going home.

my grandad went home on monday, january 17th. right now, i can only imagine the pure bliss he is experiencing. though, my heart hurts now i will rejoice with him later. i suppose he is holding my baby brother's hand (who this year would have been 22!!!), walking on the streets of gold, splashing in the crystal sea, and in awe of the LORD.

you know, when i first 'denyed myself to take up the cross of Jesus' i truly believed that heaven was going to be boring. like one long, huge church service....blech. well, it's not like that at all. we all are going to have jobs to do, we're going to have feasts, travel....yes of course we'll still worship God, but there will be some more to it than that. losing someone hurts, but we have hope and reassurance that we will see our loved ones again. very soon.

"life is but a vapor, here one day and gone the next...."

happy birf-day

to our daddy/husband/provider.....happy #37. as readan would say: "happy birf-day dad!" as dallas would say: "yay! happy cake dad, happy cake!!" and as kenna would say: "NO!"

life has taken us on a whirlwind babe. we met in december 2006, started dating in march 2007, engaged in june, married in august, pregnant in september. baby dallas was born in may 2008, pregnant again in october and kenna was here in july 2009. heck yah it has been hard, but we're stronger now because of it. here are 37 reasons i would do it all over again:

-you go to work monday-friday providing for our family

-and never complain that you're tired

-you love jesus

-you're one heck of a daddy

-we laugh together...constantly

-you can still give me butterflies

-i've never seen a hotter man in carhart coveralls

-when baby d was a newborn you got to him in the wee hours before i even heard him.

-your fabulous buttermilk pancakes every saturday

-you sing the veggie tales "oh, where is my hairbrush!!??" in the mornings to make the kids laugh
-you're super s-m-r-t, for realz....a masters degree with possibility of phd? whoa.

-you won't kill a spider, you contain and release

-you can sing really good, but keep it a secret
-women hit on you all the time and you're oblivious to it

-you don't mind my gray hair, in fact you said "woman, i didn't marry your hair."

-you don't mind changing dirty diapers

-you saved scout from being put to sleep

-you will eat anything i make, even if it's burnt and tell me (as your choking it down with water) that it's good

-you're humble

-you took me to the fanciest place so we could 'build' my engagement ring together...{sign}

-you forgot condoms on our honeymoon and we tried to explain to the gift store attendee what they were with body language and we laughed until we cried
-i secretely know how goofy you can be and love you more because of it

-you listen to johnny cash with me, and sing along

-you have sacraficed for me. when we got married you had $20,000 in the bank and now we're just trying to make it until i graduate nursing school

-you have allowed me to be home with our children during the most crucial time in their lives,

thank you from the depths of my soul
-i've never had an issue with you leaving the toilet seat up, never

-you never got mad at me when you've had to "recycle" a shirt for work b/c i was too sick to do laundry

-when you come home from work, you never require a break.

-dallas wakes you up every morning at 5am and you get up with him and get his breakfast ready

-you volunteer your time/skillz/smartz to those in need (future africa project)

-you have a love affair with allen edmond shoes, pretty sure you have more than i do

-you could have made major league in baseball if you'd tried

-makenna has you wrapped around her little pinky and you deny it......hilarious

-lately, you have become a mechanic to save our van. your goal? 200,000 miles

-you're a history buff, even though i dislike history....it's hot to hear it from you

-you turn your head when a VS commercial comes on, very respectful

-you knew who i was and the situation you were getting into and still married me.

bordem busters

okay, so the snow day was fun for a bit. what happens when they get "over the snow." instead of plopping them down in front of the tv, we did science projects.

you'll need:

-food coloring

-glasses with water

-an empty bowl

-snow

-eye dropper

this is awesome for bringing out some artistry in the little ones. this next pic is a cat, can't you tell?!?

and our indoor snowman b/c the snow was too dry outside

not only did readan have fun, she learned. she learned that red and yellow makes orange, yellow and green makes blue, etc. and she learned that snow is a liquid and that it's made out of water. another fun project is snow cream.

snow day

readan asked jesus for a snow day last night, and guess what? He came through. we woke up to everything covered in white, and no school. so, like any awesome mom would do, we filled our tummy with "sticky food" (also known as: oatmeal), got suited up, and 45 minutes later (yes...it took me 45 minutes to get all 3 kids and myself in long underwares, snow pants, coat, mittens, boots) we were digging/sliding/eating in the snow.

i just love this picture of dallas, and look how grown up readan looks. oh my.

sadest part of the morning, makenna HATED the snow. she also hates grass, sand, and gravel. leave her on the carpet and she's good. this is no joke: we bought a 2'x2' sample piece of carpet from walmart and it goes where she goes...even library time b/c she doesn't like the carpet in the library. can someone say ocd?

ghana wash some feet.

{nyhus children in ghana}

our dear friends greg and wendy nyhus are currently serving in ghana as missionaries. they are amazing and that glory goes to the Lord. kevin and i are praying about the opportunity to travel there this summer with our church and what a great experience that would be with my nursing skillz, oh and his skillz too. he designs water mains, sewer, and storm water stuff....eh, er..."projects." (sorry babe, you know what i mean) and he would be a superstar in helping to build/design sanitary facilities, running water, etc to the villiages. even Christ himself ministered to people's basic needs before their spiritual needs could be met. what better way to show Christ's love than to minister to the sick and earn the right to share the need for a Redeemer. i am praying that this year will be the right time for us to visit, but if not we will make a visit in 2012. i feel a calling for far more than med-surge floors.

art + walls = the naughty spot.

sooooo, this is what happens when i decide to go upstairs and steam my bathroom tile.

dallas says, "ta-dahhhhh!" "oh, my. dallas. that is lovely. and looky there....its a non-washable marker."

and here he is happily sitting in the naughty spot. fyi: my kids hate wearing pants. i think they slow them down. looks like kevin will be busy painting this weekend.....

citizen award.

not suprisingly, readan came home with the citizen award for the week. we are so very proud of her, but really...it's not suprising. this is the kid who plays with the kid nobody likes. she eats with the kid that smells funny, or "has puffy hair" or who peed in their pants last week. she shares her afternoon snack with the kid who doesn't have one. she thanks people and then thanks them again for saying 'you're welcome.' watch out mother teresa, you've got competition.

we went out for ice cream to celebrate her 'good citizenship.' way to go read, you rock.

we finally got to stick someone!

so i've made it 1/2 way through nursing school, just one year left to go. up until now we've been doing cna work (aka: cleaning up body fluids and changing linens), documenting, and maybe giving some oral meds. this is the point where we lost most of our classmates- they dropped the program believing this is what nursing was. well for those who saw the light at the end of the tunnel....we finally got to do this:

here i am getting ready to stick my classmate, very appropriate face indeed

another classmate starting an IV....yes, I think you hit the vein

and lucky me, i got to start another one on our instructor. she's a gem.

....this is us being sad from our battle wounds....

i loved our group from our ob rotation; very sad that we won't be together this next semester. i really loved ob, and in the beginning i knew it was for me. but after actually witnessing all the interventions and impatience i've decided that i don't want ob. i would rather see babies brought into the world like it was meant to be. (not including scenarios where medical interventions are needed to save baby/momma's life) so for now, i'm sticking with either the operating room....{where this duck feels at home in the water} or hospice {where i can tell dying people about the grace of Jesus}.

no video machines.

milestone #367 for readan: her first sleepover at a friends house. up until now, i've been the 'over-protective-no-you-can't-spend-the-night-at-a-friends-house-they-come-here-mom.' no big deal, right? we packed up her beloved pillow pet (which she can proudly recite the entire infomercial by heart..."it's the perfect $20 gift, mom"), barbie blanket, toothbrush, night gown, slippers and off she goes. readan did fine that night. (we have a rule in our home that anytime a friend spends the night on saturday, they have to go to church with us on sunday) said friend knows our rule quite well and even though readan spent the night over there, she still wanted to come to church with our family. so after church we take the friend home and readan proceeds to tell me all about this machine that plays games on the tv, "it's the best thing ever mom!!" "well, readan what is it?" ~friend speaks up at this point~ "oh, it's my wii." readan asks, "mom, can we please get a wii????" "ummmm, no."

{kevin and i decided when we had children that we would not be buying any sort of video game machine. we want our children to know what it's like to run outside and play with sticks, dirt, and how to climb a tree. don't get me wrong, we don'd judge. m'kay? this is our choice, our decision. we understand that we can't 100% control what she plays at a friends house. she's not being sheltered and it's our hopes that they eventually get to the point when they don't feel like they're missing out. i personally feel like video games are addicting, and really...what good does it do a child?}

so this is our precious daughter, crying. crying because she can't have a wii.

yes readan, we are the 'unreasonable-we-care-about-your-brain-developing-right-you-need-to-play-outside-instead' parents. i'm sorry. you don't have to like it, but you'll thank us later. ♥ we love you.