Budding photographer

I love giving Leo the camera. He hasn't learned yet how to play with the settings but seems to be learning is a good picture. He is actually pretty selective about what pictures he keeps. He will delete more pictures then I do. Here are two pictures He took of the girls.
Bekah

Anneliese

Favorite Children's Book

One of my favorite children's books was initially given to me by a former patient of mine that became a friend. She gave me

I Love You as Much

... - Laura Krauss Melmed when Leo was just a few weeks old. I read this book to Leo so much that by the time he was two and a half years old he could "read" the book from start to finish. It was one of my most precious memories from that time. He was so sick all the time then. Now I have started reading it to the girls. Leo came to me last night and asked for the book. I told him that it was in the girls room. He got a sad look on his face. Telling me he loved the book. So I patted my leg. My nearly 10 year old son crawled up in my lap and put his head against my shoulder as I recited the poem to him. He hugged me and told me thank you and gave me the biggest hug. He told me that is his favorite book and he loved me.

Moments like these are so precious to me.

Home Organization

For me it has never been an easy task. I am a pack rat to the core. I am a sentimental sap, nearly everything has meaning to me. Use to be one excuse or another, I was working full time and going to school full time; I was working 60 hours a week plus trying to get pregnant; then it was I was overwhelmed with this or that. I have tried several times to get things under control over the years. Sometimes with moderate success, sometimes without any success. Once again I am on the path to get things under control. I have also come to realize that this year I am JOYFUL GIVING to my family by doing keeping house. It isn't a chore I HAVE to do. Baby steps, one day at a time. Normally some say to start in the kitchen (the dishes and counters get cleaned don't worry) but I decided to start in the bedrooms and with the laundry rooms. With Brian and Nique's help all the laundry has been done, folded and actually put away. Getting laundry washed has not been an issue for us. It's been the folding and putting away. Once upon a time I had to go buy extra laundry baskets to hold all the clean laundry. Now there are empty laundry baskets because the laundry is put away. My room has been reclaimed as my room instead of the clean laundry hamper. WOOHOO. Caleb's job is to help put the laundry from the washer to the dry. it was cute the other day when he says, "wow, I wore that last night." It's a wonderful feeling as a mom and wife when Brian comes home with his PT gear and looks around the laundry room and doesn't want to just put it down on the ground so he puts it directly in the washer rather than create a new pile. I don't think in 17 years of marriage he has ever had that happen to him. God is really working on me, through my Bible study time and medication I am becoming the wife He truly wants me to be.

The next rooms to be tackled will be the living room and dining room with the school supplies.

Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

New Routines

over the past month we have tried instituting some new routines with both the boys and girls. About 3 weeks ago, we got the girls room reorganized, their toys are in bins and clothes put away. For me this has been a big thing. They would go into the room at nap time and just destroy it every time I turned around. So now we are giving them time at night to clean up and get everything back into the right bins. I have become almost OCD about the bins. For the first time in a while the girls aren't pulling every single toy out during nap time. They are even getting better about putting toys away when told to clean up. They are learning that toys have special places. After their nightly clean up, they get ready for bed and story time. We are reading Bible stories and saying prayers. I love hearing the girls say their nightly prayers in their precious 3 year old voices.

Bedtime has been a fight with the boys lately. We get them off to bed and then they like to talk forever. We have been battling this and hadn't found a way to get them to turn off the voice boxes. So we started thinking about it and the light bulb seem to just come on. They needed to have more quiet time earlier. Their room is now CLEAN too. I am so proud of them. They got their room clean and have managed to keep it clean for 2 weeks now. They are learning how to do small pick ups during the day and before bed. After the girls are in bed, it's time for the boys to have some mom and dad time and devotional time. This has really cut down on the talking in their room for hours after lights out. I hope that it continues.

I am looking forward to more peaceful evenings in the house.

a new venture

I decided to start another fun blog...
It will be somewhat hit and miss as the mood strikes me. One of my fun things I like to do is cook and bake. People are often asking what recipes I am using. Often I am searching for recipes online, using Pampered Chef or some experiment that I have concocted. So I created a new blog Just Add a Little of This It's nothing major just a little fun that I do.

Happy Resurrection Day

A day to celebrate a Risen Savior. A day for traditions and family.

Growing up we went to church on Sabbath and celebrated the resurrection but didn't do the worldly Easter bunny and Easter egg hunts and such. My maternal gramma would still send things to us from the Easter bunny. The first holiday after we had Leo we were in California close to my Gramma Shaw who was going through chemo. I drove over and picked her up so she could spend the weekend with us. We went to the grocery store and they had little egg shaped cakes that she liked and wanted to get for Leo. So we got them for the meal on Sunday. It was such a special weekend about to share both parts with our family. At the time we didn't know it but it would be her last Easter. I truly feel blessed to be able to spend it with her. When Leo was three, we started doing "Resurrection Rolls" to teach the kids about Jesus death and resurrection and the empty tomb. The boys look forward to them all year and now they are passing on the tradition to the girls. It was so heartwarming to hear Leo read the story to them this morning and them to tell them about the elements of the rolls. My prayer is that this time and memories stay with them and in their hearts their whole life. Our focus for the weekend is more Christ centered and less on the secular, but the candy is fun too.

Logic of a 3 year old

Anneliese comes inside.

She says, "my shoes are wet"

My reply, "because you were playing in the water"

Her reply, "no my shoes were playing in the water"

My reply, "because your feet were playing in the water"

Her replay "no just my shoes"

My reply, "Are the insides wet?"

Her reply, "no, just right there" and she points to the grooves on the bottom of the shoes. So therefore she couldn't wear the shoes today. LOL

SPRING

Ok for those of you in the south and west, you have been in the SPRING for weeks already. BUT us in the NORTH Spring has just barely arrived. Yesterday, it was a beautiful day in the low 50's so we went to a nice nearby park. The boys were having a blast swinging back and forth on a zip line. The girls were playing on the rocking horse type toys, sliding and and playing on the swings. I love seeing the smiles on their faces. God has truly blessed me.

Excuse the pic quality they are taken with my cell phone.