Best Friends and Winning

Show me is Braylen's new statement. Example:


Me- "Braylen come here for a second."
B- "Show me."


B-"Where are you mommy?"
Me- "In here buddy."
B- "Show me."


Yesterday evening while Guy was at class, I was "showing" him how to plant flowers. He liked pulling them out more than planting them. And of course playing in the dirt. 


After his lesson in "gardening", we walked over to the park behind our house. Braylen slipped his arm around my leg while we were walking, and said "we're best friends mommy." I said best friends forever and just gave him a little squeeze. Then he said, "watch out for the dirt!" and the moment was over. :) I just love that kid so much. And I hope we will always be BFF. Even when is 15. That happens, right? 


In another note, Charlie Sheen isn't the only one winning around here. :) The Lord has been incredibly gracious and soooooo very intentional with our family. I know that he is ALWAYS present and ALWAYS constant in my life, but I've never experienced him being so.............obvious. I guess that's the right word to use. I don't really know how to explain it. I just know that I found myself in awe of his love. 


About 3 weeks ago, our family vehicle (Mazda MPV) completely died. We took it to the mechanic and they said that a foreign object had found its way into our engine and completely destroyed it. It would cost us a mere $5700 to replace. Are you kidding? I just cried as our mechanic told us-which by the way, they called us and asked if we would come up to talk about the damage. I felt like we were saying our last goodbyes or something. very strange! Anyways. We just didn't know what to do! We were stuck. That same night, we drive to Furniture Fair to return fabric samples for the couch that we were hoping to purchase with some of our tax return money. We knew that it wasn't the right time to buy furniture anymore now that the car was ruined. 


The next few days we really felt like somehow the Lord was going to provide and we just clung to his promise that he is faithful and good, no matter what happens. We were thankful that our bad news was just about our car and not something worse. It's only a car! And we still have our silver bullet-'99 Honda Civic! Going on 180,000. Love that little car. But we had put a lot of money into the van because it had so many problems. That was hard to swallow!


That Wednesday, I called our insurance company and explained the situation. It was a long shot but we didn't know what else to do. By that afternoon they had someone investigate the damage. The next day they called and said they were going to cover the cost of the damage! Actually they were counting it as a total loss vehicle and were going to give us the money for car! WHAT!! Thank you Lord! Seriously. So crazy! It gets better.


That same afternoon, I read an email that said in the subject line "2nd Attempt at reaching you-grand prize winner." I was thinking it was just a scam but I clicked on it, hoping it wasn't. :) The email said you were picked as our grand prize winner at Furniture Fair. Call so and so to claim your $2000 shopping spree. WHAT!! So I called. 


"Furniture Fair, this is Jenny. How may I help you?'
"Well I just got this email saying I won the shopping spree???"
"Oh my gosh! Congratulations! That's so exciting. Hold on and let me get Rick."


Ha! I was literally pacing the floor and cracking up. Could this really be happening? Who wins a $2000 shopping spree? Well it's for real and our new furniture will be delivered in 3 weeks. :) Remember when I turned in our fabric samples? While I waiting for our salesman, I entered into their contest not even thinking that God had something very special in mind. The drawing was from all 8 stores too. So very crazy.


I wasn't sure if I wanted to share this story or not. God is good and faithful without these extra blessings. He still would have provided for us in a great way. It's just this experience has been so shocking and awesome that it has greatly affected how I view how intentional he is with all of us. I hope that I always notice how he is moving and working in my life and in the lives of my family and friends. 


We are so thankful for our friends and family who provide such a great support system. We are constantly surrounded by people who love and serve us. This weekend my aunt and uncle are letting us borrow their car while they are out of town. We are still down to one vehicle while we are waiting for our check from the insurance company. It's just awesome how willing people are to help! I hope that these special gifts that God has given us will be used for his glory. 

So long MPV! 

We will miss you but not that much. 

I wonder what we will be driving next......

Braylen wants us to drive a yellow truck. 

Spring Break.......

Guy had a spring break last week. Kind of. He still had to work everyday, including Friday night and Saturday night. And had two papers due. And a test. Seriously. What is wrong with teachers who assign homework during the break? So my super-awesome-doesn't-complain husband did not really have much of a break. I tried to make it a fun week: we went to IKEA! :) And that's about it. 


Braylen and I did make a trip down to Bowling Green last week to watch my dad ref in the girls state tournament! It was a lot of fun. We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and watched a few of the bball games. My dad did great! They pick the best ref from each region so he was one of 16 refs in the entire state of KY picked for the tourney. He is a really good ref too. Very humble, smart, and encouraging to the girls. I like that about my dad. My mom was there too-which she never goes to many of his games around here because she gets so mad at people/fans yelling at him. People are seriously crazy. Anyways. It was a fun time. We stayed from Thursday until Saturday morning.


This week Braylen came down with a pretty bad cold. Wednesday was a bad day but he is feeling better now that we have given him daily breathing treatments for his asthma. I feel so uneducated about how to treat asthma! I need like an asthma for dummies book. I really pray that he grows out of it as he gets older. It doesn't seem to bother him at all. He is such a little trooper. 


Some funny Braylen moments:
-He found a wedding picture of me and Guy and said there's daddy and princess mommy! How cute is that? 
-He has a little silver baby cup that he fills with water and calls it his coffee. "Don't drink this mom. It's hot."
-He sings "pee pee on the potty" and dances each time he goes to the bathroom.
-After we had dinner one night, he came to me and said "thank you for making the food, mommy." So sweet. Guy didn't even tell him to say that! :)
-This morning he was looking for me and said: "What are you doing mom? Are you making food?" I said no. He said "are you going potty?" yup. He knows me all too well. 


We are looking forward to some spring activities. Going to the zoo, walking to the park behind our house, celebrating Easter, and one of my BFF's wedding! Speaking of.....we are throwing her a bridal shower and it has been really fun looking at party ideas. I think that if I moved out all of our living room and dining room furniture AND knocked down a wall, I think I could do this:

Hostess with the mostess

I'm going to go ask Guy. You never know.................

Discipline & Training

One day last week, I woke up and thought "I do NOT want to discipline and train ANYONE today!!!!" Life with a wild and crazy 3 year old has been wearing me down. I have been getting really frustrated with Braylen and seem to have a very short fuse. He is learning to be more independent and more "I do want I want!" Not cool........ I have been reading this book called "Don't Make Me Count to Three" which is all about getting to the heart of discipline. It shows you how to discipline without threatening your child (hence the title of the book). My friend Jessica recommended it to me and I never finished it. It's really awesome. 

Potty training is super hard too. For some reason he wants nothing to do with it. I know that it doesn't help when I am showing my frustration but I can't help it! He knows how to do it but he just doesn't care. We did have a few break throughs today-he went on the potty twice! Yay! He walked around in his Diego underwear and didn't have a single accident. He kept walking by the mirror in our room and checking himself out. So funny. He was so happy with himself.

What I love about Braylen is that he really has no clue right now when I am upset with him. If I have a short fuse or just talk to him in an unloving way (like this morning he woke up at 6:45am and I was so tired that I kept telling him to leave me alone-so mean of me), he continues to treat me with kindness. He loves  me unconditionally-no matter what. It's amazing. I love thinking that that is how the Lord feels about us. Unconditional love. No matter what. Thank goodness that we have a Heavenly Father that feels that way about us.

Being a mom is so hard sometimes. I love it though. This great responsibility continues to teach me about patience, kindness, endurance, selfishness........to name a FEW! It's all worth it.

It is getting close to Braylen's bedtime. Better get off here and get him to bed. Here is a picture of Bray during one of his naps. He was having a hard time winding down but finally fell asleep at some point. I decided to check on him and this is what I found. 

That's one way to fall asleep! Good night! 

He was still breathing by the way! And yes I took the tote off of him after the pictures.

Lately.......

I feel like I am constantly saying things like "we've been so busy" or "what a few weeks it has been" but literally...............what a few weeks it has been! 

3 weeks ago Braylen started to lose his appetite and was having really terrible diarrhea (not to be gross just wanting to keep track of our crazy weeks). This was on a Monday which was also the same day that I was working hard on potty training! Thank the GOOD Lord that when he had a TERRIBLE accident he was in a training diaper and I happened to change him on the hardwood floor and not the carpet. Nasty. The poor kid had a week of no appetite and diarrhea. Well, then I started feeling sick! I also felt very, very stressed out. I couldn't eat or sleep. I just kept feeling very sorry for myself and hurt (for things that I don't really want to talk about now but maybe later). 

I finally started to feel better but Braylen started to have an asthma "flair up." I took him to the doctors and they gave him a prescription for cough medicine and told me to start giving him his inhaler again. Not fun! This was last Wednesday, and the next day we were flying down with my mom to see my sister and brother in law. Braylen seemed to cough less and less as the week ended. 

Que Friday- we were in Charlotte having a great time and got super cheap tickets to an NBA game ($3 bucks a piece!). We came home later and I put Braylen to bed. I decided to take some sleeping pills to help me sleep because I just felt unrested. Well it totally back fired. I can't really explain what happened but my mom and brother in law ended up taking my to the hospital. It was really really scary and we just didn't know what was going on. I ended up having a reverse reaction to the medicine because of stress and lack of sleep. :( Thankfully I was fine after resting and letting the medicine out of my system. Oh I forgot to mention that our basement started to flood while this was going on. My poor husband had to deal with that on top of me losing my mind. I am so thankful that we live close to our family because Guy's precious mom and dad really came to the rescue!! 

The next day we were all so tired but also knew that a certain 3 year old wakes up at 7am on the dot. Braylen was acting very strange Saturday morning and later threw up 4 times that day! Ugh. Poor thing. He continued to get sick a few times each day for over 4 days! Once we got back to NKY I was able to get him to see the doctors and the only thing he came up with was that Braylen had a reaction to the cough medicine he was taking. Braylen did not have a fever and was fine before and after he got sick. We stopped giving him the medicine and he is back to himself. However, now Guy is sick! Stay away from our family. :(

As I type all of this out, I really can't believe all that has happened these last few weeks. I am thankful that nothing worse happened and that God is constant and compassionate to our family. I have learned so much about my thought life and that I need to constantly fight to believe what is true. I get myself so worked up about things or worried that it affects everything about me. I've been feeling very misunderstood and I so badly what to voice what is true in my life but God is the one true Judge, and I am learning that I am justified by him. I can only imagine how his Son felt misunderstood his entire life. That brings me comfort! I am hopeful that instead of feeling sorry for myself or mistreated or stressed, I will just grow stronger. Stronger in my walk with the Lord and stronger in relationships. 

Big sigh of relief. 

Maybe next week will bring a "lighter" post. One about.............laughter and..........flowers.....or something like that. 

By the way, even though our trip to Charlotte was beyond CRAZY!!!, we still had a great time. My super cute sis is having a boy! Yay! I envision Braylen and baby Meiman as best buddies forever. I'm so excited to be an aunt! 

Here are the only 2 pictures that I took-which were on my phone! 

Paparazzi. :)

Just chillin' at the airport. Waiting for our ride. 

Thank you for reading! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us next! 

One Full Month

January is always a really fun month for us (as we celebrate 3 birthdays) but it is also super busy! This month Guy went out of town the first weekend of January, the second weekend we celebrated Braylen's 3rd birthday, and the third weekend we attended the Annual YL Winter Retreat at Great Wolf Lodge. Throw in a few fun bday dinners, a UK basketball game, playing in the snow, and a bridal show-you've got yourself one full month! And now here it is the end of January! This past weekend, after Guy came home from work on Saturday, we had a fun evening of just hanging out together! It seems like with Guy's work schedule, full-time school schedule and YL, family time is hard to come by so it was so nice to just be together. Guy is our hero! He works so hard for our family and Master Provisions, all the while serving and loving those around him. 

Braylen's birthday this year was a little different. We had a small gathering of family and we also celebrated my birthday and Guy's the same night! It just seemed like a lot to throw a huge bday party this year-especially right after Christmas! We have come up with a few creative parties that we can throw him in the future but this year it was nice to have something small. We did a Mickey Mouse theme and my mom made a MMouse cake. It was so fun to see Braylen's reaction to it all. Here are a few pics from the night.

 This is the Mickey blanket I made him. 

Super homemade but it works. 

We had some friends stop by afterwards!  

A few fun things about Braylen right now:

-He tells random strangers that they are cute.

-If there is a puddle of water, he has to stomp in it.

-He has memorized a few stories and can "read" them to you.

-He talks himself out of being sad or of crying: "I'm not going to do it (cry)"

-He is using his imagination while playing with toys! So fun.

A few not so fun things about Braylen:

-He wants to watch TV all the time! We limit it everyday.

-He does NOT want to potty train.

-He sometimes says "yucky" after we kiss him. 

Happy January Birthday's Everyone!!

Happy Birthday Braylen!

Braylen! At exactly 7:43pm, you turn 3 years old!! I cannot believe how quickly you have grown. You are sweet, loving, cuddly, funny, energetic and musically gifted! You have waited for this day all week and we so look forward to celebrate with you tonight with a few family members! 

Exactly 3 years ago, Guy rushed me to the hospital after my water broke around 7am. 12 hours later, along with lots of popsicles, itunes mixes, visitors, jokes, naps-oh and my epidural running out- you came!!!!!!!!!! All 9 pounds and 21.5 inches of you! The cutest, biggest baby boy. You were a joy then and even more so today. Being a mother to a boy continues to be sweeter and sweeter. 

So you just keep on taking that nap right now Bray...........

because when you wake up, it's party time!

Just a few days old. How quickly time has flown by.

A New Recipe for Each Week

I didn't really plan to do this but for the past two weeks, I have made a new recipe at least one time for dinner. I have been really inspired to continue to do this every week (we'll see how long I can do it for at least!!). My mom gave me the Pioneer Woman Cookbook for Christmas and I love it! She is a very good cook. I can't wait to try lots of recipes (including Spicy Pulled Pork with tortillas, Cinnamon Rolls, and pico de gallo-which I am making this weekend for Bray's small family party). I also have a ton of recipes from when I had a subscription to Cook's Country. They have awesome recipes! They tend to be somewhat intimidating but I have found that if you organize your ingredients ahead of time, they are very easy to follow. Just last week I made Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes for Guy's birthday dinner. It was from Cook's Country. It was delicious and super, super easy. Here is the recipe:


Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes
1 pound red potatoes, quartered
2 tbsps veg. oil
2 strip steaks, about 1 1/2 inches thick, trimmed of fat and halved crosswise
Salt and pepper
2 tbsps unsalted butter
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (omit if using hot paprika)


1) Toss potatoes and 1 tbsp oil in large bowl. Wrap tightly with plastic and microwave until edges of potatoes are translucent, 4 to 7 minutes, shaking bowl (without removing plastic) to redistribute potatoes halfway through cooking.


2) Pat steaks dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining oil in large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. Cook steaks until well browned, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and tent with foil.


3) Drain potatoes and cook in empty skillet until browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Add butter, oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Serve to your hungry husband!!


Or if you'd rather, just pull up a chair, relax and snack on some cheerios!