"Believe it Mom"

Isn't it funny how our kids teach us? I learn so, so much from my 3 little munchkins. I wonder sometimes if I do not learn more from them then they do from me ...

Last night I got the privilege of putting the boys down to bed. Normally this is something Jeremy does while I put the girl down. Jeremy is gone for a few days for work, so I got to do it last night and I have to say I miss it so much. But, I know that is a time that daddy gets with his boys after being gone all day and they love for daddy to read to them and pray with them. I won't interrupt the time they have together, but I oh so love it when I get to do it from time to time.

Last night it was Pace's turn to pick out the nightly story and so he picked out "Boom" otherwise known as "Dave and the Giant Pickle" from the veggie tale Bible or to the rest of us as David and Goliath. After reading, by the ways those boys can both quote that story and the Bible portion of the story verbatim! Sponges they are! I digress ... after reading the story we said our nightly prayers. We have been praying for a house as we are in limbo land right now between selling our old house and trying to buy a new one. We are waiting on the bank to accept our offer that we put in in MAY on a short sale home. We got some news on Friday and we are hoping that it will move into better news this week. Last Monday the boys prayed that they would have a house within 5 days. Meaning the bank would answer us within 5 days which would have been this past Friday, when we found out some news but not the news we were hoping for. So they changed their prayer on Saturday to pray for 10 days. So last night as we are praying ... Ryan prays the following ... "Jesus thank you for the day we had, for the dive sticks in the pool and Jesus help it rain all night tonight and none during the day tomorrow so we can be in the pool after school. And Jesus would you please give us a house in 10 days. Jesus we BELIEVE you for it. Thank you Jesus. Amen" I then asked Pace if he wanted to pray and he basically repeated Ryan's prayer ... then I finished up and reiterated Ryan's prayer asking God to please let us hear news soon. Ryan QUICKLY interrupted me to "Believe it, Mom, 10 days!". He wanted me to change my prayer to not only ask God to let us get an answer but to also believe it.

Made me stop and think ... how many times do we ask God for something but don't believe that he will come through for us? This process of trying to buy a short sale home has really challenged me as we have been waiting, it is hard to hold on when you are waiting and see no results other than a continual 2 week push off from someone who holds your file in their hands. However, ultimately God holds my file in his hands and do I pray believing that he has the best in store for me? Do I pray believing that he will work it all out for good? If I'm honest my prayers sometimes are like 5 cent bubble gum prayers. I put in my 5 cents and expect my bubble gum to pop out when I'm done ... but scripture reminds me that His ways are not my ways and his thoughts are not mine. They are much higher and wiser than mine will ever be.

Today I'm thankful for the faith of a child ... because through it I'm challenged and through it I am pushed to dig deeper into my own faith and closer to the heart of Christ!

Bad day?

and I thought I was having a bad day! Click on the link and read Kristin's story .... how's your day after reading that?

Temper tantrums!

This sweet little girl can throw a tantrum, full kicking of her legs and all. Right now her screaming fits revolve around me giving some attention to the boys. She does NOT like it one bit when one or both of the boys come and sit in my lap. She can be across the room doing her own thing and if, out of the corner of her eye she spots the boys with me, or me kissing or hugging them, she will throw a fit!

This morning was one of those times. We had about 15 minutes between breakfast ending and needing to get in the car to go to school. Kennedy was using her walker and walking around the room. Pace decided to come sit with me. Kennedy hears us, turns around and then proceeds to flop herself down and throws a fit. Neither of the boys can be around me or in my lap without her crying and pitching a fit.

Neither of the boys did this so I am at a loss as how to handle it. This morning I ignored her, hoping that she would settle herself down but that was not the case.

Any of you have little ones that do not like it when you give attention to your other child(ren)? If so how do you handle it?

Summatime

This is what we have been doing A LOT of this summer!
Tell me about yours ...

Not sure I like it ..

These two have been going to school on a daily basis. It started on Monday. I'm 4 days in and I'm not sure how I feel about it. They love it. They go daily from 8:30 to noon and are having a blast. The second day I dropped Pace off he was a little teary but has never asked not to go. If you ask him what his favorite part of the day is ... he will proudly tell you ... "snack". I've heard that he makes his teachers food and lots of it in the play kitchen at school. He comes home to tell me how much he misses his ... it's still in storage.

It is weird not having my boys at home each morning - cooking me plastic food meals. It is a huge wake up call that my kids are not growing younger each day ... they are growing older and these days will never be back again. I still find it odd to know that Ryan, my baby, is 4 1/2 years old. Wasn't I just walking the halls of the hospital with him yesterday, while the rest of our community group was out having lunch at a Brazilian steak house ... much to my husbands displeasure. I mean he was excited to have his first son but he was really, really looking forward to having lunch with our group. I remember that day as though it was yesterday, and today I send him daily to school. I'm sure tomorrow I will send him off to college ;)

I'm not sure I like them growing up, yet I know they must. So I will make the most of the time we do have and will enjoy every minute as I hear the tales of their day, the friends they made and the games they played. Today, they played Batman, spider-man and superman. I'm not sure any cities were saved but my boys sure had a blast playing super hero's with their friends.

Her First

Yesterday, we celebrated with our family, Kennedy's first birthday. It is CRAZY to think that one year has passed already. It seriously just doesn't seem like a year has come and gone.

We had a luau for her yesterday. The weather didn't quite cooperate so we moved everything inside but we still had a nice time.

She absolutely LOVED her cake ... she just wanted someone else to feed her. She picked at it very daintily and would look up at us and smile then back down at the cake. The boys LOVED putting their fingers in the cake and giving it to her ... every once in a while I would notice Pace putting his finger in his mouth instead of hers :). Don't let the picture below fool you ... she wouldn't get messy so I had to take her hand to her face myself. I had to have a messy first birthday photo ... but had I not done it the only thing that would have been messy would have been her hands.

I will say that I think I have a shopper on my hands! I took her on several errands last week and she would look at thinks and point and ooh and aah over them. I found a night gown for her that was silk and when she saw it, she fell in love with it. She oohed all through the store and HAD to hold it in her hands. She would show it to me often as we walked around the store with a huge proud smile on her face. It was too cute.

She also got her toes painted to match the pink in her dress yesterday. I took her to this place where I get my toes done and the guy painted them for her. She was less than thrilled to have to endure such torture but in the end she was looking at them and oohing over them. I think I just might have a girly girl on my hands who just so happens to like to play with her brothers cars.

O.N.E

Today my baby is ONE! Can't believe this day has come. It seems like just yesterday we were on our way to the hospital to have her and today she is O.N.E.

Baby girl I love you so much and I hope you enjoy your special day!! You are so special.

We just got back from the DR and Kennedy weighed in at 20 pounds and was 29 1/4" tall. She is in the 60% for Height and the 30th % for weight. She didn't much care for the doctor or the wait time but all in all she did great. Developmentally she is right on track. She has about 5 words and is seriously babbling all the time. She loves to talk on the "phone" and she loves her books. She will pick them up and say "book" ... it is the cutest thing!

Tom Girl?

One minute she is all girl playing with her "babies" which consists of a baby doll, a baby pooh bear, a little baby boy doll with a diaper and a monkey. The next minute she has this soccer ball in her hand and the next she has a baby and the soccer ball in her hands. She loves to throw the ball with you. She seriously, will sit with us for about five minutes, sometimes more, and throw the ball back and forth. She has a pretty good arm too. The boys love playing ball with her. It's fun to see them interact together.

Oh and by the way, she FINALLY started to crawl on all fours yesterday. She falls right in line with the boys doing it right around their 1st birthdays. She would do it from time to time but she much preferred to do the "army" crawl. Now she crawls on all fours. She's not so much a baby anymore ... but she will always be my baby!

Don't Make Me Count to Three

This is the title to a book by Ginger Plowman that I'm reading right now. I have not finished the book yet but right now I'm chewing on giving biblical reproof. I'm learning how much of God's word I need to continue to hide in my heart so that I can use it when training my children in righteousness. In the examples she uses in the book she quotes a lot of verses to her children when she is disciplining them ... Here is a quote from the book ...

When we correct our children for wrong behavior but fail to train them in righteous behavior, we will exasperate them because we are not providing them with a way of escape. This sort of neglect will provoke them to anger. There will never be a situation where this does not apply. As a rule, anytime you correct your child for wrong behavior, have him walk through right behavior. this is how we train our children to walk in the righteousness of Christ. This is what the Bible means when it says to "train them in righteousness."

She goes on to talk about instances and situations where she has had to walk her children back through certain situations that come up in her household. It really made me stop and think about the way we correct the boys and it's causing some conversations between Jeremy and I about how we are doing things around our house and maybe some things that need to change.

So if you are a parent how does this strike you? How do you discipline your children? How do you train in righteousness?

Birthday Outfit

Over the weekend I got Kennedy's Birthday outfit in the mail. I'm so excited!!! I have been searching and searching for a cute dress for her and kept coming up empty. Finally, I looked on Etsy and found the cutest dress. I contacted the seller and told her what we were doing for her party and she sent me a few pictures so we could customize the dress for K's party. I couldn't wait to try it on her so as soon as it came out of the package it went on. She looks so cute in it but you will have to wait to see pictures until her birthday.

I got the dress from Uniquely Monogrammed on Etsy but this is her website where she has the same stuff.

6 years!

6 Years ago we said I do before many friends and family. Happy Anniversary J! I love you and I still do!