Miracles Here, Miracle There, I See Miracles Everywhere

Heather and I have been extremely blessed since we have been married.  Yes, we have had our share of hardships, but both of us will agree that the blessing in our lives have outweighed the struggles.  The Lord has had a hand in our lives and we are very grateful for this.

The past couple of weeks have been filled with blessings to help compensate for our trials.

Our first trial. Our van needed to be safety inspected.  We had a check engine light that was on and so we needed to have the codes reset.  I knew that it was an exhaust problem because we have dealt with it before.  This time when I read the codes it came back as a deteriorating catalytic converter.  These cost quite a bit.  Heather and I were a little concerned about where the cash would come from.  The following week we had a problem develop at work that needed to be taken care of quickly.  I was allowed to work overtime which is a rare opportunity.  It may seem like just a coincidence, but I have found that it never is.  It was a real blessing for Heather and me because now the financial impact of having to have our van fixed is less.  So that would be miracle #1.

Trial two.  Monday afternoon Lily came home from school.  She didn't eat anything complaining that her stomach hurt.  As the evening progressed she continued to feel worse until she started to throw up.  After that she threw up every 20 minutes and it lasted all night.  Once we gave her a blessing she started to feel better pretty quickly.  That alone can be considered a miracle, but there is more.  On the odd occasion a cold front comes in and creates a storm using the humidity from the ocean.  I am sure that you all have heard about Atlanta and the traffic jam.  Well, we were caught in the same storm, but not nearly as bad.  This was suppose to happen at 4:00 pm Tuesday and so school was canceled so Lily didn't need to miss school.  It was also cancelled on Wednesday and today.  So there are miracles #2 and #3.  Miracle #4 was that on Monday, Heather had the impression that she should finish all of our laundry.  She thought it was just in case we lost power during the storm (Lily hadn't been sick yet), but if she had not done it we would have run out of Lily's warm clothes by Tuesday morning with how often we had to change her. Yes, both Lily and Skyler were able to play in the snow yesterday and there will be pictures at the bottom of the post.

So the rest of our trials this week have come from this stomach bug that Lily brought home.  Heather woke up on Wednesday with it.  I was able to give her a blessing and by the end of the day she was feeling better.  Then Ella started to throw up last night.  We were able to clean it up and then I started to feel sick.  Blessing #5.  Living near other worthy priesthood holders (a good portion of our ward lives in our neighborhood).  Thank you brother McNabb for being so willing to come and help administer to my family.  Ella threw up a few more times and was then able to mostly sleep through the night.  This morning she is tired, but back to adorable Ella.  I did get the bug, but I was also able to sleep and feel like I am better minus the aches and pains.  Blessing #6, I am able to work from home and help Heather.  I have no idea how we would have gotten through this if I had to go to work. 

Now I know that all of this could be seen as coincidence, but I have found that some of the most profound miracles are those that people typically overlook.  God will do little things and use the people around you to bless your life.

We have neighbors who love to feed the wild life in their backyard.

This was taken from our kitchen window right as the snow was starting.

 Lily and Skyler making snow angels.



Ella loves to watch the kiddos playing outside.  They are really good at interacting with her as well.  This was the first time Ella said, "Sissa!" to Lily.

Embarrassing Moments

Guess who's 18 months!  Guess whose favorite milestone is taking kiddos to nursery!

Technically, they let me take Ella a week early because I had to teach Relief Society.  So her 18th month birthday was actually her second time in nursery.  So far it's not going super well, but I have high hopes for the future.

Here's to holding only one baby during the last 2 hours of church.  Woohoo!  Ben, we're so spoiled!

"Hi-yuh!"

Lily and Skyler were playing "Halloween" and would dress up and ask for pretend candy.  Skyler was a spider and Lily turned Thad's play mat into a "lemon wedge."  Clever. 

Just a few embarrassing moments that have recently happened.... all my own....

Ben goes into the office twice a week -- if that -- and of course one of the days that he was actually in the office I couldn't get our fridge's water dispenser to work.  All day long I had tried to get water for me or the kids and ended up frustrated.  I know some Samsungs have problems in the beginning of their lives and then are fine once they're fixed, and so I just blamed it on that.  So when Ben got home I told him that it was broken.  He took a look at it and let me know that the child lock was on.

While the kids were all taking morning naps before church, I slipped into the pantry to "sneak" a few chocolate chips.  I say "sneak" because Ben was actually behind me and saw the whole thing.  So right as I'm pulling down the bag of my all time favorite chocolate chips (Kirkland brand, I love you Costco) Ben says, "Uh, wanting some raw flax?"  And indeed, in my hand, was our bag of flax that I was about to shove a handful of into my mouth.  I think there will be a new rule that the flax and the chocolate chips are never to be placed close together.

You know when you get that inner feeling that something is terribly wrong?  Well it happened to me in the middle of my sleep last night.  I woke up suddenly and everything in our room was completely off.  I shook Ben awake (which I never do) and started yelling, "Smoke!  There's smoke in here!"  He looks around groggily and is like, "What?"  He goes back to sleep.  That's when I realize that I hadn't rubbed my eyes and everything was blurry.  We got a good laugh out of that this morning.

Sometimes I wonder how normal people live....

The Littles

Life as a baby is so hard.  Getting spoiled by Nanni and Papa all day, it's just exhausting!

Yesterday my mom, Lily, and I went out to go see Frozen to celebrate that Lily had filled up a reading sticker chart.  I'm proud of my little kindergartner!  96 books down, now another 96 to go before she gets to go on another date like this.  For someone who doesn't have academic learning come to her easily, I'm so proud of how hard she fights to keep going.  She truly earned this date.

Ella likes to steal Lily's things while she's away at school.

Wacky Tacky Day.

Recent quotes....

(As I was getting the kids ready for bed when Ben was on his last campout)

Skyler: "If Daddy isn't here, then who's going to wake up with us in the morning?"

Me:  "Um.  Me."

Skyler:  "Do you even know HOW to make cheese toast for my breakfast?"

The next morning I was already downstairs with the baby when Lily walked down the stairs and said, "Good morning Mom.  Now you're supposed to say 'good morning' to me."

(After I had just finished up scripture study with the kids.  We had talked about repentance.)

Skyler:  "I know what I need to repent of!  I need to stop wetting my pants!"

Family Update

I'm behind on posting pictures of the kids.  So here they are, in no particular order.

(You'll even notice differences in length of Lily and Skyler's hair)

Working on my New Year's resolution.  Lily and Skyler are my usual work out buddies but Ella took Skyler's spot.  She just plopped herself down next to me so I said, "Leggies up!" and she shot her chubby little legs right up into the air with a grin on her face.

 Every Friday night is family movie night.

Ella dancing during movie night.

Ella insists that the pantry belongs to her.  Whenever she's downstairs she throws tantrums until the pantry door is open so that she can have free reign over whatever she can reach.  And since we keep barrels of pretzels and animal crackers on the floor, she typically likes to lock herself in there so that we don't see how much she consumes.

Thad is learning the ways of being extra cute.  He smiles and giggles all the time now.  Bliss!

 My parents gave Skyler this Perplexus maze for Christmas.  I saw one at Walmart and was shocked that it was $30.  But now I understand why.  Skyler spends hours upon hours with this thing.  So here is my free advertisement for a toy that your kids are sure to love.

 Ever since Christmas, we have been having game night 3 or 4 times a week.  It's been a blast!  The kids finally understand how to play basic card games and are really good at doing puzzles on their own.

CTR 4 and CTR 5.  What?  No Sunbeams in this house right now.

 Him.  Oh my gosh.

*commence squeezing cheeks*

So here's a quick update on all of us.

Ben:  Still enjoying work at Cisco.  Still enjoying his calling with the Teachers.  Works from home 3 days a week.  Continues to insist that his homemade cinnamon rolls are better than Heather's.  Constantly takes us all by surprise and makes us laugh daily.

Heather:  Still enjoying being a stay-at-home mom.  Still enjoys her calling of being on the RS Activities committee.  Volunteers in Lily's kindergarten class which sadly makes her miss student teaching in elementary schools. Does not insist that her cinnamon rolls are better than her hubby's.  (Because they're not.)  Still enjoys constantly trying new recipes though.

Lily:  Has 8 loose teeth.  Yes.  8.  Four on top and four on bottom.  All in front.  You can live off of smoothies, right?  Loves to go to school and loves to read books about Disney Princesses and Barbie.  She has a new best friend every hour, one of which is her Kindergarten teacher.  Loves her new haircut more than any other haircut in the world.

Skyler:  Is excited to start Kindergarten this fall after seeing all the fun things that Lily gets to do.  Is getting really good at catching balls in his new mitt.  Eagerly tells everyone he comes in contact with that he's "a fast runner and a high jumper."  And let me tell you, he's fast.  He can catch me and Ben.  It's scary.  

Ella:  Officially has all of her baby teeth.  Woohoo!  Says "water" really well.  Has started saying, "no," which means both yes and no, depending on her expression.  Is better than Lily and Skyler at hide and seek -- at least when it comes to seeking.  (She is usually more than eager to give away her location.)  Her favorite thing to say is, "go!" and the only way to get her to go up the stairs is by saying, "Ready, set," and letting her yell, "go!"

Thad: Is rolling over!  And getting chubbier.  And is adored by everyone in the family.  Has been sleeping through the night since 2 1/2 months.  Is getting ready to try solid food in a week.  He's probably had less than 10 diaper blowouts in his life which I think is a new low Macbeth record.  I think Skyler was probably over 100 at this point...

God Is Watching Over You

This weekend I was given the opportunity to go camping with the boy scouts again.  I love to camp and love to help these boys. They really are amazing young men with great potential.  This camp out was unique in a number of ways.  We were going to the Bentonville Battle Ground and we were going to do flag retirements.  To say I was excited was an understatement. 

It became more unique as we drove to the campground.  We were about 20 minutes away when the pickup that we were behind started to drift to the right.  It was foggy so I couldn't tell if it was a curve in the road, but I got the feeling that I needed to slow down.  I slowed down to 35 mph and then I saw the pickup flip end over end.  I pulled over immediately and told the boys that were with me to stay in the car.  I didn't want them to be scarred, and told one of them to call 911.  I ran out.  The cab of the pickup was crushed and the gentleman was trapped in his upside down vehicle.  I pried the door open and helped him get out.  Thankfully, as I looked over him, I couldn't see any injuries other than two small cuts on his arm and leg.  The ambulance was there within 5 minutes of the accident and we were on our way after 45 minutes.  How that man was not severely injured or killed I have no idea, but I am grateful that I was there to help.

We drove the rest of the way to the campsite on curvy roads in the fog.  As we turned in the sandy driveway to the campground I felt the bump bump of an extremely flat tire.  My tire must have been punctured at the accident.  We decided to change it the following morning.  The thought ran through my head, "One more crazy thing to add to the list!"  Thankfully we made it to camp without incident.

It then started to rain, but we had a large shelter so everyone had a pretty good dinner and evening.  At 10 pm we started the flag retirement.  What a special experience for me and for the boys who were able to participate.  The flag of the United States of America is a sacred symbol of our freedom and all the men and women who have given their lives in defense of our freedom.  To be able to retire 9 of these symbols of our freedom on ground that has been hallowed with the blood of thousands of men who died or were wounded at the Battle of Bentonville was an honor.  The spirit of reverence and solemnity could be felt through the ceremony and everyone was touched who was there.

At 11:30 it really started to rain.  I think a deluge would be an appropriate description for how hard it was raining.  Who would have known, but our campsite was a main path for all of the run off.  All the tents were affected.  Some of the boys moved their tents under the shelter, but soon after the water came into the shelter as well.  We were all wet.  We finely were given a break when it stopped raining at 1 in the morning.  We all got into our wet tents and wet sleeping bags and went to sleep.  Thankfully, it was a very warm night.  When I woke up at 5 it was still 63 degrees.  Earlier in the week North Carolina had record low temps.  Those boys should have frozen, but we went camping the one night it didn't get cold.

The following morning we changed my tire.  To say it was flat would be an understatement.  The entire sidewall had been shredded.  I can't imagine what would have happened to us if this would have happened on the curvy road before we got to the camp.  I had a spare tire and we were all safe and were able to finish the campout and visit the rest of the battle field.

With everything that happened I found it extremely hard to sleep that night.  I got up at 5:00 am and walked to the lake.  As I walked, pondering all that had happened, this thought came into my head.  "God is watching over you."  As I continued my walk the impressions continued to come.  "God has a purpose for you. These experience happened to help you fulfill and remember that purpose."  "God will never leave you alone just like that gentleman wasn't alone." 

As I walked back to camp a couple of hours later, this thought came to me.  "God watches everyone!"  He was watching out for the gentleman.  He was watching over everyone in my car.  He was watching over a group of scouts in the rain.  He was even watching over you!  Wherever you are.  God loves you and wants you to be happy.  Yes, there can be and will be hardships in our lives.  We may even feel alone.  But look around, a stranger may be coming your way or the Savior may be reaching out to you in another way.  Just remember, "God is watching out for you."

The Horse and the Head

It started on Christmas.  That dang American Girl horse Lily got from Santa started creeping me out.  It was like it was staring right at me.

 

I told Ben and he laughed at me.  Then he decided to place it in the mudroom while I was going to the bathroom.  I came out of the bathroom and screamed. 

 

On my next bathroom trip, this is what I found when I came out:

 

 

 

It was time for revenge.

 

But these things take time.  So I waited until last night to make the next move.  While I was upstairs getting Thad for his 9:30 feeding, I moved the Rapunzel head and the horse.

 

Ben went to bed while I was feeding Thad downstairs.  I'm not dumb.  I knew he'd re-hide the head and the horse.  So when I put Thad back in bed I knew I had to take a look around.  And I'm so glad I did, because Ben was intending to scare me during my typical nightly stroll to the bathroom.

 

I have future plans of where I'm going to hide the head and the horse.  But it would be unwise of me to reveal that vital information since Ben checks our blog daily.  But be on the lookout for future posts.

Also, I'm not the only one who is scared of the horse.  I had to go looking for it last night.  It turns out that Lily hid it behind the sofa in the bonus room after she told me that it scared her, too.  Good job, Santa.

And this morning when I was brushing Lily's hair in my bathroom, she asked, "Why are my toys in your room?" to which I sheepishly replied, "Because Mommy and Daddy were playing with them last night."  That was awkward. 

The Bob

A few days ago, Lily told me she was tired of her long hair.  It tangles, it falls in her food, she never wants me to style it -- I could go on.

 

She told me she wanted short hair.  Little did she know that in my mind I was shouting, "Victory!" because since before I was ever married, I wanted to have a little girl with a bob cut.

 

And here it is in all its glory.

 

(We all think she's adorable)

 

P.S.  This is me taking pictures of Lily taking pictures with my phone.

 

 

I guess I told her how cute she was with her new hair cut a few too many times because she finally said, "Moooooooom.  Stop telling me.  Oh, and let me guess, you don't want me to grow up?"

 

I sort of love her way too much.