Moving again!

This time the move is just across town and we are so thrilled about it.  For the second time in our marriage, we will be purchasing a home together.  We were only able to enjoy the first home we scrimped and saved for for a year before God had other (good!) plans.  It was all a blessing and we aren't upset with the path God chose for us, but we are thrilled that His plans for us in the present have led us to our second home buying experience.  

I am always, always reminded of the Bible verse from Ruth (1:16) that says, 

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.  Your people will be my people, and your God my God."  

And this song, which has been one that has both crushed me at times and yet, has always been filled with such peace and promise.  

           

 We began to think about the possibility of buying when our lease-ending loomed in the not too distant future.  Our lease in our lovely rental home is up at the end of May and we thought, "Hey why not look around to buy?  Worst case scenario is that it doesn't work out and we stay here another year."

So we did some checking with our finances and talked to a loan guy and our realtor friend.  The market in our area is CrAzY.  Like not much inventory and tons of competition and lots of well above list offers, some of them cash.  So we figured it was a pretty long shot, but weren't worried because we were really just ok with whatever God wanted.  Either scenario would be fine.  

And then, I freaked.  I tried to take back control from God.  I worried.  I despaired.  We'll never have a place of our own again.  We'll never get in this market.  And if we don't get in now, we'll never, ever get in.  And if we never get in, we'll have to move again because we'll get priced out of the Denver area.  And tears.  Lots of them.  

I'm so tired of moving.  Especially big moves.  Moves where we uproot and have to find new friends, new community, new support for our growing family.  It's tough.  Really tough.  

So, lots of tears.  And after some hugs from my amazing husband, and some time spent in prayer, giving it all back to God, peace was restored in my soul.  

That was Wednesday night.  

The following day, Thursday, we looked at two houses.  From the online descriptions, we didn't think we'd like them, but though, "hey, let's just see."  We were right.  Not for us.  

The next day, Friday, we saw two houses that we liked the look of from the online descriptions and pictures. And we did like them.  So we put in offers on both of them that afternoon.  

Saturday we saw three more houses.  One that we liked the look of online.   One that we figured we probably wouldn't love.  And one that looked nice, but was further out than we really wanted to be.  We put in a third offer for the house we had liked the look of. 

And then we pretty much figured we would probably hear back negatives on all three and begin the search again the following weekend when more houses popped up on the market.  Did I mention that there were 6 houses in our price range on the market that weekend?  We saw 5 of them and put in offers on 3.  

And on Saturday night, while we were watching The Return of the King for a movie night, we got a text from our realtor, "Guys! An offer was accepted."  It was our favorite of the 3, the one we figured would be the longest of the already long shot houses.  And it was a miracle.  Truly.  To God be all the glory here.  

And it's been just over a week and we've been moving right along.  Signing stuff, the inspections are done, appraisals ordered, and yes, the packing has begun.  We don't know yet when we'll actually be moving.  We just know it'll be before the end of June, but we're packing and we're excited.  

Got out our boxes...

First box assembled and ready to pack....

One week into the house buying process and we've already got about 20 boxes packed.  I guess there is something rather nice about moving 9 times already....we know exactly what to do and how to do it.  Lots of work to be done, but we're started and moving slow and steady through, filled with the peace and joy of the Lord.  

Our first house key framed was a little gift I gave Chris for Christmas this year...and we talked about our hopes for buying our next home together, thinking at the time that it would still be a few years out.  But God opened all the doors, and moved all the mountains in the way, and now we're headed toward buying our second home together.  We couldn't be more excited and humbled by God's blessings.  

We are closer to all our friends here (except one wonderful family, but we are only 5 minutes further from them, which is still great).  We're closer to church.  Closer to Kayla's ballet.  Closer to the library.  And even a little closer to the mountains.  :)

Musical Mondays: Chris Tomlin "Waterfall"

I love this song almost as much as I love hiking up to a real waterfall and just basking in the beauty of God's creation. A few throwback pictures...we have seen many a waterfall together, the hubby and I. These are a few from our Hawaiian adventure.

What I Wore + Musical Mondays + What Happened??

Mass yesterday was...wow.  I don't even know how to describe it.  To start off, I misplaced this month's Magnificat, so we didn't read the readings together on the way to Mass as we usually do.  But that doesn't account for the craziness that followed.  Generally we have a bag of books about the Saints/Bible and some coloring books that we bring and the girls are pretty chill and read and color quietly for the most part.  I won't lie and say there are never disturbances, since our two year old hasn't quite figured out what we mean when we say to "whisper", but they are mostly pretty quiet and don't cause huge disruption.  Yesterday I felt like they had the wiggles.  And they all wanted to cuddle with me.  I am nearly 39 weeks along with #4 so cuddling with even one of them is a difficult at this point, but all of them were vying for my attention and lap (neither of which was really available since I was trying to pay attention to Mass and my belly is enormous).  And they fought over everything.  They all wanted to look at the same things or take something that someone else already had.  And our 2 year old just wanted to run around the church smiling, dancing, laughing, and getting attention from an adoring crowd, I think because she left the pew a few times and made a little scene in the aisle, laughing and talking before I could whisk her away for "a talk" in the crying room.

It was humiliating.  I often have moments where I want to shrink into a hole with the kids.  It's normal.  They do things here and there and test my patience.  I get it.  But sometimes they do it so much and so constantly that all the moments become a big, blaring experience, and all you can imagine is that the entire church is judging you for the horrible, no-good, very bad behavior of your small ones.  Did I mention I'm 39 weeks pregnant?  So when the kids behave a bit like hooligans, I feel even more judged because well, it rather seems I can't even control the ones already out of the womb.  What am I doing with another cooking in there?

Yes, I totally lost it.  During the last song, I stood there, silently crying, looking straight ahead, hoping that no one was watching.  I was a mess.  And I really never fully recovered yesterday.  My whole day was a bit of a funk.  We had some fun, and I wasn't crying and yelling at everyone all day or anything, but I was off, and I did spend a lot of time fuming and pulling apart from the hubby and kids because I was just DOWN.  So there's my confession.  I'm not telling you this so you can feel sorry for me.  If you have kids, you have been humiliated--in little spurts and in big ones too, so you have probably been right where I was.  But I believe in being honest, and every day of motherhood is not a fun trip to the park filled with sweet giggles and giddy laughter and hugs.  Some days it's mostly miserable and you just pray that bedtime comes quickly because you don't really have it completely together, and you need some time to yourself to just cry some more and tell God you are sorry for being so lame.

I didn't even get a picture of the Advent-appropriate-purple outfit I wore to Mass.  It was a pretty purple flowered empire waist dress with black accents, styled over black leggings and worn with sandals and a fancy necklace with lots of pearls, and it was pretty darn cute considering I'm largely preggo, but yeah, no pic.  Instead, I'll share the outfit I wore on Friday....because I did actually get some pictures of that.

      

What I Wore: 

Gray empire waist dress: Ross

Navy and pink leopard print scarf: Ross

Navy leggings: nomorerack.com

Gray boots: gift from the hubby

And because it's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception I thought I'd share a lesser known Marian song that I love, love, love.  We had this song at our wedding, and I sang it to our oldest very often in the wee hours of the night while I rocked her back to sleep as a little baby.  We didn't sing it much for several years, but fairly recently I taught it to the girls and now they can sing it, and we sing it at bedtime every night.  I will get a video of them singing it and share it soon, because it's precious, but here is a lovely version of it from youtube.

                            

Link up with other lovely ladies over at Finelinenandpurple.com

What I Wore + Musical Monday: Brad Paisley

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

You may recognize this as part of yesterday's gospel.  

Yes, yes, and yes.  LOVE the Lord your God and LOVE your neighbor.  Our pastor has been talking a lot about stewardship the last few weeks and giving of our time, talent, and treasure to others, and this was just a perfect gospel for it.  When we truly LOVE God, we want to follow in the footsteps of people like Mother Teresa, St. Damien of Molokai, and many others who reached out and cared for the sick, the poor, the dying, the lonely, but also the rich and arrogant--EVERYONE they came in contact with.  

And you are also going to get a Sunday style post today, just because.  

Nothing special.  I wore this dress a few weeks back, but this week I thought I'd add some color pop to make it a little more exciting.  For all you that live in parts of the country that are experiencing cooler weather, this maternity outfit is easily switched up by adding pieces like leggings, boots, and a cardigan.

almost 33 weeks!

 As you can see, the photo bomber was not to be denied this week...She's potty training, so she's been living in underwear the past week or so.  She photo bombed very modestly, I thought.  :)

And because it's now Monday, let's throw some music in for Musical Mondays.  Country music is something that I used to listen to often as my brothers all listened to it in high school and so it was what I was subjected to on the way to youth group and other times I rode with them in the car.  But when I started dating the hubby, I found out right away that he had a very different view of country music.  He's not a fan.  At all.  He doesn't like the twang or the lyrical tendencies much.  During our dating relationship and marriage, he has introduced me to many other types of music, and I genuinely enjoy many of them.  It's rare that I even listen to country music anymore, not because I dislike it, but because I just listen to so many other types--mostly classic rock and Christian music these days.



Don't worry, I'm getting to the point.  The other day, I was running a few errands by myself one evening, and saw a couple of my old country CDs that I haven't listened to in years in a case in the car.  I turned on Brad Paisley, and heard this song which brought back a FLOOD of memories.  I loved this song when the hubby and I were dating.  So much of it just felt exactly like me.  I had even recently purchased my very first car which happened to be a Saturn with a sunroof.  And that was just the start of how it felt like every lyric and been written with me in mind.



But I told you that my hubby hates country music right?  So of course, I made him listen to the song anyway.   Nope he still didn't convert.  But on my next birthday, he surprised me by learning the song on guitar and singing it to me.  Yep, he loves me.



                     

Musical Monday: Indescribable +Real Mom Style

             For my Musical Monday selection this week, I chose the song, "Indescribable" by Laura Story.  Chris Tomlin covers it as well and you may have heard his version which is also great, but here's Laura's version.  Incredible worship. Incredible God.          

                  

Additionally, I thought I'd link up with Real Mom Style this week because I decided that 29 weeks is probably a good time to put away certain clothes in my maternity wardrobe, so that the baby belly doesn't stretch them out and they can still be usable for any other pregnancies and post partum.  In the same way that eventually you really can't wear your normal clothes in earlier pregnancy, it is really wise to retire certain pieces right around the third trimester.  I have ruined many a maternity shirt by wearing it all the way through a pregnancy.  And then the next pregnancy (or post partum) everything is hanging off you and not flattering because it is so stretched out.


So....here are some favorite tops that I have been wearing often and in different ways throughout the second trimester, but am retiring from my style line-up until baby arrives and then you might see them pop up again in my post-partum fashion.

             

    

                

I think I may need to do the same with the shorts pictured above soon too, because the belly isn't the only thing that expands in pregnancy; so do your hips!  TMI maybe, but it's a good idea to purchase undies in a size up than you normally wear for this stage of the pregnancy too...  

Have you had a baby?  What were some of your maternity clothes strategies?  

Add your own mommy fashion link over at thatchicmom.com who is hosting this week's Real Mom Style.  

Happy Birthday, Mama Mary + Musical Monday: Ave Maria (Schubert)

Today is Mama Mary's birthday.  My gift at Mass this morning to Our Lady was not what I had hoped to give.  I could barely take a moment to pay attention because my (almost) two year old was antsy and made many spontaneous and loud outbursts throughout.  The other two were pretty good, but added their own small disturbances during just about every moment when the two year seemed to calm down for a brief time.

In short, I was rather humiliated and devastated.  The girls and I have been trying to make it to morning Mass a few times a week and they have been, well, kids, but today I wanted to crawl into a hole.  And perhaps I should have just left instead of creating a disturbance for others, but I sat there while Ava crawled all over me talking or trying to use the small pencils in the pew to write in the music issues and thought, " I need Jesus every bit as much as any of these other people here."  I wish I could apologize to the others who attended Mass for the noise and random outbursts, but instead I just said a prayer for them that God would bless them because not a single person said anything unkind or gave me a look (that I saw anyway).

found on Pinterest here

After Mass, Ava was being stubborn and refused to follow me to the car.  I had my hands full with our church bag and the diaper bag and a motherly woman came and scooped her up and said to her, "You are two, aren't you?  Let's help Mommy because she has a baby in her tummy that makes her tired."  I could have cried right there.



My gift for Mary was pathetic this morning and I knew it, but it was literally everything I had.  And she took my gift of nothing, and gave me love and encouragement from a "mother".  This woman was Our Lady to me this morning.  She was understanding, loving, and completely nonjudgmental.



Happy Birthday, Mama Mary, and thank you for teaching me that motherhood truly is about simply loving and giving of yourself, even when there doesn't seem to be much to give. In honor of the feast, I'm sharing Schubert's Ave Maria as sung by Andrea Bocelli.  Enjoy!



               

What I Wore Sunday + Musical Monday: Switchfoot

Sunday style at about 23 weeks. 

 

Navy dress: Ross (not maternity, just empire waist and stretchy)

Salmon belt: Ross 

Flats: Target clearance

Color Pop earrings: Premier Designs

I didn't even end up wearing the cardigan at Mass because it was quite warm even in the air conditioned church.  But I brought it just in case. 

This dress can easily be glammed up or down.  I glammed down a little with the shoes and belt, but still dressy and classy. 

And now for some music....This week I'm throwing back to my college days when I listened to Switchfoot A LOT! 24 was pretty much my favorite song, though I liked all their stuff.  The hubby and I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about them, so it got me thinking that I haven't listened to some Switchfoot in quite awhile.  Enjoy!

                            

Musical Monday- "All I Want to Be"- Peter Frampton

Love me some Peter Frampton.  You can't really just listen to one song, but here's a start for you...

"All I Want to Be (is by your side)"

                         

Happy Monday, friends!  

Musical Monday: Michael Bublé

Who doesn't love some Michael Bublé?  I think perhaps my very favorite that he sings is "You and I", but this music video was fun and today this particular song just spoke to me.  Of course, my recommendation is to listen to any and all Michael Bublé you can; this is merely meant to inspire and get you started.  :)



                   

Have a blessed day feeling young!  :)

Musical Mondays- "Surfin' USA"

I will absolutely be sharing more Beach Boys in the future because they bring back so many great memories from when I was little.  We had a Beach Boys cassette that we listened to on our many road trips from Washington state to California to visit my grandparents.  I loved every song on that cassette and had them all memorized.  Summer was just never quite summer until we were packed like sardines in our mini-van, listening to the many surfing tunes of The Beach Boys, and looking out for our first palm tree sighting to let us know that we were really in the heart of the good ol' Cali-forn-I-A!  Soak up the sun and listen to this classic hit, "Surfin' USA"

                 

 

I may or may not listen to some Beach Boys music almost every day now that a) we moved to Southern California and visit the beach about every other weekend and b) because it's SUMMER!  

I'm a nerd, I know. 

Real Mom Style + Musical Monday- Phil Keaggy

If you have never listened to the talents of Phil Keaggy, you have been missing out.  There was a period of time back when our oldest daughter was a baby that we played his CD, "In the Quiet Hours" every night when we put her to bed.  Often we listen to that or one of his others when we go to bed, and it's just great, easy listening.  This particular video is funny because it's so dated, but I could listen to Phil Keaggy's sound all day long.  What a talented guitar player.

Phil Keaggy "County Down"

                        



And it's Monday, so why not join the Real Mom Style link-up over at thriftyandchicmom.com?

 

What I Wore:

Lacey cream tank: Ross

Mint cami: Old Navy

Jean skirt: Ann Taylor Loft

Wildflower necklace: Jacie's Premier Designs

Color Pop earrings: Jacie's Premier Designs

Nautical flats: Ross

Baby Bump: 15 weeks

   

 

 

Musical Monday and a Real Mom Style link-up

 Let's start off with some music, shall we?  I love some Jack Johnson, and only settled on this song because when I was listening to a bunch of videos on the JackJohnsonVEVO channel on Youtube, I just couldn't not share the Curious George one.  I have 3 small kids, and we enjoy watching and reading about Curious George. Of course, it's hard to say no to listening to some of my other favs like Better Together and Banana Pancakes, so of course I did...  You should too.



                  



 I linked up with the some very fashionable, very real moms over at thriftyandchicmom.com (link-up hosted here this week), mommainflipflops.com, and verybusymamablog.com .   Last week I featured a pair of pink Old Navy shorts I purchased recently and this week I'm featuring the other pair of shorts I bought on the same trip.  My birthday was almost 6 months ago, but I'm just now getting around to using the Old Navy giftcard I received...and that's a good thing because I got to revamp my summer wardrobe a bit.

my daughter cut my head off...haha

What I Wore:

Green shirt: hand-me-down 

White cami: hand-me-down

White shorts: Old Navy

Earrings: made by my aunt Cindy

Necklace: Fashion Sense from Jacie's Premier Designs

I am wearing my most comfy flip flops for our visit to the park, but my white sandals 

would have made this outfit perfect.  The comfy ones were just by the door and so much 

more convenient...

had to include this pic because 1) my daughter cut
my head off again and 2) my other two little
stinkers are definitely getting into the snack bag
we brought to the park this morning while I'm posing.
Little sneakies!

Happy Monday

 (I could go for those banana pancakes and pretending like it's the weekend right about now)...