Spring is here!

 Jon and I went on a date for his birthday. I know, right, a date, apparently that's where you go out without the kids and get to finish the conversation you started in December. Anyway, we went to some antique/used furniture stores in Wooster and found this great armoire! We love the reddish inside and since this picture Jon has stained the shelves dark like the outside of the cabinet. So you see less red now. Also, we have more baskets to fill it with so you don't see as much as you can in this picture. But we were thrilled with it. We even fit it in the SUV! We had to take out both car seats, fold the back seats flat and lay the car seats on top of the cabinet but we over 1/2 inch to spare we were on our way home.

 Emma asked me to take pictures of us outside. I didn't know she was making this adorable face until I saw the pictures later. She was cracking me up that entire day.

 This is the closest thing I got to an Easter picture of the kids. They were sick on Easter so the next Sunday I dressed them up and still, only Emma and Jon went to church but I got this picture in the nanosecond that Grey held still.

 Here's some more fun outside pictures. If you see my son outside at all this summer, you will see him attached to this large bubble tube. From the instant he wakes up he starts asking to go "ball" which means outside because he has a large kickball out there. Then he says "bubble, bubble bubble, bubble...". You get the picture. He won't stop saying it until he knows when we go outside so he can play with the bubbles.

 

And as of today, I didn't think to take a picture while it was still light outside, Jon bought and set up a large trampoline in our backyard. Grey isn't sure of it yet. He will sit on it if he is on your lap. Emma is gaining confidence as long as daddy isn't jumping too. Apparently he makes it "too bouncy". Is there such a thing when describing a trampoline?

I'm done with tax season and am helping out a few extra hours these next couple weeks to get through payroll taxes. I might get called in here and there over the next 8 months before next tax season.

Jon is plugging away at work. He's been so helpful and cheerful taking care of the kids and working during tax season. He's a sweetie!

So that's the story at our house. We are thankful that spring aways comes- No matter how hard the winter

Eleven

So it's a month after our anniversary but I didn't want to miss posting about it.

Eleven years!

My mom asked me if it felt like it had been that long and I said all the years have been worth it, but we earned some of them. Most people know that marriage takes work. I feel like it's too often thrown out or given up on because it's hard, or people feel like they aren't getting what they need. A friend told me that she read a book that suggested that God gives marriage not to make us happier but to make us holier.

No matter what the reason, I'm thankful God gave me Jon.

He makes me laugh.
He balances me.
He has my back.
He gave me kids.
He thinks my quirks are "cute".
He knows the ugliest part of my heart, and still loves me.
He forgives me.
He hugs me when I don't know that I need a hug.
He's patient.
He changes the songs on his ipod to ones that I like when I have to drive his car.
He loves Jesus even when it's hard.

I am blessed and thankful!

The post where I start to catch up

Ok. So I'm a little behind on blogging. I had been thinking about giving it up all together but changed my mind. I still enjoy it and some friends have shared that they enjoy the pictures and posts. So here I am. Only about 3 months behind!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We all managed to stay healthy and happy and fairly well rested.

Jon didn't get to go to church with us on Christmas Sunday but he at least got some pictures of the kids and I before we left.

 The kids enjoyed Christmas and opening presents. We loved doing all the traditional things. Making cookies, drinking hot chocolate, enjoying the tree and the lights... It's a blessing to be in a country and in a place personally where we can pay attention to the little things.

 We had some fun with fake mustaches with my family Christmas. Emma looks like she is scheming something in this picture.

All in all, Thanksgiving and Christmas were pleasant and joyful. We again feel thankful for Jesus and His ever-present-ness with us.

Some fall fun

What we've been up to

Here is Emma on her very first day of preschool. She loves her teacher and going to school two times per week. She has already gained confidence and has learned so many new things. She sings songs about the days of the week, the months of the year and the seasons.

 Greyson is doing well. He has been hard at work on getting more teeth. As you can see. He's a happy boy! He is so close to walking. I am weaning him to soy milk which he drinks right up! However, he still wants to get up once per night for me to feed him. Here's to better luck getting him to sleep all night.

 Here he is in his Sunday "little man" outfit. We went to my neice - Cecilia's baby dedication today. Greyson didn't make it through the service so he and I hung out in the car for awhile. We turned the back seat into a play area and he and I had fun although you can see his eyes getting very heavy.

Jon and I are doing well too. I have been working a couple days per week the last couple weeks. We enjoy going to garage sales every weekend. We are done with our big house projects but we did find the perfect mirror for our bathroom at a garage sale for five dollars! All I need to do is... you guessed it... spray paint it. I'll post a picture when it's all done.
We are still so thankful for this house and are looking forward to watch the leaves on the two big Maple trees change color. And maybe even jumping in some piles of leaves.

How fun, Grey turned one!

Greyson was very happy on his birthday... Until I tried to put the birthday hat on him. He immediately started crying. Fortunately, as soon as I took the picture and took the hat off, daddy held him and he was happy again.

 Here's the cake- and the birthday theme. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

 He hadn't had cake before but it seems he likes it.

Right after this picture he got a birthday bath.

 He enjoyed opening his presents and like all babies thought that the wrapping paper and tissue paper were more fun than the actual gifts.

We are so thankful and blessed to have the joy of raising our little boy. We daily pray for wisdom as parents and that he has a heart for Jesus all of his life.

Happy birthday Greyson Joshua!

Come and listen

Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for me.

Psalm 66:16

God saved my soul.

God saved my marriage.

God saved my life.

Literally...

When I was a child I accepted Jesus and became a Christian. I was an immature Christian because I was immature, a child. But He has been patient with me and allowed me to grow. I believe that Jesus is God's perfect Son. That He died on the cross for my sins and was laid in a cold dark tomb. He was dead. 

He wasn't breathing. At all. For three days. No life was in His body. And then God breathed life back into Him. Praise be to God, He breathed life back into the lifeless body and Jesus's cold, dead body was alive! He rescued me and my soul.

God has never given up on me. When I couldn't set foot in a church, or even in a church parking lot, He met me at home or in the woods or huddled on the bathroom floor. When I have been mean and spiteful, He has been kind and patient. When I have been unforgiving and angry He has been compassionate and unchanging. When I have been hungry for more of Him He has graciously and generously, in His goodness, poured into me until I am overflowing.  

When life appeared "perfect" from the outside my marriage was bleeding out. It was painful and hurtful for both of us. It was raw and wounding. It was lonely and awful. It felt hopeless but we never gave up hope. We clung to God as we yelled, as we cried and finally, as we both forgave. And only by the grace and goodness of God our marriage was healed ... we have the scars to prove it.

In His mercy, Emma was fine. She was a perfectly healthy baby, I was not a healthy momma. I was going downhill fast. I was sleeping, then I wasn't breathing, a nurse came in, then the doctors. I was given oxygen and could breath and just wanted to close my eyes so badly, just wanted to sleep, to rest. Then I was in ICU, then the ambulance, transported to a different hospital. I just wanted to be with my baby. The doctors met with each other, they met with my family. Jon came to my bedside and held my hand and told me I needed open-heart surgery. However, my body was doing downhill so fast they couldn't do the surgery. We were praying. Everyone we knew and then some, were praying.

All the doctors and nurses left my room. Jon left momentarily and I prayed a prayer I wasn't sure I was allowed to pray. Jesus had prayed it for such a bigger reason. But it was in my heart, so I prayed it.

"Please take this cup from me".

And then I slept.

And I woke up as I was pumped full of medicine and the doctors answers to my familys' questions were "pray harder". My mom kept vigil at my bedside as Jon went back and forth between hospitals to be with me and to go be with Emma.

God heard me.

He took the cup. Just like when He took it when He saved my soul, He took the cup of death from me and saved me. Saved my life.

My doctor came into my room and smiled.

He said "I can't explain it."

We could.

My chart says unknown heart failure, unknown reversal and at the bottom shows that the tests reveal a now perfectly healthy heart.

Jesus saved my spiritual heart.

He saved my physical heart.

So please, come and listen, let me tell you what He has done for me. Praise God! What He has done for me!