we have pets!

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was reading a magazine while getting my haircut....
In the mag I read about people owning tea cup pigs. (Pigs seemed like a good idea for us since our girl is allergic to cats and dogs) I thought it sounded cool and when I got home I mentioned it to my husband in front of the kids (MISTAKE!!). I thought I would do some research on it to see what they are all about.
Long story short: the pigs do not stay small like cute little tea cups and we are not zoned to own pigs. Regardless, the kids have been wanting a pet for sooo long and they were devastated that we were not going to have a tea cup pig, which I never by the way said we were getting in the first place! So in order to get my 5-year-old to stop sobbing we went out and bought 2 beta fish. The blue one's name is Jacob and the purple-pink one is Care Bear. It all worked out in the end and we all lived happily ever after!
PS - notice the orange counter tops....yup they're still orange! :)

love notes

My oldest son can be the biggest handful ever; however, deep down he is really the sweetest guy! He likes to write, draw, color pictures, make cards and anything to show his affection towards me and Jesse. Many a nights we will come to bed to find a sealed envelope addressed to us with a precious note inside. While he can not write all he can communicate, we know every etch of it is done with love. My favorite thing is to take pictures of his notes so we can keep them forever! After all one day when he is grown and on his own I will look over these love notes and they will so warm my heart.
SO big boy i thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Fum,
mom :)

temporary insanity!

My husband and I finally got out of the house last weekend just the 2 of us.(which does not happen like ever!) After eating a nice lunch we decided to run into a furniture store for fun. We walked in and saw the walnut, brown, leather sectional couch, with ottoman, of our dreams ON SALE! Our wheels started turning.....and before we knew it we were talking to a salesman and actually buying them. I was freaked out, but excited - did we just do this????
It was not long before I thought - what did we just do. Buyers remorse sat on me like a brick and I thought about it all night. See we do not have cash to buy it. We put it on a credit card. My husband does sales = feast or famine. I know financial famine is coming. So sadly the very next day my husband called and cancelled the purchase. Sometimes it's hard to make the right decision, but i'm glad we did. And let's just say it was our temporarily insane moment of the year! :)

past month

Wow! It's already been a month since I last blogged. I really thought I had time to get my thoughts out, but instead they are all piled in my brain. so i am unloading my life over the last couple weeks

Halloween Success
We had a really great time this year with no allergy mishaps, which since last year was a disaster I was very pleased. My mom had given me a great idea to dip my little girl's allergy friendly foods in chocolate as her treats - genious! So here's a pic of Aunt Stacy (visiting from AZ) dipping fruit, marshmellows, pretzels, rasins and crasins with the kids. And thanks mom - clearly we have a new tradition in our house! Christi
I was so happy to have my best friend visit me! I still feel so refreshed from her visit. She came alone on this trip and I was kinda bummed at first since i really wanted to see her kiddos also, but it worked out wonderfully. Thanks to my man - we were able to go out alone and have girl time we have not had in years! I love my dearest friend of 15 years. She's the kind of friend that if I ever died - she would be the one to talk to, to learn my deepest thoughts and desires. I am truly blessed to have such a friend!








Adoption??
Yes, I am crazy I just had my 3rd baby and I am already thinking I want another. In fact, as my neighbor was driving me to the hospital to have my sweet little boy I was telling her I was interested in adopting a child. Now, I have no idea how this will happen or if it will happen, but I am exploring more and more how this ministry might suit our family. It's really been in my heart since I was a teen. And while I could have more children on my own - there are so many children without homes and we have room for one. I recently came across this verse: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in thier distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" James 1:27 The part about orphans really tugged my heart, but is this the time?? I have so many questions, thoughts, etc...any thoughts on this topic is appreciated!

Kid update
My oldest son is now in kindergarten and boy it's not like it used to be. And can I just say homework is my least favorite thing about school and we have just begun! To our surprise even being the younger one in the class he is doing great with school. He is reading and writing and my little man is just growing up!
My sweet girl is quickly approaching her third birthday. She is smart, sweet and hilariouly witty. She is doing better with allergies all together; however, we are praying that she is not getting asthma as she has had lots of breathing issues when in certain environments, w/ pets or certain foods. Everyday she prays to be better so she can have a doggie or kitty and eat eggs among other foods. I know God hears her faithful heart, so we wait.
Lastly, baby boy is doing great. He has the squishiest cheeks and and is so cute that I want to squeeze him till he pops! He is really trying to roll over and is so close, but ya know that darn arm always gets in the way. He is really the 3rd child that goes along with the fam and just chills.

aahhhhh....

it's been so stinkin long since i've been to my blog website. i feel like i have to wipe off dust and cob webs. life has been plenty busy since i last left off. for my own sake i must mention what i have been doing as this blog is to help me remember what goes on in my life as it is so fleeting.

there have been so many wonderful things that have taken place. we finally bought our very first house. thank you God!! i never thought it would really happen - then i found myself signing a gigantic stack of papers that i did not really understand comepletly. it was surreal. just for the record God was so there every step of the way. we put an offer on the house after 3 others. they stopped taking offers and then even though they had many good offers on the house including 1 cash offer - they chose our family. it was unexplainable - it was God & He granted us favor.

once we moved in we had so much to do on the house. i was 8 months pregnant and so tired. anything i did put me in contractions, contraction, contractions. still God kept that baby inside growing, growing. we got the house in some kind of order to the best of our ability and then it was time.....

it was tuesday and jesse needed to go to aspen to travel just overnight. just overnight! i knew that was not a good idea or good timing when i could have this baby any day. needless to say my water broke at 6:50am the next morning and jesse was 4 hours away of course! thank God for friends who came and sat with my kids for the day with out worry and for good new neighbors who had to drive my water leaking self to the hospital. God kept that baby in until jesse arrived at the hospital and as soon as he did i went from 3 cm. to 10 and had the baby with in the hour. (ya - the epidural never did work this time!!!)

in came baby number 3. i was instantly in love, but had forgotten about the sleepless nights! and this guy wanted to party all night long for the first month! did i mention that i also had my big guy start kindergarten. by the way why did no one tell me what a pain in the neck it is to drop off and pick up kids from school!!

all of those things lead me to the present. i feel as though i am finally getting a handle on life at least a little and at least for now. i have come to grips with the facts that i'm not even close to being a super-mom, my house is still a work in progress from the orange counter-tops to the daily mess from household stuff i can barely keep up with, i'm lucky to shower or to take a lone trip to the grocery store and the list goes on. bottom line is there's love in our house and we are surviving and that is good for me at least for now. :)

what if...

Do you ever stop and think what if?

What if my daughter had been born first....
- She would probably not have had a 2 year old dinosaur party
- She would probably not know the word torture.
- She would probably not say "we need to kill the bad guys" in pretend play.
- She would probably not be so good at wrestling, hitting and punching.
- She would probably not know about all the super heroes.
- She would probably not know how to play T-ball and soccer.
- She would probably not find farting and burping so darn funny.
- She would probably not flex her muscles after every bite of meat saying "i'm gonna have big muscles like daddy one day."

Then I think, on the flip side i guess she would miss the privilage of having a constant playmate from birth and she would not have a bodyguard to protect her and make her feel safe when she's scared. But, most importantly, she would not be shaped daily into the woman God has designed her to be. After all, may be she's gonna be a superhero ninja girl who saves the world from bad guys!!
.....well, what if??? :)

look up!

This last week has been really rough for me. I have faced disappointment after disappointment topped with bad nights of sleep with a little one who is sick with a cold. My husband has been far away for days and unavailable most of the time to even talk. I have struggled this week with self pity and letting myself get depressed.
These are the times that I really need to look up! These are the times that I need to let my heart sing praises to God so that in the midst of my small trials I can see our big God and the big plan He has for the world, which is so much bigger than me! It's when I focus on a God so magnificant that I can say who cares about the things of this week. This week and all it entails will pass, but the immeasurable love of a Savior that some of the world has not yet felt, is forever. There is too much for us to do in life, on behalf of God for people, to be focused inward. Tonight I'm reminding myself of this truth so I won't let the temporary things of the world take my joy, my hope, my purpose. Tonight I will look up until I see nothing but You!

a creative mind

My son is wired with great creativity. He always surprises me with different scenarios where I am left both puzzled and amazed. How on earth could he come up with this stuff???! One of his many favorite creative hobbies as of late are to frame his sister for something she did not do.... like drawing marker all over the kitchen floor and pouring cups of water out of the bath. The weird thing is that he does not ever draw on anything other than paper and may splash water, but not dumpings out of the tub so who would have suspected him?? A 2-year-old little girl is the obvious culprit for these things. BUT - NO! I only wonder how many time-outs my little girl has served on his behalf!!!
Another favorite hobby is to mix his food at every meal time in gross & weird ways. It usually drives me INSANE! You see I don't like wasted food, which is why I eat all my kids left-overs and am a huge pregnant woman!! Today, however; I sat back and watched as we are enforcing our new rule to his game. If he chooses to do crazy things with his food then he HAS to eat it. So he thinks twice before mixing even though he usually does it anyway and somehow he likes his crazy food combos. Come on haven't you tried hotdogs with applesauce and many random things stuffed in a peanut butter sandwich.
I'm learning there is a fine line of squashing a creative mind all together and balancing it with consequences for the negative creativity. This child of mine has and will always keep me on my toes, but I'm glad he is creative I only pray one day when he is older he will use this creativity for good!!

this 'n that...

It's been a while since I've blogged. Life has become busy here as we continue to settle into new territory. Here's April's this 'n that's...


It's a BOY!!
So I had my ultrasound and we found out we are having another boy! The most exciting thing is always that he had all the right body parts in the right places and is looking healthy! :)
The only hard part about all this is what on earth to name him. I've decided boys names are way harder. I don't want a super common name, but you can't go too weird or, well, for a boy it's just weird. So we'll see??


T-Ball
Ok so if you ever read anything about my big little man playing Soccer, you're probably thinking - what?? you're signing him up for another sport. Yes, I had concluded after soccer that 4 years old was too young for sports...at least for boys....well, may be just mine, BUT (there's always a but) we just moved here and we needed to get him active in something outside of the house. Since we've started it has been great! No melt downs on the field, yet and he is actually enjoying it. It helps to have a really good coach that knows what he's doing and may be this is my son's sport more that soccer?? This weekend is his first game - Go Blue Claws!!


House Hunting
A lot of our time has also been devoted to looking for a house to buy. I know we were looking for rentals to get out of our allergy-pet mess, but God set up the perfect situation for us with a great realtor and ya never know we may be first time home owners soon. Exciting & scary!


Easter
We had a wonderful Easter out here. We read the Easter story, made Easter cookies, decorated eggs, and had our basket hunt. The day before we had a fun Easter Egg hunt at our friends house and the weather was perfect for an outdoor brunch and eggs. On Easter it rained, but we had the perfect church/ pizza/ movie day. We also spent the day in reflection of a beautiful Savior and His amazing love!


Peanut m&m's
As I am writing this, I just ate a peanut m&m that had like a burnt or rotten peanut in it. Super gross - had to rid that from my mouth!! Has that ever happened to you?

-----THE END----

our weekend

stairs

I have not lived in a 2-story house but 1 time in my college years and the truth is -I loathe them! First, remember we moved to higher altitude. Now imagine all the times we need to run up and down the stairs with my potty training toddler who is barely going to make it on the seat, doing laundry, putting kids to bed, breaking up constant kids fighting, you get it! Oh, wait there's more....did I also mention that my 4 year old fell head over heels, head over heels all the way down the stairs backwards! So yes, there are many reasons that stairs should remain my enemy. But, before all you 2-story housed fans get mad at me for hating please read on.
I am trying to see the positive in all situations so I wanted to mention that while my son did have a bad spill on the stairs, he did survive with out injury. Secondly, stairs are very helpful in getting me to and fro in a big house. And lastly, our staircase doubled as an art hall this weekend. So in conclusion, I will say stairs are alright after all, as they can be fun, too. :)


new work car

This weekend we got a new addition to our garage. Here is a sexy male model with his new work car. With all the weather he has to drive through, it had to be a Subaru!


let's go fly a kite!

The perfect to end to our weekend was trying out our new kites from Costco. My son picked out an airplane and my daughter wanted the elephant. The weather was perfect. It was in the high 70's and plenty of wind. Here's some park pics. This park has a handicap swing that my kids just love to ride in. They think it's like a rollar coaster.
She's even cute with wind-blown hair! (Another Allergy update: it does not look like cheese back in her diet is going to work after all. The rashes are coming back, but at least we can manage her skin now.)

cheese please

Allergy update for my precious little girl:
We went to a top allergist group here in Colorado, National Jewish Health. I honestly thought deep down it was going to be more of the same mystery for them as it has been for me with all her skin problems. Low and behold, we have improvement for the first time in ages!!!! Her skin has never looked better and it was just a few changes that we implemented with her, especially in bathing and a new lotion.
A little bad news is that she is now officially allergic to egg, which we did not know she could not have any part of the egg. So that's also helped to know.
The good news is great skin equals re-introducing some foods back in her diet. We decided to start with dairy because there are just too many good things about dairy. Last night we made her grilled cheese on her gluten-free bread. She enjoyed it soooo much it brought tears to my eyes. I know it's silly to shed a tear over your child eating some cheese, but it made me happy to at least be trying normal eating again! We'll see how it goes, but for now i love hearing my daughter say, "cheese please" because i can finally say, "yes!"

butterfly pavilion

We had such a nice relxing weekend for the first time since we've moved here. My wonderful husband heard about a fun place to take the fam - the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminister, CO. It was actually really cool and perfect for our aged kids. First we went into a room full of the nastiest, creepiest bugs ever. I had one thought - I'm gonna have some bad dreams tonight! Then we went outside to this rainforest room. It was gorgeous with plants all over, a stream and fake misty rain falling from the ceiling. The best part was all the butterflies. There were a bunch of various butterflies flying all around us. They would wisp past your head and you'd sometimes almost bump into them. I can't explain it other than I felt like a kid again all wrapped up in excitement and wonder over the simple things in life. There were a couple more things to see and do after that, but the butterfly room was unlike anything I've ever done before. As always, I only wished I had taken more pictures of our time there!
The butterflies really liked my mom and they landed on her several times. Don't know how well you can see this, but I thought it was cool that she was taking a picture of one and one landed on her camera.
They had a small sea life area and of course baby girl was excited to see her fave NEMO.
These bugs were just so oddly facinating to me.
Oh yes, you could hold this creepy tarantula, named Rosie. (I love how they named a scary spider something soft and sweet.) Little man was so brave he got in line twice to hold 'sweet' Rosie!

tip for easy clean-up!

After this you may really question my ability for motherhood, but well, I guess I do too now and then. As a mom I get SOOOO tired of cleaning up spilled water, spilled snacks or whatever bodily fluid might have found it's way onto the floor. So I confess at times when it's a simple popcorn snack (or the like) as pictured that has spilled - I just let them clean it up. When we are in public places and something hits the ground I say "it's for the birds" and we leave it behind or pitch it, but when we are at home I let them become the birds. And that my friend is my controversial tip for easy clean-up for today. :)

can't get enough

It was a such warm week in Denver. It was in the 70's all week and with the intense sun that made it feel much warmer. My little buddy has been waiting for more snow, but since we first came - no dice. We were able to get to the mountains this past week and honestly my kids can't get enough snow!!! I know we are in the honeymoon stages of snow, but we are really having fun. I truly thank God for an opportunity to live in such a gorgeous state!

Little mama giggles at just being near it. We built a little snowman - it looked too pathetic for pictures. I will have to work on my skills with that one!


Little man is enjoying trying out his new snowboard sled-thing. He really wants to be a snowboarder and ya know he is pretty good on his little one.


Some other news, in case you were wondering...
We still have not found our next place, but I know God will provide the right place as we keep looking! I also took my little girl to one of the top allergist groups and we are hopeful as we take a new direction, God will heal her little body. There is much to be grateful for and we are excited with this new chapter God has opened up for us!

would you believe???

Would you believe that we have only lived in our new house for 6 days and we are already looking for a new house! It's a REALLY long story, but we were mislead in the info of previous pets in the home. My little girl is very allergic to everything, pets included and we needed to be sure there were either no pets in the home or no sign of pet in the home.
The first clue we signed up for disaster is when i went to the home and saw dog/ cat hair in every nook and cranny of the house! Then the neighbors told us the previous tennants had a dog, 3 cats and 2 rabbits that all lived indoors. Then we were told they steam cleaned the carpets twice because it smelled like pet so badly. (FYI - you can't steam clean out pet urine!!!!) The last straw was jesse discovering the urine stench in any stain the carpet had. So we are moving AGAIN! If anyone ever reads this will you please pray for us to find a house ASAP with NO previous pets in the house, which in denver by the way, is like finding a needle in a haystack!
Disclaimer: I do love animals of all kinds, but if you saw what they can do to my daughter, I believe you'd share my sentiments on the subject.

our CO welcome

We are finally in our new house in Colorado even though there are still boxes everywhere. We had some really great friends and family help us with getting here and getting settled. Thanks to you all!!
To our surprise our first night here it snowed, just a dusting, but for us it was snow! It was our CO welcome. The kids had a blast! I am grateful they had rain boots to at least keep thier feet dry. Here are some pictures of the kids first time in snow.
Little man loved rolling in it!
Little miss loved eating it!
That's 100% genuine happy smile!
Poor girl she really needed mittens!

prayers for baby

Every night we say prayers with the kids before bed. My 4 year old always wants to either pray or has many requests. He especially has a heart for African kids, which blesses my heart. My daughter who is just 2 has really surprised me. Since we told them about the baby in mommy's tummy every night she requests to pray for the baby. She never lets us forget to pray for it either!!
The sweet and silly thing is my son has noticed that we were impressed with her remembering the baby and well, now it's a competition. He wants to be the first to tell us we need to pray for the baby. I guess you can say this baby is already well loved and well prayed for!! :)

buried in boxes

It's been ages since I have had anytime to blog. And well, it's safe to say I should not even be blogging right now!! We finally found a house in Colorado (thanks for the prayers!!) and now we are packing up. We are loading the truck a week from today. I can't wait!
Right now I am thinking we have sooo much stuff! Why do we collect, gather and keep so much stuff? Part of it is sooo much kid stuff. Ok may be a BIG part of it. I suppose as they grow we can simplify and rid ourselves of the burden of STUFF. :)
Lastly, I do not recommend ever packing with 2 kids and being pregnant! I am super tired and super crabby - sorry family!! Really it's the HORMONES!! I am truly excited about this move - it's just the getting there that is rough. I can not wait to be settled in our new place and have routine again, but until then I'm buried in boxes!!

it's a new year

2009 is a new year for us with lots of changes. If you have not already heard we are moving to Colorado, at least we're supposed to. My husband's job territory has changed and in order for him to be most effective we need to be in the area. We just got back from a trip to CO - thus the glorious picture of me taking ice off the windshields. Our goal was to find a house and it did not happen. Challenge #1 - our budget is smaller than the cost of housing. This house hunt is truly a hunt! It's our prayer that God will help us find the right home in His time. Challenge #2 - I am newly pregnant and feeling it right now! Can I just say dirty diapers and morning sickness (or all-day sickness as i call it) DON'T MIX! So while I'm excited for the new to begin - would you say a prayer for us in our journey there?