MARLEE-GIRL

My sweet Marlee baby will be 2 tomorrow. I love her humor, her laughter, her newlyfound screaming at the top of her lungs for no reason but fun. She is such a joy to be around. Lately she has been wanting to help with everything from throwing diapers away to clearing off the table. She is obsessed with babies and finds them in every book that has a baby in it and says babybabybabybaby over and over again. She has become a little pistol lately too. Gaining some independence that has been learned from having three older siblings take everything away from her that isn't hers. She loves to jump on the couch and slide down off the edge doing a flip. She loves to dance and does a sweet little slow dance with herself when a slower song comes on. The darling rests her head on her shoulder and rocks back and forth. She is a little bunch of love all bundled up into that sweet little face and loving little arms. I love you my little Marlee-girl.

34

My birthday was awesome. The kids gave me the Pioneer Woman cookbook and Kev gave me the Julia Child cookbook. I got beautiful flowers on Friday that the kids ordered with daddy. I opened the box up and set them out-when Noah got home he saw them right away and said "you opened your flowers? we were supposed to wrap them." He was so upset he brought himself to tears and I had to explain how they can't stay in the box or they would die. He is so caring and loving and it is so awesome to see how special that kind of a thing is for them to do for me. They all made me beautiful personalized cards and I got lots of hugs.
We headed to my parents house to drop the kids off so Kev and I could have lunch and do some shopping. To Joann of course! I am addicted to fabric and can't wait to get enough stuff done to open an etsy shop! Mom and the kids made a great fajita meal and I had hot fudge brownie sundaes for my cake. It was a wonderful evening with the family.
I was also spoiled by Tonya on friday night. She made a delicious lasagna dinner for the whole family with some great cakes from Arnie's. It was great to not have to cook a big meal for two days in a row! She also made me two beautiful pairs of earrings.
I am incredibly blessed with lots of people who love me and am so thankful to my hubby for taking the time with the kids to make it special.

TRUTH

I am feeling defeated today. Defeated by the dishes, laundry, toys all over, piles needing to be gone through, and lack of feeling like I can accomplish finishing any of it. More so, it is the fact that I may finish something but it just starts back up again. I know this is life and some days are just harder to do the daily stuff than others. I want to sit back and read a book and do nothing else-for the whole day. Today this is the way I feel.

The good thing is that I know what is the TRUTH. It is not my feelings that define me but the truth of knowing God loves me no matter how I feel about things. He reminds me that I love my life. I am incredibly blessed with a hard working, loving, supportive husband, 5 wonderful children, a home that I love(most of the time), the laundry which makes me grateful we have good clothes, the dishes that are created because of full plates of food, and piles that mean we live here.

How can I not be reminded of this truth when I have this precious face to look into while she points to my seat and says "mama" because she wants me to have lunch with her. They make all the 'stuff' worth it.

Phillipians 4:8 Christian brothers, keep your minds thinking about whatever is true, whatever is respected, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever can be loved, and whatever is well thought of. If there is anything good and worth giving thanks for think about these things.

OURS

There is something that is so cool about having children. You can say they are yours because God gave them to us. You can bring them up how you want and pray they turn out to be good people. Raising them is a wonderful gift, a gift God gave us five times and I love each one with all my heart. Here they are all together from our Christmas photo shoot.

COLLIN

I got these great photos of Collin on Thanksgiving. He is such a smart, fun, talented kid that our kids just adore. He knows that we love him unconditionally and we love getting to know him and where his heart is at. Collin spent the night over Christmas break and we enjoyed spending time with him, playing the Wii, Pictureka, and just being goofy. It is his birthday soon and he will be 12 already. Hard to believe what craziness he has been through in his young life and we are blessed at his age that he wants to spend time with us. I know God has been keeping him safe.


Grandma Meyer and Collin

3 MONTHS

today my baby levi is 3 months old. oh how fast 3 months have come and gone. loving every time i get to hold the sweet baby, kiss his head, wipe his tears, and soak in his smell. loving his laugh, especially when i tickle his neck or listen to him laugh the most when i laugh with him. he spent his first nite away over new years with grandma and grandpa o. he adores all the kids and loves to look at them when he is awake. the movement of the big kids makes him kick his feet and make his sweet baby noises. naomi makes him laugh with all of her animal sounds. marlee likes to give levi his paci, cover him up with blankets, and pull the music toy on his seat. he is loved beyond measure.