UNO!

We purchased our first set of UNO cards at the beginning of the year, as I started planning Timothy's UNO themed b-day. The kids learned to play, and LOVE it!

For Micah's birthday, his Aunt Shannon and Aunt Megan sent him UNO Attack, which (in Micah's words) is UNO with a machine.

We've played it a few times, and were able to enjoy a fun game with Papaw and Memaw when they were in town a couple weeks ago.

Benjamin's face as he played a draw 2 card.

Micah's sneaky face

Wordless Wednesday

Amen!

This morning, I was blessed by an amazing sermon. So thankful for Pastor Wade, and his ability to share about God's power and grace. This verse also fits in with the previous post.

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10

Control

Hi! My name is Kierstyn, and I like to have control. Some might even say that I have control issues.

Hi, Kierstyn!!!

The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

This is not a new revelation to me. Struggling to be the one in control of the events in my life is something I've been doing for well over a decade. And just when I think I have this control issue under control, something out of my control happens.

Though I'm still struggling, I like to think that I've made some progress in this particular area of my life. Recently, what I've found interesting is seeing how I handle the events in life that are out of my control verses someone who is not a believer, struggling with an out of control event.

This past week, a discussion on a FB page that I'm a part of was started. The conversation revolved around the possible causes of craniosynistosis. It was interesting to hear the lengths that some parents went to (blood tests for the entire family) as they sought the cause of this deformity. Though Curtis and I have recently learned that the cause of Benjamin's cranio might have been a drug I took during pregnancy, we've had to wrestle with the fact that something like this just happened. It was a very hard struggle for me to realize that sometimes, these things happen with no particular cause. I wanted to know how this had happened, who was at fault, and what I could do to prevent it from happening to any other children we had. But after talking with several doctors, we realized that most of the time, these things just happen. There's nothing we could do to prevent it. There was nothing we could have done differently.

That's a hard pill for a momma to swallow. This was what I saw in the discussion of other cranio moms. Some of them just HAD to have an answer.

I, on the other had, swallowed that hard pill, knowing that I might not know what caused Benjamin's cranio, and I moved on. Though I still don't understand why God chose that road for us, I see his loving hand, guiding us while we walked it.

I naively thought that I was done. God had grown our faith, pushed us, and shown us his love and faithfulness. Check! Done.

HA!

When Timothy was born at 35 weeks with a cleft lip, I again struggled with being out of control. Last spring, God and I did a lot of communing. Mostly, it was me, whining and complaining about how hard things were, and how I didn't understand, and how it didn't make sense, while at the same time being thankful that it wasn't any worse, and thankful that things were working out.

Once again, I was brought to my knees.

And that's where I need to stay. Not because I'm afraid that God will bring another event into my life to show my lack of control, but because that's what He asks me to do. To trust, obey, pray, and seek his will.

Though I'm not there yet, I'm thankful that God is working in my, growing me, and helping me to relax..... just a little.

An only child

First day of Spring, last day of Spring Break

The birthday bike

A couple weeks ago, I went to several garage sales with my friend, Christi. I told myself that I only had $20 in cash, and that I would be spending that money on clothes for the kids. At one of the last stops that we made, I found a Spiderman bike that I knew Micah would love. Since I had my hands full, I quickly wrapped my legs around it and started yelling for Christi. I spent my last $10, and started texting Curtis with my exciting news.

When he looked at it, he noticed that it would need a little work. Despite that, he too thought we had a steal of a deal, and was very excited to fix it up for Micah's b-day.

As we got further into the process of bike repair, we realized it wouldn't be as cheap as we originally thought. The repairs ended up costing just over $40!

We spend a total of $50 on this b-day present, which was a bit more than we were planning on.

The kicker came when we found out that we could buy a brand new bike for only $25 more. Bummer!

Despite the fact that the bike wasn't quite the steal of a deal that I was expecting, Micah was still really excited.

Happy birthday, Micah!

Sweet Micah,

I can't believe that you are five years old!! I clearly remember the day you were born, and how joyful your Daddy and I were to be welcoming our first son into our family. You were such a big baby, and now you're such a big boy!! My prayer is that you will continue to grow and be strong, that you will be a godly man, who loves the Lord and his family.

I'm so thankful for you, and for the how God chose me to be your Mommy. You are such a blessing to my life. I'm thankful for your quiet, sweet, caring personality. I love the joy and light that you bring into our lives. You are a sweet boy, and I love you!!

Happy birthday, Micah!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sleeping with the monkeys

Cute Jammies

My mom got these adorable jammies for Micah and Benjamin, three years ago. I love matching my kids, especially in matching jammies! So I was really excited to put Timothy in the same jammies that his brothers wore.

And for old time sake, here's a pic of the big boys, three years ago, in their airplane jammies.

Conversation

Curtis: I don't think we should let Elizabeth fill up the bunny's water.
Me: Uh Oh.
Curtis: The lid was off and there's water filling the bottom of his cage.
Me: Well, in her defense, she filled up the water bottle at the same time Benjamin tried to catch the bathroom on fire, so she was a little distracted.
Curtis: True!

Oh, how crazy my life is!

Love and dedication

I have been very blessed to be surrounded by many committed, loving, dedicated marriages.

My parents have been married for almost 34 years.

Curtis' parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary shortly before my mother-in-law passed away.

Both sets of my grandparents are still living, and are still happily married.

This past fall, my Papa fell. Since his fall, he's faced an uphill battle to recover. He's struggled with physical therapy, reoccurring infections and hospitalizations, and saddest of all, bouts of dementia. Through it all, my amazing Grandma has been by his side. She will spend the night at the rehab center with him, reads to him, talks with him and gives him hope.

After watching this video, I was reminded of how blessed Curtis and I are to be surrounded by so many amazing marriages. We also have a great cloud of witnesses in Curtis' mom, and his grandparents, watching as we strive to have a godly marriage.




The kind of love and dedication shown in this clip are rare. A marriage like that doesn't come easily. But it's always worth the fight. That's one thing that I've learned in the mere 10 years that Curtis and I have been married. A good marriage, a lasting marriage, a committed "till death do us part" marriage, doesn't just happen. It's a fight, a hard, sometimes uphill battle. But God rewards faithfulness. That's the promise and the hope that Curtis and I have.

Saturday

Half of my children are enjoying a quiet Saturday morning, watching TV and having some milk. The other half of my children are still sleeping.

Happy Saturday!

And isn't it nice to see that the spitting that happened yesterday had no lasting effect on their friendship. If anything, I'm almost afraid that it strengthened the bonds of brotherhood.

Conversation

Me: Micah, did you spit on Timothy?
Micah: Yes.
Me: Why?!?!
Micah: I thought it would be funny.
Me: It's not funny, it's gross.
Micah: I'm sorry.

The thing that astounds me about this conversation is how calm, and ordinary it went. Even I shake my head at my life, thoughts and conversations.

Poor Micah

Micah somehow managed to slam his finger in a kitchen cabinet, while standing on the counter.

No, it's not broken.

Yes, he's quite miserable.

These boys are really making my life exciting....

Oh, Benjamin....

On Monday, I heard a very odd, very loud noise coming from the boys' room, where the three older kiddos were playing.

I was in and see this.....
and quickly realize that one of the fan blades is no longer attached to the fan!

I think my reaction went something like, "Who???..... What???...... How????" Benjamin fessed up and said, "I did it, Mommy. I throwded a ball into the fan. But I did not know it would break! That was an assident. I am sorry!"

Sure enough, I found the blade in the hallway!
Happy Valentine's Day, Curtis! You get to fix a fan ceiling fan right before our house goes on the market again!

Boys......

What really happened

Aren't the pictures in the post below lovely? You could almost look at them, and this that we had a sweet, fun, enjoyable, just as planned Valentine's Day.

But what's the fun in that?

Curtis and I have a long, sorted history with this particular holiday, all starting with a virtual rose. Valentine's Day just never seems to work out for us. Since we've had kids, we've been able to move towards more of the fun side of the holiday, worrying less about the romantic side of the holiday.

Last year, we had a 12 day old preemie. We did nothing to commemorate the day! Nothing! I have a picture of Timothy in his "First Valentine's Day" outfit, and that's it.

So this year, we wanted to do something special for each other. In an attempt to avoid that craziness of the day itself, we decided to go for the "movie and take out at home after the kids go to bed" route. I went to Krogers to pick up some special desserts, and corndogs for the kids, and was immediately hit with Valentin's day, in all it's glory!



I made my purchases, dodged some balloon ribbons, and headed home, armed with cheesecake, chocolate dipped strawberries, adult beverages and a movie. Curtis went and picked up Chinese food. We also got a little Valentine's Day bonus......



a sick, screaming baby who wouldn't sleep.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We tried again the next night, only to deal again with our sick little one.

Valentine's Day itself brought t-shirt making and exhaustion. At this point, Timothy had put us through five straight nights with little sleep. In true, parents of four style, we folded laundry and watched a movie.

We were so hard core this year, we even bought each other cards! However, the card I got for Curtis is still in the van, and the card he got for me is on his dresser. Maybe we should just save them for next year?

The really bright spot in our attempted celebration of the day was that Curtis brought me home a dozen red roses. Made my day (and week, and possibly month!). I love getting flowers, especially roses, and it was such a treat. He also showed what an awesome dad he is by bringing Elizabeth home a pink rose.

So though our plans were far from what we expected, it was a wonderful time of celebration!

Valentine's Day

Cell phone pics of Timothy

Life has been moving at an alarmingly rapid rate. I can hardly believe that we're already half was through February!! Here's a little update (thanks to pics from my cell) on the one year old of the house.


My forward facing big boy loves "talking" on his toy phone that he got from Elizabeth for his birthday. "HI!" is a new favorite word.

Last Friday, Timothy got sick. High temp that hit in the afternoon and lasted through the night. Which meant there was lots of this.....
but not a lot of sleep. Which left us all feeling like this.....
Thankfully, after a full six days, he's fine. Now we just have to get him sleeping well again!

Four Forward Facing Funny Faces

I now have four forward facing kiddos! Wasn't it just yesterday when I took this picture??
What a difference a year can make!

This is Timothy's new "I see a camera, so I'm going to smile" face. Love it!! He was also a little frustrated that I was taking his picture. He's been fighting off a nasty virus, and was a not happy about being in the car. He was also a wee bit confused to be forward facing.