Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the last few weeks, the girls have been adding what they are thankful for to their Thankful Tree. (Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about) I thought I would share their list of things they are thankful for as we all celebrate Thanksgiving today. So in their own words, here are the things we have been thankful for over the past 2 weeks.

• Avery's new book
• Elliana
• Having Friends over for dinner
• Daddy is home from his trip
• Justus, Daddy, Mommy, and Avery
• Trees and Flowers
• Daddy's home
• Balloon
• Peanut Butter Sandwich
• Butterflies and Balloons
• Gloves
• Pink Plates
• Daddy, Mommy, Justus, Elliana, and windows
• Freedom
• Cold Weather
• Stickers
• Being Home
• Susan and Andrew
• Thankful tree
• Daddy coming home
• Friends
• Thankful tree
• Grandma and Grandpa's house
• New Spoons
• Coke (which neither one of them has ever tasted!)
• Thankful Tree
• Carson, Tyson, and Jansen
• Trees
• My Family
• Friends
• Flowers
• Family and Bread
• Thankful Tree
• Justus
• Date Night with Daddy
• Dance School
• Cookies and Mr. Andrew
• Connor and Bryce
• Going on a date with daddy
• Thankful Tree
• Family

Such a Girly Girl

"I'll help you with the pumpkin pie but can I have a napkin? I don't want my hands to get messy."She was not convinced when I told her the best part about cleaning pumpkins was the messy hands and she cleaned that entire half with a napkin in her hand.

My Spiritual Journey

Instead of my personal journey, let's do something a bit different and try to create some dialogue =)

My favorite way to review the scripture I'm memorizing is by taping the verses to the outside of the shower (ignore the soap scum. Who invented glass showers anyway? Certainly not the person who had to clean them!)

Even if little faces are pressed up against the outside of the shower(which they often are), I can't hear what they're saying over the water, so I can still concentrate on the verses I'm memorizing.
So now its your turn. How do you memorize scripture?

He's Sick....Again

We have been stuck in the house a lot over the last few months because Justus has had so many sinus infections and colds.

Today I decided to teach him a new trick to help pass the time. You might not be able to tell from the video, but I taught him to blow his nose. He only does it into a Kleenex every once in a while, but he loves blowing his nose on my shirt.

Kind of gross, but at least it gives him something to do besides cry!


And that, my friends, is the glamorous life of a mommy =)

Observations of the Day

Elliana: "if you throw up on yourself, just tell mommy and she'll give you the medicine and a trashcan." (this was said very seriously to Justus as if teaching him a very important lesson)
Avery: "How deep is your tummy? I think it starts here (pointing to her throat) and goes all the way to your belly b. Which means I need more to eat because my tummy is pretty deep"

Family Fun Day

No pics of our day this week, at least not yet =)

We spent the afternoon taking family pictures so I'll post those as soon as I get them back. Other than that, we had a relaxing day as a family eating breakfast at McDonalds (nothing but the best food for my kids =) ), playing board games, and running errands.

So sorry about the boring post, but to quote a line from the movie "UP", "I know it may sound boring, but its the boring stuff I remember the most". (You know the scene...where the little boy is telling the old man about all things he remembers doing with his dad, and all his fond memories are the ones where him and his dad are doing nothing together)

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Messy Again

This floor had been scrubbed and mopped less than 24 hours earlier...Anyone else out there feel my pain =) I think my kids must have holes in the bottom of their lips!

My Spiritual Journey

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you
Ezekiel 36:25

Meditating on God's word is powerful and life changing. This week I spent the week meditating on vs. 25

"from all your idols I will cleanse you."


Idols. Those things that you worship in addition to or more than God. These words were clearly impressed on my heart, so I knew God was calling me to take time to sit with him so he could reveal some idols I had formed in my heart. I was expecting Him to tell me I had started making my kids or my house or my ministries an idol. I wasn't expecting Him to tell me this, but plain as day, He said

You are your own idol.

Me? How could I be my own idol? I am sacrificing everything I used to want or desire in order to stay home and raise and disciple my children. I'm giving my life to what God called me to. How can I be an idol?

As the week has progressed, the answer became pretty clear. Why do I get frustrated when nap time isn't what I want it to be? Because I feel I have the right to some down time during the day. Why do I get angry when fits are thrown or toys aren't picked up or when sleepless nights begin to become the norm instead of the exception? Because I feel I have the right to expect perfection from others and sleep and alone time for myself.

My dissatisfaction with things comes because I believe deep down in my heart that I have the right to have an easy life full of fulfilling opportunities for myself.

My desires, or what I feel are my rights, have become my idols. They have become the thing I chase after more than I chase after God.

My rights have been submitted to the proper authority and my focus is on chasing after God even in the midst of a life full of dirty diapers, tantrums, messiness, no alone time, little money, an adoring husband, kids who love me, a house with very little things that need fixed, friends who call to check on me, a mom who drops everything to support me, and sisters who bring great joy to my heart every time we talk.

Idols make it really easy to focus on what's missing in life. God makes it really easy to focus on how much He has blessed my life.

Meditation on God's word is powerful.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8

Goals for this week:

• Finish Life with God by Richard Foster
• Continue memorizing and meditating on Ezekiel 36:25-27
• Focus on daily submitting my rights and chasing after God.
  

We Finally Made It

I saw this idea on another blog I read a few weeks ago and thought to myself "what a great idea. I should do that with the kids."

But the thought of making and cutting out leaves was enough to keep pushing the project to the back burner...it became a "maybe tomorrow" type of project.
Until tonight! We finally made our thankfulness tree! I think the motivation was some leftover cutout flowers I had from a breakout session I taught yesterday at church which meant I did not have to trace or cut out leaves with the girls. For some reason, the thought of making leaves exhausted me =)So here's our tree. So far we just have a few flowers and hearts added with things we're thankful for. Hopefully we'll get a little deeper as we continue over the next 2 weeks. Right now we're still just thankful for balloons and trees =) But even if it never goes any deeper than that, at least they're learning what it means to be thankful. And hopefully having a bit of fun in the process =)

Family Fun Day

A trip to the zoo with Grandma
The weather was perfect and the animals were active. The girls showed no fear getting up close and personal with this tiger!
The elephants and giraffes were a big hit as well. I've never seen them run in the zoo before. Usually they just stand there and eat. I think Grandma and I had just as much fun as the girls!What makes a trip to the zoo even better? Riding the train!
The girls even put on a little show for Grandma and practiced their dance routines. Well, Avery danced; Elliana giggled and "skipped" through the living room.
It was a great day!

Getting Big

This week...Justus has tasted his first lemon
It took 3 sleepless nights, but his first tooth has finally broken through!
And he learned to say the letter d. Daddy is going to feel special to hear "da da da da" greet him when he gets home next week!

I Miss Him

7 1/2 years ago I moved into an apartment 2 buildings away from him. There was never a day where we weren't together.
6 1/2 years ago I walked into his apartment to find this and a ring for my finger. 6 years ago we said "I do" and began our married life together. Right after we got married, we used to joke that it was like a slumber party every night. We would just lay in bed and talk for hours about absolutely nothing. We have always just loved to talk to each other. And now he's gone for a week...

After 7 1/2 years of sharing every moment with someone, not being able to talk to him is hard.

I really miss him this week. Every time the phone rings, my heart starts beating fast thinking it might be him only to remember he can't use a phone this week. Every time something happens, I go to reach for the phone only to remember I can't contact him this week. This week, 1 week seems like an eternity!!

My Spiritual Journey

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

The past few weeks have been long weeks. The kind that twist and turn your emotions and just wear you out. God has used these long weeks to teach me so much.

The one thing that has been evident in everything that I've been learning is the fact the God is living and active and working in me and all around me. Not that I would have ever denied that fact, but God has been opening my eyes and my mind to be constantly aware of God's hand and the fact that He is working. Its a lot more fun to walk through difficult situations when your eyes are keenly watching for God's hand among all circumstances. I truly believe that has been God's gift to me the past few weeks...the ability to constantly be aware of His presence and his purpose in all things so that life does not have the ability to get me down, but rather encourages me and spurs me on.

Why the verse at the top? The past few weeks, I've just been keenly aware of God's working in my heart. He has been cleansing me and removing some stuff but at the same time satisfying me and speaking to me. The more I am aware of Him on a continual minute by minute basis, the more dependent I become on the Holy Spirit working in my life. This verse speaks to me about how active God is and reminds me to be thankful that we don't serve a passive God, but an active God who is continually speaking to us and drawing us unto Himself.

Hope the ramblings make sense =) Brent is gone for the week, so this week my goals are a bit smaller. I'm not a good single mom!

Goals from last week:

• I'm still reading Life With God. Great food for thought!
• I'm finish with Isaiah and am now reading Ezekiel. What a great book to teach me how all things, even destruction, has a purpose in God's kingdom.
  

Goals for this week:

• Continue reading and meditating on Ezekiel.
  
• Memorize Ezekiel 36:25-26
• Have morning devotions with the kids over breakfast. With Brent not here in the evenings, I know the devotions won't happen at night unless I start doing them in the morning.
  

Saturday Fun

So no posts for a week; needless to say, its been a busy roller coaster of a week!But today was the highlight of the week, Avery's b-day party. Her actual b-day was last week, so she got a full week of birthday celebration! Fun times. For her birthday, she decided she wanted to bring cupcakes to school, a castle cake and to play Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light with her friends. So we...

took cupcakes to school on Monday

And then today at her b-day party, we played Red Light, Green Light

Simon Says

Rock, Rock, Be A Rock

Ate some castle cake

Opened some cool presentshit open a pinata full of candy

Ate some hotdogs and fruit

played a little Wii with our best friends who now live in Austin.

fell into bed exhausted

and then we ended the evening with a great dinner and a little ice cream for the two birthday girls! (Brent's mom's b-day is today as well!)Who could ask for a better 4th birthday =)

Happy Birthday My Sweet Girl!

Its so hard to believe!!! She's 4 yrs old today!

Wasn't it just yesterday that we were making decisions about buying a house and quitting my job so I could become a stay at home mom? Wasn't it just yesterday I sat in the hospital looking at my daughter thinking to myself "am I really a mom now?" Wasn't it just yesterday that I suddenly learned how much my heart could love another being? Wasn't it just yesterday that you learned to smile and then laugh and then crawl and walk and talk and develop a personality?

Now here you are, the most tender-hearted person I know. You take care of your brother and sister with a maturity and love that overwhelms me. And you still have the ability to crawl into my lap, bury your head in my chest, and make my heart melt.

I'm often shocked at your ability to learn new things and analyze ideas, and then forced into laughter when I see you writing your name, whistling like a pro, counting in Spanish all with your shoes on the wrong feet. We just can't master those shoes =) When I point out the shoes to you, you just laugh and say "those silly shoes. Why does Elliana always know what foot to put her shoe on?" Because Elliana sees life in shapes and colors. So far, you see life in letters and numbers. You are my problem solver and there isn't a problem out there that you don't think you can solve! Oh the places you'll go with that determination and those thinking skills. This is one proud (and maybe a little biased) momma saying I love you more than all the pink ice cream in the world. Happy Birthday my beautiful girl!

Here's a little video of my big girl being a great big sister this morning.