Advice Needed...

Derek and I are totally out of ideas...

HOW do you get your kids to clean their rooms without standing over them CONSTANTLY?

I for serious, have to be IN THE ROOM with Kyley to get her to pick up anything. It doesn't matter how much we discipline her, reward her, whatever she will NOT do it.

She has this misconception that cleaning her room means us cleaning together, and I'm sorry it's just not happening. She's old enough now to put her toys away on her own. *sigh*

Any advice is welcome. Like I said she hasn't responded to discipline, bribes, rewards, taking toys away, nothing of the sort.

Please help this mommy who's tired of looking at a messy room and having to clean it herself.

Precious Memories, Unseen Angels

Just a few pictures of things that will always be precious memories.

mini me part 2?

Gosh this kid looks like his daddy....

yuck.

The past few days we've been a bit under the weather with a stomach bug. I'm very much hoping that we're all on the mend and going on with life now, but that would explain my lack of posting :) Ok, back to regularly scheduled programming!

What do you say when God wants to take control?

I love love love this group... look them up on youtube, you won't regret it.

random, random, random

Just a few cute pics from this week I want to share...

Stubborn

(for the sake of being real, I am sharing this. I pray my husband doesn't mind)

A few days ago, Derek and I had somewhat of a "disagreement"

Though it was more of a misunderstanding of sorts.

You see, I went out of my way, to do something for him that I knew he would enjoy.

And in doing such I still seemed to offend him because he thought my actions were something totally different from what they really were.

So I explained to him what was going on, yet he still felt like I wasn't being "honest" even though I was.

Yet I"m not here to say he is the stubborn one.

I want to share with you how I was so stubborn during all of this.

He went to bed that night frustrated with me and I couldn't sleep (guilty?) because I was so offended that he believed I wasn't being honest with him.

(mistake number one, i let him go to bed without resolving the issue)

So I sat up, played a video game and stewed.

As I slept (or didn't) and woke the next morning the Lord began to deal with me about my stubborness.

I would not allow myself to forgive him for offending me.

Nor would I allow myself to not be offended.

I fought all morning with this inner battle. Wanting to be mad at him and angry, but wanting to be godly.

Um yeah, in case you haven't noticed, those things typically don't go well together.

So, recognizing the voice of God, and reason for that matter, I began to actively TRY  to move on. I began to speak kindly to my husband and gently. I began to allow myself to be excited to speak with him or when he came home from work that day. I began to move towards moving on from being so stubborn on this matter.

All day long though, no matter what I did to turn my mind towards God, it seemed that Satan would throw something at me to remind me of how hurt I was.

I mean really, here I am trying to do something NICE, and all I get is a slap in the face.

(of course that's not reality, he didn't intend to hurt me, he honestly thought he was right)

 So, on goes the battle.

So, moving right along, this goes on all day, and my stubborn flesh just keeps wanting to let this anger build up and keep pushing him farther and farther away, but my spirit is so tender and wants mercy and forgiveness to be in full.

So, even when later in the evening I was faced with again showing my husband love and revisiting the very thing that set him off the day before, I wanted to run away from it. I wanted to just say forget about it and go on with life. But that would accomplish nothing. So I put on my big girl panties and said ok Lord I'm going to give it all to you. And yet, I STILL wanted to run my mouth and make smart remarks when he tried to hit me with something from the day before.

Did I mention that my flesh is STUBBORN????

And as I continued to pray, and realize how stubborn I really was being, God began to give me peace.

Now don't get me wrong, I'd been praying about it before, but most likely not in the most humble of minds.

Anyhow, so God began to give me peace and forgiveness for my stubborness in my heart, and I began to slowly see the anger and resentment fade. I stopped thinking about the fact that I was hurt. I stopped thinking about the fact that I felt like I wasn't trusted. I stopped thinking about ME and focusing on HIM.

And God said, write about it.

So here I am.

Holding my sweet little man in my arms as he falls asleep. Writing about it.

I want to tell you that God is real. God is forgiving and God is merciful.

I want to scream that no matter how stubborn we are, HE knows our hearts.

He loves us unconditionally and He can soften our hearts like no other.

Thank you Lord for softening mine and allowing me to experience your mercy.

Rah Rah Rammer Jammer...

My kids have been learning about football this year.

I've always been an Alabama fan, but since getting married I haven't gotten to be so much into the football.

You see, my sweet Derky, is a "I don't like to watch sports on tv" kinda guy.

But with Bama going on to win the national championship this year, and Kyley being old enough to understand that you can root for one team and not the other haha

I've had a lot of fun sharing my love of the game with them.

Plus I think these pics turned out cute, though a bit rough LOL

What a week!

It has been one crazy week.

And as of yet, it's not over!

So far we've had frozen pipes outside in the laundry room, a car that needed servicing, and a pipe outside that eventually busted and is having to be replaced.  No running water for 2 days from said pipe while we waited on the plumber to be able to get here (thanks to renting we cant just call whoever we want *sigh*)

Turns out the pipes out back in our laundry busted. in at least 3 places. OH JOY. LOL thank goodness we're renting and it was easy fixes. 

It just so happens that while the water was NOT working, Kyley so kindly got sick. that was fun to clean up, let me tell ya.

Praise the Lord for little blessings though that helped me make it day to day without losing my mind.

Like these sweet babies who know how to make mommy smile. Or random little things like meeting grammpa and gramma for dinner while we had no water. Or hanging out in the nursery with Angie and Harlie last night watching all the sweet babies.

No matter how crummy a week it's been. God is still good. And He is still on the throne. I will forever praise Him.

Mini Me?

Cupcakes:

Mini Cupcakes:

The Museum

Here are a few pics from the museum we visited with Adam and Laura (and kids) and William and Angie (and kids)

Babywearing Friends

While Adam and Laura were in town we had the chance to go to the local museum to let the kids play.

I love seeing all my friends wear their babies, just as much as I love wearing my own.

There are no "actual" pictures of me and Elijah, because well, I had the camera haha

Super Monkey Cowboy

These pictures are actually from Christmas Eve. But since I haven't really blogged much about Christmas I thought I should share them.

He's wearing his Super Monkey Pj's and His cowboy set he got from Grandma and Grandpa

A new blog design?

Check out Jamie's awesome blog designs. She did my current one and now she's giving a design away for January!

New Year- Same Passion

I feel like I don't always take enough time to actually write on my blog. I share pictures for friends and family that want to see, I share stories about the kids and what they're up to, but I feel like I often neglect to write about what God lays on my heart. And I shouldn't. I've really been praying about where God is leading me, and leading us as a family and I want to write it all down here so I can remember what I've been praying for and what God has been showing me. So here are a few of the things I feel led to achieve in 2010

• First and foremost to continue to grow closer to Christ. To spend time in prayer and fasting and reading His word.
• To develop new ways to teach our children the ways of the Lord. To show them His heart through everything I do. 
• To make a conscious effort to put my marriage first above all else. 
• To speak love and kindness from my mouth with EVERY word I speak.
• To be more organized in my own life and in our home. 
• To make it a priority to read the Word to our kids. While we often read to them, it's not always PRIORITY. and it should be. 
• .To not only read the Word with the kids but to discuss it and help them to begin to understand what it says.
• To take care of my body and those of my family. To cook healthy meals, and have healthy snacks available. To work out on my own and to encourage the kids to be active as well. 
• To do outreach as a family on our own outside of the church walls. 
• To pray and seek God's will for our direction.

I'm hopeful that by this time next year, I can look back on this and say, hey you know I have seen God help me achieve each and every one of these through His help.

One thing I've learned is, that it is a process though. I cannot resolve to do these things as a HUGE yearly goal, but these must be daily goals for me and my family. Every day to strive to bring glory to His name and to do His will.

Lord, help us to know You more. Help us to seek Your face and Your will for our lives. Lord, teach me to be a Godly wife, mother, and friend and to be more like You. Help me to speak kind words out of love whenever I speak, and help me to look to You in times where I feel I cannot. Help me to hide Your word in my heart, Lord, and to teach it to my children daily. May Your praises be on our lips continually.

Amen.

My friends' kids...

I have amazing friends.

And they have amazing kids.

This week we all got together for a little fun.

So I took some pics of the kids and thought I'd share a few here.

Minus the one of Isaac sleeping, which was at church Sunday morning.

Paw Paw came to visit.

Paw Paw came to visit us yesterday.

I was watching Parker and he came to hang out before he took Parker with him.