9 of my favorite things about you.

My handsome little son is quickly becoming a big boy. I remember the day I discussed with Daddy that we should have another baby. We had two adorable little girls, but I always wanted lots of kids. As I was trying to convince daddy that we needed another baby, I remember him saying.. " I just don't know. We are living tighly right now and I don't know if we can afford another child." I explained to Daddy that we won't always be living on such a tight budget and that we should not let today determine our forever. He agreed with me and about ten months later, you were born. We didn't let that day determine who we'd be forever. God has blessed our family and we are truly grateful.

So, today, Cort.. Since you are turning 9 years old I want to tell you 9 of my favorite things about you.. in no special order!

1- You live life to the fullest everyday.. enjoying all that you do.

2- You are an encourager to others.

3- You are super polite and kind.

4- You love your sisters, even when they don't treat you with love. This is called unconditional love.

5- You truly know how to make me feel like I'm doing a good job as your mom by appreciating me and making me feel special... even if this means informing random people that I am already "taken". :)

6- You remind me of how much I love your Daddy. Looking at you is like looking at him. In your personality, appearance and your heart.

7- You are ALL heart. You play ball like you mean it. You give it all you've got and always try your very best.

8- You love Jesus by doing what is right and listening to the little voice in your head reminding you that He's the most important part of your life.

9- You are the best big brother EVER to Clayton. You make him feel like a superstar at anything he tries to do. You protect him from others and always stand by his side.

Happy Birthday, Cort... Here's to many more great years.

Conversations with Clayton

Today I had the sweet pleasure of about 10 minutes alone with Clayton in the car driving kiddos to and from. I just wanted to give a run down of how this sweet time went...

Momma... Who do you think will die first? Me or Reagan?
Well, Clayton you both are very young I bet you will both live a very long time.
Hmmm.. when I die who do I give my money to? I know, I'll give it to you, Mom. Wait... no that won't work.. You'll die before me because you're old.. that won't work. I guess I'll have to give it to Cort. That sounds good.
I take this opportunity to be spiritual and hope for a divine moment...
You know Clayton, when you die you will go see Jesus, but you must ask him to come live in your heart.. like Cort did when he got baptized.
Oh Umm Yeah.. Ummm Mom... how does our car run?
Well, we have to put gas in it.
What is gas?
It's a liquid that makes our car run.
Where does it come from?
Ummm Not sure.
Oh well. is it under the car in bottles?
Well, kinda its a tank that allows the gas to run through the car.
Where does it go after it runs through the car?
It evaporates into the air.Oh...
Mom, Do you think roadrunners can fly?
Well, I've never seen one fly, but I can't say for sure.
Why is it a bird if it can't fly?
I'm not sure, Clayton..
Well, why do they call it a road runner if it's sitting in my front yard?
I don't know baby. Somethings just don't have an answer...
Mom, is Dad home.. I need to ask him the stuff you don't know.. :)
Love me some sweet 6 year old boy! An inquisitive child is a good sign for sure!

Some things never change...

Last night I came across these pictures and BOY!! did it make me sad. My kids are GROWING UP. As I was looking through them I started noticing a pattern in my pictures. It seemed like in all of these pictures Cort was either holding a ball, throwing a ball, watching ball or hitting a ball. Then Caroline was either hanging upside down, running around in a leotard, or standing on her head. It made me think about the passions they were born with.


I spend my life trying to help my kids pursue their passion. I know we all do as parents. It's what we love to do... see our kids excel in what they love. From the day Cort could talk he said "Ball". Literally, it was his first word. He just wanted a ball. Ask our babysitter, Sarah Dalton, what she was paid to do. Of course, she was paid to make sure our kids didn't kill themselves or somebody, but pretty much she was paid to pitch a little ball back and forth to Cort for him to either bat or catch. He was born with a passion to play ball.


I also remember Caroline being on the playground as a little bitty girl and another mom saying " Ma'am, Your daughter is flipping around that bar". At 3 years old she was scaring me to death trying to swing around bars over concrete. I knew she needed a safe place to flip, so we started gymnastics and she was in LOVE. Gymnastics birthday parties, every fun day there was, extra practices... the gym was her second home.


These two still have that passion inside them. They both still love to play. When a game is going on, Cort just can't drive past and not take part, or watch. Caroline is the same way. While there's not always a gymnastics meet in town, the athlete in her wants to play whatever is going on.

I spend my time reminding my kids to "Commit your way to the Lord, trust HIM and he will do it" Psalms 37:5. We spend a lot of time talking about how we should commit our gifts to the Lord and ask Him to give us the best He has for us. We pray with the kids before games or meets, even if just a whisper in the ear, for the Lord to do a good work in them to HIS glory. Even when we have our down days, we remind them that God has a plan even in that.

More than often I feel judged by other people for keeping such a schedule. But even though other parents don't understand my willingness to drive to out of town tournaments, make the effort for the extra practices, sit out in the burning up hot each Saturday, run like a mad woman in the afternoons trying to make it happen and live in a modest house so that I can afford all of this, it's all worth it to see my kids living out their passions. I hear so many comments and opinions from other families on how busy we are, and how we just need to say no, or how they would never run all over like we do... but as I try to defend myself all I can say is..as long as my child still has the passion for their activity, gives it their all, makes the best of their opportunity and keeps up with their schoolwork... what have I to lose? Shooting for the end result of winning a tournament, perservering through the hard work of achieving a skill, and learning to work together as a team are all excellent skills that will help my kiddos their whole life. Watching them do their thing is the highlight of my life. I guess.. that is MY passion :) Now.. here's to a crazy busy fall. May I please stay strong... in the name of Passion :)

To drink the caffeine or not drink the caffeine.. that is the question

This blog for me started out to be a memory book for my kids, but I just sometimes get inspired by something that I want to write about that is not necessarily a "memory" for my kiddos. But, you know, I figure that this is my blog and it's quite possible that by the time my kids actually care that I have a blog, they'll be mature enough to maybe learn something from their old momma's insight. So... here I go with my "thoughts from Kes" moment.

So I was recently reading a magazine that had lots of self help articles in it. That's kind of my idea of a good magazine. I'm not into who is dating who in Hollywood, or if Brad and Angelina have gone to Uganda again... whatever.. I just like to read new tips for food, recipes ( not that I plan to cook them), and new exercises. Well, this particular magazine had an article about how to naturally make your breasts bigger... Hmmmmm this is interesting.. do tell..... and in the next few pages there was an article on how to get rid of cellulite naturally. The cellulite article caught my attention because I was just rejected by Chad when I suggested that I go try out the new laser system that supposedly zaps all your cellulite. Chad was..."ummmm.... no.." when I suggested I go try the new methods. So, I'm reading along and there are several methods.. one of which is to drink lots of caffeinated drinks and use caffeinated lotions. Apparently that will act as a diuretic and will rid your legs, buttocks, arms, etc of cellulite.. Hmmm I'm thinking about this as I turn back and begin to read the article on how to naturally increase your breast size. Laughingly I realize that the main goal there is to avoid all caffeinated drinks as retaining fluid will make your breasts larger... Ok.. so I'm sitting there thinking, well, there's a decision to make here. Do I want less cellulite or larger breasts.. I'm guessing if we're talking self help methods, I have decision to make.

This just got me thinking. What difference does it make? I mean, honestly... Chances are if I asked Chad what I should do.. drink caffeine for thinner thighs, or avoid caffeine for bigger breasts, he'd probably say.. whatever gets you to bed earlier. He just wants ME.. What does it have to take for ME to just accept ME.

If you know me at all you know that I've spent my life struggling with self esteem. I'm pretty sure it stemmed from the kids in my Christian private school calling me Elsie because I was a little cubbier than the other kids. This is one reason my kids are in public school. I had some seriously mean kids growing up in Christian private schools. Left a bad taste in my mouth.. Anyway, here I am at 39 years old losing sleep over things that just don't matter.

Last week was a tough week for me. I feel like Satan was sitting on my shoulder reminding me of what I am not. Or better yet, trying to convince me that I am not. I was suffering pretty bad and just miserably trying to find myself and what it would take to make me happy. Trust me, Satan knows my weakness. If I open any little door for him to sneak into my life and talk down to me, he will. This is unacceptable. I will NOT let Satan convince me that I am anything other than who God meant for me to be. I will NOT let Satan sneak into my marriage and whisper in my ear that my husband won't like me if.... or won't accept me if... I won't do it.

So, here is where I am... Last week I was praying for the Lord to heal me from these awful thoughts of failure and comparisons to others. I was asking the Lord to speak into my heart and remind me that the earthly worries don't matter. Would you know that within two days my precious 8 year old boy walked right up to me and whispered in my ear " Don't change anything about you, Mommy. I like you just as you are". Moments later my friend wrote on facebook " More of Him, Less of me", just a few moments later I was in my car driving my daughter around and the song "Beloved" by Kari Jobe came on. I PROMISE that the volume turned up so loudly when Kari sang "you're beautiful to me...so beautiful to me". That is honestly the only part of the song that I heard. God reminded me that "Greater is He that is in Me than he that is in the world." How about that? How about the Lord just simply reminding me that I am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. It was awesome and a great slap in the face to the Satan who tries to remind me that I am not.

Guess what I am. I am a mother who is devoted to her children. I am a friend to many. I am a wife to my husband, who loves me as me. I am a daughter and a sister. I am an example to my daughters. I am a woman of God.

This life is so short. I picture myself lying with my husband years from now when one of us is heading to Jesus and I see myself regretting all the time spent worrying about appearance and wishing back any moment I had to embrace this woman that God made me... loving me for me. Living my life to the fullest.. being the best God can help me be.

So, my decision about the caffeine... who cares? No one.. that's who. The King is enthralled with your beauty. Honor Him.. for HE is your God! Thank you, Lord.

Cort's Baptism

What a sweet moment! Cort was baptized! It was absolutely precious. Chad baptized him with all of his family present. It was darling and a gorgeous moment for our family.

Kate's Dance Recital

This year Kate danced in SIX dances.... One of which was her competition Dance... and Ohhh so cute. I was so proud of her. All of her family came to watch and cheer her on. She was incredible!

Bluebonnets

I just have to laugh when I think about bluebonnet pictures. It's just something I have to do every year. This year the bluebonnets were not very pretty. They were just dry and crispy and few and far between. The kids complain something terrible about taking the pictures every year. They whine and gripe the whole time and act like I'm just killing them. But... funny enough... the first thing they do when we get in the car and drive off is fight over who gets to look through the camera first, then complain that "there's no good ones of themselves". Well.... maybe there would be if you'd just hush up and smile instead of complaining :) One day I'll be out there with their children and maybe they'll thank me for it then.