Eating Cookies

Surprises!

In case you don't know, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I mean....favorite! I love the decorations, shopping, christmas music, cookies, and gift giving. I just love the magic of it all. And having two little girls to share it with just makes it that much more fun. Now the part that I really like about Christmas is the gifts. I have always been a gift person. That is my love language...I love giving them and I love getting them. This year Dan and I decided not to give each other presents because we recently purchased a mattress and a flat screen television. And we are working really hard to stay on our Dave Ramsey budget. We are heading onto Baby Step #3 after the holidays. Anyway, that was a side note, but the reason for writing this entry is because this past week I received three wonderful surprises that I feel so undeserving to get. But it adds to the magic of the holidays.

The first gift arrived on my doorstep last week. The girls and I were playing upstairs and I didn't hear anyone knock on the door. When I took the trash out in the afternoon, I opened the door to the breezeway, and sitting by our door I saw a new mirror. I went to a women's conference at my church last week and that was one of the door prizes. I swore that my name would be called because I really wanted that mirror. We needed a new mirror in our bathroom and it was on my wish list to get with my christmas money. The girl who won the mirror had no use for it, knew that I was interested in it, and just left it for me. Here is a picture of my new bathroom mirror.

The second gift came out of nowhere when Dan's mom asked him if we would like to get a laptop for christmas. I have been very close to throwing our laptop out the window. It is now not portable and jimmy rigged so the cord stays in the back of it. As long as no one touches it or moves it then it works. What an amazing gift!

The third gift I received tonight. Dan and I were driving home from our financial class at church and he told me that he had a surprise for me. He is taking me away next weekend for an overnight at Easton. His office party is at Easton so I knew we were going there during the day, but he arranged all the childcare and planned an overnight for us. I am so excited!!!!

I just love this time of year!

True Beauty

Tonight I found true beauty in the naked bodies of my little children. Now that might sound very odd, but hang with me for a moment while I explain. As I watched them take a bath, I stared at every nook and cranny of their bodies. I was in awe of the beauty of their bodies. The fact that God knit them in my womb and knew their name before they were born is astonishing to me. When they were babies I would stare at them all day long, watch them breathe, watch them sleep, and watch them play. And even though they aren't newborns anymore, I still stare at them just as much. They are beautiful beings and I am so proud that we can be their parents.

"The King is enthralled by your beauty." Psalm 45:11

Hair

I am taking a poll....should I grow my hair out long (like it was in college) or should I keep it short?

Juggling Act

I am learning how to juggle all of the things going on in my life these days. And unfortunately my blog is one of the first things that slipped away from me. Basically, I am on the computer less and less as the kids become more active and I learn how to juggle being a wife, mother, and friend to those around me. I struggle with feeling guilty when I do work during the day because I know that my days are numbered with the girls being young. Yet I know that I am not super mom and it is okay if I don' t do everything perfectly. But I find myself busy with the kids and find out that I don 't have as much time to build relationships around me. It is a juggling act. I don't want to let go of any of my relationships but I sure struggle with guilt because I don't have the time to invest in them lately. It is more likely for me to pick up the phone and call someone rather than e-mail friends. In the past, that was my main form of communication and I loved e-mailing. I don't mind making phone calls, but if you have ever experienced talking on the phone with toddlers around...it isn't so much fun. They suddenly get into everything as soon as I am on the phone. And I can't say that I blame them. My attention is taken away from them completely so they have to find something to occupy their time. Anyway, with all of that said, I am slowly learning how to juggle my days. But I find that I juggle much better with God as my main focus. That is when I feel like I can discern how the day should go and how I need to respond to things. He gives me the strength and the knowledge to do that.

I have to admit, it is nice to sit down and write again. That is definately a form of communication that I love. Both girls are in bed for the night, finally. Mya decided that she was afraid of the lion in her room tonight. I think that was a sneaky way for her to have some time on the couch with her daddy. How can you turn down a little three year old who says, "Daddy, can I hold you a couple moments?" Both girls are doing very well. Sara is talking so much, although we have no idea what she is saying. I had to resort to using pictures to help her communicate because she was getting so frustrated. She is definately a mini Mya. She does and says everything that Mya does. Mya is getting taller, talking more, and just learned how to ride a bike with training wheels. She looks like big on her bicycle riding down the street. Dan is doing well in his job and we thank God everyday that he has work in this economy. We have decided to stay in our house long term and work towards becoming totally debt free. We have been taking a financial class at church for 13 weeks and have learned a lot about saving money and paying off debt. After christmas we will only have our mortgage left to pay. We hope to tackle that in the next few years. We both finished doing our P90X home fitness program. I made it two months and Dan made it the whole three months. I am so proud of him. I have started running again and I am so glad to be doing that. Today I made it five miles and it felt great! I am going to run a race on December 5 with a friend of mine. We are going to do a relay for a half marathon so she will run 7 miles and I will run 6 miles. Unfortunately my 6 miles are ALL uphill. It should be fun. That is about all that we are up to these days. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the coordinator position that I have for MOPS. It is going very well. It is a lot of work and requires a lot of time, but it has been quite a growing experience for me. I have learned a lot about myself and have felt the hand of God stretching and growing me in so many ways. Just pray for continued guidance and wisdom with this position.

Here is the latest picture of the girls. I dressed them up the other day so I could get a christmas picture of them. I think it turned out pretty well!