A Mother's Day post

Happy Mother's Day!  I love being a mother.  I started out the day somewhat discouraged as I've been sick and Kayson and needed to stay home from church.  I really miss our church family when I don't make it to church.  So I must confess to starting the day with well, not the best attitude ever, lol.  After my family made it home from church and gave me their thoughtful home/church made gifts that almost made me cry and brought home burgers from Five Guys and sweet tea from Chicken Express and my daddy brought me a Starbucks card and we have an afternoon plan even though my man is working.  We are going to watch Mom's Night Out and we've had laughs together and my baby girl was so glad to see me, she missed me, I guess she really does love me!  :)  and as I look around at those I helped bring into this world, I am awed and overcome with love and thankfulness!  No room for aforementioned bad mood to stick around!  I feel so much better!  :)  Now to go and watch a movie and eat some chocolate!  :)  May you have a blessed day with your loved ones!  Happy Mother's Day!  :)

Know God more

I recently went to our church Ladie's retreat.  I felt inspired to start writing again.  I thought I would start with some of the topics that were discussed that weekend.  How can we know Him more?  What are practical ways?  God is calling us to go deeper with Him and also with each other.  So often we are so afraid to enter into the reality of life with each other.  We are afraid of judgement but this is exactly what I believe we are called to.  To live real with each other and be there through our weaknesses and trials to help (where possible), encourage and listen.  I challenge you to really press in with those around you, be willing to share and show yourself and to give the gift of acceptance.  Also a very practical way to get to know Him more is to look around for Him, go on a God hunt in your everyday life.  You can see Him at work in so many ways if you keep your eyes open.  Very often you can find Him in the small things.  For example, I was doubting a little about going to the retreat, I needed to take the baby with me and I was concerned about my grandpa and I have social anxiety so I was feeling panicky as I was getting ready to leave the house but I pray and press on through it all and arrive there.  I check in and receive a baby holder and help bringing what feels like our entire house into my room for the weekend.  There on the bed is a goody bag and as I dump it on the bed I see a pink pen fall out!  I love pink!  It is my absolute fav color of all time, lol.  I took it as a sign from God that was where I needed to be, and I was!  It was such a great weekend!  There was also a heart sticker on my chair.  lol, it really is the little things.  Those things that speak only to you, God really is a personal God, He wants to know you too.  He says if you seek, you will find Him!  I choose to see these as little gifts from Him!  In my everyday life, as I look at my precious babies, I see Him, I see his grace shining through, my babies are happy and love Him!  Through all we have lived and through all we are still finding the other side of, as a family we cling to Him and I see His grace in that so much!  He has sent us to a church that truly loves and accepts us, I am so very grateful for our church.  Even in the hard, I try to find the things to be thankful for.  Kirsten stepped through our kitchen floor the other day and its a very hard thing to have a hole in your kitchen and discouraging but here's where I try (I say try bc somedays I fail) to find gratefulness and even in this there are thankful things and God things.  Kirsten was not hurt!  My dad has allowed us to move in with him while our house is under construction and unsafe for the youngers!  Glenn and daddy have been able to arrange the same week off to get work done on the house.  This has allowed us to rethink the children's rooms and make a better plan for them and we will be able to rearrange and really clean so when we move back in everything can be fresh and newish and exciting.  So, right now, in this moment, I choose gratefulness.  I choose to see God at work.  Be blessed today and go on your own God hunt!  :)

Hello again

Oh my, it has been a long time since I wrote here.  so much has happened, mainly we learned I was pregnant again and that it was a girl!  She was born in nov, we named her Kalani Nicole and she has added so much to our lives already!  I can't imagine life without her!  :) but I have had very little time for typing or crocheting or much else.  lol.  I do enjoy writing out my thoughts though so I'm going to try to start again.  :)  I do have trouble thinking of topics sometimes though.  As I am typing the baby girl wakes up and is in my arms now, I am currently finishing this one handed, lol.  guess I had better end here bc she will be hungry soon.  :)  talk to you all again soon..........hopefully!  lol

Going Home Day, 11-25-15

We were actually slow getting up this day.  Watched some TV, made a last small fire, Cayden rode his bike, we were lazy, just soaking in the last few moments of camping.  We ate lunch outside and then got everything packed up and everyone loaded up and headed home.  That's an advantage of camping close to home, the leaving morning doesn't have to be rushed bc there's not a long drive home.  that's nice.  :)  We fed the pelicans before we left, then went on a phone hunt!  Chris thought his was in his pocket and then it wasn't and after walking the grounds, we finally found he had actually left it in the RV!  LOL.  *rolls eyes*  The little boys rode home with Glenn and when we both got there, Glenn said he had to pull over bc Keegan accidentally dropped his stuffed police dog "Maximus" out the window!  He was so upset but Honey found Maximus and the dog survived the whole ordeal!  Whew!  LOL.  Willow was so glad to see everyone, she was sooooooo hyper!  lol  We are so looking forward to our next camping trip!  :)

camping day 4, 11-24-15

Oh my, why do we always wake up so EARLY while camping?!?  lol, seems we are almost always just about up with the sun!  ALL of us!  Maybe its the close quarters, or that more sun shines in or that we are just excited to be out in nature or perhaps we sleep better bc we are more relaxed and need less.  I don't know what it is but I know it is!  lol  Pancakes for breakfast this day.  Daddy makes the pancakes!  He's the pancake maker!  :)  Keegan asked, "Can I go out in the wild and find some leaves and stuff?  I know my way back."  I love how much my babies love the outside when we are camping.  At home sometimes its so easy to just stay in, camping kind of forces us to really get in touch with the outdoors and we all really enjoy that!  I feel closer to my family to while we are out there.  We can really just focus on us and its great!  We ate lunch outside.  Enjoyed a game of Apples to Apples (we played it backwards) with the olders while the littles played at the playground.  Then Glenn took the older ones on a bike ride to the nearest convenience store to pick up marshmallows that someone forgot to buy!  Isn't that a camping necessity?!  How in the world did I forget those?  I did though!  but o-well they got a good memory out of it!  :)  Then there was cooking dinner and of course some country music to help with the cooking!  Dessert of course was roasted marshmallows.  I like mine burned!  :)

camping day 3 , 11-23-15

oops, I forgot to finish blogging our camping trip!  lol, Let's see what I can remember (I took a few notes, so I have a little help!)  We all played with a play dough set we won from Toys R Us.  The littles were super excited and kept calling it play doh land or world!  lol.  I had forgotten how much I like play doh.  lol  This trip, Kayson discovered his shadow!  He was talking to it and trying not to walk on it and wondering where it went at night!  We enjoyed dinner outside by the fire and then I did some crocheting for Christmas.  I love sitting by a campfire and being in nature.  The people just across the road from our campsite put up a big white sheet and projected a movie onto it.  That was neat!  We could sit at our campfire and see it and even hear if we were real quiet.  :)

camping day 2, 11-22-15

Wow, this day started out COLD!  Love it!  Willow woke us before 7 barking, dumb dog!  lol  We had her inside the pop up with us and the electric heater since the night was so so cold.  Then a little later in the morn while we were sitting out by the fire and she was on her chain, all the sudden Glenn says How did she get off?!  and there she was running towards the deer in the woods!  So we sent her home with daddy!  Since the morning was too cold to sit outside comfortably, especially without a good fire yet, we let the kiddos watch Home while breakfast was being prepared.  "We must demonstrate our affections later!" - Oh   I love this movie!  :)  I went to make cinnamon toast for breakfast and discovered we didn't have the cookiesheet that fits in the oven!  Then Keegan decided he wanted a drink from the cooler and walked out in the almost freezing temps with no jacket, no shoes and in shorts!!!  A little later he even trekked to the bathroom with no shoes on!  Daddy tried to make some Jiffy pop over the fire, it tasted good but took longer and burned a little in some spots.  I walked Kayson to the playground and he talked to his shadow and later on a trip to the bathroom at night he was playing with his shadow in the light from my phone!  I think he has officially discovered his shadow!  :)  I wanted to get a video but when I tried it turned the bright light off and his shadow disappeared so that didn't work!  lol.  Daddy gave Kayson a short ride on his handle bars.  Kayson really enjoyed that!  :)  We had fried potatoes and steak for lunch.  Daddy took the potato peels and put them in foil with butter and salt and then put them on the fire.  Yum!  they were so good!  Chris ate three helpings!  :)  We ate lucnh outside before daddy had to head home so he could work the next day.  It was a good day!  We just love camping and being out in nature.  Also I love the camper and popup, I like having locking doors and heat so I don't have to worry about babies getting cold while we sleep.