Completely humbled....

I TRULEY feel like I could not be more thankful for my boys...ok no REALLY I can't be more thankful...I am as thankful as they come. However there is things in life that happen that make me humble when it comes to being a mom. I think humbling ourselves is something that needs done more often. James 4:10 says "Humble yourselves before The Lord and He will lift you up" 

And here is the definition of humble...

humble[ huhm-buhl, uhm- ]

adjective [hum·bler, hum·blest.]

1. not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful.

2. having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble.

3. low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly: of humble origin; a humble home.

     Now the definition kind of gets to me...it's basically telling me to think lower of myself....and I KNOW that is not what God wants for me....he wants me to think highly of myself. He wants me to know that I am righteous, and highly favored... IN HIM!!!!!!!!! Not in and of myself!

I look at humbling as a form of gratitude towards Christ. Thanking Him for all I have and all He has done for me and most importantly standing up and saying "without you Lord...I would be nothing"

I think you can individually humble yourself in your own way for your own reasons. But having a humbled heart is something I long for and something I want to be so conscious of in this life. I want to humble myself when terrible things happen such as the tornados in Nebraska recently or when someone you know is going through something traggic. I remember when we were going through everything with Luke I tried to keep myself humble by reminding myself that it could be worse while still allowing myself the pity party I so rightly deserved in that moment. It was a MAJOR, SCARY, and AWFUL thing we had to go through...but what about having a humble heart when all three of my kids don't nap at the same time??? Maybe I need to humble myself by saying...at least I have kids right!?! Well today I am so humbled that I have children and that the good Lord has not just blessed me with one but three healthy and beautiful little boys. I am humbled before Him that He would intrust me to raise them and train them in the godly way He created them to be. I am in awe that He thinks I am good enough and that I messure up enough to care for these three people that in my eyes deserve every single desire they could ever possibly imagine. 

      I know I'll have moments like I have had in the past where I feel frustrated over what I DON'T have or what ISN'T going right but from today on I am going to try to daily COMPLETLEY humble myself before The Lord because I know then HE will lift me up and I will praise him for what I DO have and for what IS!!!! I love looking at my living room wall and counting our 1,2,3 biggest blessings...Today I am so humbled by being a mommy and for these three special boys 

2 year post surgery check up!

Well June 4th marked the 2 year anniversary of Luke's surgery. After his surgery And multiple check ups And wearing a helmet for 3 months we were released at his one year post surgery check up to only be seen once a year until he was five. It seems like it was yesterday we were at his 1 yr post check up and today was already his 2 year check up!! Even though we had a pretty good feeling he would get a great report it is still SO nerve racking to have to go there. Just seeing the phone number show up on my phone when they called to make the appointment made me weak in the knees. Packing our bags for the day, getting lanes stuff ready for my mom, updating Our i pass account, getting up early, sneaking quietly through the house, waking up Luke and getting him dressed and leaving while it's still somewhat dark out, and driving into the city and too that building is down right sickening for us. We have to mind over matter the whole thing every step of the way!! This appointment I have to say was the least of our worries because this year he didn't need a ct scan and didn't need to be put to sleep or have any blood work.(That nightmare is all very fresh in minds.)

   As we pulled in to park at the parking garage I was not surprised to find our same parking spot right there waiting for us.  I am NOT exaggerating...EVERY.SINGLE.APPOINTMENT we have had the same parking spot  (give or take a spot to the right or left) since our very first appointment. This is a 5 story parking garage with hundreds of cars in it. I am not really sure why that is...but I know it is a blessing that God has reserved us a place and we definaly are comfortable parking there and finding our way into the huge place and back to our car so that is a huge blessing in itself! So we went into the building riding the same elevator that we always did to the sky bridge and then...there it was...the hospital across the street and the window to his room from the pediatric intensive care unit room. It is a terrible terrible feeling to look at that building and that window but what's amazing is...in a blink of an eye we changed our focus to Luke in the stroller and all the sudden it is thee best feeling ever! If we hadn't gone through what we did...we wouldn't have what we have! Luke is such an awesome boy! He was the BEST baby and one year old! He slept great all the time! Napped well, rode in his car seat well, took his binky great, rode in his stroller awesome, was so easy going, sat for long periods of time with out fussying, ate anything and everything, and was never ever in a tizzy about anything! We had people comment all the time how good he was! We were even with friends once at a fall festival pumpkin patch thing and our buddy said "is he always like this ?" And Matt and I realized we had been there for hours chasing Lane around etc...and there luke sat in his stroller! We were instantly like "oh um...here ya go Luke...you thirsty buddy?! Should we get him out for a bit?!" Lol!!! Easy going was an understatement! Just such an amazing in every way baby and one year old! Now that he is 2 he is still very passive...at times...but this new "super determined" personality has came about! It may be the age or it may just be a new part of Luke but we are embracing every little fit and loving him for those too!!! He knows what he wants and doesn't want and sticks to it! A natural born leader!!!(equals a sometimes hard to reason with toddler haha!) BUT we didn't have our children to impress anyone else or expect them to be perfect and pleasing to the world all the time(though we do try to discipline them well and teach them to be as pleasing to their surroundings as possible)..we had them for us to love and to raise as God fearing, world changing boys and that is where we keep our focus!! Luke is sooooo much more of a life changing individual to me than I can guarantee I have ever been to anyone else! I am so grateful. 

  The appointment went great!!!! Dr. Reid measured his head and felt it! It was 48.3 centimeters and had no gaps(we didn't even know that could be an issue but we are so glad it isn't) and his head is right under the 50th percentile on the chart!! He asked us developmental an behavior questions and seemed very pleased with him! Then he took Luke to get stickers and kind of made it clear for us to pack our things up and not come with. I didn't really pick up on that but my super smart hubby did. After Doc and Luke got back He applauded Luke for his awesome manners and said he said thank you right away! Then he sent us on our way until June 2015!! As we headed back to the bathrooms and elevator Matt pointed out how Dr Reid took him by himself away for a second and we realized he was checking him out a little. Making sure Luke walked right and talked right etc! I appriciate that they do that! I am sure it is hard to admit something is wrong with your own child! I mean in all honesty I don't we all think our own children are pretty great?!? Luckily in our case...our Doctor saw that Luke is pretty great too!!!

Here is a few pics from today...

On our way reading books

We brought along Luke's(someday) little side kick;) he was a good boy

Here is Luke playing in the waiting room with the new semi daddy bought him and opened and surprised him with once we checked in...

Then out to lunch at mcdonalds to celebrate! We ate right by a truck stop and Luke LOVED IT! Honking his arm, telling us if there was "no trailer on the back" Volvo, peterbilt, etc!

Heading home...

And out like a light...

And little brother too...

Best driver ever 

We are so humble by Gods goodness in our lives! We give Him all the glory!!!!! 

Change...

We'll I feel like there is A LOT to add to update the blog! Ok so where did we leave off...Memorial Day that's right....ok so that night we put Luke in his new bed (a new crib that turns into a toddler bed but we are leaving it as a crib for a while yet😉) in Lanes room!!! Brothers sharing a room!!! It was soooo sooo sweet hearing them talk as best buds that night. They were giggling and so amazing! Look at this cute little boy all excited about his new bed in Big brothers room 

Excited would be an understatement!!!! The first night was a lot of talking but we intervened here and there to set a precident for "bed time" while also enjoying listening to the amazing sound of brothers becoming even closer on the monitor! Our hearts were fluttering to say the least!!! So that night it was late to sleep and as most of you know late to sleep for toddlers does NOT mean late to rise! And actually in this instance it actually meant earlier to rise! Lane was soo soo SO happy to have Lukie in there he was awake at 540am looking in his brothers bed to make sure he was there....sweet...at first! But this continued day after day through out that week...late to sleep...early to rise. (Yes...we put them to bed 30-45 mins early so they'd fall asleep sooner...yes it seemed to help as far as timing goes) but they were still over tired...and when they are over tired they are fussy!!! Hence this new little randition on the bible verse James 1:19 that I taught Lane that week...

The real version..."be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry" Lane's version "be a good listener, wait to talk, don't throw a fit" he has it memorized to a tee(along with 10 plus more verses...I'm so proud of my sweet smart sir!!) anyways...did it help YES!!! BUUTTT he was still tired and still a little "off" and so was Luke! The proof is in the pudding folks😜

So as the week went on the good news is there was no 2am shennanigans PTL!! And they napped every day!!!! Whoo hoo!!! 

Then on the weekend Nate and Danielle and their kids came over for a cook out Friday....here is Mavrick and Lyric! 3 months apart! So cute!!!!!

And on Saturday we finally made it to Morris so great papa goose could meet Lyric! It was such an awesome visit! We loved every minute there and the boys were so good!!! Great in the car and so well behaved at Papas house!!! He of course gave them new cars and a semi to share!! He is such a thoughtful Papa and I'm so blessed he is mine!!! And look at this awesome picture I got of him with me and my boys!!!!!! Melts my heart! 

On Sunday we had a great day at oneighty church and then went to my cousins grad party and then we went to our pastors house. 

After a looonngggg time of praying about it we decided to leave our church home. Now I know lots of you reading this have a church home...however I feel like I can rightfully say this was like a home to us. There was absolutely no other "place" that me and the boys spent as much time each week besides our home than there. We are very blessed that daddy played in the praise and worship band and had practice before service started so we were there at least 3 hours every Sunday! In 2013 we only missed church twice!! Once for a sickness and once because we were visiting our friends and went to their church out of town! So we def spent a good amount of time there through out the year! We were not only happy with the sermons but we had a crazy amazing relationship with the people there...ALL of matts siblings and nephews and niece go there and both set of his parents. Let alone the people of the congregation were great friends that were like family. So why leave right?? EXACTLY! That's what we thought when we started feeling different promptings to leave. However God is relentless in His callings and He didn't give up. For a long time we were feeling called to serve at a church in our community &  to raise our boys in church in the town they will live in and go to school in. It was a hard decision to make but we had multiple signs and reassuring moments that we were making the right decision. God gave us both a peace about this change and once we decided we spent a good week praying for our pastor& his wife to have receptive hearts about this decision along with our entire families hearts too!! It was an answered prayer as they all seemed to take it well and support us! We are SO thankful for that...Lynne and Paul are amazing friends of ours and are as close to us as family and our family is our very best friends. We are so so SO grateful that God prepared their hearts to understand. I know if one of them would have left our church I would have never been mad but my flesh would have probably screamed "say whhhhaaaatttt?? You're breaking up our awesome Sundays?! Don't you want to raise our kids in the same church? What about lunch?! " But nobody said that to us. Everyone was just like "you gotta do what Gods called you to do" (and that's just how good they all are...acting the way a Christian should...can't say I always do that but I try. And we are so Blessed that they did!)

We have felt lead to attend crossroads church in Morrison and did that today. It went really well!!! They boys did so good going right into their class rooms(Luke was a little apprehensive but I can't blame him!...so were we;) Lane jumped right in and said "Hi I'm Lane Decker and I went to a train station yesterday" (post to come on that awesome day we had!) 

Here is a pic of our boys this morning before our first new church experience...they looked SO cute...

And kisses for baby brother

And Lyric wore shoes for the first time! So sweet

We really enjoyed the worship and sermon! The people there were very nice and very welcoming! And we even ended up sitting by very amazing special people that we love so much michele and Alex becker! They don't attend there regularly...they were just visiting for the weekend(coincidence?? I think not!)and they walked in during p&w and were looking for a seat and there were 2 right by us! A comforting feeling for sure! A little extra love that God put there just for us! They are my best friends parents and are like another set of parents in a way yet just very great friends too! Couldn't have asked for a better surprise! Thank you Lord...family that isn't family but feels like family...when we are away from our family the first Sunday! God is good!!