The first stop on our vacation!

One of the places we went on our vacation last week was Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati Ohio. We had a great time. The kids had so much fun going down the water slides. It wore me out. Joyona was tall enough to go by herself, but still not ready to. Tra, our oldest boy, was just a couple of inches too short to go by himself, but was able to go with an adult. Elijah, well lets just say that he wasn't tall enough and that was okay with him. This was our first time to this indoor water park and we will definitely be back. It has a slide that is big enough for the entire family. We did all go on it twice and we laughed all the way down at Elijah's expression on his face. I wish I had a picture of that.

This is a slide in the kiddie area. Elijah was not sure about it but liked sitting on the top of the slide and watched his brother and sister go down.

Tra loved this slide the most. It was the fastest of the kid slides and had the most water going down.

Joyona, well she liked these slides second to the big slides. She mostly just had fun playing with her brothers.

In the evening there was a story time with the wolf. The kids loved it. Elijah would not take his eyes off of him to take a picture. He just kept smiling really big at the wolf. It was so cute. The kids are already planning our next trip. It was the perfect time because there was no crowd. Hopefully we can make this a little get away for our family once a year, but we will see. For now, we have the memory of a great time and can't wait to see what is next!

Vacation!

Well the love of my life has taken the week off from work. His vacation started on week ago when he came home from work and will end Tuesday morning when he has to go back. It has been a great and relaxing time for us. We have had little trips here and there and have had a great time enjoying each other and our kids. During the next week I will be sharing some of the stories and pictures with you. I just wanted to take a minute and let you know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth yet again. I have just been busy enjoying my man and my kids. I am looking forward to getting back to my routine next week and finishing up the last stretch of school with my daughter. So, I hope you all have a Great holiday weekend and I will be back to share all the fun details with you next week!

Oh Lord, Be Thou Near To Me...

This is the words to a song I have posted on the right side of my blog. I have never added a song here before so I hope this works :)

Oh Lord I come with heart here open,
For in my hour of darkness I'm in need.
Seeking the joy of love unspoken
Oh Lord be Thou near to me.

And the holy voices “Hallelu!”
Ever will Thy reign be.
As I wander through this life,
Oh Lord, be Thou near to me.

Though In this burden of my making
Yet in the shadows still a light
I see Maker whose love is not forsaking
Oh lord be thou near to me

And the holy voices “Halleluja!”
Ever will Thy reign be.
As I wander through this life,
Oh Lord, be Thou near to me.

I have some things heavy on my heart today and this song really ministered to me. I have not been taking my time with the Lord lately and this is hurting my spiritual walk greatly. Because of this I have been trying to make decisions on my own and cannot do this any longer. I need to get back into worship and fellowship with Him and today this song really ministered to me. Anyway, I am also trying to be more transparent in my life so in doing that I wanted to share this with you my blogger friends. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me share from my heart today.

My oldest son :)

As you know I haven't been on here for a while. Things were just going crazy in my life and I had to get some things under control. Well, I missed some monumental things in my life and I wanted to go back and share some of them with you. The first one is that my oldest son Tra turned 5 on April 26th. He wanted to celebrate his birthday with his friends at Chuck E Cheese. This was his first birthday party outside of the family. He had a blast and I learned a lot about birthday parties. Let me just say that I am glad we don't have them every year. Because family couldn't all be there he ended up having three different parties that weekend. Here are a few pictures of his party weekend.

Tra, you are a special little boy. You were the first baby I ever had and you were a little trooper. You always make me smile and you are very creative. You are a great singer and I love watching you change and grow into the young man that God wants you to be. You love your sister and brother and you are very good at sharing your toys. Tra, I love you and you will always be my little boy.

Organization!

I have decided that we have way too much stuff in our house. We have a small house with 5 people living in it and no room left. I have discovered a new show on television about organization and I love it. One reason I love it is because I see people on there that have way more stuff than I do and their houses are trashed. I am sorry to say that this gives me comfort in that my house isn't really that bad, although it needs much work still. Now, I really like it because it is giving me ideas on how to decorate and organize my home and it is giving me motivation to get rid of things that I have been holding onto for a while and really don't need them anymore. So I am proud to say that I am going through boxes and getting rid of things. This feels really good and I am seeing progress in my house and it is beginning to look good too. Most importantly I am teaching my children how to get rid of things that they don't need and to maintain a clutter free home. Now, I need to get things together to organize my kids closets on a small budget. If you have any ideas please share.

The Best Gift!

I have had a busy sleepless weekend but it has been the best weekend and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Friday night my nephew spent the night and tonight a very special little girl is spending the night. The best part of this is this afternoon they were all in our van and we were headed to my parents to celebrate mothers day. My dad fixed us all dinner and it was great! Steak, baked potato, salad and shrimp. It was the best dinner I have had in a long time, mostly because I didn't have to do anything, but it was really yummy. Anyway, at one point I looked back at all the kids in our maxed out mini-van and they were all playing and having a great time together. This brought a tear to my eye, realizing that the Lord has hand picked each one of my children, and even though I don't know how or when He will reveal all the details of bringing us all together to live in the same home with the same last name we can still be together. Tonight was a great night and I hope every mom has a great day and enjoys their families!