Baking, baking, baking

Today has been full of baking, baking, baking!! Banana bread, zuccini bread, whole wheat bread, black bean soup, pesto, veggie salad, and freezable french toast! I am messy, my kitchen is messy, and our tummys are full. It's been a fun day. I love weekends off:)

Last Weekend of Summer

Well today is a wonderful day. It started with an early morning trip to the local farmers market for some lovely fresh produce. Followed by 2 trips to the local Co-op for groceries and baking supplies. Now my little one and my big one(the hubby) are napping and the other two are out playing with the neighbor girl, while I sit here on the computer looking up recipes and getting ready to go to the store again for more food for our BBQ with the neighbors tonight. We are going to have a nice relaxing weekend full of food, fun, friends, and family. I love it!! Especially since it is the last weekend of summer vacation!

God always amazes me! He just knew that we needed a weekend like this!

God is good, ALL the time !
ALL the time, God is good:)

Crabby and Fat

I feel like a big fat moo-moo. You know, I lost all my pregnancy weight after Jaden and I still have 15-20 lbs of pregnancy weight from Eli to lose! And he is almost 3. What the heck! I am still young enough that I shouldn't have that much of a problem losing weight, but what gives! I am crabby. Crabby and fat. Yuck!

It's just one of those days! Trying to find something nice to wear to Kens grandmas wake and funeral, and nothing fits like it should. At least for the most part it's all black, which is supposed to help cover the fatness. It doesn't seem to be working much for me though. Whatever!!!

I wish I had a black full length Nun outfit!!!!

Cloth Diapers.....At 3?!

So lately I have been obsessed with finding ways to live more "Green" and at the same time save money. Ken and I have talked about doing cloth diapers "if" we ever have another child. It is amazing how much you can save your pocket book and the environment at the same time!
So I decided why wait? Eli is now starting to wear cloth diapers. I know it seems silly since he is almost 3! But this child of mine is no where near wanting to potty train. He has absolutely NO desire to even touch the toilet!! So I have a feeling he is going to be in diapers for a while. He seems to be handling the change well, so far. After talking with my neighbor, who cloth diapers, she brought up a good point too. Cloth diapers usually encourage kids to potty train rather early because they can actually feel when they are wet much more than if they have disposable diapers on. So who knows, maybe he will potty train sooner than I thought.

Keep Us In Your Prayers

Ken's grandma passed away this morning at the hosptial. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as all the arangements are being made this week. Ken's dad seems to be doing OK right now. Marc lost his dad about 2 summers ago and that was pretty hard on the whole family. So please pray for the family.

Out of the mouths of babes.....

As I have Jaden lay on the couch next to me holding an ice pack on his right eye, because his loving brother wacked him with a sword and gave him a nice welt/bruise,
Jaden says to me....

"Mom, I'm glad you're the best nurse ever!"

Oh, SO cute!! I should bring him to work with me so he can tell all my patients that.

I'm glad I have one fan. And a cute one at that!

3 Years and Counting!

Happy Anniversary baby!! It is hard for me to even explain in words what the last 3 years for me have been like with you. I love you more than ever. I appreciate ALL that you do, have done, and will do in the future. Thank you for your hard work, for your support, for your love, and for your sacrifices. Thank you for our family and what that means to you. I am so excited for what our future holds together.

HE is the Reason

I look back with amazement that we have made it to this point in our marriage. God has had His hand on us since the very begining and He has never given up on us. 3 short yet long years it's been. And sooo many more to come for us. Ken and I have done so much growing and learning in the past 3 years. Not to mention all the big life events that we have conquered in our short time as a married couple. I sit and think about how trying the first few years of marriage have been and wonder how AMAZING the next lifetime of marriage will be.

3 years ago I was stressed out, making sure all the wedding details were taken care of, getting ready for the rehearsal and dinner, and feeling scared. I never imagined that I would be scared the night before my wedding, but I was. It all happened so fast and I wanted us to be getting married for all the right reasons. Yet there was a part of me that was scared that we were getting married for the wrong reasons.

And here I am. Completely believing that God intended for Ken and I to be One. I love my husband so much more than I had imagined and still I will continue to love hime more and more with each passing day, month, and year we spend together.

Whatever the reason behind walking down the aisle doesn't compare to the Faithfullness of our Lord and His promises to us. He has made this beautiful living marriage so much more than I ever could have dreamed or even prayed for.

HE is the reason Ken and I have committed to eachother, HE is the reason we have endured through the many storms, HE is the reason for the Joy in our lives and our marriage, HE is the reason for our love for one another. Because of our God, we are here, 3 years later, still together. Still enduring, still loving, still learning, still trusting, still hoping for the future, living in the present, and remembering the past.

I love you Ken Carlson.

I love you Lord for giving Ken to me. For trusting me to be his wife, to be his "helper", for creating us for eachother. Thank you.

Baby Fix Follow Up

I got a bit of a baby fix this weekend. It was wonderful! As we were leaving for church on Sunday we got a very unexpected phone call. My sons aunt on his dads side of the family called and was in a pinch for a sitter. She is a Vet and got called in to the clinic for a c-section and her husband needed to leave for work, and she forgot that her parents were not in town that day. So she needed to find a place for her 6 month old little girl to go. So who does she call.....ME! Yay!!!!!

So her husband met us at church and did the drop off. It turned out to be a very smooth transition for her, and I was tickled pink!! My husband kept laughing at me because I was so giddy and completely happy to totting around a little tyke again. People at church were looking like "where did they get that kid?", "She wasn't pregnant, was she?", It was hilarious! So many people asked where she came from.

We didn't get to keep her for very long, as her mom picked her up as soon as she was done. We maybe only had her for an hour or so after church. But it was awsome. The older kids loved having her over, especially Jaden since she is his cousin. He can really make her laugh, and you can just tell he loves her so much. Eli on the other hand wanted nothing to do with her. I guess being the baby of the family, he wasn't too impressed!

I was on cloud 9 while we had her and very sad when she had to leave. So of course I started talking to the hubby about baby number 4????? Normally he gets annoyed when I do this, because he doesn't want more and I do. But anyways, he told me he has slowly been having a change of heart about the whole thing. He hadn't told me up to this point because he didn't want me to get my hopes up. How awsome is that!!!

So we may agree afterall that one more will complete our family. In a few years anyways. He told me if we have another one next year, I can't go back to school next year, I'll have to wait till the babe is older. Or I could go back to school next year and wait until I'm done to have another babe. Duh, I told him school can totally wait!!!

Anyways, we still have lots of talking to do. But I am so happy that we ARE talking about it.

And I am so happy we got to have another little girl in the house for a little while. It was FUN!!

3 Years Ago

I just realized that 3 years ago I was planning a wedding!!!! Time really went fast. I can't even believe that we have been married for almost 3 years. And what a long 3 years they have been. Not necisarily bad but long. We have had a lot of things happen over the last 3 years. Maybe I'll reflect on that in a later post. For now I am just amazed that my anniversary is next week. Crazy! But good. God is good!

Baby Fix

I need a baby fix! All of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks. I need to hold a baby!!! My baby is 2 1/2 and won't let me hold him like a baby anymore. I saw lots of cute newborns at work the other night and drooled over them, it was torture. I could just sit for hours holding a little tyke. I miss my babies being babies. They are growing up so fast. I would love to have 1 more, but thet may take an act of God to change my husbands mind. So I have formulated a plan.......

I am going to start calling all my friends that have babies 6 months and younger and volunteer to babysit for HOURS. That should give me a fix for a while! And give the moms a break, it's a win-win situation. So do I have any takers???????

Feeling........Blessed

So despite being tired and just getting back from a LONG car ride taking KyLee home, I have this inner joy and peace that just came out of no where. Not that I havn't had joy and peace recently, but all of a sudden the Holy Spirit just filled my soul with this amazing mixture of joy, peace, contentment, and pure bliss. It is amazing. I love this feeling and pray that it doesn't go away. I am so blessed and unfortunately at times it is sooo easy for me to forget that. Thankfully I have a relationship with the most Awsome God who despite my shortcomings and lack of faith at times totally loves me and forgives me everytime I start believing that I am not that blessed. How amazing to be THAT loved!!

God is good. :) Yahooooooooo!

Addicted?

OK I may have an addiction!!? and it's not shopping! Shocking, I know! So most people have addictions like drugs/alcohol, shopping, video games/tv/computer, other people, food, etc....

Well my "maybe" addiction is slightly different. But admitting it is the first step...so here it goes.....

Hi, my name is Jazz and I am a "Home Birth Video" addict.

Yes it is true. I LOVE watching peoples videos of their home births, mostly on YouTube! but you can find them other places too. Most of you may find this to be very very strange, but I AM strange, so there!

Most addicts have an excuse or justification(as I like to call it) for their addiction, I am no different. My justification is this....I am watching them for self educational purposes. Are you laughing?????? I heard someone giggle!!

Anyways, it's no joke. My long term goal in my nursing career is to become a Midwife. So I have started early, by observing these amazing birth stories.

So there it is. My addiction. Although, I do like to think of it as more of a Passion than an Addiction(a little more justification!). Wow, that felt good to get off my chest! I wonder if they have AA for this kind of thing? It might be worth looking in to!!

So, am I totally weird????????

A Mothers Faith

I layed next to Eli tonight as he fell asleep. As I was laying there I realized that it had actually been quite some time since I had cuddled with him at bed time b.c. he usually wants daddy to lay down with him. So as I lay there with him snuggling, rubbing his arm, watching him sleep, smelling him, I started to cry. Mainly b.c. I feel so unworthy to be his mommy and completely blessed that God would entrust His child with me on this crazy earth. And then I started crying even more b.c. my heart was just aching for Mck Mama(see the link to the right). I am blessed enough to lay next to my beautiful precious gift from God and there is another mom at the very same moment who is faced with the possibility of not ever knowing what it would be like to snuggle at bedtime with her unborn son, watch him sleep, or to even know what he smells like.
As a mother I am just completely heart broken for her. And yet at the same time, full of hope and faith in The Almighty God and the ability He has to bless this mother with the life of her unborn son.

So tonight I am reminded of how mysterious yet totally amazing and awsome God is. And I ask anyone who reads this to please please pray for Mck Mama and check out her blog and hear her story and see the faith and trust she has in The Lord.

Lets lift this family up to The Lord.

It was a GOD night

OK this is just a little venting I must do since I have been awake for 24 hours straight, just worked the last 8.5 of those hours, and obviously am tired and will be going to bed when I am done with this.

Why does our society have to be the SUCKIEST thing ever(maybe a slight exageration). Young girls are totally defining their self worth in what their broke, immature, selfish, still living at home, can't hold a job yet alone shower, loser, woman manipulating BOYFRIENDS!!! I am so tired of it. Why is there this whole stinkin generation of girls that think there is something wrong with them the minute one of these lame boys breaks up with them. I want to shake them and say, "it is NOT you, YOU are WAY better off not even knowing that guy, don't you know what you DESERVE, don't you know that there is a GOD out there who is heart broken everytime you think a negative thought about yourself like that, don't you know what HE promises for you, what HE can give you, don't you know that your identity and self worth IS defined by HIM, HE who created you, knit you in your mothers womb, fearfully and WONDERFULLY made YOU in HIS secret place, away from anything that could ever tarnish you, DON'T YOU KNOW THESE THINGS??????????"

And then I catch my breath and realize, of course they don't know these things. These girls have been surounded by people most of their lives that have never once told them a single word of that truth. NOT ONCE! Can you imagine not ONCE being told you were a mighty creation of GOD, a masterpiece set apart from ALL the others!!! That not a SINGLE person on this earth defines who you ARE!!!

Well, I met a girl like this tonight. And I am sooooo sad. And God layed this girl out before me for a reason. And I am figuring out that reason. And I am mad, mad at what The World tells people, mad that people don't hear what God tells people, and mad that Christ Followers like me are NOT(including myself) doing a very good job of making sure that people are hearing what God is trying to tell us. And dang it somethings gotta change.

Some nights I wonder why I was led to Nursing, and nights like last night, I know EXACTLY why HE led me to Nursing.

God is WAY WAY bigger than this world, let's spread HIM around, share HIM with the broken hearted. Share with people how GOD views them, feels about them, and longs for a relationship with them.

Thanks for listening to me vent. It was a LLLOOONNNNGGGG night, but a good night. A GOD night:)

Time for a Face Lift!

I have decided it was time for a face lift. For my blog, not my face, although.......j/k....... of all the things that could be lifted my face is NOT at the top of the list but I won't tell you what is! Anyways my blog felt kind of boring and blah so I found this uber cute pretty in pink template. I feel like it suits me better. I love PINK!!!!

Along with the "look" of blog I think I will be giving my posts a face lift too. I started this blog as a way for family to see a little of what goes on in the Carlson Clan since I have a decent amount of family that we don't see often and so on and so on. Anyways after reading MANY other blogs I have been feeling like I could really use this blog as a journeling opportunity also. It has become so easy to make everything look and sound so happy and perfect ALL the time, when obviously like everyone else it isn't always happy. So from now on I am going to start trying to journal lifes ups AND downs and hope for possitive and negative feedback, and maybe some new friends along the way.

Blessings to EVERYONE!!! <3

Summer

Where has summer gone? I can't believe that the kids start school in a month! This happens every year, all of a sudden it is August and you look back and start scratching your head. This means we only have a few good weeks of uninterupted family time before it is back to the hustle and bustle. What to do?
Well, lots of park outings, swimming, friend play dates, BBQ's, bike riding, camping......YIKES! I better start planning a few things.

I hope everyone is having as much fun as we are. Just being a family, being together, it's awsome!!

Peace and Love to you all <3