Hopefully I am not speaking too soon, but we have been accident free for 2 weeks now with Diego. He is finally getting up during the night and going when he needs to. I seriously was beginning to worry that this day would never come. Yeah for Diego!!!! It is amazing how you do everything the same in regards to potty training, but kids are so different in how they respond to it. Wow! Joshua trained in 6 months…Diego almost 2 years. Joshua, I could count the number of accidents on one hand. Diego, can’t count. I am so happy for him for finally figuring it out. He is so confident and proud of himself. I love being part of this journey with him. I am happy to no longer be cleaning up poo or cleaning messes under the garbage can. Oh boy! It will be interesting to see how Emmett does. Here’s to practicing better aim now. 😉 Boys will be boys! I love them! Good job Diego and Congratulations!!!!!!!! Yay!

Tonight while watching one of the skiers jump the course at the Olympics:

Joshua: Cool, I so want to do that!

Diego: I don’t know Joshua, you might fall in the snow??????

Love it! The things they say. I love seeing vocabulary develop and start becoming a little comical. Love it!

I am definitely far from excellent as a wife, but I do fear the Lord, so that is a good start, right? I think I do pretty good, but I want to be excellent for Chris (or close too I am human after all). 🙂 God has blessed me with such a wonderful husband and I want to be blessing for him as well. Tonight I decided to challenge myself with the traits of a godly wife that are given to us in the Bible in Proverbs 31. I am going to work on a particular trait monthly. Some of these traits seem so far from my grasp, but I think the Lord can use this time to mold me and make me a better mother, better wife, better friend and servant of His. Are all of these attributes attainable? I don’t know. I’d like to think they are in some form or another. I think they are different for each and everyone of us. The final work will be woven and the pieces will be placed together by God because he has a plan for us. He created us. I just have to listen and let Him guide me in the amazing adventure he has for me. I know I can be so much more than what I am right now at this point. Please pray for me as I go through this challenge. Check in with me to keep me accountable. I decided to let the Jesus lead me in this adventure so I will not be doing it in order. I will work through the scripture as He reveals it to me. Starting scripture comes from the book of Proverbs 31 verse 25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. Join me in this challenge and in prayer. God’s Blessings!

Wow! How life can get in the way of blogging. Imagine that! I decided at New Year’s that I was going to be better at blogging and now here it is February. Goodness gracious time flies! So much to catch up on, so much to remember, where to start…it is so hard to believe I now have a 6 year old, a 4 year old and a 1 year old. They are such characters, such fun and so busy. It is so fun to see them mature, say smart things that you don’t expect, decide that they need a particular hair style (Joshua told me that he wants his hair like Squanto) and learn how to raise three different boys in the same, but different ways. I do have my days when I could pull my hair out, but it is worth it in the end. It’s funny to see the sensitive, quiet side (yes, my boys do have them) and then the boisterous, strong willed side that God has blessed each one with. The trick and difficulty is teaching them how to use that will for the good and find the purpose that God has for their life. Praying is an endless activity in my life. Praise God that he has given us His Spirit to guide us day by day; to lift us up and carry us in our down times, walk beside us during the joys and be someone to talk to constantly! I love it!

This year the older boys had birthday parties with their friends. Joshua had a “Pool Party” at our community pool. He and his friends cooled off from the Texas heat. Swimming, jumping off the diving board, eating cake, breaking the piñata and just having a good time. We are so thankful for those who were there to share in the celebration of Joshua’s life. He had such a fun time with his family and friends! Thanks for making it a special day.

For Diego we had a “Bug Party”. I was a little apprehensive at first, but it turned out to be a blast. We had worms and fake bug digging, bug painting, an obstacle course and of course our traditional piñata. It was a boy party, perfect for Diego. Thanks to pinterest for giving me ideas! This was Diego’s first birthday party with invites. It was fun seeing all the kids play with worms and find bugs to take home and run the obstacle course.

Little Emmett we just had a small “Train” celebration with family and a few friends.  He was so funny! He is the only child of mine who wanted nothing to do with his birthday cake. He wouldn’t touch it at all and wouldn’t eat it without a fork. Imagine, a 12 month old that wants a fork! I made the cake myself and a friend “helped” me decorate it; actually Claire you did a fabulous job decorating it! I wasn’t much help! Ha! We enjoyed watching the kids break the piñata. Emmett thought the piñata was the most fun ever!

God has truly blessed us with loving family and friends. We are so thankful for the part you play is each of our lives and for being a part of our family. We love you and are blessed to have you. Thanks for your prayers and friendship! You are ALL a gift from God.

It is amazing how the good Lord makes each and every child so different. Our Emmett is like his brothers in a lot of ways…his red hair, his smile, he’s a great sleeper and over all so much fun. He is starting to show his wonderful personality. Such a cutie! That said, he has been a little challenge in the kitchen. He is so picky unlike his brothers. He loves milk, fruit, breads, but he doesn’t like to even touch anything green and will nibble on meat if we are lucky! What to do with this little guy? Any suggestions? Hmmmm….

Unfortunately we had our first brush with Debit card fraud last week. It is definitely an experience I never want to go through again. So how someone got a hold of my debit card number; whether online or at a market, we’ll never know. Luckily, all is well now and the bank was able to give us our money back, but it is a scary and upsetting experience. You do feel violate, well at least I did.

 After a few hours of talking to the bank, Expedia and Kuwait Air, some positive news and some frustrating, because I didn’t know how the “system” and how this type fraud works; we finally got everything on our end cleared up.

To find the positive, this situation did give us many teachable moments for the boys. We were able to show them tangibly through this experience how to pray for those who harm us.  To pray that he/she will stop this behavior and find Jesus and follow Him one day, but most of all to forgive our enemies.  But most of all, to respond in faith in scary situations that you really don’t know how they will turn out.

During this time we kept the following scriptures in our mind and hearts…

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5:44

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  Matthew 6:14

I am very joyful that the Lord gave us peace, patience and assurance that He had it all under control. It definitely made it a much easier process.

As my Aunt Bev would put it…we are celebrating Joshua this month and the festivities have begun! We had a fun time celebrating Joshua’s birthday with friends and family today. His birthday is actually on Friday, but we had his party early with friends. We had the party at our community swimming pool. It’s a fun place. It has the big pool, a small splash pad and the kiddie pool. Joshua and company spent a lot of time hanging out in the deep end, enjoying the time on the diving board. Diego and his buddies enjoyed a lifejacket free fun time in the small pool. We had cake and ice cream and the piñata (tradition we brought home from Peru). We can’t have a birthday party without the piñata! For some reason the piñata broke little by little too soon before we could get through the kids, sort of anticlimactic, but I think the kids were happy with the candy and had fun taking their swing at it.

We will celebrate him more on his actual birthday with G’pa and G’ma Rose. They are coming on the 18th. We are very excited. We look forward to spending the week together doing all sorts of fun stuff!

It’s hard to believe Joshua will be 6! How the time has gone by so quickly!!! I need to remember to treasure every minute. Soon he’ll be trying to do everything with out me right??? It’s hard to fathom! My baby is not a baby anymore. God bless his life and the man he’ll become!

(Pics to follow as soon as I have them) ; )

Heard from Chris tonight; all is well in New Mexico. They are doing lots of work and serving people. They had a great service at a church, met people and will be helping to do some work tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers! Please keep them coming!