My Miracle

I tend to be a negative person. Instead of focusing on the things God has blessed me with, I tend to focus on the things He still hasn't done for or given to me. Most days I feel like my prayers go unanswered. Even though I know deep down that it's all in His timing and that there's a reason for everything, that doesn't make it less hard sometimes.

I've prayed and yearned for a new house. It hasn't happened. We don't have stellar credit, there's no way someone would buy ours, who knows if we could even afford another one, are all reasons that it has been put on the backburner. I've even prayed and yearned for enough money just to fix the one I have up. It wouldn't be a bad house and I wouldn't mind staying there for a while if we could just fix it up.

I've asked God to please show us a way to make more money so we can have another child. We live paycheck to paycheck now so I know we won't be able to afford another child while Brayden is still in daycare. I don't even know how we'll afford one once we have extracurricular expenses for Brayden plus daycare expenses for a new baby. So far, that prayer has fallen on deaf ears and even though I know it's all in His timing, it's still hard. Who knows, it may be in His plan for us to only have one.

But the other morning, I was driving to work after I dropped Brayden off thinking about what a great weekend we had and God practically hit me over the head with my negativity and showed me something huge. He's already granted one of my most requested prayers, the most important one, and I've hardly given Him any credit for it. I've just kept on living my life like nothing HUGE happened. For years, I've prayed for my husband. I wanted him to become a Christian more than anything, to know and love God, to be the spiritual leader in our house. I'd pretty much given up hope that it would ever happen. But my God granted me a miracle. My husband knows and loves God now. My husband will spend eternity with me. My husband is the leading force in the fact that we get up and get ready and go to Sunday School and church every Sunday. My sweet boy now has a daddy who can show him what it means to be a mighty man of God and will lead him into becoming the spiritual leader in his family. For years, I've done things on my own. Taken Brayden to church on my own. Gone to birthday parties on my own. I've felt many times like a single parent. But God has changed that! My husband chooses to attend birthday parties with us, he chooses to spend time with us on the weekend doing fun things as a family, he chooses to either go grocery shopping with me or watch Brayden so I can go alone (unless Brayden pitches an absolute fit to go with me and then I can't resist).

If you had asked me 2 years ago what I wanted more than anything. If you'd asked me 2 years ago which prayer request I wanted answered the most. It would be that my husband would come to know and love Christ. AND GOD ANSWERED THAT PRAYER. And here I am, griping and complaining about which ones aren't being answered. Here I sit wishing God would just please help me and hear my cries and give me a new house and a baby. All the while totally forgetting the one huge thing he's done for our family in the last year. That realization was all I needed to see that I don't care about a new house and I don't care if we have to wait a little longer for a baby because my husband, my best friend, the father of my child, will spend eternity in Heaven.

The crazy thing is that my marriage has been totally transformed as well. I love spending time with Tyler and while he's always made me laugh, he's had me in stitches every time we've been together lately. I get giddy thinking about the fact that I get to spend the rest of my life with him. I feel like we're in a brand new relationship. And, if you think about it, we kind of are. Because Tyler is a brand new person.

So, thank you God. I'm sorry that I've not given You the honor and praise for this miracle You've performed in my life. I'm sorry I get hung up on all the things You haven't done for me. Thank you for who You are. Thank you that You have a plan for my life, that You know what my days will consist of, that You are in control. Please help me to remember that when I start to doubt.

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Happy Birthday Nana & Weekend Recap

Saturday was Mom's birthday and we had a great, albeit long, day. :)

We kept Bentley Saturday because Brooke was helping her sister-in-law with a craft show. Brooke dropped her off at my house around 8:10 since we tend to be early risers. We had a great morning. We even got in a lot of great group hugs. (Please ignore my hair, Bentley was fixing it for me)

We met up with Nana around 11 to start her list of things she wanted to do for her birthday. First up was lunch at her favorite place - O'Carr's.

After that we hit up the toy store and Bentley's love for baby dolls grew. She takes her mothering skills seriously. I took the baby's blanket one time and put it up so we wouldn't drag it through the store and she said "NO! Need blanket! Cold!"

Then we went to the park because it was a beautiful day!

 

Brooke met up with us at the park and we headed to get Snow Cones. We decided that since neither of the kids had gotten naps, we would forego dinner out and pick up something to go and take to Brooke's. Brayden napped on the way home (Hallelujah!) and after a weepy wakeup he was fine. He even got to go down and feed the animals. Brooke bundled him up in all she had and when I sent a picture to his daddy, he said you need to take that off now! Why are men so weird? It's not like it's having a lasting effect on him!

As you can tell, we were going pretty much all day long. I was reminded yet again why I am a working mom because there is no way I could stay home all day. I also learned why the pounds seem to be falling off of my sister - you never sit down! When Bentley was at my house all morning, between the 2 of them, I was never able to sit down and relax. It was go go go all the time! It was fun, but definitely not something I could do every day. So, I found a new respect for my sister!

 

Brayden and Bentley are so lucky to have such a fantastic grandmother. All of her plans for her birthday included things that would make them happy. She is pretty much the best grandmother on the planet!

 

Sunday we went to John Darby's birthday party. The theme was pumpkins and it was so cute!

Nate was there so Brayden was ecstatic. They ran around like they'd never been let loose in public before, throwing sticks and tearing up the games, typical boy stuff I guess. Or at least I hope. It was such a great party. They got to pick a pumpkin out of the "patch" and decorate it.

They also thought it was great fun to see if they could make Claire laugh. Most of the time they succeeded, but it was giving me a mini stroke. They would jump right by her, make funny faces right in her face, and practically yell at her. The funny thing is, she pretty much loved every minute of it!

After Brayden and Nate did it, Zeke had to join in on the fun too.

After the party, we went home and I enjoyed watching these 2 play ball while I drank some Coke Zero and ate some Bareheads.

It was such a fabulous weekend!



Conversations with Brayden

I have had some pretty funny (& sweet) (but mostly funny) conversations with the Bray lately so I wanted to document them:

* One day we were in the car on the way home from Brooke's house and Puppy (his stuffed dog) was barking and wouldn't stop. Brayden said "Puppy if you don't stop barking I'm going to spank you." Obviously Puppy didn't stop because Brayden spanked him and then told him he was going to time out when we got home. Brayden put Puppy on his bed when we got home. I stood in the hall and listened when he went back to his room to tell Puppy he could come out of time out. This is what I heard: "You know why I put you in timeout, because you wouldn't stop barking. I still love you even though I had to spank you."

* After cutting grass one evening I came in the house, plopped down on the couch, and said "Man I'm sore". Brayden said "Why?". I said "I guess because I've been out cutting grass." He said "Oh baby, where are the sores?" I just went along with it and said "my arms and legs". He said "Let me see, where at, right here, you need to get a bandaid on those!"

* "Mom, if I'm good when we go to Tarjay (his daddy's name for Target), can I get some Bareheads?" (Airheads, his most favorite candy ever)

* I bumped my ear on a table one night while I was leaning down to plug my phone in and it hurt! (Side note: I never realized how sensitive ears are. I barely hit the table, but my ear was throbbing in pain!) Brayden was in the room with me and said "What happened Momma?" I told him I bumped my ear. He said "Here let me look at it, I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up." "Aww you have a bump on your ear!" That bump is a scar from where I've had my ears pierced so many times and scar tissue has built up.

* Last night we went camping in his Cars tent. He packed his backpack and put his pillow and sleeping bag in the tent. When I climbed in the tent, he said "Let's get out the 'plies" and pulled his backpack out. In it were puppy and a box of Legos. He really knows the necessities for camping. I said "Where are the snacks and drinks?" because let's face, that's what I live for. :) He said "Oh I forgot." So I said we'd just pretend and picked up a Lego and said it was bread. He said "Hold on" and left the tent and came back with a bag of leftover cornbread and a pack of hamburger buns and said "Here's some real bread." Haha he makes me laugh so hard!

I sure do love that kid!

I'm linking up for the Let's Be Friends Blog Hop with Tiffany today! Come make some new friends!

So What Wednesday #1

I'm linking up with Shannon for the first time for So What Wednesday.


I'm saying So What if:

1. I like Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. I know, don't shoot me! Even though I don't want to support her crazy antics and it goes against all my morals & beliefs, if you ignore who sings the song and the fact that the video is pretty much soft porn, it's really not a bad song!

2. Brayden cried to sleep with us until 10:30 Monday night so we let him.

3. I want to buy so many things right now! I want new boots, new clothes, and some Scentsy products!

4. Scentsy is having Monster Monday sales and I'm thinking about taking advantage of it next Monday!

5. I'm already thinking about Thanksgiving plans - it's only a month away and I need to know what the plans are!

6. I have fallen so hard off my healthy eating lifestyle and even though I've told you 3 times I need to get back on it, I still haven't.

7. Tyler and I have consumed 3 half gallons of ice cream over the past 2 weekends. Ice cream is my weakness! I could eat it for every meal and sometimes on the weekends, I do. :/

What are you saying So What to?

Birthday Parties & the Pumpkin Patch!

We seriously had the best weekend we've had in a long time. Tyler spent pretty much the entire weekend with us except for Friday night when he was working and that's pretty rare. Life is so much easier when he tags along because he carries Brayden and buckles him in his carseat and I enjoy that so much!

Friday night we went to Aubrey's 2nd birthday party and had so much fun.

Bentley is obssessed with babies. She always points them out when she sees one in public and she's just so attracted to them. She became enamored with Adelaide toward the end of the party and it was so funny watching it.

Saturday morning we went to Nate's birthday party. Nate is one of Brayden's best friends and I love watching them interact. It was such a cool party! It was a race car theme and Brayden got to get a tattoo, color a wooden racecar, race cars down a ramp, jump in a "race bounce" and so many other fun things. I wish I had gotten a picture of Nate and Brayden, but I didn't.

We finally got his Halloween costume that afternoon and I love it! He looks SO adorable in it and I can't wait for him to wear it. 

Sunday after church, we headed for the pumpkin patch! It was packed! I have never seen so many people, but we still had a great time. Brayden jumped in the cotton bounce, took a gander at the farm animals, picked some cotton, and climbed the hay mountain.

After that, we jumped on the hayride to head out to the pumpkin patch. (Not really, we waited in line for about an hour)

Poor Bent was not in a good mood that day. She wasn't feeling well and was pretty much done with the pumpkin patch after about 5 minutes of being there.

We got out to the patch and found our pumpkins and then waited another hour to ride the hayride back.

On our way out we stopped and did the corn maze and took a family pic. It was a gorgeous day and even though it was packed, we had the best time!

Of course, when we got home we carved our pumpkins. I actually carved mine all by myself this year and I was so proud! Mine is the Boo one. :)