Sad...

Well...... I've been MIA for awhile..... and if I'm quite honest, theres a specific reason for that. 

Every single time I sit down and think about blogging, my heart sinks to my stomach and I sit in denial of something dear to my heart.

My camera is gone.

..... and this evening, approximately 3 weeks since I've laid hands on my camera, I'm facing the facts that I might not lay hands on it again. 

and I am

DEVASTATED!

I know, I know... I'm quite possibly taking it a little to far... but, taking pictures is something that I am passionate about... taking pictures of my kids, at that.... the memories. 

Agghh... my poor soul. I think the thing that gets me more than my $800 missing , possibly stolen camera, is that there are precious memories on that camera. Take the dang camera.... but please give me my pictures back. 

I'm bummed. But, I'll continue praying for divine intervention and I'll keep searching... and I suppose start saving for another... and in the mean time, pull out my point and shoot.

The Casa

Each and every day I find myself thinking that this house was made for us!! 

I know, cheesy... maybe its cuz we've been without a "normal" home for so long... and we've just been outta whack... either way, we are loving our house!! 

I LOVE that the kids have their own space upstairs, and I don't have to worry about "keeping clean" when/if people come over. 

I also LOVE the fact that after the kids are down for a nap, or for bed, I DONT have to worry about being quite, or tip toeing around. Quite a change from our last home, where we were in such close quarters, the TV was mounted on the wall of the kids' bedroom. 

I take full advantage of this, and even am a little on the loud side while the kids sleep.

Another little piece of perfection is the huge concrete slab out in the backyard!! We spend a lot of time out there!! 

and apparently I'm crooked... cuz all my pics are crooked... so tilt your head just a little. ;)

This is the front foyer area which I'm so thankful for, and so in love with. Its the perfect size to not  take up a ton of extra space in the house, but perfect size for a nice shelf and coat rack.

This is the front bedroom/spare bedroom/it might be turned into Madelynns room cuz she is begging for her own room... we shall see how that works out. 

The living room from the front bedroom.

                      

Mitsy helped me take all these pics. ;)

living room.

dining room... 

and our oh so lovely flowers from our oh so sweet valentine.

stairs going to kid land.

looking into the kitchen.

and my oh so sweet little kitchen of which I am in love with!! Its the perfect shape, perfect size, perfect amount of counter space....

But- not so perfect space for our huge fridge. My demolition loving husband will soon make room for our fridge... but until then, its gonna be wonky lookin.

We will eventually build an addition onto the back of the house to get the laundry "room" outta the kitchen. 

***HALLELUJAH CHORUS***

My PANTRY.... Ive never had the luxury of a pantry.... and I am TOTALLY loving that aspect of the kitchen. 

Mine and Nats room.

This is upstairs, the girls bedroom...

(dont mind the red towel... hadn't hung the shades yet)

and across the hall is bubba's room.

The Lord has blessed our family. and we are SO fortunate to have this beautiful home, and a hard working daddy who makes it all possible. :)

Ahhhh.

Excuse me as I let out that sigh of relief. 

We've moved... and we are officially town-folk. 

It has been a looong move (aren't they all tho?!?) 

We had stuff in many different locations, in 2 different states, so there were many a trips here and there, but alas, we have all of our stuff under 1 roof.... in 1 location. 

It is relieving!! 

It seems that we were teased with "we will close tomorrow" a few times... and then last Friday, it actually happened!!! 

We've been pretty much going non stop since then!! From sun up to sun down. 

I cannot stop until I've made my house our cozy little corner in the world... I haven't decided if this is a blessing, or a curse. My legs, back and feet would probably vote a curse... 

I must make a shout out to my dear sweetheart, who, as I've unpacked all the boxes, has made trips to NM... got all of our stuff here, spent half a day putting up blinds on the 25 windows of which had NO blinds, fixed stuff, put my garbage disposal in, and pretty much took care of anything "manly." I found myself many times in the past week in awe of the man I married, and all that he accomplished in the name of getting our house fixed up for us. I pretty much LOVE him... and cant thank him enough for all his hard work he put in on his days off.

I've had a pretty wonderful time fixing up the place and seeing all my stuff that I haven't seen in 6 months... Its always fun. 

.....and...

'the kids had Christmas in February when they got all their toys. :)

Anywho... thats a quick update. I've finally sat down long enough to write. Next up on the list is to take pictures of the new place!!! 

Buggin'

Whew!!!!!!! What a terrible terrible tummy bug going around. We have had it in our house for awhile now... we seem to be passing it around.... 

well, I saw we... I have not had it.. and I'm praying it stays that way!! Nat called me this evening saying he's feelin a little funky... 

Soo... we've been been hermits, trying not share.

Before all this junk, we did have Payton's annual appointment for her kidney reflux... (you can look here if you don't know what I'm talking about)  and I think that Its settled enough in my soul that I can write about it. We definitely didn't care for the direction it went this year. We learned that her reflux has indeed worsened and the Doctor is ready to see it corrected. 

I DO know that there are so many people out there that have children in way worse situations than this.

I DO know that I need to be grateful that this is the only "issue" we've had with our kids....

and that IS a blessing in itself

and don't get me wrong, I do fully recognize these things. I thank the Lord everyday for my healthy kids....

But Holy Guacamole.... the thought of them putting my baby to sleep, and cutting on her perfect little body gives me severe anxiety, and puts my stomach in all sorts of knots. I am going to be a complete WRECK that day. Well, unless many many people surround me with prayer and love. I finally had the guts to tell her what was going to happen... Putting it in 3.5 year old terms and all, she seems okay with it. All that to say, I am 80% positive she will do MUCH better than her mama will.

I explained to her how she was in the hospital when she was a little baby, and showed her pics of that time. She was most thrilled to see her blanket has been around since she was a little baby. ;)

So.. the countdown is on... and we are under the 2 week mark... and I'm ready for it to be over....

The difference....

The girls asked to paint, so I set them up, and went off to the bathroom to give Stetson a bath.... and I had a good laugh when I walked outta the bathroom and saw the girls painting status'.

Payton- 

Making a complete mess....

and then theres the perfectly clean, prim and proper artist of the fam, Madelynn.

The beautiful differences in my girls, shown perfectly today. ;)

Blessed

I can always look back at my life timeline and can easily see the hand of the God guiding our lives each and every step of the way.

The timing?

Always perfect.

The Answers?

Always right.

I think I would say I'm a rather patient person when it comes to life... maybe someone reading this might think the total opposite... and no, I'm not always patient with my kids... but thats not what this is about. ;)

I'm usually pretty patient in waiting on the Lords timing.... and it always pays off. The latest notch in our time lines??

We SOLD our house... 

as in they did NOT back out on us... 

as in its really happening. 

As in they're the real deal!! 

As in we close in 2 weeks.

YAY!!!

Answered prayer #1.

So obviously, that leaves us open to start thinking about our next home... we've been in this little 2 bedroom, 600 sq. ft house for 6 months now, and I feel like I am ready for the next step. Ready for more space. I am SO grateful that we had this house to move back to TX to, and to think that the kids and I would have been in NM these 6 months, trying to sell our house as Nat worked makes me even MORE grateful we had this home. We've thrown around the idea of building... and we've looked around all over in places we'd want to live... and we pretty much settled on building what were wanting. 

Good- Because we would build exactly what we wanted, and it would be our forever home.

Bad- Because we would be in this house for quite possibly another year or more.

... that just did not settle well with me. Mostly because I want the kids to have their own space, their own dressers, for heavens sake. The girls share a twin bed, and I dream of the day when bedtime will consist of separation, and alone time for each of them. I feel like that is important for them... and quite possibly my sanity. ;)

I'm sure that most of y'all know, and its just a known fact, that we are not livin'-in-the-city folk.... well, I did my whole life, but when 2 became 1, and I married a not-so-city-boy, I came to love the life that he did... and we just did not toss around the idea of living in town. I was 100% ok with doing what my husband wanted, as he took a huge leap of faith moving us all back here, and making sacrifices for us to be close to our families. 

Then my dear sweet sister in law had a little chat with Nat... My family has always teased him about moving me to the city... and its always been that, just a joke.... until this particular evening, we were having a family get together and the topic came up... and I just sat there, sealed lips, as they talked. I knew it was going in one ear and out the other so I wasn't gonna entertain the idea.. 

When we left, he called me and asked me if I wanted to "go look at that house" they were talking to him about....

Say Whaaaa????

Who are you, and what did you do with my husband?

We went and looked... and talked... and talked... and prayed and talked some more. 

He was all in. 

I was the hesitant one. 

I did a little more looking around, and there was no doubt, this particular house we looked at was just what I was wanting. There were a few key factors for me that sold the idea of moving to town.... and Lord knows I had some serious stipulations to move me and my 

worst-case-scanrio-too-used-to-country-living- brain 

to actually live in town with my wee little babies with a husband who could potentially work many hours... Don't fret, tho... this mama knows how to use a gun, so if ever an intruder should want to visit.......

agghhh... and there it is, 

my worst-case-scanrio-too-used-to-country-living- brain 

kicking in.

So we made the big phone call to our loan officer and we grabbed up the house!! 

CRAZY?!?!

I know, I still can't believe were doing this!!

But I am SO excited!!! The thought of being so close to taking Madelynn to school, and being close to society definitely gets me excited!! 

and so far, all has gone smoothly and we shall soon be in our new home!!!

A poem.

This is a poem I wrote.

Dry Wipees

The day she was born, the greatest day of our lives, 

6 lbs, 1 oz. she had perfect blue eyes.

Her daddy used the first one on her tiny little bum.

little did we know, that would be the first of many to come.

The days went on and 13 months later, 

she graced us with her presence, another perfect one from our Creator.

7lbs, 5 oz's this time, with a squished little nose.

Daddy was the first, again, to clean our new little Rose.

... and then we had 2.

We soon found ourselves needing more. 

Two little girls who went through them galore.

Many diapers a day, little cheeks and little hands,

mommy was always on demand.

Eleven months later, another blessing from the One above,

5 weeks early, another 5 lbs 11oz's for us to love.

Daddy was there...he wiped that little hiney,

Our very first boy, you were so very tiny.

Mommy bought boxes each time she went to the store, 

for those 3 little babies, she did so adore.

One by one, you each got out of diapers,

yet mommy still saw no end in needing all those wipers.

Life goes so fast, it never slows down. 

I reached in today, and found myself a frown

The wipees-

the ones that have wiped all my babes,

wiped all those tears away,

wiped the blood from to much play,

and cleaned the messes that little hands have made. 

the wipees that I've relied on for so long,

They were dry.

So squeeze those babies tight, 

for soon, they will take flight.