Thankful heart

I know that it is time for us to once again celebrate thanksgiving. But these past few weeks I have been so overwhelmed with how ungrateful I am. So in a way this is a confession, but also I am striving to form a heart of gratefulness. I have been keeping up with a friend who I knew before college and then she just so happened to by roommate at college my freshmen year. She is going through one big trial a trial I know nothing about. She had c-section and gave birth to one amazing little boy, but they probably won't have him for varying long. As I have read her story and have prayed for her, I realized that I need to be thankful with the 2 children God has blessed me with. Now it's not that I haven't said thank you God for my kids, but now I realize that I need to be thankful for them daily thanking God for the oppurtunity to just love them and teach them and even discipline. When I have days where I just want to be away from my kids because they have just pushed every button I had, I need to say instead God thank you for these kids and thank you that if I have them for just one more day God you have sustained us and I know that there are reasons we fight one battle right after the other. So today I am making the decision to every day say thank you God for my two amazing miracles. I no longer want to take them for granted or push there silliness away but embrace them wholly and enjoy every second I have with them.

Ps

I forgot to add How amazing Joel has been. After he rushed home to rescue me out of the shower he took 3 afternoons off to make sure I was ok. Then every ight he comes home jumps right into everything. Kids, cooking, cleaning, ice warm ice warm. He takes on the responsibility for the kids for everything, bathing, disciplining, feeding, playing. He is definitely my night a d shining armor. Then he still sits down after bed time and works for a couple of hours. All to get up in the morning to start all over again. So thank you hubby. I am so thankful.

Stop

Stop seems to be a fitting title for my post considering the recent events in my life. October comes with so many beautiful things except this October unlike October of '11 came with sitting in a chair not doing anything. I am writing this story so that I can remember one day about this October and the many blessings I am experiencing. On October 25th after one of my first times back to jazzercise in a few weeks I came home to take a shower. I put the kids in room time so I knew they would be safe and jumped into the shower. Realizing I haven't shaved in awhile decided then would be a good time, and after that it's all kind of a blur. I remember slipping and falling but not much in between time. The next thing i feel is terrible pain in my rib area. I could barely breathe I had knocked the wind out of me. So as soon as I gain enough breathe I called for Lydia and she of course came running and I said go get mommies phone. So she ran out to get of course first asking a lot of questions. I said dial daddies number and she did. I told Joel that I had fallen in the bath tub and I couldn't get up. So he said he would be right here and hung up. So within minutes he got here helped me out of the bathtub that's when we noticed that I hurt my foot pretty badly. It was bleeding and cut open. So he brought me out to living room and looked over my foot and we both decided well it really isn't bad enough for stitches and that it would be better in the morning. So Wednesday morning I went church to do some stuff for the nursery and after standing on it for an hour I realized there was something worse done then just the cut. Well after making an appointment and a lot of help from a lot of different people sure enough I had done enough damage to my foot to have to be laid up for 2 weeks. So Joel's mom came to help and what a massive help she has been. Then after another appointment yesterday I found I am laid up for a other 4 weeks. So through all of this I have realized what a blessing walking truly is. I miss being down on the floor playing and imagining with the kids. I miss cooking and cleaning and talking nice walks around our subdivisions. But I have started to see the tremendous blessings God has made me see. First of all how many people have jumped into help us out. Babysitting, making meals, and just being a good visitor to me while I can't so much now. Another blessing is Betsy Leineweber. She has played, cooked, cleaned, cleaned,cleaned, and laundry galore. She is one of the greatest blessings in my life. Also I have has the oppurtunity to pray with two different people after they had called me to pray for a struggle they are going through. So being laid up in a chair for 6 weeks isn't so bad. So in lue of my title i know that God is telling me to stop and be thankful for the blessings in my life.

My best friend

I am so thankful for God's Design of marriage. I can't imagine life with out my amazing husband. He has shown me what selflessness looks like and he chooses joy in the hard times and in the easy times. One of my favorite times to share with him is laughter. We have a lot of fun together and he is so easy to talk to. He is an amazing daddy and one of our favorite times of the day is when he comes home from work. I love you Joel and I am so humbled by God's gift of you to me. Thank you for being an amazing husband and showing Christ to me in our major. Love Wifey

Lydia Grace Leineweber

On August 21, 2007 Joel and I had the amazing pleasure of welcoming into this world the third member of our family. She has won us all over and continues to shows how fun and exciting she can be. Her favorite things right now are Tangled, legos, playing with Seth, swimming in the pool but most of all being with her whole family all the time. She loves having us all together all the time and if a member is missing she pines for them. She loves playing with her little friends and often talks about going to see them. I am continue to homeschool her this year and I can't wait to see where she will be this time next year.

Big Boy Seth

Well I know just posted about Seth but I wanted to remember the timing of everything so I am going to blog about it. This past week has been kind of difficult for me in many ways but the Holy Spirit keeps bringing to my mind John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. So I am dwelling in His peace. One way I am doing that is loving my very amazing kiddos. Seth this week turned 2 and then he moved from the crib to a big boy bed and today we celebrated his life of 2 years. It is so neat to be a part of his life. So thank you God for your Peace that you chose to leave with us. I chose not to worry about tomorrow but be peaceful!

Seth Nathan Leineweber

August 4th, 2009 Seth you are one amazing little man and we are so thankful to have you in our family. Who what have thought I would be so in love with another man in my life. Joel he is pretty much the most amazing guy in my life, but in 2nd place is my little man. I can't believe i was so afraid to have a boy. But as my mother in law told me you will love having a boy they keep life interesting, SHE WAS RIGHT! He is so loving and compassionate. He loves anything truck or planes. His sister is his best friend and hates being away from her. He loves books and he sometimes likes you to read the same book many times. He loves to eat apples whole! He keeps me busy and has a lot of energy! He is a daddy's boy through and through! He looks just like Joel! So at 6 pounds 6 ounces he entered the world and changed our lives forever. We love you little man! August 4, 2011

Rejoice

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. The month of July is a Humongous month of celebration in my family. We celebrate all of my siblings birthdays and mine in this month. I cant imagine any better way to to celebrate then rejoice in Christ and how He has given me new life to share with others. This past week I had many reasons to rejoice in this life. Joel went away this past week for a conference to learn more about what he does and skills to implement in his job. I had the awesome privilege of having my sister, Yvette and her family come down and stay with me. There were many reasons that she came but most of all she came so that I wouldn't be lonely. We celebrated birthdays, we played hard, we overheated, we played and played, but most of all we had a great time together. Yvette has always played a big part in my life, first of all as my big sister, but also a mentor and sometimes even a mother. My kids just love her and it is fun to watch them interact and love her so much because lets face it they may see her once or twice a year. Her kids played so well with mine and her hubby did some much needed work around my house, so I am very blessed to have had them for a week. We even had a scary moment while she was hear, but just another reason to celebrate and rejoice that God protected Lydia from drowning. But overall what a fun and great week. I am so thankful to have my hubby back home, but I miss them and I am looking forward to seeing them again soon. Here is some great fun filled pictures. Family at the Creation museum Alex Andrew Adam The very beautiful Allyson

29 isn't to bad

Now I know that 29 isn't really that bad. I had a great birthday made very special by my wonderful hubby. Joel took the day off to spend with me. Partially because it was my birthday and partially because he was leaving for a week. He started the morning off by getting my favorite donut and letting me sleep in. Then we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the aquatic center, and then he took me out to dinner and it was topped off with a late evening swim with a good friend of mine. To my pleasant surprise he gave me 2 dozen roses. As I thought about my birthday and then my birthdays past I was just overwhelmed with God's blessings and His amazing Grace in my life. It was so humbling and made me so grateful and to name a few. I have an amazing husband and two amazing kids, I love the church that we are in and I still have my parents and siblings but most of all I am a new creature in Christ. I am happy to be a stay at home mom and also work in the nursery at church. I am very blessed to serve and submit to my husband. So above all else 29 isnt so bad at all.

Lydia's thought proccess

Lydia, "Mommy, Jesus lives in our hearts!" Me, "Lydia, does Jesus live in your heart?" Lydia, "No He doesn't." Me, "do you want Jeaua to live in your heart?" Lydia, "No, i don't ." Me, "why don't you want Jeaus in your heart?" Lydia, because God said No. Me, why did God say no? Lydia, because God said No Jesus can't come into to my heart until it stops raining. It was raining so I wonder what she was thinking. But this conversation kind of kept going through out the day, but it was sure interesting.

It takes a village

You know the wise old saying "It takes a village to raise children!" Well I now know why that saying is so true. These past two weeks for Joel and I kind of has felt like a village. We had the great opportunity to go on a week long vacation with his family. But before I tell you about that I will tell you about the week before. We left Tuesday morning and drove 9 hours until we got to Richmond VA, where we decided to stop for the night and take in some of the Civil War sights. We only made it really to one because the kiddos couldn't make it that long after being in the car for 9 hours and it was crazy hot. So we got to see the place in Richmond where the people had to escape a big fire during the Civil War where General Lee surrendered. So that was fun and it created a lot of conversation between Joel and I. We stayed at a hotel that night with an indoor pool where Lydia was introduced to water and of course she was scared, but got more bold as the night went on. Then we decided the next day to go to Yorktown where part of the War for Independence was fought. Till this day there is the little trenches and Hills they dug to protect themselves. We even got to walk around part of old Yorktown, where there stood houses that where originally built before the War. After another really hot morning and my allergies got the better of me we decided to finish the first part of our journey and drive the rest of the way to Virginia Beach. We spent a few nights at Joel's parents house before his family and us drove down to the Outer banks in NC. Joel's parents found a house down there that would definitely accommodate 10 people. The house truly amazing, complete with a pool, hot tub, pool table and Lydia's favorite, the bunk beds. We wanted to try letting Lydia and Seth sleep together in the same room, but we had the option of having him sleep somewhere else. Lets just say it didn't work out very well. Lydia wakes up probably around 7 every morning and needs to go to the bathroom and then lays in her bed until we allow her to get up at 7:30. She decided it would be fun to wake Seth up too, but he becomes a grumpy little monster without his proper hours of sleep. Needless to say, we separated them the next night. On Sunday we had our own little church service as a family complete with Joel leading worship and Dad Leineweber gives us a little sermon. Each of the days after that the couples all took the opportunity to give a little devotional. Phil and Sarah talked to us about what it means to prefer your spouse of yourself, John and Kim talked about how God's ways are higher than ours and how he ultimately receives glory, and mom and dad told us about what God uses to continue to grow us, like moving from one church to the next, and continual pain in the body. The last night we split up guys and girls and shared prayer request and prayed with each other and what a great way to end a great week. Now this week wasn't complete without sunburn, an unexplainable rash that several got,tons and tons of laughter, romance, food (in one night at dinner a whole watermelon was eaten), settlers, and most of all time spent together loving on one another. Joel and I had the great pleasure of watching how everyone loved our kids and even watched them while we played pool together or stayed at the beach, or just wanted to have a conversation without the kids around. One of the greatest lessons I learned this week is how God's love flows over and over in people whose hearts are His. The bound that God has help create in Joel and his family spills over into all of our relationships. Now that we are back home, I hear a lot of Pa, and mommy when I go back to NaNa's, or ON which is our brother in law Jon, and mommy do you think Aunt Sarah will read me this book one day,Mommy will Aunt Kim play in the sand with me. I miss the time together, but it makes me look forward to Heaven that much more. Because I know that we will all be together in Heaven worshiping our Saviour and how blessed that time will be. I hope there will be plenty of more weeks like this, this side of Heaven too.

Completely Blesssed

First of all I want to say Happy Mothers Day to my mom. I have often thought I wonder what Mothers Day was like for my mom when I was kid. I remember making her things and giving her cards and sometimes even picking the dandelions and giving them to her for her gift. But as I sit and think about her while I was kid and I think of her now, I must say I have so much more love and respect for now that I am a mom. Being a mom is a lot of hard work and I wouldn't trade being one for my life, but she did so much for us as kids that I can't help but wonder what it was like for her. Today as I sit and think about not being with her my heart kind of breaks, because I know that for her today may be especially hard since she doesn't have her mother here anymore. So mom just so you know I love you and I love the fact that you chose to love me in my most unloveable moments. Then on the next note I am completely blessed not only to have my most amazing mom still with me, but I am very blessed to have an amazing mother in law. As a young teen I started praying that I would have a relationship with my future mother in law the way my Grandma does with all of her daughter in laws. Grandma always nurtured and loved on her daughter in laws like she had brought them up from birth and I longed for that day when I could have that same relationship with my mother in law. God sure heard my prayers and answered them. Betsy Leineweber is the best mother in law in the world. I am thankful that she sees me as she sees her own kids just another of her kids. I am thankful that I have gotten to celebrate 7 years of being her daughter in law. Now God has given me 2 amazing kiddos and I have so much love for them I can't even imagine how much Christ loves all of His kids. I am by no means the best mom in the world, but I sure am thankful for the opportunity to love and nurture and kiss boo boos and share the Gospel of Christ with them, but more importantly be the Gospel to them as Peter LaRuffa told us so lovingly in church today. So as I end this post I will leave you with a pictures of the 2 best moms for me. Mom Frasier Mom Leineweber

Life keeps moving

It seems like I can't keep up with our blog. I wanted to remember some things that have been happening so I am going to write them down. Lydia is turning in to a little lady. Right now her favorite things to do is play outside, play games, watch Tangled, playing with her Polly pockets and most of all she loves playing with Seth. She always asks me to go get him up or she says mommy can Seth play in my room with me? It is so awesome that she loves his still so much. She loves babies. Seth is moving and a grooving as they say. His new words seem to come everyday. The other day Joel was praying for dinner and he finished up his prayer with In Jesus name Amen, then we heard a little voice say Amen. Seth says Amen now every time we pray, and he finally says Luv U and gives you a big hug. He loves to play with sissy and mimics every move she makes. He is learning so much and it is neat to see how they love and get along. But no post is good with out a few pictures for our families.

Craziness

Like most people here in our area, we have once again battled sickness in our house. We did all finally make it back to church today. Seth was diagnosed with RSV, which turned into pneumonia, but he has since recovered. We are blessed to have amazing people in our life that came over and took our kids and brought us meals. We are looking forward to spring and summer very quickly. We did enjoy a couple of days of spring like days and now all the kids want to do is go outside. So we are definitely looking forwards to that. Lydia has learned how to write her name. She can even tell you how to spell it now. Seth got his first shiner. We don't really know how it happened and it healed up quick. So here is for hoping another post soon and not a couple of months which it feels like it has been.

Lydia is growing up

I know that my last post was about Lydia, but she seems to be growing up so fast today. Her favorite toy is still her Jessie doll (from Toy Story). She is learning her alphabet very quickly. She still is very tiny. She only weighs about 24 pounds. Her favorite things to do with Mommy, is dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the toilets and making her bed. Each Saturday I take her grocery shopping with me and it is an awesome time for us to spend time together and also teach her things that she doesn't normally get to see, for instance, climbing out of the front of the cart on your own is dangerous. Just because she sees something she wants doesn't mean we have money to buy it. Today, she learned that you have to earn money to get things. Joel and I decided it was time to make her room a little less babyish and add some big girl qualities to it. We bought a shelf that we could kind of use a toy/book/stuffed animal shelf. She loves it and it makes her room look less crowded.

Our little girl

Iwasjust sitting herethinking about our kiddos. God has been so good to us. Lydia is 3 and she is amazing, a sinner , but still amazing. Today she said to me "mommy can you be my friend?". Which I replied of course I can,and she said good because I missed you. She said this to me after I leather for an hour in jazzercise. She seems to bring new light to my day. Today as I told her about Jesus and the Holy Spirit she just got this look in her eyes that said to me I get it mommy. She can identify 17 letters and gets better with her numbers every day. She is developing her sentences and how to use her imagination. Lydia grace Leineweber, we love you so much.

Happenings

Life here has been just a little bit crazy. We spent Christmas here and had tons of fun. Then we traveled to Virginia Beach which was a small bit crazy. They had 14 inches of snow and we were stuck right in the middle of the snow storm. We made it and the kids did amazing. We went to Busch Gardens in Virginia for their Christmas town there and that was so much fun. Each of the adults except for Joel's mom had some type of illness while we were there. Joel had a sinus infection, Phil and Sarah had a stomach bug, Kim had an allergic reaction to some cream and me well that is a long story. Joel's dad through his back out trying to catch Seth from sticking his hands in the belt of their treadmill. So it was sure fun to be together but we could have done with out all that sick yuckyness and bad backs. We made it through what we thought was free and clear, until today. We woke up to Seth and throw up in his bed and he continued to throw up on and off all day. So we are praying the rest of us don't get it.