Chi Town

We took a trip to Chicago with my family today & I seriously fall more in love with that city every time I visit. 

We walked around Millennium park, did some shopping, and ate some good food. 

What more could a bunch of girls and one lucky dude want. :)

our stories

Sometimes I write things about life, faith, and other things that have been weighing on my heart in this little space. It sits here unpublished for a couple days, I read it again, and then delete all of it. Every last word. And to be honest with myself, I delete it because these thoughts start to creep into my head.
Thoughts like..

Who are you to share these things, Zoe?
Are you forgetting your past and all of the mistakes you've made? 

Don't you know how young you are? You don't know anything. 

Why would anyone care to hear what you have to say or think?

God has been helping me see the truth about those feelings of inadequacy. 

Yes, I am young. I have made countless mistakes. And because of them I have experienced things in my short life that I never thought I would, that have broken me in ways I didn't know were possible. But God has taken my brokenness and made me whole again. And it is part of my story. 

We all have a story. I truly believe there is a reason for every. single. part. The good, the bad, the blessings God gives us, the things He takes away, and every little part in between. It is all part of His master plan.

It's so amazing to me that no matter how far we try to run, how bad we mess up, how unaware and ungrateful we are of God's unconditional love and mercy, He still pursues us. He wants to know us. He wants to love us and hold us. He has been working in my heart lately, and its because I am finally letting Him with completely open arms.

I love this song by Gungor.

You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of the dust.
You make beautiful things. You make beautiful things out of us.

Our stories are beautiful. Through Him. 

__________________________________


I know that beautiful things happen when people are vulnerable and share their hearts. Stories have the power to inspire and bring hope. They let people know they are not alone in whatever they are going through. And most importantly they bring people to the Lord.

So, I will continue to work on pushing out those feelings of inadequacy and open my heart to maybe sharing pieces of my story. The parts that have already been written and the parts being written daily.

But for now, I am posting these jumbled thoughts of mine and making a promise to myself not to delete them. And that's a start.

pictures

Here are some pictures of my sweet boy that I took the other day. 

I love when he first wakes up in the morning. When he still wants his pacifier and still wants to be cuddly.

Love his sweet face.

 Doing one of his favorite things, jumping. 

It's so darn cute. 

And he still loves his guitar. This song was about poppytakes (aka cupcakes). 

Pretty sure it went something like, "Ohhh poppytake, poppytake. Poppppppytake." 

repeat 10 times. 

I mean, seriously. I die. 

He's the best. 

overwhelming love

I just laid Silas down for his nap so I thought I would take a few minutes to write a little post. About my sweet boy. 

Right now I'm so overwhelmed with love for him. Obviously, I love him every second of every day. But have you ever had one of those moments where you feel so much love you can barely take it in? I looked up from the laundry I was folding and there was my baby. My grown up baby that is now a toddler. He was tucking his stuffed animals in under a blanket and just chatting with them. He looked up as well and smiled at me. Then he blew me the sweetest little kiss. And one of those moments happened. My heart almost burst. And.. there may have been a few happy tears. 

Moments like these make me wish I could just pause time. I feel like I blinked and now here's Silas, the cutest little toddler. Every day he learns new words. He does the cutest things and when I think he can't get any cuter, he does. He has the sweetest personality EVER.

I can't thank God enough for choosing me be his mom. 

                                 

Earlier Silas wanted teddy to have a diaper too.

This was after he tried to put teddy on the toilet to go potty and came way too close to dropping him in. But hey, maybe its a good sign that it's time to introduce potty training? 

Happy Sunday

We are BACK from North Carolina and getting back into the swing of things. The fridge is restocked, the living room is covered with toys again, and the laundry is (almost) caught up. It was so great to be back at church today. Silas even stayed in sunday school the whole time, so a sucker was in order. 

This was before his sweater was covered in sucker juice. A bib is required from now on. 

.....

We finally made it to a basketball game to watch Ben coach this weekend. Silas spotted him on the court immediately. He kept pointing and saying, "daddy, dad, my daddy" ect. Too cute. He didn't sit still for more than two minutes, obviously, but had a blast climbing up and down the bleachers and flirting with the older ladies around us. 

After the game Silas got to run around the court and play around with the basketball. He didn't want to leave, which is good cause this kid will probably grow up in the gym. 

Best friends reunited at last <3

These two played while Montana and I caught up, with the occasional interruption of Silas stealing Ivy's toys. We are working on the whole sharing thing :)

It's good to be back home, although that means our time in North Carolina has ended. We really cherished every day we had with my family. I accidentally left my camera there (insert crying face here) but pictures will be posted once I get it back. There are so many cute ones! 

one and a half

My sweet Silas is 18 months. How did that happen? One and a half years old..

As sad as it is to see less of my little baby and more of my toddler, this is such a fun age! 

Every day I am in awe at how grown up and smart he is. He is constantly making me and everyone around him smile and laugh. Here are some of my favorite pictures of him from the past week. 

There are too many cute things he does for my brain to remember. And these memories are too precious to forget. 

some of the things he loves right now are:

Playing the guitar and singing with his sweet little voice. It is the cutest thing. 

Any kind of music. He loves to dance to it - his best moves are the head bob and spinning. This kid will spin until he falls over. 

He loves his Buddy (his lovey). He always finds the corner of it and rubs it right under his nose.

Saying no. Definitely his favorite word right now. It's still at the point where it's cute.. we'll see how long that lasts though. His other favorite words are mommy and daddy, which also make up for it :)

Some random & cute things he does:

Number one on my list right now is how Silas communicates "yes". He says "ahye" in the most adorable/excited/happy voice. He also has a little bob that he does with it. There's no way to explain it, so I'm going to have to post a video. I don't know how he started saying it, but I do know I love it.

He likes doing anything that a big boy would do.

He always takes our hands and insists that we follow him to whatever he wants. 

He laughs and laughs. All day at anything. He has the best personality. He's also super ticklish. 

He signs the words "please" and "more" all the time and it's so stinkin cute. It may have taken him months and months to learn but it has been wonderful. He also speaks the words too, now. 

Oh Silas, you bring your dad and I so much joy every day. You are the sweetest, smartest, cutest little guy we could have been blessed with. I just wish time would slow down a bit. But I cherish the days and memories more than you'll ever know.