The Holidays

I love love love The Holidays!  They're crazy, chaotic, expensive and completely worth it!  We did Thanksgiving twice this year and spending time with the family is priceless!  Tradition calls for my mom to sleep over on Thanksgiving so I end up staying up all night with her until Jeremiah and I spend more money than what's reasonable on Black Friday!  I must note that being an avid coupon blog follower, this years deals weren't that great.  I started Christmas shopping in July and along the way have picked up better deals than those found on Black Friday.  However, I love the craziness of it!!! It's a great time for me to spend time with both my mom and my wonderful Jeremiah!  It kicks off the Christmas wonder!

  Being a Christian family we do our best to keep the truth of holiday centered around Jesus!  This has done phenomenal things in our lives and the lives of others as the true Christmas spirit is spread! I'm off to start putting up the trees, nutcrackers and all of the decor.  I haven't written in a while, so thought I would ask what are your holiday traditions?

Acheivement!!

I had a morning where I woke up wondering, "how did I get here?"  I hate when that happens, but I also realize that it MUST happen!  I don't mean here as in a physical don't remember where I went to sleep, but as in a life realization.  When I was young I had avid dreams of being a Doctor, which is funny to me now as I'm definitely not the care giver type of personality.. in fact I tried an internship in the nursing hall of Alta View Hospital and also worked as a CNA supervisor for two years at a retirement  home.  If I know anything I KNOW that, that is NOT my field! The issue comes in knowing what is! 

The Wait

I've never been good at waiting, in fact I think I've heard and recited the words, "patience is a virtue," more times in my life than I truly care to admit.  I've tried patiently waiting for the answer on achieving patience, I've even gone as far as attending classes!  One that I can recall quite vividly was titled, "What to do in the Wait"  I believe that same day I attended, "God I'm Listening, Now What?"  Both touched me in ways I never thought possible, but also didn't entirely help me at the time.  It's funny when you learn about patience and then have to be patient for the lesson to hit home

 WOW... Jeremiah decided that he would go Archery hunting by HIMSELF this week.  He's promised to call EVERY night and told me to worry when he didn't... Well he hasn't called tonight!! Clearly I'm currently freaking out!  I tell Korvin, "mommy is worried about Dad."  His reply, "I know Mom, but Jesus is ALWAYS with you."  Did I mention he's four and sometimes far wiser than myself.  We sometimes have a hard time trusting in God's plan, I know that I especially struggle with this as I'm sure most of us do.  Korvin couldn't be more right, Jesus is with Jeremiah and I need to settle in for a wait that is killing me all the while FULLY trusting in God.  If anybody could have said anything better to me at the time, I can't think of what it would be.. once again the faith of a child!
So what of the classes?  They both taught that you have to trust God and NEVER give up on him, even when you are at your lowest of lows and there seems to be no end in sight, you have to continue to praise and trust that God is doing everything for a reason! New message?  Probably not, but still life changing! 

The dog.. Protector of his domain...

Bo, is without a doubt large! What nobody told us is that having a boxer is similar to having a hyper 3 year old child with allergies and a VERY bad case of the slobbers.  However, he is the sweetest dog we've ever owned, he adores the children and would guard them with his life.  He's also incredibly gentle with them, especially considering his size!  We got Bo when Kairi was 6 months old, because we had heard that boxers are great family dogs, and that has proven to be true.

Just today Bo showed that he will protect his children in all regards!  Ky saw a bee in the house this afternoon and as any 2 year old female would she began screaming as though it had already stung her! Captain Bo came to the rescue, which seems an odd thing for a dog to do when it's only a bee! In any case he jumped in front of Ky and began aimlessly pouncing (did I mention that he is always using those heavy paws of his, I guess you have to get your name somehow), he ended up getting stung in the mouth, but the bee definitely didn't get Kairi.  Korvin says he's a hero, silly kids. 

All kids need a pet, as annoyingly hyper and disgusting Bo is we couldn't be without him!  We went out of town for 4 days leaving Bo at my parents house and the only reason the kids were ready to come home from our trip is so that we could go get their Boey.  When they finally got him back you would have thought that it was Christmas, they were so excited!  Bo was understandably tired since according to me dad he slept little and wore a path in their carpet from all of his pacing and after greeting everyone he proceeded to pass out and not wake until the next morning.

Enjoying EVERY moment.. Too big Too fast!

Every now and then I look at my kids and I'm astonished at how much they've seemingly grown overnight!  Today was one of those days!  Ky was sitting on the couch and I was completely taken back to realize I had a little girl sitting there rather than my tiny baby.  I swear overnight her face lost a lot of it's babyish touch and she grew like 5 inches.  Alright so that's a large exaggeration, but seriously when did she get so big and where was I?  She is 2 1/2 and can carry full conversations, so when I ask her why she's getting so big her response is usually something like, "Jesus made me that way mom." 

Both Korvin and Kairi never fail to amaze me by their intelligence!  Korvin knows things that I have no idea how he learned, sometimes he teaches me new things!  He's also very tricky which sadly shows in a very odd way how intelligent he really is! He is ALWAYS listening even when you think he's not, the kids has shown amazing multi-tasking skills.  I wish that while listening he would also acknowledge what you are telling him what to do, now that would truly amaze me! 

A child's faith is beyond anything I could have imagined.  Not growing up in a very God oriented home, I was unaware of what could be if given those circumstances!  My kids have SOO much faith in God and Jesus it's unbelievable!  Kairi is constantly asking you to pray with her, she is always singing about Jesus and she loves church.  The girl will be an amazing leader for God and I have no doubt about that!  Korvin is a bit more subtle, but that's just his way.  He loves God, knows he's always there and I have to say he's pretty entertaining with some of the things he comes up with!  The other day we were signing him up for Pre-School (another so big moment for me) at the big school, understandably nervous he proceeded to tell me that Jesus could be everywhere, but we would have to wait for him to get all the way from church to the new school to hold his hand, it's apparently a very long drive lol.  Who would have thought that patience was something Korvin had ha ha... Since then he has learned God is indeed everywhere and you never have to wait for him.  Just ask him, he'll tell you! 

It's hard to believe how quickly they grow!  It seems like I was changing butts, rocking babies and making bottles just yesterday!  (Occasionally I still rock them, how can you give that up so soon? Forever and ever my babies they'll be.)  Doing my best to live each day in the moment.  Can't enjoy the sunshine if you're always waiting for the storm.  I definitely don't want to miss a thing with them, it happens much too quickly to ever get back!

The Proposal FINALLY!!!

In the eight almost nine years of being with Jeremiah it shouldn't come as a surprise to me nor anyone that knows him that he is NOT a romantic!  Occasionally he tries, but generally is just straight forward, logical and in his eyes entirely reasonable!  In any case I've loved him since I was 16!! I've been waiting for the proposal for what seems to me a lifetime lol.  7 years of living together and 2 kids later; it did come as a total surprise when he took me to Shane Co. June 28, 2011 and told me to choose a ring.  This of course took me several hours, Jeremiah was very patient, Korvin not so much!  I however found the perfect ring, so it's a bit extravagant, but it is VERY close to my dream ring if not the exact ring!  We've set the date for June 8, 2013 and I'm so excited to start with the planning!  50's theme here we come!  I've got my 4 closest friend's to help me with plans and I think the planning will be as fun as the wedding itself!  So it begins!  Shaye, Sarah, Heather and Charity I hope your ready for this lol!

Yellowstone or not?

Months of preparation and a ton of money and we were off to Yellowstone!  Yay, a first for all of us!  Weird feelings and amid warnings be darned!  One hour into the drive and our wonderful Jeep (which I might add Jeremiah has put tons of time and more money than I care to admit into) decides to get death wobble!  If you haven't experienced this in a vehicle, I wouldn't wish it on anyone as it is highly unpredictable and VERY nerve racking, especially with kids in the car!  120 miles in and we're definitely going to have to stop!  Downey, Idaho!  What? Do we turn around, get another car?  Can we cancel our reservations?  Should we all go back or should some of us stay?  PRAY!!!! While deliberating we start talking to the locals and discover we are only 20 miles from Lava Hot Springs and only 3 miles from Downata Hot Springs!!  Ironic?  I think so.. Lava Hot Springs was full so while we had never heard of Downata, there we were!  In what would appear to be a large park with fire pits and a swimming pool.  I have to say I was a little disappointed to find out that Hot Springs aren't generally located in forestry area inside a big rock.  Rather the famous ones were made into very warm swimming pools.  On another note, we camp quite frequently and I can say that camping in a park 10 feet from other campers is not ideal.  Never the less it turned out to be a lot of fun!  The accommodations were great for the kids and included showers, bathrooms, a park, and of course the hot springs swimming pool with three slides!  Really while it didn't turn out as planned we still made Lemonade with our Lemons and ended up having a great time!  Plus, the hot springs water seemed to work wonders on our skin and hair!  We did cut the trip a day short and it's a good thing we did!

On the way home we made it to North Ogden before the entire steering box went out on our wonderfully reliable Jeep!!! We spent 3 hours there trying to fix the Jeep to get home.  Finally my dad starts heading out to at least pick up the kids and take them home... Low and behold he gets a flat on the freeway in our other car... All the three of us could do was laugh!!!! Well alls well that ends well 9 hours after leaving Downata we arrived home safely and no worse for the wear!  We also got to do a lot of sight seeing since we drove back roads home from Ogden to Salt Lake!  There are some pretty areas between here and there that we would have missed otherwise!  EVERYTHING happens for a reason and you just have to trust God and roll with the punches!  Perhaps Yellowstone next year!