Molly turns 4....

Our sweet & sassy girl turned 4 yesterday!

I can hardly believe it.

It seems like just the other day that I began feeling contractions around midnight, dozed off until 2 a.m., got up and cleaned a bit, called the doc around 5:30 or so and then called Stace right after to come and stay with Max.

It seems like just the other day that Dr. Blunden said, "She's a 4...let's break her water and get her going." When I decided it was time for the epidural, my husband asked, "Do you think it's a little early for that?"
I never labored hard with her....well, I'm sure I did, I just didn't feel it with the wonder that is an epidural. I think I did about 3 sets of pushes with her...15 minutes after starting she was out. I felt great. I was able to watch everything around me...the nurses working on her, giving her a bath, wrapping her up, handing her to me....then the picture I'll always remember....Aaron holding his daughter while working a crossword. He was a pro with our newborns.

Now...she is a bouncy, full of energy and precious 4 year old.

She went to church with Aaron and me and cuddled with her dad.

We headed to the store to pick out the perfect pink frosted cake and snickers ice cream.

We got home and she got to open the rest of her presents and play with her neighbor friend.

We went out to the "peanut restaurant" where she stood on a chair in the middle of everyone while they all "yee-hawed" for her. On her way back to the table, a kind woman motioned for Molly to come to her table and she gave Mol a dollar. The kindness of some really does overwhelm me at times. Reminds me that I could spread a little kindness of my own to strangers. We returned home and jumped straight into singing happy birthday and eating cake & ice cream.

In 4 more years...a few days from now....she'll be 8.

Oh my!

Growing & forgetting...

Just got finished reading some old posts...ones from June of '08.

The summer of Maggie.

I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes.

The kids are growing so fast and I had forgotten almost every single story that I had posted.

Tonight while driving and listening to Kari Jobe, Max piped up from the backseat.

"Momma, can you turn it to number 11? I like it when she says 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty'".

The other night we all went into Target to get the sandels that were on sale. Molly found the pink sparkly ones in the sale paper that morning. Max went down the boy aisle and presented the sandels he found and told me that he would like to get those. I asked him if he would like to look at the flip flops I had picked out for him. He said sure and put them on his feet.

He looked up at me with those eyes, smile and in his goofy voice said, "Momma, these are mommy shoes...flip flops are mommy shoes! I don't want to look like a momma!" I cracked up. So did the ladies in the shoe aisle with us. I put on flip flops as soon as the weather hits 50 degrees and I don't look back until the first snow fall. Max knows this. I told him he could get the black flip flops instead of the brown/tan ones (that looked exactly like mine) if that made him look more like a little man than a mom. :)

Our miss Molly has gotten her ears pierced and hair cut. She looks like she is 9. I can barely stand it.

Today, we headed to Meijer to do some grocery shopping. She wore her new sparkly flip flops and her sunglasses. About halfway through the shopping trip an older gentleman and his wife called her a movie star and talking her up. She LOVED it. She hid a bit behind me, but smiled through the whole thing. They were very friendly people and Maggie couldn't help but smile too. After the couple started walking away, Molly tugged on my shirt and whispered, "Momma, can you go over there and tell them 'Happy Spring' for me?"

Oh, my sweet Molly. Will she really be 4 already?

Miss Maggie, Miss Maggie, Miss Maggie....she has her momma's temper. She can throw quite the temper tantrum. I think I prefer those to the whining though. She is starting to repeat everything....car, bagel, birdie, puppy, Zachary...I wish it wasn't so easy to forget this stage of their life. She is a sweet & comforting little thing. Whenever Max gets upset or hurt or Molly is upset or hurt, she drops whatever she is doing and goes over to them. She pats their back, squats and looks up at their face as if to say, "It's alright. This too shall pass."

How blessed we are.

We don't deserve any of this.

I am one blessed lady!

Phone call...

Tuesday morning, I woke up to hear Molly talking.

"Daddy, this is Molly. Momma, won't wake up and make me Kix cereal."

It was early...7:15 maybe. I was exhausted from having the lsweet little Molly one in my bed moving all around since 6 that morning.
I thought I was doing a good thing when I taught the children how to get a hold of daddy if they needed to :)

Happy New Year!!!

January 1, 2009 January 1, 2010

What a year....what a decade....

I remember New Years Eve 1999...10 years ago. I was with some great friends, dancing to Prince's "Let's Party like it's 1999" and out until 4 a.m. to ring in 2000.
My oh my how a decade changes things.
The end of 2000 I met my guy.
Two years later, he asked me to marry him, I said yes and we were married 10 weeks later.
The beginning of 2004 we closed on our first home. Thirteen days later we found out that we would be welcoming our first child that fall. September 2004, Max David James changed our lives in way so that we would forever forget how it was when we were childless. April 2006, our Molly Marie joined our family. I have few memories of us with just Max. January 2008, we receive word that Aaron has gotten a job in Kentucky. Easter of 2008 we make that move. Three months later in June, Maggie Grace arrived (very quickly). Kentucky is the only home she has ever known. I will bawl like a baby when it comes time to take our last family picture on our doorstep here. January of 2010 we will be moving back to Michigan. I am so very excited, but a bit sad to be leaving here...this small town.
So the planning and phone calls and address forwarding and nagging of my husband :) begins. The Good Lord has blessed us all so much. I can't wait to see what He has planned for us this year...this decade...

Dollar Store Finds....

****Sorry. I cannot get those pictures to rotate. I did it the same way I do everytime, but it will not rotate. I apologize for having to crank your heads to see the photo.*****

I went to the Dollar Store in hopes of finding some plastic storage bins for the kids stuff. I didn't find that, but I did find some GREAT finds. I was really excited. Aaron told me that we better get back to Michigan because we have zero room for what I keep bringing into our little home.

First I spotted these maps. They are nice & big. Sorry I didn't take them out to take a picture of the whole thing.

Nevertheless, they include maps of:

The Holy Land during New Testament Times

The Exodus

The Tribes of Israel

Paul's Journey

Next, I was excited to find big bible story cards. They are nine 8x11 cards in each packet. They have bright colorful photos on one side. On the back side is the verse and then the correct number order in the lower left hand corner.

The four I found are:

Jesus Walks on Water

Noah's Ark

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Jesus Heals a Blind Man

I am a huge fan of file folder games so I was ecstatic when I found these.

See the Light is a Bible Matching game. It includes the game board & 40 matching cardPretty self-explanatory.

Bible Clues is a game of just that, Bible Clues. It contains 1 game board, 4 game pieces & 38 Bible question cards. The questions cards have 3 clues on each one. If the kids can guess the answer after one hint they get to move 3 spaces. If they guess after 2 hints, 2 spaces. After 3 hints, they move 1 space.

God's Kingdom is a Bible Trivia game. It comes with 1 game board, 5 game pieces and 52 Bible question cards. Players move one space for each correct answer given. They also follow the instructions on the game board spaces.

The Lord's Army looks like my favorite. On the inside of the file folder there are two men. The point of the game is collect all of the pieces of armor for your soldier. The pieces of armor that you must collect are:

shield of faith

helmet of salvation

sword of the spirit

belt of truth

breastplate of righteousness

feet of the gospel of peace

I think Max is going to love this one!

While digging through all of this great stuff at the Dollar Store, I found some Bible character cut-outs. There are 3 in each package. Again, there is a bright & colorful photo of the person from the Bible along with a brief description.

I bought the 4 packets they had available. They are:

Joseph, Noah & Daniel

King Saul, Queen Esther & King Solomon

Ruth, Mary Magdalene & Hannah

Moses, David & Jonah

Finally I found packets of inspirational posters. Each packet includes 3 posters.

Those are:
Psalm 23, The Lord's Prayer & Jesus Loves Me

Galatians 5:22-23, Psalm 46:10 & John 8:12

I can't wait to get back to Michigan so that I can hang all of these great new finds up in our spacious classroom! Until then I'll take it out a little at a time and play!

The first snowfall of the season...

Last Saturday, December 5th, this is what we woke up to:

The kids LOVED it!!! Of course, it was all gone by noon, but the kids were just so happy to be able to play in it. Maggie loved flicking all of the snow off the bushes. Max & Molly were just giddy being able to throw snowballs at their mommy & daddy!