A new way of looking at things

As some of you may know, I am taking a new Bible Study class by Beth Moore on Esther. Today was the first class I was able to go to since the kids have been sick, but I have been diligently doing the homework for the class. Let me just say that I LOVE BETH MOORE. She is such a down to earth, true person who has some great things to say.

Today she had lots and lots of awesomely good soul food, but one thing she said just really "clicked" for me. She said, "you cannot amputate your history from your destiny". WOW...so that means that you cannot just wake up one morning and have NO "past" at all. Her answer was, No, you cannot. Her point was so true. As Christians we sometimes think that our past somehow disappears after we become a Christian/or ask for forgiveness but our past and our future both have similar roots. Those roots being in Jesus! Her points were as follows.

• If we didn't have a past than we would have no way of understanding what redemption meant.
  
• Our past shapes us into the person we are suppose to be
• Others can learn from our "stories"
• WE can learn from our past mistakes.
  

This being said, it doesn't mean that we are not new creations in Christ. We HAVE been forgiven for those sins that we have repented for. Just remember that God can use our past mistakes/sins to bring glory to his name. Look up Jeremiah 29:11...it's always a good verse to help with an unknown future!

*on a completely unrelated topic: during the writting of this post, there was an incident involving poopy finger paints. Yes, I said poopy finger paints. The crib and child were absolutely covered from head to toe with yucky smelly gross loose poopy! AHHHHHHHH. Sadly, no pictures were taken of this episode...

Strong National Museum of Play

Yesterday we took at day trip to Rochester to visit the SNMP! This place is amazing! The kids had so much fun and we literally could have spent days there! Kylie said her favorite part was the mimi wegmans. Cooper loved the trains! Here are some pics from the day.

Kylie at Wegmans

On TV in Elmo's world

Cooper fixing the taxi on Sesame Street

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street???

Cooper LOVES fish right now.

The kids with Gee Gee on a "cooking show".

Daddy and Cooper with the Yankee's "stuff"

Afterwards we went to Moe's for some lunch! Kylie got to celebrate her birthday with Gee Gee. Here is the sweater she made for her...
Hopefully we will be able to make another trip back soon! It was so much fun and we are so glad we got to go!

Craft for a winter day...

How easy is salt dough? I completely forgot about this fun recipe until I pulled out a book from my little sister. Kylie had a bunch of designs picked out and forgive me for not taking an end pic, but know they ended up pretty cute. Here is what you need.

• 1 c salt

• 1 c water

• 2 c flour

Dissolve the salt in the water and then add the flour. Knead the dough..

The roll it out...

And make some fun little objects. Kylie really wanted to make "cookies and sticky buns" so after they were cooked at 200 for 3 hours we painted them to look like them. We used foil to help hold the shape of the cup. Unfortunately, the snake was eaten Cooper shortly after being painted.
These were really fun to make and if I hadn't run out of salt we would have made a lot more. In the book they even made some pieces of jewelry. Anyways..have fun salt doughing it!


On another note, I made my dad's famous sticky buns for the first time! Kylie inspired me to make them after having made some pretend ones earlier in the day. They turned out deliciously yummy and I cannot wait to share them with the fam in the morning. On second thought, maybe I will just enjoy them myself tonight;o) Just kidding!

Perfect peace!

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because
he trusts 
in you" (Isaiah 26:3 & 4).

Today I opened my email devo from Christian Women Today and it fit so
perfectly! Peace is something that can be difficult to find with 2 crazy
kids and aprego mama all living under the same roof.  It is something I
strive for daily, but often get discouraged and just plain old give up
after a few hours of chaos. Please read what my devo had to say today. 
It is short and powerful! 

Heavenly Father,
 
Thank you that You offer peace to my heart. It is Your gift to me
and I desperately need it. Life is filled with so many distractions
and disappointments that often rob me of that peace. Your Word says
that You will keep my heart in peace as I trust in You for strength
and discernment and wisdom in every area of my life.
 
Active, conscious trusting keeps my thoughts focused on You. Thank you
that Your peace will be the result! Father, please help me today to focus
on You in all the details of my life, inviting You into each circumstance,
conversation and activity. Grow my trust in You. Keep me today in Your
perfect peace for I have very little of my own. In You I place my trust
today!
In Jesus Name, amen.
 
 
Questions: Are you facing seemingly insurmountable problems that you are
struggling to trust God with? How can God help through this difficult time?

Well i think that says it all! I can do nothing without the strength GIVEN FREELY to me by God. Especially when times are rough and things just don't go as I, Kara, thought they should. Today I really hope and pray you all get a few moments of PERFECT PEACE!

My baby girl is 4 today!

Yes, it's true. Kylie Mae turns four at 11:50 this evening. I will not go into the whole actual birthday story because it is VERY LONG! But know she did NOT want to come out. 3 days after the fact, she finally arrived and my life changed forever. Oh and, yes, you can say it, she was the fattest baby ever!!

Today we celebrated her birthday with a birthday breakfast party. Since daddy had an appointment early, he couldnt' stay for the french toast candle ceremony, but was able to see her open the few things we got her.

Here she is opening the gift from Aunt Candice. Kylie did a great job at sharing with her brother and even let him push her new grocery cart around a few times!
Our attempt at a mommy/kiddos pic didn't turn out to well, but thought I would share anyways

After the morning party, we headed off to the zoo. They had TONS of fun and it was great to see some of the animals who are usually hiding in the summer. The kids LOVED the penguins and tigers.


So now here we are, nap time and all, and the kids don't want to sleep. I guess the short cat nap in the car did the job. Happy birthday baby girl!

Tinkerbell makes a visit

Here of some pics of the tinkerbell party today. I will blog more about it tomorrow!

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

We have a winner for the OWOH giveaway!
#19!!
Craftyhala!

congrats and thanks for all who entered!

fulfilling a desire

Oh how I love anything that has to do with chocolate and raspberries! I have been craving something for a while now and decided to make a delicious dessert for this evenings bookclub.
It was fairly simple so I thought I would share it all with you.

• Mix 1 box devils food cake with 1/3 cup butter and 1 egg
• pan into a 15x10 baking sheet with 1 inch sides
• bake at 350 for 8 to 10 mins and let cool
• spread a jar of raspberry preserves over crust
• beat 8 oz cream cheese with 2 T milk until smooth
• melt a bag of white chocolate chips in microwave and add to cream cheese mixture
• spread carefully over raspberry topping
• melt some chocolate in microwave and drizzle over top over cream cheese mixutre.
• Let cool and cut if desired
  

*I also made some "words and hearts" to put on top of it. I got the idea from Pamela...

I know all my book club girls are drooling right now...lets just hope I don't get too hungry and eat it all before tonight;o)

I also wanted to add a picture of the cookies we made from the cookie kit Nina gave the kiddos for v-day. It was a lot of fun and the kids love the cookies or shall I say they like to like off the icing and candies;o)

update on the sleeping situation

For now I think I figured out the problem (regarding this past weekend). They are both sick!!! I mean yucky nose/cough/fever/asthma sick!! They were just attempting to warn me as to what is to come. FORTUNATELY, I got Cooper on some meds for his asthma last night so he actually slept. Now when I say sleep, I mean he gets up around midnight and 5:30ish...I'll take it! Kylie did get up a lot before midnight, but daddy ended up in her bed with her. That being said...MOMMY GOT SOME SLEEP. Good thing because all of these germies have seemed to have made there way into my body, causing me to have the runny nose/cough as well. Lets just pray we are on the "other side" of this.

On another note, I have been busy crafting away. I have some new things I want to try and am so excited to share them with you. Most recently I bought material to make Kylie a tutu for her Tinkerbell party in a few weeks. I found a tutorial that looks way to easy so I will fill yall in with my progress. I am also making some curtains for Cooper's room as he is finally outgrowing his stars and moon room.

Lets pray today is a better day...the sun is out and we all know howverymuch I love the sun!!!