Happy Thanksgiving

We're HOME this glorious THanksgiving and it has been a restful morning... which is exactly what the doctor ordered. I have been so tired that I are parts of the day that I am struggling to keep my eyes open. So this Thanksgiving I am super thankful for low-key plans, lots of people helping with a delicious dinner that I can't wait to eat this afternoon, and a whole slew of kids who make Thanksgiving soo much fun.

This morning we made handprint turkeys...


Siah's Turkey...

Hal's Turkey...


Happy Thanksgiving from our three treasures...


Our Little Reesie (who's a bit under the weather today. She has a 102 fever most of the day yesterday and she's just not herself today.)


Our Hal...

And our Siah... who needed to wear his sun glasses for this Thanksgiving occasion.

AJ is our "adopted" treasure... He fits right in don't you think?
All five treasures that live in the giant house on the hill...
See if you can guess what each treasure is thankful for this Thanksgiving...
1. "A train set"
2. "Baby Vivyann"
3. "Cat-meow"
4. "My tool set"
5. Silence

If you guessed...
1. Siah
2. Hal
3. Reesie (she loves dogs and kitty's... and FYI... we will never have a pet in our house... not even is sweet little Reesie looks at me with her cute girl smile!!!)
4. AJ
5. Vivyann (when I asked her what she was thankful for, she just stared at me. :)

A MOST HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!!!!!!!

I don't know yet...

I know that some, maybe most, pregnant women like to wait until they are in the safe zone to share with the world that there is life in their tummy... But not me! :) When there is a treasure in my tummy, I want the entire world to know that the Lord has blessed us... if even for a short time! :)

Soooo, As of yesterday we have another treasure in our hearts.
I took a test alone in my bathroom and as the two pink lines filled the little plastic screen my whole face lit up with an uncontrollable smile.

Followed by...
A floodgate of anxious tears.
The truth is that I physically feel much like I felt with our last pregnancy... in short, not good, not normal.

Which is the very reason that I am posting tonight.

I don't know yet... If we will get the blessing of meeting this baby on this earth.
I don't know yet... if we will have to let go yet another time.
I don't know yet... what the Lord's plans are for growing our little family.

And tonight as I laid here thinking about what God has up his sleeve this time around, I read this verse...

"I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34:4

You wanna know what I am really afraid of?

I'm afraid that I will have to give yet another treasure back to the Lord. I'm afraid that the reason I keep loosing them is because I'm not good enough to be a mother of four. (Not that I think I'm a bad mom... but maybe the Lord knows that three is my max???) I'm afraid that if we keep trying, we will keep having to say goodbye.

He hasn't promised me a certain amount of children... he hasn't promised me a life void of pain or trial...

But He has promised me this...
He will deliver me from all my fears!!! Not from the loss itself, but from the fear of the loss.
And from the fear of my own inadequacy.

Tonight, I am resting in the promise that I have been delivered from all my fears!

I am six weeks along and I don't know yet what the Lord has for us. I got some blood work done today to check my hormone levels to make sure that they are going up.

Could you pretty please join us in prayer? I know that there is power in people interceding on our behalf. No matter if we have only a few short weeks with this baby or many many years, let's love on it and fight fervently for it before the Lord!

Thank you Friends!!!!!

Seasons End

Thursday was Siah's last day of "sports camp." The first five weeks he played soccer and the second five weeks he played t-ball. Let me clarify... The goal was to learn the basics of both sports... but the real deal was perfectly captured in the photo below...



This is Siah's idea of learning how to play t-ball. Did he like sports camp? Yes, but he had more fun putting his hat over his head and picking the grass than he did actually playing the sports. :)

There were moments...

Moments when he would hold out his glove...



Moments when he would chase after the ball that he didn't catch in his glove because he closes his eyes and covers his head with his glove when the ball starts coming his way...



Moments intently (or not so intently) playing outfield...

I must say that I really do love all his expressions when he's up to bat...

He ran his heart out to first base... but then... he would just sit down at each base and forget to run to the next base... :)

His favorite part of the entire season was getting this trophy!!!!

Proud Mama!!

The Final team cheer...

And a proud Papa!!!

What can I say? Siah is his Father's son. Neither have been gifted in the athletic department... But both have been blessed with the ability to find fun in any and every situation! Trophy night was a great end to the season.

We sure are proud of you little man!!!!

Oh How He Loves Us

Warning... It was a weepy morning for me.

It's Wednesday right? Bible Study morning. SO I bet you can guess how my morning went?

Rough.

But fortunately it only lasted until we got in the car and things started looking up from there.
I've mentioned before how music has a way with me. When I'm frazzled (Like I was this morning) it helps me to find a song, turn it up loud, and sing it with my whole heart at the top of my lungs. A few weeks ago we were in the car and I was singing my heart out and Siah so politely informed me, "Mama, please stop singing, you's ruining the song." WOW! Thanks buddy! :)

This morning we listened to David Crowder's new song, Oh How He Loves Us.
I turned it up... I started singing... I looked in my rearview mirror and saw all three (even Reesie was moving her mouth) treasures singing their hearts out! And as we all sang, the truth of the words worked their way into my heart and the tears started to flow out of my eyes. I looked in my rearview mirror again and Siah's eyes caught mine and he shot me this beaming smile and he chuckled at me. THen the chorus rang out, "OH HOW HE LOVES ME!" And looking at all my treasures in that backseat I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords himself, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, and intimately... LOVES... little old me!

I soaked it all up. We arrived at Bible Study. Our friend Nicole lead worship and it was beyond awesome in my opinion. I cried again.

Then this sweet young women got up to give a short devotional about the things that the Lord is doing in her life to refine her. She said a lot of things but the one thing that got my little heart was when she was explaining the way that the Lord was working in her heart through her pain. Through her tears she shared how her circumstances have led her into this deep hunger for the Lord. Her mom was sitting in front of me and I watched her as she watched her daughter share. And I couldn't help but think of how my heart would feel if my little Hal, or my little Reesie, stood up in front of a crowd of women and confessed their deep deep longing, love, and need for their Savior with a personal, genuineness of heart. Because the Lord himself had captivated them... That will be the absolute best day of my life... Not the day that they get married, or graduate from some school or another... But the day that their hearts fall passionately in love with the one and only God of the universe!

Tears... Tears.. More tears.
Joyful tears.

Oh How He Loves Us!!!







Oh My Goodness How He Loves Us!!!

I added the David Crowder song to my playlist on our blog. If you'd like you can turn it up as loud as it can go... close your eyes... and sing your heart out!!!!!! I promise it will bless your heart!!!! :)

Interviews

I thought it might be fun to interview my treasures. Siah is four
and a half,

Hal is three and a half, and Reesie is not quite one and a half.
I love their little

voices and hearing the way that they think.
Even Reesie joined in the fun.

Hal wanted to do two interviews... Even though she seems a
bit shy in these videos,

the truth is that she always asks me to take pictures
and videos of her.

Hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed
making them. :)

(Don't forget to pause the music and the bottom of the page.)

Courage

Courage feels anything but natural to me. It takes that deep down, soul convincing push for me to jump into courage. If I'm convinced that I can't do something, it takes a huricane of conflicting thoughts to convince me otherwise.

My little Hal takes after me in the area of courage. When she was small she seemed anything but reserved. When she was 20 months she was willing to sleep on the top bunk, and climb to the top of the jungle gym at the park all by herself. But as she grows I can see fear trying to creep into her heart and her mind. She's intimidated by dogs, and steers away from anything that moves fast (like bikes, rides...). She's the kid that double checks her seatbelt and pulls on it a couple times just to make sure that it's tight enough to hold in her scrawny little body before the car starts to move.

Yesterday we went to Legoland California. (For free, thanks to Aunt Lisa! Thanks friend!) I know that my little Hal does not really care for the rides. I never make her go on anything but I try to encourage her to try. Because for her, a hurricane of encouragement is needed to convince her to jump into the unknown.

Siah on the other hand, has his own handful of reservations. He won't sleep on the top bunk. He won't climb to the top of the jungle gym. But without hesitation he'll march right up to the roller coaster, and ride in a seat next to a perfect stranger while Hal and I ride in the seat in front of him...

We slowly crept up that seemingly never-ending hill to the absurdly steep drop into speed, wind in our hair, and weightlessness in our stomachs. Hal was holding onto me for dear life. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. As we crossed over into our first drop, I looked back at Siah and he had his hands high up in the sky and the most priceless smile across his glowing face. At the bottom of the drop he was laughing his contagious belly laugh. I looked down at Hal. Her head was buried in my armpit and her eyes were squeezed shut. She had a death grip on my shirt.

She wasn't crying. She was enduring.

She had mustered up the courage to try.

When we got off the ride she said,
"Mama. I did it, but I was scared and I didn't like it. But I did it."

And Siah said,
"WOOOOOHOO!!!! I'm gonna tell Papa I rode that giant roller coaster!!!!"

That's what courage is.

Courage doesn't always guarantee the kind of outcome we want. Sometimes we come out on the other side belly-laughing and overflowing with exuberant joy. But equally as often we just need to be willing to practice courage, even if it doesn't end up being our favorite thing.

Yesterday I was overwhelmingly proud of both of my treasures! It was a monumental day of courage for both of them, even though the outcome was totally different for each of them.

I Got Prayed For... Yes I DID!!

Wednesday is the hardest day of the week for me. It is the only day of the week that we have to actually be somewhere by a certain time... And let me tell you that in my world of many small children, 9:30am seems to be impossibly early. When trying to get three toddlers dressed, let's just say that they often get slightly distracted and forget that they were supposed to be getting dressed... They walk in and out of their room about 80 times... they find a long lost toy under their bed and stop to examine it for several unnecessary minutes... They stop getting themselves dressed and ask off the wall questions that have nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish at the moment, which is GETTING DRESSED!! They are definitely NOT multi-taskers!!

SO... This past Wednesday... I was a bit perturbed at the fact that my little crew of treasures were ALL in complete LA-LA Land and hardly listening to a single word that I was saying. At the peak of my frustration, out of my mouth flew some very firm words, in a rather harsh tone.
Immediately everyone got quiet and magically began listening. We walked into the bathroom and little Hal confidently confronts me with...

"Mom." (she didn't even call me "Mama" like she usually does... she was serious and very straight forward.) "You speak in a harsh voice. That not kindness."

"You're right Hal. I'm sorry. Will you..."

(She interrupts me)"We need to pray for you Mom. You need God's help to speak in a kind way."

"O...."

(She interrupts again) "Dear God, thank you that Mama no speak in a harsh voice no more. Amen."

"Ok then. Thanks Hal."

She handled that well, don't you think? I guess you could say I got prayed for! And I am so stoked about it!!!! It might be true that my 3-year-old doesn't always listen when I am asking her to get dressed in the morning... But her prayer was evidence to me that she at least listens to the more important things... things like, knowing that our help comes from God, and we ALL need God's help, even (or should I say, especially) Mama needs God's help.

Woohoo!!!!!! Yipee!!! Hooray!!!! I got prayed for!!!!

Best Friends & Night Terrors

Siah has been struggling with being scared at night. He wakes up with these horrible night terrors and screams bloody murder until I come in and tell him to lay back down.

We tell him that if he wakes up scared, he can always pray.
We tell him that God is always with him and that there is nothing to be afraid of.
He doesn't watch scary movies.
He is pretty much never eposed to anything that I would define as scary...
But none the less, night after night he wakes up terrified...
usually it's some sort of animal crawling around in his bed.

But last night he slept all night! He asked me at breakfast this morning (like he does every morning)

"Did you sleep ok Mama?"
"Yes, I did buddy. Did you sleep ok?"
"Yeah"
"You didn't have any bad dreams, huh?"
"Nope! It's because I'm Halee's best friend, and Halee is my best friend, so I don't have to be afraid. That's why Siah no have bad dream." (He still speaks in the 3d person, which I absolutely love and am in NO hurry to weed out any time soon.)

Thank God for best friends! Why didn't I think of telling him that, I could have gotten a little more sleep these past few months!

Four Pirates & A Princess

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! FROM ALL OF US IN THE BIG HOUSE ON THE HILL!!!!

We LOVE Halloween around here... And we LOVE going ALL out when it comes to making Halloween a night full of memories for our kids AND for us!!!

Wanna know what I love about Halloween??????

1. I LOVE dressing up!!! One of the things that I absolutely love about my Joey is that he loves to dress up too!! And when he dresses up... He DRESSES UP! He goes all out!

2. I Love having the biggest, loudest, yummiest food, best candy, most spectacular "happy" haunted house PARTY with TONS of our favorite people ever!!!

3. I love blessing our trick or treat-ers with two giant handfuls of candy each!

4. I love playing pass the pumpkin with a bunch of crazy kids who've clearly had their fair share of candy!!!

5. I love watching two cute, grade-school boys working together to turn Miss Milly into a toilet paper mummy!

6. I love to hear our house bursting with laughter and good-conversation.

7. I LOVE taking any and every opportunity I can get to bring friends together, to enjoy our treasures, to devour delicious food, and to just plain have a great time!

Every year our whole family dresses alike... Two years ago we were all from the 50's... Last year we were four Hillbillies & a Tinkerbell ...

And this year...
We were four Pirates & a Princess!!!

The Fam...


Papa & Mama Pirate...

The Pink Princess...

Second Mate...

Peanut Pirate...

Cute Kiddos...

Trick or treating...



Games, Games, Games!!!

Friends!!!!

We built a giant Maze in our front room that each guest had to walk through in order to get to the party in our living room. I tried to video tape walking through the maze and all you can see on the video is black, black, and more black. So I guess you'll just have to use your imagination and trust me when I tell you that our men (Adam & Joey) made the best maze ever out of huge black trash bag sheets, tons of cardboard boxes and stuff from around our house.

It was another GREAT HALLOWEEN!!!
Can't waitl next year...