Tiff's Turn

March 2: 8 months old! Cranky babes today. This is as good as I could get!  It seems as though their 7th month didn't even exist. Where did that whole month go? The fact that February went by so fast is surprising to me because we had so much sickness, from the stomach bug to ear infections. "Crazy hair, I have ear infections and don't care"  Livi: Miss Livi is always the easiest to write about. She's all personality. Every one of our visitors always comments, "She's so sweet!" She is... as long as you're holding her. She doesn't like to nap. She steals her brother's toys. She loves to tell me no- especially at nap time- by shaking her head back and forth (thanks big sister Aria.) On top of all that, yes she is very sweet. She's also the first to do everything. Sitting up: Crawling: (in little spurts) I'm betting she's the first to get her helmet off too. I had to take them in for a helmet adju...

Saturday started out pretty typical. I did laundry, Aria helped.  By "helped", I mean she took the clothes out of the basket and unfolded everything. I can't blame her, it was fun. While we were working on laundry,  Levi worked on changing the oil in our vehicles. I was thinking about my 21 Day Challenge and how thankful I am that Levi is a handyman who wants to do everything himself.  "That is worthy of writing about being thankful for that," I thought to myself.  But I changed my mind. This afternoon we took Aria to Mimi Mindy's so we could go see the movie Lone Survivor . Honestly, I didn't know much about the movie, just that there was one military guy that survived a mission in Afghanistan.  This movie is so much more than that. Based on a true story, the movie makes you feel like you are right in the war zone with these brave Navy SEALs in the mountains of Afghanistan. It's one of those stories that will l...

Just as I thought, I didn't have the chance to blog  every  day this week, but I did  jot down my thankful things each day so that I wouldn't fall off the Twenty-One Day Challenge bandwagon. Wednesday Prayer time with my co-workers. Sometimes it's easy to forget that we're not the only ones with problems. I start each and every work day in prayer with at least two of my co-workers. This all started a few months ago when one of my friends discovered her husband was having an affair. Devastated and broken, she wanted nothing else but God to restore her marriage. I offered to pray with her after talking that day and we decided to start each school day this way. Joel Osteen , summed up my day of thanks perfectly: "Philippians 1:28 says, 'Do not be intimidated by your enemies.' You may be up against a giant obstacle right now, but put your shoulders back and hold your head up high. You are not weak. Those for you are greater than those against you. "...

Yes, I missed a post yesterday, but I plan on catching up today. Watch out, you might get two posts in one day if you're lucky!  Yesterday during our "snow day", or what I called the "cold day" since we were out of school due to extremely cold temperatures, Aria and I worked on crawling. She tries and tries, but gives up and rolls to where she wants to be. She doesn't seem to care that she's almost 9 months old and not crawling yet. Once she gets fussy about it, we switch to walk practicing. Standing up on her own is her new favorite past time. Another fav of course is watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Aria also is still loving book time because flipping the pages on her own is a blast. I didn't get a chance to make those cookies we talked about yesterday, but there's always today with snow day #2.  It's 7 am and cookies are starting to sound amazing for breakfast. Continuing on with the 21 Day Challen...

Sundays are for church, football and being lazy... right? After church, we paid a visit to my parents and got a delicious meal out of it. Aria played, played, played. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we are supposed to have one of the coldest days we've seen in over twenty years, with wind chills close to -40*. This brings me to day 2 of my 21 Day Challenge. Because of the extreme frigid temperatures tomorrow, I got the call that there will be no school. Aria and I were stoked. I'm thankful that not only do I have an amazing career doing what I love, but also that my job gives me the flexibility to not have to get my baby out in negative thirty degree win chills. Maybe tomorrow after we play and nap, we will make a bunch of cookie dough. Then maybe, just maybe, turn that dough into actual cookies. Love those snow days. PS~ The Chiefs loss was hard, but we still love our team! Be careful out there if you get out tomorrow.

Yesterday I wrote about the Twenty-One Day Challenge that myself and a few colleagues are beginning. This challenge is directed towards success in your career, but it could be applied to any aspect of life! Let's start the challenge! On day one, I am thankful for the power of prayer. On my 3 mile run this morning, I spent the time talking to God and listening to all different kinds of Christian music. (Remember, challenge #2 in to listen to nothing but Christian music for 30 days. This includes during my runs.) During my prayer time, I prayed for our family, I prayed for my friends and all of their unique situations. I even prayed for people who are definitely not my friends. Jesus instructs us to pray for our enemies. This is extremely difficult on many days. Sometimes, like today, praying for your enemies will bring up memories and thoughts of things that you thought you gave to God a long time ago. Once I was home, I still things I tried to give to God heavy on my heart...