Waiting!

I don't like waiting.  I am not a patient person when I am asked to wait.  I am similar to my children who want everything to happen, right now.  It bugs me when I am made to wait, and yet I find myself having to wait a lot.  There is a song with the line "waiting on a woman", well in our family that line is not true.  If you ask my children who we have to wait on you will hear "Daddy, he is always the last one in the car".  Now sometimes that is because he is the last one to get in the shower, and other times, well lets just say he can be easily distracted :) 
I also find myself having to wait while little girls have to change clothes no less that 20 times before leaving the house (which I find myself having to do too ha ha ha) or waiting while they put their shoes on wrong, or waiting for them to find their coat, or their hat, or something they feel is important to take.  When we go to the store I have to wait for everyone to get their coats on, and then wait for them to figure out which door to get out of, and then wait while they look at everything or weigh each bag of fruit that we buy.  I am learning to be patient with my children because while I am waiting for them, they are typically learning something.  Which foot to put their shoe on, how to put things away so they can be found quickly, how to zip their coat, what the names of all the fruits and vegetables are (this is one of their favorite things to do at the store!).  So waiting for the children is becoming second nature, but waiting on God, ugh, that is not second nature.  As you all know we are searching and searching for property because we want to get out of our neighborhood.  I know that when the time is right God will provide the right piece of property.  But I don't want to wait, I feel like the spoiled child who wants to throw themselves in the floor and scream "I WANT IT NOW!"  But just like that child I know that it won't do any good.  I know God's timing is much more important than my impatience.  So for now I must wait.  But in the end I believe that God will provide, in his time, according to his plan.  But wow I really do want this dream NOW :)

Battle of the Cats

I won I won I won :)  Okay so not really, but we passed the number 4 today and we are moving on to the number 5.  So some of you may be thinking HUH!?!?!  Let me explain:  Recently Jodie has been doing some school work while the big kids are doing theirs.  I have never pushed the issue and I always wait until she asks for her work and I allow her to put her work away when she wants to.  A few weeks ago (I honestly have lost count!) we came to a page that had cats on it.  Her instructions said to color 4 cats.  There were two rows of cats because the first row was the example, so it had 5 cats, 4 of which were colored.  She was supposed to color 4 of the 5 on the second row.  However, Jodie decided she wanted to color 3 on the second row and the 1 that wasn't colored in the first row.  Now I know some of you are thinking okay so what let her color 4 and be done.  But I am trying really hard to get her to follow directions so while I could care less which 4 cats were colored the directions said to color 4 cats in the second row and by golly that was what she needed to do.  Which is why today when she finally colored that 4th cat in the 2nd row I wanted to scream and yell HOORAY!!!!!!  Crazy how coloring cats could be so important to my happiness :)

Hello God I am listening.

This week at church the sermon was on God's calling.  For those of you who do not believe in God, or who wish not to read about religious ideas stop now :)  For the rest of you read on.
In children's church we talked about God's calling, and listening for God's voice.  The question was asked has God ever spoken to you (either in a dream, or directly, or just a feeling you might have had).  The kids are always super creative with their answers and this Sunday was no different.  One made up a dream, one said that God provides comfort when she is sad, and a couple said God talks to them when they are getting ready to do something they shouldn't.  After church Ryan gave me the insert from the bulletin to read and again it was on God's calling for our lives, and how to determine what is a calling and what is created in our own minds.
Two criteria: a. is it something you feel you have to do, b. is it helping to make the world a better place.  If you can say yes to both of these then you are probably following God's calling, if not then it may be time to reassess.
I feel like God "talks" with me a lot.  Sometimes I choose to listen and follow, which is always the smartest and easiest choice.  Sometimes I choose to put my fingers in my ears and say "I'm not listening, I'm not listening", which always ends up the way God had planned it, it just takes longer, and sometimes the road is bumpy!  For example, when God said "home school your kids", I said "no way!!!".  I was like Moses, and made every excuse in the book, don't pick me, choose someone else.  However, God has a funny way of getting around my stupidity and getting me to follow him even if I don't want to.  I have always felt like my "calling" was to be a wife and a mother.  I have always wanted a family ever since I can remember.  I didn't just want the fairy tale, I wanted the work, and the stress, and the entire life.  I went to college just to pass the time until I could have a family, I took a job as a teacher again just to pass time.  But in the end I knew that I wanted to be a stay at home Mom and I have to say it has been one of the best decisions Ryan and I made.  Which makes me think that this is where God wants me right now.  This is not to say that every day is amazing and wonderful, but God never promised life would be easy! 
I also feel that God is moving us in this new direction in our lives.  We have talked about moving for years and years, but it isn't until right now that it just feels right.  It feels like everything is moving us/ pushing us in this direction.  Some people still look at us as we are strange.  I mean how many people say "well we are going to put our house on the market, we have no idea where we are going or if we can truly afford it, but we are going to trust God to work this out."  However, we feel in our bones that this is the best for our family right now.  So we shall see where God decides to put us, and what he holds for our future.  What I can say for today is that I am beyond excited to be following his path, and I am super happy for the direction our family is going!

Jodie was cold!

That's right Jodie was cold, but no need to change out of her swimsuit.  That would be silly, just add tights and bam, warm again :) 

Easter

We made a small scavenger hunt for the kids on Saturday morning before Easter.  They are trying to figure out where to go next.  Well actually Jodie is just trying to get into her chocolate bunny!

 Ryley with her new hair clips (sorry you don't get to see how cute they are!).

 Jodie holding her new dress and hair clips.

 Mason  has been asking for this car for weeks, and I just happened to find it on sale at Target!

 After they got all their Easter stuff we went to Ryley's soccer game and then straight over to church for the Easter egg hunt.  The kids had a blast and no one was afraid of the Easter bunny!

 Here we are after church on Sunday morning.  I told Ryan I used to try to get us all in coordinating outfits, now I just want to make sure everyone has some thing clean on before we leave the house :)  Oh how things have changed!

Ryan's Birthday

 Ryan's birthday was March 30th so I am a little late getting pictures up :)  The kids and I had a blast getting ready for all his birthday surprises!  We sent him hot cookies to work, we decorated the house, we made him a special dinner, and we wrapped up all his presents.

 The kids loved this Rocky card, and played with it constantly until it broke (thank goodness it broke quickly!).

 We bought Ryan a couple cross necklaces, a new wood carving set, and two new wood carving knives.

Ryan prefers ice cream to cake so this year we made him Oreo sundaes.

Faith Kaye Silverwood!

Today was the big day!  All morning the kids and I have talked about how nice it will be to know if this baby is a boy or a girl and even though we really want a boy God knows exactly what our family needs.  Well I guess God thinks another girl would be wonderful because that is what we are having.  Mason took a little time to adjust but now he is super excited and wanted to go out in the rain to buy her her first doll!  He is also excited because we are going to set up her crib and her clothes in his room!  Jodie was so excited and announced to everyone that she knew it was a sister in there.  Ryley was quite, but very excited to be having another sister.  Faith is growing right on schedule and moving up a storm.  Everything looks perfect so we are all thrilled!!!!  

The first picture is Faith picking her nose!  Big brother was very proud :)

This is her diva pose, her hand is up by her forehead.

Her tiny perfect feet (well you can see one and 1/2)

This is Faith kicking and moving up a storm.  She did not like the ultrasound one bit and she didn't hesitate to kick and move and hit!  She is feisty just like her siblings!

Her long leg.  I swear I have this exact picture of Ryley!

Sucking her thumb after picking her nose.  Made her Daddy proud ha ha ha ha ha!!!!