A Year Has Come Full Circle

A year ago I set out to do something that I never have done before. It was fun to try and figure out a cake for my son's 2nd birthday just because. So I set out at decorating my first cake by myself. My son was really enjoying turtles at this time last year so I got online and looked up a recipe for making a turtle cake.










So I was talking to a friend about how much I enjoyed making my first cake, since then we have joined forces in making cakes for different things. This was Dora we made for her daughter's 3rd birthday.




Cake # 3 was of a princess cake. We used a little Tinker Bell doll for this little princess cake. This cake was quite the trip. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to keep her standing up in the middle. We tried frosting, tin foil, tooth picks, and then I think we finally settled using a baby food jar lid with the doll wrapped in tin foil. The unfortunate part of this process was that every time we had to get her out of the cake it caused the cake to separate. This little lady is held together with a lot of tin foil believe it or not.

We had a creative food contest for a church at the park day last fall. So we decided to take a picture of the man behind the inspiration for the contest and put him on the cake. So my friend's husband took a picture that we printed off and then drew a larger picture on a piece of paper and then he took it and used a tooth pick and sketched it onto the cake. We then just filled it in with frosting. And there you have it, "the Keis" cake.







This cake you are looking at is what we call a
rainbow cake. We took 2 cake mixes and split
it into 6 different cakes for the different colors of the rainbow. In between each layer was frosting. So the picture to the left is what the cake looked like once it was cut open. It was a lot of fun.





So now we have finally come back to my son's birthday. He turned 3 on April 4th but we didn't actually celebrate it with a party until this past Sunday with friends and family. Saturday my friend and I spent the day making a Thomas the train cake for my son. He is completely and totally enthralled with Thomas. It was a lot of fun.













I don't know what it is about cake decorating, but I have really come to enjoy it. It is a place where I can be creative. It is a good thing cause being creative is something I don't feel I am really good at.

Karston Lukas

Last Saturday, (because I have been so busy and not been able to get to writing this) my husband and I took the opportunity to go see our precious new nephew who at that point was still in the hospital trying to recover from the meconium he had aspirated into his lungs before birth. It was a really great time with my husband's sister and husband and their baby, Karston Lukas. When we were there they had just moved from an incubator to a crib. That is huge progress meaning he was being given less oxygen then before. He was still under the oxygen tent and had a nasal cannula.
It was a good time of talking, loving, and sharing. />We also took the time to pray for him and them. I just can't imagine how stressful a time like that would be on your marriage and family life.
This morning I am happy to share that little man Karston is now resting safely at home with his family. They released him from the hospital on Friday afternoon with an oxygen tank at low dose at home for the next 3 weeks. He has come a long way but he still has a distance to go. Please join us as we continue to pray for complete healing in his little body. May God completely and totally restore health to his little body.

God loves You!

This week has kind of been a rough one with everything that has been going on around me. Our nephew was born last Saturday with some complications do to swallowing meconium before birth so he is in a bigger hospital about an hour from home. At home there are 4 older children with 2 younger. So all in all this is taking a lot out of the family right now.
I also have a friend from high school who continues to fight for her life after some health complications. She is in the ICU while others take care of her two children also.
All this has come after a week ago talking about eternal perspective at church as I had posted before. Wow! I have just come to see how hard it is to keep an eternal perspective when so many things are going on.
The other night I was having a conversation on Facebook with another high school friend of mine about our friend who was struggling to stay alive. She was telling me about her day that day how she had been taking time to cry out to God for the sake of her friend and that He would let her live. This is direct from our conversation the other night ""i was just basically yelling at God,demanding that Brandi lives...
and how she cant die and finally after exhausting every possible plea....i just asked God to speak to me and it was at compassion pregnancy center there where i looked up and saw a statue of Jesus holding a baby and I just wept because at that moment God spoke to me and told me that He loved Brandi......
its because of prayer...and faith....and God loves Brandi more than we ever could.thats what I forgot and thats what God spoke to me.." These are taken directly from my conversation with my friend.
The huge part in this conversation was that "God loves Brandi more than anyone here on earth ever could." I was having a hard time feeling loved that night and this was all I needed to be reminded of. God loves Me more than anyone else ever could. I am still trying to completely wrap my head around that. GOD LOVES ME!
I just encourage you that if you are having a hard time just remember that God loves you more than any physical person on earth ever could!

Keeping an Eternal Perspective

I am going to be honest. I am struggling with this. Today we were challenged at church to maintain an eternal perspective with things in life. It has been a difficult day.
We were given an opportunity to pray for each other this morning. It was a great time of bonding between women with prayer, hugs, and tears.
It is so hard to see my best friends continuing to struggle throughout life. It just seems they can't catch a break, and to be honest it makes me angry to see them continue to be hit up one side and then down the other. First their car breaks down, then he gets laid off again, then there is constant sickness, and then guess what their new car they just bought breaks down again. My husband and our friend worked on it afternoon trying to figure it out. No luck, no ideas. It stinks!
We also received a call from my husband's sister who had her baby last night. The baby was born with complications. He has pneumonia because he had ingested meconium (newborn poop) into his lungs. Hard to hear, but I am going to believe that God will take care of him and heal him.
There were other things with today but mostly just struggling with how to keep an eternal perspective. I mean what does it mean to keep an eternal perspective. My heart hurts for all that has happened today. I pray that as I continue on through this week I could try to keep my eyes on Jesus and have more of an eternal perspective!

Dakota Update

Well on Thursday morning we headed to Ft. Wayne for Dakota's appointment with his specialist regarding his cleft palate. The doctor we saw was very informative and helpful. He was an ENT so he took a good look at Dakota's ears and saw that there is quite a bit of fluid on his ears, he says because of the large opening in his mouth keeps constant fluid build up that. I guess that would definitely explain the numerous ear infections we have been fighting in the last several months. So he told us that when the surgery is done to repair his palate he would suggest also doing tubes for his ears because of the fluid build up that is there.
We are being referred to a plastic surgeon who will look at Dakota and then do the surgery to fix his palate. We still do not have an appointment with this specialist but I would look for it to be soon. So for now we are in the waiting game once again.

I am Challenged......

This year I have been reading through the Bible chronologically. I have just recently started doing it during my baby's earlier morning feeding. Its a time that all is quiet and a time I know I will get it done. The other day I was challenged by a friend who is also reading through the Bible in a year, actually that is the reason I am doing it. She started a facebook group and we are all holding each other accountable to reading through it in a year. Anyway, so I have been really trying to focus on the words not just for mere reading sake but to also take it to heart.So I was reading this morning in Deuteronomy chapters 6-9, but I only made it through 6 and 7 before my heart started to be challenged.
First of all, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is says.
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

This section of scripture has always been a challenge to me. I just didn't remember where to find it until now. We are to love God with all that we have. He has given his Word to be written on our hearts. The only way to write God's Word on our hearts is really to take time and KNOW his Words. To know his Words we need to spend quality time in it. I read most of the time for the sake of reading it, but this morning I allowed myself to be challenged. Here we are challenged to have God's Word/laws living through every facet of our lives. We are to teach our children about God throughout our everyday life. He is suppose to be present at all times. We are to take it with us wherever we go.
I am going to be blunt and honest, I do not live by this standard that God wants us to live by. It is not a choice that I have personally made. I know that it is a choice I should make. But to be honest I know that as hard as I tried I wouldn't be faithful to doing it all the time. So I guess the challenge in this for me is to learn how to instill more of God in my everyday life so that it spills over into my boys' life. I want this, I just don't know how to do it. One of the ways I am starting to teach my oldest is by starting to teach him Bible verses and read his children's Bible. That is some ways that I can be faithful to teaching him.

Take me forward to my reading in Deuteronomy 7 and there was again another verse that stuck out to me. Deut. 7:6 says "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. " The part in this verse that really sticks out to me is that we are "his treasured possession." I have so often beaten myself down in the past and still do to this day. I know that it is talking about the Israelites here but we can definitely apply this to our own lives. I am chosen by God because He loves me. I am his treasured possession. I have such joy at this moment in time knowing that I am his and his alone! This too is often hard for me to constantly remember in my life but I am also up for continued challenge and growth in this area of my life.
So know that you know what my thoughts were from my reading this morning I hope it can be a bit of challenge to you. When you get in the Word to read it, try to dig deep into it and see what God has for you in it!

Sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was another one of those beautiful days we have been having here in Indiana. It is amazing to me how March has hit and we have had nothing but sunshine. I have completely and totally loved all the sunshine over the past couple of days, well lets see six days! There is something about seeing the sunshine days in a row after having the dark gloom of winter that does something for your spirit and soul.
Today we has the opportunity to go take some of that sunshine in at the park with my boys. We parked at a place we don't usually park because the road to go to the park is closed right now due to construction. So we walked across a little foot bridge over the river and onto a muddy, muddy path to get to the park. It was so fun to watch my boys play, especially my oldest who was willing to go about the play area by himself to find the slide and come down himself. I was standing there with my baby in his stroller and my two almost 3 year old seeming so independent. I can't explain to you what this did to me. The tears came to my eyes to see his independence. My big boy is really, really growing up. He is becoming more and more independent everyday. It is fun to watch but also has me realizing how quickly this will past.
I also had the opportunity to put my 7 month old in a baby swing and let him swing away. The smile on his face was beautiful. I was once again reminded how quickly they grow up and how quickly they change.
So as I draw this day to a close I am so grateful for the time I had with my family enjoying the sunshine and seeing my babies growing up so quickly. I was just reminded once again how quickly time passes and I don't want to take one moment for granted that I have with them.

The Innocence of a Child

I meant to write about this earlier, like last week when it happened, but I didn't get a chance to.
I was putting my 2 almost 3 year old to bed the other night and we usually pray with him before we say our final good-night. So he has a routine things he likes to pray for, you know his mommy and daddy, his little brother, his best friend, and her family and the children of the world (still not sure how to totally foster the children of the world for a toddler). So I asked after we were done praying if there was something else he wanted me to pray for. He looks at me and says "walls mommy, pray for walls." At first I looked at him and laughed and immediately I was filled with this feeling of what are you doing. I felt God convicting my heart about this. I looked at Jabez and I told him "yes we can pray for walls because God has given them to us as protection."
I am amazed at how God uses a child to remind you of things that we so often take for granted. I love my son, I thank God for his innocence in this time in his life. I pray that as his life and heart continue to be formed that God will continue to keep my eyes open to opportunities to pour into his life.

Dakota Update

Well I know that it has been awhile since I have written about my little guy and all that is going on with his cleft palate. First of all, we have received some funding that will help pay for whatever medical things we need to do to take care of Dakota's cleft palate.
We also have an appointment set for March 18 with his specialist in Ft. Wayne. I think it will probably be just a consultation and figure out where we go from there. As I look to this appointment my mind and heart are a bit uneasy. I am trying to chose to trust God through this time in our lives. I know that he will take care of us through this time its just the thought of everything that is on my mind and heart.

Would you just shut your mouth....

You are probably wondering whats up with my title to this post. To be honest I am struggling right now with something I said. Sometimes I just wished I really took the time to think about the consequences about what I am going to say before I blurt it out and end up ruining someones day. I did it yesterday. I did a horrible job of it and totally ruined their day. I feel so often I lack self-control in this area of my life. I am thinking about how much something is affecting me that hasn't happened or that has happened and then I happen. I blurt out what my thoughts are without really even thinking about the consequences of them. And then after I blurt them out I feel like I crawl into my shell and don't know how to talk about what I just said or why I said it the way the I did. So not only have I blurted out something hurtful but I have now no words to say about why I said what I said. Wow. Am I making any sense. I sure hope so.
In years past I have really tried to dig into the Word and what it says about the tongue. And I was just again looking at some verses this morning. I would like to share a few of those here with you.
Psalm 39:1-5 NLT
1 I said to myself, “I will watch what I do
and not sin in what I say.
I will hold my tongue
when the ungodly are around me.”
2 But as I stood there in silence—
not even speaking of good things—
the turmoil within me grew worse.
3 The more I thought about it,
the hotter I got,
igniting a fire of words:
4 “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.”

Proverbs 10:31-32 in the Message.
31 A good person's mouth is a clear fountain of wisdom;
a foul mouth is a stagnant swamp.

32 The speech of a good person clears the air;
the words of the wicked pollute it.


Proverbs 18:20-21 in the Message
20 Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach;
good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.

21 Words kill, words give life;
they're either poison or fruit—you choose.

Proverbs 21:23 in the Message
23 Watch your words and hold your tongue;
you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

As I meditate on these verses this morning I want to become a wise person in the way I use my words. I don't want to hurt people anymore with things that I say without thinking. I want to come to a place where I only say things that are uplifting and not degrading. I pray this morning that you bring me to a place Lord where I can learn this wisdom from you.

Last Week in Review..

Last week was certainly a busy week for us around here. We did lots of different things. I almost don't remember all that we did at this point.
On Monday, a friend of mine came over in the morning to do our Bible study we are doing on Spiritual gifts by Eddie Rasnake. It has been a good thing to be involved in a daily time with God. It helps to get me into the Word on a daily basis, without it I wouldn't do it because I chose not to do it sadly enough. I just don't have the discipline to do it on my own without a guidance. Is it wrong of me to not dig into the Word on my own without something pushing me towards it? I don't know, probably in some respect it is.
Monday evening my home was filled with a bunch of testosterone cause my husband had a worship discipleship night. He leads our worship ministry at the church we attend. He holds a once-a-month discussion time for anyone interested in worship. They talk about a topic or scripture and then take time to pray for the worship ministry as a whole.
On Tuesday, I went to spend the day with my sister-in-law who is here from out of town for the day. It was a good relaxing day.
On Wednesday the kids and I ran errands in the morning and went to the doctor for my 6 month old's well baby check. While there I mentioned something to my doctor that has been weighing on my heart and mind for awhile. I mentioned to them about the opening at the back of his throat. We were told that he has a partial cleft palette that needs to be seen by a specialist and then repaired at some point and time in the near future. Hearing this news really kind of freaked me out a bit. I didn't want to believe it, but somehow I just knew that is what it was after doing the research I had done. So now we are facing getting our finances in order to help take care of this need. At this point we have no insurance so tomorrow afternoon I will be filling out a bunch of paperwork to try and get my baby covered under some government assistance. So prayers in this area of life would be greatly appreciated.
The rest of the week held little things here and there like Women's prayer group, family night, date night, panic attack, stress, small group.
So today I am left searching my heart about several things about my recent stress and how it is affecting me and why I am letting it affect me so. Is most of my stress having to do with the situation with my baby and the financial things involved with that or is there something else. As I continue on this journey of figuring things out with God I know that all things are possible and that he will take care of us. I am His child. He loves me. I am going to try to rest in that.

Life update.

So you might be wondering what is going on in our household this month being as my last 2 entries were things that occurred last month. Well the first thing we really had going on was sick. I was sick with strep and then the boys came down with a nasty, nasty cough so that lead to little sleep and very long days and of course a doctor's visit. Jabez just really had a bad cold and cough while Dakota had a double ear infection, his second in like 2 weeks time, and also a junky chest. But this week it seems we have finally been healthy and for that I praise God. I am hoping to keep them healthy and myself also healthy.
Something else I have been doing is working out to Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred. I started before Christmas and then got really sick and took a little over a week off. Picked it back up and now I am taking today and the next two days trying to get my ankle back to normal. One of the days I was doing it a few weeks ago I side stepped and have been having issues since then. So I was told its time to take a bit of a break to give it some time to heal. My thoughts on this are that I hate it. I really want to work out now but I am choosing to be wise because I don't want to do permanent damage to it.
I have been working really hard since about September to get some of this weight off that I have gained over the years having kids. My recent baby was pretty easy to lose. I have lost all the weight I gained with him plus some more then that. Now I am working on getting rid of the rest from my first son.
My goal is to be back where I want to be by my birthday and for that to happen I am starting to realize I need to make some huge eating habit changes in the next couple of months to get me there. So that is what I am going to do. Not exactly sure what all that will be yet. I need to kind of take some actual time to decide what I need to cut out and what I need to add to make me healthier and be able to lose this weight by my goal date.
Another thing that I have been working on this month so far is spending time with God. I have really been horrible at that in the last year. A friend of mine and I are doing a Bible study together and it takes me to the Word everyday. I am also reading through the Bible in a year. So those are things that I am trying to do to better my relationship with Christ. I want to become more and more like him and the only way I can do that is through daily devotion to him.
Another big thing for our little family.....I proclaim that Jabez is potty trained!!

So this is a brief update on what is going on in this household.
By the way my beautiful baby boy will be turning 6 months on Tuesday. I can't believe he will be that old already. Man how time flies....

The rest of the Story........

Now we continue with the rest of the story.......

Here is the momma and her little girl who missed out on our first day because of illness. They came and joined us for fun, food, and fellowship.



.




This momma and her baby girl joined us again for the which started out with painting.....






Here is "bug" or so we call her, working on painting some paper after she had already finished her ornament.








Well we finished or ornaments and then moved on to cookies.






There are no pictures of us cutting out cookies because well I wanted to enjoy cutting out cookies too....Here is what we had to work with after we cut and baked them all.



Well see I also wanted to enjoy decorating the cookies with my son looking in the background. Yes, I know it, don't you see the tongue.....it is my form of concentration.





Here is mama and her "bug" working on decorating cookies. So are they deeply concentrating or deeply talking....not sure but whatever is going on, it sure does look serious!





So here is another picture of a momma and her baby decorating cookies. I love the look of intent upon their faces.





Well we eventually did finish decorating our cookies and these were some of our favorites that were decorated.







So here we are finally at the end of the day after we cleaned up. Look at all that frosting, sugar, .....whatever there may be.


Yes, you can call us crazy; we did paint ornaments and bake and decorate cookies all in one day. It might have been a crazy day that we even finished off with dinner together along with our husbands, but it was a great day!

I know its a bit late but here is a bit of fun that we had before Christmas.....

Well several of my friends and I and there kiddos decided this year was time to decorate cookies with the kiddos. We did so on two separate occasions cause on the first occasion one kiddo ended up being sick.
There once was a momma and her two little boys that came to my house to see decorate some cookies.








And another momma and her baby girl who also decided it would be fun to come and decorate cookies also. Baby girl thought it would be fun to "ham it up" for the camera.



And then there was my little boy, the only one of which can decorate cookies doing it all on his own cause his mama was busy with taking pictures for her blog.






And then we had a tray full of cookies we decorated. Well what had to come next....Can anybody guess?






Well of course we would need little munchkins to eat them for us. Yummy, Yummy!







Did I mention that the cookies were oh so yummy!




And then we had to take it a step further with getting all the sugar possible in for the day. Thoughts of toddler "I must lick this board so that I can eat all the sugar to drive my mommy crazy later."




Well you see we were missing a mommy and her little one that day so we thought we had to continue the story with yet another day of cookie baking, except we also decide to paint some decorations. So that is where this story continues.........in yet another post........