Our Coast Trip

It's been a few weeks ago that we took this trip to the coast, but I just got the pictures onto my computer; so I thought I would share them.

We left on Saturday, spent the night, and came home in time for church on Sunday. We were going to spend Friday night too, but decided we shouldn't spend the money on the extra night. Matt's mom met us in Lincoln City on Saturday. We had a fun day with the kids; and my nice Mother-in-law offered to watch the kids in our room that night so we could go out together. It was nice! We didn't stay gone too long because we mostly wanted some family time.

The room we got was really nice. It was actually a condo that you could rent nightly. It was very relaxing; and just a short walk to the beach.

Sunday morning we took our time getting around; and went to the beach one more time. We have really enjoyed having church in the afternoons. It's so nice to not have to rush around getting all the kids around on Sunday mornings. We can actually enjoy Sunday mornings instead of getting to church all stressed out! Anyway, I'm getting a little off track here. We've never taken a weekend family trip like this because we would feel too guilty missing church; and we would be way stressed out if we tried to get around early enough to make it to church. So it was very nice to take our time.

Anyway, here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure!:

Christian on the beach we went to Sunday morning

it was fairly warm; so we let them go wading.

Anthony & Ruby fell and got completly wet.

They had extra cloths, thank goodness!

The beach by our room had really nice tide pools to explore.

Anthony had alot of fun playing in the sand.

Matt, flying the kite. It was nice, but pretty windy.

Good kite flying weather!

Ruby & Garrison the wind was starting to get to them.

We left soon after this picture.

Somehow I got 2 of these pictures on here.

I can't seem to get this one off:) Oh, well!

Here's a 4 legged starfish that we saw.

Gramma with all the kids

Our dirty, wind chilled, happy family!

Here's a good picture of my Mother-in-law flying the kite.

She was very good at it.

For some weird reason it made me nervous to fly it!

I guess I was afraid it would fly right out of my hands, silly me!:):0

Early Memories

I was laying in bed trying to take a nap with the baby (it wasn't working), and I began to think about memories I had while we lived in the little house on Kirk Ave. It's the first house I remember living in. I think I was 4 or 5 when we moved out; so I was pretty little. Anyway, I thought I would share those memories with all of you. As I was remembering these things I was picturing Christian or Ruby doing these things (I must have been around that age). It made me smile.

I remember one time while my big sisters were away at school I found some treasures! I wanted to share them with the family; so I waited for everyone to get home and then I had everybody sit down so I could show them my "treasures". I pulled out of a paper bag a chicken egg! (we had chickens, and this must have been before it was my job to collect the eggs). Anyway, I was very proud that I had went into the chicken pen and retrieved this egg. My mom had to tell me that I wasn't supposed to go into the chicken pen by myself yet. She also had to tell me that it actually wasn't an egg; it was some sort of hard vegetable that she had thrown in there for them to eat. It sure did LOOK like an egg! I also had in my bag of "treasures" a fuzzy caterpillar. Now this was a true treasure and everyone had to ooh and aah over it. I also had to tell everyone how we should get rid of our rooster because he was being mean to the other chickens. I had seen him jumping on them and pecking them! For some reason we didn't get rid of him as I had suggested!

Sara, my aunt, who is my age, was always at our house. I remember there was a neighbor boy that came over a lot too. I think he was kind of ornery. Anyway, he somehow talked Sara into picking up slugs and feeding them to the chickens. The chickens LOVED them! But, Sara had picked all these slugs up with her bare hands (for some reason there had been a lot of them). She tried and tried, but she couldn't wash the slime off of her hands, and we had pizza that night! I remember my dad especially was very mad about the situation.

I can remember my mom laying down with me to take a nap (supposedly to get me to sleep, I assume); but I can remember her going to sleep instead and me getting into things. Somehow this sounds very familiar! Now that I think of it she was probably pregnant with Crispin at the time and very tired. I was probably a handful!

I also remember Alicia sharing with us some Bubble gum that she stole from the store.

Now you know some of my weird early memories. There's a blog idea for some of you that have blogger's block! Share your memories! Maybe next time I'll share some of my more nicer memories; like the time I remember we prayed for dead baby chick who ended up living! But that is when we lived in a different house; so it doesn't belong in this blog!

The Great Nightly Battle, Part 1

Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, there lived a young boy named Anthony. Anthony was a very cute boy, and his mother loved him very much. Anthony also slept through the night every night (well, almost). This made his Daddy and Mommy very happy!

Then one evening Anthony woke up in the night and came to his Mommy's bedside; because his Mommy loved him so much (and because she was too sleepy to send him back to his bed), she pulled him in to bed with her. There he slept contentedly till morning, snuggled between his Daddy and Mommy. Everything was right in his world. His Daddy and Mommy enjoyed snuggling with him occasionally too.

The next night he woke up again, remembering how nice it felt to snuggle with his Daddy and Mommy he, once again came to his Mommy's bedside; and because she enjoyed snuggling with him too (and she was too tired to send him back to his own bed, this was easier, and it wasn't so bad), she pulled up in bed with her once again. Our cute young hero slept and snuggled to his hearts content!

Here is our young hero, you guessed it,

asleep in Daddy and Mommy's bed!
Sleeping on the coveted "Mommy's pillow".

As the days and weeks went by, every night, in the midst of the night, Anthony would find his way to his Mommy's bedside, and get to spend the rest of the night with her and Daddy. Daddy was getting a little tired of this, and he decided (and Mommy agreed) that the occasional cuddle in Daddy & Mommy's bed is ok; but it wasn't good to get in the habit every night. Thus the battle ensued....

The very next night our little Anthony made his way to his Daddy & Mommy's room. But what is this? The door is closed! This is not supposed to be! So our little hero began to cry! How dare they close their door to him! He cried until Mommy came to the door. Now he was going to get his nightly snuggle with Daddy and Mommy! But, alas, this was not to be! Mommy came through the door and closed it behind her! Anthony began to cry again and say "I want Mommy's pillow!" Mommy didn't seem to hear him though, and marched him back to his room and put him back in his bed! Anthony couldn't believe this! He began to cry louder, but Mommy just disappeared into her room and closed the door! Here she comes out again carrying something! It looks like Mommy's pillow! She brings it to little Anthony to sleep on in his bed. This is her peace offering for making him sleep in his own bed. Anthony still doesn't like it! He still cries. Mommy tries to soothe him, but he is not happy about this turn of events! Mommy eventually decides to lay down with Anthony until he goes to sleep. Anthony likes this better, and eventually he curls up with Mommy's pillow and goes back to sleep. After awhile Mommy softly goes back to her room to get some more sleep.

The next night, Anthony decides to try to sleep with Daddy and Mommy again. He goes up to the door, that's still closed, and cries until Mommy opens the door. This time he doesn't make the same mistake and he says "I want Mommy's bed." Mommy ignores him and sends him back to bed. She tries to talk soothingly to him, but he will not listen. He is not getting his way; so he will throw a fit! She finally goes back to bed, and after awhile he quiets down and goes to sleep.

Every night the same thing happens. Mommy just won't let him get in bed with her anymore; and Anthony throws a fit. Usually succeeding in waking his baby brother up. Nothing seems to work. No matter how much Anthony cries Mommy still won't give in. No matter how much Mommy won't give in, and tries to calm Anthony down He refuses to give up and stop throwing his nightly fit!

Who will win the battle? Will Anthony go back to sleeping with Daddy and Mommy? Or will he go back to sleeping through the night and only occasionally getting to snuggle with Daddy and Mommy? Mommy hopes this is not the end of the story....

To be continued...

Servitude

Matt and I pray together every night before we settle in for the night. This has been very good for us throughout our married life. When we know we have to pray before we go to sleep it's hard to go to bed upset at each other, or other things.

Anyway, last night as we were praying I listened to Matt. He started out "Thank-you Lord for you many blessings, please work things out with out house." Now, I'm not really pointing a finger at him because I prayed a very simular prayer; but as I was listening to him I started thinking about servitude... How we're supposed to be servants to God, not the other way around. God isn't up there to give us everything we need or want to make our life comfortable. When we were baptized we chose to be his servants to do what He wanted us to do; and in doing so our life would be better.

So many times I thank God for all he's done, and then ask for more. Yet what do I do for him? There's so many things that I really don't want to have to do for him; or that I'm uncomfortable with. I'm scared of speaking in prophesy, afraid I'll make a mistake; I'm not really comfortable reaching out to those who have strayed because usually their lifestyle is so different than mine; and I don't know how to relate to them; I don't want to give up things I enjoy doing because God might have better things for me to do. The list could go on and on. Oh, there's lots of things I'm willing to do; I'm just not willing to do anything he asks of me.

As a master God takes good care of me. He takes care of my needs. Do I really have the heart of a servant? Do I do unquestioning what God wants me to? Expecting no praise because it is just my duty as a servant. Or do I just keep asking more of God; hoping that he doesn't ask more of me?

Anyway, I had these thoughts going through my mind, and I thought I would share them. Please pray for me that I would have the heart of a servant. Because I know that if I serve God to the best of my ability my life will be so much better.

Prayers

I don't think I will usually post 2 blogs in one day, but in my last blog I mentioned Matt giving me my good-bye kiss.

Even though I had been sleeping I remembered to tell him I hoped his neck doesn't hurt today. Let me explain....

Before we were married we were in a car accident. A drunk, uninsured motorist ran a stop sign. The car was totalled, and for the most part we were all just pretty bruised up. My mom broke her collarbone. God was really watching out for us because I know it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, every since then Matt has had some trouble with his neck. It's not like a constant thing, but every once in awhile when it's under too much strain the problems resurface.

Well for the last few days at work he's been grinding, and he has to reach above his head and look up. He's been doing the same thing all day for the last couple of days. He said yesterday that he got really close to asking to leave early because his neck was hurting him so bad. The nice thing is that he was supposed to work late yesterday and for some reason they decided to let him go at the usual time. God is so good about little things like this!

Anyway, he supposed to do the same thing all day today; so please just pray for him that his neck won't bother him so much.

Thanks.

Celebrating!

My baby slept 9 straight hours last night!!!

I am so thankful! He went to sleep at 9:3o, which he NEVER does. Usually if he goes to sleep that early he wakes up just a little while later ready to be awake for awhile. I don't know why. But last night was different! I'm just sooo happy about this!

At about 4 Anthony woke me up wanting to get in bed with us (he does this every night lately). I was amazed that the baby was still sleeping. I almost checked him to make sure he was ok!! Since I was awake and Matt would be getting up in another hour I took the opportunity to get up and make Matt's lunch; then I went back to bed. The baby still had not woke up!

I woke up again briefly when Matt's alarm went off, and then when he kissed me good-bye. Still the baby had not woke up!

Garrison finally woke up at 6:30. by that time I was in a little bit of pain (I nurse him), but it was sooo worth it! So I nursed him, and because he was still a little sleepy (and so was I); we joined Anthony in my bed and just snuggled and dozed off and on until Ruby joined us about 8:30. We all snuggled for a few minutes (this is why we bought a King size bed) and then we got up!

So far this has been a great morning!

Cherishing

This morning I got up with Matt (as usual) to make his lunch for the day. I (as usual) was very sleepy from already getting up a couple of times with the kids. I went about making his lunch and was headed back up the stairs to see how much more sleep I could squeeze in before I had to get up again. I met Matt halfway up the stairs on his way down. Now every morning I get a good bye kiss and sometimes a hug before he heads off for the day. I would really miss it if he forgot. Actually one morning he did forget, and I mentioned it too him. He told me that he had kissed me good-by, but I was sleeping in bed and must not have woke up enough to remember it.

Anyway, this morning was different. We stood there on the stairs for what seemed like a long time (definitely longer than normal); and we just held each other for awhile. It was a wonderful moment when the kids were still sleeping and we could just enjoy the cherished and loved feeling that comes with just holding each other for awhile. It was a wonderful way to start the day. Too many times we get caught up in our responsibilities that we forget to take the time to really cherish each other.

Peer Pressure!

Well, here I am giving into peer pressure! I hope you all feel good about yourselves pressuring me like this :) I just want to be a part of the "in" crowd!

Seriously, I thought I'd give this blogging thing a try. It seems like a fun way to keep in touch with everyone! Since I've started thinking about starting a blog I've had all sorts of thoughts about different things I want to blog about! Let's see if I follow through!

I would like to figure out how to personalize my blog page so that it's more like me. Pointers anyone? I have no clue about how to go about doing it. Number one thing is figuring out how to become connected to all of you guys who are already on here. I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go along! Well Happy Blogging everyone!