snow day! yeah!!!

snow days in our town are VERY rare! so when it happens we tend to take lots of pictures...and this snow day happened to fall on my middle girls birthday(I can't believe she is already turning 5, time flies by WAY too fast!!) so she was excited because "God gave me the best birthday present ever, mommy" and that he did! school was canceled and it is 9:30pm and it's still snowing! we have made snow cream, soup, apple cider, oatmeal cookies, etc and have thoroughly enjoyed the day! my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces all were here to play and enjoy the day too! here are some of our photos from the day...hope you enjoy them!

snow angels and snow ball fights!

my house...covered in snow w/more snow falling as it gets darker

my sister Heather and I

Heather and I and our oldest girls

my birthday girl!!! she's five today!!

my precious niece!

my oldest daughter :)

the three musketeers :)

january birthday party. valentines day.

soo...the end of the year and the beginning of the year are VERY busy months for us with the holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. i am one of those creative types, or at least i like to think that i am, and so i usually find myself wanting to do too much in too little time...well this year that has changed and i promised myself that it would. and i've also promised myself to take the time to do little special things for my girls that would make a big difference for them.

one special thing i do for my kids every year, is that i make their birthday cakes. this is something that my mom did and it's something that i wanted to carry on to my girls...i think it adds a little something special, but then again, maybe i'm crazy ;).

with that being said...here are some photos of the game & cake from my oldest daughters birthday party last month AND of the homemade Valentines cards we are making/have made for their class parties this year... enjoy!! (also - for those wondering, i do make cakes for other people and other occasions...i've done birthday, baby shower, wedding cakes, etc...and i love doing just about anything creative!)

he is jealous for me.

this isn't my usual blog post, just posting a song and the lyrics to it, but this song is so powerful and the words speak to my heart and my soul in a way than really any other song does. don't just listen to the song, listen to the words, and meditate on them. sometimes we just need to be reminded how strong and powerful the love our Father has for us, despite ourselves and despite our situations... he's there. loving us. wanting us. even when we feel like no one else do or when we feel unworthy to be loved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps&feature=related

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

that's what i love about Sundays.

So it's the end of the weekend and i'm looking quite forward to it! i am excited about the rearranging i'm doing in my home. and i'm excited about my hubby getting to go sub at the school he loves to sub at. and i'm excited about some down time while my girls are at school.

I got to see my best friend today, i LOVE her! And she lives in florida now and I miss her soo much! We had a great time... Got our nails done...Which the whole time I was at the nail salon I was picturing this skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWrY77o77o absolutely HILARIOUS! You MUST check it out! I kid you not!

So - I had a couple God-moments today. You know what I mean? Those moments that you just "get it" in a way that you didn't get it before. We were visiting a church with my sister and her family today and something the pastor said struck chord in me in a way that it never had before... And it's something I already knew but today, for some reason, it "hit" me. He was talking about how when his daughter runs up to him with her arms up and stretched out to him that he doesn't turn her away, that he takes the moment to pick her up and embrace her and her charisma in that moment... We should be like that in our relationship with our Daddy in Heaven. We should run, unashamedly with arms stretched out to Him to hold us and to love us and for us to love Him and express to Him how much we love Him and want to be with Him and spend time with Him. We need to be intentional in our relationship and intentional in that relationship with Him.

Why are we so worried what other people may think or say about our relationship with our Daddy? When we go into worship him why are we so concerned with what others think about our worship? We shouldn't be. We are worshiping for an audience of one, not those around us. What does God feel about us holding back in our worship of Him, in effort to not "offend" those around us or make them feel "uncomfortable" - we should worship unashamedly and unabashed!

rearranging. recreating.

i love making old things new and changing this around a bit...and finding a GREAT deal on things too! the blue dish and the yellow dishes were less than $5 for all of them, i bought them on a clearance sale at a local antique mart a little while back. the teapots were a really great find at marshalls...and the china is a hand me down wedding gift from my grandmother that I have always wanted to display some how. here is a photo of the "after" - i didn't think to take a picture of how it was before BUT the bottom shelf and then the 2nd from the top had books on it and the middle one had a photo and a few other things...it looked kinda busy but was functional. here is what it looks like now...i'm not completely done, i still want to tweak a few things but here it is for now...and already its a MUCH bigger improvement!!

ballgame.

i love saturdays. i coach cheerleading with two of the best friends a girl could have. and my oldest daughter plays basketball the second hour. so i thought that i would just share a few photos from a typical Saturday in my life. probably one of my favorite parts about the games is that when my angel gets to the side of the court closest to us she always looks and waves and checks to make sure that we are watching everything that she does :). and our two youngest girls love cheering her on and watching her play... they grow up so fast! i can't believe that M is already 8 and is so big! they grow up way to fast and i am doing my best to enjoy each moment as they come and cherish them...and now without further delay...

Here are a few shots of my oldest playing her favorite sport/activity so far AND some of the girls i coach :

life. period.

Life is kinda crazy...

one minute your up and the next you feel like you are picking yourself up off the ground...You get expected things and unexpected things and thus the reason we call it a roller coaster life. and...things have been pretty crazy in our household lately.

see...we have 3 little girls already and have been debating on whether to permanently prevent any future pregnancies or not. we kinda decided that right now we don't want any more but we wouldn't make any permanent decisions until after i turned 30 just because that is SUCH a permanent thing! and this week has kind of changed things for us... you see, last week i noticed something didn't feel quite normal, i felt pregnant(which is possible for most married couples who sleep in the same bed) and with all three prior pregnancies, i knew beforehand and didn't even have to see the test. this time i decided to wait to take a test because my hormones have been so irregular the last few months...and well...a few days later i *thought* that i had gotten my answer, that no i wasn't indeed pregnant. which, lets face it, babies are fun and another one would make for an even number and i love my children and would have soo many children if it made sense to...and so if we were to have another one, that's just what we would do...so yeah, i was relieved and sad at the same point.

but then something started to not be right again...and i knew something was wrong. in my heart of hearts i *knew* that i truly was pregnant and that i was currently miscarrying the baby...this was my gut feeling/instinct, though i didn't want it to be true. i didn't want to be pregnant, but if i were really pregnant, i didn't want anything bad to happen to my baby.

i started crying knowing what was happening and shortly there after went to the hospital, only to have a confirmed pregnancy test...they did lots of tests actually...and the doctor said she's unsure of what exactly happened and what not.

and this was my first ever miscarriage. so many emotions and questions. feeling like i was being punished for something. my husbands tears. my tears. my dads tears. the comforting words from my younger sister, who in the last two years has been through this twice. the confusion. all the what if's. the "i should have done this". etc.

it's cool to me though that even in the midst of my broken heart, hurts and pains that i could see God's hand on everything...He was there the whole time and has even provided my friends with spare time to come and sit with me to keep me company or to help with anything around the house. for this i am greatly appreciative. He provided my sister to come help lift my spirits with some hang time and my husband with an extra dose of patience this week with me :).

so anyways, God has a purpose for everything in life and has His hand in everything...And for whatever reason this is the season that He has me in at this time and His timing is perfect and I am thankful, everyday, to be in His grasp... "when you can't trace His hand...trust His heart" because He only wants the best for His children and that is to be one with Him, in good times and bad.