Blessed...

What a life I have. Really. I have been blessed beyond measure.
January is my "birthday month" I really do like to celebrate. All. month. long.
I am a birthday person. I don't care if people know my age. I am still young. Right? I do like to be celebrated. I am sanguine in personality. I like to have fun. I like to be noticed. They say sanguines are like otters...they just want to play all day...that is me. And so, I like to be celebrated.
I am very fortunate that the people in my life know this about me!

And so, my birthday month started with my sister inviting us over the Sunday before my birthday to celebrate the "January" birthday's (there are 4 in our family)
The morning of my birthday, my little sweeties made me breakfast in bed...Caleb "cooked" (turkey bacon and toast), Rebekah made the card, and Elisa made me flowers out of tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and straws, and put them in a glass for my vase.

I had invited my parents to come cook for me (yes, I really asked them to do this) the night of my birthday. Mike had to work a night shift, and I was sad not to have him here, so Mom and Dad came over with chicken to fry for the kids and I. Or so I thought.
After they arrived, Mike woke up, (he had worked the night before) and gave me purple tulips and a card. Inside the card it said "get dressed and let's go get some sushi." (I wasn't sitting there naked, just had not done much with myself that day)
I looked at him and said, "but you have to leave for work in an hour." He said, "not tonight, I took the first 4 hours off so I could take you to dinner."
You see, after he heard that I had called my parents to come cook for me on my birthday, he called them and told them of his plans and asked if they would cook for the kids and babysit...
Oh, how I love this man. I am surprised very little, and he surprised me. I felt so loved...and the sushi was so awesome :)

Saturday after my birthday, Mike had a Feed You Faith men's conference. I got to spend part of the day with Sarah, Joy, Leigh, and Amy helping out. Sarah surprised me with an amazing gift. She had started a quilt for Micah before he was born and had finished it. She brought it into the church and I started to cry. The quilt is so beautiful and so special because she and Laurel worked, and worked, and worked on it together for my little boy. And I love it.

It is "tradition" among a group of my friends (4 of us to be exact) to take each other out on our birthday's. We started this the year we turned 31, I believe...Joy, Tamara and I are all the same age, though I get to be the one to turn 36 first...and Lydia, Joy's sister...is a few years older than us...
Anyway, they took me out last Friday. Tamara wanted to start a new tradition of writing down, and then telling the "birthday girl" three affirming things about her. I do have to say "Words of Affirmation" is my love language. So, to have three of my closest friends go around the table three times to tell me something affirming about me was the most amazing thing...my heart was full...I even forgot there were birthday gifts waiting for me!

This week will finish out my birthday month with a trip to Disney, and my baby turning 6 months....does it get any better than this?

New Year....

Goodbye 2009, you will be missed...

What a year it was! Last year was an amaing year for me....I saw my marriage strengthened, many prayers answered, my kids growing and healthy, a baby boy on an ultrasound, Caleb's baptism, another great school year together, and the birth of Micah, causing us to go from a party of five to a party of six!

I also saw Mike having to have surgery for a kidney stone that was no longer there, a kidney infection and pneumonia, Bekah lose 6 teeth (not that that was a bad thing..I am just waiting for them to come back in!) , our old van "die", a potential fire, a water leak,and Mike's Grandmother pass away.

Through the good and bad, I have seen God be faithful to our family. We are blessed beyond measure.



So...I have gone through last years blogs (not that there were too many...) and thought I would post the first sentence of the last blog of each month...(sometimes the last was the first!)



January: (I had to post the last sentence from this one, it was too funny)

Elisa says, " Yes, Daddy, Mommy is the queen, Bekah and I are the princesses, and Caleb is the servant!."



February:

Yippee! tomorrow is the last day of February. It has become my least favorite month of the year.



March:

Today I became an Aunt for the 9th time...and my sister became a mommy for the 6th, giving birth to her second daughter, Cecelia Grace....



April:

Last year when we moved in to our new house, my mom took me around the yard to tell me which plants were which, and which flowers were which...I am not good at that.



May:

A week ago I had a list made for Mike and I of things I wanted to accomplish by this weekend so we could have my (favorite) Aunt and Uncle stay with us, while other company was in staying at my parents.



June:

So, I have never had "maternity" pictures taken before...I always thought I don't want to remember how big I actually get when I am pregnant!!



July:

For the past five and a half years, we have been a party of five...I thought I was so clever to name my blog and email address by the same name...I love my little party of five...One amazing husband and three kids who I think the world of.



August:

Our precious boy, Micah James, entered the world on Thursday, July 30 at 2:47 p.m.



September:

Thank you, Sarah...for reminding me to not only think of three beautiful things today, but to post them...



October:

Yesterday afternoon I started going through the seven totes of clothes I have of winter clothes for the girls. (we are very blessed to have people hand down clothes to us and we have an abundance.)



November:

I blog...I do...it is just blogging in my head lately.



December:

This past weekend I was able to get out all my Christmas totes and start decorating for Christmas.