Ryan's prayers

Ryan has really taken to praying from his heart lately and is not praying the same prayer over and over. Instead he is using his words and these prayers melt my heart! This morning his breakfast prayer was that he would have the courage to do the right thing and he also prayed this for his friends. He prayed they would be like queen Esther in the Bible. He prayed that he and his friends would get two stamps today at school :)

I just love to see his mind working.

Ryan

This precious boy is in a different stage right now. Thankfully, the "terribles" have left. However, we have entered a "sassy" stage. Trying to get him to drop a conversation and just say yes ma'am or yes sir is incredibly hard right now. He is ALWAYS right even when he is wrong. We are working hard on his 'tude and his mouth.

It is funny how one minute he will be praying "Lord help us be glad and rejoice in this day and thank you for dying for our sins on the cross" to the next minute having a mouth full of sass. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Thankfully, I know that this too shall pass. My prayer is that it passes with the sass left in the past and not carried on to the next stage. As our pastor talked about this weekend ... we are preparing them to move out one day and my prayer is that he will not move out with a sassy mouth ... grin.

You just never know

What will come out of their mouths! This morning Ryan got up to go potty and wound up getting in bed with me. We were just chatting and he was telling me what he knew about space ships and astronauts. It was quite the interesting conversation. We moved on to other things and something just wasn't completely correct so I tried to explain to him the correct version of his story and he quite frankly told me .... "mom, you are not correct. I know everything so I am always right and well, you are just wrong." Yes, he is only 4!

Edible

I could just eat her up!

Thinking about parenting

Do you ever just feel like a lousy parent? No? OK, Maybe I'm the only one. :)

I'm sure I'm not alone but this parenting thing is hard. It's hard on the good days and even harder on the not so good days. Knowing how to parent three hearts that are each one different is so much bigger than us. If you have more than one child you know how different each one can be ... yet they can be so much alike as well. If it seems I'm talking in circles ... well, some days I feel as though I am walking in circles.

Right now we are struggling as parents in how we discipline our oldest two. They both react differently and so they need different forms of punishment. Ryan is old enough to realize that his punishment is different than his brothers but he is not yet old enough to understand why his punishment is different. One is a bit hard headed and one is very sensitive. It is hard to know how to parent the heart without breaking the spirit. I know that one day God will use both of them in great and glorious ways. I know that the hard headed one will be used in mighty ways and so I(we) need to parent now to reign that in to be harnessed and used in just the right way later when God chooses to release that for His greater good. I also know that the sensitive one will also be used for greatness and I do not want to break his spirit so that he retreats inside a shell and hides from the world that God will use him in.

Parenting is tough. Thankfully we have a Father who is the ultimate parent. Who has given us his word to pray over our children. Last year at our MomSense group we were given a card with 31 scriptures along with Biblical Virtues to pray over our children ... it has been a great guide for me as I pray for my children. Obviously we pray for their Salvation first and foremost. But we are also praying for Love, Honesty, self-control, Mercy, Respect, Courage, Purity, Kindness, Generosity, Humility, Compassion, Contentment, Faith, Hope, Self-discipline, Gratitude, and the list could continue.

The weight of the responsibility that we have been given weighs heavy on me today. Especially as the eyes of these little ones look to me for guidance, a flawed mom who fails so often in her endeavers as a mom. The responsibilty that God has entrusted to us is awesome and grand. I only hope that I am found faithful in the task of rearing my children and that they one day are also found faithful.

This isn't meant to be a gloomy post, honestly it's not. It's just meant to serve as a reminder that being a parent is hard. Being a mom and a wife is hard but the rewards ... well, they just can't be contained. The hugs, kisses and un-prompted "I Love you's" well there just is no price that can be put on the love that is bestowed from these little lives.

I pray that I live up to the challenge that we have been blessed with by being parents. Pray for us and we will pray for you. This journey is not meant to be walked alone.

Wordless Wednesday

You can captionate it in your comments

in case you need a laugh

Caught this earlier today. Pause the music on the sidebar to enjoy!

2 New breakthroughs

They are sponges!

At least once a day I tell each of my kids that I'm very thankful that Jesus allowed me of all the moms in the world to be their mom. I want them to know that I love being their mom and view it as a privilege and an honor. I make so many mistakes but loving them is the best job in the world! Last night as the boys were going to bed, Ryan climbs up on the bed beside me and says ... "mommy, I'm so thankful that Jesus let you be my mommy."

And the tears just fell .....

I love you Mommy

Yesterday, I took Ryan & Pace to Toys R Us to get a free train that we had a coupon for. We tried to do this the last time they offered this coupon, only to disappoint the boys because they were not honoring the coupon. A few phone calls later and they did. Anyway, this time I didn't tell them where we were going or what we were doing. We just jumped in the car and headed up the road.

On the way there this conversation occurred:

Ryan: Mommy I love you

Me: I love you too buddy

Ryan: No really mommy I LOVE you. Do you want to know how much?

Me: Sure how much?

Ryan: All the way to all the states in the world. all the way to the sky and the heavens. to all the africas and all the plains and to all the waterfalls everywhere. (his daddy had been reading the lion king to them if you wonder where africa and plains come from)

Me: (choking back tears) wow that's a lot of love

Ryan: Yep, and it's all for you!

Melted this momma's heart, oh yes it did!

Overheard at Breakfast ...

This morning these two were eating while I was cleaning up and I overheard Ryan tell Pace ... "Pacer we really need to be thankful for this food. There are people somewhere who don't have this food or any food. Let's thank Jesus again" So they proceeded to stop and say a blessing again.

So sweet! We have been really trying to teach them to talk to Jesus from their hearts and not say the same thing over and over again. They have really been doing a great job at this and I know it has to melt God's heart if my heart is this mushy!

Need help!

OK, sorry to be neglecting the blog lately but there have been a few other things going on that have zapped my attention and energy ... so naturally this has gotten put on the back burner.

I should be back to regular updates soon ... DON'T give up on me ... :)

Until then, let's talk recipes! I'm always in need of some new and fresh ideas in the kitchen. I will thank you but most importantly my kids and husband will thank you from the bottom of their full tummies :)

So let's get to commenting with those wonderful (hopefully, easy and quick) recipes! I'm on my knees begging ... if that helps at all :)

7 Months old

Last Friday (the 13th) this precious girl turned 7 Months old. It is so hard to believe that it has been 7 months since she made her entrance in this world. She is such a joy to have in our lives. So happy and laid back. She still has a little separation anxiety or maybe it is just stranger anxiety ...

She did WONDERFUL with her grandparents while we were cruising. She was definitely not short on being given attention! Her Poppa gives her anything she wants ... she has him wrapped right around her little finger.

She has 2 teeth popping through the bottom front. She's on the same time line for teeth as both of the boys. She's eating well and growing tall ... so glad she got Jer's metabolism! Now if she could just get a little hair :)

Happy 7 months baby girl! We Love you!

Photos from our cruise

Here are a few pictures from our cruise ... enjoy!

We are back ...

We made it back from our cruise! It was fun ... even though we got no sleep thanks to the fraternity boys that surrounded us.

We aren't looking forward to the cold weather that awaits us at home and the boys want to move in with their grandparents. When we got back yesterday, Ryan asked us if we could move in with Poppa and Jojo. They lived in the pool while we were gone and had a blast! Not sure they are ready for the cold weather either!

Hope you all are well and I look forward to catching up with you!

We made it!

We made it! It wasn't that bad but definitely not as good as the last time we made this trip and Kennedy was younger. She's not so fond of sitting in her carseat for 12 1/2 hours ... I have no idea why! :)

All in all it was a good trip and we are so happy to be here. We left snow to gorgeous sun! I'm looking outside and a sparkling pool and look forward to seeing them play in it soon.

Everyone is at work today, including Jeremy, so it is just the kids and I here at my in-loves. We are looking forward to seeing some other family soon!

Kennedy is doing great with Poppa and Jojo. She didn't have a good nights sleep last night but I'm hoping that's because of all the sleep she didn't get on the drive down. I'm a firm believer that sleep begets sleep so we are hoping that tonight is much better after a full day of naps on schedule! I'm also hoping that the separation anxiety is a non issue! She seems to be doing pretty well so far. Today will be the tell tell since she was so tired and out of her routine when we arrived ... I think she would have let anyone hold her just not to have to be in that car seat a minute longer :) However, I do think she remembers them and that makes my heart glad!

Well that is about all from us! Hope you all are doing great!