Ok...well it had been 3 weeks...

I started my previous post on the 19th....it's now about 45 minutes away from being the 28th. Geez! Where did April go. Hopefully, it won't take me another 9 days to catch up on the last 2 weeks. Here goes...(no wonder I titled this blog the way I did!

We spent the week following Easter getting ready for family and most importantly, Molly's 3rd birthday party!!! Before we hit on the birthday though a few other things happened that week that I need to take note of so that a few years down the road I still remember them.

First, Tuesday the 14th, I was looking forward to getting my haircut. I was supposed to go on Good Friday and get it cut, but since my hubby stayed home the Monday before b/c I was sick he couldn't take Friday off as well so.....by that next Tuesday, I was really ready to just sit down and have a nice long chat with the wonderful woman who cuts my hair. Earlier in the day Molly had found a quarter and took it to Max's school to show him. When we got out of the car to go pick him up, Molly said that she wanted a coin to give to Max and surprise him. So I found a nickel and gave it to her. She presented it to him as soon as we walked into the classroom. He was excited and they both held onto their respective coins for the remainder of the day. Aaron got home that afternoon and I said good-bye to everyone and raced out to the car to go and relax and get my haircut. For some reason I came back into the house. I have no idea why, but I ran upstairs (maybe I was looking for a cd) and then came back downstairs ready to head out again. I look over at Max and he is sitting on the floor crying and there is a little pile of vomit in front of him. I ask him if he is alright? If he feels sick? He suddenly cries out, "my money, my money." I looked at him, with huge eyes I'm sure, and say, "Did you swallow your coin?" He nods his head and says, "Hm Hmmm". Yes. Yes, he did. I, of course, freak. Then I am a bit annoyed b/c why can't I just get out the door and get my haircut. I did. Aaron called the nurse at the hospital (b/c of course my kids do these things after 5 pm). She said don't worry about it. He'll pass it in a few days. Well, Thursday came. Max went. I got myself some plastic bags around my hands up to my elbows and two of the jumbo popscicle sticks from our craft box. Of course...no nickel. On Friday, I called the doctor office b/c the girl at the hospital said 2-3 days or we need an x-ray. I didn't want him going the entire weekend if I needed to be getting him an xray. The nurse at the doctor office said it could take up to 2 weeks. Excuse me? I really have to get my plastic bags and jumbo popscicle sticks out for up to 2 weeks???? To be continued.

So still on Thursday...before sporting the plastic bag hands....I finally told Molly that we are going to get Maggie's photo done. I decided I was just going to go to Walmart and get a picture taken of her so that I didn't completely neglect the 3rd child. Max & Molly have pics at 6 wks, 3, 6, 9, 12, maybe 15, and 18 months....Maggie has only a photo of when she was 4 months hanging on the wall. I wanted to get it done at 9 months and ended up getting it taken 4 days shy of her 10 month b'day. Oh well. Anyhow, the girl takes a few cute shots of Maggie, but nothing with a great smile. Everything this poor girls was doing was making Molly and me laugh like crazy. Maggie...not so much. They did some shots of her sitting up and then had her lay on her belly. Molly started hanging out with the photographer and making Maggie laugh. She got a great pic of her. I turned to look at it on the screen. Turned back. Maggie had crawled right off the platform. Oh I felt awful. She was screamin and a hollerin. I was standing right next to that platform. I will never scoff at all of the signs they have posted about watching your kid at all times again. She got over it and we were done take pictures. We sat down in front of the computer and looked over the ones she had taken. My sweet baby girl started waving to herself. She was so sweet with that little hand just a wavin and a big crocodile tear coming down her cheek.

Alright...back to the birthday celebration.

She was so excited. She got a few cards early in the week and on Thursday she got 2 packages in the mail. First, was a cute little animal hospital from my dear friend, Amanda. Molly loves carrying it around on her shoulder and then stopping whereever she pleases to tend to her animals. It's a wonderful gift. It came with all sorts of vet "tools" and a little dog (that Molly named Spots). Max and her spent about an hour straight playing with it. They decided to put it up for a while when Maggie started chewing on the bones. Even Maggie loved it. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't grab Max's puppy through the "window".

About two hours after Spots arrived, the doorbell rang again. This time there was a package from Aunt Sheri and Uncle Mike. There is a reason I get worried when presents come from there house. This dear friend of mine feels the need to send packing peanuts with EVERY gift...she could be mailing toilet paper to my children and she would still send in packed in peanuts or some kind of confetti that is ready to shoot out at me. I feel as if I should learn with every envelope and/or package that arrives on my front stoop. I really think that I make the honest effort to get that stuff out of my children's reach as soon as possible. However....

I think that they have inspector gadget arms and legs when their momma is not looking. It's ridiculous!!! Nevertheless....

Molly got a fabulous writing tablet from them. She forbids Max from using any of it. She LOVES practicing her writing. I'm so happy she loves doing it and doesn't get frustrated easily (with her handwriting at least.) She also received a guinea pig from Aunt Sheri and Uncle Mike. She named her Sally and was all to excited and ready to take her to her new animal hospital.

Friday we were up early getting ready for the big day. Nana, Aunt Stephy, Nick and Zachary were all on their way. We got the house all cleaned up, meals taken care of, baths done and then the door bell rang. Some good friends stopped by a few hours before the party to bring Molly her gifts and to visit for a little while. They brought her God's Little Princess Bible. I love it and so does Molly. She loves flipping through it and then I sit and read her a few of the stories from it. If you have a little girl in your life that you get gifts for, I definitely recommend that Bible.

We had Molly's party at the park and it ended up being a perfect day for it all. She had two little boys come to her party. Several weeks back, Molly had said that she only wanted girls at her party. When I told her that the two people she was really excited about having were boys, she decided to change her mind so that the boys could come too!



The next day was Molly's actual birthday. The boys awoke to give Molly birthday kisses. (Yes, they had a slumber party here the first night...I think they all finally ended up going to bed around 11:30...yikes!) We went to a community celebration down at the park and enjoyed construction trucks, 4 wheelers, fire trucks, inflatables, freezy pops from the concession. Then it was time for a rest. We headed back to the house for a bit of a rest before heading out and grilling at the state park. There we gave Molly her scooter from her Mommy and Daddy. She loved it and I was so happy. She just kept saying, "It's just what I wanted. I am going practice." And she would. SOOOOOO slowly. She's getting the hang of it though. I want her to always have joy in the little stuff.

Sunday morning we headed to church. I was a little nervous about the boys going with Max & Molly. Zachary did end up staying with us and slept on Aaron the entire church service. He looked very sweet. Nick walked right in to children's church with Max and Aaron. Max was the one that Aaron had to peel off his leg. After church we took the clan to Wendy's, home for another rest and then to the hotel for a nice long swim. The kids had a blast swimming. I can't wait to see them all on our camping trip. We went back to the house to have dinner and watch Bolt. We said our good-byes before they headed back to the hotel and out early the next morning.

Monday, Aaron left us for a business trip. The kids and I enjoyed some fun alone time and got all outfits ready for the entire week before heading out and getting mommy a few chick flicks to watch while daddy was out of town. The kids and I played most of the afternoon, then had a fun kid dinner, then baths. Finally we were ready to get out the door to go and pick up a movie for momma (and have the car ride lull them to sleep). Max and Molly were headed down the stairs and Max didn't look so good. I asked him if he was ok. He said he needed to go #2. I told him ok but that he had to go in Molly's little toilet b/c I had to go thru "it" and see if the nickel came out. He started crying. He didn't like going in Molly's toilet b/c when he did "it" the first time it touched him b/c let's face it, that toilet is just for potty training...not big ol 4.5 year olds. So we got a book and kept him distracted. He was happy to finally have had gone. So out came the plastic bags and popscicle sticks again. He asked if he could stay and watch. I told him no, but that if I found the nickel I'd be sure to call him. I spent what felt like quite a long time searching for that nickel. I was about to give up and just wait until next time when I found it. I called him in there. He yelled and told Molly, but then informed me that we couldn't keep it. I thought that was fabulous idea. He was happy to have it out and back to normal.

Wednesday morning, Papa got into town and we surprised Max at his school. They wore Papa out before heading out to eat and taking Max to Awana. Thursday was another day except Papa was there. The girls had a blast having him to themselves while Max was at school. Max, Papa and I played a few games of Candyland while the girls slept and we waited for Aaron to return home. We took everyone out to eat and began enjoying our long weekend. Papa left and went to rest up for our visit soon.

We had an awesome weekend. Aaron took Friday off. Molly and I headed to the doctor for her 3 year check-up. She discovered he daddy's Bible in our room and spent some time looking at it. When we were all ready to go she decided she wanted to take it with her. I figured she'd leave it in the car when we reached the doc office. Nope. She took it in with her.

The weather was great and we spent the majority of it outside.

I am flying through this, but I really just want to get this posted before May 1st and that starts in 10.5 short hours.

Tuesday night we thought the kids were sleeping and we were having a chatting session downstairs in the living room at about 9:30 or so. Max comes down whimpering. He shows me his finger. It's the same finger he injured back in August while we were visiting MI. He mumbles something. I asked him if it was a hang nail and did he bite it off. He shook his head no. Aaron asked him something. He said no. Then he said something about a pencil. Something clicked. He had gotten in trouble a little bit earlier in the day for fooling around with my eyeliner pencil sharperner. Yep. He put his finger in the sharperner and turned it. It cut off part of his fingernail and caused to bleed. We got a band-aid on him and fixed him up before he headed back to bed. Goodness! Keep your fingers out of my stuff and that won't happen! :)

Wednesday night, Max wrapped up his first year of AWANA. What a blessing that has been. He has learned so much and memorized more of God's Word than me!

Let's see...what else this month????

Maggie is waving like crazy. Still not saying Mama, but she is waving and smiling and laughing and busy being the sweet thing she is.

Ok...I am signing off and saying good-bye to April. I WILL have more than 2 posts next month. We have so much going on....I can't wait to write all about it and then forget and then re-read my blog, remember it all again and smile.

FINALLY!!! IT'S MAY 1ST AROUND 12:15 P.M. AND I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED MY ONLY 2 POSTS OF APRIL. RIDICULOUS!!! NO WONDER I HAVE TO HAVE A BLOG TO REMIND ME OF ALL THE WONDERFUL THINGS MY KIDS DO. HELLO MAY!!!!

3 weeks gone by...oh my...

I cannot believe it's 3 weeks since I last posted. Time is certainly flying by and dragging all at the same time.

Let's see...the last few weeks...Max had spring break the first week. We didn't do a whole heck of a lot. Just hung out until daddy got home. The end of the week they spent time getting Easter eggs ready for Max's class and the hunt at church the day before Easter. We spent all the time we could outside. It was a gorgeous weekend. Saturday we grilled out and then decided to do it all over again after church on Sunday.

The second week, Aaron stayed home Monday morning b/c I was not feeg well at all. That was the day that Max decided he wanted to put on a little skit for his sick momma. The previous Sunday, the kids had learned about Palm Sunday at church and each had made a palm leaf out of green construction paper. Max decided that Daddy was going to be the camel (Aaron had to remind him it was a donkey), he was going to be Jesus and Molly was going to be the "palm leafer" saying, "Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" He rode back and forth across the living room while Molly waved her palm leaf and he reminded her of what she was to say. Then they switched. Molly was now playing the part of Jesus and Max was the palm leafer. It was absolutely adorable. One of my all time kid favorites!Aaron told me to come downstairs if I was feeling up to it. I wouldn't have missed that for the world. Aaron said that Max told everyone what to do. My heart was filled with a pride only a momma could experience.

Tuesday, the 7th, Molly had her first gymnastics class. She couldn't wait! She loved it and of course her momma took all sorts of pictures. I couldn't help myself. She got do somersaults, cartwheels, back bends, the balance beam, a little mini vault jumping thing. She now wakes up every morning asking if it's Tuesday again so she can go back to "gynnastics".

Come Wednesday, I was still not feeling all that hot, but us moms only get a 24 hour period to be out sick, if any. That morning, Max wanted to wear the "fish" shirt that he wore to school the previous day and wore to bed that night and woke up in on Wednesday morning. No. I told him that he was free to wear it the next time I washed it. Him attending school that day was up in the air until at the very last second he decided to change. He loves school and does not like missing. The girls and I go to pick him up that day and as I am walking in the door Max is running & jumping on his buddy. He then gets up and sprints to his cubby and pulls the whole drawer out. One of his teacher's says, "um...no one give him sugar." Seriously. He was on speed. His teacher takes me aside and says that he has had some problems listening to instructions. Big NO NO in our family. I have a HUGE problem with my kids not listening to their elders. I definitely want my kids listening to my direction, however, it is 100 times worse in my book if they are doing it to others. She said she didn't want to use the word defiant, but that is exactly what he spent the next several days being. His actions were defiant. He wasn't sassing back so much as simply looking at us, testing us, and doing the complete opposite of what we asked him to do, if he did anything at all.

On Good Friday, we spent time talking with the kids about the great sacrifice made. I feel like sometimes I expect this great deal of understanding from my 3 & 4 year olds. When in all reality, they know so much more about the Easter holiday than I did when I was a teenager. Later that evening we colored eggs. I love the look on Maggie's face as she is peering over the edge of the cup. Oh the curiosity of little children!

Saturday, was the Easter egg hunt at church. It was supposed to be outside, but it poured on Good Friday (always seems to and I think it's somewhat fitting.) The kids were not any less excited to have to go inside a building for the Easter egg hunt. They had fun. Didn't matter if it was inside a classroom or on a baseball field. They even shared with Maggie.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. We came home and had a nice little dinner just the 5 of us. We had a wonderful day. The kids even cooperated and took some fantastic pictures for their momma. I couldn't have asked for anything more. It was a day to reflect on all that He did for us and gave for us.

What a gift our awesome God gave us that day.

Aaron and I watched The Passion of the Christ shortly after Easter. I had seen it when it first came out in the theaters. What an emotional movie. You don't feel like doing anything afterwards except reflecting on what He did for us. Actually, at the end of the movie, all I can keep thinking is He did that for me. I wasn't even thinking about everyone else.

He did that because He loves me that much.

Wow!

According to the pattern....

I was blessed to be able to awake this morning and head to church to hear my new dear friend, Wini, speak on God's pattern for our lives. Of course, the time went by way too quickly.

A few notes from the gathering:
There are 4 parts of the the pattern that God establishes for us.

Pattern 1. God is Holy
Pattern 2. God desires to dwell among His people.
Pattern 3. God's people desperately need the presence of God.
Pattern 4. God's people need each other.

Her talk was based on the book of Exodus, when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt.

Pattern 1: God is Holy
Exodus 3:2-5
God is totally holy. We have a very limited understanding of His holiness and faithfulness.
Our idea of holy, loving, & faithfulness is tainted.
God is perfectly holy, perfectly loving, and perfectly faithful.

Pattern 2: God desires to dwell among His people.
He doesn't want to be distanced from His people. He wants to be close to us.
Exodus 25:8-9 (NIV)
"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you."
God is expressing to the people that He wants the people to be aware of Him in their camp.
John 1:14 (NIV)
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus pitched his tent among us. Instead of His Holiness killing us, He died for our sins.
The God that is so Holy lives within us if we are believers!!!
1 Corinthians 3:16
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

Pattern 3: God's people desperately need the presence of God.
Exodus 33:15-16 (NIV)
"Then Moses said to him, 'If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

I have nothing without my God. I may think I want something, but if God isn't on board I don't want to go there.
I spend a lot of time looking at everything else going on in my world. I look at and worry about the job I am doing as a wife, mother, sister, friend, daughter. I do all of this without focusing on Him. I worry about my ability to do what He has called me to do. He has the strength and the ability. Our eyes must be on God. He is with us and within us. He is sufficient and good.
I know who I am without God. I remember the person I was before I truly asked God into my life. I know that I need His presence in my life all of the time. I cannot be wife, mom, sister, friend, and daughter without Him. For anything truly important to happen, He must be a part of it.
All of my frustration and feeling discouraged and impatient over the last several weeks have been because I am depending on myself and waiting on others. I wait until the last very second before I crack to call out to Him. Why? If I would just do it first thing, I would save myself (and my husband) a lot of grief. Why do that when God can just give me the simple reminder that even though I may be forgetful, scrambled, and downright crazy; He is not. God wants to keep a teeny bit of that desperation there so that we come searching Him out.

6 ways our lives are to be distinguished by the Spirit
1. study the word of God-we can't recognize Him if we don't get to know Him
2. yield to God's control-don't be stiff necked, have to be teachable. You can't be so sure of who y
you are so that God can't mold you.
3. pray for clear leadership and specific directions
4. pray to recognize that direction
5. make plans but hold them loosely
6. learn to recognize peaces as a sign of God's will

I want to live a life that God approves of. I want to please Him.

Pattern 4: God's people need each other
No one person could accomplish/finish the tabernacle. It involved all of the skills of all of the people.
Exodus 35:29
Exodus 12:35-36
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are diferent kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."

Take note of the people in your life who follow the pattern.
Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."
Look for the pattern in others who are following the pattern of our Lord. A pattern for how to be a more godly wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend.
As soon as Wini said that I immediately wrote down 4 women who have been that for me in my life since the moment I met them.

People are watching you to see who you're imitating...even if it's Christ in someone else.

A few notes added to the end of the conference:
1. Sometimes God leads us into the wilderness. It's a way for God to bring you to Him so that we
can focus on Him. He will make us desperate for Him so that we can be more intimate with
Him.
2. We don't have to be "here" (in the santuary) to be in the sancutary. Wherever you are you
can make it a sanctuary. God is right in the middle of whatever you are in.

Make it a sanctuary.

Because God made it that way....

Last Sunday, Molly learned all about God making Adam and Eve. Now everything is...

"Because God made it that way."

That is followed by a look given to us by our daughter that seems to simply say, "Duh".

Kidding around the other morning, I asked her why her shirt had pockets. I told her I thought only pants had 2 pockets on them. I was doing her hair at the time and she was standing on her stool staring back at me in the mirror. She tilted her head, put her hands on her hips and said,

"Cause God made it that way!"

Tonight she was coloring a picture for her cousin. She looked down at her coloring book and crayons. She decided it was important to interrupt my phone conversation with my sister to state that God made crayons and coloring book.

Amen!