Love My Dad

My Dad has just recently been having some heart issues. It started about a week ago with some chest pain with strenuous activity. He had gone to his doctor and they started him on a beta blocker and gave him Nitro. for chest pain relief as needed.  He started again yesterday with some mild discomfort and ended up in the ER. He is now in the hospital awaiting a cardiac catheterization. I’m hoping the doctors are able to find a cause for this pain and fix it. My dad is only 48 and the scary thing is that his father passed away at the age of 49. I’m thankful something was caught this early and hopeful that the doctors can get him on some kind of treatment regimen to help keep his heart strong and healthy. Papa needs to be around for a lot longer for his grandbabies. The good things is that his EKG didn’t show a heart attack or anything so I think this was definitely caught at a very early stage which is a praise. So, if you think about it, say a little prayer for my dad and our family.

Day at the Park

We spent Sunday afternoon at the park. The weather was so beautiful over the weekend, so we definitely took advantage of it. Kenedee rode her bike, she had a couple tumbles to begin with, but is starting to get the hang of it. So proud of my sweet little girl!

Chicago Style Fun

Kyle and I didn’t have much of a chance to celebrate our wedding anniversary in July. We went out, but we usually like to try to get away somewhere. So, we just got away this past weekend, thanks to my awesome parents (love you mom and dad!), we were able to escape to Chicago for the weekend without the little one.  We stayed outside of the city about 25 miles, so the easiest way to get into the city was to take public transportation. We found ways to occupy our time while waiting for the Metra to arrive as you can tell from this photo.

You can’t go to Chicago and not eat a slice of deep dish pizza, right? We ate at Giordano’s and it was fantastic!

This is us in front of “The Bean”. It’s located in Millennium Park which has a lot of architectural elements. You can’t tell very well from the picture, but it actually reflects part of the city skyline. It’s cool, I think there’s probably better ways the city  could have spent money, but it is what it is.

Yes, that’s right, we were traders for a day. We went to a Cubs game and got some sweet visors they were handing out for FREE! One of my husband’s dreams in life is to try and visit every major league baseball stadium and he had never been to Wrigley before so we took advantage of the fact the Cubs had a game the weekend we were visiting.

We couldn’t have driven through and not stopped at Ikea. We did this on the way home and were super excited about it if you can’t tell from the photo.  If you’ve never been to an Ikea store before, I highly recommend going. I got so many great ideas, going to start saving to hopefully do some cool things in our basement.

It was so nice to get away for the weekend just the two of us. I have a truly amazing husband and am so thankful the Lord brought our paths together.

Kidnapped

Imagine this if you will: Kyle and I were enjoying a relaxing evening at home when all of a sudden out of nowhere comes three of our students bursting in the back door. I got up to see what was going on and the 3 girls started screaming, I thought for sure they were going to wake KJ up. They then proceeded to tie a sweatshirt around my head and hauled me out the front door with no shoes on and forced me into the van. I enjoyed a decaf white mocha from Starbucks while still blindfolded not knowing where they were taking me. We finally arrived at our destination after close to a 10 minute drive where they guided me up a grassy hill. They unveiled my eyes and revealed where we were. We were at what they refer to as “The Spot”, very cute. It is a hill that sits across from the airport and you can see planes fly overhead when landing and taking off. Unfortunately we didn’t see any land from our direction, but we did get to see a few take off. It was still nice to be outside on a cool summer night and watch the girls goof around.  I arrived home safely by 11:45, I  guess it’s just another joy of being a youth pastor’s wife.

Remembering…

I always knew this day would come. Today is the day that our baby was due. Never did I think it would come so fast, it seems like just yesterday we received the news that I had miscarried. I always thought that by this day I would be at a different place in life and would be expecting again. However, that is not the case. I have been quite hesitant to get pregnant again due to fear of having another miscarriage. It’s funny how you never realize how difficult something is for somebody until you experience it yourself. While it’s still difficult at times, I think I am finally coming to a place where I’m open to the possibility of letting whatever is meant to happen just happen on its own.  I’m trusting in the Lord that we will be blessed again with another little one. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t let fear control some of my decisions in life, but to just lay back and let the Lord guide me in everything. Never will this baby be forgotten.

Family Night # I Don’t Even Know

It has been so long since we’ve been able to do a family night that I sort of lost count. We chose a beach theme for our family night on Friday.

For the meal, we ate out of sand molds that I got on clearance at Target for $2 for the set of three (was very excited). We had mini octopuses atop a bed of shells. For the side we had “shrimp” or “yellow seaweed”, couldn’t decide what the peaches looked more like and of course we each had our own berry smoothie drink with handmade umbrellas because I couldn’t find the real ones anywhere.

We ate outside and let Kenedee eat in her swimsuit just as if we were at the beach and then we had fun playing with a “beach” ball.

We also played in her sand table and attempted to build a sand castle, definitely think beach sand is much better.

Our beach night couldn’t have been complete without our bucket of “sand” for dessert.

It was so nice having an entire day together with no plans, so it was a perfect night for a family night. It made me realize how much I enjoy doing them and I hope to be able to do it more often, maybe as summer winds down things will get less busy, at least that’s what I’m hoping.

Embrace NYC

We just recently returned from our summer mission trip to New York City.  Our students did an amazing job of embracing the big apple.  I heard very few complaints, everyone was great about being flexible which is one thing we really push when we go on our mission trips. One thing I took away from the week was that there are many small ways to serve. There were times when I’d get frustrated because I felt like I was doing much, but then was reminded that every little thing we did was helping out tremendously in the long run. It was awesome to be able to spend more time with our students than usual and connect on a deeper level with some of our girls. Our students rock! While I loved being away in New York City, I was so glad to come home to my little Kenedee. This was the longest we had been away from her and I was definitely starting to feel it the last couple of days of the trip.

To view photos from our trip you can just click here.

Downtown Fun

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago, I just haven’t had a chance to post about them. The city built a new area downtown called The City Garden. It is a really cool area with sculptures and many water play spots. We had a blast and ended up running into my brother and his children unexpectedly which made it even more fun. My sister was also in town with her daughter.

St. Louis was host to the all-star game this year and they have all these little mini arches set up, so we couldn’t help but to take KJ’s photo with one of them.

Can’t get enough of this smile.

We had a great time, I had no idea what to expect when my mom had told me about, but it was so much fun. The best part is that it is free, we will definitely be taking another trip downtown to enjoy it.

Seven Reasons for Seven Years

Seven years ago today, I married the love of my life, Kyle.  I can still recall our wedding day as if it happened yesterday. I have grown to love my husband more and more each day in the last seven years. In honor of our 7th anniversary I’d like to list seven things I love about him:

1. He loves the Lord.

2. He loves me .

3. He rocks at his job as a youth pastor.

4. He is a great comforter to me.

5. He is an awesome father and spends quality time with our daughter.

6. He gets along great with my family.

7. My heart sometimes still flutters when I  see him.

I love you Kyle and thank you for being such a wonderful husband to me the last seven years, looking forward to growing old together.

Mommy, is it okay if…..

You never know what words may follow after that statement from my child’s mouth. Well, tonight it was something  I can’t believe she actually asked. She was in the bathtub and I had stepped out for a second. I came back in and she uttered the words, “Mommy, is it okay if you go potty in the bathtub?” I couldn’t believe what she had said. I said, “Why, did you?” Her response was, “No, but is it okay if you do?” I said, “Kenedee, you’re not in trouble if you did, but did you accidentally?” Her response: “Yes Mommy, but it was an accident.” I told her even though it was an accident that it was still yucky and that’s why she should try and go potty before taking a bath. I suppose it was better it was “titi” ( as we call it) rather than the other.