Bercan turns 1!!!

Ahh....the day is here, my youngest and last little man is turning 1. This day seemed so far away 8 months ago when sleep wasn't consistent, he wouldn't sleep laying down but only in a car seat or a swing. I remember falling asleep with him laying on my chest and thinking that him turning 1 seemed much farther than 300 days away. But here it is. It's crazy to think of all that he has done in one year!!!

He has added such joy to our family, that words cannot truly express to just what level. Being the third I will say that he is a little ham, always trying to make us laugh and he is definitely a Mama's boy. I don't mind that one bit :)

That morning we went into his room as a family and sang him happy birthday. I thought it was funny as the boys were really excited to doing this for Berc. We all went in and sang him happy birthday while he stood at his crib. He was so happy to see us and be greeted with a song. Not a typical day occurrence but one that you could tell he was really enjoying. Along with being a ham, he will definitely let you know when he is not happy with something. He can be distracted to something new for the most part. But he'll still throw down a little baby temper tantrum if he feels in the mood. He's always up for a good hug and of course food. He is by far our biggest boy yet. He is 5 pounds bigger than Torin at 1 and 3 pounds bigger than Vaughn. He's our Bubba for sure!

He had a good birthday celebrating with family, digging into a cake and opening presents. Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy!

Happy little boy loving his family sing to him

It's funny, it's as if he knew that it was his day.

The way he smiled and posed away for me.

A fun little photo of my littlest man.

He was really not sure what to do at first but by the next

photo you can see that he figured it out :)

I love that he took a fork to it. This is a Berc "thing".

If he is eating he wants a fork or spoon, even if he isn't

using it he needs one in his hand and will let you know

about it if you don't allow him to have. Why grab with

your hands when you can use a fork to dig in :)

Daddy and Mommy with Berc and his fork.

You'll see in the video below that even at

one he really knows how to use that fork.

Gabby

Our little Vaughn has a crush on his friend Gabby. Gabby and Vaughn went to daycare together for 3 years and our daycare provider would always tell us about how Vaughn and Gabby played so well together. That they would prefer playing with each other versus another boy or girl. Gabby is probably the sweetest little girl that I know and is just so darn cute.

Well Gabby invited Vaughn to her birthday party but some how or another the birthday invite got lost. By the time that I saw it her birthday had already passed. We ended up running into Gabby and her family at Meet the Teacher Night at school. Her Mom said that the one person that Gabby really wanted at her party was Vaughn. We felt terrible so I suggested that we take her to a movie. Of course the two of them thought that was a great idea.

So we set a date and then every day after that all I heard was "Am I going to the movie with Gabby today?" It was a week out so it got a little old but it was worth the wait. During this week we went to the State Fair where Torin found some tickets for prizes on the ground. He was a good older brother in sharing them with Vaughn. Vaughn picked out a ring and said that he was going to give it to Gabby. Ok, this is all cute but seriously how does he know to give a ring to a girl.

We went to pick Gabby up and Vaughn gave her the ring saying "It a weal diamond you know." She was so excited and us Mom's just giggled about it. We hopped in the car and Vaughn just started gabbing away with her. She sat and listened with a huge smile on her face. It was really sweet.

As we were walking into the theatre the two of them were holding hands and even Torin commented "Mom they are pretty cute, aren't they?" He was right they really were. Gabby is in the same school at Kindergarten as Vaughn goes to preschool and will see each other from time to time. When we pick him up we will always hear "I see Gabby today and we waved at each other." They are just sweet little kids!

Auntie Cole's Wedding....

From past posts you know how excited Torin was to have Dion as his Uncle and yet the big day is finally here. Of course I'm a little biased to think that my boys just looked too cute in their tuxes. It was a great day of celebrating the beginning of Auntie Cole and Uncle Dion. They are really a great couple and we were honored to be part of their big day. Here are a bunch of photos from the day....

Alaina wouldn't hold Vaughn's hand so he decided to ditch her :)

The boys being shy and bashful

The whole family with the beautiful bride and groom...

My little Vaughny..

Cooper and Berc getting out on the dance floor

Watch out Berc is walking

Our little man went from taking a few steps at a time to only wanting to walk in less than a week. It's always amazing to me how quick they progress, especially the third. He started taking a step here and there and literally within about week he was full striding along. He looked like Frankenstein for awhile but is now walking with his arms by his side. Just cause he's little isn't going to stop him from wanting to be in the fun.

When we have bad how does God turn it into good?

We have been doing a bible study with the boys for about a year now and I have to admit that it is going much better than I had expected. The boys really enjoy the lessons and the activities that go along with it.

This past week we were reading about how Joseph had told his brothers who he really was and that he wasn't mad at them for selling him as it was the Lord's plan, as now he was the ruler and able to help them through the famine. The exercise was to ask your Mom and Dad about something that was bad that turned good.

I had not read through the exercise prior to starting the story so I found myself in a little bit of a pickle trying to think through something to share with the kids. As I was thinking, I watched our Bercan happily waving one of the boys' nerf swords around and literally just giggling about it. It quickly dawned on me that he was our example.

We had tried for Berc for about 8 months and then decided to stop as we had two healthy children and felt blessed. It was also around the time that Torin had been putting our parenting abilities through quite the ringer. It was literally a phase that no parenting book could have helped prepare us for. With that we decided that it would just be better for us to focus on the two that we had.

Of course once we made that decision and felt content about it I found out that I was pregnant. Oh how our Lord knows what we need, huh? It made me very nervous of bringing this baby into our family with Torin's behavior. Would Torin get worse? What did this mean for Vaughn? The questions wouldn't stop coming and I had no idea what life would be like.

Well the Lord does give us what we can handle as literally when Torin found out that we were expecting, his behavior and attitude changed and since Bercan's arrival Torin has become a different child in many good ways.

When I told this story to the kids, of course in a very child friendly manner, Torin's eyes got really big and he bursted out "You're right Mom!. Cause when I knew I was going to be a brother again I knew that I had to be a better boy for you and Dad. I knew that I would have to be a good example for the baby and help you with the baby." He went on and on about it with a smile on his face the whole time.

It clicked for him this story of God turning our in-the-moment pain into joy! I started to reflect on a lot of different events that have occurred through my life that night. Events/phases that had been painful to me through life and how they turned into joy. We prayed that night as a family and thanked God for the opportunity to know and understand just another way that He is awesome!

Vaughn's Deep Questions

What color is God Mommy? This is what I hear while cleaning up dinner and the boys were watching Evan Almighty. Really, I need a little more prep then this to answer some of these boys questions. Through a few years of parenting I am getting smarter in these situations to not try and answer the question but to ask them what they think of their own question. It's always amazing to me some of the things that they come back with and it always helps give me a second to breath and think through the answer that I want to provide. So I asked him what color he thought God was. He was watching Even Almighty so he said "In this movie he black but what color is He in real life." I told him that God was all colors. He smiled and looked away. I knew that this conversation was not done that he was just thinking it through a little. About 2 minutes later he told me that God was white because that is the color of Him in the pictures of the stories at church. I just said that God was all colors because he creates all the colors. Again a smile from Vaughn and no more questions :)

Friday, Saturday or Sunday

Bjorn was traveling for work the past two weeks. He was home for a short stint of two days but really it was a long stretch for both the boys and I. In the evenings, since it was raining and yucky some of them I just had to get them out of the house. So one night since they had been good for me I decided that we would do a small outing to Dairy Queen for treats and then come back home and watch a little TV together. Vaughn had a coupon for a free dilly bar and I told Torin that he and I could split something. On our way there I told Torin that we could split a Sundae when he asked what else he could have Vaughn answered "You could get a Friday or a Saturday Torin." Once again I had the phrase "Oh Vaughn" go through my head and Torin rolling his eyes at this crazy brother.

Vaughn's First Sport - SOCCER

FINALLY, Vaughn got to be in a sport all by himself. We signed him up for Fall soccer and he was so excited. Asking every day when his "hoccer" game or practice was going to be. After being dragged to numerous amount of practices and games for 4 years for Torin it was about his turn.

Vaughn had a ton of fun this season. The practices were always fun to watch and especially the games of Vaughn falling after the ball. Seriously, I think that he thought falling was part of the sport as he did it intentionally A LOT! He did great getting after the ball and is definitely entertaining to watch.

Here are a few pics from the season:

Cole and Vaughn on the sidelines :)

Vaughny taking the ball down the field

Vaughn posing for me :)

Not sure that he got a goal but he's very happy hear celebrating something

Vaughn, Ella and Cole

Vaughn's First Race

Auntie Cole had told us that their was a race for 1st - 5th graders after one of her high school races. Torin had said that he wanted to run in it and thus we scheduled the evening for that and headed there. Once we got there Torin pulled a typical Torin in changing his mind that he didn't want to run the race any more.

Now please know that the entire day all I heard from Vaughn was "Mama, can I run the race?" "No Vaughny it's only for kids that are in 1st - 5th grade?" Well we got over to the starting line hoping that Torin would change his mind. Vaughn asked again "Can I run the race Mama?" And as irritated as I was with Torin I said yes to Vaughn. I mean who really cares that he is only 4 years old. It isn't like it was the most organized event or anything. So Vaughn and I went behind all the kids and I could just tell how excited he was about being apart of this race. I told him that we would run slow but that it would let us finish the race. It wasn't about being first at the beginning but being able to finish without having to walk.

They signaled for us to go and Vaughn and I started running. We got a little into it and I asked how he was feeling. "Good. I feel good." Then a little while later I asked if he was still feeling alright "I good Mama. How are you? Are you doing alright?". Only Vaughn would be concerned with his Mama :) He fell twice during the race but never stopped to walk. He was getting cheered on by everyone, it was so sweet. Even the whole high school football team when they were getting done with practice started cheering him on. "Come on big guy! You can do it" Vaughn was so elated with all of this attention, especially as the middle kid :)

As a runner I can say that he did awesome. Toward the end you could tell that he was really getting tired but he was determined to finish and not stop until he was done. We think that he ended up with about 11 minutes or a little under for 1 mile. That's better then some adults. He did great and said that he can't wait until his next race.

Vaughn at about 1/2 mile into it

Right at the end. You can tell that he definitely gave it his all

A proud Mama and son on his first race