Not Me Monday

I most definitely did not leave a poopy diaper laying on the changing table in pure laziness and catch my dog eating it an hour later. And I would never watch my dog eat the poopy diaper while smiling instead of taking it away just for my personal enjoyment!

Randomness

We are living in randomness right now. Not quite sure where to go with our new curveball, we are taking each day one at a time! Yesterday, we made the trek out to the MN zoo with my mom. We were able to watch the trainers working with the dolphins and even took the monorail around the park. It was so nice to be together as a family, a friendly reminder from God about what truly matters!!

Learning all about the Zoo!

Touching the stingrays

Giving back to the zoo...their favorite part of the day!

Graham has had another rough week. He's been on a pretty strong dose of Zantac for a week now, but things seem to be going downhill again. The poor guy cries all day long and all he wants to do is nurse. I think we will give it a couple more days before going in to see his pediatrician again. For now, we call him our little colic baby...

The love and support from friends over these past few days has been amazing!! You find out who your true friends are when you go through tough seasons. I pray that my kids find friends as wonderful as the ones I have found. And I pray that I can learn to be as wonderful to my friends as they have been to me.

One of Kenzi's favorite friends at the CCC today!!
Tori was off in the corner licking something...

When I say I am a Christian...

When I say I am a Christian I am not shouting that I am clean living.
I'm whispering I was lost but now I'm found and forgiven.

When I say I am a Christian I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say I am a Christian I'm not saying I am strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say I am a Christian I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and I need God to clean my mess.

When I say I am a Christian I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far too visible but God believes I am worth it.

When I say I am a Christian I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches so I call upon His name.

When I say I am a Christian I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner who received God's grace somehow!

Life Changing Day

I can only describe today as life changing. We aren't sharing more than that at this moment, but once we have a handle on life again we will be sure to explain! That's the point of a blog right? To be honest and open about the things we are going through from day to day...I am more honest on my blog than I feel I can be with some people. It's just easier in some ways. You don't feel judged, I'm sure it still happens, but you don't feel it. And feeling judged just stinks!

I was comforted tonight be a good friend that reminded me we were baptised 12 years ago today!! I was a Junior in HS attending MCC (Minnetonka Community Church). I had just accepted God into my heart and was begining my walk as a Christian. It was a beautiful day. And that's how I know that 12 years later, God is STILL in control, and this can be a beautiful day too.

Thank you God, for always giving us the strength we need exactly when we need it! I hope we glorify your name as you shut one door and open another...

So Big!!!

The past few days have been so exciting with "Baby Gam". He weighed in at 10lbs 1oz at his checkup this week and his doctor said he was very strong for a 6 week old baby. He is constantly wanting to stand up, holds his head up very well, and has even rolled over.

We switched him to the size one diapers and have started to put away some of the NB (newborn) sized clothes.  I love seeing him grow each day, it is so exciting to be his mom. He even smiled on command the other day! Looking forward to a week of even more firsts...

Magic Kingdom Pictures

We skipped the hotel breakfast so we could be at the park when it opened so we were
 stuck eating pretzels and turkey legs at 9am!

Graham's 1st Disney Ride!!!

While everyone else went on Space Mountain, I stayed back with the 3 kids. Mackenzi was dancing with a little girl, Graham was nursing, and Tori was...playing with a hose! Lovely!

Graham's first girlfriend!

Mackenzi's current favorite princess!!

I wonder if they're related??

FLORIDA!

We had such a fun trip to Florida. We still can't believe we were able to surprise my parents! We had to keep a lot of secrets and it was such a relief once they finally knew. We had a condo right down the beach from them so we were able to see them a couple times during the rest of their stay. We went for walks on the beach, looked for shells in the dark, had a delicious dinner at their place, and even learned a new sport...Pickleball!
My parents seemed to enjoy having us around, maybe someday they will tell us what they really thought when they saw ALL of our kids come running down the hallway the night we showed up! My mom actually skipped her flight home and decided to stay with us as we went on to Disney World for a few days!

Our Disney World portion of the trip started off on a rough note though...when we booked our 2 room suite online some of the reviews mentioned a terrible smell and bugs. We figured they were being dramatic and went with the Enclave Hotel anyways. Jokes on us though, as we checked into our room we found we had a roomate waiting for us...a half-dead cockroach :) The smell was also quite awful. So we aired out the room and sent our new cockroach friend to a new place and put all of our luggage up on tables! Fortunately, we weren't going to be in our room much so we decided it was not a big deal. That night we stopped by to visit a good friend of mine and her family who also happened to be vacationing in Disney! Afterwards we checked out Downtown Disney...along with the rest of Florida!

The next morning we woke up early for our day at Magic Kingdom. We got to the park right as it opened at 9am and stayed until Midnight!! It was a fun-filled day for all of us, I am so glad we got to go. The girls loved going on almost every ride at the park, the guys enjoyed the adult rides, and my mom and I enjoyed shopping! There were a few rides not running for a couple of hours around lunchtime so Kenny went to speak with a manager to see if there was anything they could do for us. Well, it was worth it! We got a special pass that allowed us to skip any line and get on the ride through a special door. It was amazing! Some of the lines were an hour long, so with 3 kids it was so wonderful to bypass all the waiting and just get on the ride. I did have a little guilt though! After our long day at Disney we went back to our "questionable" hotel and crashed.

Our flight home the next day went very well because all of the kids were so tired! I wish I could say the same about my experience going through security by myself (Kenny had to go return the rental car) with all of our kids, the double stroller, 3 backpacks, 3 blankets, 2 stuffed animals, a diaper bag, a camera, gifts, and 2 car seats!

It was a trip we will never forget, our first big adventure as a family of 5! And we are so relieved to say that we finally brought Graham to Disney World, we were feeling like terrible parents :) These are some of our favorite pics from the trip~