This past weekend our family met another milestone. Our princess, Olivia Grace, turned 8! The weekend officially started on Friday when I brought a special birthday lunch to Olivia's school to enjoy with her. The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating our sweet girl with lots of fun that included getting her ears pierced (yikes! how is she already enough for that?), birthday breakfast with her Mimi & Papa, manicures, a special birthday tea party, lots and lots of sweet treats and gifts, birthday dinner out with family, and so many other fun things! It really was a great weekend! I was so excited about how her party turned out and the beautiful photos that came from it that I wanted to post some of them here, and also give my recommendation to  Butter Blossoms Shortbread Shoppe & Tea Party Room  for their amazing hostessing of my girl's tea party. I'm sure they would love to hear that I recommended you to them! On top of the beautiful space though, these mother/...

This morning I clicked on day 2 of a 31-day devotional I'm doing from Pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church. Thinking it would be like every other Sunday morning where I'd wake up to find Scott already at church, crawl out of bed to get the kids and myself ready for church, throw some sort of convenience breakfast food at them on the way out to the car (yes, guilty there) and threaten them more times than should be needed to get in their seats so that we could go. Sounds like a sitcom, but I can promise it's never that enjoyable on this end! As I read through the scriptures I found myself nodding along with all the words I was reading. Two of the verses were from Psalm 112:2 and Proverbs 13:22. Both urged me to recognize the importance of my influence to those around me, specifically my children.  The Word says that if I follow The Lord's commandments that I would be blessed, my children would be blessed, and their children would be blessed.  I was reminded by the v...

    As I sat closely snuggled up to my daughter on a couch in our family room once the last person left our home after Christmas, unfortunately and embarrassingly, I didn't feel contentment. Not a single drop of joy or fulfillment. Instead of smiling and thinking over the many memories made in the last week while our home was stuffed wall-to-wall with people, food, and beautiful gifts, and the air was filled with laughter, rather loud singing by an ecstatic 7-yr-old with a brand new karaoke machine and mic stand, and giggles from a joyful 3-yr-old discovering all of his new gifts, I was left feeling really, really lonely. My heart ached because I knew the little girl nestled next to me was feeling the exact same way. We missed family.     A few short hours earlier I was catching up on emails from my brand new mac mini that my awesome hubby gave me, but could hardly dig through the shopping emails retailers were pumping out quicker than Krispy Kreme does with hot an...

January 7th? The 7th? Really? That's the last time I wrote a post here on my blog? Oh, that makes me so sad. It seems I'm not great with New Years resolutions; but then again, who is? Well, lately I've been thinking about the things I love. What I love to do. What excites me, gives me joy and purpose. What I'm passionate about. Sadly, being a mother, often times we forget that we are a person aside from the PB&J making, mess cleaning, boo-boo kissing, bedtime story reading women we start to become defined by. If I'm honest, I'll say I'm weary. My heart longs to be able to carve out enough time daily to pour out words here or at least jot them down on a notepad on my nightstand. I feel satisfied and content after being able to share the things God places on my heart. Do you ever go so long without talking to a friend, and then get the chance to catch up for an hour, or even two, but spend so long playing catch-up, that you don't actually get to talk p...

More than 2 weeks after Christmas, and my kids are still on a Christmas gift high! We celebrated Christmas with my parents this past Saturday, and now my poor aunt and uncle's house looks like a toy store! Today was a beautiful, sunny day so Judah was able to get some good use out of his new truck! Yes, I said truck! When I was a kid, Little Tykes only made the little, yellow and red cozy coupe. Now, they make this! He had such a blast! He even wanted to hook up and haul his Great Uncle's boat! I love this picture!! She was all ready for her 1st day of school! And Olivia is enjoying her new "sister".

I was probably naive in thinking I would be able to blog from the airport on New year's day! The last time I flew on New Years I remember the airport being empty. That was not the case this time!! At 5AM there stood probably 100 people in front of me in the United airlines check-in desk. At the front of that line stood a very angry man who decided to yell at the agent and draw the attention of airport security and customs officers. Thankfully, because I was travelling with small children and an excess of carseats and luggage, we were whisked to the front of the line and sent on our way.  It was a crazy start to a long, but exciting day. I have grown to dispise airport goodbyes; or any goodbyes for that matter! Watching my husband tell our children goodbye was heartwrenching. How could I not have expected this to be so hard? We said goodbye, and off we went.  Through all of the chaos at check-in, security, and customs, we made it to our gate just as they started boarding our pl...

Looking ahead to 2013 brings great excitement! This will be a BIG year for us! On New Years Day, the kids and I will fly to Charleston, South Carolina to start a new chapter in our lives. We are praying Scott will join us sometime in January once his US Immigration is approved. New city, new home, new church, new school, new everything! I'm not sure I could be more excited than I am! This is the city I've dreamed of living in since I was a little girl! God amazes me!! One of the things I hope happens in 2013 is that I can get back to posting here more regularly. It's no coincidence that the first day of our new chapter will be in Charleston! So, I'll post on Tuesday, either in the airport on our layover in Houston or on one of the flights if my children sleep (PLEASE Lord Jesus, let them sleep!), but if not, definitely once we get in and get settled Tuesday evening! Looking forward to a fresh start. For now, I have what seems like a NEVER-ENDING list of things to do...