Thursday...and finally sitting down

Man, what a week it's been!!! I don't even know where to start! I don't have my camera with me, so I'll have to post stuff later with the pictures, because there were some fun ones. This week has been chock full - 1st dentist appointment for Jacob & Josiah, Callie's 6 month well baby visit (she's a whopping 14 lbs 9 oz now!!!), a trip to the beach mid-October DURING NAPTIME that was very fun (only VISITING Sue on the edge - I REFUSE to live there!), biblestudy, small group, clean house, nephew from Minnesota flying in, David taking nephew to Liberty for college for a weekend, trip to the pumpkin patch, picking out 6 mo. pictures of Callie at the studio, etc, etc, etc. Anyways, I'm alive and kicking. Children are all in bed asleep, and I'm going to go sit on the couch and read my new Karen Kingsbury book. I'll blog with some pictures tomorrow!!! Whew!

Two New Brothers!

No, I'm not pregnant and expecting twin boys!!! But it has been an exciting weekend in the Schrodt family!!

On Friday morning, we were driving to the gym like always and the boys were talking in the back of the van about how something died. I think the discussion started with a flower that died (I'm a terrible gardener), and then Josiah was talking about what happens when we die. He's been asking alot of questions about heaven lately, and talking about Jesus and having him in our hearts, etc. Whenever we've talked about it though, he always has just stated all the facts and then said that he doesn't want to pray to God about it "today". Well, on Friday morning, he said to me that he was going to pray to ask Jesus to live in his heart so that he could go to heaven with Him when he died. Of course, my head snapped up and I looked back at him, and sure enough, he's covering his eyes and begins to pray!! Does the whole bit - thanked Jesus for dying on the cross, asked Him to forgive His sins, and to please come in His heart. I couldn't believe it! Of course, this wasn't quite the moment that I had envisioned, but that's okay!! Driving to the Y, Josiah's name was written in the Book of Life! He was so excited - I could hardly see straight! :)

Then this morning, we're getting buckled into the van for church this morning, and Josiah starts talking about the things he's thankful for (this morning was our church's "Thank You Jesus" love offering). He said that he was thankful that Jesus lives in his heart now and that he is a Christian (I was surprised he knew this "term"). Jacob pipes up and says that he wants to be a Christian too so that Jesus can live in his heart! Again, not exactly the setting that I had dreamed of, but I couldn't refuse him. He prayed also, and when he was done, Josiah and Jacob had the biggest smiles on their faces - they were so excited that they were BOTH Christians now, and that they would be in heaven TOGETHER and their names were going to be written down TOGETHER, etc, etc. So cute. I told David about it when we got to church (he had gone early), and we were so excited about our boys. Almost 3 and 5 years old. Faith like a child. All that they know of God today. We have prayed for these boys that they would place their earliest trust in the Lord and they are. We will continue to pray that as they grow older, their faith would be so vibrant and real to them, and that they would seek to serve Him all of their days. I love you so much boys. It pleases my heart that you want to love Jesus with all of your little 3 and 5 year old hearts. Always seek after Him and follow His heart, boys.

My Camp

As I mentioned before, I'm in the midst of a Beth Moore study on the tabernacle. Here was our verse of the day when I was doing my homework:

"The Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.". Deuteronomy 23:14

GREAT reminder - check your camp!!! :)

Heat Wave!

I just saw on Fox News that the Chicago Marathon had to be halted due to extreme heat (upper 80s) and high humidity. It said something like 250 runners had to be treated at the hospital and 1 runner died. SCARY! My sister Kelli has run this marathon for the last two years. She loved it because the weather always was GREAT to run in (she's from FL, so Chicago felt so good to her). Last year there were snow flurries! How bizarre! This year, she decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in DC at the end of the month -we're going to be able to watch her. This news is going to stress my Mom out though!!

Along those same lines, David's band is playing a wedding down in Duck, NC tonight. It's an outdoor reception, and David called me after his sound check and said he was SO hot!!! The bride had rented space heaters for the outdoor tent, assuming that it would be cool on October 7!!! Wrong they were! David was hoping that once the sun set, the temps would drop...and quickly! That poor bride - she didn't know she'd be sweating at her reception!!!

Super Saturdays!!

What a full Saturday!! Who doesn't like to start a Saturday with a little 5K fun run? It was my first race of sorts - but not a REAL race. The Y sponsored a fun run, and so I was excited to do it. Kelli told me all of the "race" rules - don't run the day before, eat spaghetti (lots of carbs) for dinner the night before, and NO wearing an IPOD during a race!!! I obeyed 2 of the 3 orders - I did the elliptical & weights on Friday, ate pizza last night for dinner at CA Pizza Kitchen, and left my IPOD at home. However, I REALLY missed my music!!! Kelli assures me that in the big races, there is so much entertainment around that you don't miss it. Anyways, it felt great to complete it, as always, and so I was proud.

Then, David, Callie, and I headed up to church while Mom and the boys began their day of fun. David and I had a GREAT time at the marriage mentoring simulcast. The speakers were great (they were simulcast live from Seattle), and we are SO excited about this new ministry that our church will be kicking off. We have had such a passion for marriage and family ministry for years. We contemplated joining Family Life ministries years ago before David went to graduate school. Anyways, we had a great day hearing about this ministry and how we can equip ourselves to help walk through some things with other couples. What a difference it can make!! It was wonderful to have some uninterrupted time together as a couple, as well. It was like a 6-hour long date, in a way!!

Of course the boys had the time of their lives with my Mom - they don't often get to be all by themselves with her - usually we're all together or something, but they had a BLAST!! They went to the teacher store, bought me some new candles, had a fabulous lunch together, and just all kinds of fun. I am SO thankful for my Mom and the very special relationship that she has with each of my children. I LOVE that we live close enough to be able to pop in for these quick trips. The time is never long enough, but how THANKFUL I am for her!! I love you Mom!

Friday night with Sharks!

What a great weekend it's been so far!!! Mom got into town on Friday morning and the kids were all SO excited to see her! Callie was hilarious - she kept doing this bashful laugh thing with Mom - she was so excited to show her all her new tricks like crawling and eating food too!! The boys took really great, long naps (they are STILL catching up from our camping weekend) so we got to go to the Aquarium on Friday night. They had a special open house for teachers (gotta love these free perks!) and the boys just loved it! David loved the IMAX the best (TOTALLY freaked out the boys - we made it about 2 minutes before having to leave), and the boys loved the sharks and the pretend submarine they played in. Oh, and Josiah said he liked taking pictures with the dolphins - meaning the dolphin statues outside. We ended the night with some Bruster's Ice Cream - my Mom's favorite. I surprisingly enjoyed my no sugar added raspberry swirl - after all, I did have a race the next morning!!!

TGIF!

It's been a busy week (busy few weeks actually) with all that's been going on. Very excited this morning about my Mom coming today. She's just coming for today and tomorrow, but we're all SO excited!!! David and I registered for a marriage mentoring simulcast that is all day on Saturday, so she graciously offered to come and stay with the boys so they didn't have to be in childcare all day long. (I'll have to take Callie with me so I can feed her). We're excited about the simulcast - marriage and family ministry has always been a real passion for David and I, so we're looking forward to that on Saturday.

The Zoo!!!

I realized later that this is the only picture of Callie from the day! She was buckled in the stroller, so she didn't get posed in the pictures. Oh well - it was probably "safer" that way, right?
This was the first thing we saw - the tigers! They were asleep right below where the boys were standing on the fence! They loved it!! (By the way, you'll notice this recurring pose through this post. The pictures all seem to be of them lined up looking at something - it's hilarious!)
This was as much as we saw of the butterfly garden!
Harrison was asking to see the lions ALL morning! They were way in the back, but we saw them (well, only the daddy lion sleeping in the grass). The baby cubs still haven't made their appearance yet - too new, I suppose.
Always love the elephants - HATE the stink!
Jacob especially loved the giraffes. We were able to see them really close up.
Josiah said he liked this the best - testing out his wingspan!

And at the end, Jacob, Jackson, and Harrison ran through the sprinklers and got SOAKING wet!! Josiah opted to stay out of that one and stay dry!


This should have been the first of these water pictures - this was them just "feeling" the water. It didn't take long for them to take the plunge and get totally soaked!
Josiah LOVED this - they had a giant spider web to climb on. (You know, continue to feed the Spiderman obsession I suppose!)

We had a special fun day today! Beth & her boys were in town visiting while Anthony had some work to do, so we went to the zoo this morning! We haven't been in a LONG time, and the weather was gorgeous! The boys loved running around and seeing everything. It's the perfect little zoo for kids this age - it's never crowded, so they can run around freely, and you can see everything in about 2 hours! It was great!

The Schrodt Family Campers!

This was the boys roasting their marshmallows the first night. On hangars!!!!

Yummy smores!! Jacob took one bite of his, and then said he just wanted plain chocolate!! Hilarious. Me and Josiah really enjoyed ours though - that was the reason I ran on Friday morning! So I could enjoy my smores without guilt!


Josiah and Jacob - aren't they so cute? I should have had David take a picture of my face, because this was at 10:30 AT NIGHT!! They should have been asleep long long ago, but look at how excited they were!!!!

Alexander, Josiah, and Bradley worked for over an hour getting "their campfire" ready - they moved all this wood all over the campsite to load up this firepit. It was hilarious! None of us really clued in to what they were doing until the 3 of them started moving these huge logs!!!

Alayna was the only other girl of the bunch - she just turned 1, and is such a cutie. Especially when covered in dirt!! Callie watched her with envy!!

All my boys canoeing! They saw a deer jump in the water and swim to the other side when they were out on their boat ride!!
Forgive the picture of me, but this was Callie in her camping clothes!!! I had to rustle up a pair of overalls for her to wear on her camping trip. She doesn't really have any "grubby" clothes, you know!
This was the best. The boys and I went for a hike on Saturday afternoon while David was playing bocce ball. We had a great time just hiking and exploring.


Yes, that's a real axe. And yes, they were chopping wood. And YES, TWO of them had babies in their hands at the time!!!!

Callie and Alayna - the girls were so cute with each other. This was one time they were actually both contained on the blanket!
I love, love, love this picture!! This was on Saturday morning. After breakfast, David and I were going to take the boys for a quick walk before Callie's morning nap, and slowly we kept adding kids who wanted to come along. We had the whole gang of big boys with us, and I got this picture when we first started our adventure. What fun! (It's Bradley, Josiah, Grayson, Alexander, and Jacob)
After our walk, we came back and painted some rocks that we had found.

Mr. Boyer took the boys for a little bike ride. (Oh, and in the background, you can see our van and the tent that we stayed in).

So here are some pictures (a few!) from our fabulous camping weekend. We had such a great time with some friends from our small group (a BIG thank you to all of you that helped us novice campers out!) and made some wonderful family memories. Josiah said his favorite thing was sleeping in the tent, and Jacob said his favorite thing was going canoeing. Really, we enjoyed the whole weekend so much (well, except for the part about the boys not going to sleep until 10:30 pm on friday and a few minor behavior issues due to lack of sleep the night before) and definitely look forward to doing it again. Enjoy the pics!! (By the way, sorry they are out of order. I can only load 5 or 6 at a time, and so they get in all backwards. How do you remedy this? I don't know how to move them around once they are loaded??) There are about another hundred pictures, but I'll let everyone else post their other ones for you to get the whole scene! It was great though!

Just a little prelude...

I don't have time to post for REAL about the weekend, but I'll say this. We had a BLAST camping and definitely would do it again. I even think we'll put some camping equipment on our Christmas wish list. Had a blast!!! Then we got to go to the zoo this morning with Beth & her boys, who are up visiting from Raleigh. What a FUN few days! David has band practice, so unless I collapse in exhaustion, I'm hoping to post some pictures tonight. I'll leave the video slideshow to Sue!!! :)