Sunday Spotlight - warm winter day

 No words necessary really.

A wonderful warm winter day.

We truly enjoyed every minute of it.

Thundersnow

 A very strange but beautiful storm moved through the midwest on Thursday.

 Thunder snow is what they called it.

  About 6 inches - maybe 8 in some places.

Beautiful soft snow...

with some thunder

and rain mixed in now and then.

Weird. 

 Today we enjoyed that snow with a sunny afternoon of sledding!

 It was the perfect way to celebrate a special birthday...

of a very special person!

Happy Birthday Kristi!

It was the perfect afternoon of fun.

 and of course some delicious hot cocoa to warm up!

 Savana - always the good sport - letting the littles dress her in full armor!

This beautiful girl will be sixteen in two weeks -  

Does not seem possible! 

It was a fun afternoon.

The kids are in bed - hopefully exhausted.

Korbyn is sleeping over - 

hopefully exhausted.

Cause this momma/gramma sure is

exhausted!

80 candles on a cake???

 I think Ayden was still worried - 

(even though we only put 8 candles instead of 80)

that we might start the house on fire!

 There were a few rousing renditions of the birthday song..

complete with "cha cha cha"!

Happy happy Birthday a few days late Grandpa Jim!

We are certainly glad you have outlived the Bryant men

of your ancestry!

It was a gorgeous sunny day...

perfect for a party and some time outside.

Pretty funny watching our kids...

of ALL ages...

playing red light green light 

on the drive way!

The theme of Greg's sermon today...

Less is more...

really has had me pondering...

and thinking how extremely true that is.

Less is more.

 So simple - yet so profound.

Kinda like red light green light...

such a simple game.

But so wonderfully fun.

Less is indeed more.

Seriously? Where has this month gone?

 The highlight of our weekend

was definitely 

the granddaughters!

Because seriously. 

We have still been sick.  sick.  sick.

 This one is totally entrancing.

Her faces.

Her vocabulary.

Her crazy beautiful hair.

 Her hilarious little strut.

Her laughter and singing.

Her intense desire to learn.

And her ability to love.

And give huge wonderful kisses and hugs.

Ah - I so love this little mini adult. 

 And then there is this little girl...

who is an absolute HOOT right now.

Saying the funniest stuff...

with an imagination gone wild.

With her own crazy beautiful hair..

and gorgeous brown eyes..

and very funny sense of humor.

 She is artistic, and sweet

And smart and.....a tad naughty 

and full of love.

And gives me the BEST hugs every day.

Love this baby girl so much.

Yep -

 my baby girls have stolen my heart.

Umm...

 Did I mention that Korbyn

is.

a. 

hoot? 

 The weekend was blustery and windy.

but warm enough for crocus to be blooming..

and dogs to be tearing stuff up.

(Our yard looks like we are hoarders.)

and it is all their fault.

 Today Ava got to deliver her valentines - 

she was well enough to take her cute little box 

and all her homemade valentines to school

to share with her friends.

She valiantly took her breathing treatments this morning...

promised to go to the nurse if she got coughing

and marched out the door to catch the bus

 with hervalentines covered in 

mustaches, hearts and kisses 

and had a WONDERFUL day at big school.

She and Alec and I have been sick since Sunday night.

Actually Alec started running a fever last Thursday.

But today we were all somewhat better.

Alec and I still layed low.

He layed around and I worked.

(thank goodness for my job that allows me to work from home!)

This afternoon Alec felt so good he was jumping for joy -

 honestly.

Ayden of course has remained completely healthy.

He took his Spongebob Valentine box 

(thank you Pinterest) 

dressed in his finest Puma gear...

and he too had a wonderful day.

(So proud of him lately by the way...

school work has improved tremendously..

and he is excelling in Taekwondo.

In fact he is testing for his first

 belt next Tuesday!)

Well...

I hear coughing from a bedroom...

(imagine that)

so I better sign off for now.

Happy Valentines Day!

Don't forget to hug someone you love!

Bless the Broken Road

Have you ever had a moment in time that just seemed surreal?

This was one of those weeks that really caught me off guard.

In a good way..

that caused me to really reflect.

And believe.  

In miracles.

We have so many miracles in our lives.  

Sometimes in the daily rush and grind of work, school and home 

we forget what is really important. 

 And sometimes we just need a little shove to get us back to believing 

that the road we travel is not truly our own. 

I was asked to sing at a Mayor's prayer breakfast this past week. 

 I knew the speaker who was traveling from Minnesota was an adoptive parent

 and that he was in process to adopt two more kiddos from Haiti.  

Little did I know the very amazing story this man was about to share.  

After the introductions that evening before the event -

 I asked him how his process in Haiti was going. 

 He stated they thought they would be 

bringing their boys home in a matter of weeks - 

and all that was left was the final court proceeding.  

And that the boys had to fly to Port Au Prince from Cap Haitien

to finalize the process.  

Yep - you guessed it - his boys are at Children of the Promise! 

Later that night - I realized that

I had showed a photo of those two boys to Shannon - 

because the orphanage was having trouble

 finding a forever home for them over a year ago.

He firmly shook his head - "no"

to which I agreed - 

but my heart is always going to ache

for babies without a home.

No more aching for these two

they are going home to a fabulous family!!!

How crazy is it to meet a family - adopting from the same orphanage - 

who drove all the way from Minnesota to speak at prayer breakfast 

in the tiny town of Tipton?  

Children of the Promise only has about 45 kids total living there at a time - 

it is not a big orphanage. 

 I still am in awe honestly.

Ayden came with me to meet Joe that morning

 - and to show him his pictures of COTP. 

 He was so excited to talk to someone who had recently been to Haiti. 

 It was so nice to have Ayden there -

 and to have him smile at me while I sang one of his favorite songs - 

"Bless the Broken Road". 

 Usually he tears up when he hears that song - but this week - he smiled -

 his big huge gorgeous smile. 

 Which made the momma cry 

(which meant the song was not probably my best performance...) 

but the meaning for me was most certainly obvious.

So - remember to reflect - 

as you struggle through life..

that the roads we travel are indeed broken.  

But ultimately blessed.

If we just lean on faith to guide our way

and surrender.