I am just a terrible blogger lately! I think of things to blog about all of the time but never take the time to sit and do it!

We have been busy little bees around here lately but it has been good! Nick and I seem to be cramming in all of the fun dates we can before the Jackster gets here. In the past few weeks we have been to a Toby Mac/Chris Tomlin concert, the Fox to see Wicked and tomorrow night we are headed to the Muny to see Beauty and the Beast. My parents have been SO awesome about watching the kids and the kids are loving all of their Grandpa and Grandma time!

I am also super excited because this weekend I get to go to the Beth Moore conference. I LOVE Beth Moore. She is like the ultimate celebrity to me and I am just so excited to see her in person and soak up every work she has to say. I have no doubt in my mind that if she and I knew each other in real life we would get along fabulously!

To make up for all of our crazy business lately the kids and I have spend the last several days at home vegging and playing. It has been nice! We are also watching the progress on our new deck that is being built! The worker guys started on Monday and are making awesome progress! We should have a new deck by this weekend! I will post pictures when it is complete!

This past weekend wrapped up our "Fixable" series at our church. It was 11 weeks on the life of Joseph and it was PHENOMENAL! Absolutely the best sermon series I have ever had the opportunity to hear. Most of the sermons focused on hard family issues, forgiveness, etc. Nick and I have both learned SO much and have had so many amazing discussions. I really feel like this sermon series changed our lives in many ways. I think Nick and I both have so much peace after this series and I am excited to see how our future is transformed because of it. I am so thankful for our pastor and his wisdom. And I am so grateful that God met us in a big way right where we were at! (Much of what we learned and discussed in this series was a HUGE answer to my bold prayer challenge to myself!)

I thought I would end this post with my new favorite picture of my three favorite people (can't wait until I can add one more little guy to this crazy bunch!)

My Day Off

My wonderful mother offered to give me a day off this week! So, on Wednesday I dropped my kiddos off at her house at 9am and got to have the whole day kid free! It was wonderful!

My first stop was St. Louis Bread Co. where I got a cup of coffee and got to have some beautiful uninterrupted quiet time. I sat with my Bible and prayer list and just soaked it all in. It was wonderful!

Then I headed to Clayton to have lunch with my husband! He took me to a resteraunt I had never been to before and when I got there he suprised me with tickets to the Toby Mac/Chris Tomlin concert next week! I was stoked! We had so much fun chatting and enjoying each other. Then we walked down the street to Starbucks and got a cup of coffee before Nick needed to head back to work.

Then I got to come home and take an afternoon nap before heading out to pick up the kids. It was a perfectly lovely day! It was so relaxing and the quality time with my husband was priceless!

I am always amazed at how giving and loving my family is. They are so willing to help us out when we need it and even when we don't ask. They truly teach me what it is to serve and love and I just hope I can pass that on to my children as well. I look forward to the day I am able to suprise my daughter and daughters-in-law with days off too!

Completing Him Summer Challenge 2010

I am so excited to be participating in the "Completing Him Challenge" over at Women Living Well with Courtney. (I am having some technical difficulties at the moment so I haven't been able to add the button and my links are acting strange!)

Here is the link to Courtney's challenge, http://womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/search/label/Marriage%20Challenge

Here is Courtney's video explaning the challenge:


I am so excited about this challenge because I love my husband and I really love challenging myself to be the best wife I can be. I know my husband works hard to be the best husband he can be!

My weekend challenge to myself!

Lately I am horrible about cooking for my family! I was thinking about it today and I realized I can't remember when the last time we went an entire weekend without eating out at some point! And honestly, it made me a little sad! Especially since my kids don't really like take-out food that much and Nick would rather eat at home so really it is just my problem! I know I am pregnant and have two small kiddos so I kind of have an excuse... but I don't feel like it is a good excuse. There are so many reasons I am always trying to cut back on eating out, especially fast food but it is just SO easy! So, this weekend I am challenging myself to prepare every meal we eat this weekend at home. That goes from dinner tonight to dinner Sunday (although really it could have started at breakfast yesterday because I haven't eaten out since Wednesday evening, ha!)

I am excited about doing this because I really want to get to where my default is always eating at home, even when things are crazy. After the little man gets here I really want to loose all the weight plus some and eating out is basically diet suicide! One huge blessing in this area has been that my parents have both lost a lot of weight and have totally changed the way they eat. (They look AMAZING by the way... it is only a little annoying;-) So, when we used to go over and order pizza or meet them somewhere to have lunch out we now go over to their house for make your own salads or something else rediculously healthy. But, it is such a great habit to be in!

I am trying to lighten up on being the perfect cook all the time. I used to feel like whenever I cooked it had to be something big and fun. I am trying to let myself relax and if we just have sandwiches and salad for dinner that is okay! The kids are honestly happier with that at this point!

And here is my final motivation... :-) My kids would rather eat veggies than french fries (seriously!) and I would hate to be the one to ruin that!

Praying Boldly!

I am just so excited about my new challenge to myself to pray big bold prayers.

The first sermon we ever heard our new pastor speak was about big bold prayers. Then a few weeks ago I was chatting with my best friend and she brought up that she was praying boldly. I have ashemedly always "loved the idea" but have never really allowed myself to do it much, especially in the last few years. I put myself (and God) in this tiny box and allow myself to feel guilty for praying boldly. My internal dialogue reads something like... "I am so blessed, how can I ask for more", "it would be selfish to ask for things for myself and for my family when there are children dying of AIDS in Africa" and the biggest, "God doesn't want to hear my prayers" and maybe even if I am totally honest I have moments of total defeat and actually allow myself to think, "God can't answer my big prayers".

I was hesitant to bring this up at all on my blog because two of my prayers are pretty personal. But, I really want to share because I am excited and want God to be glorified and to challenge everyone who reads this to also pray boldly. So, I have chosen to share how I challenged myself rather than go into my specific prayers. But, I will tell you if they are answered!

As I sat praying over my desision to pray boldly (Ha!) I felt really led to choose a specific number of prayers and a specific number of days to pray in order to not allow myself to give up and allow Satan to get in the way and convince me I am already defeated. So, I chose to pray 3 bold prayers for 40 days. I am on day two and already feel that God is working in big ways. I know that the "answers" to my prayers might not be the ones I expect and I expect to be challenged by God during the next 40 days but I BELIEVE that God is at work in this and I believe that He is going to do something big in my life and the life of my family through this time.

1 John 5:14-15 (New International Version)

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."