My sweet little son,

How is it possible that I am already writing this letter? I have been looking back through pictures and I just can’t even believe that it has already been another year even though all the evidence points that way. Every year seems to go by faster and faster. I am frantically searching for a pause button!

This year was a language EXPLOSION for you! You talk all. the. time. You say the funniest things! You’ve picked up some very big words that just make us laugh like “delightful”. You are very perceptive. You can usually tell someone’s mood just by looking at them.

You are so friendly! We have had to have a lot of talks about strangers this year because you honestly believe that every person in the world is your friend. You are very generous and always notice when someone is sad and you always want to help them.

You developed quite the little stubborn/strong will this year and kept
me on my toes. There were days where I wasn’t sure we would actually
both make it to you turning three! I am praying that the worst of the
disobedience is behind us because you are already growing up in that
area as well.

You are such a character, Nathan. Such a funny, hilarious boy. I am so blessed to have a son who makes me laugh every single day. You honestly say the absolute funniest things. I’m constantly writing them down so I don’t forget them. Even after we put you in bed, we still laugh over the silly things you did and said.

You love to eat. Anything and everything! You usually eat more than I do at every meal. You are constantly growing. I’ve just stopped buying more than one pair of pants and a couple of shorts outfits because you outgrow them before they are even barely used! You are wearing a 4T right now and they are starting to get a little small. You are 35 pounds and 40 inches tall. Big, healthy boy!

You have really developed a love for movies this year. We have fond favorites in the Pixar movies and in Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Handy Manny. You are a million percent boy. You would play sword fight all day long if someone would play with you. You love squirt guns and baseball bats and train sets and Lincoln logs. You love dinosaurs and fire engines and anytime a policeman waves back at you, you are in absolute heaven. You can play for hours by yourself, creating all these imaginary worlds and experiences. It’s fun to listen to from the kitchen. 🙂 I hope you always keep your sense of adventure and imagination!

You love to be outside. You live to be outside! You would play out there all day if I would let you. You have a huge love of the pool and have become an amazing swimmer. You swim all over the pool by yourself and you have even started swimming around the shallow end without floaties. You love to dive under the water and get things off the bottom of the pool. You love to do jumps off the diving board and scare your mother to pieces with your little daredevil ways. I had to stop you from trying to do a backflip off the diving board the other day. You want to be just like the big kids. You are usually dressed in your swimsuit before Dad and I are even out of bed on Saturday mornings and begging to go to Gammy and Pops’ pool.

You love, love girls. LOVE them. You talk about different girls you know all the time. Sometimes you get stuck on ideas like marriage and you tell me that you will get married next week. I have to remind you frequently that only adults get married. I’m hoping that you’ll start to develop a little bit of a “girls are gross” attitude this year. 😉

You had so many moments this year that slowly changed you from a baby to a big boy. You moved to a big boy bed. You started wearing big boy underwear. You carry on conversations like an adult. You love to “do school” and practice your letters and your lines. You could read for two hours if my voice would hold out that long. We recently started reading chapter books together and you will sit forever asking to read another chapter and very engaged in the story. You are two-going-on-fifteen, love. I am so proud of all you’ve accomplished this year!

You are the joy of my heart, little boy. You are the one I pray for the most. You are the biggest blessing in mine and Dad’s life, honey. We cannot imagine our lives without you now.

You are so loved, my sweet boy! You are so surrounded by love and cherished from so many, many people. You are prayed for by so many people! I hope you never forget that or take it for granted. You are precious, son. I am so blessed to be your mom.

I love you so so so soooo so so soooo so so sooo much, my big three year old boy!

Love,
Mommy

This week was so busy and fun!

Me and my bean one morning this week messing around with the Photo Booth app on my laptop. Love when he wakes up in a snuggly mood. 🙂

Found this in the fridge when I was getting stuff out to make dinner this week. Little sneak.

The weekly tradition that cannot be broken – Popsicles in the pool with Pops!

Family fun night!! We spent last Wednesday night just the three of us and ate outside and then played soccer until Nathan’s bedtime. SO much fun!

 
Thursday night we celebrated Caleb’s girlfriend Nicole’s birthday and the Fourth of July with our dear friends Shannon and Eric. 🙂

Post-swim firework time!

Well, I have to agree with Starbucks on this one. 😉

Saturday night, Caleb and Nicole came for dinner and brought presents for the soon-to-be-birthday boy since Nicole won’t be in town on Saturday. I’ll give you one guess at what they got him. 😉

His new Handy Manny watching ensemble. 😉 So far, he’s built a “birdy house” and a pool for a crocodile. But it’s okay, because it’s just a baby crocodile so I don’t have to be scared of it living in the playroom. 😉

And just in case you were wondering, we’re at FIVE DAYS before there is a three year old in my home. SLOW DOWN, Time!!

Or “July 13th” as most non-almost-three-year-olds say. 😉

THREE. I’ll be harping on this for the next ten days. Because, seriously, it was JUST last week that I was counting down the days until my due date and then past my due date and then finally freaking out the night before my little bean was born that life would change and would never be the same.

How right I was. And how blessed I am because of that. 🙂

We have had a crazy fun weekend! Jon finished up his intensive Master’s class on Friday (can I get an amen??) and we are so thankful grandparents live in town because we immediately went on a date. 😉 We did a little bit of birthday shopping for the birthday boy (can you guess what he’s getting?? 😉 Someone is going to be THRILLED) and then went out to eat just the two of us. SO fun and needed and wonderful!!

Then, Saturday morning, our dear friends Clint and Leigh Ann were back in town on their way to move to Atlanta from their stint at a Christian camp in Colorado and so we headed over in the morning to go to an open house to see them.

 Love these friends dearly!! (And missed Eryn who was gone on vacation!)

Nathan and Hayley were like long lost lovers that whole day. All I heard the whole time they were together was “Nathan!” “Haywee!” “Nathan!” “Haywee!” Ha!

Then we went to go watch my brother Caleb’s band perform. They did awesome and we had so much fun! We got free hot dogs and Nathan got his face painted for the first time. He asked for a blue elephant. No idea how that came about.

Saturday night, we had Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley over for dinner and it was so wonderful! We will miss our dear friends so much.

Monday, we went to Jamie’s house for Lunch Bunch and she had a sprinkler set up for the kids. Nathan LOVED it. He’s been asking to go back to Jamie’s house since we left. 😉

And then we of course had to play baseball again after Daddy’s game was over Monday night. Love these super sweet umpires we’ve had lately who have been so kind to let Nathan hit the ball and run the bases between games!!

And now it’s time to get to cleaning and laundry and writing and getting a few things done before the holiday weekend. 🙂

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

I have SO MUCH to catch up on as far as our weekend goes, but that post will likely have to wait until tomorrow because honestly it’s so hot, my house is covered in laundry and I have a little boy who wants me to be Roo so he can be Tigger and we can sing and do “Super duper ally-ooper bounces” and that seems more important. 😉

BUT – I did want to let you know of a special promotion my amazing publisher is running this week! Right now, Latte Daze is $0.99 on Kindle and it will be at this reduced price until Sunday. Yay!

Have a wonderful Monday!! 🙂

I had to get this little bean on video yesterday. He was dying at Jon blowing bubbles with his gum.

Fun with gum from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

Ha! Have a wonderful Thursday!

Today, Nathan and I went to go see his first movie in the theaters!

A couple of local theaters do a dollar kid’s movie (that has already usually be released on DVD) in the mornings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’ve been debating if I thought Nathan was ready to actually sit through an entire movie for a while and since we didn’t have plans today, I decided to try it just the two of us. If he started acting up, I figured it would be easy enough for the two of us to sneak out.

He did SO good!! We watched Rio and it was very cute. We had a great Mama/Son date! He LOVED the popcorn and I splurged and got him a Sprite too. Not the healthiest of lunches, since neither of us were hungry after that, but I figure once in his life isn’t going to affect him that much. 😉 The chairs kept closing up on him, so he ended up sitting in my lap the whole time. Definitely my favorite part of the movie! 😉

And my lovely day just continued when we got home because I found this fantastic review of Paige Torn by USA Today waiting in my inbox from my amazing publicist! (Gasping here!) SO blessed and excited!!!

When we were driving home earlier, we passed a car who looked similar to one we parked next to at the theater. Nathan says, “Hey! Is that the same car? Is this a dream??!”

Oh my boy. Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Wow, so I think I’m set for the next year on all of your book recommendations on my last post! Thanks! I’m even thinking we should start some sort of weekly or monthly book list thing on here where everyone can just write what they are reading and give us all ideas!

We have had a fun couple of days. We went to visit Jon last week for lunch at the duck pond again. Love my little family. 🙂

I taught Nathan how to play crab soccer (where you crab-walk around kicking a ball) and we had the best time. He was SO giggly that day! The brownies we made and devoured probably had nothing to do with that. 😉

And today we went to our library to pick up a few books and to go to the special presentation they had for little kids today. It was two ladies who sang and did this wonderful story about a bear who was about to have a birthday party. At one point, the bear was sad and left because some pigs had smushed his cake and his friends weren’t going to come. Nathan started crying. It was so sweet. I had the hardest time not laughing at him. 😉 Thankfully the bear came back after we all sang a birthday song to him. Someone was pretty thrilled about that, though the whole way home he kept asking me if the bear got a new cake.

A few book deals I’ve seen lately:

The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauk. LOVED this book. I read it when I was on bedrest last year and it definitely made a couple of those stressful days go by a lot faster. It’s also on sale right now on Kindle for $3.49.


Rescue Team by Candace Calvert. I just finished this yesterday and I loved it! I could barely put it down. And – more good news!! – it’s only $2.99 on Kindle right now.

Have a lovely Monday!

Since I finished up the final book in the Paige series at the beginning of May, I’ve been spending the last few weeks doing something I rarely get the chance to do.

Reading!

(By the way, 15 bonus points to whoever can finish the quote in the title of this post and name the person who said it!)

When I was growing up, I would get completely lost in books. I would sometimes forget to eat I would be so busy reading. It’s quite a bit harder now with a busy two year-old around and for some reason, both boys I live with like to eat. 😉

Since Jon has been busy every night with homework for his Master’s class this summer, I’ve had lots of time to read this month! So I raided my mom’s bookshelf and finally started reading some of the free books I’d been piling up from Amazon Kindle. 😉

Here’s what I’ve been reading so far this summer:


Jesus Calling (by Sarah Young) – I love, love, love, LOVE this devotional! It’s written by a woman who kept a prayer journal for a year except instead of recording her prayers to God (like I think most of us do!), she took the verses she was reading and turned them into notes from the Lord. At the end of every day’s reading, she includes a list of verses that led to that day’s thoughts. My new favorite place to read this is in the morning on my back patio with a hot cup of coffee. 🙂

Fools Rush In (by Janice Thompson) – This novel is so funny! Love the story of an Italian family living in Galveston, Texas trying to run both a pizza parlor and a wedding consultant company. The story is told through daughter Bella’s eyes and it’s a very quick, fun read!

A Hope Undaunted (by Julie Lessman) – I don’t read very much historical fiction, but this novel was free on Kindle a few weeks ago and I snatched it up then. 😉 It’s about a large family and set just before the Great Depression.

Evidence of Mercy (by Terri Blackstock) – I read this book about ten or more years ago and loved it and just reread it this week and could barely put it down again.

Next up for me – Perfecting Kate by Tamara Leigh!

What have you been reading??

So blessed to have such wonderful readers. You are amazing. I am praying for each and every one of you!!

It is definitely summer here! A few things we’ve been up to lately:

Playing in the water! Whether it is our little backyard pool or Gammy and Pops’ big pool or the sprinklers at the park, we have spent a LOT of time in the water this summer already.

 Painting! Someone is SUPER into “school” and school-related things, so he always drags his little table out and asks to do school. So we paint and practice our letters. He learned how to write his name (with TONS of direction!) and I was so proud of him!

The library! We have been to the library many times already this summer. Nathan was SO excited today because we found another Fred and Ted book! He’s also been super into the Berenstain Bears and I picked up a DVD of them today as well.

Going to Daddy’s softball games! Jon had a game last night and the umpire was SO kind. He let Nathan come play after the game was over for a few minutes and called all of Jon’s pitches. Ha! The other umpire came over as Nathan rounded third and pronounced him safe at home. Nathan was so stoked!

Watching an old favorite, Super Why, in his Super Nathan outfit. Love it!

Lots of activities equals lots of falling asleep on the couch in the afternoon. 😉 He’s so cute.

And a few things I want to share with you guys:

My friend Bekah Hamrick Martin just released her new book, The Bare Naked Truth About Waiting, and she’s got a FUN giveaway going on right now! Head over here to enter!

And my another friend, CJ Darlington, just released her newest novel, Ties That Bind, and I’m super excited to read it! You can find it here.

AND… Miss Match is only $.99 on Kindle until Sunday! If you’ve been waiting to get it or if you’ve been wanting to get it for a friend, now is the time!

ANNNND (ha!)… don’t forget that you can still get your very own autographed copy of Paige Torn from my bookstore! 🙂

And here are some fun links! 🙂

If you have been following this blog for a little bit, you know that Jon and I have been trying to conceive baby number two for a little over two years now. It’s not my most favorite thing to talk about, so I don’t mention it often, but I felt like it was time for a little update.

It took us five months to get pregnant with Nathan so never in my wildest imaginings did I ever think it would take us this long for number two. We got pregnant right before Mother’s Day last year and then miscarried about six weeks later. I can honestly say that I have never been at a lower point in my life than last summer.

I went through the stage of thinking that if God could take our little one, who we had already been trying a year for, what is to stop Him from taking my little Nathan? Or Jon? And I had to learn that God is my Father and that He is good.

I went through the stage of being so desperate to get pregnant that I could barely stop thinking about it. If I wasn’t Googling something, I was reading something, thinking about something, trying to figure out our timing and what day of my cycle I was in. And I had to learn that God’s timetable is not necessarily my own timetable.

Starting in November, we began seeing a fertility specialist. After dozens of tests, ultrasounds, bloodwork and semi-painful procedures, we discovered there was nothing wrong. The doctor didn’t know why we weren’t getting pregnant. So, we did three IUIs (inter-uterine insemination) and several rounds of a fertility drug believing that our odds of success were going to be great and still…nothing. And I had to learn that God is the Author of Life and He can choose whether or not He will work through a procedure.

I have questioned everything I believe. I have questioned everything about my life. Is God not good? Does He withhold something just to cause pain? Is He not giving us another child because we are terrible parents? Do I not read my Bible enough? Pray enough? If children are a blessing, what am I doing that is wrong?

How much, in my selfishness, I make this about me.

In the last several months especially, I have come to see so much of God’s grace in my life. I have learned more about Him as a loving Daddy. I have learned to trust His timing and His direction for my life. He is Sovereign. I have seen the good in these years of infertility – the time alone with Nathan, the way this struggle has drawn me closer to Jon, the longing I have now for heaven.

I have learned to appreciate the days of being able to teach Nathan without having to split my attention to care for another. He is so passionate. I want him to learn to use that passion for good. I love being able to do things with him and play things with him and teach him how to make chocolate chip cookies and be able to be totally focused on him during the day. I love having a child who can play by himself and who understands that Mommy needs to write. I love my little helper doing the laundry or dusting or vacuuming (though for that one there is some debate about whether or not it’s actually “help”). I love how we have the freedom to spontaneously go get frozen yogurt or play baseball in the backyard or run through the sprinklers on hot days.

After all this time, I can honestly say that I am content.

Do I still struggle with it? Of course. I still sometimes get teary thinking about it or thinking of our little one we lost. I still get the now-familiar ache anytime someone announces their own pregnancy or I see cute pregnant women or precious babies.

I do honestly believe that someday we will have another child in our home. And right now, we are just praying for God to make His will completely evident to us about what our next steps should be. We’ve been taking the summer off of fertility treatments so now we are waiting and praying and trying to discern His will. Should we do more fertility treatments? Are we perhaps being called to adoption? Or to simply wait and treasure this time we have right now?

I am so thankful for all of you. I have received so many wonderful, precious emails and comments and letters that I hold so dear to my heart. Please know that I pray for each of you. I would very much appreciate your prayers for wisdom for me and Jon.

Love to you all. 🙂