6 years of wedded bliss

I intended to bring my keyboard to my iPad to type this out as we are on holiday for the weekend but instead I pecking away at the letters so I apologize now for mistakes.

6 years ago today at 6:00 pm, I married my love.  I recently read my wedding ceremony that I put together because I sent it to my dear friend that has always been more like my little sister that was getting married, as I read the words they spoke to my heart just as much now as they did then.  I may have then watched my wedding video and loved every minute of it!

One of the most important things in the ceremony to me was highlighting what a covenant is and what it means to enter into a covenant.  In a society that is trying to take away the significance of promises, marriage between a man and woman, and family, it was so important to read those words to 200 of our friends and family and now live them everyday.  I thought I would include one of my favorite parts today (I wanted to just put the whole ceremony but thought I would be the only one to enjoy it):

"Matthew and Cara, nothing is easier than saying words, and nothing is harder than living them day by day. What you promise now must be renewed and redecided everday. At the end of this ceremony, legally you will be husband and wife, but you still decide each day that stretches out before you, you want to be married.

The world has the idea that marriage is simply a legal contract. But marriage is so much more it is a Holy Covenant.  You are entering into a sacred covenant as life partners in God.  The quality of your marriage will reflect what you put into nurturing this relationship you have the opportunity to go forward from this day to create a faithful, kind, and tender relationship.  

The vows you are going to make and the covenant being made today is a lifelong commitment in:

Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 gives us God’s view of keeping vows:

​​“When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it.  He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.  It is better not to vow than to make a vow not fulfill it.  Do not let your mouth lead you into sin.  And no protest to the temple messenger. “My vow was a mistake.’ Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the works of your hands?”

Matthew 19:6 “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Everyday, we choose to fulfill the covenant that we made 6 years ago and most days are wonderful doing life with my husband, but there are moments of miscommunication, bad moods, and misunderstandings.  But along with that has to come conflict resolution, forgiveness, and talking.  I can not imagine doing life with anyone else.  I love and respect his work ethic and passion to figure out how to fix everything, his servants heart but most of all I love how he pursues a fervent relationship with God daily.  

Happy 6 years to us. 

Side note: I was telling my oldest 2 that today was the day that we got my married and my eldest, Niah said, "are you going to put on your wedding dress and eat cake?" Yes Niah, when I get home I will be putting on my dress and everyone gets cakes!! (I thought it was funny she knew)

My oldest turns 5

This year is such an emotional year for me.  My baby turned ONE, Malachi starts preschool, and My sweet Niah turned 5 and goes to KINDERGARTEN! 5 is like the monumental age of no longer a toddler, but a young lady! I can not even contain the emotion, the tears are coming from someone that holds it together pretty good (I think anyway).

Just 5 short years ago, I brought the sweetest little Niah home from the hospital and she made me a "Mommy."  I can not explain what a joy it is to be a mom to my 3 kids.  It is a love I never knew was possible.   There is something so incredibly special about that first time though.  I remember that when I was in that hospital bed knowing I was getting ready to push out a baby and my dream of being a mom (since I was a child) was going to be a reality.  They placed her tiny body on me and so many emotions of happiness and joy occurred the only outward reaction was tears.  A bond that will never be broken.

Dearest Niah,

How is it possible that you are already FIVE.  It seems like yesterday we were in that hospital room and now we are talking Kindergarten.  It is such a bittersweet moment because I love to watch you accomplish and grow but I want to protect you and keep you little forever. 

You amaze me with your huge tender heart.  In your eyes everything should be fair and everyone treated right, I hope you never realize that their are people that do not always do this.  You have a love for Malachi and Cora that could not be matched.  You look out for them, protect them, and love them more than a mommy could ever expect.  You are a giver and have such a servant's heart.  You have such empathy and compassion.  You have a little spunk and say the wittiest things.  You may be calm and quiet but when want something you go after it.  You have learned so much about God's word and tell me Bible Stories and memory verses all the time but more than that you are truly learning that we can pray to God and He will touch us.  Your mommy and daddy have made it our biggest goal and commitment to help you to have a strong relationship with God and to put Him first before anything else (sports, movies, friends, and family).  Sometimes we have to make tough decisions but just know we make every decision in prayer and we love to see how you are beginning to realize the importance of having a relationship with God.

You are shy at first but warm up quickly.  You are such a good listener and want to do everything right.  You fight your naps now and usually only take 3-4 a week but when you do go to sleep, you want to sleep for hours!  Your favorite restaurant is Panera for their mac n cheese.  Your favorite stores are Marshals and Tuesday Morning. You love long dresses that touch the ground.

  You are a calculated decision maker and always weigh every option before making a decision (You get this from your me).  You do not like the unknown and like to know all your options. 

You love when I come to school to your class for special things.  You love ballet and gymnastics and have gotten really good at them.  You love to swim and started swimming under the water last summer.  

I truly enjoy being your mommy and know how special you are.  I know God has a great plan for your life! 

Love,
Your Mommy

Cora Faith Turns 1

I realize I am so incredible behind on this but I so wanted to make sure I had this documented. 

Cora is at such a fun age.  She is really coming into her personality of sassy and sweet.  She loves to cuddle with her Mommy, just laying on her with her thumb in her mouth.  That is right, I have a thumb sucker, something I thought I would never have and tried to stop but the stomach bug hit at 10 months and I could not stop her when she was sick.  So hopefully soon we will have gotten rid of the thumb sucking.  She lights up when Daddy comes home and crawls to him.  She is the happiest when mommy or daddy is holding her and does not care for anyone else.  She is a mover, that doesn't sit still, all over the place.  When the girl wants something she lets you know.  She can crawl out of every high chair no matter how tight the straps are.

Cora is great eater and loves food.  Her favorites are chicken, organic hot dogs, bananas, lara bars, and pasta.  The girl is a messy eater and because I do not really use bibs we do a lot of stain treatment on her clothes.  She loves to drink water but will drink so much that she spits half of it out all over her.  When she wants food or drink she will throw what she has in her hand and point and wave her hand towards her until you bring it and if she is ignored she makes loud noises.  If she does not want something she will grunt and move her hands to push it out of the way.

Cora can crawl regular but prefers her fast army crawl.  She hates to walk but will take a few steps to appease me then will stop and want to be held.  She prefers to be held over anything.   She is similar to Niah and does not like toys but would rather play with odds and ends and fiddle with my things than toys. 

Cora is petite and made it to the 11% for height at 28.5 inches and 14% weight at 17 lbs 6 ozs,  She is wearing 6-12 months in clothes and size 3 in diapers. 

She can say:
Niah, Mama, Dada, Hi, that, bye, here

She also has specific words for things she wants but are not real words.

Cora is such a sweet addition to our family and enjoy every minute with her.  She adores Niah and tolerates Malachi's taunting well but they do get along when he is not pestering her.  We know God has great plans for her life and we are excited to be apart of that.  We love her so much

Be careful little eyes what you see

"Be careful little eyes what you see". 

I remember learning that song as a small child and would sing it often.

Fast forward 20 years and that song goes through my head daily, as I pray and seek wisdom for my littles.  Daily, I evaluate on what is ok and not ok for my children.  How do I teach them about this broken world and be cautious without putting fear in them.  How do I guard their hearts and protect their innocence.  The only way to do it, is wisdom from my Savior! And to shut down the influence of people, social media, and society! I have realized it is ok if my almost 5 year has never seen Frozen or an princess movie for that movie. That up until recently she didn't know it was a movie.  My son has never seen a super hero movie and may get batman and superman confused.  My kids will immediately run to us if someone tells them to keep a secret, they may yell the word "boundary" at weird times because they feel uncomfortable, they may even kick you and scream if you grab their hand in the store (the husband gave a class), and they may not know a lot of main stream things.

It was an easy decision, one that you know was God because you and your husband came up with the same thoughts without any conversations and feel so sure about it that you check everyday with each other on that day.  I in no way mean to offend anyone and I believe every parent knows their babies and has to decide what's right for them.  Why, we do we do it.  Well, my babies will only be little for a short time.  They have a short time to be protected from this broken world before they come across hurt, peer pressure, and life.

My little girl has the princess pjs, dress up dresses, and accessories!  My son has an avengers backpack.  They may think that Ariel and Jasmin are cousins under the sea and the next day sisters in a castle.

Right they imagine they are the princesses and prince and mommy and daddy are the king and queen.  That a dad dances with his daughter through the whole house and shows her how she is to be treated.  That a mom takes her son on special outings and he orders the food and learns to be a gentleman.  They watch their parents respect each other, love each other and work out conflict in a good way instead of watching unrealistic relationship.  Right now they do not know about boyfriend and girlfriends and have no need to know.   Right now they have no fears of villains. Right now, my daughter thinks the toy in her happy meal is a not pretty girl, that she threw away.

This is the raunchy stencil that she got in her McDonald's happy meal yesterday!

Is it realistic to do that?  I have to believe for my kids, yes.  

One day when the day is right, I will walk my daughter into a fairytale princess movie and be excited with her to watch.  One day my son may watch super Heroes and realize that they did more than stopping the not nice kid on the playground.  One day, when we believe that it is right for our family.  But until then my daughter will dance in the hallway with her dad and imagine what princesses do.  And my son will save the kids being picked on and learn to be a gentleman from his mom.

"Be Careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, be careful little hands what you do, be careful little feet where you go, and be careful little mouth what you say" 

Remember I am in no way judging any parent, our job as parents is to decide what's right for our kids and it will be completely different for every family.  And every parent has the same ultimate goal to protect and raise our littles the best we can.

My Little Man is 3

A little emotional thinking that my little man is 3 today.  You are the sweetest boy and say the sweetest things but in the next minute you are tearing down your sister's hard work at building with blocks.  You love blocks, you play with those the most, then are trucks and trains.  You are sensitive to other people being loud, smells, and unclean spaces (you do not seem to mind if it is you).  You preferred to be carried over walking, and you only like short distance running but prefer sitting down activities.  Your favorite foods are ice cream or Popsicle, strawberries, and chocolate milk.

I adore your faith.  You immediately pray when something is wrong and then believe it to be done!  You are a calculated risk taker and weigh your pros and cons.  You will go on huge roller coasters with Mommy or daddy but refuse to ride a kiddie ride by yourself.  You have such a personable personality you win the hearts of anyone that knows you!  I love your innocence and that it has yet to be tainted, Mommy and Daddy pray for wisdom and knowledge on how to keep it that way every day!

You are a man that knows what you want and you stick to your guns! There is no convincing you otherwise which we respect and love!

I can not tell you enough how much we love you!!  You tell me all the time that I am the bestest mommy in the world but you are the bestest son in the world.   You daily teach me to have patience, how to think out of the box trying to guide and direct your rampant personality without harming your imagination and who you are.  The twos have stretched me as a mommy and hopefully made me a better mommy but I would not change a minute of it!  I welcome the "trying threes" and excited for what is in store, but a little glum that your getting bigger.  

I hope you know how much we love you!!

Real life

I put the kids to bed early the other night  because they boycotted their nap and were cranky.  My kids are no fun when they are tired ☹ That's why I love a set schedule because it prevents the ugly from coming out.

Such as this video from a couple weeks ago when the ugly came out

Anyways, early bedtime so there was no melt downs.  Which worked well for me since I had 2.5 weeks of laundry to fold for 5 people (rethinking having so many clothes and not doing laundry over the holidays)

Two hours of folding and hanging, but I turned on the classic Pride and Prejudice and the time passed quickly. 

Then the real fun started (said in complete sarcasm). My little man was not acting right real fussy said his tummy hurt.  We laid him on my bed and My husband came out to the laundry madness and we were chatting away.  All of a sudden I hear some thing and go to the bedroom to check, strawberry throw all over my bed.  I grabbed little man took him to the bathroom, on the way strawberry throw up all over me.  Good news we made it to the toilet and he felt much better and was all done.  My weak stomach husband wants to throw everything away!! My sheets, pillows, blankets, pjs! I quickly told him pile it all take to laundry as I am running water for little man that is singing and begging bubbles!  Clean bed with baking powder, start washer, clean child, put new sheets on, find clean pillows, clean floor and husband comes in after dressing little man gagging, "you still have throw up on you."  SILENCE 

Good news! little man was not sick anymore and everyone got sleep.  Putting away laundry waited! 

Some days are like this. (Perfection, well almost)

Others involve throw up, laundry, no naps, and a bed with no sheets! 

Anyone have a crazy real life situation out there you want to share?

A few little funnies

Little time for blogging as it feels like yesterday, I had Cora and now she is 7.5 months. Did I mention I have an almost 5 year old, just merely typing it makes me want to break out in bitter sweet tears.  Oh don't forget my baby boy who is not so baby any more but a boy who is almost 3!  Life is going way too fast so we are trying to soak it up!

Life with my 3 littles is amazing but comes with a few changes.  3 means you have to be a lot more careful in public because you only have 2 hands.  So we are well planned and go over the rules, the goal maintain control and keep everyone safe while not breaking anything. We are successful 99% of the time!  We won't talk about the other 1% where mom's look at you and know exactly what you are going through and people without children think, "if I had kids....."

But I thought I would leave you with some absolutely adorable stories about my babies!!

Malachi is my ornery, sweet boy.  One minute he is just doing something you could never think a toddler would think of such as, Just this week he was mad at me because I made him go to the bathroom by himself (which he 100% can and I believe in making my kids be self sufficient to set them up for success in adulthood) and he comes out in the cutest scrunched face and says, "I tried to go to the bathroom like a big boy and missed!"  What!  You never stand up, we go in there and he missed, he got everything but the toilet.  Bath number 4 this week and it is only Tues!  In the same hour, he grabs my hand while I am sitting and says, "You are my best friend."  Something he does often and says with such sincerity!

Niah, is my compassionate girl!  She thinks about people and feels others emotions (similar to me).  I was hanging the stockings and she asked whose stocking is whose.  I began to tell her and I said I am one short so I will have to buy one for me.  She replied, "Mommy you can have mine until you get yours"  Of course I told her, "We can share."

Malachi has just now figured out he can climb out of his bed and he was taking a nap and I kept threatening him and knew the next time he got out I was going to have to lock the door.  He of course got out again and he saw the door was being locked.  He began to beg me not to lock the door.  I told him I would give him one more chance and his response was which has does often, "Mom I just really need you to pray for me."

Cora is army crawling everywhere!!  All over the house, she goes.  She is really struggling with separation anxiety and begins to cry if she crawls out of the room I am in or I leave the room.  She has begin to play the game where she won't let certain people hold her and then smiles as she turns away.  She has began eating food.  Did I mention I can not believe my baby is mobile!!

So we enjoying life and embracing the chaos!!