Catching Up!

This is what we have been doing a lot of lately! With Aaron and Isaac both getting out of school for all this snow, we have been playing a lot. It has been fun but know I am kinda ready to see some Spring!


This is the snowman that Aaron and the boys made. Cade named him Frosty. I thought it was really an original name!

Other than snow we have been sick. How backwards is it that Aaron and I get the stomach bug and my boys don't. I got it last week and Aaron had it Monday of this week. We are praying the boys stay well!


My mom is coming in town today to watch the boys this weekend. Aaron and I are going to Indianapolis for the weekend. We are taking this as our anniversary and Valentines Day gifts to each other. I am so looking forward to getting away!

Other exciting news is......We finally got a new mattress! We have been married 9 years and have had hand me down mattresses. I am very thankful for what we have had but it sure is nice to be able to go pick out the one you want. We were in desperate need of a new one. So far it has been some good sleeping!

Also, Aaron has been talking to a church here in Louisville about a youth ministry position. It is down to him and one other guy. We are just praying for God's clear direction is this. It is a part time position and Aaron really would love to be full time in the ministry and just have one job. He also has a church in Danville, KY that is going to interview him. It is a full time position but we aren't real sure when they will start interviewing. More than anything we just are doing our best to seek God's direction and stay in His will for this next step in our lives.

Slumber Parties and Sledding!

That is what we have been up to these days. First my bible study girls decided to have a slumber party. Actually one of my friends, Christina really planned it all. We are coming to the end of our second bible study and wanted to have a girls night. Christina's husband travels with his job and her and her kids get to go with him. So we had a slumber party before she left town at a Bed and Breakfast. It was so much fun!!! If I knew how to upload videos from my phone, I would show the kind of things that went on. Instead you will just have to check out the pj's we were in for the night.













We haven't gotten much snow this year but there has been enough for the boys to have some snowball fights and go sledding!


This is them checking out the snow first thing this morning. Isaac thought about throwing a snowball at his daddy.


This is all three boys resting after a couple hours of sledding. I didn't go but I had hot chocolate waiting on them when they got home. (Notice Cade's mouth)


This is Cade with his friend Zach. He kinda looks scared but he is really not scared of anything. He came home telling me about how they slid all the way to the woods. I am glad I didn't go to see that.

My big 8 year old!

Aaron and I met with Isaac's teacher the other day. She had some concerns about Isaac and his attention to his work. I kinda expected her to bring up having him tested for ADD but I guess I didn't think it would bother me as much as it has. I know this is not really a major thing to deal with but it still bothers me. I am very thankful and blessed that this is all that Isaac has to struggle with. Most babies born as early as Isaac can't walk or talk and here I am upset about some Attention problems. I guess I just really wanted him to not have to struggle in school or really just life in general. He has gone through so much in his short little life (eventhough he doesn't remember it, I do) and I just wanted school to be easy for him.

So we will be getting Isaac tested and hopefully, we can do some things besides medicine to help him. I just hope and pray finding this while he is young and getting some direction on how to help him will make some major improvements in his school work.

Wow how time flies!

I have obviously been neglecting my blog lately. Isaac and Aaron started back school and things just got really hectic around here. I am going to try to start back and at least have a blog a week.

Aaron has one semester left of school then he will be done with his Bachelors in Youth Ministry. Yahoooooo! He starts back school on Monday and is taking 7 classes this semester so he can get done. Oh and did I mention he is training for a marathon too. He obviously likes to stay busy! It has been a long road but we have made some great friends and have just grown so close as a family and our relationship with Christ has grown. Aaron has been sending his resume out and is in the process of filling out questionares and talking with 4 churches right now. We are just really praying for God's direction and a clear path on where He is leading us next. We are excited and nervous. We know that this next move will be a long term move and home for a while. O

Isaac is halfway through 2nd grade. He is doing well this year. He still struggles with his handwriting (what little boy doesn't) and is reading really well. At the beginning of 1st grade I was so concerned with his reading but he has just really caught on. My mom calls him several nights a week and reads to him over the phone. They are reading the Black Stallion right now. She gave him that book and movie for Christmas. He absolutely loves this time of night and can't wait until bedtime so he can call her.

Cade is in his last year of Mothers Morning Out. :( My little boy will be starting Kindergarten in August. He is so excited to be going to big school with his brother. Me on the other hand won't know what to do without a little boy to hang out with everyday. It has been 81/2 years of me being at home with my boys. I am going to miss this stage but I am very excited to see what God has next for me!

Cade has been doing well lately with his headaches. He hasn't had one in a while. We have been praying that God would completely heal Cade and when we go back for his next MRI it will be completely normal. I am not sure when his next MRI will be. It will either be in March of this year (which is nine months from the last MRI) or June of this year ( which is nine months since we saw the neurosurgeon). They are just suppose to let me know when his next appointment will be.

I am just trying to enjoy where we are at in life right now. It is hard not knowing where God is leading us next (especially where our next home will be). I am doing the bible stude One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer. It is about being in a wilderness and God showing up in astonishing ways to lead us. I know this is my wilderness right now ( Aaron finishing school, Cade's MRIs and not knowing where we will live in the next 5 months) but through this bible study, God is showing me that when we are at this place in our lives is when He is positioning us to work in a a unique and unusual way.

Decisions

Aaron and I have a lot of decisions to make soon. Aaron resigned from our church here in Louisville as the youth pastor. It is a very tough situation and we know that God has a bigger plan that we just can't see right now. We love the students at that church and have made some great friends. We are living right now in a house that the church owns and let us live in while Aaron was on staff there. One of the decisions we have to make is where we will be living. Aaron doesn't have much time left in school and we don't know where God will call us when he is finished. We are praying right now for an answer on where we should go as far as our home. I told the boys yesterday that we were going to be moving and Isaac was really upset. He just doesn't understand why. I reassured him he will get to stay in school with his friends and that seemed to make things a little better. As hard as this has been, we definetly already see some things we can be thankful for. One big thing is that we still have medical insurance. I was reminded last night how important that was when Cade had one of his bad headaches. He has his neurosurgeon appointment coming up on September 2nd and we are so thankful that we won't have to worry about insurance with all the other things on our plate right now.

As our friends, we just really need your prayers. Like I said we have lots of decisions to make especially, what to do about our home. Also, Aaron has a class load this semester and is also worrying about our financial situation. He is a little overwhelmed right now. I was able to work an extra day at my job and he has several painting opportunities coming up. Don't forget our massive dog we have too! I am not real sure what we will do with Bella but I do know it would kill the boys if we have to get rid of her.

We know that we serve a God who is upset and hurting with us right now and also is going to take care of us. I was reminded this morning of a few verses in James. James 1:2-4 says "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

We have such awesome friends! Several of our friends have volunteered their homes for us to stay with them, offered Aaron painting work and offered to help with the packing. We have been blessed in so many ways already through this and can't wait to see what God has in store through this situation that doesn't seem to0 fun right now.

Summer Vacation

The Family at the Mets game!

Everytime a pitch was thrown, Cade was swinging from the stands with his bat. It was too cute!

My boys enjoying a Nathan's Hot Dog.

This is as close as we got to the Statue of Liberty. The line was so long to ride the ferry out there. The boys were so excited to just get this close!

Where the twin towers were and the rebuilding going on.

Aaron on the double decker tour bus!

We got to go to New York this summer for our family vacation. We have some friends who live there and they let us stay with them. Thanks Sean and Christina!

We went on a tour of the city one day. We took a train from the little town we were staying in to Grand central Station. Cade loved that train. He says the train and bus were some of his favorites! When we got in the city we took a double decker bus tour where they have a guide who tells you where and what everything is. There was 25 stops and you could get out at any of them and then just catch the next bus to the next stop. We got out at the site of the World Trade Center and Statue of Liberty. We tried to explain to the boys what happend on 9/11 but they just couldn't understand why someone would want to run a plane into buildings. Cade said those people must not of liked how tall the buildings were. Isaac was so excited to see the Statue of Liberty. He was telling some random girl next to him that he was looking at it. It was too cute! We also stopped and ate at a TGI Fridays. Everyone says that the food is expensive but until you see a menu with a $7.95 kids macaroni do you really understand how expensive!

We also went to Coney Island, ate at Nathan's Hot Dogs and the New York Aquarium. We weren't very impressed with the Aquarium or Coney's Island but we got a good hot dog and the kids seemed to enjoy the day.

The night before we left we got to go to the Mets vs. Rockies baseball game. It was so much fun! In the past, the boys haven't lasted very long but at this game they really enjoyed it and Cade was wanting to get out there and play with them.

July was such a busy month. I think I was only home for a total of one week the whole month. We enjoyed our traveling but I am glad to be back home. We are getting ready for the next school year to start. Aaron starts Monday and Isaac on the 20th. Aaron is going to be a Senior and only has two semesters left of his undergraduate. Isaac is starting 2nd grade at Portland Christian School where he went last year. He really enjoyed 1st grade and said yesterday that he was ready to go back to school. Definetly what a mom wants to hear!

I am still working at a Mothers Day Out as the Assistant Director, so Cade goes there with me and is learning his letters and numbers and is getting pretty good at writing his name. He will be 5 in October but his late birthday has him starting Kindergarten next year. I am not complaining. It will be sad when my baby goes off to school too.

I haven't blogged in a month and I was going to post some pictures with this but I have lost my cord that connects my camera to my computer. So I am blogging but you won't get to see any of the fun pictures to go along with it.

We have had such a busy summer. I never thought we were going to be this busy. At the end of May, Cade went to stay with my parents and had to come back home early so we could have all of his tests run. My mom came back with me to Louisville and when she went home she took Isaac with her. The plan was for both boys to stay with my parents while I went to Mfuge with Aaron and the youth. My grandfather was living with my mom and wasn't doing well, so I decided I wouldn't go to camp and me and Cade would just go Mississippi to see my family in Mississippi. My grandfather passed away a week after I got there. He had cancer and had just gotten really weak and wasn't eating. He was 87 years old and was tired. Aaron left camp on Saturday and headed to Mississippi. He did my grandpas funeral service so we just stayed another week in Mississippi. So Isaac was in Mississippi for a whole month and we were all gone half of the month of June. It wasn't our orginal plan for the summer but I am glad I got to be with my family.

We had some friends come visit us last week and stayed all week. They helped me take up the carpet in our living room and dining room. We sanded and stained the hardwood floors and I really like it. We also went to Indiana and went shopping at the outlet mall. It was a fun week. (had some good pics of the fun we had and the cookout but of course I can't get from my camera to my computer)

Aaron has been out of town since Thursday and will come home tomorrow night real late. Then we will be leaving Friday morning for our family vacation. We are going to New York this year and will be staying with some of our friends. Cade doesn't really know where we are going but Isaac has a little idea. He is really excited about seeing the Statue of Liberty. I have heard it is booked up until September, so we won't get to go inside but he will get to see it up close. None of us has ever been to New York so we are real excited about going.

Cade is doing well and our appointment with the Neurosurgeon is getting closer. It is on September 2nd and we are anxious to hear what he has to say and where we will go from here.

Hopefully I can get another cord to the camera and will be able to at least post some pics from our trip to New York.