Homecoming parade

This year Kaitlyn started dance for the first time! She loves it! The company has a float in every homecoming parade and we participated this year and it was so much fun! We were blessed to be in the same trailer as our good friends Michelle and Addison Bristle. Addison takes from them too and we got to sit by them and wave at everyone and blow bubbles. It was so fun! Kaitlyn kept waving and going hello everyone, hello! It was so fun!

Time at Grammy's

For Labor Day we went up to Collinsville and got to spend time with family we have never met. Brenda's uncle and her cousin have been making a 3 week, 14 state trek to visit family. They were delightful and it was a pleasure meeting them.

We also got to see family we love, but never get to visit, and that is always fun! AFter family left, we spent the night and enjoyed

the wonderful weather and company. Here are some pictures of us outside and with family.

A week of firsts

Lots of firsts going on in the Stephens' home this past week!

Andrew started first grade!
Kaitlyn had her first dance class of the fall!
Andrew had his first football game!

My precious ones are growing up way, way, way too fast. I look at Matthew and think, wasn't Andrew just this age?! Now he is in first grade! He is taking the bus to and from school. There are a lot of kids at his stop, and the traffic at school is insane. He loves it, and I am glad he gets some independance! Isn't funny, this thing called motherhood?! Here am I complaining that he is growing up too fast, and yet throwing him into the arms of indepandance! It is full of mixed emotions! I love to see him grow, and evolve into a child of God, learning who he is, and becoming who God created him to be. But at the same time, I want him to be little, crawl up into my arms and go to sleep. ...but I digress!

Kaitlyn is doing ballet/tap at Jenks Dance Academy and Andrew is doing flag football with Bixby United Methodist church. Our coach is the father of two of Andrew's closest friends! We are loving it so far, and Andrew scored two touchdowns! Kaitlyn loves to dance, the do ballet at the bar, do floor work and then put on their tap shoes and go to town! Soon she will be doing dance with one of her closest friends Ella. She is very excited! Andrew is also doing piano this year with our pianest from church, Debra. So we have a busy year ahead of us, but also a time of fun and learning.

Here are some pics of our first days!







Well here is our week of firsts! Hope all is going well with you!

Fun in Silver Dollar City

We had a wonderful, wonderful time last week in Branson. We arrived Sunday night and got the kids into bed ready for a fun-filled day the next day! Brenda and Larry's trailer is so nice, we sleep on the bottom, Andrew sleeps on top, Matthew in the pack and play and Kaitlyn in the fold down sofa. Brenda and Larry have their own room.

Well we woke up ready to ride rides, eat and SWEAT! It was hot, but we rested and sat a lot. Andrew rode the swings, the little roller coaster, the pirate swing, the tea cups. Kaitlyn rode the frogs, the elephants, the lady bugs (all by her self), the butterflies. She rode the pirate ship, but was SCARED and said she did not want to ride it again, in fact she did not even want to come near it, she stood completely still and wouldn't move until I promised that she wouldn't have to ride the ship! We ate lunch there, watched a dog show, and checked out the new kid area that had a slide and carosal. We then headed back to the trailer and ate dinner and took baths and played. Each night the adults headed outside on the picnic table and talked.







We thought it was going to rain, so we reserved Tuesday for shopping. It ended up not raining, but it was a nice break after hitting it so hard the day before. We shopped and shopped and shopped some more. We then went back to the trailer and took naps...well the adults did :) and then we went to a surprise..we went to play Putt-Putt. It was so much fun, even Kaitlyn "played". She would hit the ball and then pick it up, put it by the hole and hit it in! Smart girl! Larry ended up winning and David lost...Andrew beat him!

Wednesday was water day. So we played in the water park area, rode the water rides, and watched the family circus. We also took a tintype picture where the boys were cowboys and the girls were prairie girls. It was so fun, and the picture turned out great!

The next day we had to leave and I really didn't want to. Back to reality, to laundry, errands, and leave fun Branson behind. Hopefully we will go back in November to see all of the lights! It was a wonderful trip with fun times and a lot of memories!

Book I am giving a try!

Housecleaning, not my strength. I mean I love to be organized, almost obsessively so, but for awhile I got so caught up in my house having to be perfect and that if it wasn't I was bad wife and mother. So I am working on having an attitude that I want to clean to serve my family, not to have a clean house out of obligation or proving to my family that I am good wife and mom. Now getting the motivation to want to clean. Let's face it, cleaning is not fun. I would much rather play on the computer, watch a DVR'd show, take a nap, etc. But, this is my season in life right now, this is what the Lord has for me and I need to have better attitude about it. I mean do I want to live in filth, no, but I would much rather someone else do it! (Sorry just being honest! :) ) So I was so excited to see Sarah Mae's new e-book out. I found her a couple of weeks ago and she is a very talented writer and has a heart for the Lord. I have read and followed many cleaning books, but this book not only deals with the house, but with the heart as well. And she is a mother of preschoolers and so she knows where we are in life! Most books out there just tell you how to do it, and not your attitude towards it or how to in spite of having 2 under 2! What is the book you ask, so glad you did! Here it is! Click on the picture and will take you to a link to the website.



I am very excited about it and will post about it in the future! Happy Cleaning with a servant's heart!

What a mighty God we serve!

What a mighty God we serve,
What a mighty God we serve,
Angels bow before Him,
Heaven and Earth adore Him,
What a mighty God we serve!!

I love this old song that my kids in my class used to sing! It is how I feel right now. I cannot even begin to tell you the transformation that is going on in my heart! It is a little scary, to leave to old scary messed up way of thinking, but the feeling of freedom really out ways that is so many ways!

Since the end of February I have been seeing a wonderful counselor from our church and he is really helping me see that my thoughts are based on my emotions, based on feelings and fears that are deep-rooted from my past, but not real and not helping me be my best person. The first thing we discussed and I have been set free from, is gaining the approval from others. Not only that though, but basing how I feel on how I THOUGHT someone felt about me. IE: If I did not hear back from you after leaving you a message then I automatically went to the bad awful place that you did not like me, thought I was stupid, I said something that hurt you and you were never going to talk to me again. Not only was I judging myself through their eyes, but I had to have their approval to feel good about myself and because my fear of rejection was so high I had to control the situation so that they would like me. Wow! Just writing that I realize how incredulous that is. But it is how I thought, and I allowed myself to go there because of all the times I was hurt growing up. Well Jeff has helped me evaluate my feelings and look at them to see if they are grounded in truth and are logical or are they based on emotion and completely wrong. For a couple of weeks I did this and realized how MUCH I went there. I went there all the time, many times a day. And when I did, I would obsess over it and not be the productive mom and wife God has called me to be. I also realized I was judging myself not just with my friends, but In every area of my life. I had to be this all together perfect person or no one was going to like me. That my works were who I was, not my actions or love. That I better have a clean house or people are going to think I am not a good wife, my kids better look nice or I am not a good mom. Do you know how exhausting this was, I did not want to do any ting because the expectations that I had for myself were unrealistic.

Slowly without me even knowing it, the feelings went away!!! For the first time as long as I can remember, I went to bed with a smile on face, I was excited to face the next day. I viewed my children as blessings, not something else I had to attain to. Right now I can say I don't fight these feelings anymore, but I don't know what the future will look like, but I do know what the truth is, I have the tools to fight it and I have the Lord as my Savior. And that is all I need.

Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts, I know that I am not alone in this, and I pray for anyone held captive by these thoughts, because it is exactly what Satan wants from us so we can keep from being our best self, the self God designed us to be.

Big 1-year old!!!!

Oh my! When Andrew turned one it seemed right, I soaked in every moment, playdates, walking, smiles, eating, teething, everything was new and exciting! So when it was his turn to turn one, it seemed right, normal. He seemed the right size, everything. But when my youngest, Matthew turned one last week it was not the right time. He is too little, it couldn't have been a year! Where did the time go? I don't even feel like I blogged about him much! I feel like it just slipped through my fingers...if this is how it is going to be forever...I am going to have to do something!

Matthew is our joy. He is God's way of telling me that He is control, and he knows best. Matthew was not part of my "plan", but he was the answer I didn't even know I was looking for. He LOVES life! He is on the go all the time and when he sees you, you get a big smilea and a "hi". He loves everyone, but his favorite person is his da-da! David walks in and the rest of the world is put on hold. He can't do anything until David picks him up. I love it! He has been pulling up since he was about 10 months old and is cruising on everything. He can stand a second, and then falls down. He is definately my earliest moblie baby. He had been army crawling, but last week on his birthday he just started crawling on all fours. He is an easy, easy baby. He loves to play and do anything his big brother and sister do, I really don't know what I would do without him.

Last Thursday the 17th was his actual birthday and he played at church. We then went out to dinner as a family. Then last Sunday he was dedicated at church and we had a family party at home. I have gone with the theme for the first birthday depending on what their bedding is. Andrew's was teddy bears, Kaitlyn's was butterflies and flowers, and so Matthews was first birthday with sports on it. It was cute and of course Reasor's did the cake and they did a awesome job. We had Papa, Grammy, Ponca and Uncle Michael. Unfortunately Holly had to work and couldn't come..we missed her.

I cannot find the cord to download pictures from the day, but here are some pics from over the year. What a year...what a boy! We love you Matthew Aaron, more and more every day!