We are having a quiet evening. The boys are asleep and I am enjoying watching Ryan play an xbox game. This one is fairly entertaining and I feel as though I am watching a movie. Will the assassin (or Ryan in his alter ego) make it to his next checkpoint? Is jumping from one rooftop to another completely realistic? So instead of getting stressed out over this false reality :) I am attempting to continue my blog! I checked it today and I have 10 followers! Wow that is encouraging. Or a little intimidating. :) Thank you, your interest will cheer me on.

As most of you, I have had a heavy heart these past few days with the news from Haiti. I only watched 10 minutes of a debrief last night right before I headed to bed (not a good idea for me in the first place) and it literally made me nauseas. I went to bed hearing the peaceful sleep of Austin next to me, weeping thinking of the loss that was happening across the world. I know that there are lives being saved, too, but the frailty of humanity is hard to come to terms with when something like this happens. I could feel fear rising in me. If this happened here what would I do? How would I find my loved ones? Would I be able to withstand losing them? Because I was tempted to never let Ryan or my boys out of my sight and to start building an underground safe house for us to live in away from "the big bad world", I knew that my thoughts were not God's thoughts. So I did the best thing I knew how to do and began to cry out for Gods mercy! He IS a good God, but it doesn't mean life will be uncomplicated, easy and happy happy joy joy all the time. So as I am faced with more news from Haiti, or am confronted with more,"life is not fair" moments, I will continue to press that much harder into God's comfort and mercy. And keep my prayers for Haiti on my lips. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the FATHER of compassion and the GOD of all comfort…" I Cor 1:3 (Thanks Garris for this mornings message. I could almost feel our church take a deep breath of relief with the reminder of God's comfort and compassion in a time of need)

For the last few minutes of my day, I am going to go and cheer on my hubby as he conquers the world! :)

First ever blog!

I am starting this blog for selfish reasons. As much as I would love people to read and know what is happening day in and day out in the Rhoden household, I am mainly doing this to have a place to jot down the joys and trials of all that God is doing in our lives as we raise our boys, extend our arms and hearts to family and friends and fall more and more in love with our savior, Jesus Christ! Some posts may be about an area God is working on in my life personally or may be about how sick I am of changing 2 little boys diapers. :) For this first one, I am going to do a quick overview. So here goes….

Kellen is wrapping up the great age of two and we are looking forward to what his third year will bring! Having a two year old has been great! Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of melt-down moments as we all were learning how to balance life with a new member added to our family. Kellen spent a lot of this year testing his independence and we are learning how much he can do on his own and when we need to step in for a little assistance. He is talking and talking and talking! He has so much to say, and we love it! He is constantly cracking us up and he is a pure joy! When we (try) to discipline him, we usually have to turn our head away from him or walk out of the room in order to get control of our laughter and try to remain somewhat serious! Our next big adventure/task is potty training! I have a feeling that that will be one big post in the near future. :)

We welcomed Austin Kevin on September 30th! On his wonderful "Auntie Auntie's" birthday! For those of you who don't know how to interpret Kellen-ese, it is referring to Auntie Andi! Kellen is now realizing that Austin is a living, breathing human bean and enjoying his life as a big brother. Reading, kissing, tickling and every once in a while poking Austin in the face. But Austin already loves his big brother! It is amazing to watch how interested Austin is in Kellen. I am looking forward to watching their bond as brothers grow. Austin has been smiling and laughing for a while, started rolling over this week and is constantly talking! He must realize that in order to keep up with his brother he has to start communicating now! :)

Ryan and I are loving our life! We do reminisce about "life before kids". Sleeping in, leaving the house in less then 5 minutes, late night dinners at Porters....But there is NO way we would trade what we have now. Even when it does take me 20 minutes to get the boys out the door to run one errand, to have Kellen's telling me, "stop mom, I will open the door for you," makes it all worth it! :)

I think I am going to call this first blog "good". Both boys are sleeping and I am going to get the legos picked up before Kellen makes his grand entrance and Austin realizes he is hungry once again. Until next time...