A Life of Gratitude

Today our family got the opportunity to serve with our small group at our community's pregnancy care center. We love this ministry! They do so much for the families and babies in our town. 3 years ago Dylan did a "Diaper Doozie" for the pregnancy care center and raised over $1,000 to buy diapers with. We still enjoy finding ways to bless this ministry. Our small group has sort of "adopted" the center as a service project. We are planning to serve here every month or so but today was our first day.  With our youngins and all of the adults, we had a whole bunch of people to help out. We were able to rip out all of the carpet, pull up tons of carpet tacks, hang baby clothing, and pick up sticks and rake in the Memorial Garden. It was a lot of work but it was a wonderful time of fellowship and service. I enjoyed watching all of the children get involved! They were very serious about getting this work done. They definitely have servant's hearts. Hang

I feel like the past couple of days have just been a whirlwind for me. One of my life long friends (who has also sold KEEP Collective with me) passed away, I said goodbye to two friends that are moving away, and celebrated a baby being born, not to mention all of the normal ins and outs of life as a mom of 3 little boys. These big life events are just a part of life, right?  Well, I've been thinking and praying about that all day today. What is the point of all of these events? Why can't life just be easy? What is the point of all this difficulty?  Why do we have to say goodbye to people we love? Why can't all the big events be fun, like celebrating a friend's new baby? These questions will always remain because we cannot possibly understand God's ways. Isaiah 55:8 says,  "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."  I do believe though, that if we pray and seek

One of my favorite things about our house is our playroom! That may sound silly to some but when you look at the pictures below and you see ALL these toys, you'll see why I am grateful to have a room to store them in!  In the winter months this playroom gets a whole lot of attention! I love watching the boys playing in there. Yesterday, as I was sitting in the playroom with my fellas, I couldn't help but say a prayer of thanksgiving for this room. I was just watching my boys play, looking around, realizing how many light sabers we have and thinking about how blessed my boys are! They have a toy for everything!  Each year we make Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes to send to children all over the globe that do not have many toys or things to play with. My boys enjoy helping pack those boxes but I don't they could ever truly understand what it would mean to have no toys. They have had toys since before they were born! Now, we have more toys than we know what to do

Y'all are going to hear me talk about this a lot!!! God healed my back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, now that I've reminded you of that miracle, I must tell you what the boys and I have started doing....yoga! It actually wasn't my idea but I was super excited when Dylan asked if we could try yoga together. He is so excited about our family training for a 5K! He's been walking on the treadmill, doing jumping jacks and the crab-walk everyday and now, yoga. I have to tell you, I never imagined myself doing yoga because of how bad my back was. Now that it is healed, I really enjoy all the stretches. Yoga is definitely helping with my back flexibility and strength. Doing yoga with my boys is just an added bonus!!  Do you see Evan under me? We were both doing downward dog! He makes it difficult for me and fun at the same time! Today I am thankful for my yoga partners! They did really well with yoga and can't wait to do it again tomorrow! I'm looking forward t

"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19 Our family had a wonderful weekend! It was a weekend full of love!!! We started by making lots and lots of valentines to take to our favorite nursing home. We had so much fun delivering these valentines. The residents are starting to recognize our family when we visit and our boys are starting to connect with some of them. It is so heart warming to watch my boys bring joy so many people. Dylan cannot wait to go back so that we can talk with some of the residents again and Evan, he was immediately best buddies with a few residents. Tyson especially brings all the older ladies a lot of joy. They can't get over how cute he is! Visiting Brookdale Nursing Home is always such a blessing to our family!  I hope that it is as much of a blessing to the folks that live there! We also shared the love of Jesus this weekend by serving soup and bread at Hope City's Down Town campus. It was a neat opportuni

A few months ago our family started attending Hope City. I'm telling you, from the moment we stepped foot inside that church (or high school actually) I knew something was different! I've never experienced the Holy Spirit like this before. I'm so grateful that God lead us to Hope City. I would have never, ever guessed that within just a couple of months of finding this church, that I would experience a miracle there. But, 2 weeks ago, that's exactly what happened. The Pastor felt led to abandon the message he had prepared and instead referred to the numerous scripture verses on healing. He said that since God never changes, we should believe that He will still heal his people! He said that God had been asking him, "Scott, do you believe what My Word says?" He decided to step out in faith and asked for anyone that had dealt with on-going pain to come up to the front of the church. So, since I have had chronic back pain for almost 7 years now, I went up to

Tonight we had our small group over for a Super Bowl party! We had 12 adults and 18 kids in our house! It was a little crowded and pretty loud but it was so much fun!! With all those kids you're probably thinking that we didn't even get to watch the game but thankfully, we have a playroom!! Almost all of the kids played upstairs and watched movies. It was actually fairly peaceful, believe it or not. The adults got to watch the game, eat tons of unhealthy foods, and laugh at each other. It was seriously a good time! My sweet family ready to cheer on the Panthers! Our boys with the Edmonson girls! Tyson loved being snuggled! The Wives of Our Small Group Today I am thankful for this group of folks. Bryan and I  just began attending Hope City a few months ago but when our friends, The Edmonson's, invited us to a small group they were starting, we said "YES!" We were so excited to get plugged in at Hope City. This crazy bunch is so much fun to be with!

My sweet Evan got his first "big boy" hair cut today! Up until now, he has always just gotten a trim but today, he got it all cut off! He wanted a change and he got one! He looks so much bigger now! He looks like his big brother, Dylan! It's so hard for me to believe that he is so big already!!  I was feeling a little sad because time keeps flying by when Bryan told me to come and look in the garage. We have a Jeep riding toy out there. Evan had turned on the music on the Jeep and was dancing his little heart out! It was soooooo cute! He noticed that I was watching and I thought he'd surely quit but he didn't. Instead, he looked up at me and said, "Ya wanna dance with me?"  Um....of course I do big boy!!! So Evan and I danced to the music from the radio on our Jeep riding toy for a while. I loved watching him dance and laugh. As I danced with him I was also realizing how much I treasure these moments. He said,  "Mommy, you've go

Since we've started attending Hope City, our family has become very excited about serving others. Jesus was a servant so we should be too! I love seeing my boys so eager to be a blessing to someone else! I've also come to realize that when we desire to serve, God will provide opportunities! Just in the past week we have been given several chances to show the love of Jesus to those around us! The other day we ate lunch at McDonald's before running errands. We got the boys one of those boxes of 20 chicken nuggets. They normally eat almost all of them (three boys eat a lot!!!) but for some reason, that day, they barely ate any. So, we left McDonald's with a box of at least 14 chicken nuggets. We got about a mile down the road and we saw a man with a sign that said, "Just plain hungry." We immediately found that box of nuggets in the floorboard of our van and handed them to him. He was so grateful. He pulled out a nugget and stuck the entire thing in his mout