We had another fun weekend this past weekend! Saturday was an especially busy day. We went to our friend Miriam's birthday party at her house in the morning. I had a bridal shower in the afternoon, while Mike took the girls to Colton's first birthday party. And Friday evening, we went to Mike's aunt's church for a family fun night. It was crazy! Oak Point is a huge church in the Wixom area. Everything except food was completely free. The auditorium was filled with bounce house type things. There were games lining the lobby hallway, and there was a craft hall with some pretty fun crafts for the girls to do (homemade buttons, necklaces, etc.). They were also showing a new Veggie Tales movie as well as Wreck It Ralph! It was a  very fun night and the girls had a blast!

 

The girls having fun on a cakewalk. I think Hannah is going the wrong way!

 

Ava was excited to be able to climb this inflatable rock wall. You had to be six to do it and she made it all the way up to the top! 



March

It has been a busy March! Just this past weekend alone we had three birthday parties! The first was at a place called Kids Gotta Play for one of Ava's classmates. I had never heard of this place before. They sell large play structures and trampolines. Their showroom is also basically a big play place where kids can go on all the products. You can rent out a room to bring in all your own food too. Ava had a ton of fun! I'll have to remember this for future birthday parties!

 

The second two parties, I didn't bring my camera. Ava's friend Christine had a swim party at the Lakeland pool. Mike took Allie and Hannah in the pool as well so we were all able to be there.

 

And the final party was for our niece Nevada, who just turned 12! Our whole family had dinner together at Olive Garden. So it was a fun weekend of birthdays!

 

This little lady had her appointment at Beaumont to get a second opinion about her blood sugar. Praise God everything is normal!! The doctor thinks it was just stress-induced. Her body was fighting two infections so it made her sugars go out of wack! So thank God, no diabetes. It doesn't mean she'll never develop it, but for now they're not worried. 

 

Mike's cousin Alex was in town this past weekend so we were able to get together with her and her beautiful daughter Lillian!  

 

 

And finally, I had a consultation for Laysik! And guess what!? I'm getting it done April 18th. It's a Little scary to think about, especially thinking about a laser pointed at my eye but I'll have to have faith in the Doctor. After all, Pavil Datsyuk trusts his eyes to this guy! They had to dilate my eyes for the consultation. I hated it! I've never had that done before. Man is everything bright after that!!



Life

 

 

One of the girls took this picture. I was about to delete it but then decided against it. This is life right now at our house; the counters are cluttered, the laundry room doors are always open with laundry spilling out, the sink is always full, with added dishes piled on the counter, chairs/stools are out of place, dirt and junk on the floor. This could be enough to make me crazy, and at one time it did! Until I realized that this is just how it's going to be while I have three young kids. If I was able to get to every little piece of laundry, every room to clean, and keep every little thing neat and tidy, I think I would be lacking in other areas, like getting to go out and have fun with the girls, or sitting and watching a movie with them, or coloring at the table. I'll look back on this picture and be grateful that I took the time to play instead of keeping up with the house. There will always be time for a clean house later in life... or the next time company comes over:)



Sledding

We had a fun snow day last week. The weather was in the 30's and we got a lot of HEAVY snow. We were invited to go sledding and the girls were very excited about it. It was great snow for making snowmen and snow forts, but a little tricky for sledding. It was so wet and heavy, which isn't super conducive to sledding. But the girls still had fun!

 



Happenings

We have been very busy lately. Although, I just looked in my phone for any recent

 pictures I've taken, and I haven't been taking pictures lately. I'm still on some down time from January. That month wears me out I tell you.

 

But here's what's been going on for us lately:

Mike has been working on the basement, putting up walls and stuff like that. Our basement is a pretty good size so it will double our living space once it's finished, which I'm pretty excited about. I'll post some pictures of that as soon as I take some!

The girls had a week off from school for winter break. I love our school district. We had a great week together. Monday we did our usual grocery shopping trip. Tuesday, we hung out around the house. Wednesday we went to the mall and ate lunch and played at Jeepers! Thursday was mom's group, which Ava was excited to finally get to go to. Friday, we went to a Lego birthday party at the library, which the girls had a lot of fun at. Then in the evening we had Katie and Chad over for some games!

Saturday, Mike worked on the basement all day while I took the girls to Maya's birthday party. And boy did we have fun there! Sunday we went to church, then came home and hung out around the house all day! It was a very eventful week. Then back to the grind this morning:)

 

March will be another busy month for us with more birthday parties, gatherings, and Easter at the end of the month, which is the only holiday I host! Then Mike takes off for a week to Trinidad for a mission's trip. We just booked our vacation rental for July so we are counting down the days. The girls love making paper chains for things they're looking forward to, so every day they can pull off a chain and see how close we're getting to an event. We will certainly be making one for vacation! We are really looking forward to spring and some warm weather.

 

Hannah will have a doctors appointment in a couple weeks with an endocrinologist at Beaumont, so hopefully we can figure out what's going on with her blood sugar. We're praying she's not pre-diabetic.

Allie is getting ready to learn how to ride a bike with no training wheels. Ava learned in the basement during the winter when she was five, so Mike plans to do the same with Allie.

And Ava is still loving school! She especially loves math.

Mike is super busy right now and we are so grateful for it! God has blessed us immensely with all the work He's providing.

And I've been enjoying being a mom and wife. God has been teaching me a lot of things this past year. Mike and I recently read a book together called Love and Respect, which was excellent. It opened my eyes to how much our men want to be respected and how we as wives are called by God to show respect, unconditionally, whether we feel he deserves it or not. So often we feel that our husbands need to earn our respect, which is not Biblical. So I feel like God has been growing me in that way. Another area that has been growing for me is motherhood. I'm part of a wonderful mom's group that helps me to think intentionally as a mom. And that's been very helpful. So it's been a great time spiritually for me and I'm grateful.

Thanks for checking in! I'll be sure to post pics soon, especially of the basement progress!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has never really been hugely celebrated between Mike and me. Sure we get each other things now and then, but we don't go all out for it. Although now with having three girls in the house, it's sort of fun to make it a little special!

 

Both Ava and Allie were really looking forward to parties at their schools. Allie's classmates haven't any allergies so we were able to get rid of some of the lingering candy from the girls' birthday party! We filled up treat bags and used leftover cards from Ava's last two years for Allie's! It worked out quite nicely I think!

 

 

For Ava's party, I did go out and buy a box of cards. She handed out Madagascar cards with tattoos. It's crazy how everything these days comes with some kind of goodie to go with it, like a tattoo or an eraser or a piece of candy. Ava has severe allergies in her class so food of any kind was forbidden.

 

But girls came home with a bag full of goodies!

 

For Valentine's night, all I knew was that Mike and the girls had something special planned for me and I was supposed to leave the house for about a half hour so they could get it set up. Man was it special! Oh but before I left, I got to see Mike hand deliver each girl her own heart-shaped pizza! They loved it!

 

I came back to find Mike in a tux and the table set for two.  

 

This was the menu they made! I love my choices for dinner. Lobster was an easy selection! 

 

We had the best waitresses ever! They did such a fantastic job. And I seriously love how Mike set all this up with them. They were so excited to be a part of it!

 

 

Our yummy dinner!

 

These were the girls' gifts. They each got a new bathing suit, which they modeled for me.

 

Then paraded around the house in them!

 

I'm extremely blessed to be married to such a thoughtful man.

 

And to be able to love on, and be love by, these three adorable little ladies.

 

I baked Mike two cheesecakes and wrote out a sappy card for him.

 

He gave me these lovely flowers. I love purple and red together.

 

Joe and Kathy have been in Florida for a while but they thoughtfully sent up these flowers for the girls' and me!

What a precious and memorable day we had!

 



Thoughts

I saw this on pinterest today and seriously loved the quote:

 

 

How true is this? Way too often I'm just trying to get through the day. "Ok, what should we do till lunch? Let's find something to pass the time till dinner. Ok just got to get to bed time." There are days when I'm going to feel like that, sure. But I don't want every day being that way. I only have one chance to give my kids a great childhood. These are the days and years that are going to count. If my kids aren't feeling like they can share things with me now, they certainly won't when they're teenagers. And that's when I'll really want them to open up and share what's going on in their lives, when the issues are a lot bigger then falling off a bike or a sister being sassy. So this is my motivation right now, to really get down on the floor, look my girls in the eye and listen intently to what they have to say!