conversation with Brooklynn...

B: when I grow up can I be a mommy?
M: yes, if you want to
B: but I have to get married first...
M: yes
B: how do I get married?
M: you will meet a boy, learn to love him, and then decide to get married
B: and then I can be a mommy?
M: yes

Suddenly her face got really sad and she paused a little...

B: but are you and daddy going to die?
M: someday, but hopefully we will be around for a long time and be able to see all your babies grow up... is that something you think about?
B: yes, sometimes
M: does it scare you?
B: yes, I want to see you all the time


Brooklynn is growing a lot in her intellect. It is clear that she is processing the "real" things of life a lot more. Sometimes it brings up hard conversations that I really don't know how to react to. I guess this is just one of the next steps in parenting. It really is the hardest job in the world!! I want to protect her, but tell her the truth. I can't shelter her into thinking everything about life is great when there are hard times. I guess that I have to trust that what we teach her everyday through word and action will be enough to meet her needs.

quiet...

So, I have been quiet lately. Don't really know why. I just haven't had any desire to blog. We've been busy...

Jay and I went to Hawaii and had a wonderful time. It was really good for us to spend some time together without the kids... we were able to have a full conversation without being interrupted over and over!! We rested a lot, went to the beach, took walks and went to a luau. It was very nice.


Kendall is finally potty trained!!!! This was very challenging and tried my patience every day. I began to notice that when I would let her wear underwear at home, she would do better. I thought she liked the responsibility. If I put her in a pull-up she would just go in her pants and not care. So I started to let her leave the house in her panties and she has done great. We only had one accident at church... bless those nursery workers, and now she is doing very well with it. I am so proud of her!!

We have been sick this week. Colds... I hate them. All three of the girls and myself have been sick. Jay has been able to avoid it so far, which is good since he has to leave everyday for work. Hopefully we will get past this soon. Never fun.

Last, but definitely not least, just this week we are sharing the news that we are expecting another baby. We are so excited. I am 11 weeks along. I feel like we are a little crazy as we will have four kids in five years, but we are truly blessed. I have been very tired and a little sick, but hopefully some of that will pass as I am almost into my second trimester. Crazy as it may sound, this was planned and we can't wait to meet him or her... Jay says "him"... we'll see! I am due June 24.

I will try to keep up with this a little better.

Water for Christmas...

What an idea?

A movement is coming... to bring clean water to the whole world.

Did you know that 4500 children die everyday because of the water they have to drink? The same water that brings them life, brings them death.

We can do something about it.

Americans spend 450 billion dollars during the Christmas season... it would cost 10 billion to give the whole world clean water for the next 20 years. Is that not amazing? If we all sacrifice a small amount this year, we can bring clean water to the world.

Jody over at http://jodyrlanders.com/ is launching a cry for help. Please check this out and see how you can play a part. Her passion is evident for this cause and would greatly appreciate any thoughts, ideas and action to help accomplish this. Scroll down her blog to the post called "water" and then read up from there to get caught up.

Together we can work to accomplish this great goal. Please check it out.

I've been tagged...

I was tagged by another blog a while ago to share seven things that are interesting of not well known about me. I have been struggling with this, but decided to finally give it a shot.

1. I am not much of a night person. I prefer my mornings. I can get grumpy at night and just want to be left alone and allowed to sleep.

2. I absolutely love planning events and such, but often times am too lazy to actually do it. It's amazing that you can be lazy to do something that you love, but that's what I do.

3. I have always dreamed of going to Israel. I think it would be amazing to walk where Jesus did and see the history of my faith in real life. It would make the Bible stories come alive even more.

4. When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet... now I really don't like animals ( I will not use the word hate here and I am sure I would get many complaints)... sorry Shawn and Amber. Jay finally talked me into getting a dog, who I am putting up with, but don't really love.

5. I pre-wash my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Don't really know why, just the way I have always done it. You would think that if I am too lazy to do something I love (#2) that I would definitely be too lazy to do something I don't really enjoy, but that's not the case.

6. I have a huge sweet tooth. It is a blessing that I get that sick feeling after having too much sugar, otherwise, I would eat sweets, breakfast, lunch and dinner and then be very ill and about 400 pounds.

7. I am not into sports. I wish I was, but never had interest as a kid. Then when I was older and had a little interest... all the other kids were so much better than I was that I never gave it a try. I would love to be more athletic, but as my husband so gently says it "I can't walk and chew bubble gum at the same time", I don't think I am really cut out for it.

So that's me in seven little points. I would love to hear what anyone else has to say about them, so... I tag anyone who reads this blog.

Big savings...

The last two months I have been learning a lot from a friend of mine about saving money through coupons and tracking sales. I have been getting better and better at it. When I first started I was saving between 12% and 15 % just by hitting sales and with my couple coupons.

Now I am up to about 35% - 40% savings every week. My friend Amy saves between 70% and 90% every week. This is my goal, but I am still learning. Today I ran out to get a few things that I forgot to bring coupons for yesterday when I went grocery shopping. Above is what I got.

Toilet paper: sale $.99, coupon $.50 off, doubled means FREE

Energized batteries: sale 5 for $10 or $2 a piece. I had $1 off coupons and then there was an instant rebate sticker for $1 on each of them... FREE

Halls cough drops: sale 4 for $5 or $1.25 a piece. I had a coupon for $.50 off, doubled is $1 off. Total... $.25 each.

You still have to pay the sales tax on everything, but my total was $21.02 and I walked out paying $1.40. I am very excited!!!

what a mess!!

This was Brooklynn's room after she thought she was "done" cleaning it! Nice try Sweetie!!

Here we come...

Hawaii, here we come, that is!!

Jay and I are planning to go to Hawaii in just a couple weeks. I can't wait! He has a business trip down there for a whole week. I'm coming toward the end of his week and then we are staying for three more days after he is done working!! The only things we have to pay for is my airfare and two nights of hotel. Jay's company is covering the other nights and his airfare as well as a rental car, so it's a pretty cheap trip to Hawaii.

He gets to be there for 10 days... me, only 5, but I don't have to do any work while there!!

A few months after we were married we took a trip to Branson, Missouri. It was fun, but the next youngest people in the whole city were about 65! We haven't been on a trip/ vacation since then except to visit family. It's going to be great.

My parents are coming up to stay with the kids. Gotta love grandparents!! Thank you mom and dad... you will never know how much this means to us!

Introducing...

Joel Robert Sippy
Born: Oct. 17,2008
8 lbs 7 oz

My sister, Julie, had her baby this weekend. Here are a few pictures. We are so excited for them.

Baby Joel


Kendall and Joel

First cousin picture!!

pumpkin patch

This morning I took the kids to the pumpkin patch with my MOMS group. It was a lot of fun. They loved trying to get through the corn maze... which really was hard. It was 20 acres of corn!!
Anyway, here are a few pictures.

adoption

For awhile now, Jay and I have been praying about adoption. We still don't know exactly where or when the Lord is leading, but we are trying to get educated and allow our hearts to be open to whatever He may have for us.

On November 22 we will be attending a meeting in Colorado Springs about adoption and the foster care system. Focus on the Family has a mission to unite the Colorado churches and provide homes to all the children in the foster system that are able to be adopted. What an amazing mission. We are called to take care of the orphans and widows. What an amazing example of Christ's love this would be!! I would hope that it would only be the beginning and that other states would follow. We have so many great families that could change these precious children's lives and offer them a future that they may never otherwise know.

Here is a link to the invitation to the event. I would encourage any of you who live in the area to pray about attending and passing the news along to others who may be interested.

http://www.icareaboutorphans.org/Default.aspx?Menu=8&Article=24

Please be in prayer for us as we are not sure this is what the Lord has for us right now... maybe, maybe not. We want to be open to wherever He leads. Pray that we will hear His voice clearly and know beyond a shadow of a doubt what He wants us to do.

our tree

We had a huge tree in our backyard that we had taken down last week. We have a fairly small yard and it took up a lot of it. It was also having its roots come up all over the yard, making it hard to mow or even walk across the grass... so we decided to get rid of it. Here are a few pictures. It was neat to watch as the guy had to climb to the top and drop the limbs with rope. The girls loved watching!!
Before: Sorry, I don't know how to turn it, but this is from our deck which is on the second story.

All the mess down in our yard.

After. It looks so different... good in some ways, bad in others.

Kendall's new song...

I heard Kendall singing a song and couldn't believe what I was hearing!

"Jesus, you're a monkey, Jesus, you're a monkey..." over and over again.

I asked her if she was really saying that and she confirmed that she was in fact calling our Savior a monkey.

Brooklynn then came up and explained that Kendall was trying to sing, "Jesus, you are my king, Jesus, you are my king."

That makes so much more sense!!

reunion

Last night was my 10 year high school reunion. It was so much fun!! We met at the Warehouse restaurant downtown Colorado Springs to have dinner and were there for 5 hours. Everyone was talking and it wasn't awkward at all... I was a little nervous about that before hand. It was fun to see where everyone has been in the last 10 years and how they all have changed. Here are some pictures of the night...

Me and my hubby!!

Katie, Sarah, Andrea, Kris and me... good friends from high school. I still keep in touch with these girls.

Andrea, me, Kris, Amber, Sarah



Kris, Andrea, me

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. We are planning to get together on Saturday since that is my birthday to celebrate together. Yes, I was her amazing birthday gift so many years ago!!
Anyway, Mom, I hope you have a great day today. I love you.

hair cuts

We decided to get Brooklynn's hair cut. This was her first hair cut in all her life!! She looks so cute and I think she aged a couple years because of it! I love it!
Before:
After:
We did also get a trim on Kendall's hair but you cannot even tell at all.

heavy heart...

You know those times when you feel the Lord is trying to lead you in some direction, but you aren't sure of it? That's where I am right now. There are no words... I struggle with knowing if it is truly God talking to my heart or me feeling certain things and thinking certain thoughts just because of influences in my life. I don't know if any of this is making sense... my heart is just heavy, feeling lead in a direction... a little confused... a little scared... a little excited... a little of everything.

Don't you wish God would just write his directions on the wall, or let a little book fall out of heaven that has step by step directions for your life... oh wait, he kind-of already did that. I guess I need to spend a little more time there! But you know what I mean, something that would make everything so clear, you wouldn't have to even think... I guess that would build no faith. It would just be easier though.

"Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. " James 1:2-5

So I guess my faith is being tested, I should be thankful for the perseverance that I am gaining. That is so much easier said than done...

Again, don't know that any of this makes any sense, I just had to get a little off my chest.

Our new niece!!

Jay sister had her baby early this morning. They named her Addyson Mae. We are so excited for them especially as this is their first and they tried so hard to get pregnant. She was 8 lbs 12 oz. and 20 in. long. We love you already Addyson and can't wait to meet you!!

Brooklynn's first day of school...

Today was Brooklynn's first day of preschool. She will be going three days a week. She was very excited about it and had a great time. She is extremely shy, and last year she barely even spoke to her teacher the whole year, so this year I asked her to make an effort to talk to her teacher and she said she did today! I was excited to hear that. I pray that she will make a good friend there. Here are a few pictures before her big day as well as some random ones from the day.




For those of you who don't know... Jay is addicted to video games... he is teaching his children young to have the same passion. They all have controllers in their laps!

I know....

ok, I know I am going a little crazy with the blogs right now, but I just got some pictures that my parents took from last weekend when they had the kids. They took them to the North Pole, which for those of you who don't know this, is an amusement park for kids. I remember my mom taking me there all the time growing up. I have many great memories there. They have little kiddy rides, but they also have rides for bigger kids. Brooklynn and Kendall loved all the rides! I was very impressed that they went on the big ones. They had so much fun and haven't stopped talking about it. Here are a few pictures:

yes, I copied this idea...

I read on a fellow blogger's site that she takes her kids out for a date and buys school supplies with them. I thought it was a great idea so... I copied it.
Brooklynn starts preschool tomorrow. This last Thursday was her open house at her school. She and I went to the open house and met her teacher and saw her classroom. She was very quiet and shy, but was very excited once we got back in the car and it was just me and her. We then went out for ice cream and then to Target to buy her supplies. It was very nice as we rarely have time for just us.

Happy birthday Kendall!!

I can't believe my little girl is three years old! Her birthday was on Thursday, but we pretended it was on Friday. Does that make us terrible parents?! We were planning a little party on Friday for her and felt that she wasn't really old enough to understand that "your birthday is today, but we are celebrating tomorrow, so you don't get cake, your favorite meal or presents until then..." We just thought it easier to lie! We are terrible!!
(sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate it!)

She had a great time. My parents and my sister and her husband came over. We stayed home and kept it small, but she loved having all the attention on her. Earlier in the week I had told her that I would make whatever she wanted for dinner that night and she chose mac and cheese. That was it. So we had that and we grilled burgers as I thought mac and cheese may not be enough for the rest of us!

For those of you who know my children... it is impossible to find pants that fit. She got three pairs of jeans and none of them fit! I need to return them all. I hate dressing my kids in the winter!! She did get many other nice presents though.

We had an ice-cream cake at her request. It was really yummy!

kids rooms

My parents took Brooklynn and Kendall for the weekend. We decided to fix up their room while they were gone and surprise them. We worked really hard, but finished both rooms in two days... and Jay had a kidney stone during that time so we were at the hospital for a good portion of that. Here are some before and after photos.
Kendall's room before... we had already moved the furniture.
Kendall's room after. It's a light purple with monkey's on the walls. We have no idea why, but the girl loves monkeys!!

Brooklynn's room before.
Brooklynn's room after. She loves pink and there are a few decorations that say princess and stuff... she is our girly girl.

friday...

This morning I took the girls on a field trip with my MOMS group to the fire station. It was fun to see the trucks up close and have the firefighters teach us about fire safety. The girls enjoyed it, but I was not able to get any really good pictures so I don't really have any to post.... sorry.

On the way home I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things I needed to make some banana bread this afternoon. Anyway, When we got in the store Kendall wanted to ride in one of the carts that looks like a car, but they were all being used. This was the start of the temper tantrum... about 5 feet inside the store. She started screaming and stomping her feet to I put her in the cart where she continued to scream as loud as she possibly could, through the store, in the check out line and all the way home. I was so embarrassed! I think this the the third time my children have ever acted out in public and it is so humiliating. To make matters worse, when I was trying to get the three kids and groceries loaded in the car, I accidentally pushed my alarm button on my key and my van was beeping loudly though the parking lot!! I drove away with my head down just praying no one would recognize me.

teaching my children to speak nice words...

Today I heard Kendall saying "freakin" a lot. I don't know exactly where she got it from. So I had both her and Brooklynn come to me and I told them that we may hear some words from people around us, but there are some things that we don't say and explained to them that freakin was one of those words and that I did not want to hear it from them again.

Kendall says to me, " Satan says bad words like that, not Jesus and we want to be like Jesus so we don't talk like that... and we don't like Satan 'cause he is really bad and so we don't talk to him at all... we only talk to Jesus... he loves us and is good... so we don't talk like that or to Satan.... only to Jesus..."

This went on for about five minutes. She babbled about it for awhile until she was proud of herself and felt that she had gotten her point across about 50 times! Where they get this stuff is beyond me!!

zucchini bread

Today I made zucchini bread. I love zucchini bread, but haven't made it since last summer. I decided to try something new today to see if the kids would like it. I added more zucchini than called for, added shredded carrots, used apple sauce instead of oil and put some ground flax seed in as well. It turned out really good and the kids love it. They treat it like it is cake and don't even realize that it has a lot of nutrition as well. Next time I think I am going to try it with whole wheat flour too. I think I am going to make a few loaves and freeze them for the winter months. This is how it turned out. Yummy!!

VBS

Well, we just finished our week of VBS. Brooklynn went last year, but this was Kendall's first year. They both loved it! We started the week with about 400 kids and finished today with 547! It was crazy!! The girls learned many songs and games thoughout the week. We were able to get a CD of the songs sung this week and it is just so precious to hear them singing their hearts out in the car! One song yells "Hey, Jesus Loves Me!, Hey, Jesus Loves Me!" I look at Brooklynn who sings it as loud as she can and with as much passion that her little four year old voice can hold and it reminds me of the simple truth that Jesus loves me! I think about all the times I talk about Jesus' love with my children and wonder if I am portraying the same passion about it as they do to me. It seems that us as adults seem to focus on the larger issues and it is so important to be reminded of simple truths of God. So, that is what I learned, or was reminded of of today by my four year old! Jesus loves me!

blessed

I am not sure why but tonight I am feeling very blessed. Nothing special happened today... nothing great or out of the ordinary, but in my heart I am feeling very content. The Lord has blessed me with so much that I take for granted most of the time.
There are days that I feel overwhelmed, but when I really look at it...

I am blessed.

I have three amazing children. They all have sweet spirits and already are having a longing to know Jesus more. They have all been healthy. Our greatest scare medically has been the flu or small scrapes.

I am blessed.

I have a great husband who supports and loves me even at my ugliest times. He understands my moods and how to deal with me. He encourages me every day and I never have to question his love for me.

I am blessed.

Most importantly, I have an amazing Heavenly Father who cares for me more than I will ever know. He has been leading me on a path for so many years and is now calling me into His presence in new ways. He is never changing, but shows new sides of Himself to me all the time. He is my comfort, my encourager, my passion, my love, my guidance and so much more. He brings so many blessings into my life and even though the hard times He is faithful to all His traits.

I am blessed.

missing my girl...

Sometimes I don't understand myself... there are many days that I wish I could have a baby sitter take the kids for awhile, even just one of them, just so I could have a little break. This weekend my parents took Brooklynn camping. She just left this morning and will not be back until Monday. I cried a little as we left and I miss her like crazy. It has only been about six hours. How is this any different than if I were to have a sitter for the day. I know that wouldn't bother me. I know she is going to have so much fun. They are taking her hiking and fishing and she is so excited to sleep in a tent. I just miss her!! Am I crazy?

our puppy

We decided to get our puppy shaved yesterday. He has longer hair and we wanted him to be a little cooler for the rest of the summer. He looks like a completely different dog! I couldn't believe it was him when I went to go pick him up.

Before:




After:

roller skating

Yesterday I took the girls roller skating. It was the first time either of them had ever been and they loved it! The rink near our house does a pee-wee class on Thursday mornings so it was only for kids 2-6 years old which was very nice. I didn't have to worry about some big kids flying by them. They were a little nervous, but did great.

new sleeping bags

We recently bought the girls new sleeping bags to use camping. They were having a blast playing in them. It was really funny to watch!!

boulder trip

Last weekend we took a day trip to Boulder. Jay had never been there before and I had only been there once many years ago. We had a great time.

We ate at a little local bistro.
















After lunch we tried to go to the Boulder Falls, but they were closed because they were fixing the railings. So we got as close as we could. The girls still loved to see the water.










That night the girls were extremely tired and this is how I found Kendall sleeping... in her closet!!













Over all we had a great day. It was Jay's last day off before having to return to work so we thought we should do something special.

walmart

Today was Jay's first day back at work. It is a little adjustment since he has been at home for the last two months now. I think his day is going okay so far! My day has been a little different. I was a little ready for him to go back to work simply because when he is at home I get out of my routine and don't keep up with things around the house. I am anxious to get back in routine and feel like I am on top of things again.
This morning I took the kids to Walmart to do our grocery shopping. I usually take all three of them with me, but the last couple months I had Jay at home at all times and could leave them here, so it was like a new experience again. So here's how it went... Brooklynn and Kendall were very whiny, about half way though they both had to go to the bathroom. This is a very difficult task as I have to hold Morgann, help them on the potty and put my hand over the automatic flush sensor since they are both scared of it. All while trying to make sure that none of them are touching anything as I think public bathrooms are completely disgusting! So after that ordeal we go back to shopping. I was pushing the cart and somehow Kendall's foot gets under the wheel. It scratched all her toes and pulled part of a nail off. That's when the screaming began. She cried and cried. After a little bit I decided that I needed to get going as fast as I could as I could sense more meltdowns were coming my way. So I carried her the rest of the time in the store while pushing the cart. This is difficult to push with one hand when the cart is full and there is a one year old in the front who decided she is done. Morgann kept standing up in the seat in the front. I would have to stop to push her back down (with my one available hand) and then go again only to have her standing up again within a couple seconds. Oh the joys! Needless to say, we made it home alive and well. I miss my husband!! I may need to figure out a new plan for shopping from now on!!

These last few weeks...

So I know I have been slacking on this whole blog thing. These past couple weeks have been crazy. June 28th was Morgann's first birthday. I can't believe she is one already. I don't know where the time goes. I think each kid goes faster than the last! We had a little party at our house with some friends and family. It was nice and she really enjoyed her cake!!
The next day we left to go to a family reunion in Ohio. We were there for a week and had a great time. The kids went swimming all week long. Brooklynn and Kendall have spent very little time in water so they were a little timid at the beginning of the week, but by the end they were jumping off the diving board all by themselves!! It was so fun to see them enjoying it and we look forward to swimming more here now.


This is Brooklynn (far right), Kendall (middle), and Kaiden (cousin) playing in the water.

On the fourth of July my Aunt in Wisconsin went to check on my Grandpa and found him laying the garage. He had passed away. We think he died on Thursday the 3rd and was there for almost 24 hours before being found. It was really sad. We were still in Ohio when this happened so I flew home that Sunday night with my family and then the next morning Morgann and I flew out again to go to Wisconsin. This was last week. We were there for a few days and went to the funeral. It was a very sad time, but also a nice time to see family that I haven't seen in many years. My Grandpa's funeral was at the most amazing church.

Here are some pictures of my extended family. I hadn't seen most of these people in about 7 years.