Sisters

Today, I have been preparing for my sisters to come and be with us for a week.

I am so excited.

They are coming to be here for Stella’s baptism.

I am looking forward to a beautiful, exciting weekend.

I know it will be so memorable and special for Stella.

I will share more about my sweet Stella and her decision the be baptized later.

I am so thankful for my sisters.

I know what a sacrifice it is for them to come. 

Kristin and Lindsay, thank you so much.

You are the best sisters a girl could ask for.

And a big thank you to Dave and Jared for letting them come.  I know you will miss your wives and kids.

I am also excited to see my niece and nephew.

London and Luke prepare for lots of kisses and squeezes.

It has been a great day thinking of seeing my fun sisters.

oh… and my other favorite part of the day:

dropping Isaac off at school and seeing 4 of his friends waiting for him just outside of the car line.  The woman opening the car doors said, “Isaac, your friends are waiting to walk with you.”  Isaac got out of the car today with his head held up high and so proud that he has friends.  Good friends can make a difference in your day.

so can good sisters.

Teaching moments.

To note: this post is scattered with pictures of the little things that have been happening around here.

Remember how I said this last year has been hard?

Well, I realized that during all of that, my brain was in some kind of fog.  This week has given me so much clarity.  My brain finally feels uncluttered.

Because of that, the spirit has found many opportunities to teach me.  I am sure Heavenly Father has been trying to teach me all along.  I was just having a hard time processing it all.

It’s like my brain can finally listen to all that Heavenly Father has in store for me, or what he needs me to learn.

Just like he teaches us, we too have perfect moments in life to teach our kids.

For example: the clerk at the store gives you too much change.  This is the perfect opportunity to ask your child what you should do in this situation; and then lead by example.

Teaching moments lurk around every corner, we just have to be ready to teach.

I am looking for every opportunity to teach my children.  They only have so much time at home, and then you have to hope that what they learned will help them succeed.

I stumbled upon this scripture:

Isn’t that neat.  We just have to help our children understand what is expected of them.  When they understand, they will do.

I am trying to help my kids understand by using a meeker voice. 

Remember the quote that awakened me?

 

I have found that uncontrolled words just don’t make much progress.

Eye contact and hushed tones seem to be making an impression around here.

There is a new calm in our house.

I just feel so bad that it took this mama so long to clue in.

(mother guilt, mother guilt)

I am grateful that kids are so understanding and forgiving.

I know that along with teaching our kids, that they also have so much to teach me.

I am grateful for 4 awesome kids who show me the way.

I am grateful they teach me laugh to everyday. single. day.

…and not just laugh, I mean like bust a gut laugh.

I am thankful for those teaching moments in my life.

I am thankful that my mind is clear enough again to recognize them.

How wonderful it is to be on the other side of a trial.

It was so hard while I was going through it, but I am thankful for every moment.

That’s how we learn.

…and when we learn something, then we have a responsibility to share it with others.

ME.

It has been a long hard year for me, personally.

I have been wondering if I would ever feel like myself again.

I was acting like myself, doing all those things in life that I normally do; but I just wasn’t feeling it.

By doing all those things, I kept thinking that I would somehow be happy again.

I have come to learn what it takes to be truly happy, and I am happy to say….

Today, I woke up and I feel like me.

What changed?

ME.

Over the last few months, I have been taking small steps and giant leaps back in to the arms of our Heavenly Father.

Somehow, in the midst of the chaos and running around; I slowly turned my back.

He never left my side, I just forgot to take his hand.

What a lesson I have learned.

Having the light of Christ burning inside me is what makes me ME.

I am so thankful I realized it before my light grew so dim that I couldn’t even recognize ME.

His light is burning bright again.

I feel happiness and joy inside.

True happiness.

While on my journey, I found this quote.  It inspired me to make changes and helped me on my journey to find ME again.

I am so thankful that the desire to do good and be good is given to every man.  It’s what reminds us where we came from and where we want to go back too.  We all have the desire to have that light, we just have to stop and make room for it. 

When we do, we get more light.

I am grateful not to be walking through the fog today.

I just had to shout it from the roof top today.

With the help of Heavenly Father’s love (and a lot of patience) he helped bring back…

ME.

Dreams do come true.

I had pushed the dream of my kids learning to play the piano out of my head.

We are a family of traveling gypsies.

We have moved so many times in the last ten years, and moving a piano isn’t fun.

Not to mention, we couldn’t really afford one.

I have included a piano in my prayers over the last few years.

Knowing that the sacrifice of moving one would be worth it.

Soon after we arrived in PA, my dream of a piano resting it’s legs on my floor came true.

The dream of listening to my kids play the keys came true.

Jonathan’s co-worker had a piano she wasn’t in need of, so she gave it to us for FREE.

The kids started piano lessons this week.

I am actually hearing them play music; and it is music to my ears.

I am a big believer that God doesn’t just bless us with things we need, but also with things we want.

God is good.

I am thankful for my blessings.

I am grateful God helps my dreams come true.

Turning Five…

I turned five last week.  It was a great day.

I went to bed worried that it would be a bad day.

I went to bed with the worst sore throat, the day before I turned five.  I had a fever all day.

I also got a black eye from running in to my sister, a few day before.

My mom says to stop running around the house.

I was in bad shape.

but, when I woke up on my birthday my fever was gone and my throat felt a little better.

I woke up to a booby trap.  My mom had booby trapped me in my room.

I thought that was so funny.

I also had a nice note on the door, written on sticky notes.

For breakfast, I wanted cake batter waffles.

I still didn’t feel like eating, but I pretended for my mom.

Tess liked the cake batter waffles.

When I came downstairs, the room was filled with balloons.

Each balloon had a letter.  Jex helped me figure out what they spelled.

They said, “pop me.”

So I used a pin, and popped all five balloons.

Each one had a dollar in it.  Five dollars for five years old.

I laughed and laughed.

I also love seeing all the decorations just for me all over the house.

And then my mom let me….

…open a gift.

I think she knew I would play with it all day.

Jex helped me put the lego set together.

…and all I wanted to do was play.

My mom did make me take a few pictures.

She said, “you can take a few with your cars.” I wanted to have Jex in them, because he helped me build them.

She keeps saying, “I can’t believe your five, you were just my baby like five minutes ago .”

I like being five.

I didn’t feel like eating lunch, so my mom took me to get a milkshake.

 

(taken with mommy’s iphone)

That was a yummy lunch. Did you notice my black eye?

…and we played some more.

In the evening, we had to go to the school to meet my teacher.

It was fun to see my classroom, and meet my new teacher on my birthday.

It happened to be right during the time that we should be having my special birthday dinner.

My mom new it would be too late when we were finished, so I picked a special place to eat instead of a special meal to have at home.

I picked chick-fil-a.  Yum!! I actually felt like eating.  My throat was feeling much better, thanks to the special medicine daddy called in for me.

Thanks dad!!

After dinner, we went home and opened a few more gifts.

I like presents.

Then it was time for cake.

I wanted a blue dragon cake. 

I like the way it turned out, my mom worked really hard on this.

I helped by putting the candles in, and then I made a wish.

It was a great day.

 

It was fun to be the birthday boy, and get extra hugs and…

kisses.

We love you Isaac!!

Happy Birthday!!

“I still can’t believe you are five, you were just my baby like five minutes ago.”