincoln loves playing with playdoh. He was asking me to make him all kinds of animals and I'm horrible at it so I passed that task along to Tyler and he totally showed me up!  

I think he gets the job of "animal" making every time Lincoln plays with playdoh now!  I was super impressed!

saturday morning. pj's. and playdoh. 

elephant.

lion.

monkey.

snake.

turtle.

Lincoln has such a fun {and talented, at least at playdoh animal sculptures!} daddy!

match-y, match-y

Just because I have boys doesn't mean I can't have fun with dressing them! :)

Thanks to Grandma Hunni, Lincoln and Caedmon 

were matching for church on Sunday and it was so cute. 

Here are a couple pictures I was able to snap that afternoon...

STRETCH!!!

"no hit, caedmon!" -Lincoln

my happy baby

"caedmon, no hit!" -a more frustrated Lincoln

as if he was really hurt, haha!

Beautiful blues

and two more from last Saturday....brothers hanging out together

Love it!  My heart is full and we are so blessed by these two.