7 Little Things That Make Me Disproportionatly Happy!

Heather at Want What You Have posted this and I love it!

We all need to think of these things especially when we get in the habit of thinking of the things that bother us, which, ahem...would never be me!

1. When My husband really really smiles, which is rarely caught on camera cause those are always posed. But this smile comes with an awesome laugh that anyone who knows him would recognize. In fact it has happened that someone heard him the next aisle over in a grocery store and came looking for him. It is the best and no matter how I am feeling it evokes at least a smile, if not a full laugh!

This is K when we were dating and is the closest I could find to the real thing!

2. When I use my creative juices to make something! I love making things, whether it's an outfit for one of my girls or decorative letters or something educational like -- I love it! I feel so accomplished and like I have done something useful and beautiful which is the best feeling ever!

This is the easter dresses I made for the girls out of womens skirts. One was a quarter at a garage sale then I found the matching one at goodwill for like 4.00 which is more than I normally pay but it matched! I was so pleased with how they turned oit!

3. Baby kisses. I love having a baby that I can kiss all over! I love love love baby kisses! And now she is getting big enough to give me baby kisses by grabbing my hair on either side of my face and pulling me toward her and usually my nose ends up somewhere close to her mouth and she just laughs...oh makes me want to wake her up just so I can get some!!! Well. Almost...

This is actually "A".

4. "O"s antics. Although these antics can sometimes drive me up the wall... most of the time they provide great laugh therapy which I need! There is nothing like seeing her look sideways out of her big blue eyes because she knows she is doing something that will make me laugh.

5. Serious conversations with "A". I love discovering how deep she thinks.
Whether it about how she will marry daddy when she grows up so she never has to leave our family, or the eggs that are inside her that will grow to be babies someday (yes I told her that casually one day when she asked how babies get inside...we even looked up pics! How did I know how wonderful she would think that was!) or whether it is about the house in heaven that Jesus is preparing for us: "Will it have pictures on the wall too? Will we need a fridge? Will we drive cars? Will there be a grocery store?" These moments of quiet conversations with her are like medicine for my sometimes weary mommy soul!

6. Finding bargains! I have to agree with Heather on this one! I LOVE finding bargains! I love when we find something we have been wanting at a garage sale for chump change!

Little things like a barbie watch that "A" had been asking for everytime we walked past the watch section at walmart: Garage sale for a quarter.

Nice Tommy Hillfiger shirts for "K" to wear to work: garage sale for fifty cents.

Ceramic Hair straightener I had been longing for: $19.99 with a $10 off coupon to be used on my next shopping trip to Walgreens. (and it works well, I tried it as soon as I got home!) YIPEE!!

7.The family routines we have made.

-Like sittting outside on a blanket in the cool evening while "K" plays his gutair and sings worship songs. We really do this and I love it!

-Like "A" asking every night at dinner, "What was your favorite part of today?" And we all answer in a particular order too!

-Like the silly songs we have made up for almost every routine or phrase we have to say repeatedly:

"Its Night night time, Night night time..."

"The only thing that goes in your mouth is food and drink..."

Well I was singing them as I typed but it doesnt translate well....

My Two Cents

So we don't watch much TV and yet I am surprised at how much negative coverage I have heard and read about the mother of octuplets.
And it irks me.
So I thought I would give my two cents.
The reason it bothers me is because I feel it is another attack on life...and I will tell you why.
Sure we may not agree with her choices.
Sure we may think she is irresponsible.
We may think she is a little off her rocker...
But would the media be giving such a hard time to a woman who seemed as equally irresponsible, crazy and made repeated mistakes resulting in 14 consecutive abortions!
NO!
Because it was her choice, and after all, we live in a pro-choice nation and she may have made bad choices but she has the right to terminate her pregnancies if she wants to...

The octomom as she has been called (even thought she has 14 children not just 8) I guarantee you was given the option to "reduce" when it was discovered she had multiple babies growing inside her, but she didn't. She chose life.
We do live in a pro-choice nation after all.
So.
That's why it irks.
My two cents, that's all!

Happy Anniversary!!

Well today marks eight years of being married to the perfect man for me. He really is my best friend! I was so blessed to be involved at what was then Highland Baptist in Waco (now Antioch) and a part of Life Groups. It was life changing in so many ways, but that is for another post! But one of the best "things" I gained from life groups was a friend named Kevin. He was a "Big Man On Campus" and I was the "weird girl with the loud car"(his words!). We were friends, maybe I knew I was interested... until he said at a life group leader meeting that he felt like he was supposed to stay single and serve the Lord. We all gathered around to pray for him and our co-leader started praying for Kevin to be blessed with the sweetest wife... and on and on she went. While she prayed I had the thought so loud and clear that it would be me!! I didn't say a word. And he was so mad at our co leader for praying as she did!! WE love her!! (Thank you Meggan)

And now here we are!

We fight and we wonder how we ended up together... and we laugh and tease and laugh some more. We stay up late talking and giggling (maybe i do the giggling), and staring in wonder at our 3 beautiful children--how could they be so beautiful!!? And I am so thankful to have a best friend that I can trust to lead our family well and that I can support in whatever he does, and who thinks highly of my thoughts and views, as a partner next to me.

Happy anniversary honey!

I will try to have a clean house for you!

I love You!

Encouragement From A Stranger

Well I foolishly decided to go shopping today. I HAD to go to the grocery store for some forgotten items and sinse I had to venture out with all three girls, I thought I might as well make it a morning. SO we went to Ross. I have over $30 in gift card credit there, and both girls need shoes. Well they didn't have what we needed so I browsed the baby clothes. No luck there either, so then I went to look at the big girls shirts, sinse I am a very big girl right now and nothing fits...well I had a little luck. But the baby was in the sling and the girls were bored and acting up, so after 2 separate potty trips... to the line we went. By then it was full blown screaming from Julia, and the girls were playing tag at the check out! Not good. My voice was getting tighter each time I had to call the girls to "STAND BY THE CART!" I was on the course heading straight for blow up. Gone was my excitement in having found a shirt and a birthday gift for #1. The woman in front of me could obviously see the countdown in my brain, because she told me I could go ahead of her and then went on to tell me she had little ones and knows how hard it is to get out and about. I asked her how she managed to be out alone and she said well now I have older ones to help with the younger ones. I knew then she was probably 'mom to lots'. She went on to engage the girls in conversation while I checked out and I thanked her as I walked out the door. As I was sitting in the front seat nursing my baby feeling much calmer than I had been I saw her walk to one of those big vans that holds lots...she was a 'mom of lots'! And I thought, someday I will be the one to encourage a young mother with three children 4 and under. I will be the one to speak peace into an escalating situation. Hopefully, next time it will be me...And I said a little prayer that she would be refreshed this day. "... He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." Proverbs 11:25

And now just for fun:

Dress Up Fun

Dress up AND holding the baby

And finally aunt Lest getting a great smile...one after another!

I chopped it off!!

So I had let my hair grow very long. I have alwas enjoyed changing my hair often but for the last 3 years at least I hadn't changed it a bit. I had grown rather fond of my super long hair. I felt kind of fairy tale-like...the princess with long flowing hair. sigh. But usually I didn't look like a princess; it was pulled back into a ponytail all the time. And on a whim one day I measured my ponytail: 14 inches!!

So when I saw an add on TV for a Locks of Love event in Killeen where celebrity stylist Ted Gibson would be cutting and styling for free, I thought:hmm! Now I wouldn't have known who the hec he was but I happened to watch an Oprah that he was on. So I called and made an appointment (Ted was already booked) I went in and cut off my pony tail! I got a great stylist who was a part of Ted's team on the Oprah Show. She was so great! I wish I had gotten a pic of the ponytail! I like it! And I'm going to save a ton on shampoo and conditioner!

Before

After

The Back

Fox Family Girls

Well my good friend Sarah did it again! She took some beautiful pictures for me to give Kevin as his birthday present. I know there is a ton, but I love them all! It was hard to pick which ones to post! The last picture is the one I gave kevin in a frame for his birthday.

Enjoy!

Our Family

So I just had to show off these beautiful new photos of our family that we had taken. My dearest friend Sarah is a very talented photographer and she does it on the side for a very reasonable price (subtle plug there) So feel free to contact me if you live in my area and want some great pics taken!

OK on to the pics!!

Family of Foxes

The Cute Couple

Mama and her Girls

Sweet Annelise

Lovely OliviaI love this Picture!

Whole family walking off into the sunset!!

And of course I love this one of Daddy and one of his Girls, and the one he posted earlier.

Aren't these all beautiful! Thank you Sarah!!!!!

Our Lovely Yard

We have a lovely yard, all thanks to Kevin. Hes worked so hard on it I wanted to show off on his behalf!! We bought this house with a yard that is just about 1/3 acre. It was a rental property for years and years before us, so needless to say, the yard was in sad shape.
Now doesn't that look lovely!! Our street is wonderfully covered in trees...except our yard! Now we do have a couple but there were stumps all over. WHY?!! WHY!?! So we have planted a couple so we match the rest of the street...in ten years!
Here is the front flower bed, I can't tell you what all of it is, but that it's growing beautifully, and Olivia and Oliver the cat enjoy it too!
This is the bed next to the front porch... the flowers are much bushier now.
On the other side of the yard are our two big trees, and oak and a magnolia, and here are my girls enjoying the magnolia:
Annelise is jumping trying to touch those pretty leaves, while Daddy put Olivia in the branches and she settled right in. She did not want down!!
Well this is our lovely front yard. I'll add another post about our delish garden in the back yard next.
Aren't I blessed!!