Open up the heavens and let Your blessing pour out :)

So this post is about credit due. I have so much to thank God for and He has been very good to us. These past few weeks, as I have gotten more into His word, I have been noticing more of His blessing. Jeremy and I have started a Bible study, and we do it most every night, after putting our children to bed. We pray for them and God has answered our prayers. I have noticed a big difference in their behaviour since we started to pray for them every night. Now for the most part they are good kids, but lately they have been even better. They are now caring for each other more, and I really have God to thank for that. Nathaniel is no longer fighting me on doing his school work, and he has learned so much this past week.

We have also (all of us as a family), started to read proverbs on a daily bases. If you look at proverbs there are 31 chapters, so you read one each day and you read the one that matches that day of the month. Yes some months you won't finish the whole book. It's surprise how much God can speak to you from His word. I also have to give God even more credit, because He has really helped Jeremy with his work, and now Jeremy gets home at an even better time. Jeremy says that every day he ask God to help him at his job, and every day his needs are met. God has been great!




So we did a little moving...
This past weekend we moved the boys around, and the boys also helped us to weed the unused toys out of the playroom. See when we first moved into this house we put Darien bed down stairs in the play room. That was fine, but then a few months later we moved Zachary down there as well (just to try that out). That was okay, but we also wanted a room that we could turn into a guest room it need be. So the solution... Darien is the one with a double bed, and he is also that oldest so giving him that room upstairs is a better idea. This way if we do have guest, we can just put Darien downstairs in the playroom on the extra mattress (that we store in the garage), just for that night (or those nights). Zachary and Nathaniel are a little better at sharing a room, then any other combination. Why is that? Well Darien is a little controlling, so he and Nathaniel butt heads sometimes. Zachary likes to make lots of silly sounds, and Darien likes it quiet. So yes Zachary and Nathaniel get along well, and they both love sleeping in the play room.

 Playroom

Zachary's and Nathaniel's beds 

Darien's room (lego king)

Well that is all I have to report. Don't forget to count your blessing.    :)

Keeping up with life

Hello... Sorry about the little break from blogging. Life has been a little busy, and I wanted to tell you all about it, but I just didn't have the time.

Homeschool is back up and running. I loved the break, but I am also glad that things are back to normal around here. Nothing like the sound of pencils writing in the morning. The boys are all doing great with their work, even Nathaniel (sometimes he likes to complain about school work). They all have been happy to do their work, and happy to help out and participate in family activities. We have been having a lot of fun lately, hind n seek every night, puzzles, board games, and movie nights. Our little life is very fulfilling!

I took the Christmas things down about 2 weeks ago (sad). Well not all of it though... teehee... I'm still holding on to Christmas by two strings of garland. They are still on the railing of our front steps. The truth is I keep forgetting about them. I walk up to the house and think to myself, "Oh hey I need to take those down", then I walk inside and forget all about them (silly me).

Oh and football season is officially over in the Legates' house (sad). We are Raven's fans, and now that they are out of the playoffs I don't think I'll be watching anymore this season. I'm not much of a sports watcher, but I do like to watch football under the right circumstances. It's not always something I can get into (it's not like Star Trek). So I guess I'm not really upset about the whole thing. I just think football fans sometimes take it to far, because I have seen many of arguments on facebook over teams (how silly)(and get a life). I have also seen some really stupid bumper stickers, like the one I saw a few weeks ago... "If you ain't a Steelers fan you ain't poop" (but it didn't say poop)(I'm sure you can imagine what it really said). Now at first this really made me mad, not because I dislike Steelers fans (and I do, or the part of them that is a fan)(sorry guys), but because I really don't appreciate curse words (you don't look tough or cool using them, you just look stupid, learn some vocabulary okay?). But after a closer look at the bumper sticker it made me laugh, because it is basically saying "If I'm not a Steelers fan, (and I'm not) then I'm not poop." That's great I didn't want to be poop. Yeah so if you have a bumper sticker like that, then it just makes you look stupid, so do us all a favor and scrape it off.

So last week on Friday was the two year anniversary of my blog. I meant to post on the day and have planed to, but when the day came around I just forgot. Yeah it happens. This time two years ago... My husband was on his second deployment and about half way through it. We lived in beautiful  San Diego. My friend Jess and her 3 lovely girls were staying with me, and our friendship was growing (I miss you). I didn't have a daughter, but planed on trying for one once Jeremy got home (and we did, and she is wonderful). I was preparing myself for our second cross country move, and dreading missing my favorite city. So yeah a lot has changed since then, and there is still more to come. I look forward to it.

My little girl is about to turn ONE! Yeah wow, I can't believe it. She is now walking all of the time, and I have also switched her over to cuppies. Wow she is so big. Didn't I just have her? Didn't we just get home from the hospital? Isn't she just a tiny little thing? No not really...

Oh and one more thing. I have made the switch to cloth diapers. They came in the mail just a few days ago (I got them from here). So in about a week or two I'll update on all of that. So far it's not to bad. I got them on Saturday, and put them on her after her first nap (I was excited to try them out)... 20 mins later her daddy sits down to play with her and... "Honey your daughter smells stinky"... great. So I take her upstairs to the changing table, Jeremy follows saying "I wanna see this"... I change her, and hand her back to daddy, then I need to raise the poop off of the diaper... Yeah Jeremy stayed to watch that too. It wasn't to bad, not considering that making the switch to cloth diapers saves us about $50 a month. Yeah! So I will keep it up.

Thanks for reading!

Oh Holiday

So how did my holidays go? Well they were great! Do you want to hear all about it? Of course you do (well maybe). So it all started with Christmas eve. That was at my parents' house. They had a small dinner and it was tons of fun. Olivia was a little crazy though. Most of the time, when we go to family gatherings I spend half of the time holding her, and the other half is divided between the high chair and others holding her. Not this time however, she was not to keen on letting others hold her, and she wanted to eat off of my plate and not her own. That's how things go sometimes (as I type this with only one hand free). We got home at 8pm and sent the kids to bed. This year we told our children the truth about Santa. I didn't want to lie to my kids anymore, and I didn't want Christmas to be about Santa. Christmas is about Christ's birth, and it is God who has blessed us with the ability to give, so to Him be the glory. So there was not "Hey kids hurry up and get to bed so Santa can come." It was more like "Time for bed boys, in the morning we will have a wonderful day celebrating."

So Christmas day came, and it was wonderful, because we were together and we didn't have to go anywhere. We have a family rule, that on Christmas day we stay home (no matter what), and spend all our time with each other. This gives the kids plenty of time to unwrap and enjoy their gifts, it also gives us plenty of time to celebrate the day, and the greatest gift of all. So what did I get the kids? Well I did mention earlier (in another post), that we were combining the boys gifts, to encourage them to share everything that was given, so the ones listed for the boys were for all of them.

Boys...
Lego Harry Potter, hagrid's hut
Lego Harry Potter, quidditch match

Lego Duplo Cars, flo's cafe

PokePark Wii
Pirate hunt Wii
Epic Mickey
Monopoly Junior
Jumbo Checkers Rug
Battleship (the board game)

Connect Four

Clue Jr
Air hogs Helicopter (times 3)
Hotwheels 4 lane raceway

For the baby, we got her some busy balls, blocks, and this singing camera (fun right?). It was a wonderful day. Not to mention that Olivia took her first steps on that day. Oh wait I did just mention it didn't I. Yes I will never forget this Christmas. We had the boys open everything one at a time, and had them take turns. Nathaniel was kissing the box when he saw the Lego Cars set.

Okay so after all of that, it was time to clean. Jeremy's family was coming over on Thursday (the 30th), and one cousin (+ wife), was spending the night Wednesday, and this place looked a mess. You see I'm not much of a house keeper. Sure I try, and I can keep it looking okay, but when Jeremy has time off, I tend to skip corners more than usual, and all of those skipped corners were starting to take over the whole house. So I needed to clean, and I did. I got this place looking wonderful, and I am sad to report that now I have to clean it again, and I'll probably start right after this post is finished.

So late Wednesday night Rachel and Matt came (yay!). Two very fun people. They got here around 11pm, and Rachel and I stayed up till 1:30am. The boys however stayed up all night. I'm glad they had fun though. In the morning Jeremy's parents, and his Aunt and Uncle came over. That was wonderful! Jeremy's parents brought the boys gifts, and they loved them. I also had a great time talking with his Aunt. I have known her for a long time, I knew her long before I met Jeremy. She was the Liberian at my elementary school. Around noon is when everyone else started to come. Jeremy's friend Ryan, Cousin Chris, and Brittany (who is now Chris' fiance)(it happened on New years, very exciting). We played Mario Kart and Mario Bros Wii. That was so much fun. Mario Bros wii despite being a 4 player co game, is more like an every man for himself game, and needless to say I was ROTFLOL (rolling on the floor laughing out loud). They stayed until 9:30pm, and I was sad to see it end, but ready for bed.


Saturday I went shopping with my two good friends Dawn and Becky. I took Olivia with me and Jeremy and the boys stayed home (making it a true girls day)(I loved it). I drove up to Newark, DE to Dawn's house and we went to the Christiana Mall. I got a pretty skirt and some makeup. We ate pizza hut (we shared two personal pan pizzas and a drink) for lunch. For dinner we got Boston Market (yummy), and ate that at Dawn's house. On the way home Jeremy wanted me to pick up donuts (no over indulging this holiday season), and that was not fun. This was due to the miss marked exit signs. I took an exit that had a Dunkin donuts sign on it, and after driving 3 miles and not finding anything, I have to turn around. No worry I finally found one, but it was off of another exit. Yeah it was a little adventure, in the dark and it was also raining. All for donuts my friend.

Last holiday event was at Jeremy's Aunt Mary's house. That was also fun, and most of the family was there. The kids had a chance to play with some of their cousins, and Olivia once again wanted nothing on her plate of food. I guess things just taste better off of my plate. Well I seem to think so, so why not her.

Well now that all of the holiday fun is over (sad), I need to take down my Christmas tree, and like I said before I need to clean my house. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.