A Day of Productivity and Excitement!

Today was a very productive day!

This morning was set aside to take care of Alex's car (remember our good friend Ben, who helped me with all of that...such a blessing)! It started out with a trip to the Auto Zone to get a new battery for the Prius. I then went to a mechanic just down the street to have it installed and was greatly disappointed with their professionalism and just their interactions with me in general, so I went across the street to the Toyota Dealership. Alex is going to be so excited, because when waiting in line to drop my car off, the service manager came over and I had it all set up to just have the battery installed, but all that changed when I went inside to start the paperwork. We had four recalls on our car (which we knew about, but just hadn't done anything about yet) and so we qualified for a rental car for the day. In the mean time, there were a couple other things (the center consul and the back hatch) that needed to be fixed/replaced. The service manager checked on those parts for me and they were able to fix everything. I get to pick the car up in the morning! So, when Alex comes home, he'll have a "brand new" car! Yay!!!!

After getting home, I cleaned the house because my parents would be here around dinner. I then took a little nap while the kids had quiet time....it felt glorious! :) We then got ready and went to gymnastics. Madison had an extra day of gymnastics today in order to prepare for her competition tomorrow. She had so much fun and is SOOOO EXCITED.

Tonight we did our movie and pizza night. We watched Enchanted! The kids had a blast. Once we were in and settled I checked our mail. We had a sweet package from The Hill Family for our kiddos. Madison and Hudson helped me open the envelope and they were smiling from ear to ear when they saw the fun goodie bags they'd sent.

I also had some fun mail. I had another letter from Alex. This letter was about our wedding day! I seriously LOVE receiving my letters from Alex. I love his retelling of the fun events that have happened for in our lives. He always has been and is and forever will be my dream come true!

My parents finally arrived around 7:00 tonight, just in time to say good-night to the kiddos before they went to bed! After they were in bed, we had a conversation while they ate dinner and then we watched this week's episode of Person of Interest...great episode! Anyway, now I am off to bed! 

Hope you all had a great day and that your weekend is wonderful!

***Please continue to pray for Tori. Thank you!!!***

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day! Oh, how I love this day! I was so happy and excited when I woke up! Now, don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer that our love should be expressed all year long and not on just one special day, but I do believe it's important to take the time to acknowledge that love and celebrate it, just as we do Jesus' birth at Christmas and His resurrection at Easter! Yes, I know that is also what anniversaries are, but there is just something special about a day where everyone is all on the same page about celebrating LOVE and the greatest example of LOVE being that God so LOVED the world that He sent His one and only son to die for us, so that we may have eternal life (for actual verse see John 3:16).....AMAZING!!

Anyway, I was super excited to see the kids faces this morning when they went to eat breakfast and saw all of their goodies and the final heart messages on their door! :) I had a bag of goodies for each of the kids (Madison's had the new Leotard that she'll be wearing to her competition on Saturday...I have to say it's pretty awesome, but you'll have to wait until Saturday to see it). Alex had mailed them cute little stuffed animals that he picked out through Build-A-Bear, they had cards and goodies from the grandparents, and I had made them heart shaped cinnamon rolls as a special treat for Valentine's Day! What a fun morning it was!

The picture below is the final picture from the last 14 days of writing words of love and encouragement for the kiddos. Each night after they went to bed, I wrote a reason that I loved them and taped it to their door. Here is what their doors looked like on the morning of Valentine's Day!

After dropping off Madison, Hudson and I hurried home, so that I could make the cupcakes for the class party (I wanted them to be fresh). Here is a picture I snapped of my sweet little monkey while we were waiting for the cupcakes to cool, so that I could frost them.

Madison's class party was so much fun! The kids were clearly hyped up from the day when I arrived at 11:00, but it was fun nonetheless. The kids each received juice, a Valentine napkin and a cupcake and they were in heaven. Right after their dessert, they each were able to start passing out their Valentine Cards to each other. It was so much fun to watch them try to figure this whole process out! :) I am so glad that I was there to see it all. I even received a cute little Valentine's Day Card from one of the little boys!

When we arrived home after the party, the mail had come. I had two very sweet things waiting for me. I had a very sweet and thoughtful card from my dear friend Diana (her writing has always blown me away...she has such a way with words). I also had the most amazing gift from Alex waiting for me. He had a pillow custom made for us with our initials on the tree. I just think it's the most thoughtful and romantic gift ever! I LOVE it!!!!

The kids and I ended up throwing in a movie and snuggling and watching it, after their quiet time and we ordered dinner from Oggi's. I had an amazing half California Cobb Salad and the kids picked a personal sized pepperoni pizza to share, despite the fact that tomorrow night is our "normal" pizza night. We all enjoyed our food and we enjoyed our movie and snuggle time. 

After the kids went to bed, I cleaned up the house and then waited by my phone. Alex and I had planned to have a FaceTime date night phone call for Valentine's Day (this was a special treat for two reasons: 1. Face Time hadn't been working during the normal time that we're able to try to talk, which is before he goes to bed 2. I don't normally get to talk to him at night, our time). Well, unfortunately, we were unable, once again, to get Face Time to connect, BUT we were able to talk via FaceBook messenger and we talked for a couple of hours, which was nice. On Friday's (it was Friday for him when we talked because of the time difference) Alex gets to sleep in, but he got up and used that time so that we could have a wonderful conversation. It was so great to get to talk to him without the distractions of the kids being up or the worry of taking away precious sleep from him, since he gets so little of it. 

My Valentine's Day was fantastic. I am so thankful for this special day! I pray that you all had a wonderful day too! 

***Please continue praying for Tori. Thank you!!!!***

100 Days of School

Today was Madison's 100th Day of Kindergarten! I can't believe it! Are we really at the point now where she's closer to being a first grader than we are to the day she started school!?! Craziness!

Another fun little tidbit of info that happened this morning, was we discovered Madison has a loose tooth. She is soooo excited! She can't stop talking about it and showing it to me! :)
***During Madison's quiet time today, she discovered that the tooth next to her original loose tooth, is also loose. So now she has two loose teeth.***

When we arrived at school, Madison, and her classmates, were super excited about the 100th Day of School and all that it entailed. They gladly posed for a picture for me :)

After dropping Madison off at school, Hudson and I headed to the Honda Service Center. It was time to get the oil changed and I also needed them to fix my key adjust the sensors on our car alarm. We spend the whole morning there, but our car is ready to drive to go pick up Alex when the time is right :) Very excited about that! :)

When we arrived to pick up Madison, my lovely friend Kristyle had a sweet surprise for me, "just because." She made my afternoon. Inside the beautiful HEART bag was a beautiful journal (with a wonderful little note on the inside cover), some fun body sprays/lotions/shower gels, and a darling card (also with a very touching note on the inside). 

Today is Wednesday, which means I had Life Group tonight. Tonight's life group was smaller than normal, but we had a some great conversation about Fellowship. We also started our guy/girl accountability groups tonight...super excited about that! I made from Valentine's Day themed goodies for tonight and as I was working on them, a beautiful bouquet of red roses was delivered to my door from my amazing husband. Contained within was the sweetest note ever! Miss him so much! Love you babe! Thank you for the gorgeous flowers!

Hope you all had a wonderful day! Happy Early Valentine's Day!

***Please continue praying for Tori. Thank you!!***

A Day of Fun and a New Recipe

This morning we went through our normal Tuesday routine. Hudson and I dropped Madison off at school, then we went to the Y and finished up the morning at Trader Joe's. I felt good about my workout at the Y and I always have fun shopping with my little buddy at Trade Joe's. We bought a few new items today, which is always fun!

Once we picked up Madison up from school, we headed home real quick for her to change and then we jetted off to gymnastics. Today was suppose to be her last practice before her competition this weekend, but because the gymnastics director is amazing, she is allowing us to come back on Friday, so that Madison can feel more confident in her routines for Saturday. She's been learning them for the last month (1 day week), but they hadn't been taught as "this is going to be your routine." It was more of the coach teaching all of the kids skills and having them practice, but it was never really all put together in a "routine" per say. Madison's level class is given several different times and days during the week, and it just so happens that Madison is the only one from her day and time doing the competition, so it wasn't quite practiced the same way, which is why I think they're letting her come back on Friday to gain some more confidence. Madison is just so excited that she gets to do gymnastics three times this week (including her competition).

After gymnastics, we came home and the kids played while I was preparing dinner. I made a new recipe tonight: Chicken Pot Pie Soup. I adapted a recipe to make it my own. Here is the link to the recipe from tonight. Try it...you'll love it! :)

After dinner, I tried to capture pictures of the kiddos playing together because they were being so cute, but Hudson was definitely on the move and I had trouble capturing it. So...here is what I was able to get:

Hope you all had a beautiful Tuesday! 

***Please continue to pray for Tori!!! Thank you for your faithfulness in your prayers!!! They are much appreciated!!!***

God is My Supply

Today was the perfect illustration of how God is my supply. 

"You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus." Philippians 4:19 (The Message)

For me, today actually begins last night (stay with me). Last night I put Hudson to bed, as normal, but shortly after I finished my blog post last night, he started whimpering and crying in his bed. I let him go for a few minutes because I couldn't tell if he was just whining or if something was wrong. Well, it kept going and so I walked in his room and I could clearly understand the problem the second I was in his room. Not to be too graphic, but I could smell the problem. The poor little guy was quivering and whimpering as I picked him up. He had had a massive blow out and was still clearly having tummy pains. I felt awful. I cleaned him all up and then when I picked him up off of the changing pad, he just buried his head in my shoulder and rested. I held him for about twenty minutes, until I could tell his tummy wasn't bothering him as much and then I laid him back down in his crib. The sweet little boy looked at me and said, "Thank you." Love him. 

Anyway, I then came out and started watching some of the Grammy's, but could tell Hudson was still awake. I went and grabbed my monitor so that I could see what he was doing. Now he had started coughing too...sort of a little dry cough. This tends to happen when we have indecisive weather. Anyway, I thought, well, let me go get the humidifier and see if that helps. I filled it and plugged it in. It definitely helped with his cough, but because of all of the going in and out of his room, Hudson was wide awake. :/ I was so ready for bed, but I wanted to make sure he'd fallen asleep before I went to bed since his tummy had been upset. I was worried that I'd go to bed and then he'd have another blow out and be stuck in it all night. Anyway, he finally fell back asleep around 10:45pm. I, then, proceeded to close up the house and get ready for bed myself. By the time I was in bed and ready to go to sleep it was about 11:30. I finally fell asleep and then I heard Madison get up to go to the bathroom at about 12:30. Then, I had just fallen back to sleep when my alarm went off (which is fine because it's my prayer reminder for Tori...she needs 24 hour prayer right?!?) :) Then, I had just gone back to sleep when I woke up to Madison getting up to go to the bathroom again and then asking for a cup of water. Once again, I had just gone back to bed, when my phone went off...I had forgotten to silence it and I had received a text from a friend on the East Coast. Finally, I was ready to go back to bed. I fell asleep and then sure enough 5:30 came too soon and my alarm was going off telling me the morning was here and it was time to start a new day. So, that being said....as a result of everything from last night, this morning I was super tired. 

I turned my alarm off and crawled out of bed. I began my quiet time. I did my daily reading for reading through the bible in 365 days. I then proceeded to write in my prayer journal. I had such a wonderful time with the Lord this morning! I felt so refreshed and my spirit was renewed afterwards. I love how God meets us exactly where we're at. He knew I needed strength and energy today and He supplied it big time. Thus, my reference to Philippians 4:19 at the beginning of this post! Pretty cool how God meets us where we are, when we let Him. 

After dropping Madison off at school, Hudson and I went to the Y and I had a really good workout. It felt really good this morning! I love mornings like that! :) Afterwards, we came straight home so that I could get Hudson down early for his nap, since he ended up going to bed so late last night. Then, I completed my 30 Day Shred Workout  for the day and finished up the morning messaging back and forth with Alex (Face Time was not working yet again). We had a great conversation. :)

Tonight, the kids and I had fun reading stories, dancing to music, and playing with their toys. Now that the kiddos are in bed, I am going to go get cozy in my jammies and settle in (maybe with some homemade popcorn) to watch The Bachelor. 

PS...it's Valentine's Day week!!!!! It's also Kindness week (according to Ellen), so do something full of love and kindness this week! Pay for the person behind you in the drive-thru. Leave a nice note on your neighbor's car. Mail some snail mail to a friend that doesn't live close by. Send a cute/thoughtful text message to someone you haven't talked to in awhile. Buy someone flowers. Call your grandma. Just do something! Don't forget to thank God for his ultimate gift of LOVE to us: The Gift of His Son Dying on the Cross to Save Us From Our Sins and Give Us Eternal Life. :) 

***Please continue to pray for Tori. Her Carring Bridge Page has a really good update today about her progress. Here is the link if you'd like to read it. Thank you for your prayers!***

"You Can't Give Away What You Don't Have..."

Today was a WONDERFUL day!!!! (PS...for those of you that don't go to NewBreak, the title of this post is one of Mike's famous one liners that I LOVE and it truly fits my day today).

This morning started out with me waking up before the kids (no alarm) and getting to have a wonderful quiet time. I even was able to take a nice long shower before the kids were awake...heaven! It's the little things in life, right?!? It's definitely a choice to have joy in your heart, but it also helps when you are able to start the morning off peacefully! A little after I was showered and dressed, I heard my beautiful kiddos. Madison woke up in a wonderful mood (such a difference from yesterday) and Hudson was just as cute as can be! I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but he is just too cute for words in the morning. The first thing he does when I walk in his door in the morning is blow me a kiss and reach for me. The next thing he does is start looking for Madison and he just keeps saying, "hi" until she responds to him. It's seriously the cutest thing ever! What a joy to wake up to such a happy little boy each day!

Alex was able to call this morning around 8:00 am and we were able to talk to him for about forty minutes before we had to head out the door. It was wonderful, since like I've mentioned we haven't really been able to talk audibly with each other. It's pretty much been email!

Church was wonderful this morning. Pastor DJ spoke about our devotional lives and the importance of growing in our prayer lives and in the quality time we spend with God. There were a lot of wonderful takeaways this morning. I loved Pastor DJ's quote, "lack of communication {with God} is the Devil's playground."I encourage you all to evaluate the time you spend with God, just as I was encouraged to do so today. When you make it a priority, then it will become a life principle (another Pastor DJ takeaway).

My dear, sweet friend Veronica was so encouraging at church today (that is truly one of her gifts). She asked me if I'd be interested in helping the women's ministry with writing devotions because she really enjoyed my blog. What a blessing! I have been writing this blog daily for Alex, so that he can keep up with our daily goings on and God is using it for so much more! I am truly touched by the kind words that Veronica shared with me and be a few of the emails I've received in regards to the same thing.

This afternoon, while Hudson was napping, I was able to help Madison work on her Valentine's Day Cards for her class. She is so excited for the little party her class will be having. Being the room mom, I'll be making cupcakes and bringing them after their lunch. They will all be handing out and sharing their Valentine's Day Cards with each other! LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I am so thankful that I have this fun activity on one of my favorite holidays. If I can't be with the love of my life on Valentine's Day, I'm happy showing love and helping to create happiness for Madison's class.

The kids had AWANAS tonight. While they were there, Brittney and I went to Kohl's and I found the last of my accessories for my homecoming outfit!!!! I am sooooo excited! My outfit is complete. Then, tonight, I finally found a headband for Madison (that is the right color) on Etsy and ordered it. Their outfits are complete!

I am so looking forward to this week! It's going to be so much fun! It will be a week filled with extra love and hearts...two of my favorite things! I pray this week finds you smiling and enjoying the beauty that is life!

**Please continue to pray for sweet Tori! Thank you friends!**

Psalms 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Keep on praying.”

Philippians 4: 6-7 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”.

Even From Miles Away....

Well, today wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it's ending much better than it started! :)

This morning after a little issue with Madison, we went to Target to buy all of the toiletries that Alex will need when he returns home! :) So fun! When we got back to the car, I was saddened to see that I'd missed a call from Alex. We haven't been able to talk much (other than through email) since the II MEF  has arrived. All of the Wi Fi is being used up and not allowing Face Time to work. So, I was extra bummed when I saw I'd missed a call, especially after my morning!

The kids and I took pictures and sent them via the FaceBook Message App so that Alex would have some recent pictures. Don't mind Madison...she had a mouth full of strawberries (she was in the middle of lunch when I quickly decided to take these pics)...didn't realize that until after we'd already snapped it and I saw her cheeks.

After quiet time, we went to the park and the kids ran some of their energy off. We then came home and had the pot roast I'd been cooking all day, along with carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, and onions. It was the perfect day for a dinner that basically did all the work itself! Then it was baths/showers and bedtime!

I had a huge blessing land in my lap today. I am sure you all remember our dear friends Ben and Diana and their darling boys. Well, Ben called me tonight and was such a help with getting all of the information I need to get the battery fixed/replace/installed in Alex's car. I mean seriously, they live across the country from us right now (I know sad times) and he made phone calls and everything. He found the best place to get the battery and then he went out of his way to find a Toyota Certified Mechanic to install it. Both of these places are just down the street from me. Ben called and talked to the Mechanic a few different times to make sure he was legit and to ask some different questions that I had about getting the new battery. See, what did I tell you!?! What a blessing! I feel like this is actually doable now! :) So thankful for wonderful friends!!!! Hope to be near this wonderful family once again at some point down the road. It would be so neat to see our kids reunited, and of course we'd love to be near our friends!!!! It's not every day that God blesses you with this kind of friendship. Diana is a constant source of love and encouragement to me and Ben has been faithful in regularly emailing and keeping in touch with Alex this entire deployment!

***Please continue to pray for Tori. Thank you!***