Reminders

I think sometimes everyone needs a reminder of how fragile and precious life really is. It's so easy to get caught up in our own daily events that we can loose sight of the bigger picture. I was reading today over at one of my favorite and often visited blog sites (Life) and discovered that a family is in real need of our prayers and support right now. This was written on their family's recovery website:

"On Saturday, August 16, 2008, Stephanie Nielson was in a plane crash with her husband, Christian Nielson, and his flight instructor, Doug Kinnear, near St. Johns, Arizona. Doug Kinnear passed away soon after arriving at the Maricopa County Hospital.

Christian & Stephanie remain in critical condition at Maricopa Burn Center. Christian has sustained burns on over 30% of his body. His wife Stephanie’s body was burned over 80%.

For the past four years, Stephanie has welcomed us into her charming abode through the NieNie Dialogues. Far from being a product of creative editing, the Nielson’s don’t just shine through the selective lens of a blog. They are ingenuous examples of family devotion, eternal romance, and Christ centered faith. This site is dedicated to their welfare & recovery."

{Picture taken from NieNie's blog}

After reading their story, I have been embracing and cherishing each moment with my sweet little ones. It's sad to know that this young couple has 4 children at home waiting for their parents to recover and be with them again. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. If you want to do more, I've added their recovery button on the right of our blog that will provide you with ways to help them out. I hope that this unfortunate event will inspire you to spend as much time with your children/ loved ones as possible like it has done for me and to realize what an amazing and eternal gift families really are!

LOVE This Quote...

I ran across this amazing quote the other day and just had to share it. It has actually given me quite a lot of encouragement when it comes to facing some important decisions in my life right now. I hope it helps you to have a better outlook and attitude on life also and leaves a lasting impression on your "attitude on life."

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

~ Charles R. Swindoll

{Flowers given to me by my sweet husband to brighten my long and exhausting day with the kids while he was out playing softball into the late night hours. What a great hubby I have! Okay...the snickers bar was good too! :) Shhhh....}

Aubrey's 1st Day Back To School

It's that time of year again. SCHOOL STARTS! And the 3rd grade??? Where has the time gone. It seems like she was just in preschool. Aubrey has been extremely excited for weeks now that school is finally starting. She'd be seriously happy with all year round school if they had it or had the choice. It was bitter sweet sending her off to school on the bus. I enjoy having my girls home during the summer days! But I also love knowing that when school starts, she's happy learning and making new friends (and I admit, a few moments of quiet time to myself to clean or read a little when Jocelyn naps isn't so bad either). I knew it'd be harder for 'lil sis' than it would be for me though. These two sisters are the best of buds and watching Aubrey step onto the school bus (as Jocelyn pronounces it 'scuba') and drive off down the street was heartrenching to see the pain on Jocelyn's face and in her voice. "Bobby (Aubrey)......Nooooooooooooo!!" Needless to say, 8 hours later when she hoped off the bus was a good reunion for us all.

Aubrey's New Smile

SURPRISE!!! Aubrey now wears BRACES! She had some top teeth pulled in June that had the adult teeth growing behind so her orthodontist felt that it was best to correct her cross-bite now instead of later. Her treatment will be done in the spring so she won't be wearing them too long. She's very excited that she can pick and choose her bracket band colors and holidays will be fun colors I'm sure!

The New School 'Do' & Animal Sounds

Here's the new hairdo. We took Aubrey in to go get her hair cut before school started. She's been growing out her bangs for a very long time and since they were about shoulder length, we gave her the option of just getting an overall trim or cutting it all to the length of her bangs. This is what she decided on:

Isn't it cute?!?! She loves it--and how convenient it is for soccer now too. It's hard to believe she's almost 9. It seems like just yesterday... :/

***(Please pause blog music at the side right in order to hear the following video)***

I caught a cute clip of Jocelyn making her animal sounds on video the other day. Old McDonald is still one of her favorite songs so she has the animal sounds practically memorized. I'm glad I was able to video tape her laugh finally too. (You'll catch it in the beginning which is the main reason I'm showing you this video-putting my voice aside of course.) I love capturing little moments like this when they're learning and exploring all of the time. I found it particularly funny when I asked her to look at me and she shot me a 1 second glance and then back at it she went. What a stinker! :)

Fun In The Sun & 5 Months

The girls were begging me to take them to the playground and "wing and side" as Jocelyn would call the swing and slide. So before lunch we took a trip to our favorite neighborhood park and they had the best time ever running off their unused energy. Until it was time to go home of course. I have found that Jocelyn is rather picky of where she'll swing. Anywhere else other than this park she refuses to swing at. It's pretty funny. Here's some pictures I took of their before nap adventure. :)

The following photo is of me at five months that was taken on August 8th that I'm just now posting. (sorry for the photo but I didn't particularly like the shot John took of me so this is my half attempt of taking it on my own.) While I'm here sharing the photo I might as well add that this pregnancy has been going really well for me. Aside from the week or so in the beginning of feeling sick, there's been nothing to complain about. I'm still doing aerobics and have gained only about 10 lbs so far. Hopefully things continue to go well. Like I've stated before, this pregnancy is the complete opposite of what it was like with the girls. And "boy" am I thankful!! :)

Pre-Dinner Fun

So I have been putting off making cookies with the girls for a few days now. But when the rain and thunderstorm rolled in this afternoon and at that point decided to ditch John's softball game (sorry honey), I realized today was a great day to finally make them---just me and my girls. It was a little crazy at first because I was following a new recipe and I'm a clean freak and didn't know how best to let the girls help. I finally lightened up and watched them pour, mix, and scoop away. And 48 cookies later!!! Yikes. Maybe next time I'll slice the recipe in half? Looks like John's co-workers are going to be eating some cookies tomorrow. Better them than me. Don't let me fool you though...I'm not sending them ALL with him to work. :)