One crazy weekend/Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful easter weekend!! It was a sure busy one for us!

We started off the weekend on Saturday going down to Madisonville and taking care of my mom who just had surgery. I made it clear though that it was important to me as a "mommy" that we come home Saturday night so that we can have the easter bunny come to the house and we can go to church together as a family Sunday morning.

I also hope that everyone had a great place to go and celebrate the ressurection of Jesus!! I love going to church anytime of the year, but on days where the place is packed out and everyone comes in with a celebratory mode, the atmosphere that you're surrounded in is almost breath taking. I know I got teary eyed a few times during our service.

This is where we got to celebrate:

A packed out Roberts Stadium, where at this moment all the concerts are held in town, but our home church rents out every easter, so that anyone in the community can come worship in such a wonderful, yet not threatening or scary atmosphere!! I just love it! I was getting ready to say that "Jesus really showed up" yesterday, but in better words, "we showed up" for him!! It was wonderful. HOWEVER, since it's the last year at Roberts Stadium, they had no childcare. There were "consoling" areas, and yes we utilized it almost the whole service, but Josh and I would just trade off every now and then.

At the beginning though during all the music....she LOVED IT.

We also decided since she can't really do candy yet, and any sort of small toy we get her, the dog always ruins within a week, and all her grandparents spoil her with easter baskets, we thought, the easter bunny could bring something "big and fun!" So he brought her a Sand and Water table for Easter!! We can't wait to play in it!

Is it stupid that I asked Josh, "so where can we get sand?!?" hahaha.

Our little family, with a little girl that was beyond nap time!!

My sweetie and I before curch!! :)

And I had to post this comparison!! Look at what a year does!! Last Easter and this Easter! Kills me inside...but the holidays sure are getting to be more fun around here!! :)






Happy Easter! :)

16 months old = miss independent!

On the 8th, miss Jaycee turned 16 months old! I cannot get over that she is already this old, and Josh keeps having to remind me that she's not 16! I am freaking out at how big she is getting!

During this past month (or the last time I blogged about her), she has transferred completely to the toddler room at daycare, and boy can I tell!! It's a good thing, but since she's transferred, the girl does not stop babbling!! She's always rambled a little, but now, it's full length stories in gibberish, with facial expressions and all. I always respond, and when I do, I crack up b/c it could go on for 10 minutes!

She also, gets so mad if I don't let her completely feed herself. I think she's also picking this up from her daycare room. She's always liked to attempt to feed herself, and never minded if I stepped in and helped, but I think since she watches 2 year olds all day eating by themselves, she's turned in to miss independent! Now her eating a meal, TAKES FOREVER, but I am so proud to watch her do it. ( I just think- if only I could fill that spoon all the way up with applesauce, this would go much quicker!! haha!)

She has such an imagination!! She thinks of the most creative things to do, that sometimes I think, "why didn't I think of that?!"

She is getting VERY interested in the potty, and I think at her 18 month mark (in June) we will begin potty training with her. She might not be completely ready, but now when she goes with me when I go to the bathroom, once I sit down she goes, "pee pee?" So since it'll be summer, and less clothes to deal with, we are going to get a start on it! She loves it when she thinks she's done something good, so I think she'll catch on to this (or I might just have first time mom nieve syndrome...we shall see...)

I love that she is at an age that we can do "activities." I got her a picnic table, and while it's a hassle to lug it in and out of the house, it works perfectly for both. She loves to have snack time and color with her color wonder markers on it inside, and then we play playdoh and finger paint on it outside. She is also loving the sidewalk chalk!! She studies how things work so much, that she's intrigued with anything new I try to do with her!

She is eating better, sleeps well, and continues to take around a 2 hour nap a day. I can't complain. But one thing and this is just raw honesty- oh my gosh, the whiney stuff she does!! Is it b/c she's a girl, or is she just rotten....the girl loves to whine!! :) There are days, where I think if I hear that whine one more time I'm going to have to step outside and scream!! :) hahaha, oh the joys. I wouldn't trade it for the world...I guess I'm just getting payback for all of my whiney days as a child! :) I'm sure I had my share...my mom reassures me daily, I was a very proficient whiner! Karma....

No matter what kind of mood she's in- this little girl lights up my life in ways I didn't know she could. She is the most cuddly, funny, sarcastic, full of personality little thing I've ever met!! I'm so glad she's got such a personality!! I don't want to wish her years away, but I think we're (one day) going to be best friends!! :)

Maybe I just need to vent...

Do you ever just want to look up at heaven and shout, "are ya kidding me?!"

Do you ever then realize that it's not God you should be yelling at, but that mean ol' devil at his best!?!?

I feel like 2011 has been one heck of a roller coaster and it's only April. And I'm not saying that it's only been a harder year than normal for me, but it seems like so many people right now are just going through....CRAP! (if i can put it honestly...)

I have a trait though that doesn't help me when I hear bad news. I can hear bad news about someone that I don't even know, and I'm upset the rest of the day. Much less what I'm like when someone I know, love, care about is going through something difficult. I feel like I take their problems, and they become mine also. It's just who I am.

Just since January, I've had to help dear dear friends go through divorces. I have to watch sweet close friends lose babies. I've had to hear the news of a friends mom getting hit by a drunk driver. I have to watch my mom endure another insane surgery in a couple of weeks. Cancer is hitting too many people I know, and there just have been too many sicknesses this winter.

It's almost enough to completely bum ya out!! Just last week I "vowed" to myself to try to distance myself a little bit from reality...and focus more on me spiritually. I realized that apparently the devil is coming full force right now, and I needed to become devoted that the devil can only get to me as much as I let him in!!

In the midst of all of these messes, God is STILL in control. And often times I find myself letting the devil just take over. I let all of these horrible things going on around me, get me down, instead of firing me up for the plans of God.

God never promised sunsets and roses every day of our lives, but he did promise that HE is over it all. He has plans. He has a vision. He has a purpose for EVERYTHING we are going through.

I love that image above. Prayer has been so much the source of strength for me lately. I have always loved the Lord, prayed, studied his word...but how often of that lately had I put into ACTION...not enough. Not nearly enough.

So with all the hurt, the troubled times, the heartache, the "how could that happen" things that are coming about from every angle lately, I needed the encouragement of God's word. I needed to fall back on what God has told me all of my life, so that when the devil is showing his ugly head, I'll know it's the devil...and I can fight him off with the word of God. Because we are his children, he loves me, he only wants what's best for me, and what he has planned for my life is ten times over better than any plans I could ever make for myself!! How awesome is that!!

Our God today is the same God that was here yesterday. The good, the bad, the ugly...My prayer is that I never question him unless I'm asking, "ok, so what do you want me to get from this...I'm ready grow in you." Easier said than done- yes. Acheivable- absolutely.

I hope someone else might have needed to read this, but regardless, I needed to vent what God is firing up in my heart. Once again, God showing me why it's not always rainbows and roses...he is desiring more of my heart (and yours), and you just can't deny it when you feel it! :)