BESTIES

Meet Tahoe, our 8yo Golden Retriever.

She is the sweetest most lovable dog ever.  Hubby and I got her when she was 6 wks old and before we had kids.  She is our first baby!!  When I was pregnant with my 4yo {pictured}, we found ourselves in transition.  Unfortunately, we had to find Tahoe a new home.  My inlaws saved the day and Tahoe moved in with them.  She lived with them for 4 yrs and has finally moved back home!!

My 4yo is in heaven!!  She LOVE LOVE LOVES animals!!

We are so glad Tahoe is home!!

{We may have to find her a new home soon, but hopefully we can keep her.}

Now if I can just figure out what to do about this:

Spider Monkey showed up this morning covered in scratches and dried mud.
Cats aren’t supposed to get baths…but this might be an exception.

For the love….

miracle

My 6yo is so creative and full of life, but it wasn’t always that way.

Kadison had to have double eye surgery, in February, to correct muscles that were too tight.  She was a trooper and so brave!! The above picture was taken the day of surgery, before she got the “happy” medicine.  Once the happy medicine kicked in, she didn’t get silly, like we were told, she just glazed over and was very unresponsive.  We laughed about it, but it was very haunting for me.

When Kadison was born, she didn’t transition well. Meaning, she had a hard time transitioning from fluid to air. About an hr after she arrived, she stopped breathing, turned purple, and was rushed into NICU.  I always felt bad when I was in the NICU, because my baby appeared to look healthy and was almost 8lbs, which was huge compared to the preemies in there.  About a week later, they gave her a clean bill of health and we got to bring our second little girl home.

She was the best baby, but she wasn’t very interactive with her sister who is only 15 months older.  She didn’t make a lot of eye contact, or smile a lot.  We were very concerned, but it was chalked up to her developing at a different pace. We couldn’t help but think that the lack of oxygen to her brain had effected her.
An abundance of prayers went up for our little girl.

One night, when she was about 9 months old, I put her to bed like usual. The next morning, I went to get her and she was a completely different child.  She looked the same, obviously, but she was different.  Her eyes were bright and she started laughing, smiling, acknowledging everyone and just came alive.  It was as if God flipped the lights on.  Overnight our little girl was healed of whatever it was she had.  We still don’t know what was wrong, we just know that she was healed from something, because the difference was so drastic.

Flash forward to that day in the hospital, 5yrs later, with the “happy” meds in her.  I was reminded of how Kadison could have been if she wasn’t healed.  It was haunting. And yet, I was reminded of how good our God is and what a miracle Kadison is.

Life goes on and the many blessings and miracles in our lives seem to fade and become a distant memory.  Lord, please don’t let me forget.

Kadison on her 6th Birthday in March.
She is so funny, active, creative, generous, and loving.

She wants to be a fashion designer and LOVES Project Runway!!

hello my name is…

Good gracious, it’s almost been a yr since my last post.  That’s just ridiculous!!  Life gets away with us and priorities shift and WHAM…
…a blog gets neglected.

I guess I needed the break, but I have missed all of you.

I’m back and can’t wait to catch up!!

inconvenience.

I know most blog posts are funny, crafty, clever, or updates on life,
but this one is about me being transparent for a moment….

Let’s just get this out of the way:

I am NOT the perfect mom with the perfect little kids and perfect house.

I am a mom who thinks that motherhood doesn’t come naturally for most and whose kids are generally well behaved but have days when I feel like I could give them away to the next person that knocks on the door and let’s not even talk about my house.

Lately I have really been struggling with this revelation I made:

If my kids are such a blessing and I chose to have them,
why do I treat them like they are an inconvenience a lot of the time??

This isn’t a pleasant thing for me to admit, but I think that there are others out there that might feel the same way or do the same thing.

Why do we do that?

All I know is that my calling in this season of life is to be a mother. I feel like I am not taking advantage of every moment and easily get frustrated over spilled milk, tea, juice, water, cereal…  I really have nothing better to do than take care of them, yet I often respond to them like they are interrupting the most important thing ever.  It’s so ridiculous.  I hate it.

Know this feeling?
I get so frustrated with myself because I am frustrated over silly things which makes me even more frustrated than ever before and I usually take this frustration out on the kids.
{ which is totally unfair to them }

I think that the process of motherhood is always challenging and very time consuming. It’s time to stop being selfish and invest quality time in our children because they grow up way to fast and I’m told “we’ll miss this one day.”  Honestly, there are days that I couldn’t even tell you what we did. It’s just a blur and I realize that I just wasted another day. We know we aren’t even guaranteed tomorrow….so why are we wasting the days we do have??

Acknowledging this problem is the first step.
Repentance is the next.
Submitting yourself to God is next.

If we are operating out of love, we will respond to our children out of love.

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” Philipians 2:3

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2

I am in no way near where I want to be as a mom, but with the grace of God, I can accept who I am and that I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. Parenting is hard and I think more people should talk about the struggles of parenting instead of pretending everything is perfect.

{ Thanks for letting me be transparent. }

Body Art

Well, I do believe we have a trend emerging with my 5yo and 3yo.

TAKEN LAST WEEK:

They have a passion for coloring themselves with sidewalk chalk.
{ Their arms and legs were also colored. }

Not that big of a deal.

~ YET ~

The coloring continues….

TAKEN TODAY:

~ AND ~

Yes, they both seem quite pleased with themselves.
{ They also have dots all the way down their arms. }

…and yeah, this time they used Highlighters.
Not sure it’s going to come off any time soon!!

I am also beginning to think that they have a fascination with mustaches,
since they both have drawn quite impressive ones!!

I should take pics of the tattoos they give each other.

WHAT’S SOMETHING YOUR KIDS ARE FASCINATED WITH AT THE MOMENT?

Rainy Day

Rainy days can be rough when you have kids.  I want my girls to play outside as much as they can to get rid of energy, but it’s been raining off and on all day.

MY SOLUTION

The ends are soft….no eyes getting poked out.  At least not yet.
Maybe not the best idea now that I think about it…
Hhmmmm…..

Bringing them in for a movie!! 🙂

What do you do on a rainy day??

You KNOW you’re a mom…

With Mother’s Day coming up, my pastor’s wife, Holly Furtick, is asking the following question:

You Know You’re a Mom When…

I thought it was fun and wanted to share my response:

~ You want to jerk the neighborhood kid off the trampoline by his ear and march him home, but don’t because you might be overreacting.
~ You have to go to your little girl’s closet to find your heels.
~ You are constantly reminded what it is to have “child like” faith.
~ Your fave time of day is usually bedtime and you aren’t ashamed to admit it.
~ Popcorn and Choc milk are a well rounded breakfast. Fiber, veggie, protein, dairy….
~ You have to say “I’m sorry” for saying the word stupid.
~ You get a glimpse of what true unconditional love is because you yell or handle a parenting situation badly and yet your kids still want to crawl into your lap and say “I love you.”
~ You go to Ikea just to drop your kids off in the playland for an hr and head up to the cafe to read a book and do your devotions. SCORE!!!!
~ You are proud of yourself for using a word with more than 2 syllables!!!
~ Jesus speaks to you through your kids….everyday. It’s humbling.

I could go on and on…as I am sure you can!!!

Now, I am asking you the same!!

YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MOM WHEN……

{ If you don’t have kids, HERE are 10 lessons you need to learn before you do!! }

WAIT, WHAT??

I was packing up last week for a visit with my hubby’s parents and g-parents, when  I noticed my 6yo had the beginning stages of a rash that she had gotten when she had strep.  Knowing that we were going to see their great grandparents, I didn’t want to chance it with strep.  So, off to Urgent Care I go.  They closed at 8 and 6yo and I got there about 7:15.  She tested negative for strep, so they did another test to see if it was something else.  Anyway, by the time we got out of there it was 9:15 and we were the last patients to leave. We had to leave out the back door since the front was all locked up.  We get in the car and are about to head to the pharmacy to get her prescriptions filled, when the car won’t start.  I HATE it when that happens.  We always have jumper cables in the car, so I just hop out and get them out.  I carried them over to the back door and rang the “EMS” bell since all the dr’s and nurses were still there.  A nurse came out and I held up the cables and asked for help.  She went back in and came back out about 10 minutes later.

She proceeded to say:

“I’m sorry.  Regulations say that we can’t use our own vehicles to help a patient. So, we couldn’t help you, even if we wanted to. You can use our phone if you want.  Sorry.”

WAIT, WHAT???

BIRTHDAYS

Look who is now 5!!!!

She makes me laugh every day and is the most generous person ever!!

~~~

Look who is now 3!!!

She is my courageous girl and lives to make the world smile.

~~~~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

BOSTON

Hubby and I went to Boston for 5 days this last weekend.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  I totally fell in love with the city and didn’t want to come home.  I missed my girls but just wished that Boston was home.  It was a weird feeling because I have never felt that way before about a place.

Here are some videos that we took while we were there.

Boston Pics

As you can see, we had a blast and can’t wait to get back!!

We plan on moving there before the end of the year!

“Wicked Awesome!!”