Our Weekend

This past weekend Jeremy and I went to a marriage conference. It was great and I highly recommend getting away with your spouse at a marriage enrichment event as often as you can! It was a great time for us to get away, get refreshed as a couple and also individually with God.

Anyway, a couple guys who were leading the conference are friends from college. It was neat to talk to them and hear all about their wives and families, as brief as our time was. I look forward to catching up with their wives soon. Alex and Stephan have been given such an amazing platform with their movies. It takes me back to college days - Alex was a college minister and Stephan was the Middle School pastor. On Retreats and just any time they got the mind to do so ... they would have us doing crazy little sketches as they filmed and then spliced back together. They even filmed a short video for another friend to use as his intro to the night he would ask his now wife to marry him. This weekend brought back all kinds of memories with them and so many others. It was fun to connect with them albeit briefly.

If you think about Alex and Stephan, pray for them. They are in the middle of a new Movie called Courageous. It's about fatherhood and I know it will be fantastic. This weekend amidst all the things they had going on to lead they were also working on last minute preparations for the film.

Well hope you guys have a fantastic Palm Sunday! Later Peeps!

Spring is here

ENERGY

They have LOTS of it ... I need more of it. Anyone want to share some with me?

Praying for Hogan

My family and I are praying for Hogan. Kip is a friend from my hometown and his mom was a very special influence in my life in High School. They are expecting their third child, Hogan, very soon. Hogan has a condition called Trisomy 18 and they are set to meet their little one on April 5th.

Head over to their blog and join me in praying for Hogan and his family.

Taking a breath

I finally feel like we are in a stage where we can take a breath and exhale. It's been a roller coaster of a year for us. Transition doesn't feel like it's as much a part of our vocabulary as it once was. It feels nice to be settled again.

The kids are in a better place as well. I finally feel like we are getting past the baby stages. Having 3 so close together has been rough BUT the benefits far outweigh any of the hard parts of the past few years. Since we are not having any more children we are cherishing the moments we have with our littlest while trying not to spoil her rotten at the same time. She is in a stage that is just too much fun right now. Her personality is SHINING through right now and we just find ourselves laughing with her so much.

The boys adore her and the feeling is mutual. She gets in there and can play right with them or she can play alone. Most of the time she is begging for a bow in her hair while holding batman, robin or some die cast car. She loves to wear dresses and doesn't like to stay in her PJ's at all. The rest of us love PJ days but she wants nothing to do with it. The struggle over clothes is starting early with this one! :)

She's showing small signs of wanting to potty like the rest of us. Jeremy and I were talking the other day that maybe, just maybe, this summer we could begin the process with her and could we finally stop buying diapers after 5 1/2 years of buying them straight with no breaks? It doesn't seem possible but that will be a glorious day to celebrate!

So we are in a stage where we feel we can breathe again and it feels so nice. I do not want my kids to grow up at all. I want them to stay 5, 3, and 1 1/2 for the rest of their lives ... does anyone sell a pill I can give them? But ONLY if I can take one as well!

Hope you all are doing well! Pipe in and let me know how YOU are ....

Finally!

The time finally came for us to do something with our yard. When we moved in September of last year we knew that the yard needed some serious help. However, two days before we closed on our house, Jeremy lost his job. So we knew the yard would have to wait. Thankfully, he got a new job but everyone knows that January is NO time to do any kind of planting if you want them to, you know, LIVE.

This weekend was our time. We had been planning for a while and had thoughts of someone else doing it but then thought, hey, we can do this ourselves. So we decided to give it a go. Last month we pulled up all the dead shrubs and plants and last night we went shopping for our new plants. Today, we played in the dirt. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Now we just need to lay some sod but they were out of that so we will do that later this week.

This is the first house we have had where we have needed to do landscaping. Both of our other houses have had nicely manicured yards and needed nothing more than the typical pruning and a little love. It was fun creating together.

We are no longer the neighbors with the horrible yard. Enjoy the pictures of our hard work.

Spunky

A friend took this photo of my little girl and I just love it. It just captures her right now so well. This little one is spunky! I love it. She is full of personality. It is so much fun watching her right now. She is full of drama and personality. She talks a mile a minute and I can understand most of it ... it's crazy!

However, when she starts singing ... no one can understand one word of it. She LOVES to sing. She will walk around with whatever she can find to use as her microphone and sing, sing, sing. Right now she is "napping" and her baby is her microphone. I just finished watching her over the monitor.

I'm not sure what lies ahead of me in parenting this little one but I sure look forward to all the spunky days ahead!

(Photo credit: Tandy Grandstaff)

A few Firsts

For a couple days this week my brother and sister were here. We love having them here! The last time we spent time with them was Thanksgiving ... WAY TOO LONG AGO! But that's the nature of the beast right now. My brother is in college finishing up his degree and his schedule combined with the 6 hours between us really make it hard to see each other often. :( SADNESS! But when we do get to see each other we always have a great time.

The boys eat up their time with Benjamin & Theresa. They keep them on their toes the entire time they are here going non stop with playing. Ryan had Benjamin out riding bikes and scooters while Pace tired out and came in to cook Theresa some food.

We also had a few firsts while they were here. We took the kids to play putt putt and also bowling. It was a lot of fun! Ryan even got a hole in one and Pace beat everyone in bowling! Both of them had a few strikes each. Of course the bumpers helped a lot :)

Kennedy also had fun. She had no clue what she was doing but just enjoyed trying to do everything that the boys did.

It was so FUN having them here and we look forward to seeing them again soon. Hopefully it won't be another 4 months before we see them again!

Pampers Giveaway

A few weeks ago I received the new Pamper cruisers. You might remember that I talked about it in this post. Pampers has completely redesigned their Cruisers diapers making them 20 percent thinner and claim that there is no sacrifice in performance.

I wasn't so sold on the no sacrifice in performance claim. We normally buy Target brand diapers because the cost is significantly lower than buying Pampers, Huggies or even Luvs. When given the opportunity to try these out I thought I'd see if my decision to buy Target was just based on cost or performance.

I have to honestly say that it was both. The new Pampers that I was given to try out and write a review on were lacking in my opinion. I will say that not all diapers do well on all children. In the beginning as newborns for our kids, Pampers won out over the store brand or the other name brands. The swaddler diapers just fit our kids better and performed better without leaks. As they got bigger though the next stage just didn't perform well so we moved on to another brand.

These new thinner cruisers that Pampers have come out with just do not do well for Kennedy. They were OK during the day, with frequent changing.However, they did not perform well at night. For the week that we used these diapers she had leaked out every single night.

Now, I know that Pampers has a night time diaper as well but when we can purchase a box of Target brand and they work well at night time AND day time, why would I want to change and pay more by now having to by two boxes of diapers? I don't. So Kennedy will not be changing over to Pamper cruisers.

I'm sure this is not the review that Pampers is looking for when picking me to review their new diapers but I'd be lying if I gave it a glowing review. HOWEVER, I will say that what doesn't work for my child may be what is best for yours! Diapers are kinda like going shopping for new clothes or shoes. You have to try them on and find your best fit. What fits me best may not fit you best and the reverse is also true.

So try them out and see if you like them. See if they work well for your child. You are probably wondering where the giveaway comes in? Well, the good people over at Pampers are giving YOU the chance to try them out for yourselves. If you make a comment on this post you will be entered to win a coupon for a free package of diapers (about a week worth of diapers) AND you will also receive the Liz Lange clutch pictured above. This would be the perfect bag to take out on those quick trips out when all you need is diapers and wipes. Such a cute bag. I can't wait to see what it looks like before sending it out to my winner.

So leave a comment on this post ... I'll randomly draw a winner on Sunday March 21st and I'll put it in the mail to the winner as soon as I receive it. This contest is open to anyone in the US. Make sure that if you do not have a blog that you leave me a way to contact you in case you win!

Good luck!

Dear Ryan

Dear Ryan,

Today you began the most amazing journey in your life! Today you said "yes, I trust God." Today, you made one of the biggest commitments you will ever make. Today, a party was held in heaven in your honor. Today, the angels sang and rejoiced and God smiled at your decision to begin your walk with Him.

Your relationship with God is like a going on a long journey with Him. Many start off well but don't realize they need to keep going in order to reach their destination. You are only 5 but God has been working on your heart for a while. You have been asking questions and pondering the Cross for some time. Your child like faith really challenges me in my own walk with Christ.

Before I ever held you for the first time, I prayed that you would come to know Him at an early age. I prayed that you would love him and that your life would be one used to further his Kingdom and bring him Glory. Little did I know that you would give your little heart to him at the tender age of 5.

I pray that you will continue to walk with him. There will be many dips and bends in your road as you journey with Him. One thing I hope you always cling to is that HE is ALWAYS faithful to you. He will lead you if you allow him to take you by the hand and walk with you through life. At times you will face trials and you will wonder where he is. I want you to know that He will be by your side at every place you will find yourself in.

You will not be perfect in your new walk. You will fall, but you can rise knowing that there is a God who longs to forgive you, dust you off and set you back on the right path. Faith is an amazing thing, son. You are just at the beginning of a great journey.

I pray that as you grow that your knowledge and understanding of exactly what the cross means will resonate within your heart. I pray that you will remain tender to the things that grip the heart of God. I pray that you will use your life to glorify Him in ALL you say and ALL you do. I pray that you will love him even when it is not cool to do so. I pray that you will stand for him even when those around you sit down. I pray that you will be a champion for the weak and a warrior for the wounded. I pray that you will be sensitive to that still small voice inside that will guide you along life's journey.

There's so much more I'd like to say to you and I will. I look forward to walking with you on your new journey. I love you and I'm so proud of you!

Love,
Mommy

AMAZING DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Today was one of the most amazing days that I have had in a LONG time! Today Ryan asked Jesus into his heart. He has been asking questions since the summer of what it means to have Jesus in your life. Today our pastor sat down with him and talked to him and Ryan asked Jesus into his heart!!!

WOW is about all I can say! WOW! What a special day! Today my son's name was written in the Book of Life.

I just don't have words to describe the things going on in my heart! WOW!