Is it your time?

You already know how I feel about the ministry that Compassion does. Amazing.... Incredible.... Life changing! Remember THIS POST AND VIDEO?

Well, maybe it's your time to dive in, too.... pray about it.... if you are feeling stirred, I promise that you won't regret it. It will change your life to get involved. It will change your kids' lives, too (my boys love two little children on the other side of the globe!) It honestly is the best money that we spend each month!

My sister is participating in Christmas with Compassion this year and is looking for a sponsor for a precious little boy in Rwanda (she already sponsors other kiddos, too). He even has "Isaac" in his name.... so sweet! I'm praying for him, too, and I know that he needs some love and some help from the other side of the world.

His birthday is September 25, 2003.
His parents are sometimes employed as farmers.
There are 5 children in his family.
His favorite activities are soccer and running.
His performance in kindergarten is average.

"What more could you want for Christmas than to share the joy of sponsoring Irakoze and know you are helping him learn and develop physically, mentally and spiritually?"

Let me know if you're interested in learning more.... what a sweet little face!!! :)

No more Santa....

Aaron just said, "Well, since the tooth fairy isn't real, I don't think Santa is real either. But who eats the cookies and drinks the milk?"

Hmmm..... my response EVERY time, "Well, what do YOU think?"

Aaron: "You and Daddy. Um, he's not real...."

The end of the Santa era for Aaron.... we always have said that we'll answer directly if he ever asks directly.... the time has come at our house....

Does that mean HE can do the shopping to fill all the stockings this year?!?! :)

Today....

.... I am remembering again...

I love my boys...

.... REALLY, I do. But I also enjoy little breaks from my boys, too.... REALLY, I do.

Does that make me a bad mom to admit it? I am feeling some mommy guilt for admitting it. But REALLY.... truly, I think that it is healthy to get a little break from my kids once in awhile. I have precious, precious friends who really and truly do not like to be away from their kids.... EVER. That is not me.

I love my boys, REALLY, I do. BUT.... I am SO thankful to live close to family again and thankful for the fact that my boys are having a slumber party at Grandma and Grandpa's house for two nights.... REALLY, I am.

I will be more than happy to see them again tomorrow.... REALLY, I will. But for today, I am enjoying a little peace in my home.... REALLY, I am.

We're already excited....

.... about Toy Story 3 (well, I should correct myself.... Scott and I are excited.... we haven't told the boys about it because we would never hear the end of it UNTIL the movie actually comes out in theaters!) Check it out.... fun, fun!

Thankful Thursday...

Today, I am thankful...

... for way too many things to list here! I am a blessed woman.... and I am thankful that I had a day to set aside to focus on living life with a grateful heart! Attempting to live with gratitude every day!

Happy Thanksgiving! Much love!

Advent Conspiracy

Our family is a part of the conspiracy again this year.... wanna join us?!?! :)



Scott is preaching at Sonrise for the next four weeks on the conspiracy.... I'm excited to be challenged and inspired....

On my mind and in my heart....

This completely grips me....

See here.

Thankful Thursday....

Today, I am thankful....

1) That I have been able to dive right into a new MOPS group at our church. I really enjoyed it today.... great speaker.... great discussion group.... fun craft! And Isaac even did okay in childcare.... except, he said, "Those mean kids fight me." Ahh, the joys of a three year old learning how to SHARE! :)
2) For the new show, "The Middle". It cracks me up.... it's good to laugh!
3) To be close to family again!!! We had a fantastic day with Scott's parents on Saturday.... can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with my family next week! We even got a lunch date on Sunday after church because our kiddos were in the care of family! Such a blessing!

Just enjoying time together on a beautiful, sunny Saturday!

4) That Aaron seems to be settling into his new school just fine. And only one "behavior" call from the teacher so far! :)
5) That I get to go to WCC's Holiday Tea on Saturday and will be able to hear my dear friend, Angie, speak!!! I am thankful for the miracles that God has done in her life and in the life of her family.... can't wait to see, firsthand, how God uses her that day!!! I am also thankful that I was able to see Ang and Austin while they were at Lutheran for chemo on Monday. I sure love that sweet family! :)

Have a blessed day! Love you!

Encouragement for Today

"In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation" (Psalm 5:3).

I love the Psalms.... I love that they often give my soul words....

I am a blessed woman....

Flashback Friday....

Right after we moved, we were thrilled to enjoy the big "Harvest Fest" at our new church! The boys had a blast dressing up, getting candy, and playing the games, and L'il Miss Ellie slept through the entire thing!

The funniest moment of the day for me happened when a sweet lady said to Aaron, "Wow, you're a great COWBOY!" It looked like it took all of the Jesus he has in his sweet heart to not scream, "I beg your pardon?!?! I AM NOT a cowboy, WOMAN! I am INDIANA JONES!!!!!" He just smiled and said, "Thank you...." um, with a little (or a lot) of prompting from momma!!! :)

All three of our kiddos have put on this little orange attire for their first Halloween (yes, even though Isaac was born in MAY.... what a peanut he was AND is!)
And I'm pretty sure that I have a picture of all three of them with the hat falling down, too!

Thankful Thursday (a little late....)

Today, I am thankful....

1) That I am living with all HEALTHY PEOPLE!!!! HOORAH! PRAISE GOD! It's been nearly a month, but we are finally all healthy!!! While my entire family got nailed with a virus form of the crud, I got nailed with a bacteria version of the crud last Friday (as confirmed by blood tests.... praising God that they did rule out mono though!) So thankful for the antibiotics that I started on Monday and that I am ALMOST back to 100%, too, along with the rest of my clan!!!
2) That Scott has the opportunity to preach at Sonrise. He challenged, encouraged, and totally inspired me on Sunday.... if you have a little bit of time, check it out here. (We are God's Workmanship- Like it or not, 11/8/09). I don't think you'll regret it!
3) That my in-laws agreed to keep our 85 lb. chocolate lab, Ollie, while we live in an apartment (and my mom and dad will keep him when Tom and Kathy are gone on trips). I cannot imagine doing apartment living with that dog on top of all of this (he's very, ahem.... energetic.... to put it mildly!) With the options we found, we would have been in a TWO bedroom apt. with him since this one won't allow dogs that large. YIKES!!!!!! I would have needed to turn in my SANITY CARD if that had been the case!
4) That Aaron's bus goes straight from our neighborhood to the school.... and that he is the first stop after school, too.
5) That God cares for us and that selling our house in NY is HIS problem and not ours.... and the last time I checked, His shoulders are MIGHTY BIG ENOUGH to handle it!!! I am choosing to not be anxious about all of that and know that He will continue to provide faithfully as He has always done! :)

Hope that you have a blessed day and a fabulous weekend! Much love!

Lovin' my Creator....

Whew! My friend, Lisa, posted this, and it was JUST WHAT I NEEDED this morning.... perspective. It's ALL ABOUT HIM.... I'm havin' a little praise inside these four walls this morning!!!!



"In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning, I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation" (Psalm 5:3).

Guess who....

.... turned two months old today?!! Ahh shucks, you guys are TOO smart! :) I know that every parent says this.... but where does the time go?!? REALLY?!? We are totally soaking it all up and enjoying our sweet little darlin'!

At two months, Ellie....

* Continues to look SO much like her big brothers (except with brown hair)!
* Is SO close to cooing.... sometimes, she just LOOKS like she wants to have a conversation! I have a feeling that from the day she speaks a word, it will be NONSTOP from there on out!
* Is still SO STRONG! Whenever we hold her on our chests, she will not snuggle in and lay down; she's too busy looking up and looking around (of course, those big brothers of hers give her PLENTY to watch!)
* Generally takes one of her longer naps of the day in her swing.
* Has decided that she doesn't like her bouncy seat. Boo!
* Still doesn't like her carseat either. Boo again!
* Has the cutest little bald spot on the back of her itty-bitty head!
* Had her first bottle last week and did pretty well. Hoorah... that could mean a date night for Scott and Deanna in the near future!!! :)
* Sleeps every night swaddled in her "Miracle Blanket", snuggled in between a baby sleep positioning wedge! Loving those inventions! Marvelous!
* Is still a bit unpredictable when it comes to sleep though. Some nights, she still wakes up and want to eat every 3 to 4 hours but has actually gone 9 hours a few nights, too!
* Has stayed in the nursery twice.... did just fine once and mommy had to be paged once because she decided she was hungry!
* Is very passionate about Mylicon drops! Her tummy is definitely a tender one!
* Is still totally adored by her big brothers without an ounce of jealousy from them! She is certainly adored by her mommy and daddy, too!

Don't ya just love how hard Aaron is working to settle her down? So sweet.... I love seeing my rough and tumble firstborn SO tender....

I wish you could all hear Isaac exclaim, in a precious, high-pitched voice, "Hi, Ellie-girl!" Now, if I could just convince the boys that she could see them better if they weren't two inches from her nose!!!

Goodbye NY!

We paused for a minute to take one last family picture with our home before we pulled out and headed west on Monday, October 26th (we were ready to roll, as evidenced by the back of our van and the closed trailer!)

If you have a minute, can I ask you to please pray that our home in NY sells soon? We loved this home.... and more importantly, we loved our neighborhood.... but to be quite frank, we don't want this house anymore (I wish that we could have brought our neighbors with us to Indiana though!) Our first open house is happening tomorrow.... yep, prayers appreciated! :)

A little flashback....

... because I finally found my USB cord after the move and can actually download pictures!!!

Two weeks ago at this point, I was actually driving home from Buffalo Children's Hospital with our sweet Ellie. That originally would have been our moving day, but life just worked out differently. This was a scary time for me.... feeling pretty alone at points because Scott couldn't visit because he was at home sick (with two sick little boys, too).... but was thankful for visits from my mom and dad once they came into town to help with the move.... and even more grateful to take a recovering baby HOME with me! I was thankful to be able to take a few pictures so that Scott could picture where his little girl was hanging out....

This was actually a thrilling moment for me as a mommy because my itty bitty was getting her PASSIONATE cry back! When we got to the ER on Thursday, she was very lethargic and had a whimper.... she just wasn't herself and just didn't feel good.
Isn't she tiny?! For part of our hospital stay, she was on more of an adolescent wing.... the nurses seemed to love attending to such a sweet, itty bitty!Right before we went home! I was totally rejoicing because my girl was getting her smile back!!!

My mom and I said that Ellie was making a fashion statement in her "lovely", orangy-peachy hospital gown!Thanks so much to everyone who prayed for our precious Ellie!

Thankful Thursday...

Today, I am thankful....

1) For healthy children. Now granted, Isaac spiked a fever of 103.5 yesterday and a low grade fever was still hanging on this morning.... BUT, for the most part, they are healthy! It was at this time two weeks ago that I was sitting in the ER of Buffalo Children's Hospital with Ellie, waiting for them to admit her. It was on this very night that I laid up all night, watching the oxygen saturation number on her little monitor dropping and while it never got at a scary, scary level, as I watched it slowly going down from one number to the next, I had an awful pit in my stomach, just thinking, "I don't know when it is going to stop and I have absolutely no control right now...." (it didn't help that I had seen a segment on CNN that day about the number of people who had already died from H1N1. Darn media hype....) Today, I am thankful that God chose to heal my children. That visit to the hospital grew my heart immensely for children and their families who deal or have dealt with the hospital as a regular part of life.... to those of you whom I know read this blog occasionally, you are my HEROES and I love you (Angie, Krista L, Katie, Brittany.....)
2) To friends and family members who helped us with the move! Thank you! A huge shout out to my parents who absolutely went ABOVE AND BEYOND.... spending two weekends in NY helping us pack.... pulling a trailer out both times.... and continued to remain patient with this crazy family in the midst of an enormously stressful time!
3) That we found a three bedroom apartment to stay in until our house sells in NY! We were just about to sign a lease for a two bedroom because that is all that we could find.... now that I'm living in a three bedroom and still can't figure out where to put all of our stuff (and children!), I am HUGELY thankful that we are not in the smaller TWO bedroom!
4) For the amazing meals that we've had over the past two months! We had some amazing women who brought us fantastic meals in NY after we had Ellie.... and to help in the transition, some amazing women at Sonrise Church have been bringing us meals now, too! The other night when Aaron got home from school, he said, "Hey mom, who is bringing us dinner tonight?!" to which I replied, "Mommy actually cooked!" His underwhelming response: "Oh....."
5) For an amazing new ministry and opportunity for Scott and our family! Sunday was our first one at Sonrise.... and we just felt at "home". It was good.... really, really good. Scott is preaching this Sunday.... and it will feel good to listen.... really, really good....