Christmas Eve Eve 2012

Christmas is in two days and I'm just so thankful for all that God has done in our family this year.  He is good, He is faithful, and He loves us.  Nate and I have grown as parents, working on understanding grace for our kids and in our own lives.  Olivia has been challenged as a student and was victorious in many ways.  Brennen has overcome multiple fears and his courage grows each day.  I'm so proud of both of my kids, blessed by my hard-working, devoted husband, and thankful for each extended family member and close friend that God has so carefully placed in my life.

Merry Christmas to your family from mine.

Double Digits

I can't believe it's been 10 years... Happy Birthday to our happy, kind, beautiful, enthusiastic daughter! She made us parents and changed our lives forever. Olivia Rose makes us laugh, makes us cry, and most of all makes us proud. Love you, Liv.

Seven is the Perfect Number

It was this guy's 7th birthday last Sunday.  Why does that seem so weird to see in print?  He is the baby, the last born, the littlest one in our family.  But now he is getting not so little anymore.  This week we went to a movie and in the dark theater, he made a giggle next to me and when I looked over, for a few brief moments in the shadows, I could see the 3 year old Brennen again.  It was really bittersweet.  You feel like you will NEVER forget how chubby their cheeks were, how raspy his voice was, how totally adorable they are when they are babies.  But you DO forget.  So when I got a glimpse of my baby again, I smiled.  He's still there, just longer, smarter, and more grown up.

I love you, Brennen Nathan.

Back to School 2012

I'm proud of these new students...

Another school year is here and we are rolling right along.  I have to admit that I was a little afraid of 4th grade, it sounds so... old.  But Liv is still the same funny girl and I'm glad.  Brennen is so happy to go to school everyday, but cannot WAIT for some harder homework.  Olivia just rolls her eyes at him.

I love my kids.

School is in full swing now and I would love to show you the cute pictures my kids took on the first day of school... but I haven't even uploaded them to my computer yet.

So, for now... since I haven't posted in a long while...

Here is a fun pic of us from this summer:

Tonight I had a long talk with Olivia about how she is so embarrassed with the way Brennen is dressing lately.  Namely, she takes issue with him always wearing a necklace and his hat backwards. She is taking it all very personally and we have had to admonish her repeatedly for the way she comments to him about his appearance.  Granted, I too do not love how Brennen chooses to express himself, but I reminded her about how she used to love to dress like a boy and how we (for the most part, I definitely put up a fight) let her be herself and waited for the stage to pass.  This is just a stage for Brennen too, but she isn't mature enough to see that.  I wasn't mature enough for me to see that in the beginning of her stage either, but now the second time around, I am more willing to let him do his thing.
It turns out that Liv thinks people won't be able to tell that Brennen loves Jesus because of how he dresses himself.  She thinks that kids who wear their hat backwards are punks and boys who wear necklaces are rebels and punks and rebels don't love Jesus.  Hahaha!
Well, that turned into a discussion about how no one can know what is inside someone else's heart and it is not up to us to judge people.  Only God truly knows what is inside someone's heart.  And I told her that sometimes people don't look like what you think a good "Christian" should look like, but that isn't what matters to God.
I really had no idea that my nine year old daughter already had formed an opinion about what a good Christian looks like.  I felt responsible, wondering if something I had said had caused this way of thinking.  I absolutely want my kids to grow up without a critical heart and to learn not to judge others by their outward appearance.  I felt glad for this little insight into my daughter's thoughts, this is such an important time for her.

Lord, help me to raise her with your heart!

We're still here!

This blogging thing doesn't come naturally.  

I forget that I have this space, I mostly use this page as a bookmark for reading all of the blogs I follow.

They are WAY more interesting than I am.

But I do want to write our story too.  We can be interesting sometimes.

Like, how Olivia passed her hardest 3rd grade multiplication test EVER today.  We all felt so accomplished, it was a family effort and she was so very proud of herself.

And how I told Brennen today that I was proud of how he thought about Jesus a lot in our daily lives and he told me, How can I not?  Every time I look at fire and lava, I think of how Jesus had pain for us.  And every time I look at rocks and stones, I think of how Jesus came out of the grave when His stone rolled away. I just think about Him, Mama.

Wow.

Don't be fooled. We also have lots of drama (a.k.a. earring changes, loose teeth, long division, "accidental" punches).

So, I guess we can be interesting if we need to be.  

Legoland

This year on Spring Break we got Legoland passes. Nate and I had a talk with the kids about how they REALLY would love Disneyland passes, but HELLO they are too expensive. So, we all decided to save our money and we would get Legoland passes for the year for half the price. When the day finally arrived, Liv and Bren had each saved up $70 of their own money to contribute. We almost felt bad taking it from them, but they were happy to hand it over, glad to do their part. We felt like this was an important life lesson for them to learn that fun things sometimes come at a sacrifice and also that they are each a contributing part of our little family.

Right now, Brennen is obsessed with all things Star Wars, so lucky for him it is Star Wars days there. He was so excited to see all the characters made out of Legos.

Nate sort of enjoyed himself too...

Stay tuned for many more Legoland adventures!

93 and counting...

I'm thankful she is still here.

I'm thankful my kids will remember her.

I'm thankful for the part she has played in my whole life.

Liv at 9

Two weeks ago, Olivia got her ears pierced. I can hardly believe I can write those words. Our very tomboyish daughter has been growing up a lot lately and is starting to see some benefits to being born a girl. That's not to say that she likes dresses now, or obsesses over her hair by any means, but she did express a desire out of the blue to get her ears pierced. Nate and I were so pleasantly surprised by this change of heart that we didn't hesitate to give her permission. What really touched our hearts was how we asked her about why she wanted to get earrings and she said, Well, I know that God made me a girl and He wants me to be a girl and I don't have to be super girly, but I want to be how He made me.

I love this girl.

Nolan and Kenna

How cute are these two?

It's hard enough to wrap my mind around the fact that my own kids are growing up before my eyes, but these little ones are supposed to stay little! Lately, I am finding that this nephew and niece of mine are becoming real people. Shocker, I know.

Nolan is the smartest 4 year old mathematician I know and can add numbers in his head and really knows the clock! He is becoming quite the baseball player, hitting the ball WITHOUT the tee. Do you die?

Kenna Lulu is as sweet as pie and as girly as they get! She just got her ears pierced and they look adorable on her tiny earlobes. She LOVES all kinds of treats and dessert, a girl after Olivia's heart. She is a real gymnast and just learned how to do a backwards somersault!

I love these munchkins so much and am so thankful I get to be a part of their everyday life.

Homework

C'MON, SUMMER.

Romans 12:1-3 The Message

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:

Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you...

Living, then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all out of you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are and what we do for Him.

Hole-y Moley

Brennen is a tooth-losing machine this month. Within two days, he pulled out his own two bottom loose teeth. I was so impressed and extremely relieved because I get the heebee-jeebee's when I even think about the root being yanked out of my poor kid's gums. I am totally grossed out by the whole process and our experience with Olivia was... let's just say, very different. Here is a picture of the two gaping holes:

He looks so different to me now! His face is changed forever and I am sad about it. His teeth have always been really straight and tiny and now they are coming up

HUGE

and

straight. up. crooked.

He is growing up so fast this last year and this was a huge milestone for him.

I'm so proud of him.