Deal of the Week!

OK, so I have to post my "Deal of the Week" tonight!! We went to Stevie B's Pizza (like CiCi's, but better!) and Steve, all three girls and I ate for a grand total of $3.49. Yep, no typo there - $3.49!! Oh, and I gave the girls a quarter each to play a game - so actually it cost us $3.99!! AND we all had a great time! Jordyn out ate her sisters by eating two pieces of pizza and a half a breadstick, but others made up for it when it came time for dessert! Sydney was wired in the car afterwards! She kept singing "Minnesota Cuke, Minnesota Cuke...". It was a fun night!! Now time for a movie with my man and an early night to bed!

Geocaching!

Last week Steve took me out to a super yummy Mexican restaurant - La Parilla - and then we went geocaching! I do believe his Love Lets Live shirt even got us a free dessert! When we sat down the manager came over to him and told him how much he liked his shirt and when the check came so did a dessert! That was a fun treat! We love doing things outside for date nights, but it almost always seems to rain when we go out, so we were so excited when it was beautiful out - hot, but beautiful - the other night! We found 5 out of 7 caches and ended up in the quaint little downtown area of Woodstock! I even found a couple of them!! I love going out and having fun with my man! (Tracy - I finally saw the bookstore you've been telling me about - I look forward to going to it when it's open!)

Oh, and here are some pictures of Jordyn playing the other day!!

Family Time and Celebrating Father's Day!

Friday night we had a fun family night with the girls! We just signed up for Netflix, so we've been catching up on some movies! We had homemade pizza and pepperoni rolls and I ran and picked up Slurpees for dinner and then we let the girls stay up late, snuggled on the couch and watched Wall-e!

Saturday was pretty mellow and Jordyn was actually happy and fun all day!!! She is starting to laugh more and want to be involved with what we are doing!

Sunday we had fun celebrating Father's Day! I made some pretty sad chocolate chip muffins for breakfast...but hey - I did make breakfast! =) After church we went through McDonald's (we haven't done that in a long time) and after lunch we put the girls down for a nap and Steve played Xbox for a little while! Then we went to the pool and had some fun! Eric, Ansleigh and Hannah met us down there and Steve and Eric had fun racing each other on the water slides. It was actually pretty funny watching these two big guys going up and down the slides! I took Jordyn and Sydney home a little early and the guys stayed and played with the "big girls"! Then Brande came over with the other two babies along with David and Cindy and we had a good steak dinner!

Ahhh...I love weekends like that!

To You From Me!

Happy Father's Day, Steve!

You are the Daddy I dreamed of my children having. You are strong and gentle and funny and patient. Thank you for training our girls. Thank you for playing with them and making them laugh. Thank you for giving them hugs and kisses and tucking them into bed every night. Thank you for loving them so much that you take time to discipline them. Thank you for doing fun things with us and that our family is one of your highest priorities!

I know it is a lot of work many days and I am sure there are times you would much rather be doing something other than playing house or littlest pet shop, but God is being glorified by how you are investing in our children. And those little girls respect and love you so much! Thank you for getting up with them every Saturday and Sunday morning and feeding them breakfast while I have a few extra moments to get ready for the day. Thank you for random Slurpees and treats. Thank you for family worship time and snuggly movie nights. Thank you for taking Reagan on dates. I hope you are the only one she dates before she meets the man of her dreams!

I hope and pray that you will be so blessed on this Father's Day! I hope you are overwhelmed by the gifts God has entrusted you with and that they make you laugh today!

Love you, babe!

P.S. I don't have any of the 2009 pictures on my computer so these are only through last year and when I put these up they went into some wacky order and you got home before I thought you would! But hope you enjoy looking back at some of your "daddy moments"!

This Week!

This week has flown by. Reagan went to VBS for the first time and has had a blast. She sang her cute little song she's been learning all week for us after dinner tonight and she's been meeting new friends, learning new games, eating some interesting snacks and of course making crafts! I couldn't believe how hard it was for me to drop her off and leave her the first day! BUT Sydney and I have had a good time while she is gone! We've gone shopping, done puzzles, played, washed the van, and she has talked and talked and talked! Our air conditioner went out yesterday and we didn't think it was going to be fixed today, so we made the most of the day! We washed the van and then Steve came with the girls and me to pick up Reagan and we went to Chick-fil-a. Then the girls and I played for a while when we got home and once Jordyn was down for her nap Sydney, Reagan and I went to the pool for a couple of hours. It was a rough start with Sydney...but after she pooped in her pants she had a great attitude (I had to work on mine, then!). Thankfully she went outside of the pool and had a swimmer diaper on. After that we all had a blast. They actually prefer to go to the "little pool" (it's really a big pool and kiddie pool - just no slides at this one!) because there aren't any lifeguards so they don't have to get out for that 10 minutes out of an hour! They are smart little cookies!

POTTY TRAINING UPDATE:
Sydney has been doing really well potty training. She has been going by herself and hasn't had many accidents during the day. Yesterday I did leave her in her big girl panties for nap time and she peed all over everything possible on her bed...pillows, comforter, stuffed animals. She kind of seems like an all-or-nothing type of girl to me =)!

12 MONTH UPDATE FOR JORDYN:
Tuesday I took Jordyn for her 12 month check up and shots. Thankfully, the doctor said she is perfectly healthy. She weighs 20 lbs (25-50%), she is 30.25 inches long (75-90%) and her head circumference is 46.5 cm (75-90% - she has a big head just like Reagan!). She is not doing things nearly like the other two were at this stage, but she has seemed to be progressing some the last few weeks. After her appointment, I'm not concerned about her progression being a health issue...just more of a heart issue!! We'll just keep working with her, playing with her and praying for her!! She did pass out when she got her shots. It all happened so fast. I was holding her...she started turning blue around her lips...the her eyes rolled back and she went limp. I didn't freak out because it happened so fast. The nurse grabbed her from me and put her on the table and by that time she was already coming back. She just held her breath when the nurse poked her and wouldn't cry...so out she went.

She is crawling around a lot more and likes to play peek-a-boo! She started playing with her little animals this week and loves this little kitten that the girls gave her. Hopefully I'll get her to the pool sometime soon again and get her used to the water before our vacation!

Here are a couple of pictures from the pool today. I didn't get many because I was playing with the girls and they aren't too good because they were moving so fast!

Love Your Enemies

How do I respond in the midst of conflict?

How do I respond when I'm hurt?

How do I respond when I'm sinned against?

How do I respond when someone takes advantage of me?

How do I respond when someone "hurts my feelings"? (I added this one.)

These are some of the questions our pastor, Aaron, started his message with this past Sunday. He spoke from Luke 6:27-36 on loving our enemies. It was excellent and worth listening to and listening to again. I can't think of any enemies I have, but we don't have to have enemies to be challenged by this passage of Scripture. We can simply have friends or children or a spouse!!! (The Lord gave Steve and I an opportunity to put what we learned Sunday morning into practice Sunday evening - over a dumb phone charger!)

Here are just a few lines from his message. And here is where you can listen to it! I just checked and they don't have it up yet, but hopefully it will be on there soon!

The ability to love our enemies is an evidence of God's work and grace in our lives.

Do I allow bitterness to take root in my heart?

What do I do when someone says something I don't want to hear?

When we are consumed with ourselves it is hard to love others.

Jesus is kind to the ungrateful and evil. (This is probably what stood out to me the most...especially in this season of training my girls in being grateful and how I so easily get offended and angry when they don't seem grateful when I think I've done something so wonderful for them!)

God builds His kingdom through forgiveness.

How I respond in these moments reveals how much I really grasp the Gospel.

Love is proactive. It LOOKS like blessing, being kind, doing good, constantly giving.

We must fight to love.

OK, so those are just a few nuggets from the message. You can't wait to listen to it now, right?!?!

Trial #8

A few weeks ago Steve listened to a message for our care group's guys meeting. It was by Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church on Men and Marriage. I've heard of Mark Driscoll but had never heard him speak. Steve had quite a bit to say about the message - as did quite a few of the other men around here.

Mr. Driscoll is very passionate on men being men and caring for and loving their wives. Honestly, his message could be quite offensive, as is anything that challenges us towards holiness and Christ-likeness and blows a wound to our flesh can be (his "tone" is quite different from messages I'm accustomed to listening too). He challenged the men. He defined different men. He preached the Gospel.

Now Steve could have listened to this message, talked about it in men's accountability and that could have been the end to that. But he didn't. He came home and told me about it and then he went even farther. We watched it together and then he asked me questions about how he's doing in light of what I heard in the message. I am grateful that the Lord has given me a husband who desires to grow and change - and I have seen much growth in him over the last 6 or so months in particular!

Listen here if you dare!