WOW it's been a while

I'm sure that you are all wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth. Nope! I just went back to work and have been so very busy with the kids that when I do finally get a spare moment, I am usually trying to pick up the house or rest my feet for a minute. So I will try my best to get you all brought up to speed with the current events with our lives.


Mike has kicked off the New Year at work with a bang. He is working hard and loving his place of employment. They treat him amazing and they are talking about handing over the entire fleet division to run how ever he would like. He has decided to take a brake from softball for the next 8 weeks because of the amount of work that is on his plate. He leaves the house usually around 6:30am and hasn't been returning until approx. 8-9:00pm. He is still leading a men's group on Tuesday nights and he knows that his true calling is Ministry. We continue to ask the Lord where he wants us and so far we feel that we are right on target.


I am back to work now and I am worn out!!!! It was definitely harder on me than it was the kids. I really love the agency where I work but there are some mornings that are really hard. I am also leading a group through our church. I lead a women's group on Thursday nights that has just been amazing. This is my first experience as a leader and I must say that when I was approached with the idea I flat out said "NO"! I had received so many good prophetic words that I was meant to lead but I didn't realize that GOD meant right now. But Hey, what do I know. I am done being in charge of my life. This year I have vowed to take my hand off the wheel and let God steer. It seems as though every time that I try to "be in charge" I screw it up.


Jade is growing up so fast! She is an astounding young women, very intelligent and beautiful. She is a 4.0 student this year and is taking a number of honors classes. She is definitely a social butterfly with a large group of friends that she has been a part of since 2nd grade. She is still very involved with her cheerleading. We are out of town about once a month at tournaments all over California. Mike and I are so proud of her. We just had our first experience with boys and it was very interesting. Jade has had a crush on the same boy since 3 rd grade. They have always been considered boyfriend and girlfriend. Mike and I have always been very open with Jade about relationship and boys. So the other day when she cam home from school she was acting very strange and quit. When I asked if she would like to talk, she told me that her and Taylor broke up. She told me that all of their friends where pressuring them to kiss. As my heart is slowly sinking to my toes I am trying to keep a very open line of communication and make her feel as comfortable as possible during this very uncomfortable conversation. (I am definitely more uncomfortable than she is.) She proceeds to tell me that she is very uncomfortable with the idea of kissing and that she does not want to deal with the pure pressure any longer. So she pulled Taylor aside and made it very clear that she really liked him but she was breaking up with him. I was so excited to hear what she was saying that I wanted to jump up and down. But I didn't! Instead, I thanked her for trusting me enough to talk to me about something so personal. My goal with all of my children.............To keep an open line of communication about ANYTHING!!!!


Jaycee is also growing like a weed. She is in 2nd grade this year and is my free spirited child. She loves to sing and dance all the time. My mom bought Jaycee a small kids guitar last year for Christmas and that thing gets more use than any toy in our house. Jaycee and Rylin are constantly singing and playing music, they call it worship time. We love watching them. Jaycee also does cheerleading but is not as enthusiastic about it as Jade. So, I am going today to sign her up for softball. She really wants to be involved in some kind of sport and Mike and I believe softball might be her thing. We went to the batting cages a while back and Jaycee got in there with absolutely no fear and hit ever ball that came her way.

Rylin is 3 and a half going on 21. She a non-stop comedy. Her and Jaycee are always putting on shows for Mike and I. Rylin is very strong minded and likes to try and run the house. She follows Blake around and watches over him. This is good but sometimes it tends to go a bit overboard. I usually know that it is time to intervene when I hear her say "no, no Blake Michael". That usually means that the next step is her trying to carry him away from something even though he is only 6-7 pounds lighter than she is. I am searching for a good mommy and me tumbling class right now to work out some of that 3 year old energy that I wish I had.

I cannot believe that Blake is almost 1 year. He is amazing. I never could have imagined just how wonderful having a little boy would be. We really have a bond like no other. I of course bonded with my girls just as strongly, but in a different way. He is taking a few steps here and there but not walking yet. He just started waving and he eats table food now. He has 4 of the cutest little teeth that he just loves to show off.

Well that is all for now! I will try and be more consistent with my blog but it is hard when you have 4 children running around. This blog entry alone took me 3 whole days to compose. Oh the life of a mother. My family is big, my life is non-stop action and drama, we generally have bathing, biting, laundry, pooping and screaming 6 out the 7 days of the week. But I never give it a second thought when people ask me if I would change anything!! I simply reply "nope, not a thing!"