You’re four years old now!  How is that possible?  I’m not sure exactly.  I think I’ve always just thought of you as the baby, as little.  But here you are, all of a sudden, not so little anymore.  Part of me is a little sad, knowing that snuggling with me probably won’t be your highest priority forever.  But another part of me is really happy, seeing who you are, who you’re becoming!

You’re creative, constantly wanting to work on projects, making crafts or drawing and painting, constantly exploring and building. You’ve got a gigantic imagination!  You’re a great pretender, making up stories and acting them out all day long.  I love how excited you are about life, all of it!  Even the smallest detail is amazing through your eyes.

You’re a funny kid :)  I hope you’ll always have this quirky, uninhibited charm about you.  You can be sneaky, but you know how to cover for it with sweetness.  I haven’t decided if that’s a good or a bad thing!  You love your family and want to do everything with Daddy or me or Silas.

Silas is your best friend.  You two don’t always get along; I guess that can be expected from brothers.  But it gives me so much joy to see how you play together, take care of each other, make each other laugh, cheer each other up.

Daddy and I are so very very proud of you son, of all that you are and all that the Lord is shaping you to be.  You are a sweet blessing everyday, and we thank Jesus for allowing us be your parents!  Keep your eyes, your heart, all that you are, ever stayed on Him.

We love you much,

Mama

I took these pictures of her the other day.  Here she is in her natural habitat.

After she tolerated me taking a few of her wearing her comfy clothes, she wanted some “real” pictures.  I really like how these turned out!

I didn’t always understand the things my Mom did.  I’m realizing (now that I’ve got two littles of my own) how much wisdom she has!  I’m thankful for so much about her, and that we have such a great relationship now.  And I’m so very grateful that my sons have her to call “Lola!”  Happy Mother’s Day Mom!  I love you!

It’s been really cool so far; everyday there’s new information to chew on.  And since it’s online, everyone taking the class (I think all ladies) can encourage and critique each other, which is really cool but also a little intimidating!

This week we were supposed to do an assignment on lighting, exploring how manipulating the same light can create different moods in images.  Lately I’ve realized that I seldom purposefully ask Silas to be my subject.  It actually made me kind of sad to think I’ve been sort of neglecting him :/  He’s always willing to pose for me, but he’s getting older and capturing a natural looking expression is getting harder.

So, thinking through what I wanted to do for the lighting assignment, I asked for his help.  By the end of it, he was asking to be done so he could go play, but he stuck it out and I’m really happy we spent that little bit of time together, and that I have these sweet images of him :)

I think the image above fits the mood of this lighting the best, but I love these too :)

See, a real smile!  I love his slightly chipped tooth here :)  Someday those little pearls will fall out and his smile will change, and I’ll be happy we took this picture.

Last week was hard.  You know when the Lord is trying to teach you something, and it’s more like disciplining you?  It’s painful and you wrestle with the Lord.  And He’s patient, but also determined.  Yeah, that was last week.

Our family has been in a hard season for a while now.  Don’t get me wrong, there is much joy and even peace in our home, but we’ve just been in a place of having to be humble, to be dependent on God, and that has rarely been easy.  I keep waiting for it to end.  Here and there, it seemed like maybe there was an “answer to prayer,” like maybe things were finally coming together and we would be able to see what the Lord had planned all along – things would make sense.  Then we’d be back to where we started, where we are now.

Usually I’m okay, even able to be encouraging, trusting that the Lord would get us to where things would be good, where we’d have some security and a season of rest.  But last week something happened, and I couldn’t kick it.  I was done.  And mad, and tired.  Ever been there?

Is this it?  Is this what it is to obey the Lord, to be faithful? What about what I want?  What if I want to buy a house?  Or buy picture frames for that matter?! Will there always be this difficulty?  This never ending season of unknowns?

And the Lord said, “Maybe.”

“Um…excuse me?”

The Lord gave me Hebrews 11:8-10 ~ “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

And verse 13 which says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.”

And you know what stuck out to me?  Sarah.  Sarah was Abraham’s wife.  They were doing just fine, living it up in the city, surrounded by family and security, then BAM!  Her husband tells her that the Lord wants them to move somewhere.

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know.  We’re just going to pack up and go.  Away.  Now.”

“Um…okay.”

And they did.  Abraham, Sarah, all their stuff.  They packed up and followed the Lord.  And the Bible says that they lived like nomads, like strangers, in tents for the rest of their lives.  And not just them, they raised their kids and their grandkids like that.  And the Lord said to me, “She never bought a house.  She didn’t hang up picture frames.  She went camping – forever.”

Okay, so what you’re telling me is that my life, following You, could be no security in the world at all?  Until I die and go to heaven?

Maybe.

And these things that I want, like maybe being able to just be lazy and go get some fast food, or having a category in our budget called “extra money to be blown in whatever way I want,” that might not ever happen?

Right.

And I’m just supposed to know that you’re going to provide for us, to take care of us?

Yes, and if you’ve been paying attention, you definitely have more than just your needs covered.  And one more thing.  You need to stop whining about it.  You keep waiting for things to be “fine,” but you’re fine now.  I’m trustworthy.  You know this.  You need to get over yourself and let me use you to bless others.  Quit being such a wet blanket.

Alrighty then.  Is that all?

Yes.  And I love you like crazy.  Just thought you should know.

…………………

So that was last week.  And I get it.  The Lord really is taking care of us; He always has, and then some.  And over the weekend, an emergency medical situation came up for our pastor and his sweet family, something that still needs much prayer and a miracle from the Lord.  And there are other situations in the lives of people we love that are incredibly trying.  And I think, “What am I fussing about again?”  The Lord is good, so so good to us.  I really do want any security we have to be in Him, and in the Kingdom to come, not in this one.  I am a foreigner in this land.  I need to remember that.

I actually like the snow (as long as I don’t have to drive in it :) I’m ready for warmer weather, but for today, in honor of Colorado’s crazy weather, I thought I’d post some pictures of Ethan catching snowflakes.  And yesterday’s snow storm?  Maybe that was the last one?

Anyways, I hadn’t gotten it cut since last September and it was starting to look like I had gotten lost in the wilderness for a while – for reals!  It was soooo long!

Here is the before pic that Branden snapped on my way to the salon.  Yay for an awkward picture of myself!

It’s kind of a long story, but I actually got it cut three times, because the lady didn’t want to REALLY cut it.  She thought I might have a heart attack if she did what I was asking her to do.  So she cut it Thursday…

Then again on Friday…

She really WOULD NOT cut it anymore, so my friend hooked me up and finished the job on Saturday :)  Here’s what it looks like now! (photo bomb courtesy of our littlest ninja)

And a few more because silly faces with your boy are fun :)

So, no heart attack :)  I really love short hair – it’s so much fun!  And I don’t look like I was lost in the wilderness anymore!  My hair grows super fast, so I’m sure it’ll look different in about 5 minutes, but the change is really nice!

So we’re trying a new thing around the Treu house.  Being healthier.  I’ve heard good things.  I’m not talking go crazy and stop eating all processed food (maybe one day :)  But we can do A LOT better, just be smarter about what we’re putting into our bodies, into our kids’ bodies!  I know as far as food, I’m pretty much the ring leader of this circus, which means a lot of it is my fault responsibility.  It also means the changes will start and stop with me and that my kids will learn to eat the way they see me eat.  So, it’s time my friends, time for a change.

Right now I really just want to be intentional about what we eat/what we don’t eat.  So far it’s been kind of a slow start.  I’ve stopped buying a ton of processed food.  And I’m trying to substitute good stuff for the not so good stuff we’re so used to.  I’m also wanting to try new things.  That’s not always easy, old habits die hard.  But right now my kids seem somewhat adventurous with new foods, and they get excited about making food, so it can be fun!

The other day I made kale chips.  Yup, I took a green leafy vegetable and made them into chips.  And you know what?  The boys LOVE them!  And what’s better, they were really easy to make and are a great substitute for pretty much any other kind of chips we might buy at the store.

Okay, if you’re wanting to try your hand at making a batch, here’s what you’ll need:

• kale (You can buy them bagged like lettuce or by the bunch.  I actually had 1 bunch left over from a different meal, so I used that)
• extra virgin olive oil
• seasoning of your choice (we used this)

The day started with chocolate chip pancakes (birthday boy’s request!)  I make a pretty good pancake, if I do say so myself :)

After breakfast, we gave him our presents.  Ethan loves to do projects and create, so Branden and I got him a whole box of craft supplies.  He was stoked!

Did you know that 4 is the official gum chewing age?  Well, it is.  Silas wrapped up a package of watermelon gum and wrote him a birthday letter – so sweet!

Then we went out for a game of bowling :)

I saved my favorite picture for last.  This kid is seriously a ninja at heart :)  What’s awesome is that he actually has pretty good form!

Happy birthday little man!  You’re a blessing everyday, and we LOVE you!

So, I thought I’d share some of our favorite pics of our little man over the last year!  He’s so big now!  Be advised, I took a lot of phone pics (thank you Instagram :)

This is a real camera picture (or two!)  Ethan eating a cupcake at his last birthday party.  Look at that baby face!

The cool kids :)

This picture was taken last summer (a little late) in what was supposed to be his “official” birthday pictures.  I love this face!

Um…potty training.  What can I say, but that I’m glad we checked that off the list this year!

First real airplane ride!

These are from our painting family photo shoot last October – seriously one of my favorite session ideas!  So glad we did these!

Hard at work :)

Happy smile and gigantic feet!

And this is from a few weeks ago.  Isn’t he so big?!  How did that happen exactly?

So, today our little man turns four :)  Ethan is seriously the funniest kid I know, hands down!  He is a great helper, has a crazy big imagination, and loves pretending to be a ninja all day long, every day!  He can be very sweet and sometimes sour; he likes to dance and sing and tell jokes that aren’t really jokes (which actually makes them funny :)  We love him madly and I can’t imagine our little family without him!  Happy birthday Ethan!

I love these pictures!  Such sweet images of our littles :)  If I’m going to do a “photo shoot” with the boys, I’ve learned that we all have more fun if it’s activity related!  And the images come out more natural looking since they are actually enjoying themselves :)  This set up was super simple – a white bed sheet, indirect sunlight, and two boys ready to play :)  I love how these came out – like capturing childhood!  Enjoy!