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?