A Life of Gratitude

Our church has such an amazing Kid's Ministry! They are always finding fun ways to get families to spend quality time together! Tonight's event.....Mystery Madness! All the ingredients for the s'mores went missing!!! So all of us detectives had to find the clues and discover who took the ingredients! Then, we got to enjoy s'mores and listen to some amazing karaoke!  Mug Shots! Laser Maze! Find the hidden message....invisible ink!    Making s'mores.... So much fun! Evan had a blast!  Who are these folks? Me and my girl....even if she doesn't look like a girl with her disguise! "What does the fox say!?!" Today I am grateful to be part of a church that invests so much into its families. There is nothing more important than spending time together as a family, intentional time! These Extreme Family events are so much fun for all of us but also give us a chance to talk to one another, work together, ...

After having 4 babies in 9 years, its probably no surprise that I'm not where I want to be physically...hahaha. (No where near where I want to be actually.) I've been rather hard on myself lately because of it and after much prayer, I know God wants me to show myself a little grace. I may not be a supermodel but my body has done something pretty super, 4 times! So, I'm trying to be okay with who I am for now....I mean, its only been 4 months since Allison was born, right?  In this process of learning to love myself, even though I don't look like I want to, I've been asking God to help me feel beautiful. I was actually praying that prayer specifically on my way to the vet this afternoon with our puppy, Miles. Something had happened which made me feel unhappy with myself so I started praying, asking the Spirit to help me feel pretty. I got out of the car, walked into the vet, and the parrot who lives there whistled the loudest "look at you, beautiful" w...

I've recently started choreographing the dances for HopeCity Kid's Worship on Sunday mornings. This is something I never imagined doing but I'm really enjoying it. I've been leading the kids in worship with these dance moves for the past couple of weeks. I'll be honest, its a little out of my comfort zone. I'm not the world's best dancer or even in good shape, for that matter. I'm a little self conscious getting up in front of everyone, even though they are kids.  Today we were singing and dancing to "Ever Be" by Bethel Kids. Its such a beautiful song anyway but today, I heard it in a whole new way.  As I was doing the motions to the song, I could hear multiple little voices belting out the lyrics. They sang, "Your praise will ever be on my lips, ever be on my lips, ever be on my lips." Tears were welling up in my eyes as I heard them. To be proclaiming that over there lives at such a young age is remarkable! Oh my sweet ones...

Today we celebrated Tyson's 3rd birthday!!! I honestly cannot even believe I just typed that...3 years old?  Really?? How can it be three years since we got our huge surprise??? It seems like just yesterday we heard the words, "It's a boy!" when we had been told for months that we were having a girl! We had sold all the blue clothes, blankets, etc and exchanged them for pink things. But when Tyson made his entrance into the world, we had to exchange it all again!  Tyson's birth was shocking but it he has been such an amazing blessing to us! God knew exactly what he was doing when He placed Tyson in our family and I praise Him daily for His plans for us! We had a wonderful day celebrating Tyson! He opened presents this morning, enjoyed an afternoon at the Children's museum, got his favorite Krispy Kreme donuts, and then ate dinner at Olive Garden. He had such a fun day! It just warms my heart to see him so full of joy! ...

Today was my 35th birthday! WHHHAAATTT???? 35!?!  Over the past few weeks, as this birthday approached, I've been thinking a lot about where I am in my life and how thankful I am for all that God has done for me. Just a decade ago, when I turned 25, I had zero children, had been married for a few years, was teaching in a pubic school, and had so many dreams about having a family. I found out a couple weeks later that I was pregnant with Dylan. In just 10 years, my family went from a dream to 100% complete. And I'm so incredibly grateful!  I wanted to do something on this 35th birthday to celebrate all that God has done in the past decade. So, I had a sweet friend of mine design a gorgeous infinity symbol with all of my greatest blessings. My boys and I tell each other every night, "I love you to infinity" while doing the sign language for "love" and then our own made-up sign for infinity....its just our thing...just what we do.  So I decided...

Sometimes when I look at pictures like this one, I'm really blown away. Bryan and I have 4 kids! Can you believe that? I know, I know....that's old news. But seriously, when did this happen? It seems like just yesterday I gave birth to my first son!  This afternoon while we were all sitting on the couch I had a "mom"ent...you know, one of those moments that us moms have where we actually take a second to breathe, relax, and enjoy everything we work so hard for. Those moments where we realize all that we've been given and all that we have to be thankful for. This afternoon my heart filled with gratitude as I held my baby girl while sitting next to my husband and 3 amazing sons. We were all huddled on one couch, which is the way we usually sit together, and I couldn't stop thinking, "What a sweet gift they are to me!" My life is crazy. Busy. Filled with laundry. The bathrooms smell like pee most of the time. The dishwasher always needs to b...