Raising Schuurmans: February 2015

A few weeks ago was a holiday that we rarely celebrate in the Schuurman home. I learned when we were dating that Mark thought Valentine's Day was stupid and we wouldn't acknowledge it. Well, I'm not quite sure why, but this year we DID and it seemed to last for a few days! Here are some pictures of the boys in the cold weather as well as a fun Valentine's Day party we had with a few preschool friends on the Friday before. On the next post, I'll show you pictures (and hopefully a video!) of the snow we finally got today (Tuesday). It was only 2-3 inches, but the pictures are fun. I just can't seem to get them to properly download yet. Until then, love God and love each other. <3

Morning snuggles on the couch are one of my favorite parts of our day.

Titus is one cool dude in Granddad's shades.

Marcus worked very hard on his Valentine's letter match-up game.

He even went backwards.

One of the finished letters - V is for violin, but Valentine, too!

I sure do love this blue-eyed boy.

And we love this kid, too! He cracks us up!

Bath time buddies

"Working" at the salon.

So proud of how he set up his baseball field.

Valentine's decorations done right. ;)

We had heart lights everywhere, ready for a Valentine's preschool party with friends.

Lights with out Valentine's / Love themed books.

Their attempt at mean faces.

Sweetness - for just a minute.

Our spread of goodies for the party.

Our sweet friends!

Our neighbors Chris and Megan are a precious Messianic Jewish family with five children. She delivered their fifth child just two days after this picture was taken.

My sweet man brought THESE home on Friday night. I was BEYOND stunned, but so happy!

Mark and I spent our Valentine's date at Wee Trade - an enormous children's consignment sale.

He even took me out to supper and we played a rousing game of checkers. We ended in a tie!

On the actual Valentine's Day we had "reservations" at a special dinner held at Chick-Fil-A. It came with a harp, all-you-can-eat food, and they even gave me a rose. Pretty fun and a different way to celebrate.

Bundling up to go to the grocery store when it is so cold outside.

Sweet boy and stinker. :)

Reading his story to Daddy - he's doing so well!

This kid keeps us on our toes! He chose the outfit himself.

Marcus went outside one day to shovel ice on the driveway with Mark while Titus stayed inside with me.

     Since our last post (October) MANY things have gone on in the Schuurman household. The primary reason for lack of blogs was computer trouble. I tried a few times from my phone but to no avail. The secondary reason for lack of blogs was a pretty good reason, too. We are expecting our THIRD child in early July and not only has pregnancy brain set in, but I had a horrid first trimester. As of tomorrow, I'll be 18 weeks along and am currently feeling much better (despite a small sinus infection/head cold that's slowing me down a bit). By the looks of my emerging tummy, baby #3 is growing and I'm just now starting to feel him/her move a bit in the evenings when I finally sit or lay still. In two weeks we will get to see this beautiful child on our mid-way ultrasound, but just like with our previous babies, we'll leave the gender a surprise until birth. How crazy! How exciting!
     Well, let's give you a short re-capp of life, shall we?

     Marcus is now almost 4 1/2 years old and growing so tall every day. He is mature and intellectually bright for his age, while extremely shy and introverted. Being an extrovert myself it was hard for me to work with at first. But after I got wise council from many Christian avenues, I'm learning how to encourage but not push him too far. We want him to know that there is, however, a difference between being shy and rude. Shy is ok. Rude is not. He is currently on lesson 46 of 100 in a curriculum that's teaching him how to read. Oh how he loves it (and so do we!). He gets excited about sight words when he looks at books alone and will shout, "Hey Mom! I found one of my sight words!" (A sight word is not one that's easily sounded out, but he just needs to know it by sight. Example - "said")
     Marcus is still very competitive and loves sports of all types. Titus got a mini hockey goal for Christmas and both he and Marcus play either soccer or hockey in in DAILY with their daddy. Baseball is still a favorite of them both, however Marcus now says he's pulling for the Cardinals since his beloved Jason Heyward got traded to there from the Braves. While I am not a Cards fan myself, I kind of respect his devotion to his favorite player. I guess it's similar to how I'll still cheer for the Braves this season even though they've traded everyone away and it looks like it's going to be an AWFUL season. But I digress...

     Titus is now 19 months old and you'd never believe it the way he moves and by his size. He is 100% Daddy's boy and wants to do whatever he and/or Marcus is doing at all times. He only comes to me for nurturing when hurt or food. The child can still put away a ton of food (more than Marcus, typically). He has a long torso, putting him in size 3 shirts, and shorter legs, wearing size 2 pants. He still has a big ol' noggin, but he's slowing growing into it. To put it into comparison, he and Marcus can wear the same hats without adjustment. Crazy, right?
     While I was initially concerned with his lack of talking and language skills, he's blossoming and coming right along now. He tries to copy or mimic our words and says MANY on his own. He's beginning to put together two word sentences. His first two word sentence was, "Daddy toot," when Mark, well, you get the picture. :) He thinks anyone tooting is absolutely hilarious, but it's the funniest when he does it. Yes, he is ALL boy. He loves balls, all sports, cars, trains, and critters of every shape and size. When I do schoolwork with Marcus he wants to have his own work as well, so I give him paper to scribble on. If the papers don't match, he lets me know, and until I fix the problem, nothing is getting done around here. He's still quite vocal.

     Both boys are as I've said before: Joyfully Exhausting. Mark and I have an absolute ball with these little fellas and we are absolutely wore slap out at the end of each day. No soap operas and bon-bons are being eaten around here! It's full-throttle parenting and we wouldn't have it any other way.

     Mark is doing well. Still running two bread routes and loving that. Thankfully he's not had any recent arthritic flare-ups in a long time. He enjoys playing church basketball, going to the gym, and speaking/teaching/preaching at our church. He clearly enjoys playing with and teaching the boys when he gets home each day and during his time off. He read to them with such enthusiasm and teaches them so many things I don't even think of. He's even taught Marcus at least 20 of the 50 states and their locations. Smart man, that Mark Schuurman. He's currently looking forward to leading Financial Peace University at our church in March and April.

     I'm doing well also. Tired is just the name of my game nowadays. While raising two boys, keeping a home, growing a baby, and tending to salon needs is not easy, it is super enjoyable and I wouldn't want it any other way. When I was in college, I'd go to different homes and babysit for families once a week. I kept busy during my classes and made good money doing this. Now, I'm on the mommy-side of this and have a wonderful young girl named Jessica to come help me out. She comes every Tuesday and is just fantastic. She gives me a few hours to run errands and do salon work without the boys and when I come home, they are happily playing in forts she made them. She has made my life so much more easy and I'm SO grateful for her help. I enjoy homeschooling Marcus and find great satisfaction in watching things "click" in his little brain. We've even hosting a pre-school Valentine's party in a few weeks that I'm super excited about.

     Well, there ya have it. The latest catch-ups from the Southern Schuurmans. I hope the plethora of pictures below will excuse my lack of posts since October. Until next time, love God and make Him known.