Thanks to Grandma Ginny, you now get to see my little bugs growing up right before your eyes! Yes, that's right. I have a digital video recorder. The best part, it's the size of a deck of cards so I can take it everywhere. Yes, you'll see videos of Avery eating, walking, falling and sleeping. You can see videos of Ella dancing and Claire swimming. My oh my, the possibilities!

Now, don't worry. I won't bore you with endless hours of my little angels in every possible display of cuteness. I'll limit the videos to small enough times as to keep you awake!

And, the best part. When I'm convinced that I've done it all wrong. When I'm sure that my children are damaged or undisciplined or just plain out to get me. I can go back and watch these videos and remind myself of just how amazing these little creatures from God really are!

Thanks for sharing in our lives! And don't forget, if you like following my blog, register as a follower on the right side. It's easy to leave comments and fun to see whose watching!

Enjoy your weekend, school starts Monday!!!!!! : )

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
We here at the Rouse House want to wish you all the best this coming year. We hope that all your dreams come true and resolutions are fulfilled. Although, really, are resolutions so great? That has been the thought nagging at me all day.

At the beginning of 2008 I made my yearly resolutions: exercise, eat better, yell less, love more, slow down. The same "goals" I'd been setting for several years. Well, as many of you know, I didn't exactly excel at my resolutions. I'm busier than ever. Still don't exercise and I eat chocolate and Diet Pepsi for breakfast. I'm known as a bit of a yeller and could probably work on the lover part too! On top of all that, this year didn't go exactly as I planned. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I'm taking the wrong approach. This year, no resolutions. Instead, I'm praying. This prayer was sent to me today through my daily devotion. I found it fitting. Instead of planning what I can and should do this year I'm going to pray for what God would have me do. I bet that if I follow God instead of my ideas, some of those old resolutions just might make it into my life!

Father, You are Holy and call us to be Holy. Yet, we confess that so often our hearts wander from You, our speech does not glorify You, and our actions do not honor You.
Soften our hearts to receive the words Your sweet Spirit has to speak to us.
Clothe us with humility. Take away our desire to always be right and have our own way.
Help us to seek Your Word in all that we say and do.
Help us to submit to Your Word; allow it to penetrate those deep places in our hearts that resist change.
If necessary, put us through the refiner’s fire to burn off those things that keep us from walking in step with Your character.

Give us hearts that love and seek after Truth above all else.
Give us wisdom and discernment to reject the lies of this world and the evil one.
Guide us into all Truth. Guard our hearts and keep our eyes fixed on You.
Grow in us those things that will make us more like You.
As we study Your Word, fill us and saturate us with You!

Today, Father, we surrender our thoughts, our speech, and our hearts.
Thank You that You are Faithful and True. We trust You will do a mighty work in us and through us this year and carry it on to completion until the day we step into eternity with You.
Help us to trust in You with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
Help us to acknowledge You in all our ways so that we can hear Your voice as You say, “This is the way, walk in it.”

Lord, we love You and thank You that You love us. May our lives be a living testimony of You. We ask this in the powerful and mighty name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who will do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Resolutions? Prayers? Planning? Accepting? However you start your year, however you live your year, we hope it's the best year it can be! I know ours will be, even if it's a little bumpy!

I want to thank my many friends out there who have stood by me, held me up, made me laugh, let me cry and just over all blessed my life in 2008. I don't say it enough, but I love ya!

If you liked the prayer, check out www.proverbs31.org

Cascade

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!
The girls and I just got back from a little post-holiday clothes shopping. What a nightmare! I have to admit I'm so ready for the girls to go back to school. It's not that I don't love spending all the extra time with them, I do. I'm just tired of the bickering! The constant tattling, whining, complaining, arguing, fighting, temper-tantrum throwing, grabbing, snipping on and on and on. Add Averyinto the mix, and well, that is more than any mere mortal can handle!

So anyway, we get home from the mall, I put the baby down for nap and send the girls downstairs to play and I plop in front of my computer for some "down" time. Check my email and head to MSN to catch up on the happenings of the day. I click to watch a video and it begins with a Cascade commercial. You know the one? It's talking about the holidays and it goes through all these different families sitting down to dinner; small families, new families, old families, lonely families, laughing families, baby's first holiday dinner. The tears start coming! How can a commercial bring me to such tears? Because it reminds me again of what is truly important. Family!

They may bicker and fight, but they won't forever. One day I'll wake up and realize my house is totally quiet and wonder why. Then I'll remember, they're gone. Those 3 little girls have grown up and moved out. (Hopefully off to college!) So for today, I'm going to try to relish in the noise and cut them a little slack. I'm going to enjoy the constant stream of questions from Ella and the music coming from Claire's room. I'm going to get on the floor and play ball with Avery and read with Claire. I may even do some art with Ella!

Have a great New Year! I'm off to the kitchen. We've got some Easy Bake Oven cooking to do!

These are a few of my favorite things....

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm sitting in my office on Christmas night, reflecting upon my Christmas so bright!


My husband's in bed, with nothing to do, but hold on to his bucket 'cause he's got the flu!


Darling Claire sleeps, no movement to see, as she is so tired from playing the Wii.


Sweet baby Avery, giggling and talking, still so excited from her day of first walking!


Poor little Ella, sipping water from a cup, "just a little bit" so as not to throw up!


So what about mom? Sit in peace for a minute. Relax and look for the good that is in it.

My poem is short, but it isn't wasteful. Take a minute to stop and think why you are grateful.


My Gratitude List:



1. Baking with my girls. We had so much fun baking bread and cookies this year! We made our usual Strawberry Bread and it turned out great. So we decided to try something new as well. We "made" my Grandma Johnson's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. We followed the handwritten recipe from January 5th, 1974 to the letter. I even checked everything twice as we did it. Well, all I can say to those of you who received them, sorry! It's the thought that counts!



2. Gingerbread houses. Thanks to my good friend Ashley, we made real gingerbread houses for the first time ever this year! She "preassembled" the houses and brought ALL the decorations! (She really is too good to be true!) Then, after a slight "discussion" over who gets which house, we decorated. Oh, to watch our little designers at work! Ella ate her way through most everything and still managed to make quite the house. Claire concentrated and studied the aesthetics of her house to make sure it was just perfect! Jack, Ashley's son, took advantage of as many decorations as possible. In the end, they each had a beautiful and unique house. The best part, I didn't stress about the mess! I watched as sprinkles flew, frosting smeared and gummy drops rolled, but I did not make a fuss! I just smiled and snacked and cheered them on. How nice it is to be in the moment and not miss a thing.





3. Friends and Family. I want to thank you, my friends and family. This has been a hard year in some ways and a great year in others. Things haven't always gone the way I wanted, but thankfully haven't gone the way they could have either!

My girls are healthy! Last year at this time, Avery was battling a respiratory illness that she just couldn't kick. So far this year (except for the flu tonight) we have been 100% healthy!

I'm in love with my husband! I don't say that enough, but I am. I've reaffirmed this year, that despite his many, many flaws : ) he is the man for me. God knew what he was doing when he planted me in Ames, at the park, when that sexy man was playing softball! As they say, the rest is history. Not only am I blessed with a man that is "on my side", my children have the best dad too!

The possibilities are endless! That is my motto for the next year! The possibilities are endless! Our life will change in the next year. There is no doubt about that. But, today I can see it as an exciting adventure that God is leading my family through, not as something dark and scary.

And when my optimism fades, I go back to you! My friends and family! The ones who stand by me in the happy times, the scary times, the crazy times and the best of times.



These are just a few of my favorite things!

God bless and come back in a few days to hear all about our Christmas! And tell us about yours! We'd love to hear about your favorite things too!

3 minutes

3 minutes. That's all it took to set the world right. 3 minutes. That's how long I needed to put everything in perspective. To remember what's important. To calm my mind and heart. 3 minutes with my baby in my arms.

I snuck into Avery's room tonight to put something away and I just couldn't resist picking her up and snuggling. I lifted her sleeping little body up and put her on my shoulder. She instantly settled in, nuzzling up against my neck. I could feel her little body with each sweet breath. I could smell the unmistakable scent of a clean, young baby. I felt her warm breath on my neck. I smiled as she gently stroked my back. I sat in her rocking chair, her warm body nestled up to mine, and realized, again, just how blessed I am. God has given me the most amazing gift.

3 minutes was all it took for me to remember how much I love my feisty little baby. 3 minutes was all I needed to remember her sweet smile. It was all the time I needed to hear her contagious laugh, her heart-warming "mamamama". 3 minutes was all I needed to fall in love all over again with this amazing baby of mine.




10 minutes. 10 minutes is how long it took that little booger to fall back to sleep. Teach me to wake a sleeping baby!!!!

Offensive

While playing Webkinz with Ella. We were shopping for new bedroom furniture for her newest webkinz.

Ella: "Mom, every thing is so offensive!"

Mom: Thinking to myself that I agree some of the color combinations are a bit offensive, I'm surprised my 4 year old picked up on that. I say, "offensive? why do you say that?"

Ella: "It just is. All the beds and everything are just so offensive!"

Mom: "oh, honey. They're not offensive. We'll find something you'll like. I can help you pick it out."

Ella: "You can't help. You'll pick something offensive, just like Claire"

Mom: A little offended, but still trying to be helpful I say, "No, I'll pick out something very nice. Do you like this?" Showing her a lovely pink canopy bed with matching dog-bone accented vanity set.

Ella: Crying now... "it's all to offensive! I'll never get anthing! I'm going to run out of money!!"

Mom: Light bulb coming on... "Oh, expensive, it's all to expensive!" Laughing and happy I figured it out.

Ella: "It's not funny!" and runs out of the room.

Mom: Thinking, "we'll it's a little funny.... Ella, honey, come here. We'll figure this out! : )

God bless her!

Enjoy this icy day and the extra time with your kids!

Table dancing

We took the night off tonight and it was soooo nice. Claire was suppose to have her school Christmas program tonight, but the snow took care of that. So then we were going to go to swim team practice, as usual. But then, I had a moment.
I stopped (something I really should do more often) and looked around. Here is what I saw:

It was 5:20, we had to leave in 40 minutes if we were going to, barely, make it to practice.
My husband was blowing snow, bless his heart.
The big girls were playing in that same snow.
The baby was HAPPILY playing by herself in the "kitchen room" (Ella's name for the upstairs playroom b/c it has the play kitchen in it).
I was trying to make something for dinner that would satisfy both the kids and adults.
Claire had homework.
Ella and Avery needed baths.... you get the idea?

So, I said to myself, "Self, take the night off. Enjoy the evening. Play with the girls. Give baths. Catch up on laundry. Lighten Up!!
And we did just that.

What a wonderful night! We ate (pasta with chicken, yeah, big surprise!). The girls told stories about their day. Claire did her homework, man that kid can read. I was listening to her tonight wondering, "who taught her to read like that, when did that happen?" Such a blessing that I can easily take for granted!

Then the big show! The girls turned off all the lights, except for the "spot lights" above the fireplace. They lined up the dinner chairs along the back of the family room. Then they took turns "performing" on top of the coffe table to the music of the Fabulous Traidmarxx. It was amazing. The best ballet (Ella) and tumbling/singing/dancing (Claire) I've ever seen. Avery loved it! She sat in a big chair between mom and dad, clapping and laughing!

Then, off to bath (thanks Dave!) and bed. I had enough energy left to put away laundry and finish, yes finish! our Christmas cards.

So, tomorrow night, we're off to swim practice! But that's okay. Because tonight, I was in the moment. Tonight, I enjoyed my kids and my husband and didn't worry about what needed to be done, or what should be done. I took the time to watch as they danced on the coffee table and quietly thanked God that we have never gotten around to replacing it with a nicer one!