Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year

Well, Christmas came and went so very fast and now the New Year is upon us.  I sit here reflecting on this past year and must say it has been a challenging one and I am ready to get on with 2014.  This last year has had some major issues and times of trusting in our Lord, but it  has also been one of great blessings with the birth of our baby boy and the engagement of our oldest daughter.  God is so good and I am thankful that he has good things in store for 2014.

Christmas was very nice.  We enjoyed Christmas eve with all our kids,  my parents,  and Latisha's fiancé and future in  laws.  Every year the kids act out the Christmas story and this year they got a little creative and it turned out so cute.  Sierra organized it and had Danika and Jaden (Brent's little brother) as Mary and Joseph.  They dressed up, rode stick horses, and even had cowboy hats.  Cassandra made an adorable Shepherd and later wise man/queen (she said, "queen, you know because I'm a girl").  She said her lines with feeling and had a great time.  Isabella was a cute angel floated about not always on cue and Aidric was a perfect baby Jesus.  The girls were excited to have a boy baby Jesus this year.  Then Christmas morning we had a blessed time as we opened our gifts to each other and celebrated the birth of our Savior.  Our tree was overflowing, as you can imagine, with each child buying gifts for each other in addition to the ones we bought.  Next year it might be a good year to have the kids draw names.  Christmas day we spent with my parents and sister's family.  We truly are blessed to be able to spend our holiday with our family and friends.

I hope you all enjoyed a blessed time celebrating the birth of our Lord.  May you have a wonderful New Year and God's blessings on you and yours.

Alicia

our extended stocking

Christmas eve full of amazing food

my mom and Isabella ready for the show

Cassandra proclaiming the good news

Jaden, Danika and baby Aidric

Danika playing songs

Cassandra and Sierra's turn

Sierra also added the flute 

Aidric also performed his new trick

Ready, set….

go…  Present time in our new matching pjs

Aidric got a basketball hoop, which was the same one that Alex got when he was about his age.
I was so excite when I found it. 

Christmas dinner

Afterwards the kids had games with friends

My Baby Girl is Now an Adult

Today is Latisha's 18th birthday!!!  What a joy and blessing she has been.  When my pregnancy with her began it looked like it was about to end and I was so very upset.  I cried out to the Lord and he heard my prayer.  Latisha was born and has been a huge joy and blessing.  I can still remember the scare or losing her and the doctor telling me there was really nothing he could do this early in the pregnancy, but there was something God did and we are so thankful.  This is a day of celebration.  Thank you Lord for Latisha and thank you Latisha for being such an amazing daughter.  We love you and are so looking forward to all you have in store this year.  God bless you, Latisha.

Love,

Dad and Mom

Update

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted.  Things have been a bit busy around here.  Much progress has been done in wedding planning.  We now have a wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, flower girls, invitations and many other miscellaneous things.  It has been so fun.  Latisha has ordered a lot, so the delivery man has been to our house quite a bit with packages for wedding or Christmas and it is so exciting.  We have been blessed with some good deals and that is even more exciting.  The first big job was to decide the place and date.  Latisha and Brent really want an outside wedding and found an amazing spot.  The best part was they were already booked for the month of May, the month they want to wed, except for Memorial Day, and since it is on a Monday it was a great deal.  I was married on a Monday and had told my children it is not a great day to get married on but since it is a holiday I think it will be perfect.

picking the dress

 Next we got engagement photo's.  It was a very chilly day and I did them, so they are not perfect but I was happy with the results and we had a lot of fun.

 We have also been seeing a lot of doctors for Isabella, which at time can be very draining and discouraging.  When going to the different doctors they look at her and tell us all the things they think could be going on and that can be quite scary.  Once again, it is so good to know God is in control and I choose to believe he is going to do something awesome with Isabella.  We are grateful she is a happy little girl and she could care less what the doctors say.

 Our next craziness has been David.  He just had shoulder surgery and is recovering from that.  It has been quite painful but he has been a trooper and is doing well.

 Aidric is doing amazing.  He has started crawling, pulling himself up to things and has even taken a couple steps.  I am so looking forward to celebrating his first Christmas this year.  I just think he is so adorable and I am so happy to have him in my life.

 Then Alexander has finished up another semester at college and is home for the holidays.  It is so good to have him home and I am trying to savor the time together.  We have had some good snow and today was the perfect day to build a snowman.  Alex got all the kids together and they built a new family record 10 foot 2 inch snowman.  They called him Goliath and built a canon in front of him and a little snowman, David, connected to the cannon.  They put a big hole in Goliath and once again David killed Goliath.

So, if you made to the end of my long post you can see that we have had a month of ups and downs and these are only the highlights.  But God is so good and we are looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior in a few days.  We look forward to 2014 and pray God's blessing for the new year.  Have a great day.

Alicia

A New Love Story pt 2

A few weeks ago my husband received a phone call.  I was in the other room playing with the little ones.  David came in the room very serious and said that Brent had called him and wanted to talk with him.  We had a pretty good idea what the talk was about but it was exciting.  The older girls were gone for the evening so the timing was perfect.   Brent came over and asked for permission to marry our daughter.  It was a special time and David finished with a prayer over their engagement and future life together.  Now we had to sit back and wait for the proposal.

I am horrible about keeping surprises from people I am close too, but David thought it best that we not say anything to anybody including our parents.  Yikes, not as easy as it sounds.  My mom and I are quite close and something as exciting as that was stretching me.  But we made it the next couple weeks until the big day.  Already though I was having a hard time with sleep.  We knew a couple days he was thinking about asking her but weren't sure.  I would wake up with the baby in the night and couldn't go back to sleep wondering how and when Brent was going to "Pop the question."

Tuesday after Labor day was to be the day.  I'm pretty sure Latisha had known something might be up that weekend but nothing happened so Tuesday she was totally unsuspecting.  Brent had let us know his intent on Sunday so I was busy trying to make an engagement cake without any of the kids knowing.  I baked and froze it Sunday while they were out then tried to frost it on Tuesday while they were doing school and Latisha was gone for a bit.  Not my best decorating job, but it was the thought that counts right?  Brent's parents were going to come to dinner but Latisha didn't know that, so I was trying to not make a big deal about dinner.

Brent had called that day and Latisha had invited him over for dinner.  At 5:30 Brent's family was to arrive but it wasn't until 5:15 that Brent had called Latisha and the plan began.  He asked if she could come and help him with his car.  When Latisha finally left we all flew into action.  I told the kids we were having company and they needed to do a quick pickup while I reset the table.  Brent's parents showed up and we anxiously awaited the return of our kiddos.

Latisha had showed up where Brent's car was "needing help," it was in a church parking lot.  She walked up to the car that had a flower on it and a note.  The note had said how he was looking forward to giving her many more flowers for the rest or her life.  He had music playing through his speakers to a song called "Marry You,"  she was getting the idea what was going on but was in total shock.   He came out of the car with a bouquet of roses and got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.  She of course accepted.  She was so excited and shaking but now had to drive home to us.

When they came in the door they were both aglow, smiling, and shaking.  It was so precious.  We all had a time to rejoice and take a couple pictures and they headed off to dinner.  Brent and Latisha had a "wonderful" dinner at the Cheesecake factory.  We had dinner with our daughter's in laws to be and it was a blessed evening.   When they came back after dinner they were still shining and we all were so excited.

Now the planning has begun... and my sleep is still interrupted with wedding ideas but we pray that Gods blessing will be upon our daughters fairytale reality.

the cake

the flowers

the ring 

the family

More to come... 

A New Love Story part 1

Once upon a time a little girls was born.  Sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale.  I think as mothers we hope for a fairy tale for our little children, that everything will always turn out well and love will conquer all.  I don't know how many mothers, but I know I am not alone, look at their little preschooler playing with other children of the opposite gender and the mom's mind begins to daydream: "they are so cute together, wouldn't it be sweet if they got married someday, awe, I can see their wedding now."  Come on, I know I am not the only one out their with these thoughts, I have heard several mothers speak these words in a joking yet pondering manner.  Then as the children grow older I feel more protective when they show an interest in a certain some one.  Sometimes I would think, that is cute and sometimes I would have big flashing red lights with sirens.  It has always been David and my goal that our children would save their heart for the person they are going to marry, so we discourage dating as it is done in the world today.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if their first love be the one they spend their life with.   When one our our children has an interest in someone I ask my kids if they feel God is telling them this could be their future spouse.

Latisha has always been one to shy away from the opposite gender.  When she was a flower girl in a wedding at around the age of three, she was asked by another little boy at the wedding if she would dance with him.  She promptly turned away and walked off.  This did not slow down the little boy who  followed her relentlessly asking for a dance.  I was embarrassed that she ignored him and was afraid she would hurt his feelings.  So, I took her out there and told her to dance with him.  Latisha was not happy, and ran off as soon as she could.  I have seen this pattern in her ever since.  She has made a point of not giving the wrong impression to the opposite gender and at times I have marveled at her turning her head as a boy would smile in a flirting way at her.

Alexander and Latisha have always been quite close and he allowed Latisha to hang out with him and his friends.  She would be out there playing football with the guys and hold her own quite well.  In high school Alex and some friends started a band.  One of the band members, Brent, and Alex would write songs together.  It was so fun to watch them perform and worship the Lord.  They would compete in Fine Arts together and do well.  One year the band had made it to national fine arts and decided to make the trip.  Latisha had also made it to nationals in a drama and went along also.  When she came back something was different.

fine arts

traveling to fine arts

 Brent went away to college but Latisha and Brent kept in contact.  After Brent's first year he decided to come back here to go to college.  He and Latisha got to know each other in a new way.   They had been friends but now were getting to know each other with a romantic interest for the next half of a year.  Half way through Latisha's senior year Brent asked David if we would allow him and Latisha to "date."   Much to my surprise, I had no red lights or roaring sirens.  I felt at peace.  Over the past year Brent has become a part of our family.  He has seen the good, bad, and ugly and has been a blessing all the time.  Latisha and Brent have done their best this past year to follow our rules and we could see that things were headed in a permanent direction.

Valentine's Day

Easter

graduation

Latisha's graduation party

Traveling with us in the motorhome.  What a sport

Brent took our family photos this year.

Dressed as Clark Kent and Lois Lane

So, cute

To be continued...

Engaged

I just wanted to post a quick update.  We are so excited to announce the engagement of our daughter, Latisha, to our son-in-law to be, Brent.  More info and pictures to come.  God is good.

Horses

Fall is upon us and what a lovely fall it has been.  This morning was brisk, with a touch of fog on the ground.  It was delightful to view out my window.  Unfortunately I had to make an early morning trip.  I am thankful to be a stay at home mom and this morning reminded me of a benefit.  I had an early morning appointment downtown.  This required me to drive in the morning traffic that was creeping along, due in part to the morning fog.  The appointment was at 8:00 and they had asked that I be there 10 minutes early.  The morning was going smooth until I was ready to leave and could not find my phone.  After a thorough search it was discover and off we went.  Once in the car with phone in hand, I was off to face the morning commuters.  The bit of fog had slowed the drive down and I was getting a bit anxious that I was going to be late, but I thankfully pulled in right on time.   We sat and waited for the doctor, who I found was a bit slow in getting to us.  After the appointment I saw I had a missed call.  The doctors office had left me a message yesterday.  They had asked to move my appointment to 9:00 instead of 8:00.  So, I was really early.  Oh well, we got it done earlier and all is well.  "Be anxious for nothing."  :)

Every school year we look at activities for the kiddos.  We are blessed with many different options and some are specifically for homeschool families.  This fall we have chosen horse lessons.  Danika has wanted to take riding lessons for quite a while.  A local retired pastor provides horse riding lessons for free.  It is my understanding that it began as a ministry to at risk kids and he has extended it to homeschool families.  We are unable to go every week but the girls love to go when they can.  Here are some fun pictures.  Hope you are having a blessed week.
Alicia

Cassandra practicing her balance

Danika learning to trot.

Sierra enjoyed the comfortable ride.