Christmas Day at home

Christmas is a very special time for me, wonderful memories of time spent with family and friends, my parents always made it memorable.

I want to make it special for my babies too so, gearing up for Christmas we made cookies (not as many or as nice as I would have liked), chocolate covered pretzels (something Granny used to do but since she passed away a few months ago, we continued her tradition), we made Christmas cards for our family and friends (with blood, sweat and tears as you will see), had dinner with family and friends we love as family and we opened presents. Bennett got a Buzz Lightyear but to my surprise the $5.99 electric guitar was the hit...so much for the fancy toy, although I got a good deal!

We visited Sunshine Acres and brought pizza and brownies for the kids. We brought the donations we collected at the office, it was fun and sad at the same time. Seeing children there without parents to love on them broke my heart. We plan and save and dream about  how our kids' lives will be and these children have no one to do that for them.  Hopefully their hope is in God, He will never fail them.

More than anything we spent time with family...I did not have that for many years so, it is a real treat to have them around and to see my boys hanging out with cousins...is priceless. So, I put together a little video for the family and I thought I would share it with you my friends...Obviously not a pro...but enjoy it anyway! The pictures at the end are a few of the pictures we took to get "one" for our Christmas card...it is always fun to try to get the perfect picture!

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve service at our church was special. The music, the message and at the end the candle lights...Greg took this picture and I thought it was beautiful because it shows the light in darkness.
Jesus came to bring light and eternal life.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, 

which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

So much to share and so little time!

Tomorrow is my day off. As every one of my days off, I have a to do list. Let's see if I can get through it... funny...get through my to do list!!!! :)

Updating my blog is on my to do list. I can't wait to share Christmas and what God is doing in my heart. 

Our Christmas was wonderful and I hope from the bottom of my heart that yours was blessed as well!

A Rainy Day in Arizona

Every time it rains and I am at work, I look out the window and wish I was home with my kids and we could grab a blanket and read books or watch a movie. Today, its raining, I am home with my kids but we are not watching a movie or laying down reading books. I am trying to work on my "stuff" but I can't, instead I am getting some therapy (blogging), pacing around my house going from one room to another where my boys are sleeping. Checking them for fever and listening for coughs or yet another vomiting session. I am sad, maybe I feel worse because its a rainy day and I don't get to cuddle and have fun.

It is gorgeous here when it rains...I absolutely love the desert.
I need a vanilla latte, maybe that will make me feel better.

Hope your day is a beautiful one.

xoxo, L

Oh! I am so stressed out!

My baby wanted an ice pack on his head...

Bennett has been sick since Sunday, that alone is enough to make me want to cry...my to do list is soo long I won't even look at it right now. 

Felt better for a few minutes
we went outside to play

I thought today, being my day off I would have "some" time to get some work done while the boys took naps. FUNNY!!!.... Instead, I cleaned vomit and changed outfits and sheets 5 times too many! Hopefully today was the worst day and tomorrow he feels better. I am thankful I got to be home with him all day...still at this moment I can smell the vomit on me! The joys of motherhood, huh!

Speaking of the joys of motherhood ladies... NOBODY warned me about this...not my mom, not my sisters or my best friends, not any of YOU moms that come to our office. Everyone said how wonderful motherhood was.
              WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? 

Sleepless nights, worrying about them being sick...worrying about everything from feeding the baby to thinking about college and even worrying about who they will marry because of course I am crazy and I already think about it. 

My mom did say "you will never ever, sleep well ever again". She was right, I can not think about one time where I have gotten up to drink water or go to the bathroom without checking on my boys...or just getting up to check on my boys, what a life!  A slave to your children...but oh! what sweet slavery...isn't it? 

Last night as I was changing Bennett after being sick  he said "Mommy, I think I love you"...melted my heart, I will change 1000 outfits and 1000 vomitted sheets for him anytime. The love I feel for my boys is so deep! I could honestly do without the worrying but since it comes with the package of being a mom, I will take it and be sooo thankful for it. Our babies...one of God's greatest blessings to women, aren't they? Thank you Lord!

Decorating my house for Christmas   (not checked)

Christmas presents for my family (not checked)

Finishing office stuff (definitely not checked)

Christmas Cookies (not checked)

and on and on....and on.

Tell me about your day... thanks for visiting!

xoxo, L

My Greatest Fears and how I "try" to overcome them.

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As I have said before, I am a "crazy" mom. No.... lets try that again,  I am the President of the Crazy Mom Club. I am over cautious and completely paranoid. I worry a lot and think about the "what if"...even more.

My greatest fears are my children or my husband becoming ill or someone taking them and hurting them. Obviously, there is nothing I can do about them becoming ill, that is in God's hands, we pray every night for their health and safety among many other things but, you just don't know. I will be blogging more on this topic soon....

Like many, I try to feed my boys a healthy diet, I limit sweets a lot although my oldest has an obsession with any and all chewy candy, courtesy of the Libby family. Some days are better than others.

My fear of them being taken is something that I can do something about, by following certain rules and being aware of surroundings and people. My love for the tv shows like forensic files, disappeared and all  "cop shows" have made me even more paranoid but I have also learned a few things that probably will keep me and my kids safer. 

After watching a show about child abductions, I decided to do something about it in our community. So, being the crazy mom I am, I called the Phoenix police department, Scottsdale police department and finally the FBI. To my surprise, the local police did not offer ANY help nor were they willing to even answer questions. They kept telling me that due to budget cuts they could not help, even though I told them repeatedly that I wanted to speak to someone to get some questions answered. No luck there.  

To my surprise, the FBI was not only willing to talk to me but they were so helpful and willing to share information and ideas on how to  obtain resources to help keep our children safer.

I decided to make it a focus in our practice to make child safety one of our goals this year so, throughout the year, we will have special events to help other crazy moms like me keep our babies safe.

Here is the scoop, I am currently speaking to the local FBI office and we will hopefully be hosting an event where an FBI agent comes to speak about....ta daaaa "Child Safety or Internet Safety" that is why we have the poll on my blog to decide which one we are going to do first. We will be inviting all the parents in our practice and we will also make it available for your friends and family as well as the  community around us. We will also host an event after that where we will be handing out free fingerprint  and DNA kits that you can keep with you in case of an emergency. 

I am very excited about being able to do this but my hope and prayer is that no one EVER has to use them but if they do hopefully that will help bring a child back home to their parents safe.

Although I worry a lot about everything, my hope and trust is in the Lord, I am NOT perfect and I need to remind myself that He is in control and not me so, I keep this Bible verse on my desk as a reminder that I have to let go and LET GOD.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

We Love play dough!

I can not truly overcome all my fears, I can only pray and trust in Him.

Thanks for visiting! L