long overdue!

I have started several posts the last several months and not a single one of them have I actually brought to completion. My goal today is to complete this post; shouldn't be too hard, right? We'll see! Last time I actually posted something was back in November before Thanksgiving and I feel like oh so much as happened since then. We had one of the top 5 snowiest winters on record, and as much as I don't care for winter it wasnt too terrible, because it was never icing, just plain old beautiful snow! But I am "oh so" glad spring is finally here, how ironic that on the actual first day of spring it snowed, only in the midwest, only in Kansas! :) Other than having a snowy winter it went rather well, we stayed fairly healthy so I couldnt ask for much more! One of the highlights of this winter was our trip to great wolfe lodge, my daughter absolutely loved it. This was my Christmas gift to my hubby and dtr. We had taken her there when she was about 8 months old, but this time it was a whole new experience and she loved it! The holidays were nice as always, Christmas eve was postponed a couple of days this year because of all the snow so that was a bummer, but we had a great evening at home just the three of us. Then on Christmas day we planned to go to my in-laws who live about a block away; when my car wouldnt start. Thankful my brother-in-law was kind enough to come get us, the weather was crazy, certainly a white Christmas! One of the major events for us this year was when one of my brother in laws and sister in law was over in Haiti during the earthquake in January, what a frightening experience, but they returned home safely along with 7 haitian children from the orphanage that they were helping out at. The Earthquake turned out to be a blessing in disguise for these particular children as they had been in the adoption process for almost 5 years, way too long and hard on them and their families! Easter has also came and gone, it was a nice day spent with family and friends. The day following Easter was my hubby's birthday and so we had my aunt watch our dtr while he took the day off work and we spent the day in a neighboring city just the two of us, it was a great time. I'm so blessed to have the amazing man that God has so graciously placed in my life!
To start out the year I made some new years resolutions and God has really been working in my heart about those resolutions I made back in January. One of the bible verses I chose to focus on this year is in one of my favorite books of the bible: James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
God has been speaking to my heart lately as to what I am doing to live out this verse in my life; am I seeking those out around me who are in need and helping them? those who are in need that God has put before me, am I helping them? Have I answered God's call to serve? Am I suffering (am I stepping out of my comfort) to help those who are suffering? Am I crying out to God for these people? These are just a few of the questions I have been pondering lately...
Search my heart oh God, give me a spirit to love and serve others around me, help me to show them the love only your son could show.

Its a great day to be alive!

That is the status of my facebook update right now; and it is oh so true!!! Not sure exactly why right now I chose to write that but I did. Each day is a blessing and we are fortunate to be alive each day! I know that I dont always have this attitude but God has really shown me in the last day or two how much more productive I can be and how my attitude can affect those around me. I chose each day what my attitude is going to be and how I am going to respond to others, I have the opportunity each day to brighten someone elses day! Or I can have just a ho-hum attitude which i feel like I have had recently and not be effective in my own life or the lives of others around me! Sometimes I think for me being a stay at home mom I have too much time on my hands to think, granted this can be a good thing but other times I think this can be not so good! :(
But what other time of year is better to start reflecting and seeing all that God has blessed me with than Thanksgiving! I have so many things to be thankful for! I had a friend challenge me back at the end of october to begin writing something that I am thankful for each day until Thanksgiving and then share that with someone. Well it was really really really easy the first few days but then as time has gone by it has gotten a little harder. I can say i believe this is where all of the thoughts of my attitude orginated. So with no futher ado here is my list thus far:
I am thankful for:
1. My husband
2. my daughter
3. my warm home
4. freedom in my country
5. being blessed to have our financial needs met
6. a hard working husband
7. a diligent husband
8. my girlfriends
9. extended family
10. the trials I have faced to make me who I am
11. Gods abundant love for me
12. Freedom to love God in my country
13. a bed to sleep in
14. sunshine
15. my honeymoon to hawaii
16. that i can see Gods creation
17. that I am healthy
18. that my family is healthy
19. That I have a beautiful daughter who shows her love to me daily
20. sonic coke
21. the ability to connect and reconnect with those all around the world.
22. the talents God has given me.

my last thought: Psalm 72:19 Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.

AMEN!! Thank you Lord for all that you have given me to be grateful for, I am blessed beyond measure! May your Glory rein forever more and may all honor be given to you...may I count everything JOYOUS in my life! AMEN!!
Count it all JOY!
~KAHLE

catching up

Catching up is an understatement...Since I last posted we had a little girl in the household turn three!! We couldn't celebrate any other way than in good princess fashion! For the 3rd birthday bash we held it at a local park as usual and adorned the table with a castle cake, the little princess with the appropriate attire and so much pink in girlie fashion! A very good friend captured the moments from our celebrate quite well. Unfortunately as you will see from the photos below our little princess was not up to par and was not feeling her usual chipper and smiley self.

We had her party about a week after her actual birthday so that family and friends that were out of town could attend. For her actual birthday we celebrated at home as a family by having her favorite meal...pasta! and for dessert we had chocolate chip cookie dough; she picked it out herself! Here are a few photos I took to capture her special day!

Yummy cookie dough ice cream

no princess is complete without her castle! Little people castle! so cute!

Well that was it for the Birthday festivities!

Alot has been happening the last few months keeping me busy and I have had plenty to write about just not the time to think through what I wanted to write about. A new season has started with my moms group at my church and so far it has been great, we are watching a video series and it has been wonderful, not to mention the time we have had to share in our small groups.

I am also involved in a women in the word class...cant really call this a bible study as the only bible time we have is a memory verse each week. But I have been so blessed to be learning under the teaching of an amazing woman, her name is Mary Duncan she has written the book Tools for Motherhood, it is basically a class teaching us as moms how to best teach our children and prepare them for Kindergarten. The teacher in me loves this class! We have learned many ways to teach our children in just 15 minutes of our day...it takes a little planning but it is so worth it and our children will thank us someday for it! right? :) This class has also reaffirmed in my mind the benefits of homeschooling and my desire to teach my child, but not sure yet if that is the direction God is leading us in. We shall pray, wait and see as He reveals His perfect plan for us! Well I have a little missy that just woke from her nap so i must go for now but hope to be back soon and finish my thoughts from the last few months!

storage, so to speak....

If you know much about me you know that I am not an avid reader, besides childrens books and during my quiet time with the Lord. We went to the library as a family the other night as I am gearing up to do some schooling with Kaihtlyn this fall. When we got home my husband said he had grabbed a couple of books for me to read. One I have not started yet but within a few days I have almost finished one of them...its called Home Staging for Dummies! I can not put this book down; got to love the Dummies books! This book has given me so many great ideas for my home on how to get organized!! Now I just have to get to work and implement it! When I think about it my closets are my biggest disasters...How do you make more closet space though...I keep telling myself we need more storage but in reality I just need to get rid of the junk in my closets! My biggest fear is that I will get rid of something and need it again and then will have to go out and buy it new...so what am I to do? This staging books talks about temporarily storing stuff else where until you move into your new space, but at this point we do not have any plans of moving. I really just need to create the storage within my given area to best utilize what I have, I will post how that goes later, once I figure out how I am going to do that :) Until then I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather!!

random happenings

I have been meaning to get on here all week and share a few thoughts but sadly enough I just did not find the time. The last week brought many new adventures in our household. Last Saturday we all went camping together for the first time ever as a family and it was a very nice time had by all! We went to a reservoir just north of town and it is extremely nice for a camping area, your trailers are not butted right up next to one another and you have a little room to spread out unlike with most campgrounds around here. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together as a family. Just the night before we left to go on our camp out Kaihtlyn had managed to sprain her toes while playing on the slides at sonic. I felt so bad for her as it caused much pain and for a few days straight she was unable to bear any weight on her foot. After talking to the doctor on saturday she said not to worry about it unless it started swelling up, then we would need to have her seen by a doctor. Sure enough on sunday afternoon it started swelling, so we had our first trip to Minor Med, it was surprisingly a great experience. The doctor looked her over and said he thought she was fine, it might just be a minor sprain and that she should be walking on it with in the next few days. Needless to say within five minutes of being back home she was hobbling around the house again and starting to bear weight!! Which made her mama very happy!! :)



On Tuesday we got to see one of my bestest of friends as she and her family were back in town for the week! It is always great to see her, it was especially fun this time as her little girl just turned 6 months old and she is a cutie, she brought many smiles!!



We also visited Legends this week which is always fun!! It was well worth the trip, time spent with friends and some good bargains-what more could I ask for? I found a pair of tennis shoes for Kaihtlyn at the Nike store that were $7 cheaper than the shoes I looked at, at payless shoes. It was baffling to me that a name brand shoe that was made of real leather was cheaper and much cuter (if I may add) than the shoes at payless that were not real leather...Note to self for later purchases. Payless does not mean you will payless! I was very happy with my purchases that day, I was also able to get her a pair of GAP jeans for $2.50 regularly priced at $19.99! They were on sale for $10 and I had a coupon for 75% off any one item for filling out an online survey=sweet deal!!



The rest of the week has just been spent preparing for the big 3rd birthday bash! I have the invites half way completed and still waiting to finish them after our destination is determined! Until later I will leave you with a few picture of our camp out! Enjoy your week and count it all joy!!





Taking in all the beauty


too cute Kates!

wacky wednesday!!

Thats what I have felt like today; that it has just been one of those wacky kind of days!! This week has been significantly slow, I have spent the greater portion of everyday at home this week which is totally out of the ordinary for Kaihtlyn and I. I have been able to make a to do list but somehow it just manages to grow instead of making me feel like I have accomplished something or many things for that matter :) I was able to get my scrapbooking area organized last week and got a few pages done this week; that always gives me a great sense of accomplishment. Maybe thats why I like scrapping so much :) Right now I'm starting to work on a to do list for planning Kaihtlyn's 3rd birthday bash! I always look forward to planning events or parties and this one managed to sneak up on me a little bit this year! I have so much that I want to do to get ready for the big day! I can't wait to share pictures when it is all complete! The creative juices have been flowing and I feel like right now I just need time to accomplish all that I want to!

Other than that we are having some extraordinary weather for July, its been in the mid to lower 80's for several days now! Tomorrow we are planning to go to the last brown bag concert at the capitol building, granted there is no rain! These are always a nice summer activity when it isnt too hot! I remember going to these as a kid myself and dancing til my little heart was content!

With the nice weather we have managed to hit a few garage sales and pick up a few bargains here and there, nothing much to speak of though! We have also spent quite a bit of time outdoors playing in the sandtable, swinging and shooting some hoops!

Well in parting I will leave you with a photo of my little bit dressed as a cow for cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a. One of our favorite places to eat was giving away free meals if you were dressed like a cow, this frugal hacker couldnt pass up that great deal! :)

a legacy to celebrate about

Have you ever known someone that has inspired many people in their lifetime? I most certainly can say I have known a couple of those people in my lifetime so far, they tend to be few and far between it seems. One that comes to mind today is a lady that I have the upmost respect for and love her ever so much! We got to celebrate 90 years of her life this past weekend. Who is this lady you may ask? Its my husbands grandmother, we all call her Grammy. I remember when I first met her she was introduced to me as Mrs. Hillmer, I think about after the second time of calling her that she said,"Please, Please, Call me Grammy!" It was so sweet, and that is just it. She is a wonderful lady who has the sweetest spirit about her and I just love calling her Grammy! She is a woman of great integrity and has a love for the Lord that is next to none other, that I have ever known! She has lived a life that is God honoring and has lead her family through many trials, many of which I'm sure I dont even know about! Her faith is an inspiration to me! She has faced difficult times this last year and I have seen her in some of the worst of those times but she still had her faith that God would carry her through, and as much as she wanted to be with Him instead of here, she perservered and continued to live as an example to those around her. Her strength amazes me. She is one of the most beautiful women I know both inside and out! I have never seen a 90 year old woman with such class and beauty as Grammy, not sure I have seen a younger woman with as much class and beauty as her either! Needless to say she is just an all around wonderful God-fearing woman that I respect! Happy 90th Birthday Grammy! I Love you!