Enjoyin' The Warm Weather

Oh my goodness it was so pretty out today we had to get out and enjoy the warm weather because you never know how long it is going to last! I decided to wash my nasty car and I mean nasty. Tom and Zach thought it would be funny to empty the house gutters on top of my car and it was gross plus I have found that driving on the gravel roads gets me around town faster but from all the rain last week the dirt roads have turned to mud. Let me tell you mud plus wet gutter leaves is not a good mixture. Zoe and I pulled out the hose and got to work!

Bailey is doing the coolest school project! Every 5th grader is suppose to find jobs to do for neighbors and family. With the money they earn they get to go to the grocery store on a class field trip and buy groceries for the Food Bank in Bellevue. They want to fill the food bank for the Holidays rapidly approaching us. So, after school Bailey decided to rake the neighbors yard. I think she thought it would take an hour or so but it ended up taking almost 3 hours of hard work! How can you rake leaves without running and jumping in them--I am convinced you can't. Zoe and I couldn't resist the big huge pile of leaves so we joined Bay.

Soccer Comes To An End

Bailey had her final soccer game this weekend with the Galaxy team. It has been fun to watch the girls really come together and play as a team. They work hard every week at practice then play their little hearts out on Saturday's. This was the first season for them to play on the big field and there is quite a bit of difference in the amount of running they have to do. This has become one of Bay's passions--she loves soccer!!! I can remember the first year she played and we had to keep telling her which way to kick the ball so she didn't make a goal for the opposing team. She hung in there and each year has worked hard to learn the game. Thanks to two wonderful coaches the last 2 seasons she has really become quite the little player. Although I will miss watching her play I have to admit it will be nice to finally sleep in on a Saturday morning!!! After the game we celebrated at Wendy's. It was here that the boys decided it would be funny to make Zoe see how fast she could eat her frosty. Well, you know what happens when you eat cold stuff fast--Brain Freeze!! We laughed so hard at our drama queen and her brain freeze!

Tom and I finally had a date night and went to see the much talked about movie "Fireproof"! What a great movie! It was just a reminder to me how God can change our rags to riches, when we totally surrender to Him. It is only when we lay down our pride and call out for our Father to help us that He can make something beautiful out of trash. I can remember in my marriage when I wanted to quite trying! I gave it to God and just asked that He would change both of us! We had a lot of growing up to do! He never promises that it will be easy but He does promise that He will never leave us!! It also made me think--Do I have anything that I need to take a ball bat to in my life? Anything that is taking my attention away from pursuing my husband like God intended? It is not always as clear at Kirk's problem in the movie. Like the song Slow fade says its when the black and white turns to grey! I was also reminded that living my life according to God's standards is a huge example to those people he puts around me. People are watching how I treat my husband, how I treat my kids and how I respond to conflict among other things. I don't always have to have the perfect words to say--my actions speak louder than my words. One saying that we have taught our kids is Love God and Love Others and if we are truly living this way then it brings true joy. Do I always do this?? No, I fail but thanks to God's grace I can humbly go before Him and ask forgiveness. I am so thankful that God didn't let me give up on my marriage but has blessed me with being married to a man I can call my best friend!

Let The Sewing Begin

The Last couple of days have been rainy and cold!! I know the snow is right around the corner--URRR!!! For some reason this type of weather gets my creative juices flowing and since I can not redecorate a room in my house, I dug out my sewing machine, wiped off the dust and transformed my kitchen into a craft room. I have the cutest fabric I got at my favorite little quilt shop that has been sitting in a bag, so I decided to make a purse and finish another tote bag I started in July. Of course the moment I get my supplies out I have two little helpers right next to me wanting to sew also. Time to cut fabric and I could hear squeals coming from Zach's room so I ran to see what was the problem. Oh MY goodness, the things Zach and Bay can talk Zoe into amazes me!! They had drawn all over her face with markers and tattooed their own bodies!Thank goodness it was not permanent markers. Scary part was I saw Zoe armed with a marker herself and chasing Zach and Bay. After all the commotion finished, we started our purses and sewed for the next 3 hours. It is so fun for me to watch Bay sew she is singing and dancing the entire time but somehow gets her work done. We gave Zoe all of our scrap fabric and she let her creative juices flow by decorating a pumpkin for her little preschool. These days Tom is at class 4 nights a week so poor Zach is stuck with 3 girls. We tried to get him to sew a purse but he drew the line and decided to get his gear ready for his big air soft fight instead. He is a serious army dude when it comes to an airsoft fight! He packed his army bag, loaded his gun, got his hard hat ready and tried on all of his camo. After all Zach's preparations, we were still sewing and he caved!! He helped me finish my tote bag. I just love that boy!

Family Picture Day

Today I finally decided to attempt professional pictures of my kids. Just thinking about it stressed me out. The thought of finding something matching for them to wear and making sure every ones hair was ok and getting there on time never sounds fun to me. My motivation is our little Zoe. Since we got home from China with her I have never had all 3 kids pictures taken together and she has noticed that she is not in any pictures. So while at girls night I met Carrie Newell owner of Uniquely You Portraits www.uyportraits.com and set up our appointment. Saturday morning we painted toes, straightened hair, cleaned faces and headed to meet Carrie at the Old Market downtown Omaha. Although it was a tad bit cold for my barefoot pictures I wanted, the kids did great (with a little bribe of a trip to the candy store)! We had fun climbing trees and rocks and jumping the stream for pictures. I can't wait to see how they turned out!

Time for mom to pay up on the candy so we visited the Old Market Candy store and found enough sugar and chocolate for the entire week! Walking around the old market is something I just love to do but do not do enough. It is so pretty with the brick streets, old brick buildings, horse and carriage rides and tons of flowers. We found a quaint Pizza place for lunch where the chef still tosses the dough in the air to make the brick oven pizzas. We looked in all the little shops having a relaxing Saturday UNTIL I totally fell out of a store down the cement stairs while holding Zoe. I wanted to DIE! First it hurt really bad and Second there was at least 50 people watching me if not more. Well, there I was laying in the middle of the side walk with Zoe and she was crying telling us she broke her arm (she tends to be our DRAMA QUEEN)! Not one person came to my rescue-so Zach and Bay got me up and helped me to the curb. I tore up both of my shins and smashed both knees and busted a blood vessel in my hand and on top of that I trashed my favorite shoes!!! See why I don't do pictures!

We did have a great day and if you ever want to go to the old market I would love to take you--minus the music store!