Here We Are...

I don't do this anymore, but I wanted to update the family pic since we all are getting older...  We are three days away from summer vacation and it feels good.  Olivia is 12 now, finished her first year in middle school.  Brennen is 9 and had a great year in 3rd grade.  Nate is working from home for BBI and travels occasionally.  I am working as a substitute teacher and sometimes get to teach my own kids. Sunridge is now our church body and we are growing and understanding God's true character

Us right now

The days are turning into weeks that turn into months that are turning into years.  Just look at those kid faces.  How did they get like that?  So grown up and beautiful and missing all those teeth?  The story is being written so quickly these days, the pages are filling up.  We are being filled up with flag football and Common Core and business trips and family birthdays and new beginnings.  We are being filled up with a greater understanding of how far short we fall and a greater appreciation for how He fills in the gaps.  God is continuing His good work He started in each one of us, and for that we are thankful.

Valentine's Day 2014

I am not paying attention to this blog thing.  So here is a fun pic of our Cousin Valentine's Day party :)

Brooklyn Kora

My newest niece... Baby Brookie, at 2 months, all fancied up

One of my favorite pics of her

Look at that face

Tummy Time!

Talking and laughing now at 4 months

All pretty for church!

Big girl in her bouncy chair

 I love this little peanut!  She has had a rough start with reflux, but once you catch her eyes, she has nothing but smiles.  She has already made our family happier, looking forward to years of loving our Brooklyn.

Happy New Year!

Hahaha!  My last post was Christmas Eve last year.  

In two more days it will be May.  

Needless to say, I'm not doing a good job at this.  

So I shall begin again, this process of documenting our memories.

Because this life is moving so fast...

Easter 2013

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.

Ode to Costco

Oh, Costco, how I love thee... and hate thee.

I love you for your wide selection of cozy Carter's footy pajamas for the cheapest price in town. I adore how you sell the Carter's 3-piece outfits for less than $10 when I need an inexpensive baby gift.

I hate you for your Photo services. I despise the picture quality of my Christmas card this year, after we actually spent good money to get our pictures done by a professional. I had high hopes for our card this year and you dashed them. Never again.

I love you for your samples, they are aplenty. I love how you allow me to taste an unfamiliar food to see if I would like to buy it one day, you are so smart.

I hate you for your parking lot and for your long lines. You seem to attract the most unfriendly, impatient people in Temecula. There are never enough spaces during the holidays and I hate how I can only turn right out of the main thorough-fare. The lines zig-zag maddeningly and always make me squeeze next to the previously mentioned unfriendlies.

I love you for your book selection. Where else can I find such a vast array of interesting books for such affordable prices? I love how you offer hard bound and paperback. I love that I can buy a fun Elmo book in the same place I can get another Kristen Hannah novel.

I hate you for your online calendar making experience. It is the pits and I'm rebelling this year because of you. My poor parents will not be getting an adorable personalized calendar and I will blame you for breaking this tradition. I just can't handle the buffering and the schizophrenic behavior of your website. It's taking me over the edge.

I love you for your hot dogs.

I hate you for tempting me with the Diet Coke you sell that I don't drink anymore.

I love your large carts, but I hate how heavy they are.

I love picking up a new hoodie, but I hate how you don't put my groceries in bags.

So, Costco, as it turns out I do love you. But you are walking a fine line, my friend.