Perspective

My heart is so heavy tonight due to the news that a precious little boy from this area passed away today at St. Jude hospital after a five year battle with Leukemia. This whole town has prayed for this family and waited anxiously for caring bridge updates.

As a mom my heart is so heavy for these wonderful people. It has also provided me with a reminder about what is truly important in life. Sometimes we get so caught up in trivial matters or worse yet, we forfeit our peace going after the material things this world holds.

But this week has been such a reminder to me that when all is said and done LOVE is all that matters. Love the Lord with all your heart and share his good news with anyone who will listen. Next, love your family and neighbors and have a servant heart towards others.

Forgive quickly and love abundantly. I personally struggle with forgiving as quickly as I should always, but just as Jesus forgives us we MUST forgive others. As a mom, it is so easy to get caught in that trap of keeping a tally of who has "wronged" us. That mama bear trap is easy to get caught in. Not only should we forgive, but we have to model forgiveness for our children.

So tonight, say a prayer for the Musser family and love abundantly on your children, family, and friends. God will create beauty from these ashes as only he can. Go snuggle a little longer with your loved ones tonight and tomorrow if someone needs your forgiveness, lavish it upon them. Beauty will come from these ashes when hearts are tendered toward the One that provides peace that passes all understanding.

These Are the Days

I used to love the song These Are the Days and it was popular during my college days. I heard it the other day and I just had to chuckle at how my life is so different now then when I used to sing that song with my college friends.

Now my days are spent painting pumpkins with my little girl. I know now from parenting my first two how freakishly fast those first five years of life go by and I am determined to enjoy every second with Hope. With my boys being only two years apart, I felt so caught up in diapers and such that I often forgot to breathe and enjoy the chaos of having two little ones home all day.

Now those two go off to school everyday and I know that in the blink of an eye Hope will join them. I will take more time with her to read books, paint pumpkins, and just enjoy the moment more. Experience has taught me that lesson.

I have to think that the time we spent working on her first finger paint creation was well worth it! It is now hanging proudly on the refrigerator!

Kyle and David were so excited and jealous that Hope got to paint (remember I did not always say yes when they asked me to paint) that I had to pull the paint back out and let them create a pumpkin:)

They were having so much fun being crafty that the playdough came out too!

I also want to remember these days with Hope and her first little friend, Brady. Brady came to play today and we had such fun! They played forever on this Little People garage:)

They are only eight weeks apart and they are so cute together. Brady's Mom, Samantha was one of the first people I told that I was expecting Hope because I realized that our babies would only be 8 weeks or so apart and I was so excited to have another stay-at-home Mommy to plan fun times with during the day:)

My girls loves the camera! She carries this camera around and says "cheese" I wonder who modeled that for her? :)

Weekend Fun

Fall weekends are so much fun-there is usually so much to do each weekend! This weekend started off with Appalachian Day at David's school where the school takes a day to celebrate the local heritage. It is one of my favorite days of the whole school year!

Here is David in his plaid shirt and jeans:) He was so excited when Hope and I walked in to help with his class.

David and one of his classmates having their mid-morning snack out on the lawn. It was such a beautiful day for the hay rides, games, crafts, and all the amazing things they do to celebrate Appalachian Day.

I just had to sneak a picture of some of the girls in David's class-I love the little girl dresses and they were all so excited to be dressed up! I was checking out all the dresses so I could be planning for Hope one day! I love to watch the girls swirl their skirts and play with their bonnets.

Here is David hammering on some tin to make a craft!

Here is David and his sweet friend, Hailey! Hailey always looks so cute and festive and I have already begged her Mom to let me buy her appalachian dresses for Hope!

After the craziness of Friday, we decided that we as a family just needed Saturday to rest. We were all fighting a cold and Kyle was still recovering from strep throat. We literally laid around most of Saturday and watched football. It was not a super productive day, but we all needed the down time to rest our weary bones.

There are sometimes that David is so funny and off the wall! For some weird reason the kids love to play in our walk in closet. This morning David found these boots of mine and decided to wear them to church. I had to bribe him to wear his church shoes instead of MINE!

Hope was so proud of her new church shoes that we bought at Stride Rite during our last visit to Pigeon Forge!

Sometimes the camera just happens to be in a convenient spot to capture sweet moments like this one! David and Hope are all dressed and ready for church and he is reading an Elmo book to her! He also smuggled a cinnamon roll and gave it to her to eat! HA!

Hope is super obsessed with getting her picture made! If she sees the camera she starts screaming CHEESE!! I love it:)

About a month ago, Kyle was invited to be on a U10 soccer team that was being formed for this area. He really did not enjoy rec soccer last season, so I was surprised when he was excited about playing. He has had a great time practicing so far and today was their first game in Bristol. Mike and I do not know much about soccer, but we are learning!

Kyle decked out in his uniform at home before leaving. We had a weird cold snap today so he had to wear his cold gear under his uniform. Brrrr, we all about froze to death cheering for our boys!

Our cute U10 soccer team. They have only practiced for about a month and we were so proud of how well they did. All of these guys have only played rec ball so we are so thankful for his coaches that have the knowledge and patience to teach them.

My little snowman! She did not mind the hat or gloves which is encouraging since winter is right around the corner.

Kyle in action!

Can I just say that it was soooo cold at the soccer games that we came home and put on winter jammies after baths tonight! David and Hope both had on winter jammies and Hope's even had feet in them!

This has been one of those weekends that will take me most of Monday to recover from! We have tons of laundry from the weekend and the house is trashed. Oh well, I would much rather spend my weekend time with my family having adventures and watching football then doing housework:)