Mother's Day

Counting birds

Singing songs

Wiping faces {and hinies}

Reading books

Silly voices

Countless kisses

Sneaky tickles

Playing pirates and princesses

Saying prayers

Holding hands

Taking walks

Bathing beauties

Nurturing souls

Squeezy hugs

Huddling in forts

Spying bunnies and squirrels

Brushing hair

Sparkly eyes

Mischievous smiles

These are the moments.

The things that make up motherhood, for me.

These are the times that if feels as if the stars have aligned, that then, even if for that very moment, that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

When life seems to pause, albeit to quickly, so I can mother.

Mother my precious miracle children.

Being a mother.

We all do it so uniquely.

We all have our own style.

So very beautifully.

Motherhood, a calling that I am blessed to have.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you amazing, beautiful, patient, loving women.

A favorite verse

 

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:9-10 ESV

I desire for my children to know this.

To know that these words are like a drumbeat in my heart for them.

This is my desire, my true hearts desire.

I will always and constantly be in prayer for them.

I will be praying that they are filled with the knowledge of God's will.

That they are filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding.

That they would carry themselves as being worthy of God.

That they would be pleasing to Him.

That they would bear good fruit, through their actions, through their love.

That they would never ever cease in their pursuit of the knowledge of God.

That they would hunger for His words as for food and drink.

Before I had children I didn't realize the massive responsibility it would be to raise spiritual children.

I was unaware of how much I would yearn for them to have a close relationship with Him.

Now, however, I am humbled by the gift that these children are.

That God has placed them in our care, to raise them up in the way they should go.

That it is our responsibility to teach them about God and His Word.

So they see Him as a loving Father, rather than some unreachable, unknowable being.

For them to know how much He truly loves them.

For them to understand the sacrifice that He and His Son, Jesus made, for us, sinners.

I have so much more that I can and want to say, but for now, I will wrap this up.

I also wanted to share another verse that is close to my heart.

So close in fact that I have it printed and it is hanging up in our living room.

Let us keep on running the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

Keep this in mind when times get tough, when hope feels lost, when you feel alone or in the need of comfort.

We are here, where we are supposed to be for a reason.

Let's keep on running this race, knowing that we are not alone.

We not only have the love of our Father in Heaven, but the love of our family and friends here.

When tiredness is good

Lately I have been tired...maybe exhausted is a better word.

I find that I am running all day long.

It's a good tired though, a tired that means that the day was full of hard work and productivity.

The kind of tired where I am in bed as soon as the little girls go to bed, I lay there like a lump watching a bit of television and then fall asleep at the time that adults do.

I had been staying up late, like an unmarried, non-parent, college student.

Secure in the fact that my daily nap would occur and coffee would be consumed.

Ah coffee, you are so delicious with your tasty creamers and caffeine laden self, I love you.

Now though, naps are no more, unless it is the weekend and K takes over afternoon duty so I can sleep.

While my days before will filled with the sounds, sights and touches of children, my days now are even more full with the care of a 6 month old as well.

How quickly I had forgotten all that a 6 month entailed and how quickly it came back.

The gummy smiles, the slobbered on shoulders, the joy at seeing them roll over and babble.

Watching little baby B has been such a wonderful experience for all of us.

We are all enjoying having her with us during the day and the girls are so excited for her to come over in the morning.

Most mornings I hear Abby with her charming toddler voice coo, "Aww, B is so cute!"

This has been such a blessing for us.

Abby is doing even better than I thought she would.
She is such a little mama, she likes to help and has shown very little jealousy.

Tiredness + joy = contentment

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 Other things

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1. Have you heard about #TeamAmelia?  Little Amelia, who is 3 years old, was denied a kidney transplant due to being mentally delayed. Please read her mom's blog post about this and please sign this petition.

2. Please pray for my father-in-law, he had surgery on Friday to repair a hernia.

3. Do you guys have any prayer requests? I would love to have the opportunity to pray for you.

 

Right now

Right now:

it's 9:02 in the morning

I'm still not ready for the day yet

My coffee tastes AMAZING

I'm missing Adison, she asked to stay with K's parents for a couple more days

The littles are enjoying lollipops and watching Abby's new movie. 

I need to get ready so we can go to the library

I am excited about seeing my mom

I cannot believe that I am about to turn 31 in a few short days

I need to get some more books to read

Feeling so very blessed, family is amazing

Had such a wonderful Christmas, I love celebrating Christ's birth

I'm looking forward to diving into the devotional I got for Christmas

I'm amazed by Adison, she is teaching herself the piano

Cannot believe we haven't had any real snow yet

I'm not ready to put away my Christmas decorations yet

I'm craving brownies and an asiago cheese bagel

I need to do laundry AND the dishes

I am going to get up and be productive today

It's the little things

Some days life can seem overwhelming.

Sometimes it can be hard to see the joy when you are so focused on the day to day stuff.

Somehow the little things, the simply joys can be overlooked.

Today, I want to focus on the little things.

The moments, that if we aren't paying attention, can slip away from us.

********

Listening to Abby say her meal time and bedtime prayers.

Seeing my girls cuddle together on a weekend morning.

Listening to Adison help Ainsley figure something out.

Making homemade pizza and having the girls help.

Experiencing the first snow of the year.

Sending K my shopping list, thanks babe!

Cuddles on the couch.

Exclamations about how loved Christmas decorations are.

Finally playing around with a new app on my phone and discovering how much fun it is.

Hey Sunday, what's up?

Ainsley had been battling a cold for about four days and seemed to be on the mend.

Abby on the other hand, had just come down with it and was MISERABLE!

Friday morning, Lee seemed so much better, so I sent her on her merry way to school while the oh-so-sick-one and I stayed home and had a chill morning.

Lee hoped off the bus, had her shoes and coat off, and was on the couch within about 30 seconds of walking in the door.

Not normal.

She then started complaining of her left ear hurting.

I knew what that meant, we were going to the doctor.

For the two hours until her appointment, Lee lay on the couch with a heating pad on low on her ear complaining of an earache. 

I woke poor, sick Abby up from her nap early to head to go see Dr. C.

Upper respiratory infections for both and the beginning of an ear infection for Lee.

In one word I can explain how they both felt...miserable.

On Saturday I started feeling sick but not too awful.

Lee  was MUCH better and Abby was still about the same.

Last night after dinner K and I were talking.

There have been a lot of things going on lately and I really feel like a certain someone {Satan} is trying to steal my Christmas joy.

Last year, due to what I now know was depression, Christmas was a bit rough for me.

I enjoyed watching my children enjoy it, but for me it was a rough time.

Due to some meds, I have such a better outlook on this year {Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday} and was so looking forward to this year.

Like I said though, things just keep piling up and are threatening to completely overwhelm me.

I can feel it trying to take over and I am trying to shake it.

I am trying to ground myself in Christ and really give this all to Him because I really want to worship and celebrate this season, Christ's birth.

I ended up going to bed early last night, I just couldn't keep my eyes open, and got a wonderful night's sleep.

Today I am feeling so much better.

I think that devoting some extra time in the Word will help tremendously.

I woke up last night when K came to bed and he has caught what the girls have.

As I have mentioned before, K is a severe asthmatic.

I see breathing treatments and steriods in our future.

Would you please pray for him?
Thanks you guys!

Today, I am thinking about making some homemade pizza and trying to decide what yummy treats we should bake when it gets a bit closer to Christmas.

Decisions decisions.

These though are the fun kinds to make, ha ha!

How has your weekend gone?
What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Our Christmas must have are butter balls, yum-o!

The Good, the Bad and the Funny

The Good: Our house is officially ready for Christmas. Tree is up, lights are strung, nativity set is out. We are ready! Everything about this season is good, the smells, the taste, the sights, this is my favorite time of year! Things are going well around here, except for the little two having colds, nothing to really report.

The Bad: The Cat, you know, the one mentioned yesterday, knocked over out little tree and broke one of Adison's favorite ornaments. Abby kept walking around looking for the kitty to tell her that she broke it, it was really cute.

The Funny: Tuesday evening, before dinner we were hanging out in the living room while dinner cooked. K was doing something at the fireplace {I don't remember what}, Ainsley was sitting on the recliner, Adison and I were on the couch and I was tickling Abby. Out of the blue I felt this huge *pop* near my clavicle, tremendous pain and part of my arm went numb. I called for K to come get Abby and he asked what had happened. I told him about the pain and his immediate thought was that I had somehow torn a ligament or something. He started telling me how I needed to call the doctor the next day or go to the emergency room and that I would probably be having surgery some time later in the week. What!?! Then Adison chimes in saying that she saw Ainsley throw something and that it had hit me. In my mind I was thinking that there is no way my 4 year old could throw something at me that hard. Finally, I went into the bathroom to look at where the pain was coming from, the area was red and there was a little cut on it. Huh? Then I remembered what Adison had said. Finally we figured it out, Ainsley was trying to throw a little Dora toy with a hat on it somewhere {which she isn't supposed to} and she accidentally hit me with it. By the time we sat down for dinner we were all having a good laugh at what had happened.

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Thank you so much for your prayers for Tiffany, they started chemo yesterday. I will keep you guys updated on how she is doing. 

Gobble Gooble and bringin' in the Christmas Fun

Why hello again!

How was your Thanksgiving?

We had. a. blast.

We spent Thanksgiving with K's family and let me tell ya, good times were had by all.

This was my plate post-copious-quantities-of-turkey-consumption.

If I could have bathed in the gravy I would have, delish!

The kids played with their cousins and the adults had fun chatting and watching the children's talent show.

Adison sang a couple of songs and Ainsley, YES Ainsley, got up and danced!

Friday afternoon, K and I headed out on shopping date with a food break at Chick-fil-a.

I LOVE eating there.

This picture of K cracks me up, he's such a ham!

Right after I snapped this picture of K this guy came out.

The first thought that popped into my head is that a huge, dancing Santa cow would flip my kids out!

We got *almost* all of our shopping done and I am beyond thrilled.

We picked up a few games and couldn't wait to take them back to K's parents' house to play them.

Surprisingly {or not} all of our children were freaked out by the game Operation.

Adison said it was too much for her {she's very sound sensitive}, Ainsley cried which then freaked Abby out and lead to her crying.

K eventually went into the other room to play a game with Adison and Abby while I worked on getting Lee over her fear of the buzzing noise with the bright red light from when she would hit the metal on the game.

I think with her it was a bit scary but she is also a bit of a perfectionist and not getting it right away was just too much for her.

Eventually I convinced her that the buzzing sound was kind of like music, which made her happy, and we practiced playing the game.

She was a bit too young for it, but ended up having fun.

Later that night we all got together again.

Pizza and a movie.

The children LOVE seeing each other!

{All 7 cousins}

We decided to head home Saturday, to give us some rest time and get our Christmas decorations up.

The sunset on the way home was gorgeous!

I wish the picture did it justice, but it doesn't.

Hey look, it's me!

The girls were so tired that they could barely keep their eyes open.

Well, Abby couldn't at all, she fell asleep before we were on the highway.

Lee somehow managed to stay awake, I was shocked.

Adison was completely out of it watching a movie.

We all went to bed really early Saturday evening and woke up ready to decorate.

I don't decorate too much for other holidays, but for Christmas we go all out.

I think I have 7 or so tubs of Christmas decorations, I can't help myself.

This year though, I showed some restraint and didn't put everything up, only most of it.

Ha!

Tell me about your weekend, how did it go?

Thanksgiving Eve

It's Thanksgiving Eve, it has me feeling very nostalgic.

I've been thinking of all that I am grateful for.

To have a K, the cupcakes, my parents, my brother, his wife and my niece.

To have K's parents, his sister, her husband and their children.

To have our friends and extended family.

To have a roof over our heads and food in our stomach.

To have God, to have complete faith in Him.

To live in this wonderful country, to have freedom.

To have so very much to be thankful for.

Sometimes, when the day is long and hard, when attitudes are quick or tempers flare, it can be hard to think of these things.

To remember how truly blessed we are to have so much.

I'm grateful to have a place to come, to share and experience life with others.

To have such a loving community of friends.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

To hear children's laughter, to converse and express our thanks.

To eat yummy food {woo hoo for mashed potatoes!} and spend the day together.

See you tomorrow my lovelies, xoxo

 

A birthday weekend extravaganza

This weekend we celebrated birthdays.

Let me tell ya, it was a good time.

On Saturday Adison turned 9.

Nine years old.

I can hardly believe it.

She woke up so excited.

Ainsley told her happy birthday first thing in the morning without having to be reminded.

After the girls came downstairs the first thing that Adison asked to do was open her cards.

Here is her very first picture as a 9 year old.

A little later in the day my mom and step-dad came in town and we celebrated the older girls birthdays.

My brother, sister-in-law and niece met up with us at Cracker Barrel.

My kids love to eat there.

They were so excited to see everyone and celebrate!

Then all the servers came out and sang "Happy Birthday" to the girls.

Adison was embarrassed.

I had to snap a picture, ha ha.

I cannot believe that Ainsley is going to be 4 on Tuesday.

I'm telling ya, they seem to grow up in the blink of an eye.

Today we got together with my dad to celebrate.

We met up at Barnes & Noble.

The girls had so much fun looking and playing with everything.

Poor Abby, she was so tired that she fell asleep on the way home and kept on sleeping as I layed her down in the living room.

She slept for about 30 minutes then popped right up and was ready to go.

All I needed was a slice of apple pie

Yesterday afternoon we took the girls to a new park.

It was about 20 minutes away from our fair city.

All we knew was that the park was in a certain town, we didn't know anything more.

K packed up a picnic lunch while I got the kids ready to go.

Past corn fields and grain elevators.

As we pull into the town we were wondering where the park could be.

We passed high school boys standing outside the fire station waving American flags.

We passed a baseball diamond and there, behind the diamond we saw it..

The park.

Oh if you could of heard the whoops and hollers of our three children.

We pull into the parking lot and immediately noticed all the cars.

Two families were having some get togethers.

We pulled into our space, got the kids out of the car and let them go to the playground.

They were ready and all but sprinted to discover the new fun things that awaited their exploration.

The bigger girls quickly found other children to play with while Abby was more than happy to explore by herself.

K and I watched the excitement while unpacking our lunches and getting things ready.

Kids, time to eat!

Do I have to eat now?

No, you can eat when you are ready for a break.

K and I talked and ate and watched the kids while they played.

Laughing and commenting on how they each found the thing that they like to do.

Adison- the swings

Ainsley- the slides

Abby- the bouncy bridge

The girls would come and go, eating and then running off to play.

At one time, Abby finished eating, looked back at Ainsley and said:

Come on, sister

After a bit the girls all called for Daddy to come play with them.

They are used to me playing, Daddy being at the park was a treat.

I sat there, finishing up my lunch and taking it all in.

The sound of my children laughing with my husband.

The corn fields just beyond the playground.

The baseball diamond off to the left.

It was a snapshot of America.

Such a blessed way to spend an anniversary of such horrific trauma.

This was America.

Families.

Children laughing.

Being together.

Then, to make the afternoon even more wonderful a trio of older adults came with their musical instruments.

One man played the guitar and sang, another man played the fiddle and the woman also played her fiddle.

In between songs, the trio would talk and laugh a bit.

Then I could hear the music again and occasionally the sound of the man singing.

The children would come and go, needing drinks or a snack.

I played and rode with Ainsley on the swing for a bit, went down the slides with Abby and explored the playground with Adison.

Ainsley wanted to swing so high that we could touch the trees.

Eventually K and I made our way back to the table.

I then told him that all we needed was a piece of apple pie because it doesn't get any more American then that moment.

Yesterday afternoon was a treat.

A moment when the world felt right again.

When all was as it should be.

Summer vacation is over

Goodness, I cannot believe that school starts tomorrow.

It seems like just yesterday the kids were singing

Schoooools out for summer! Schooools out for ever!

Wow, how has an entire summer vacations passed!?!

We have had a pretty marvelous time if I do say so myself.

We went to the zoo with friends

 

 We went on walks together

We celebrated the Fourth of July with family and all smiled for a picture

Some of us went to a baseball game with family

We played in the water

 We played board games

We went out for frozen yogurt

I drank copious quantities of coffee to keep up with the kids

We played beauty salon and painted rainbow toes

We played some indoor putt putt

We visited the botanical gardens

We went swimming at the pool with friends

Wow, we had a really busy summer and this isn't even all of the pictures!

I have loved this summer.

It's been nice to watch my kids interact.

I think it is time for school again though.

Time for schedules and homework.

Making lunches and school parties.

This year will be another great year.

Adison will turn 9 and is starting the 3rd grade.

Ainsley will turn 4 and is starting preschool.

Abby will be turning 2 and still has a few more years at home with me, yippee!

How was your summer?

The sweet things

This morning my husband got all the kids up and fed so I could stay in bed a bit longer.

This morning while laying in bed I heard Ainsley laughing while talking to K.

This morning I heard Adison help Abby down the stairs and made silly noises all the way down.

This morning I was able to comfort my crying youngest after she fell.

This morning I chatted with my eldest and was one again reminded that she is turning into such an amazing young lady.

This morning I am in awe of the blessings the Lord has provided in my life.

This morning my eyes were again opened to the wonder of it and I don't want to shut them.

**Prayer request**

Please be praying for Ian and his family.

Ian was recently diagnosed with brain cancer.

Our Ah-mazing Weekend

On Friday morning we headed out to St. Louis because K's cousin was getting married.

At first Abby and I weren't planning on going, she was so miserable on Thursday that even the thought of going on Friday was out of the question.

When she woke up Friday morning she was like a different child, still not quite "Abby" but much much better.

We met up with K's parents as we were caravaning with them and we finished the rest of our journey.

Still not quite 100% but she was smiling!

{The doctor told me that she would be better on day two of antibiotics, he was right!}

Then we got stuck in traffic and I saw this sign.

It was hysterical!

We were staying with K's aunt, it was so nice of her to let the 5 of us crash there.

We went to the wedding on Friday evening.

It was beautiful and the minister was awesome!

We had a babysitter watch the kiddos so K and I could head out to the reception.

It. was. so. much. fun!

Not a great picture, but let's pretend that it is okay?

Great!

The next day K had to do some work so the kids and I tagged along.

While we were at the mall the kids found this really cool, interactive floor/picture/thing.

And they discovered the escalators.

Apparently going up and down them by yourself CAREFULLY is all the rage with the younger crowd.

At least that's how my kids acted.

The nice thing is that the escalators were really small hence me feeling comfortable with the whole thing.

Afterwards we headed over to K's cousin's house.

Oh my word.

It was one of those afternoons that you want your kids to remember forever because it was so amazing.

There were lots of kids and fun and sun AND Abby was her good 'ol self again!

They played in the sprinkler, did a slip-n-slide, had a water balloon fight and looked for frogs.

It truly was the most magical summer day that I can think of.

There was also some grillin' and strawberry eatin' going on.

She was fiercely protective of her strawberry.

Sunday morning we headed over to my in-law's hotel so the kids could get in some last minute swimming and then we headed out for lunch.

Then K got me a vanilla cupcake cappuccino and Adison pretended to squish things while waiting for K to pump gas.

All 13 of us {K's parents, the five of us plus his sister, her hubby and their 4 kids} had some good food and all headed back to good 'ol Kansas.

On the way home we hit some AWFUL weather.

We saw the storm coming at us and it actually made me kind of nervous.

I looked up at the clouds at one point and told K that I saw rotation in the clouds.

Then the entire thing started rotating and the winds hit hard!

K said that the leaves came off of the trees and started spinning around on the road.

{I was too busy staring at the sky.}

We hightailed it out of there only to be slammed with rain so hard that you couldn't see very far in front of you while getting hit by the wind.

We discovered later via the radio that a lot of building sustained roof damage and one roof was ripped completely off of a house!

Down the road a bit a semi jack-knifed and they closed it for a bit.

Luckily no one was hurt.

It was a pretty long drive home though.

We were all pretty sick of being in the car.

This picture of Ainsley sums it up perfectly.

Ha ha!

We truly had the most wonderful time!

We are ready to head back!

How was your weekend?