New camera, ballet and melting a momma's heart

We have a new camera! yay! I have a lot to learn but so far so good! Keeping it VERY FAR from Logan! :)



My friend Katie and I took Olivia and Hannah to see the Nutcracker Ballet yesterday. The dancers were AMAZING!!! Olivia loved the girls but seemed pretty distracted and fidgety, come to find out she had a temp of 101 when we got home. :( but she is good today! It amazes me how fast kids bounce back.


Logan's new best friend. We take him just about everywhere. Along with Rebecca. {sigh}

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of my Logan. A BIG BIG smile that melts me every time. Almost makes me forget the boundary-testing going on these days. Almost. Nope I remember. But God is good, and once a challenging phase is over He helps me forget. I LOVE you bub, and I am SOOOO going to remind you of how you run to your room and slam the door when you get in trouble. :) I'm sure it will be so cute when I am recalling it to your children, but right now? Not so cute. So quit it.

Making ornaments for our tree. Olivia and Logan LOVE to do crafts. We have been purchasing the buckets of holiday craft stickers from my favorite store, that I try to stay away from ,that starts with a T. It is a really fun crafting time and it is a good way to fill our challenging time of the day 5-7pm, however, my vacuum is entirely overworked and starting to rebel. I bet when I change the bag I will find mountains of sticker papers.

By the way, I love how I put all of the effort to make my home look nice when people come over. When in all reality, I take a picture of my kids and you see the mountain of stuff that I never want anyone to see. Oh well, there you have it! what my counter REALLY looks like! A computer bag, lots of papers, bills, looks like a couple Bibles, more papers and I can't even decipher the rest. ugh. :)

Hugs from Indianapolis!

Family photos

My great friend Jamie is a GENIUS with a camera! Seriously. The picture above is one that she took for us recently. I love it! The fact that we are all looking at the camera is a sheer miracle for our family, I assure you! Thanks Jamie! Can't wait to take more pictures soon!

humbled and proud

A trip to the mall today proved to be a very humbling experience as well as an experience that made me such a proud momma. After attempting a trip to the mall at what would be nap-time (on a nap day, if he needs one, you get the idea) my patience being tried to the max, Olivia asked me to take the kids to the play area. To which I immediately said "no way, Logan is too tired" She seemed to be working on her persistence at the moment (the quote "If you don't succeed, try, try again" comes to mind), and I gave in.

Little did I know there was a little girl in the play area who DESPERATELY needed a friend. I won't go into the details, but let me just say it was both heart-wrenching and precious at the same time. I was both humbled at the thought of how big our God is, how small my little world is (I didn't WANT to take the kids to the play area, but He had a bigger plan) and that He has already started tugging at Olivia's heart. I was also very proud of how Olivia handled the situation, we had a big talk in the car on the way home. I was in tears, she was confused, Logan was saying "Sorry momma, I WILL listen" (apparently my tears come more often after he doesn't listen? learning alot about myself in this trip to the mall.) As I tried to explain my tears, tried to explain how wonderful God's plans are for our lives, trying to reassure Logan that he was not in trouble, I was just overtaken with emotion. I was truly humbled and so proud all in one.

Thank you God for giving us opportunities to show your love to others.

Thank you that Olivia is so sensitive to your voice.

Thank you for the honor of raising my children.

Random thoughts... 12/9/09

Yesterday I bought a new wall calendar for our kitchen. It has scenes from Italy (one of my top must-visit places!) It was only $1 from Target. Right now it is almost COMPLETELY empty. But by this time next year that $1 purchase will hold months full of appointments, milestones and reminders. It feels like we are starting fresh, not too busy for 2010 at the moment. At Bible Study Fellowship yesterday our speaker suggested that we really think about how we spend our time. If our days were like rooms in an attic, what would God choose to keep? The things we did for His kingdom. And what would he choose to throw away? Perhaps the busyness we can fill our days with that really just end up stressing us out. I am praying that God would remind us of this as we fill up our new calendar throughout the new year.

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Yesterday during snack time at Bible Study when it was Olivia's turn to share what was going on in her life, she chose to tell about how I shut my finger in the trunk in Grand Rapids. I wish there was some way she could convey the SERIOUS restraint this momma showed (only by the grace of God) while I was in such IMMENSE pain! Thank goodness God was there when I needed him (He always is) because I didn't know at the time that she would think this event was worthy of sharing with her class. :)

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What is up with our weather?

I'm just saying...

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That's it for now... hugs!

Gotta love PBS Kids!

Olivia: "Mom. I have a hypothesis. The smallest part of our bodies is the black part of our eyes."

Me: "wow, where did you learn the word hypothesis?"

Olivia: "Dinosaur Train"

Gotta love PBS Kids!

Great Wolf Lodge

(I apologize for the small camera-phone pictures.)

Great Wolf Lodge was AMAZING!!! It was so much more than I thought it was going to be and the kids loved it! We loved it too! (the parents, ha!)

I am already starting to plan our next trip (not until next year, but so excited already!) :)

This is a picture from their website


Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but the lobby was BEAUTIFULLY decorated for Christmas! Loved it!