Beyond Blessed

This last week has been amazing to see the out pour of love and support from our church family! They were all so thrilled to welcome Zane into the house of the Lord! The oohs and awes over him was humorous! It's like they all fell in love with our newest addition. We have been blessed with meals every night since I got home from the hospital and today was a wonderful wonderful day! We went to the Dr and Zane's jaundice is of no concern anymore. Dr Ammari said he looked incredible and there was no need for more blood draws which is great because his poor heels of his feet were looking pretty sad! So we have had him home all day and not connected to a billi blanket. Its so freeing! :o) Justice is battling a bit of a cough and has a very slight fever but nothing that needed antibiotics so that is great. Zane has got his days and nights mixed up to say the least! He is up till 4 am most mornings and then finally lets me sleep from 4-8:30 and then he sleeps most the morning with a feeding every two and a half hours. He slept all afternoon today and then woke up at 4 for about an hour and a half then ate and went back to sleep. I have no idea how I am going to get him on the same schedule as us but I am hoping it will all work out in time! I am still going off adrenaline and love haha! Which is the only thing that is keeping this body going! Oh that and my husband is an amazing help! Faith has fully embraced being the oldest sister and is willing to help whenever she can! My girls have been very obedient since we have brought Zane home which has been amazing! All in all God is good all the time~

Our Newest Blessing

Oh I can't even begin to express the joy and love that overflows my heart! The Lord has been so good to us and blessed us with our healthy baby boy Zane Scott Clem. For any of you who are wondering were we came up with a name like Zane it means God is gracious. As anyone who knows anything about how this last year was for my family and I you would know we have been through much loss but I can say with an honest and grateful heart that I am truly blessed to endure such hard trials because in all of it God's graciousness was so apparent in everything! So when I saw the name Zane and what it meant tears instantly filled my eyes and I knew that was my sons name! So now the blessings of photos for all of you! I love you all sorry this is short but I need to get to sleep tomorrow is our first day in church with Zane!

First born laid on mommy's chest

Daddy cutting the cord look at that smile! Priceless!

Mommy talking to him what an amazing moment!

I have my son safe in my arms!

First family photo!

Daddy first holding him!

Going on the lights for his jaundice.

Relaxed and not minding his temporary home.

The girls playing with daddy while they were up to visit!

I am ready to go home!

Let's do this I am wide awake!

Day two ready to go to the hospital for more blood tests. He slept thru the poke!

Look at that chubby chin already!

I love you baby brudder! She looks so big now!

After first sponge bath at home ready for church tomorrow!

So cozy!

Settled in for night two and we officially feel at home and settled!

God is so good!

Waiting on you!

We have been waiting on you for what feels like forever! We are so excited to meet you. Tomorrow is the day that we will Lord willing greet you into the world. I am so excited to enjoy your toes instead of them hurting my side. To hold them in my hands and feel how gentle they really are. To look at those sweet hands that have been gentle. To experience the joys of your first cry and your father and I holding you! To see the look on your daddy's face, I can't wait to see your little lips and eyes and to see how different you are from your sisters. More than anything Son I am excited to see the Lord in your life and with the inspiration of your name I couldn't be more thrilled to know how greatly God will be an influence on your life. We couldn't agree on a name until we found yours and when we did there was no doubt about what your name was suppose to be! The only time your dad and I agreed without any questions! We love you and are more than excited to meet you!

A scheduled life makes a happy life



Hey y'all

You know how it is so easy to obsess over having a tidy home and not only that but come on I mean a clean home! I can do tidy but this not clean thing is driving me batty! Some may say I am nesting but I know honestly this is a routine thing that I want to keep. It is so easy to get behind and feel so overwhelmed so from now on dishes are done and laundry is sorted! These two basic things can make your home feel like a train wreck happened! I want to continue on in this routine so my children and I can really focus on the important things in life! Not mommy being a crab because she feels behind and shuts the kids out so she can catch up!

So why start a morning/midday routine for chores? For one it keeps structure for the kids and the home. Two it keeps me accountable to not spending all day cleaning and having my kids play in their room all day or soak up countless hours of cartoons or movies! Yes I will admit it this is a failure of mine as I am sure is of so many mothers of young ones.

It is so easy to tell ourselves that our little ones will just be in the way well I disagree and I intend to have my children help me with our household morning chores. Every morning my girls will have a basic routine for themselves just like I do! Get up, make bed, get dressed, hair done, eat breakfast and brush teeth. Kids thrive on structure and they love it because then there is less surprises of them not understanding of why they are getting scolded for something they didn't know was not to be done at that time. If they know what is expected they will aim to please and accomplish the task. Plus as a parent it gives me a great opportunity to praise them for their great work!

So last night I finally got to it and made a chore chart for morning/midday chores. I have been meaning and meaning to get a list made up but kept putting off. Well because of that this last week had felt so hectic and pointless all at the same time no matter how much I got accomplished. Yes I am sure you know and have experienced that same feeling! So I made a list of my basic things that need to be done every week so that by Saturday and Sunday my home is in order for any guests or if we should leave for the weekend it is in order upon our return.

Some of the things I included to be done are: Morning routines; Dust and Vacuum main living area, Sweep and mop, Tidy dressers, night stands and hot spots(places where clutter seems to accumulate), Vacuum bedrooms,  Guest bathroom wiped down and laundry sorted, All laundry put away and caught up on. My midday routines: Make a menu and shopping list every two weeks, Errand day, Library, Clean out cars and church bags, Purge and take out trashes, Clean out fridge and stock freezer for next weeks meals.

I split these up all on days according to what works best for me and I am sure as time passes I will switch them to a better day that will work but the basic is that my home will be in order most of the time. I will also know that weekly I have accomplished some of the tasks that would otherwise be left undone because I have not given a scheduled time to accomplish them.

Time management oh speaking of another thing I am doing with these chores is not allowing my self to obsess over them but to get them done in a timely manner so I will be using a timer so my girls and I can get on to the next task at hand. Which will be Faith's school and any other activity I might have planned for the girls to do. Some may say crazy to care so much about scheduling chores and managing your time like a your in the army but the way I see it is how many of us has said there is just not enough time in the day! Hope this helps and motivates you to become and better steward of the things and most of all the time that the good Lord has given you.



God Bless~ Chelsie

Beauties on Sunday

They always look so pretty on Sundays!

I always curl their hair but just on Sundays.

It's their special day to look their best!

Justice looks so grown up with her bangs curled so pretty

 and her hair is finally past her shoulders.

We have always woke up with at least two hours to get ready. After three years of routine I finally have the time to spend extra time on making my girls feel special and look beautiful for church. With our little one coming I hope I can stay in the routine of things because the girls enjoy it so much! I am sure the first couple weeks home won't  be as smooth but I hope to keep up on making them feel so special on Sundays!

Sweetest moments

There are so many amazing moments during Christmas time. The soft lights glistening off the tree, the gentle sound of Christmas music, the light snowfall, and this year one of my sweetest moments has been having all these and then feeling this precious baby boy growing and moving around inside me. Today he has been so sweet...literally! No hard rough kicks just a few soft movements arms or legs moving gently and he's even been turning today. The bigger he gets the more movements I can feel and tell what he is up to! It's just precious! I had Justice before Christmas so this is a first and with Faith I found out I was pregnant with her December 8th 2005. So experiencing being pregnant during Christmas has been amazing! It's been different I put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving just to make sure it was all taken care of for the girls. This has given us even more time to enjoy the lights and decoration. Oh and of course don't forget all the extra baking I have been doing to get my family into the spirit! My husband is loving it! Goodies all the time and the house smelling of fresh cookies or pumpkin cookies. I am already planning on some brownie making next week. There is no real pressing reason for making them just another fun thing to do with the kids! Oh and making hot cocoa and watching the girls gobble it down. Justice rubs her tummy and says yummy! Too darling!

This Christmas is going to be different. We won't have the normal things that we are used to doing. We won't be traveling to Upton, my mom will be gone in Nebraska welcoming my new nephew! This will be the first Christmas without my Dad being here. I must say tho I have been praising the Lord for the 16 years I had with him. He had a major heart attack shortly after my mom and him met and I am so grateful the Lord shared him with us for so much longer! Of course I would love to have him longer but I really am so thankful that he is in heaven with the Lord! I wonder if they celebrate on Christmas...haha everyday he gets to be with the Saviour! Awh to be honest I can't think of a better blessing this year than knowing he is in heaven! I miss you Dad but I would rather you be well and at complete peace in heaven!

This year we will be spending Christmas in the Lord's house :) I am planning on making something yummy the night before that I can heat up. Getting it all ready and then having the girls come out and eat. Then open presents and off to church! Oh to praise the Lord on the day He came for us! Then I imagine we will head over to Scott's parents for some food and if there is football of course we will probably be watching! Then the evening service at the church with all our church family! We have all had a very hectic year with the loss of loved ones and our pastor. It will be a blessing to share in the candlelight service this year! God has done so much for all of us! But most I praise God for sweet baby Jesus. I cannot thank Him enough for coming and the way He came shows so much humility. What an amazing God!

Blessings must be counted

Hey y'all,

I felt the need to write today and as I was thinking I thought what could I possibly have to share. Well to be honest there is plenty but to save you time and spare you all the details I will keep this on point.

So blessings must be counted....As I ponder on this fact think about it yourself what are your blessings. You know with Christmas just around the corner it is easy to think of all the things we would like or like to be able to give. Christmas has become a holiday of giving and receiving which I guess is fine but what about everyday things. What if we made everyday like Christmas were just around the corner. What if every day we showed true CHRISTian character just out of the love that we have because of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever tipped a Wendy's employee a few extra dollars through the drive thru because you wanted to be more of a blessing to them. I know I usually do during the holiday season. Something comes over me to give to people I don't even know. To be a true blessing to someone out of love hoping nothing in return. 

One detail I will share I wish in my own life I would have a more open and giving spirit about me! Today was the first day I think I actually invited my sister to dinner in all the years we have lived together in Gillette. How sad is that! It's taken me all this time to have an open heart to having my own family into my home for dinner! Sure I have fed her here but actually invite her and make her feel at home yep first time, brings tears to my eyes to see how shut off I have been. Unfortunately she won't be able to come she has to work. Sometimes I wonder where is my focus, what am I thinking, what am I doing? I shut out my loved ones not even realizing it! Has there been a button turned off in my brain or is it on my heart? I am truly sorry that it's taken me so long to realize this. Sure I could make excuses and say I have been busy and unorganized with kids but does that really count. NO to me it's not enough. I literally have not been open to blessing those who are closest to me! I hope that changes for good and it's not a temporary thing during this Christmas season.

So tonight we will be having crock pot roasted chicken and I am sure it won't be a blessed without having my sister over but I know now that the invitation to my sister will be open all the time!

Blessings I could go on and on about the blessings we have received lately but not only that I can just think of the daily blessings. A home; a beautiful home with nice things, heat, electric, a full pantry, fridge, freezer, my families needs are all met, the ability to stay at home, to be a stay at home/homeschooling mom, an amazing husband who provides so well for us, the love that we share, an amazing mom who will help abundantly, AMAZING "in-laws"(who can truly say that and mean it, ME), my sisters whom I love very much, a blessed church family, two vehicles that run very good, the ability to put gas in them, true friendships that don't end, and so many many more things! These are the big basic things I can thank God for everyday. God is faithful to me and my family everyday. On a rough day where things may not be going completely my way or we get bad news it may be hard to see the blessings but we must see the blessings everyday!

I challenge you to think of your blessings make a list if you have to. If you praise God you won't complain to God! Be blessed my friends and loved ones!

It's looking like Christmas

So I have some new photos of our snowfall and the girls getting out and playing. Then we also took a a few of our house decorated for Christmas and the girls with the decorated tree!

This is what it looked like when I started decorating the tree

This was after!!! It really start coming down!

Making snowballs :)

Faith "Now we throw them at each other" Ready set GO!"

A bit hard to get up there the first couple times.

But then I turned it into a sliding hill :)

Faith without slick snow pants attempted but it wasn't the same and too cold!

My buffet decorated with decor!

Our archway to the hall

"The Clems at Christmas"

Fun for the girls to have pretties everywhere.

After we got done with the tree. They were so happy!

They ate cookies and marshmallows with hot chocolate while we got the hooks on the ornaments then we decorated to Christmas music. After we were finished we read a Christmas book from the library. It was about a boy who helped his dad sell Christmas trees at the Rockefeller Center and how they were blessed that next Christmas day with a new home from the construction crew from the Rockefeller Center.  A very good book. I think the girls had a great night and enjoyed it alot!