Tulips

Yesterday for part of my birthday we went to you pick tulip place.  Because I absolutely love tulips.

Each of my family members picked a flower just for me.  (The red wrapped bunch). CK picked orange, K picked yellow, C picked white, J picked red, V picked purple, and Little C picked pink.  Love love love.

The bunch of flowers that is wrapped in purple I picked.  I have a dear friend, J, that knew I wanted to go to the tulip place, so she gave me a gift certificate for my birthday.

What a great afternoon we had. The kids got out of school early because it was an early release day. We went to lunch at a random place that we'd never heard of, but we stopped there and ate at this mom and pop sub shop. It was very good. Then we went up to the tulips and enjoyed time together picking tulips and taking a couple of pictures.  We even ate my birthday brownies there. We attempted to have me blow out the candles, but the wind did it for me.

Then, we came home. The traffic was horrible, because there was a lot of construction. We picked up the babysitter on the way home and then hurriedly changed.  We took the kids to their dad, then CK and I went to see Star Wars. Then we had a quick dinner late and came back and took the babysitter home.

What an amazing birthday! I felt loved and blessed all day long.

39!

Today, I am 39.  Crazy!  Time just flies by.  I don't feel any older than 25, but I am.  I have six children, the oldest is 16.  I am definitely not 25.

I seriously have such a wonderful life.  I love my family and I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.  My life is overflowing with blessings and I feel so loved and taken care of by those above.

This morning, K decorated three doorways (notice that I am old enough that it took THREE doorways!) in our home with streamers about me (I don't know how she even thought of 39!).  But, they will soon fall and I wanted to remember them...so these are what the streamers say:

1. humble
2. strong
3. looks out for others
4. nice
5. good to talk to
6. kind
7. always learning
8. accountable
9. faithful
10. empathetic
11. beautiful
12. silly
13. fun
14. considerate
15. the life of the party 
16. optimistic
17. righteous
18. good listener
19. interesting
20. resilient
21. inspiring
22. sweet
23. supportive
24. willing to sacrifice
25. selfless
26. smart
27. hilarious
28. caring
29. great smile
30. hard worker
31. friendly
32. thoughtful
33. willing to serve
34. creative
35. courageous
36. extraordinary
37. outgoing
38. open-minded
39. helpful

I really don't know if I can claim all of these attributes, but they are definitely ones to strive for.  J was so excited this morning to let me know that I am now 13 + 13 + 13.  Lovely.  I am old.  But, it did get me thinking.  Where was I at 13, 26, and now at 39?

13...was my first birthday after moving to Colorado.  We lived in a nice rental home while we looked for a home to buy.  I loved having my family around me.  Even though the move was difficult, I was beginning to make friends and feeling slightly more comfortable.  

26...We had just recently moved to Texas (about a year before).  We still lived in an apartment, but we were looking at buying our first home.  K was 3, C was 1.  I was a busy mom of two littles (hmmm...second verse same as the first....hmmm).

39...No recent moving this time.  We have lived in this home nearly four years.  I have a great husband, six kids (16, 14, 12, 9, 3, and 2), and a very old dog.  I do have MS, but I am functioning quite well.  I have to be wary of heat especially and fatigue somewhat too.  Things I love but don't spend much (if any) time on include:  quilting, organizing, photography.  I also love being mom: playing with littles, supporting bigs, and laughing together with them all.  I do make time for this, although my heart aches with how fleeting it is.  For this reason, I know I need to return to blogging more often, so I have a record of my life.  It will not stay this way for long.

So, Happy Birthday to Me!  I guess this also means that my blog is 9+ years old.  :)

Little C is 2!!!!!

Last Saturday, Baby C (or really now Little C) turned 2.  These are pictures from my phone that I could easily upload.  I have dozens more on my fancy camera.  I will upload them soon, but they are big and I haven't found a way to make them smaller (yet).  My old program did it easily until I upgraded it and then it didn't.

These pictures are of him eating his birthday breakfast (donuts), smiling for his "number day" picture with a cheesy grin, decorating his brownies with me (he really wanted to!!), then eating said brownie.

His day was very low-key.  We ate donuts for breakfast.  We opened gifts.  It was a chilly day and he LOVES the park, so we went to McDonald's to play on the playplace.  We thought if we went at 3:00  it would be pretty empty, but it was super busy.  My sister and her family all came to be there for him.  It was great!  Then, we did homemade pizza (he doesn't like much food, but he does like pizza) and brownies.  It was perfect for him .  (Hopefully I do get the other pictures on the blog!)  C had basketball and K had a solo competition, so they weren't here much, but that is becoming standard these days.

I love this little guy.  I love his laugh.  I love that he cuddles.  I love that he completes our family so well.  Happy Birthday, C!

Just Life

I am sick.  Blehh!  Sickness really isn't fun, but it does teach you what it is like to be healthy!  I will appreciate tomorrow so much more!

Being sick, I have spent much of the day resting on the couch.  And looking at my phone to keep me entertained.  I realized that 6 years ago today was the big huge snow storm.  I went back on this blog to look at the pictures.  Then, I just had to keep reading.

LOVED it!  I loved seeing pictures of my kids (that have changed dramatically in 6 years!).  I loved reading about CK and seeing our love develop.  I loved it so much.  I have done a disservice to myself and others by not keeping this blog better up to date!  Again, I want to try harder.

I did work on and order a photo book with our January 2016 pictures.  I intend to make a book each month.  The kids absolutely love to go through them.  I do, too!  And, I love pictures sooooooooooooooo much, but where are most of them?  Hidden somewhere in a digital format.  Pre-digital, I was very good at printing photos, dating them, and putting them into albums.  I even dipped into scrapbooking.  I decided it wasn't really my thing.  I am not really crafty, but it didn't hurt to try.  But, with digital, I became the mom that took multiple photos of the same event and then couldn't choose which one to use and then just gave up because the thousands of photos can be overwhelming.

I did not do New Year's Resolutions this year, but beginning in December, I choose to focus on three goals to help make me a better person:

1. Drink more water (did great at the beginning....now not so great.)
2. Work on pictures and make them a priority (I did, in fact, work on and order a book!)
3. Don't complain.  (I think I wrote already about this...I have discovered that I am a closet complainer!  Time to change!)

So, the cool thing about this life...we can always start new.  We can always be better.  We will always fall, but we can always try again.  What an incredible blessing!

One last thing, while reading 2010 posts regarding CK, I mentioned some of his awesome qualities.  I also admitted that we were still courting, but I knew that he would continue to treat me well after being married.  He totally has!!  He gives me the very best that he has to give.  Every day.  Every minute.  I always come first.  I didn't know that this was possible.  But, it is not only possible, I have it!  I am so blessed!