Family Vacation Short Story

Once upon a time,
two sisters decided to take a road trip with their kids across the country from Michigan to Colorado for their sister Rachel's wedding.



It was a looooong drive! But very fun!


They had many adventures while on their trip


And they were so excited when they made it to their final destination!


Then my Hubby came and joined us in Colorado a couple weeks later. It was so good to see him!


The wedding was beautiful! Maddi was the flower girl...


and Tara and I were Bridesmaids.


My Hubby and little man looked so handsome!

Good times were had by all!

After the wedding it was time to hit the road again and head home.

Our trip home as a family was AMAZING!

We went to Mount Rushmore.....



...saw a lot of wildlife

even dinosaurs!

...went to the Badlands


And had a so much fun spending time together as a family! I will treasure this trip in my heart happily ever after!

The End

My Little Kindergartener

Well, it has now been a few weeks that Maddi has been in school. She is really loving it! Of course every day that I ask her what she did at school she says she can't remember, but then randomly she will just blurt out something that they did that day or the day before. It's funny. I can't believe my little girl is getting so big. It was definitely an emotional day when she forst got on the bus and headed to school. It is weird, I get these nervous flutters in my tummy for her like when I was in school.
Anyway, I thought I would post some pics of her first day, and she is quite the little model showing off some of her new outfits....

Thanks to My SIS!

Ok so the first quick post I want to do Is a shout out and a big Thanks to my lil sis Tara for making my new Blog background and header and making it look fresh and beautiful! THANKS TARA!!!!!

New posts to come!!!

Okay okay, so many of you have probably given up even looking at my Blog since I never post but I have some posts coming so stay tuned!!!!! Really I am going to post some things in the next couple of days so come back Pleeeeease!

:)

Mother's Day...A day to Reflect not Expect

So I started out my day thinking " Today is Mother's Day. This is "MY" day! I want my kids to be extra good today and give me the time to myself that I want. I want my husband to to treat me extra special"...and so on. Well as my morning started to unfold so did my disappointments. My children were acting up and "MY" day was already not going the way I wanted it to.
It was then that I felt God gently tap on my shoulder and lovingly ask me if that was really what Mother's Day should be about.

If you did not read my previous blog I have really been praying, and asking others to pray, that God would change my heart and my attitude towards my kids, and well, this was really huge to me! I Love when God just really speaks to me and suddenly I get it! It's very humbling yet exciting at the same time!

So, instead of embracing what the world tells us that this day should be about, causing my day to be filled with disappointments and frustrations, make it a day of Joy and Excitement! The Joy of Being a mother; Excited that God blessed me with two beautiful, healthy children of my own! Mother's Day should be a reminder of what being a Mom is all about; in God's eyes. So I thought , "Ok, I will make today about how I can be a better mom. A day of embracing just being a mom and enjoying my kids.

Well God didn't stop there, because as I am pondering all these things in my head and cleaning my kitchen up at the same time, the kids start fighting and I am immediately pulled out my little happy place, and back into irritation and frustration that my kids just can't seem to get along, "of all the days, why can't they just not fight for today!" and then God gently tapped me on the shoulder again. (It amazes me how He stays so patient with us, after all he had just told me not to make that my focus and I say "Ok", then turn around and do it again! Sounds all too familiar when dealing with our own kids!)

So I asked God, "how can I remember throughout the day in each situation? I need some small simple reminder to trigger me to change my thinking." Then God gave me 3 simple words, "Reflect don't Expect".
My heart still jumps when I think about it. It is so PERFECT! I got so excited about the catchy little phrase I had to go write it down! Wow that is good I thought, I should try to patent that phrase! (As if it were mine...! Only such perfect words could come from our PERFECT Lord.) For all I know it may already be out there printed on something, or maybe you have heard it somewhere before, but to me it was new and, well, again perfect. So after having a little side step into what I could do with such a great phrase I really started thinking "Ok, what exactly does that mean to me?"

Reflect...on what kind of mother God wants me to be.

...on what I love about being a mother.
...God's love, patience and kindness back to my children.

I can think of quite a few things to reflect on and reflect out. And then the Don't Expect part...well that was pretty self explanatory. People and situations will always prove to let us down, so if I don't expect too much then I will be much less disappointed and frustrated. I am human however, and of course I would be a little sad if my husband had come home today and forgot to get me a card or say "Happy Mother's Day" to me. And it would be nice to be pampered and get breakfast in bed or just some time to do my nails or be by myself. But now I see it from a different angle and it is so much more beautiful from this view. After all, we would not be a mother without our husband and children so why not make it a day filled with time spent with them.
And you know, so far today has been a most wonderful Mother's Day!

I hope it is for all of you as well!

Just Reflect don't Expect!

God is Awesome!!!

Brokeness

Once again I have gone way too long in my postings, but today I have a heavy heart and need to just get it out I guess. So bear with me as I think aloud. I'm not really sure where to start... Today I fell on my knees in tears because I so long to be that mom who is slow to anger, patient, loving and kind in the way I discipline and lead my kids. I want to be that gentle spirit that my kids will admire and look back and say how I was a Godly mother and that they always know how much I love them. My children are such beautiful blessings to me...and yet I find myself so angry and short with them over the last several months. I don't like what I see in myself right now and I feel like a failure of a mother. I feel like I have let myself down my Husband and children down and most of all I feel like I have let God down. Where is this anger coming from? Why do I feel so much frustration and resentment towards my kids? I look at them and see how precious they are, how sweet and loving they can be, what a gift they are, and how God has, and is at this very moment, using them to teach me things in my own life. Is this another lesson? I know I need to give my anger over to God and I have prayed about this so many times. Where has my joy gone? Part of me wants to blame my medication, is it just no longer working the way it should...and while that may be part of it I have learned from my trials in the past that this is God trying to get my attention and I am not leaning on Him fully and completely. So I found it interesting that today of all days, this weekend of Easter and Jesus most awesome sacrifice, that I have come to the point of complete brokenness. As I praise God, and fall before Jesus as He hangs on that cross for this very reason, I am speechless. What better day is there to lay my anger, sorrow, and guilt at His feet. I am overwhelmed with emotions. Thank you for your sacrifice Jesus!
Make me who You want me to be Lord. Phil. 4:13

"Our God Is an Awesome God".

Catchin Up!

Well, it has been waayyyyyy to long since I last posted. I have probably written 4 or 5 posts in my head over the last several months but just never got a chance to put them down in my Blog. So now I am going to try to briefly catch things up without going into too much detail or pictures.
So, we went to Colorado for Christmas! It was great to be with my family again (well, some of my family) for Christmas. It has actually been about 7 years since I was "Home for the Holidays". It was a lot of fun and extremely busy. I had quite a few people to see so we were on the go every day. I was excited to spend quite a bit of time with my youngest sister Rachel (who is now engaged!). And we did way too many other things to mention. Not exactly your relaxing vacation but good none the less. I was able to spend New Years there as well and celebrate with my oldest and dearest friend Carmen and her family.

Good old Pikes Peak / Making Ornaments

Leaving Cookies for Santa/ What a Cute Dad

New Years at Carmen's / Me and Rach

The kids and I got sick about 2 days before we had to head home which made for a loooooong day of flying, on top of layovers and Nathan having diahrehea and leaking on me half way through the day. All in All we got home safe and it was good to see Steve again. Not so good to see all the snow. :)

January went by so fast and before I knew it it was Nathan's birthday. My little boy turned 2!!! Wow I can hardly believe it! Steve's parents came up a few days before his birthday and celebrated with us. I had a little party planned for him on his actual birthday but strangely everyone ended up cancelling on me. I was really bummed but of course Nathan had no clue which is good. I know we have many years ahead of us for birthday parties. My neighbor did have a little party for her daughter, who is a couple days younger than Nathan and made it a party for Nathan as well, so that kind of made up for it.


Along with Nathan turning two has come the two year old "I want to do EVERYTHING myself" phase. Which is fine when it is something I can let him try to do but not so great when he wants to cut his own slice of cheese and freaks out when I don't let him. He has however learned how to put his pants on himself and sometimes his shirt, open his own yogurt, granola bar wrapper, etc. put his own shoes on and, unfortunately, take OFF his pants and diaper, causing some problems of it's own! Such as... peeing on the floor, constantly wanting to run around naked, and in the instance of the other night, taking it off after he pooped and getting it all over the carpet and himself. Mmmmm, fun! Something I never experienced with my little girl. hmmm I'm thinking he is ready to potty train though, since he takes his diaper off almost everytime he pees or poops in it, and says potty. So that is exciting. His facial expressions and sense of humor constanlty makes us laugh. He farted the other day and said " Oh, Burp, Scuse!" It was sooo funny! Maddi is doing great in school and will be turning five in just a few short months which really has me freaked out. Where has the time gone? She is getting better with Nathan and helping more with things around the house. I think the book my sister sent me "Don't Make Me Count to 3" has really helped all of us, and I have only scratched the surface, still reading the book. I can't wait to compare this time next year.
Ok, that is enough for now, I think. Whew....
Thanks for listening to my ramblings.