Spring is coming

"The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulnes; his mercies begin afresh each morning." Lamentations 3:22-23

I love this verse, especially now that spring is slowly beginning to show itself. We have lots of buds on our tress and all kinds of things poking up out of the ground. It will be interesting to see what grows here at our Richmond house. I do miss my daffodils and my rosebushes in Harrisonburg, but I also look forward to planting some new things here. Just a few short weeks until the official first day of spring. I am looking forward to warmer weather and to being able to play outside without my coat!

Mark's grandma gave us an amaryllis for Christmas this year and it is the most lush and beautiful one I have ever seen. It has grown so tall that we had to stake it with a tomato stake. It's taller than Liam now!

A reminder

Just a reminder that when we feel out of control and anxious, the first thing we should do is pray. I love that when we pray, He provides us with peace. Not just any peace, but peace that doesn't make sense, it transcends our understanding.

I am feeling lots of God given peace lately. I feel content with where I am and what I'm doing. I don't always love my life, but I feel content that I am where God wants me to be.

Building is fun

Liam loves to build. He loves Legos, Keva planks, Construx, etc. He got some blocks called Citiblocks for Christmas and they have quickly become the favorite toy. Even Peyton loves to play with them. They build towers and temples and houses. He can entertain himself for quite a while building. He used to play with a similar toy at the children's museum and told me last year that Mark really needed some Keva planks for his birthday! He just finished breakfast and went over to the family room to start the day's building.

Celebrating Christmas

We are enjoying the holiday season, but we're also taking it relaxed and slow. We decorated a gingerbread house with the kids during one of their snow days. Peyton had two days off of school due to snow. I can't remember the last time we had snow in December, but both kids were thrilled. They got out their new snow saucers and did some sledding in our back yard. Mama tried once and hit the fence....and that was the end of her sledding adventures! We have been hiding our elf, Lincoln, each day and the kids enjoy searching for him each morning.

We have finally decided on which church to attend and have been looking forward to becoming more settled there and getting to know people. It's been nice to be able to hear more than one sermon in a series. We visited so many churches that there was no consistency. It's good to be able to think about starting Sunday school and getting the kids into a better routine. Today is Mark's last day of work until the new year. He has been feeling nasty and went to see the doctor yesterday. No definitive diagnosis, but hopefully antibiotics will help and he'll feel better by Christmas.

Only 3 more sleeps.....

That is not my house!

The new header is not my house, but a house near Peyton's bus stop. There are 3 pretty awesome houses in our neighborhood that we can see from the second floor of our house! We are working on our lights, but we lost our extension cords (or maybe we just didn't have many). I'm going to grab some today so we can light up our own house tonight!

Even super heroes have to do their homework

Goodbye October....

We are so excited to have Randy back with us!

Buzz Lightyear and Barbie Cowgirl

I love my family!

The kids designed and carved their own pumpkins

Hello November. I am crazy excited about November. The weather is cooler and the leaves are so pretty. I have pulled out the sweaters and the long pants and have been bundling up under the covers at night. The bus stop has been freezing in the morning and we've been wearing our hats and heavy coats. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, to drinking hot chocolate, to the possibility of snow this winter, and to the holidays with our family. We love fall!