a letter to my eldest

My Dear Sweet Daniella Grace,

You graduated from your VPK class today. Sighh. Okay, it's not "technically" called a graduation, but who's really a fan of technicalities anyway? I am so proud of you Princess. There is not a thing you could that could deflect my love for you and the overwhelming sense of (holy, good) pride I feel when I set my eyes on you. I have watched you blossom from a shy, quiet and so very timid toddler to a beautiful, vibrant, godly young girl. This is the beginning of a great and beautiful adventure for you, and I am so excited to watch you grow into every bit of potential and purpose that God has designed for you.

We will be homeschooling you next year and more than anything I am looking forward to spending more and more time with you and cultivating our relationship. It is going to be a wonderful summer and an exciting year; the beginning of so much more. Thank you for including me in this adventure baby girl.


I know your heart hurts at the understanding that Mommy and Daddy are two separate people leading two separate lives, but you, my dear sweet girl have taken it like a champ. I can tell your heart's hurting but I also know how dearly you love Jesus and my heart soars knowing you are slowly learning to give this pain to Jesus and are trusting His ways by loving me and your baby sister back. I look back at the vow we made the day I married Daddy and more than anything, I pray your little heart knows how much I love you. You my precious baby, are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. I love you. You are worth every challenge and every aching moment that comes from a broken family and if I had a do-over I would choose you all over again.

My prayer is Mommy, Daddy and Cole (and someday, maybe, your stepDaddy) will be always be obedient to Jesus and will always seek Him on your behalf and for your good. I pray Jesus will give us the grace to always choose you above ourselves, over our conflicts and our personal agendas. My prayer for you is that you will inherit a double portion of each of your parents, spiritually and that you will soar far higher than any of us will in the Spirit, so that you may be one who walks as Enoch did; so closely to His heart, as a bride and a warrior.

I love you Daniella, my firstborn baby.

With all my love,

Our family is my greatest blessing

project de-clutter is officially underway!

So, remember I talked about how chaos seems to be the recurring theme and source of discouragement in my life? And how it has been this way for a while now?

Well, I talked about it, and now I'm on a serious kick!

I am taking de-cluttering seriously and pursuing it full force! It is such a great source of encouragement and I love that I get to put on some worship music, and pray to my Jesus as I de-clutter the corners of my humble abode. =)

I love that He has given me dominion and reign over this home He's given to us and I truly want to glorify Him with every corner in it.

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men..." (Col 3:23)


So, I thought I'd post embarrasing pictures of my before and my amazing outstanding exciting and encouraging after pictures!

I only started with our master closet, but truthfully this has become my favorite part of our home! =) It is peaceful and organized and just overall pretty to look at.

It is my motivation to keep on doing this and work for our entire home to look and feel this way!

I am very ashamed to admit this was my master bedroom closet before hand. Yes, it's a flippin' mess. Trust me, I know. I am ashamed. So very ashamed.

Yeppp, basketball, hats, shoes were a mess. Sighh, who lives like this?

Our master bedroom furniture has been on its last leg for about 4 years now. Well, this is one of our broken drawers that we so *ingeniously* placed in our closet. Yes, everything made its way to the top of this blessed drawer.

So, after giving away this many clothes (at least)

The end result was...

Tadaaaaaa! =) I know, I'd consider it my happy place too!

My side of the closet.
Simplified, beautified and organized!

Remember that blessed drawers? Goneeeee!
Though not because we got a new bedroom furniture or anything. :l

I even have a mini accessories corner. Woooop!

And such is Caleb's side...
Full of sports stuff, of course!

So, there ya have it! =) Are you motivated yet? How about you join me in organizing your life in a way that best seems fit for you? Time organization, home organization or maybe just restoring priorities in your life to their proper order. Join me on this journey as I do all the above and blog about it admist the journey!

Woo hoo! Here goes everything!

Homemade Baby Food! Yipee! =)

So, remember when I said I wanted to start making things from scratch?

Well, I did it!

Well, not all of them of course... But I'm on my way! On Monday I made my very first batch of baby food and may I just say it was super easy and kinda fun!

On the menu:
Peaches && Yogurt
Sweet Potatoes

I wanted to start off easy so that I didn't frighten myself and convince myself out of it. I'm glad I did because with this first batch, I'm gaining confidence and I'm ready to take on the entire world (okay, maybe not the whole world, but I'm loving this cooking from scratch thing-- I think I can do it!)

Here is a memory book post on my "homemade baby food" journey... =)

I started off with the peaches. I used frozen ones because I'd heard fresh fruit turned brown when frozen. I allowed the peaches to be thawed, and then went ahead and threw them in the blender. I want to be able to do the baby food by the bulk since I'm using a blender and not a food processor. (*note: The blender glass is dirty because this was round 2 on the peaches. I forgot to take pictures the first go-around.)

I decided to add a little yogurt to the peaches because I had a hard time getting them to be completely pureed and because Aaliya is a huge yogurt fan! This actually turned out quite yummy and Aaliya loves it.

Tadaaa! Complete result =)

I found these great containers at Babies R' Us that I love! One of my concerns when making the baby food in bulk was how to store it. Some recommended the ice-cube tray method, but seeing as I wasn't sure how many ounces and such Aaliya would be getting when I found these at Babies R' Us I decided to try them. They are fairly inexpensive and I love them! (2 trays of 8 for $10.99, add a coupon [or two] and voila!)They are 2oz containers and they allow me to mix and match for Aaliya's menu. I shall be returning to the store for more!

On to the sweet potatoes! Peeled, cut and boiled, check!

In the blender they go... (note: I did add a little bit of formula to her sweet potatoes. Again, it just helps puree and gives it flavor)

Once again... tadaaa!

It's a work in progress... =)

The mess I was left with afterwards... Not bad.
Especially since the crock-pot thingy is in the sink. Haha!

These are the nifty things I was telling ya'll about. =)

She looked a little concerned at first, but I promise she liked it ya'll! =)

What about you? What have you cooked up from scratch in the kitchen this week? Are you inspired to make your own baby food yet?

a day at the park...

This past weekend was a blast! Here are some pictures from our day at the park! :) I meant to post these Monday, but baby has been so sick with the flu and an icky ear infection. Please keep our family in prayers as we battle this thing out. :)

Aaliya goes down a slide for the very first time :)

Grandpa was there every step of the way, helping out his little princess

And of course, first time on a park swing!

But first, she rode with grandpa!

Her big sister did an awesome job pushing her!

Big sister did so great going down the big slide. ;)

Grace :)

Loving on daddy. UFC style... hehe

And of course, for Sunday morning, we had to dress baby up...

This was the first time we got a clip in her hair! :)

Hoorahh!

memory book

Valentine's Day at Church:

Moriah & Aaliya are matching! <3

Quite the candid shot :)

BFF's <3>

Mommies did quite the switcheraoo!

Aaand Aaliya has chosen not to sit still

Surprise?

yeah, no.

More pictures to come! :)

Happy half-birthday Aaliya Liberty!

My two loves!

Just thought I'd share a picture of my heart. :)
Caleb & Liya taking their Sunday Sabbath nap together...