Unnatural

Yesterday I received news that a friends little girl had grown wings on Saturday.

She was only 6 months old.

She was a fighter. Born premature and had the biggest most beautiful eyes you'd ever seen. 

She was surrounded by love from 3 sisters, a mother who wouldn't stop fighting for her, and a dad who  she had wrapped around her little finger.

She was perfect. 

And her name was Arden.

It is unnatural for a parent to bury their child.

Children are supposed to bury their parents when they are old and lived a life that was full and filled with happiness from their children.

My faith is tested a lot in times like these. I believe when bad things happen God can turn it around to bring joy, happiness and lessons. 

But when a sweet child is taken from our world I question, not God, but His plan. 

And I feel helpless by only being able to offer prayers. 

I pray for peace. 

Understanding will probably never come.... 

I don't think we can understand why things like this happen. 

So I do all that I can and offer prayers for peace. 

And strength. 

And hope...

Hope that during what will undoubtably be the hardest thing a parent will have to go through that they pull their strength from God. 

As a parent myself I believe my children are borrowed from God. 

Yet I will admit that I often forget that at any moment he can call them back home.

I take advantage of my borrowed time. 

Thinking it will last forever. 

Psalm 147: 3

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

Romans 8:18-19

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."

It will go unsaid that parents will hug their children a lot tighter today.
They will enjoy even the craziest of moments, because not having them to create the craziness is gut wrenching.

Arden's sweet short life was filled with laughter, and a house full of love.

And for those 6 months she knew nothing but love.

And now she knows God's love personally.

She knows what it fills like to have God himself wrap his love around her and hold her in his lap.

She will dance with angels, sing with Jesus and I have no doubt He will tell her everyday how much she was loved and how badly she is missed.

The questions I have may not ever be answered but in the past day I've accepted that God has sweet Arden today and He allowed my sweet friend to experience Arden for 6 months. Six months she borrowed that child from God and for 6 months she knew what it was like to love her with everything she had. For reasons we will never know, her time to go was Saturday. And I know Abigail would have wanted to have those 6 sweet months with Arden than none at all.


I ask that all my blog readers lift the Washington's up in prayers today and in the following days.

*With permission from Abigail I have posted some pictures of sweet Arden*

Angels descending, bring from above,

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

"Homesick"

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home

I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again

And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow

I've never been more homesick than now

The noise of boys

I am writing this blog entry while sitting in my room with the doors shut while the boys play with their daddy. 

I'm taking a much needed "mommy time out".

The noise of little boys is most of the time a sound I enjoy. 

But today it's been overwhelming. 

Teaching our children the difference in outside voices and inside voices seems to be ignored. 

The saying "Boys will be boys" has definitely pushed a limit with me more than once and today it seems as though this one comment has me flustered even more. 

Sure, boys will be boys. 

But at some point boys will be men and those men need to know the difference between inside and outside voices. 

They need to learn respect. 

Respect your parents when they tell you to please be quiet.

And it's my job to teach them. 

But on days like today, when I feel like everything I say is going in one ear and out the other, teaching a lesson of respect makes me want to crawl in a cave and stay a while.

I often tell people a rule of thumb I use in my home.. 

As long as it's happy noises, I try my best not to shush them. 

But here I sit hiding out while they hopefully burn off some energy writing a blog about how I want to tell them to just shut up and leave me alone. 

Sure that sounds harsh... but really? Who hasn't at least thought that once since having children? 

I am a stay at home mom.. and I'm with my children almost 100% of the time. I don't think I have gone 1 day without my children in at least 4 years. 

Heck, my idea of a vacation is a trip to the store alone. 

(which doesn't happen that often) 

Kids are stressful. 

It takes 45 minutes to tell me one sentence and when they finally get it out of their mouth they have said  it loud enough for the neighbors to hear. 

They fight with each other constantly, yet cry when they are separated because they are soooooo bored playing alone. 

It's a constant insanity brain workout over here. 

Now don't get me wrong. I love having boys. I love having a lot of boys. I enjoy the wild times 90% of the time. I enjoy pretty much every aspect of my life as their mom. 

But I don't want parenthood on my blog to be portrayed as easy. 

It's not easy. 

It's work.

And there are times I want to shout profanity. 

Sometimes at my own kids.

But I don't. 

Instead I take a mommy time out and blog. 

I'm terribly sorry if you thought this blog entry would end with a point..

it's not going too. 

I just needed to write so that I didn't go ape shit on my kids today. 

Finally got started on some projects...

I have a piece of paper on my fridge of projects to get done.

After a week of beautiful sunshine I decided  that a few of those could be knocked off that list.

I've been meaning to touch up my kitchen cabinets.
It's really not that hard to do.
Doesn't cost much.
But makes a HUGE difference.

I'm super happy with the results! I painted these while the boys played and Landry napped.
It only took about an hour to get brand new cabinets.

Can't beat that!


My next project was a bigger one... but SOOOO worth the hard work.

This beauty has been in my family for years. When Josh and I got married we used this chest of drawers as our entertainment center. I had a love, hate relationship with it. 

I loved the piece but hated the way it looked. 

So after 7.5 years I finally decided it was time to give this beauty a face lift. 

And my finished product....

Sorry for the blurry picture. I'll try to replace it soon with a better one. 

The new knobs we decided on. 

And then our last project before the stomach bug hit. 

We bought this at Goodwill for $15

(I realize it kinda looks like Handy Maney's tool box)

But it's HUGE inside and I knew it could hold most of the kids larger toys.

For us, it made sense.

But this solid piece of wood was ugly.


And I wasn't sure of the paint color I wanted... so we went with white.
Actually, it's a shade of cream instead of stark white...

Regardless... here she is now.

I'm still planning on doing some work on this one but not sure exactly what quite yet. Right now it works well in our spare room. 

Inconsiderate Parents

I'm calling you out inconsiderate parents. 

And I'm calling you careless adults out as well.

This winter has been a rough one for us too. We've battled everything under the sun. 

We have made countless trips to the pharmacy. So much so they know us by name. 

No point in asking for birthday's. They know them all.

And while I give a lot of blame for our sicknesses to having 2 kids in public schools now, I give most blame to these inconsiderate parents and careless adults.

My kids don't have a super weak immune system. 

They just can't handle all the stuff that you guys are bringing into Wal-Mart. 

They can barely get over the Strep your child had before they are hit with the stomach bug that your cousin had. And when they finally get over the stomach bug and are able to have a normal life by leaving the house they pick up your best friends flu. 

All because you refuse to use a drive through pharmacy. 

I can't even take my children with me to get new toothbrushes or probiontics at Wal-Mart because they are on the isle next to the pharmacy, which happens to be lined with flu stricken, stomach bug carrying, strep throat infested, pink eye contagion people. 

I'm just as irritated with Wal-Mart for putting their pharmacies mixed in with the rest of the store. For the love of all things purple, could you at least build a pharmacy that makes you go into it to get medicine one that isn't beside bandaids with Elmo on them? 

I'm most definitely NOT blaming other children for my children being sick. 

I am however blaming their parents. 

Facebook is full of parents posting pictures of their incredibly sick children in buggies waiting for their medicine to be ready. And I've shopped at Wal-Mart pharmacy before. Wait time? 1-2 hours. 

That means you are walking around with your germ infested kid infecting every other human for 1-2 hours. 

Obviously Wal-Mart's prices aren't the only thing dropping. 

Seems as though IQ's are as well. 

People need to stop and think of others.

 I realize in a very self absorbed world it's hard to stop and think about others when you are already having a rough day/week yourself but one simple thought about you or your child possibly making some other person sick could have a huge affect on the outbreak of sicknesses in our country. 

Of course the flu is "the worst year" to date according to the CDC. 

The hospitals have sections blocked off for flu symptom patients, yet pharmacies are encouraging them to sit on a blue bench while they fill their prescription. 

I have 4 kids. 4 small kids. I totally get that it's a huge inconvenience to arrange things so that your child/children do not have to go into a store when they are sick.

Just yesterday I took Tripp to the doctor after 2 days of a really nasty stomach bug. He was clearly dehydrated. I needed to stop by the store and pick up several items for a brat diet as well as more pull ups and pedialyte. But I KNEW he was sick. So instead of popping into Wal-Mart for these few items with Tripp in tow, I drove past Wal-mart AND the grocery store and took him home. I left him with his daddy and drove the 10 minute drive back out to the store to get the items without him.

If I can keep my 4 sick children out of the stores with only myself and my husband caring for them, so can you. 

And if life has prevented you from possibly keeping yourself or your child out of the store while being sick, please use a mask. Keep the kids out of the buggy. Use the hand sanitizer. Drop off the prescription and wait in the car. Do whatever you can to keep yourself or your kids from making others sick too.

Think about how badly YOU feel while walking through Wal-Mart waiting on your own prescription and think about spreading those same germs to a newborn, or a toddler, or an elderly person who's immune system is probably not near as strong as yours. 

Buying Jeans in a size 2 world...

I was forced to go jean shopping last week.

I went to my typical stores. 

(I'm a bit frugal even when I'm in need of something) 

Goodwill.

Marshalls.

TJ Maxx.

Ross.

Target.

JC Penny.

Every store in the mall.

And ended at Old Navy.

And I have to say... Buying a pair of jeans is just has hard in a size 2 as it was in a  size 10. 

I still felt odd in my own body.

My belly didn't feel right when the jeans were buttoned.

My love handles hung over the top of any jeans I put on (even the jeans that were too big).

My thighs still felt like they were huge. 

And after leaving most stores almost in tears I realized something.

It's not about the size of our clothes.

It's our body image.

After I had babies my body changed. Everything rotated to places that I believed made me look fat. 

When I purchased a pair of size 10 jeans after the birth of my 2nd baby I had the exact same feelings I had when I made my trip to buy a size 2 pair of jeans. 

Truth is ladies..

Buying a pair of jeans is hard when YOU are still telling you how fat you are. It has nothing to do with the size on the tag. 

When did we start letting the tag on a pair of jeans or dress or shirt define what is beautiful?

When did we start telling ourselves that if we aren't smaller we aren't beautiful?

When did we start letting our emotions over weight take joy out of our lives?

We are beautiful.

To the women struggling with their weight but more importantly struggling with their self image today.

 You are beautiful.

You are smart.

You are funny.

You are special. Probably to more people than you realize. 

You are not alone in your struggles. 

The lady who seems to be so lucky buying the jeans smaller than you is struggling with her body image the same way you are. 

We are in this together ladies!

I'm still alive....

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted. 

I promise I'll try to update more. 

As always it's been extremely busy around here.

I've been trying out new carriers lately and think I have found my favorite 3 carriers EVER! 

My Dream Carrier. (Half Buckle)

My Kinderpack. LOVE this print. By far my favorite print to date. (Full Buckle) 

Back Picture of Kinderpack. 

And I'm not sure I'll ever find anything as awesome as this carrier.  The Connecta. It's a shame they don't make these anymore. :( 

In other news...

Last weekend we took a family vacation to Pigeon Forge. 

So much fun!! 

It snowed everyday we were there! 

Josh and I went over to the chapel we got married at and got some pictures with the kiddo's. Landry had just fallen asleep in the car and I wasn't about to wake him up for a picture. So he's there... just hard to see him. :) 

We did a lot of activities while there... here are a few pictures from the "upside down house" aka Wonderworks

Tripp

Brennon laying on the bed of nails...

Tripp chillin on the bed of nails...

Zachary on the bed of nails..

And more random pictures from vacation....

Eating Dinner with family. Josh and Tripp

Swimming in the indoor pool= a VERY tired little boy!

Zachary & my brothers Adam and Christian eating dinner

Must get a pool. These boys were out of it. 

Sweet Landry eating fries. 

But sadly we came home with the flu. 

Well... I came home with the flu. 

Baseball starts tomorrow so I can't guarantee I'll have more time to update my blog but I will try my best. :) I'm sure I'll sneak some sweet t-ball pictures of my boys in here sometime. 

Until I have more time I write I will leave you with a whole lotta pictures of my life these past couple of weeks. 

Enjoy! 

We didn't line them up.. They were all watching TV like this. Amazing. 

All the kiddo's (plus Ruby) watching cartoons before school.

It's not often I get a picture with all the boys... 

The best husband EVER!
Who happens to be 1 year closer to 30 years old. ;) 

We are on the move (9 months) 

Seriously the cutest thing EVER! 

Tripp doing what he does best. 

Sweet boy is 10 months now old. 

Me and Keira at Payson's birthday party! 

Happy Birthday sweet Payson!

Love snuggles before bedtime. 

My new project. Turning these beauties into lamps. Awesome Goodwill Find. :)
I'll get a blog dedicated to it when I finish. 

This little girl turned 2!! I'm a proud aunt.  

2 year old Payson. :)