Kris' Aircraft

Well he's at it again :) He really does amaze me with his creations. Now he is starting to show Eli how to do it. He has a hard time letting Eli do it alone or create what he wants. Kris' creative mind is always working. This was another creation he made yesterday.

Mommy Daughter Day

Sara has been asking all week for a day that we do girlie things. Just her and I. So today we made home made pumpkin facials which was very simple to do. Sara's comment was, "Mommy I smell like pumpkin pie." Which I had to agree with her on. We also painted our nails with a clear coat to make them shiny. She enjoys these fun things that we can do with each other at home. I do love a professional facials of which my favorite place is at Just Skin in Venice, Florida but this special time with my beautiful little girl means the world to me.

Creations by Kristofer

As you know from previous posts our Kristofer is on the autism spectrum. He is very high functioning and because of God's hand on him and therapy he is doing fantastic. Well one of his favorite things to do is build. We had an IEP meeting this week and I learned that he has been building at school and his special ed teacher of whom I love, has been giving him extra time to unwind with her by building something before heading back to his normal classroom. Of which I am very pleased with! It helps him prepare mentally to contend with the large group setting.
He is my recycling king. Today on Thanksgiving he was constantly asking me when we would have our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dinner which equals popcorn, pretzel sticks, jelly beans and toast...minus the toast. I explained to him that we would be having dinner with the Shorts and that seemed to make him happy.
I went looking for him and found him building ... no surprise there :) What did surprise me is that he had found the hot glue gun and was using it...correctly!His newest creation is below. He calls it his stick man robot and hover craft. I think he did an excellent job creating it. To us it may be junk but when he sees odd shapes and items he sees a masterpiece.

Isn't that the same thing God does with us! He picks us up and out of the trash...often times we are throw aways by society's standards or ours, washes us off and there begins the start of a new creation of which He is faithful to complete. Today I am thankful for Kristofer and his building/creating abilities. Love that boy!

40 Things

Happy Thanksgiving! For 40 years I have celebrated Thanksgiving. Some years I do not even remember, for I was too young. Many years I was barely thankful for what I had but today I am very thankful for even the smallest things. So I am about to attempt to write out 40 things, one for each year I have been alive of things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for…

1. My ever faithful Lord and Savior

2. Jesus’ love and forgiveness despite my failings.

3. My husband, I love you Sean!

4. Strongheart Jaron

5. Kristofer the conqueror

6. Tenderhearted Eli

7. Princess Sara

8. My Angel Seanpatrick…you may be in heaven but I am forever thankful that I had 9 months to get to know you and can’t wait to see you in heaven!

9. My parents..Mom & Dad…A constant reminder of what love can do and how you can overcome the many things that life throws at you.

10. My 3 brothers and my sister…memories of my childhood : )

11. Best friends – In no certain order… Angie, Michele, Deanna, Leah, Marty, Jessica

12. New friends

13. A warm place to call home.

14. LIVING IN KY – We love it here!

15. My dogs – Bently and Oddie…what a pair you are!

16. Two cars that are paid for!

17. New Haircuts!

18. Warm winter coats

19. Crock shoes

20. Diet soda

21. veggies and dip

22. Turtle cookies…as Kristofer says, “Sweet glory” they are good!

23. MY DISHWASHER : )

24. Modern technology

25. Seasons of Rest

26. Dolls…I love dolls.

27. Klove radio

28. Facebook – connecting with old and new friends

29. Board games-Scrabble

30. My wonderful neighbors.

31. Video games

32. Playing Uno and Pacman with Sara

33. My granmother’s ivy that is growing strong and I have had for 9 years.

34. My ceramic Christmas tree that was my great grandmother’s.

35. Living less than 3 minutes from the stores I shop at.

36. Redbox…yes I love cheap rentals.

37. Pumpkin Spice Coffee and creamer

38. The ability to walk without crutches or a cane.

39. Pain medicine

40. Ability to worship in a free country without fear of being attacked or thrown into jail.

WOW I did it! I knew I could but with all the storms we are facing and going through I wasn’t sure I would come up with that many things. Oh I have so much more I am thankful for mainly all that God has and is continuing to do in my life and in my family.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!

Happy Birthday Seanpatrick

We Place You in His Hands

Tiny life so fragile, sent to earth from heaven's gate

Blessed our lives for just a little while,

a testimony of His grace

No harsh words were ever spoken, to dim your precious brow

We know you're in the safest place, in the arms of Jesus now

We give you back to God, we place you in His hands

We place you in the hands of the Father above

Knowing He will keep you safe within His love

We place you in the hands that calms the raging waves

Knowing that He is still able to save

We give you back to God, we place you in His hands.


Today is our son SeanPatrick's 13th birthday. Will I ever stop counting the years that he was taken from us? I don't know. I wish I could say yes but the truth is, I probably will always count the years. I know one day I will hold him in my arms when I get to heaven. Every year I post something about his special day. This year I am just posting the song that our dear friends Gary & Rhonda Gray and Christy Cain wrote and recorded for us to play at the funeral. If you would like to read more of what took place and why we do not have him you can go here to read about it.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

I love Saturday mornings. They usually mean I get to sleep in, usually only another 3o minutes because my kids don't know the meaning of sleep in on a weekend day. In when we lived in Illinois we made it a point to always have a family breakfast loaded with pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast (sometimes), grits, coffee and sometimes OJ. YUMMO!! Since living here in Kentucky that ritual has sorta go to the way side. Mainly because Sean's work schedule changes and he now works on Friday nights and comes home exhausted on Sat. mornings. :( We are hoping that changes soon. He has applied for a position with the school district as a Alternative Education Assistant teacher. It would be full time, during the day and we are praying it will be more pay. The hours alone are better and we are really praying he gets it. He likes his job he has but hates the hours but thankful for the job!
Anyway today I decided instead of trying to sleep in when the kids were being rambunctious I would get up and get breakfast going and surprise Sean when he came in. He was happy :) The kids were excited! Kris woke up and was like "Is that bacon I smell!" then came in and said, "You are the best Mommy in the world!" All because I made bacon lol!
I enjoy mornings like this with my kids. I know soon things will change and they will be staying at friend's homes and getting up to go to work or leaving for college...ok getting ahead of myself, I mean geez Jaron is only in 5th grade...by time does seem to fly by!
OH yea before I forget! We are so PROUD of Jaron! He made the academic team at school. He was pretty excited himself. He is a smart kid and I think this is really going to boost his confidence. So proud of him! WAY TO GO JARON!!!

November is Dedicated to Being Thankful.

November…where has this year truly gone? I feel like every year passes by so quickly anymore. Maybe it’s because I am getting older but honestly I think it has more to do with I am so busy being Mom that I blink and the year disappears. So in three weeks from tomorrow we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Honestly Thanksgiving should not be set to just one day but be a life style. The last couple of days I have been thinking about what I am thankful for and how I want to go about sharing it. I thought about doing 30 days of Thanksgiving and then I thought no I will just do Thankful Thursdays. But that just didn’t appeal to me as well. I even considered making a list of things I am thankful for. Which is something we need to do, the Bible tells us to “count your blessings name them one by one.” But that isn’t really what I want to do either. Oh I probably will make out a list this month and share it. Actually I plan to do that anyway but I wanted to take some time to really share what I am thankful for and why.

So today on my way to take the kids to school (which was much better day than Monday) I was thinking about what I am thankful for and it was instantly…I am thankful for our van! Actually I am thankful for the provision of our vehicles! You see Sean and I have been married almost 14 yrs which surely doesn’t feel as long as it sounds. In the time we have been married we have been blessed with 4 ½ vehicles. I mean given, tax free, payment free, gifts from God. Sure they were all used but every time one has died God has supplied another one. I say 4 ½ because with our van we were blessed with ½ of what it cost. We are very blessed right now that we do not have any car payments!! When we found out our then large car (Lincoln Town Car) was turning into a compact car because our family was not only increasing but increasing with twins, both Sean and I said ok God you are blessing us with twins, our children are doubling (from 2 to 4 children) we said, Lord you have to provide. We were blessed when we found our minivan that sits 7 and then were blessed with half of the money. I will not post all those who have blessed us because although we are VERY, VERY, VERY GRATEFUL for their obedience to God and for blessing us, we believe they were an agent of the Lord and I am sure they would not want to be named or “glorified” for blessing us.

Relatively each vehicle has been in good to excellent condition. Some have need a bit of work but most have been tag and drive. When I sit down and think of all the ways God has come through it encourages me to know that if He did it before He can and will do it again. He always supplies what we need when we need it. Sometimes it has gotten pretty dark and the storms seem to rage with hurricane force winds but all He has to do is say, “Peace be still,” and the storm ceases to exist. Right now a storm is brewing and it is starting to get dark here (and I am NOT talking about a natural storm) I mean we need Him to speak, “Peace be still,” and come to the rescue. I am not asking Him to wipe away our debt or bills, I am asking Him to give us the means (whether better paying jobs (a job for me) or a large financial gift) so that we can tend to what needs to be tended to.

So today I chose to be thankful for the blessings of our payment free, older, in need of some repairs, vehicles! As long as they run, are safe and get our family to where we need to go I will forever be thankful for these blessings!

How Not to Start the Day

Today was a day of odd things happening. It is never a dull moment in the Diaperhead house I can tell you that! This is how my day started...

5:18 AM Oddie (our puppy) woke me from a great dream (I was dreaming we owned a big old farm house, Sean was pastoring a church again and I was helping him).

5:25 AM Pull Oddie up on the bed and he ended up sitting on my head and licking my face. :) I love puppy kiss just not that early. Oddie snuggles under the covers and I fall back to sleep.

6:30 Alarm goes off...late. It's ok, really, I don't need a full hour to get all 4 kids up, dress, fed and ready for school.

6:45 Laundry Monster strikes again! SERIOUSLY! Who is eating all the socks and Jaron's jeans??? Searched through Jaron's room and the laundry room for 15 minutes searching for his jeans and socks for the kids.

7:00 Return from the basement adventure - I really hate the laundry monster! While searching the dogs found Kris's pet frog (dead) and brought it upstairs. :( Which has Kris whimpering in the corner of the couch. When asked what was wrong (I was unaware) BIG crocodile tears start streaming down his cheeks. I spend 10 mins trying to calm him all the while trying to get the other 4 diaperheads socked, shoed and out the door with their daddy of whom disappeared during all this saddness about the pet frog.

7:15 Kids are FINALLY in the van and headed to school with their dad. (Shew! Thank God they do not ride the school bus...it comes at 6:30 and it would most definitely mean I would be getting them up at 5 AM UHM NO WAY! )

7:15 I begin to make smoothies for Sean and I. Not two seconds later and the blender explodes (not sure what happened ~ seriously!) my response at this point was "REALLY?" I now have berry smoothie covering me, the walls, cabinets, floor (dogs enjoyed) and counter top...not to mention the mess all over the blender!

After cleaning up that wonderful mess, I start cleaning the livingroom and slam my big toe against the exercise bike...OUCH! THANK GOD I have no feeling in my feet (it's actually sad - I have neuropathy in both feet and lower legs) but on days like to day I am thankful for now feeling. 2 hours later I look at my big toe and I now have a huge dime size blood blister on the tip...OUCH! Still can't feel it (thankfully) but now I have to poke it and drain it and pray it doesn't get infected. And yes it has to be drained...it's too large to just let it be.

So where is that restart button anyway??? BTW if you want to see where I found this wonderful picture of the laundry monster go here. I do have to say now that I look back over the adventures of the morning I can laugh! Like I have said...there is NEVER a dull moment in the Diaperhead House!

My Baby Girl

Today I want to share a little bit about my favorite little girl! That little girls is my precious, loving, compassionate, animal loving, sweet, strong willed, Princess Sara. I have ALWAYS wanted my very own little girl. From the time I was small enough to play with dolls I always wanted a baby girl. That's probably why when my little sister was born that I claimed her as MINE and refused to let other people hold her. From the time my sister was just a few weeks old I was bound and determined to have her in my bedroom with me! You see there are nine years between us. By the time she was a teen I was leaving for college in KY. I hate that I missed those 5 years with her. She was my maid of honor in my wedding and it was never because she is my sister, it's because I truly wanted her in my wedding :) and I had the honor of being in her wedding. I love her to death! I am thankful that she was there encouraging me to push when Jaron and Kristofer was born. She watched as they were born :) A very special time for us as sisters, a time I cherish very much. But this post is not about her it's about Sara.
Sara is very special to me. You see after we had Kristofer (our third son ~ remember I have one in heaven who would have been 13 on the 22nd of Nov this year) we weren't sure we were going to have anymore. But one night at the alter as I was praying I felt the Lord tell me I would have a daughter and I would name her Sara. When I shared it with Sean all he could say was, "Well I guess that answers our question on more kids." He was smiling! It was a few months later that we found out I was pregnant and a few months later that we found out that she wasn't coming alone :) She had a brother in there with her.
From the time we found out we were having twins and till now, Sara has been a very strong independent dominant child. I said earlier in my description that she is a strong willed child and most people associate those words with behavioral problem child. But this is FARTHEST from the truth when talking about my Sara.
Here is a definition and some other words to describe strong willed.

strong-willed - having a determined will; to be resolute, firm, single-minded, purposeful, fixed, intent, persistent, stalwart, persevering, tenacious, steadfast, unwavering, immovable, headstrong, unflinching, strong minded, self willed.

I pray daily for each of my kids and I pray that when it comes to Sara and her faith in God (of which she loves Jesus and many times ministers to her Momma without knowing it) will be all of these words that describe her to a tee! She is our little miracle :) She and Eli were born 8 weeks too early, she was born breech bag intact (doc had to break her umbilical sac), was bruised from heel to mid-back, needed a couple of blood transfusion and had a harder time breathing than Eli did. But because of the personality God gave her she over came those obstacles and is a beautiful 6 yr old who loves school and loves to socialize :)
I had Jaron take the pictures of us today. The above picture, where it looks like I am whispering a secret in her ear was taken accidentally and I think it is most definitely my favorite picture we have together. Jaron is a very good photographer for his age! He even told us to move from where I wanted the picture taken just so we wouldn't have the sun in our eyes. We are truly blessed with our diaperheads!