Blessed

This morning was a rough morning. None of my kids were in a particularly good mood. No one wanted to either go to school or get ready for school . Nate had been crying since 5 a.m. and was just plain cranky. But by the end of the day, things had turned around. Everyone was happy and doing great. I went from frustrated in the morning to feeling blessed to have such great kids. As I was cooking dinner I was watching my girls play bowling on Kinect and laughing at each others gutter balls and extolling each others victories. I had asked Emily to take her book into the back yard and read and keep an eye on Nate, who loves being outside. She not only happily complied but proceeded to follow him around the yard helping him with what he wanted to play with, including swinging him and making him laugh. In that moment I felt so blessed. I have good kids. They may fight sometimes, they may get an attitude every once in a while or even talk back. But they have good hearts. One of my favorite things on Sunday morning after church, or after school when they bring home their art work is listening to them say, "Look (place a sisters name), I made this for you!" And they ooooh and ahhh over the prized craft. They do that every time. It's rarely made for me or for themselves, it's always reserved for each other. They really lift one another up and encourage each other. I LOVE that and hope it continues.

I never planned on having four. 2 was my plan. I still sometimes struggle with how busy and challenging it is. Just ask my mom who I unload to on a regular basis. I like to have my house clean. I like to have peace and quiet. I have high standards for them, mostly too high. But I feel like I've learned so much. I am really learning how to stop comparing myself to other moms. My house is not beautifully decorated or perfectly clean. There are pencil marks on my wall that I swear I'm going to get tomorrow. Never happens. I'm learning to make my kids a priority over my house. Seems simple but I'm a neat freak and it's not so simple all the time. The last few months I've stopped to play with them more, laugh with them more, read to them more and it's so much more rewarding than a clean house. Ally told me the other day, "mommy you are the best, you are so much fun. You read to us, take us to the park and let us play at Bella's house." That was the best compliment. Especially since she's such a daddy's girl, I rarely get that kind of thing from her.

Emily told me the other day she's praying for the neighbor that she plays with regularly. He told her he didn't believe in God so she said she told him all about Jesus and that she was going to keep praying and telling him more about her faith. She was so concerned for him. I loved it. I worry all the time that we're not doing enough to grow our kids faith. I'm asking myself if I'm saying or doing the right thing...what I forget is that God is living and moving in their hearts. He's doing the work. Yes, I need to help her grow in her faith, but God is doing far more than I ever could.

So all this to say, I am so thankful for my FOUR wonderful children. I am so thankful for each of their different personalities. They challenge me and make me better. They've made me rely on God in a way I never had before. This may seem rambling but it's been on my heart for a while so I thought I would put it down to "paper" so to say.

Ally's Five Birthdays

Ally's first birthday!
Second birthday...Love that face!
Ally's third birthday.
Fourth Birthday...
Now she's a big 5 year old. The years have gone by fast. She's such a sweet girl and we love her so much. I hope she never outgrows her sweet shy smile she has. Friends and family know what I'm talking about!

For her birthday this year we took her to Leatherby's. We had the place to ourselves and the kids ate ice cream and colored in the coloring books I bought. It was so low key and perfect. She loved it. All the kids had banana splits and they loved them. Ally doesn't like cake so it was just what she wanted. I may just do that every year for her birthday. Cleanup was non existent and shew as so happy. It was a nice little party.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had my parents, my uncle Mark and Grandma over for Zuppa soup and twice baked potato soup. It was very nice. The girls and I also baked Santa cookies, the traditional sugar cookies cut out and iced with frosting and sprinkles. They were a very yummy treat for Santa and for us!

Santa came in the middle of the night and delivered Emily a new bike, Ally a new camera and Rylee the helmet she wanted to badly. Unfortunately Ally's camera didn't work very well and after 3 attempts at new cameras we gave up and got her a much needed new bike. She loves it. Christmas morning, right after they woke up...at 7:30!
Opening presents!
Emily was so excited to get this video camera she wanted from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amy. It was even better than she hoped as it was her favorite color!
We didn't get much for Nate this year as he's still pretty young but the first gift we gave him was about halfway through opening presents. He was so exited to get one he walked around showing everyone and babbling in excitement. He even did a good job opening it. He really liked ripping the paper.
One of the things the girls got in their stockings was a balloon with a rubber band. He loved banging that ball around.

After opening presents at our house, we went to mom and dad's for the day. It was really fun. We ate a yummy breakfast and relaxed all day before Mike's traditional dinner of prime rib, it was amazing!