Our Big 5 year old!!!

Faith had such a great birthday. She had lots of friends come all dressed up and ready to enjoy her friendship. I love that one of my daughters great characteristics is being such a caring and friendly person to everyone. That is why she had so many friends attend! It was such a blessing to see her introduce her friends to one another who had never met and get them all playing together. Here are some pictures I wanted to share with you.

 Her amazing cake made by her Aunt Cherie and Uncle Josh

 Necklace from Papa Richard (bought before he passed)

 Princess Faith with her sister and friends!

 Alle her friends at her party! Look at those princesses and one handsome cowboy!

After singing to her!

Her beautiful dress from Papa and Gma Clem

 Thank you Gma Sherry :)

 She loves this frog!

Amazing book from Gpa and Gma Clem :)

Nerf guns from Gpa and Gma Williamsen

Too cute!

From Gma Theresa her blue pony she wanted plus a Cinderella!

I love Lily's face in this picture you can see how happy she is for Faith!

Faith and her friend Gracie (best buds)

Faith Pearl and her friend Faith Ann :)

As you can see Faith was so blessed by love on her birthday we are so happy to have the friends we do in Gillette! Thank you everyone for making it so special!

Friends or family {I say both}

Beyond blessed is how I would say it! Tonight I was reflecting on my life, on my friends, and relationships. As I thought about it all I was so amazed at how blessed I am to have a friend for life as my family member. My sister in law Cherie is such a dear friend to me. Some may inherit a sister in law; I truly feel I inherited a sister and a true friend! We are able to talk about our daughters with each other in a way that no one else can and listen to each other for the real issues. Some may think that because Cherie is younger than me that we would be very different as far as mothering. Of course we have some differences but really when it all comes down to it we want the best for our girls. We have the bond of being mothers each to two beautiful girls. Cherie and I can talk about Emma and her life. Even now Cherie is helping me deal with the loss of my Dad because she has experienced and still does experience the loss of someone so close to her! She is helping me to know that in time life will get easier. I see her strength and I am amazed at her ability to be so strong. Cherie is so giving of herself and her time. She is willing to take the time to invest in a relationship that has built into a great friendship! We just talked tonight about how so often a friendship now days is so hard because only one person works for it while the other is self absorbed. I know people are busy but there comes a point and time when you know whether the relationship is worth having. Sadly most times it is not. I have always heard if you find one true friend in life you are more blessed than to have 50 to 100 shallow friendships. It is so true! I have had friends come and I have had friendships go but I know the ones that will last a lifetime. I could tell you all their names right now. Just because you had a best friend for a even a long period of time doesn't mean they will be there 2 or 15 years down the road. I am just so blessed to know Cherie will always be in my life not only because she is family but because she is my friend.

This is a couple Christmas's ago Cherie has Leah our little sister on her lap.

My awesome family!

 God blessed me so much with my husbands family. I have an amazing extended family. I have never thought of them like "in-laws". Have we had our moments with each other were we shook our heads and went what in the world are they thinking?!?! Yes of course we have but you know what that's what makes us family and truly friends to each other! I love that we share our concerns about one each other's lives with each other. If we didn't would we truly be caring about them the way we ought to. I am not saying that we judge each other I truly feel that we have genuine concern about each others well being. I know they do and it took me awhile to realize that and my husband pointing it out of course :) But I know if they express concern it's truly concern and not judgement because I know they love us and our family! Beyond blessed how many people can say that have amazing relationships with their spouse's family. I can I love them very much and I know they love me!

A Harvest Moon Moment

For those that I haven't had the blessing with me sharing the story about my Dad Richard and the harvest moon. I will share it here with you. My Mom, Richard, and I were on our way back from Newcastle one night and on our way I spotted the moon and I had never seen the moon like that before it was huge and so bright red and orange. I was in awe of it. Shortly after it disappeared I was bummed out that I could look at it longer. After awhile I told my parents that I had never seen the moon like that. My dad said really!? I said Yeh I haven't that is the neatest moon I ever saw. He turned the truck around and drove back at least for 10 or more minutes to find the moon for me again. Then we just sat in the truck and took it all in. He told me it was called a harvest moon and I am sure he shared some other things he knew about it and why it was that color because he always knew so much! Just sitting there and looking at the amazing moon I thought to myself this man would give me the world if he could! This is one of those moments with him I will never ever forget and one that I am so grateful for!

This is the first harvest moon they ever saw!

They were in awe as you can tell. My girls have always loved to look at the moon!

This was before my Dad passed away.

I can't wait until they are older and I can tell them the story about Papa Richard and the harvest moon! They know their Papa is amazing but the memories I get to share; with the blessing of having him as my dad; will only get sweeter as I get to share them as they get older! Memories are my sweetest treasure now! By the way Dad I will tell them about you all the time trust me we talk about you everyday! You will only get more precious with time! I love you!

Baby Shower for Emma and Carolyn

The Lord laid it upon my heart to throw a baby shower for our newest arrival at church. Her name is Emma Mae and she is a sweet little bundle! She was born 5 weeks early but is doing amazing with the original birth weight of 4 lbs 13oz. She is growing wonderfully and up to 5 lbs now. I was blessed to hold a baby shower for her with the help of my friend Hitomi! I really can't express how much of a blessing it was or can I say is!!! To see all the needs met for this little baby and her young mother was a blessing I can't describe without tears! I am so thankful to the Lord for what He provided to her through the people at our church and my friends from MOPS! God is truly so good! Here are three pictures.

 The Cake I made for the shower.

 Before guests had arrived these were gifts given by people who couldn't attend.

The table after guests arrived!!! I cried when I was opening the shower with prayer just praising the Lord for what He had done! She took home a huge gift bag full of diapers along with a box and jumbo pack and she also took home a huge gift bag of wipes. Everything that was on her list for the shower was provided for above and beyond! I was stunned with the results of this shower! Praise the Lord!

Gardening Fun

The girls and I went to the garden and to our surprise we picked five decent size radishes and we will have a few tomatoes tomorrow :) How exciting for them and me! Outside of flowers that were already grown by a nursery I have never grown a thing! The girls were thrilled to take a picture with our first crop. I will take pictures of our whole garden as soon as I remember to take our camera. We are growing lots of lettuces,beans, radishes, carrots, zucchini, corn, cucumbers, chives, tomatoes and peppers also. Everything is up from the ground so now it's just a matter of time until it all hopefully is successful and brings in some crops. I will try to send my picture from my phone to my email and hopefully put it on her for y'all. That's all for our news.

I love the way you hold me~Lord

I have come across a song that gives me so much comfort lately and it also keeps my spirit up knowing the Lord is always holding me. Right now I know He is holding me up some days!!! This song makes me cry, it makes me smile, and it makes me dance! I truely love this song. I love that my Lord knows what I need at any given moment! He knows exactly what we need in life to get by and I love that He shows Himself in the perfect time when I feel I am at my end. He says come back to me and says let me hold you. There is a time and season for everything and I truely know the Lord wants me to feel Him more than ever now. Thank you Lord for all that you are able to provide to me that I cannot provide myself with. Here is a link for the song if you wish to listen :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKU3JSNxgY&feature=related  acoustic personally like this one better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISgr8SgCYbY&NR=1 with Toby Mac the version on the radio.

Thinking of you

So I am up again tonight unable to sleep must be the baby keeping me from my sleep. I remember going through phases when I was pregnant with the girls when it was difficult to sleep. Tonight I decided maybe it was time to just get up and write. When you lay there and try to sleep and all you manage to do is think; I suppose I must have something to say!

I keep laying there reliving the times with you knowing they will be no more. They are memories now that I can cherish. It makes me so sad to think I won't have more memories to make with you. That I won't be able to see you tomorrow when I come over to have dinner with Mom and Mindy and your precious grand baby girls. That I will be longing to see your face when I walk through the door and see your chair. I think some days I am in denial that I really don't get to see you again until heaven. I call Mom everyday multiple times a day to check on her. I promised you I would. I won't fail you on that promise! I haven't went home for awhile because all I really want to do is curl up on your chair and cry remembering the days when I was young enough to crawl up in you lap for a snuggle. To hear you say how ya doing squirt? To sit there for a good long while and play with you stub of a finger. I held your hands so many times in the hospital. I held that hand specifically to still play with you stub. Funny how I always found comfort because of the memories I had of sitting with you in the chair. Oh gosh I miss you so much. It's hard Dad it's really hard to have you gone! It was too quick! I feel a piece of me left with you. I don't know if I will ever be the same. I don't know if I can be the same. I can't hear you say it's gonna be ok. I can't see your face and have you  reassure me this time, the way you did when I came over to visit just you. I am glad I can remember that day so clear. I am so glad we had that day too! The girls talk about you everyday. Justice will say Papa gone and Faith will tell her yes but he is in heaven with Jesus, he is happy. I wish Jesus would come. Faith is more curious about heaven knowing you and Pastor Bode are up there together. We are being careful with her because the reason she wants to go there is to see you! She isn't thinking about Jesus she just misses her Papa!  Just so you know I  am not sad all the time in fact since last Sunday I have been doing well until tonight! It comes in waves the emotions loneliness, despair, heartache, and just pure sadness! When times are good they seem real good almost difficult because it still doesn't seem normal or real to be genuinely happy. When times are tough boy are they hard lots of tears and feeling like you could explode from the inside out because the emotions are so huge! I don't know if this will ever pass. I do know one thing I won't ever stop missing you and it's really hard to think about not getting to have our talks. The talks were I know only you will understand! Maybe when I feel like that I will write it in a letter and send it away in a balloon. Sounds probably crazy but there are some things only you understand about me and some things only you were able to talk me through and sometimes all I needed was your ears :) ps I never felt tuned out by you even tho I know you told Mom you had to sometimes. I think you really always listened in case there was something you needed to be watching out for me for. You did an awesome job as a father I always knew deep down you cared and loved me deeply. I was thinking about making the peanut butter syrup toast with the girls sometime soon and sharing it with the girls so they could taste how amazing it is! Oh another thing sorry the last shake I got you from Remy's was gross! Yuck worst one I probably ever got you. Bummer!!! Well I am rambling but it wouldn't be me if I wasn't and I am sure that is one thing you might even miss too. I really hope you get to hear this or see me talking to you still.  I love you and I will be in touch! Hugs Dad oh another thing Tell Pastor I love him too! xoxo