One more thing...

My son is now officially potty trained!!!! Wooooo hoooo! It has been awhile but I thought I would make an public announcement.

Goings on...

Things around here have been going at the speed of light!

My kids continue to grow so fast. Yesterday my dd was running around the house with my cell phone in her back pocket - just like her momma! If Kylie was just a few weeks older, she would be eligible to start Kindergarten. Instead of that though, we will be doing light school at home and Luke will tag along.

Today I spent quite a few hours planning our activities next year. I am so inspired by visiting others blogs, checking out the Five in a Row message board and other organizational websites to see what they are all up to. I am excited to hit the ground running as I can't wait to learn with my kids. Now when they get to high school math, then I might have to hire a tutor!

Talking about growing up, Kylie has decided that she likes art! I can't wait until I am home when I can post pictures but she has finally slowed down and is paying attention to detail. She is coloring the correct colors and is attempting to stay in the lines. She is taking her time and doing a great job! She has a passion right now for writing her letters as well so she will draw a picture and I will spell what she wants to write below the picture. Precious!

Luke too has been showing a lot of self motivated growth. He is drawing little people (with huge eyes and legs!) but he is trying to get his detail correct as well. As dramatic as he gets, it makes me laugh every day at his emotion and perseverance as he tries to draw figures.

Enjoy your day!

Running is a family event!

Luke and Kylie got in on the running excitement. Kylie's race was 200 meters which she smoked! She had such a great time running and is already wanting to sign up for another race. She was so cute, she wanted to hold my hand as we crossed the finish line. After crossing it she held my hand high and shouted "woooo hoooo!"







Luke ran a 100 meter dash which as you see, he was in the front of the pack!

Can I tell you that Disney just does it right. The kids won finisher's medals which they treasure! We hope to do a lot more of these in the future!

Running the race...

Well, much to my reluctance, my fellow runner Sarah prompted me to blog about the race. So this blog post is for you!!! Let me first start by saying that I would have never done it without the encouragement and support from you!!!! Thank you my booty kicker trainer! LOL!

The atmosphere of a race is something you really can't describe until you have done it. The nerves are jumping throughout your body and all you want to do is get the start over with! Everyone is bouncing around, talking and just enjoying the moment before you are off on a wild adventure.

This is the second race I have ever done and now I think I am hooked. We ran a 15K which is 9.3 miles and suprisingly it went by quickly! Here is a picture in MGM Hollywood around mile 7?



Then me at the finish line. I look like a big dork now but I was happy that it was over!






Anyone wanna run?

Our day at the beach...

In December, my mom spoke to me about getting some family pictures at the beach. She had seen some in her friends homes and thoguht it sounded like a great idea. Sure I said, knowing we would be coming up to Savannah in the next week. Beach, december... Hey it is warm here! IN Florida! Georgia it was quite different. My poor daughter's teeth chattered the whole shoot but they loved it none the less. Here are a few.



Luke

Kylie

Our crazy family!

Running the Race

My sweet friend Sarah has talked me into something terrible. She has "encouraged" me to run in Disney's Minnie Marathon. Yikes! Why they say Marathon, I have no clue because it is really a 15K or 9.3 miles. As most of you know, I am not a typical fitness person. I like to get outdoors but athletic, I am not.

Today as I was run/walking (aka dying!) 7 miles on a beautiful stretch of trail, I was encouraged by the number of people taking in God's beauty. Some were fit, some not so much, but they were all getting active.

Last year I entered in something more my speed. It was a 5K and it was the most shocking thing I have ever seen pertaining to fitness. There were walkers there!!! And overweight people! They weren't all fitness guru's with perfect bodies and 6 minute mile times. I was flabbergasted because it broke my stereotype down. I thought you would have to be perfect to enter into the race.

Before I was a Christian, I believed I had to be perfect to allow God to love me. I had some dear friends who stuck with me, even in my sin to show the love of God to me. It was unconditional and pure even when I was not. They showed me that God loved me right where I was. He loved Kristina, bad habits and all.

I know for me that running has proven to be a big parallel to my spiritual walk. I wrestle every time I am about to go outside and get active. Uggghhhh, I think to myself - I just don't want to do it! But after putting the first foot forward I am so glad I did. Once I take a dip in the cool refreshing water of His word, I am so thankful I have paused to take a drink.

Hebrews 12:1,2 says...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...

You don't have to be perfect, sinless for Jesus to care for you. You just have to be willing to put that first foot forward. He will take care of all the rest.

Too funny not to post...

We were at Target today looking at boosters for Kylie. After her pleading for the pink princess one (absolutely not!) we rounded a corner and I saw the cutest baby bedding. Target does a great job with bedding!

I made a comment about the bedding and Kylie quickly said, "awwww. I want a baby in our house. Do I need to talk to God about that?" "Well, I guess so!" I slowly responded. So on the spot she starts praying. "God, please give us another baby because I love looking at them and they are so cute. Thank you God, Amen."

She then looked up "MOM! You are starting to get FAT!!"

So I believe she thought that God heard her and granted her prayer instantly.

The faith of a child...

Easter Sunday...

He has risen!!

Happy Easter to you and your family.

I have spent multiple hours today searching online, reading friends blogs and their beautiful Easter posts of children in fancy dresses and suits. Spring flowers and dyed Easter Eggs.

Well, hate to disappoint you but there will be none of those pictures around here! My daughter and I are sick so we have basically been laying around today. Kylie had some medicine so she spunked up to join Jon and Luke in a bit of egg dying. Picture a bunch of jammie dressed folks with wild hair all getting enough energy to make a craft. After we dyed them we were all worn out so we took a nap!

The eggs were taunting my poor son so we had a fun afternoon of hiding eggs in the living room and kitchen. My fear was that we weren't going to find them all since they were real eggs! Fortunately I think they are all safe and sound.

Hope your Easter was all that you imagined it to be. Mine, even though it wasn't what I had hoped, it was still special and it will remain a wonderful memory.

Ramblings of a drug induced Momma...

With young kids it is tough to find a quiet moment to meditate on the things of God. I try to wake up early, they do too. I try to stay up late, they do too. Things just don't work out the way I would like them to. Things just don't seem routine.

I know this is just a season of life. My precious children will grow up quicker than I would like but I really want to curl up and spend some time with God ya know? Is that too much to ask?

So I will take what I can get. Lately, I hide in my shower. Yes, my shower. Now I am not the first mom who will admit that they have great revelations from God in the shower. It is quiet, it is cleansing, and most of all, it is quiet. Did I say there are no interruptions in the shower??!

Today in my prayer closet (aka the shower) I just had a long time chat with my Papa. See, I know Jon and I were obedient in paring down our living quarters. Some things just have to change. We moved from our home and are taking advantage of low cost housing provided from our work, a wonderful opportunity if you ask me. Things seemed so clear to me, to us that we needed to make a change.

Now, I don't think that we heard wrong from God. I still believe that we are on this road for a purpose. We continue to trust in the one who will provide for us. We had great plans of being freer with our finances, being able to give more as we felt led. Now we are in gridlock with a budget as tight as stone. I feel torn at wanting to give to people in need but having nothing to give.

I am thankful for all that we do have. Our health (aside from this nasty sniffle I have currently), our family, a roof over our head and food on our table. We are blessed with awesome friends who love on us to no end.

What I pray for us as a family is that we can continue to trust in the plan God has for us. Our future is not clear for us but we can trust the One who has our lives in His hands.

This is our favorite verse not only for ourselves but for the boys we serve.

Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I am so thankful for Hope!

I really do school!

Rarely do I ever post what I am doing with the kids school wise. Life just gets ahead of me and before you know it, the week has gone and the pictures are stored away in the depths of my computer. This week we "rowed" Madaline which is a sweet tale of a girl in Paris, France. Even Luke got into the fun!

I love doing things that revolve around food, and what better thing to do was to bake croissants! We took the easy way out and did the Pilsbury kind but it was fun to roll the shapes. Luke had a great time taking turns with rolling. Notice the cheesy grin?


After all the hard work was done, Kylie enjoyed eating them.



We also had french bread during one dinner so the next morning we had french bread dipped in hot chocolate which I read is done in France. While my kids love hot chocolate, they couldn't fathom dipping french bread in it. After a few "eeeewwwwwwws" and "yuck" moments they ate it all.

Then the real fun began when they got to make the Eiffel Tower with cheese and toothpicks. This task was mostly done by us as they really couldn't master the finger dexterity needed. Jon worked with Luke (thus the near perfect structure) and I helped Kylie (poor girl!) They had fun eating their creation after it was all done.