yearly OSU pic :o)

3 years ago, we started the tradition of taking a family pic on the morning of the first OSU football game! We love this tradition and hope to continue it for years and years. :o)

 2011

 2012 

(jasper's in blue?!? what?!?!)

2013

bodies

As a parent, I find myself having weird conversations either with Jasper or about Jasper. I know it comes with the territory of teaching things to a young child, but sometimes, as things are coming out of my mouth, I find myself thinking, "wow. this is weird." For example...

On Monday during lunch, Jasper picked up my bible and randomly opened it up to some verses and asked me to read them to him. Very happily, I complied. I read them and then, like always, attempted to explain to him what they mean in "every day life" to a toddler. You know, make them applicable to his precious heart. The verses were about being good stewards of our bodies, and our conversation went like this...

me- "so, basically Jasper, what God is saying is that He created our bodies and so we need to respect our bodies and do only good and healthy things for our bodies. We should not do anything that is harmful or wrong to our bodies."

J- blank stare.... then... "where'd da bodies go?"

me- "oh."

let me explain. Whenever Jasper doesn't understand a word or concept or wants further explanation of a topic or is just confused in general, his way of asking for help in understand is to ask 'where did such-and-such go'.

me- "That's a good question, buddy! Ok, let's see. Our bodies are... hmm... like, this right here (patting my arms, legs, head, knees, etc.). This is my body. Everything that's inside my skin is my body."

J- blank stare... then... "where's da skin go?"

me- "oh. That's a great question, buddy. Let's see... skin is... this stuff right here (I'm pinching my skin and holding it up to Jasper's nose). This is my skin. It holds together my body and all the stuff inside my body, like my bones and joints and my blood."

J- panic creeping into his eyes... then... "Mommy have da blood??!? Mommy have blood?!? Mommy have da blood boo-boo!! Oh no!! Mommy have da blood boo-boo!!!!!!!"

freaking out ensues.

after I convince Jasper I don't have a blood boo-boo, I say...

me- "ok, buddy... this is way too confusing. let's start over. Can I start over and try to explain 'bodies' again?"

J- blank stare... then... nods

me- "ok, 'bodies' are... you. When you see any person in the world, you are actually seeing their body. You have a body sitting right there in the chair. And I have a body and my body is sitting right here in this chair. This is my body, this is your body. Your body includes your head, legs, arms, armpits, knees, toes, ankles, and everything!! Allllllll of this stuff (patting him all over his body) is your body!! Does that make sense?"

J- "Mommy's body is in dat chair, and Baber's body is in Baber's armpit!!!"

me- "well, close buddy! Your body isn't really in your armpit, but your armpit is a part of your body."

Jas- "Baber's body is in Baber's armpit!! Dat's cwazy!!!!! AHHAHAHHH!! Baber's body is in baber's armpit and mommy's body is in dat chair right there!! That's cwazy!!!!! AHHHAHAHH!!!"

me- "Ok. Watch this!!!" I start running around in circles in the kitchen. "See how I'm running around?"

he nods

me- "That's my body running!! Whatever I do, my body does it, too!! I am my body and my body is me. It's the same thing. I am my body. Does that make sense?"

he nods... then...

J- ""Mommy's body is in dat chair (even though I was still running in circles), and Baber's body is in Baber's armpit!!! Dat's so cwazy!!!!"

he's lifting up his arms, pointing to his armpits, and talking about how crazy it is that his body is in there and he's just laughing and laughing and laughing.

At this point, I give up and say..

me- "You got it, buddy!!" thinking to myself, 'If ya can't beat em, join em.'

so lunch goes on, jas is talking about his armpit and laughing the whole time, we finish lunch, we're playing on the floor, and Jas says..

J- "where'd daddy's body go?"

me- "good question! You know where Daddy is, right?"

J- "Daddy at Bofferfrom!!!" (aka Wasserstrom aka Andrew's work)

me- "That's right! Daddy's at Wasserstrom and so is daddy's body! Daddy and his body are the same thing and he's both at Wasserstrom."

J- "no, no, no, no... Not where'd Daddy go. Where'd Daddy's body go?"

me- "sweetie, they're both at Wasserstrom. Daddy AND daddy's body are BOTH at Wasserstrom. Then when daddy is done working, he AND HIS BODY are both going to walk out to his little black car and drive home!" thinking to myself, 'I'm totally making Andrew sound like a schizo.'

J- "Dadda at Bofferfrom and Dadda's body at Bofferfrom?"

me- "that's right sweetie!"

J- "when is daddy's body coming home?"

me- "Well, Daddy, and therefore his body, are going to be home in time for dinner."

J- whispering... "dadda's body coming home time fa ninner!!!"

me- "well, sure. You got it!"

the rest of the afternoon passed. not too much mention of bodies was made. I kinda forgot all about it. The following morning, I went to get Jasper up from his bed. I went in his room...

me- "Good  morning sweetheart!! I love you so much!! How are you?!?"

J- ....hunched in the corner of his bed, looking quite pathetic.... "Baber sad."

I look closely. There are tears. Huge crocodile tears forming in the corner of his eyes...

me- "oh sweetheart!! I'm so sorry!! Why are you sad?"

J- "Baber sad. Baber misses Daddy's body."

stifling every urge to laugh out loud, I scoop him up in my arms, gently soothe him, and think to myself, 'oh trust me. You're not the only one who misses Daddy's body.' :o)

Thankfully for us, both Daddy and his body rush home after work each day to spend the evenings with us. We greatly appreciate any and every minute we get to spend with both of 'em.

a dad's letter

There has been much publicity and criticism and talk about Miley Cyrus' performance at VMA on Sunday (it was truly disgusting and heartbreaking)... However, Miley wasn't alone on the stage. There was a man up there with her, Robin Thicke, acting just as perverted. The author of this following letter, Matt Walsh, pointed out that Miley, a 20 year old single gal, got loads of criticism while her co-star Thicke, a 36 year old husband and father of 2, didn't even get noticed let alone criticized. With a breaking heart, Walsh wrote this following letter wrote this to his 3 month-old son, teaching him what it means to really be a man.

As a mother of 1.5 sons, this letter resonated deep in my soul when I read it. as Jasper grows, he's going to start forming his own opinions about what it means to be a man, and I beg the Lord most fervently every day that Jasper will be a man after God's heart and truly pursue holiness all the days of his life. I beg the Lord to spare Jasper from the heartache of habitual sins and their consequences. I beg the Lord to make Jasper into a godly boy, teen, man, husband, and father, full of integrity and godly character and love for the Lord. I beg the Lord to let Jasper be the type of man who uses the Scriptures as his measuring tool for everything in life; that the Word of God will be Jasper's "go-to" instead of friends, media, worldly ideas, pop culture, etc. This letter just seems so perfect for boys in light of the Miley and her co-star's performance. I know that if Andrew had the time, he would write something very similar for our boys as well.

Dear son,

Don’t let Robin Thicke be a lesson to you.

Don’t let any of these pigs and perverts you see on TV be a lesson to you. They treat women like garbage; they possess no chivalry, no self control; they are disloyal and dishonest; they spend all day pursuing pleasure at the expense of others, and they encourage you to do the same. You might be tempted to follow suit. In fact, you WILL be tempted. These male pop stars and celebrities, look at them, you’ll think. They take advantage of emotionally broken, self loathing, confused young women, and they are rewarded handsomely for it. Look at their nice clothes and their nice cars. Look how they are admired and loved. Look, they treat women like trash and other women fawn all over them because of it. This must be how real men behave, you’ll think.

And you’ll be wrong. You’ll be wrong about a lot of things in life — this is what it means to be human — but never will you be more wrong than when you feel the temptation to buy the lies that pop culture sells about the nature of true masculinity. Son, there is nothing glamorous or fun about being a man of low character and no integrity. What you see on TV is a facade. It’s a sales pitch. It’s poison. You see the bright lights and the sexy women, but you don’t see what happens when the cameras are off and these pop culture gods return to their lives as mere mortals. You don’t see them in their big, empty, lonely houses. You don’t see the emptiness in the pit of their souls. You don’t see all the alcohol and drugs they have to use to dull the pain of living a life devoid of real, committed relationships. You don’t see the hatred they have for themselves and for humanity. You don’t see the jealousy they have towards normal, decent men.

Your dad is no celebrity. He’s just an average, boring guy. But he’s got something that every famous and non-famous womanizer envies: He’s got the love and commitment of ONE beautiful, smart, faithful woman. He’s got your mom, and he’ll only have your mom until the day he dies. He ought to be waking up every day shouting praises to the Lord because of that.

Listen, son, don’t let the world tell you how to be a man. They don’t know anything about the subject.

Men are loyal. Men are honest. Men respect and honor women. A man goes out and finds one woman, and he vows to protect and love her for the rest of his life. A man would never betray that vow. Even the weakest and most cowardly man — if he is a man at all — would die for the woman he loves. Your dad is no hero, but let someone try to hurt your mom and watch him suddenly turn into Superman (or Batman, whichever you prefer).

See, son, you don’t have to be big and strong to be a man, although I think you will be one day. You don’t have to be “cool” or athletic. You don’t have to play guitar or fix cars. These are all fine things, but they don’t define a man. A man is defined by how he loves the Lord, by how he treats women, by how he keeps his promises, and by how he protects and serves the ones he loves. That’s what makes a man a man. My dad taught me that, he taught it by example. I pray I can do the same for you.

Oh, and by the way, if I ever catch you disrespecting women, I will sit you down and talk to you about it. But first I’ll kick your butt up and down the street. That’s a promise.

Love,

Your old man

Rocco

We were on our way home from dinner this evening, when Andrew was trying ardently to convince me to name our unborn son "Rocco."

Andrew- "But it means 'rock' in Italian!! Isn't that awesome!! And Jasper means 'stone', so wouldn't it be SO cool if our 2 sons were both named after rocks?!?!?"

Me- "well, that would sure be something. How 'bout you can name our dog 'Rocco'?"

all of a sudden, from the back seat, Jasper starts genuinely laughing hysterically, at the top of his lungs...

Jasper- "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! SILLY MOMMY!!!! HAHAHAH!!!!! Mommy's CRAZY!!! We dont have a dog!!! AhahahhhAHAHAHahaHAHahAHahah!!!! Silly mommy!!! Mommy no have a dog!!! Crazy mommy!!! Mommy no have dog, Daddy no have dog, Jasper no have dog (like, 'see Mom! I'm proving to you that we don't have a dog!'). Silly mommy and daddy!! HAHHAHAAHHAA!!!"

He just genuinely laughed and laughed and laughed and got the biggest kick out of my apparent lapse in memory. And we, of course, got the biggest kick out of him! :o)

so richly full

I haven't blogged on here in quite a while... It's not from neglect or lack of wanting to... it's just that our lives have been so preciously, richly full these past few weeks and I haven't had a chance to sit down and write cohesive thoughts.

I will soon.

This summer has been so very precious and my heart often feels like it's overflowing. Like it can't hold everything that's in it.

Overflowing with gratitude to my Savior for giving me everything I ever hoped for and dreamed of. Of giving me so much more than I deserve, delighting in giving me the desire of my heart, helping to equip me for unexpected situations (mainly parenting), and gently guiding me when my flesh often threatens to consume His Spirit.

Overflowing with love and tenderness and affection for my precious Andrew, the man who serves and loves me constantly. The man who denies his wants so he can give me what I want. The man who leaves behind his left-over Red Lobster just so I have enough to eat for lunch. The man who makes me laugh, listens to me for endless hours, helps me decide which skirts look best with which tops, smells countless Scentsy scents so we can have "favorites" in case any customers ask, and plays with Jasper so I can rest. The man who takes a day off work so he can go to my dad's field day... just because I want him to. The man who knows my favorite tshirt and the brand of nail polish I prefer. The man who knows my exact favorite meal from any given restaurant. The man who rocks my world and lights up my life.

Overflowing with laughter and affection for sweet Jasper, who loves to "ham it up" to makes us laugh. The little boy who thinks his daddy can conquer the world and his mommy can heal every boo-boo. The little boy who loves to squash bugs to death yet tenderly hugs and hugs and hugs anyone who has a "sad face". The boy who can understand emotions to an amazind degree. The boy who thinks spinning helicopter blades and suckers make the world go 'round.

Overflowing with amazement that our sweet, precious little baby is moving and rolling around... and I can feel him!! How great is our God that He is knitting together our precious little one... even as I type this!

Overflowing with get-togethers with family and new friends and old friends and neighbors and co-workers. Overflowing with Scentsy. :o) Overflowing with pool and COSI and parks and cookouts and homemade doughnuts and fire pits and stargazing and cheesecake and more.

I need to put up some pics and update this blog on our summer happenin's soon... but for now, I can't resist signing off so I can head down and play with trains with my guys... their laughter is calling me. :o)

so very ornery

Jasper's a boy.

And he's 2.

And he's oh, so ornery.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want it any other way; for what fun would life be if Jasper was meek and mild and afraid to interact with his world??

He's a very sweet, tender-hearted little boy who loves to show affection to others, plays hard with his tractors and cars, love suckers more than life itself, and always wants to be in the same room as his parents.

I love this boy more than life itself and he's such a joy to our family.

But he's so ornery.

Let me give you a glimpse into one of my days last week:

It started out as a wonderful, stay-at-home day where Jasper and I did nothing but play together. It was truly wonderful. Then things started going south... quickly. We went outside to throw away some trash and on our way back inside, I noticed that Jasper's mouth was full. That's never good. Asking him to "open wide", I see that he had picked all of my beautiful, purple Petunias from my flower pots and stuffed in his mouth. At about that time, he decided they didn't taste good, so he spit them out and started rubbing his tongue up and down on my shorts to get the taste out. Splendid. Thanks, babe.

That's nothing big, though. It's all part of having a 2 year old and normally the Petunia incident wouldn't even make a blip on my radar. Several minutes later, though, I was off doing something highly irresponsible like brushing my teeth or something and I hear, "LOOK MOMMA!!! Baber made a train!!!!" in my naivety, I thought he actually made a train. With his trains.

I wander out to the kitchen to find that Jasper had found an opened can of pineapple chunks in the fridge. He decided this was amazing. He had also pulled out all the fridge drawers and many random food items, strewn them around the floor, sprinkled the pineapple juice all over all the items, left the fridge door wide open, and made a "train" out of the chunks all across my newly mopped kitchen floor. I remember saying something like, "wow, Jasper!!! That's so creative! But remember, don't open the fridge door without aski...." as I was in the middle of my very diplomatic answer, Jasper had discovered a puddle of pineapple juice and started jumping vigorously in the puddle. Ok, the time for diplomacy is over.

I scoop him up, take him to the tubby for he was an ever-lovin' sticky mess, gave him a tubby, and gave him strict instructions not to come to the kitchen for 10 minutes while I cleaned up his train. I told him he could play in his room or the hall or the bathroom, or the office.

What on earth was I thinking?

I go back to the kitchen and start washing off all our sticky, sticky food. I race downstairs and get a bucket of soapy lysol water and start mopping the floor on my hands and knees (2nd time in 12 hours). I hear the toilet flush. I didn't think much of it.

I hear it flush again. This time, I take notice. Jasper had been unusually quiet.

I convince myself that it's no big deal.

It flushes a 3rd time.

In the midst of mopping up puddles of pineapple juice, I leap to my feet, attempt to race to the bathroom, and I hear it flush a 4th time.

This is not good.

I rush into the bathroom to find that Jasper had stuffed as much "stuff" and trash and Walmart sacks down the toilet hole as he possibly could, was dripping wet with toilet water, was flushing the toilet vigorously, and was overflowing the bathroom.

"Stop!!!"

I spend the next 20 minutes unclogging the toilet, by hand, as the pineapple-juice-puddles on my kitchen floor continued to solidify. Jasper continues to dance about while splashing toilet water everywhere, completely oblivious, and I say to myself, over and over, "Love is patient, love is kind... love is patient, love is kind..."

He gets another tubby. The 2nd in 20 minutes.

I sit Jasper down and tell him pretty sternly that nothing is allowed to go into the toilet except toilet paper. "Do you understand?" "Des, momma."

I tell him to stay still, that I'm going to run the dripping wet bag of toilet trash out to the outdoor trash can, and I'll be back in a minute.

I'm gone no more than 8 seconds.

I come back. To find that Jasper had unrolled most of a roll of toilet paper and was stuffing it into the toilet.

I shoulda seen that coming.

I tell Jasper that we have a new rule. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is allowed in the toilet. Period.

I sit Jasper in his bed and tell him not to move so I can finish mopping up my now solidified pineapple-juice-puddles. I (finally) get my kitchen floor mopped.

I pop back into Jasper's room, he amazingly hadn't wrecked anything in the 3 minutes I dared to be gone. We cuddle, read a few books, sing Happy Birthday, and head out to the kitchen for lunch.

We both needed a pick-me-up at this point, so I got him a special treat- a sippy cup of sweet tea- to enjoy while I made our sandwiches. Jasper's happily playin' with his cars, I'm making the sandwiches, and when I turn around to tell him lunch is ready, I find that he had filled ALL of his little Matchbox cars and trucks with his sweet tea because "dey were dirsty, momma".

Deep breath. deep breath.

I'm trying to find the good... "He's just being creative.."

As I'm taking my deep breaths, Jasper starts "driving" his sweet tea cars and trucks all around the kitchen and living room, getting the biggest kick out of the "sweet tea trains" he was making.

Ok, back into bed, little boy, while I mop the kitchen floor. For the 3rd time. In 13 hours.

And it wasn't even lunch time.

We (finally) eat lunch.

We go out to the garden to pick tomatoes for supper that night. We come inside. I put the bowl of tomatoes in the sink and tell Jasper that I'll be back in a minute, that i'm going downstairs to get the crockpot.

I was gone no more than 12 seconds. Literally.

I come up to the kitchen to find Jasper smashing all the tomatoes down the drain. Into the garbage disposal. Smashing them with a super human strength and reducing my gorgeous, freshly-picked roma tomatoes to a heaping pile of garbage disposal mush.

Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out.

Our afternoon continued in much the same manner, with an awesome thunderstorm waking Jasper up a mere 40 minutes into his nap, scary the living daylights outta him, and officially making this the longest afternoon known to man.

When Andrew called to tell me he was stuck in a traffic jam and would be half an hour late, I replied, "you are so, so lucky."

Andrew finally got home, we sat down to dinner, Jasper defiantly said "no" in response to one of Andrew's commands. Andrew took him into his room to lovingly discipline him and it was about this time that my dinner didn't sit well in my stomach and I vomited it all up. On the kitchen floor.

Jasper's crying. My infinitely patient husband has been home 10 minutes and already his patience with Jasper is wearing thin, I'm throwing up. My kitchen floor is an ever-loving mess.

And it was at about this point that I decided to drag my weary bones upstairs, crawl under my bed, curl up in a fetal position, and never, ever come out again.

But remember, cherish these days. They go by so quickly.

it's a BOY!!!!

Although patience is a virtue, our motto with finding out the gender of our babies is, "Why wait when you don't have to?!?"

So... today at 14 weeks pregnant, the very first day we were possibly allowed to, we shelled out a few extra bucks and got to see our precious little baby and learned that he is a wonderful, precious boy!!!

We know so well that this little one is a gift from God and we're SO SO incredibly thankful for his good health, his strong heartbeat, and his little, perfectly-formed body!! We are so excited to have another little boy running around here soon; we have fun visions of bunk beds, camping trips, frog catching, fort building, and lego constructing swirling around in our minds and hearts and can't stop thanking God for such a wonderful gift. :o)

In true Natalie-fashion, we went to Krispy Kreme afterward to celebrate and had a grand time, although all 3 of us are now in a sugar-induced coma. We consumed 10 donuts between the 3 of us, and we're all crashing from our sugar high and excitement!

Here are a few pics from our precious celebration!

 Before the appointment. Excited and a little bit anxious.

 Our little guy on a 50 inch plasma screen. his head is to the left of the screen, he's laying on his back, and his belly is toward the right of the screen.

 It's a boy boy boy! Hooray!!

 We told Jasper to smile for 1 more pic then he could have donuts. It worked! He's givin' it all he's got! :o)

 He's in disbelief that he gets a whole "cookie" to himself!

 I can't wait to have another little guy!

My fav pic from the evening!  

millions of donuts being made! A dream come true!!! 

 We let him eat 3 whole donuts. By himself. He was crazy hyper. :o)

My dream life.

One thing that keeps going through and through and through my mind is:

"For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well." Psalm 138:13-14

We are praising God for this 2nd wonderful, precious little boy!!!