Saturday at Grammi's

This morning was the kids first soccer game. They did so great. Kohen wasn't so sure that he wanted to play soccer at the beginning, but he has grown to like it. He was excited when he got there this morning. He almost kicked a goal, but someone kicked it out. Landin Claire says she loves soccer. I coach her team, and she does really good. She goes after the ball and does a really good job paying attention. 

After we finished with soccer, we went to Mother's house. The kids always find tons to do there. We always have a blast I am so blessed to have the family that I do. Here are some of the things we did today...

I rocked Hank and Molly Brooke. 

Mother helped the kids put a US Map puzzle together. 

I got sit rock Briggs to sleep and then rock him back to sleep when Kohen went in the room and woke him up. HaHa

Landin Claire and Tate got Mother's fabric out and made themselves beds out on the patio. Those girls are always playing Mom and daughter. They are best friends. 

Daddy rode them on the tractor. 

We went swimming...

And Uncle Eddie had to jump in and get Hank since he jumped in without his floaties on.

To top the night off, Leah let Hank come home with me and Briggs (Kohen and Landi spent the night with Mother) while she went to a birthday party. 

I almost got to take Molly Brooke with me to but her Mama chickened out. 

I have the best family!

Afternoon With My Boys

My boys are so precious. Kohen is 6 and Briggs is 17 months. Today when I went to pick my kids up after work, Landin Claire informed me real quick that she was going with Mimmy. No matter how much I tried to reason with her, she was "going with her Mimmy". So that left me and my boys. But unfortunately for them, we had to go and get groceries. Kohen did his normal protesting... "Mommy, I don't want to go shopping!" (Insert the whining and tears). One thing I have tried to teach my kids since they were babies is to communicate. They have to talk to each other when they get mad, and they have to fix their problems. I have to help them along the way, but they do a really good job. So my response to the whining and tears was, "Kohen, you are six years old. You need to talk when you don't like what I say, not cry. Talk to me". He said, " I don't want to go to get groceries". I said, "To tell you the truth... I don't want to go get groceries either, but I know a little boy who is going to want to take fruit salad for snack on Monday and I am not going to have any fruit to put in it". He smiled. "I also know a little boy who likes grapes and I don't have any of those either". He smiled, laughed and said "That's me". So we made our trip to the only place that is reasonable to shop... Aldi! 

The food there is awesome and the prices are close to half of WalMart. We love it. 

So we loaded everything in the van and Kohen got to do what he loves... put the cart up. At Aldi, you have to put a quarter in a slot to get a buggy and when you bring it back, you put a key in the back and your quarter pops out. 

After all that we topped our night off with ice cream. 

God is good!

Landin Claire's Vanderbilt Neuro Appt

Today was the day for Landin Claire's Neurology appointment with Dr. Reddy. I had been telling her for a week that she was going. So when she woke up this morning she was well aware that she was "going to get her head looked at". And her response was "I realllly don't want to go". Eddie and I told her that she would be fine and that they wouldn't do anything that was going to hurt her. I told her I didn't want to go either, but we had to. That seemed to ease her fears a little. So I dropped Kohen off at school, and took Landin Claire and Briggs to Bennie Mae at the park. I went to work until 10:30 and then went back and picked her and Briggs up. I promised her that I would buy McDonalds for lunch, so we went by there and headed to her appointment that was scheduled for 1:00. 

So I guess what I need to tell is why we were going to the Pediatric Neurologist in the first place... When she was 18 months old she started getting car/motion sick. I never really thought that was odd, but thought it might play a part in her actually problem. When she had just turned three, we were at home playing and I had picked her up and sat her in my lap to love on her. When I got her in my lap she started acting funny... swayed to the left, couldn't really hold her head up, but laughing. She didn't convulse, throw up, black out or anything. She was completely there, but just not herself. At the time, I didn't know what was going on. It only lasted 30sec and then she was herself again. I thought she was just playing a game with me and I didn't think anything else about it. Then about 6 months later, it happened again. But this time I was more aware of what was going on. This time she was playing in the living room and started stumbling sideways. She couldn't get her balance, so I picked her up and put her in my lap. She had the same reaction in my lap as the time before. She swayed to the left, couldn't hold her head up, and laughed through the whole thing. So once she was finished this time I knew that she was not playing a game, it was involuntary. So I asked her a couple of questions... Why couldn't you stand up? Why were you falling over? She answered that she didn't know and then she she finally said that she was spinning around. I said, "Baby you weren't spinning around."  I said ,"were you spinning or was the room spinning?"  She said the floor was spinning. So fast forward to today...

 

We got to her appointment and went to the 9th floor. We got checked in and went to the lobby. They played a little game and we waited to be called back. 

Her nurse's name was Kim and she took her vitals, height, and weight. She weighed 34lbs and was 3ft 2in. She sat sooo still. 

Dr. Reddy came in and asked questions about her episodes and her history. She told us that Landin Claire is having migraines. She should grow out of them by the time she is 5 or 6, but advised us to keep a close eye on her and if the episodes changed in any way to let them know. I was very relieved! 

So as we were going back down to the car I remembered that I had told Landin Claire that we would have ice cream after she "got her head checked out". So we went exploring and found the ice cream shop. 

I have noticed that before I had kids it was very easy to let God be in control... have the reins in my life. But for some reason now that I have kids I find myself with the reins back in my hands too much. It is not something that I want or even know I am doing until I look around and notice that the peace is gone. I want God to be King in every aspect of my life, and I know my kids ultimately belong to him. But sometimes it is just human nature (especially my human nature) to be in control. But today I won that fleshly struggle and God had the reins... And of course he was faithful. 

Wednesday Nights

Wednesday nights are a treat for my kids. Not the kind of treat that is a reward, but the kind of treat they can't wait to indulge in. We have AWANA at our church every Wednesday night and my kids love it. When I tell Landin Claire that we have church tonight she can't understand why I take her to Bennie Mae's that day. They love it so much that they can't wait to get there... and I have to confess that I love it that much too! Kohen is a Spark and Landin Claire is a Cubbie... Briggs gets to stay in the nursery with Ms. Joey. Kohen has learned 5 verses and Landin Claire has learned 4. God has really been showing me what he wants me to do as a Mom. One of the main things is to indulge in my kids lives. He is teaching me to make a point to take interest in the things that my kids like so that they grow up knowing Mommy wants to spend time with them and wants to know about everything they do. They grow up so fast and there is only a small amount of time that they fit in my lap. So AWANA is one time of the week when I get to see Kohen and Landin Claire learn about God, and spend that quality time with them. 

Love Is All We Need

I have typed and re-typed the starting sentence of this post 5 times, and all I want to say is... I Love My Kids. They are not perfect, but they are perfect to me. I find myself telling people about all the cute and funny stuff they do and say. I watch every little move they make and find joy in all of it. They are precious. I know this is how God looks at me...with loving, caring, and gentle eyes. Knowing I am not perfect, but wanting me to strive to be perfect anyway. God's love is a crazy kind of love. It is unending, never failing, and undeserving. The only kind of love that comes close to this is a mother's love for her children. I Love My Kids.