February 29, 2012

Superman Love!

The other day Will woke up a little bit before Jack, so we went out to the playroom together.  And oh how he loved on Superman (or as Jack calls him, "Man-Man")...


Curiosity...

 Adoration...

Hugs...

Kisses...

and Snuggles.

Will sure made his Daddy proud!

February 25, 2012

Between the Blogs...

{Warning... there are no pictures of our cutie pies anywhere in this blog posting =(  Please look above at the header, or in the post below this one if you need a Steiner Boy fix!!}

As I've been trying to get myself caught up on blogs of the major events of our lives, there have been so other things going on and on my mind.  I feel like the blogs sometimes come across as the 'polished' version of our lives, even though I try so hard to share our reality! (Mostly, it is just our day to day life with toddler boys... eating, playing, sleeping, cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, etc... the wonderful monotony that makes up the life I am absolutely loving every minute of right now!)

But just for a glimpse into the 'real' Steiner Life, here you go:

~ We have been sickos for awhile now!  The boys have been fighting colds and ear infections off and on for a few weeks.  Justin has been fighting some annoying cold-like thing for the last few days.  I've been fighting what I'm thinking is a sinus infection for the last 2 1/2 weeks.... almost straight. I hate blowing my nose (or coughing up phlegm or anything else really that deals with mucus--I bet that is something you didn't know about me--yuck!), and I feel like I've spent tons of time each day blowing my nose!  Not fun!  Not sure why this time I haven't gone to the dr... usually I'm super quick about going in.  It just feels like life has been full of great things lately (and it has!) and I just don't want to take the time to go it.  But I'm not getting better (or worse really) and no over the counter meds seem to be making any difference anymore.  So I think I might cave soon and go in. I'm tired of my head being congested and sounding like I'm echoing inside my head!

~My mom is officially re-retired from teaching!  It's wonderful!  She'd been doing a long-term sub job, and we are all so glad she is done!  We love spending time with Gigi, and the boys love seeing her beautiful face at times other than when they are getting close to bedtime!  Yay Gigi!  Welcome back to Gigi-hood Gigi!

~We have all been in prayer for a friend of the family, who is now, tragically, going through something similar to what we went through with Jonathan. She is the daughter of some of my parent's closest friends, and she was pregnant with triplets (identical boys and a girl). We were all so excited to hear this news, and it was unreal that my parents and their friends were all to be grandparents of multiples! A week ago, her cervix started failing.  She went onto bedrest, then into the hospital, and over the last 2 days, has now lost all three of her children. She was at almost the same gestation (right around 23 weeks)   that I was when I lost Jonathan. It absolutely breaks my heart for her as it brings back to mind the crushing grief that this causes.  My heart hurts so much for her, her husband, her family, knowing that this is just the beginning of such an awful part of her life. There is nothing that can be done to ease their pain, except pray for them.  I don't know her personally, so I don't know where she stands in a relationship with Jesus.  But I do know that my relationship with Him was the ONLY thing that got me through losing our son.  I say all the time to people, "I'm not sure how anyone could go through it without Jesus." I truly believe that.  Will you please join me in praying for Sheri and Brian and their families?  Praying for comfort, for God to wrap His arms around them and draw them to Himself, for Him to hold them in their grief, and in time, making this a time of their life that they can use for His glory?  I would so appreciate your praying with me!

~Justin and I have lost 40 pounds combined since January 7!!  A whole blog post is coming on what we have been doing, but we are feeling SOOOO much better, fitting into clothes we haven't worn in a long time, and even won 1st and 2nd place in a challenge we were a part of! Which happened to come with a $250 prize! Yay! Stay tuned... this one deserves to be its own blog! =)

Ok... that's all for now.
(Don't miss the blog below... Amazingly enough, but I posted two IN THE SAME NIGHT!! =)

Mom Heart Conference

Last weekend one of my very best friends, Andrea, and my wonderful new friend, Amanda, came into town to attend the Mom Heart Conference here in Dallas.  On our way to the first day of the conference, we stopped to eat the Rainforest Cafe, since most of us hadn't been there before! So fun!  The boys will LOVE it someday!!

(Sorry about the terrible quality iphone pictures!)
Marina (a student that lives with Amanda), Amanda, Andrea, Me
(No, we didn't eat at the bar... we just liked the stools!) 
In front of the amazing aquariums
Andrea is an amazing photographer with her own business out in California (When Time Stood Still), so she took a few great pictures as the conference with her fancy camera that she shared with me... so much better than an iphone!!

Andrea and I have been friends since 6th grade, and I'm so incredibly blessed to have her in my life!  She inspires me to be a better woman, is an amazing example of a patient and loving wife, and has given me so much encouragement in being a mom.  She has two precious boys and a beautiful baby girl, and she is the kind of person who I'd love to be like when I grow up! =)

Amanda is my new friend, but an old college friend of Andrea's. I've heard so many amazing things about her through the years, and I'm so glad that I finally got to meet her!  She is an incredible woman and I love her honest and straight-forward personality! 

We all had such a wonderful time together, and I feel all came away with ways that we could go home and be better mommies!
At the conference

With Kat, one of the women who has an incredibly
encouraging mom blog!

With my beautiful friend!

The conference notebook--full of wisdom

It was amazing, refreshing, encouraging, motivating, and challenging all at the same time. Sally Clarkson, a woman that I hadn't heard of before this, is now one of the women I look to for encouragement as a mom.  She and her husband Clay have been doing these Mom Heart conferences for 15 years, and they have a passion for encouraging, equipping, and training moms as we raise our children for the Lord.  I can't tell you how much her message spoke to my heart... I've always known I was meant to be a mom, and I'm loving every single moment.  But it was so encouraging to be in a room with 800 other moms, knowing that all they want are to be moms who love their kids and desire nothing but to raise them to love and follow Jesus!  Ahh... filled me up!  

If you too have a desire to grow as a mommy, check out Sally Clarkson, or any of the blogs on my sidebar under "Christian Mothering".  (I'm reading Sally's book "The Mission of Motherhood" and it is amazing.)  One is Sally's blog (which she is starting a Mom Heart blog soon...I'm so excited!), and some are blogs of other moms who spoke at the conference. Can you tell that this was a life-changing weekend for me in my mommy-hood journey?!

I copied these off of a blog of one of the speakers, since she took the time to compile them before I did...


Wow.  So good... and there was so much more!  Thank you Andrea, for knowing about Sally, finding this conference, and coming out here to let me soak it in with you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, since she was at my house with her incredible camera, she was so kind to take some amazing pictures of our cutie-pies!!  

Tickles!

Gigi and Will

Grandpa and Jack

Mommy & Jack

Kisses for Jack

Kisses for Will
Jack
Will
Will's latest look...
he has loved doing this eyebrow thing the last few weeks!
Our little family
Us...


Great weekend, great friends, and great inspiration!!

February 22, 2012

Tulsa Fun!

Two weekends ago, we went up to Tulsa for our college's homecoming weekend.  My parents came along also, with both of our cocker spaniels, so it made for a very full minivan!! =) But it was so much fun!  

Gene and Kathy were so nice to have us all to their home, and the boys, as always loved being at Mammaw and Pappaw's house! This time we had to do a bit of low 'fragile things' removal... we were afraid that the boys might do some damage!  But of course they had plenty of amazing toys for them to play with, including a fun wooden train set!  And, even though we spent a couple hours looking for it, somehow the locomotive to the set made it home with us to Texas... these boys are sneaky! =) We'll return it soon!


The boys could hardly wait for Mammaw to get it out of the box!
Even with all the great toys to play with, Will found the coolest new one... the kitty door.  And since they have no kitty, it became the Will's toys door! He couldn't seem to get enough of it!!


Even though we don't go to many of Homecoming events, we love going to the ORU basketball games. If we are in town during basketball season, we try to make the game!  Our whole little family was decked out in new ORU t-shirts, and boy did the boys love the game!  I thought since it began at what is usually their bedtime, we might make it to halftime.  But they made it the WHOLE game, and were super happy!  Will especially--he clapped and cheered and watched intently the majority of the first half!


The four grandparents were so wonderful to take turns holding the boys to!


It is so hard to get the boys still in a picture!!



After halftime, they play "Shout" and invite all the kids down to dance on the court.  It was our first time and we were so excited to take our boys down!  The following picture is kind of like a Where's Waldo... can you find us??

Here we are, trying to get a picture of us dancing... the boys were much more interested in all the other kids! =)

And a few shots right before we left with the Grandpas!


Thanks for a wonderful weekend, Gene and Kathy!!  Mom and Dad, it was so fun to have you guys with us!  Next year we'll have to do it again! Maybe we'll hit some more Homecoming events... since it will be our 10 year reunion!!  Can't believe it has been 10 years!

February 21, 2012

Miss us??

I've missed sharing our lives too! I have 3 blogs in line to finish and post in the next couple days...

Between colds, ear infections, wonderful friends in town, an AMAZING Mom's conference, a new Bible study, REALLY busy and into everything toddlers, and wanting to have some time when the boys take their one nap to just put my feet up for a few minutes (and do nothing else), I've fallen behind.  And I HATE falling behind on blogs!  I love keeping a record of our life on here (mostly because my memory stinks lately!) and I feel like they are better and more accurate when I do them right as or right after events happen.  But, life happens, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I'll just get caught up and go from there!

So... stay tuned! The Steiner Dudes will be making an appearance very soon!

But until then, a glimpse of our adorable little guys hard at work on their laptop!!

February 14, 2012

My Favorite Valentine

11th Heart Day with my favorite Valentine!!


I love you, Justin!!!!

February 13, 2012

First Haircut!

This weekend was full of firsts for the boys, but this post is dedicated to their very first haircut!  We were up in Tulsa this weekend for our college (ORU) homecoming.  Justin's parents live there (both are alumni) and my parents rode up with us also (my mom is an ORU alumni).  Since we had all the grandparents were together, we decided it was a perfect weekend for the boys' first haircut!  We really enjoyed the fact that they could all be a part this milestone, and it cracked us up because the boys had some serious paparazzi during their haircuts!! =)


The place we went to was highly recommended online and by locals... and we loved it!  Mr. Will did a great job on their haircuts. His hands moved so quickly, they didn't even realize what was going on!


The shop was just FILLED with toys for the boys to play with while we waited.  They almost didn't know what to play with first!

Mammaw and Gigi went next door to do a little shopping, and the boys had fun peeking at them through the window when they came back!
Peek-a-boo Mammaw!
Peek-a-boo Gigi!
The grandpas enjoying the cute little entertainment
Will had to take a ride in a car with his name on it!
And then it was Will's turn for his haircut!  No more mullet! He did such a great job... just sat like a big boy, held his cars in his hands, and loved playing with the steering wheel on his 'tractor' chair!




The handsome big boy with a fresh new haircut!
And then it was Jack's turn! He did well the whole time, except for a few pretend tears at the end when the electric clippers came on briefly.




Grandpa held up Will during Jack's haircut, and Will blew kisses at Jack!  Absolutely precious!!!

Handsome Jack with his big boy haircut

Just a second of tears =(
Pretty good for a first haircut!!
Mommy and Jack

Daddy and his boys (W, J)
 And such a special thing that they did for us since it was their first haircuts...



Such big boys!!  It is amazing how grown up they look with their hair cut! They are just growing up so fast!!