Thankful hearts

Again it has been awhile since I have posted.  We have just celebrated Thanksgiving and with an almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old it gets more and more fun each passing year.  This year Pinterest inspired me on a few simple craft ideas to provide teachable moments on things we are thankful for and simply the changing of the seasons (which we still have yet to experience here in AZ, our a/c is still running and it's almost Dec.)  My kids both had fun with these activities and I gave myself enough grace so that I wouldn't feel horrible for missing a day here and there.  Still even though I have been a mom for awhile now, I am learning more each day about grace and that it isn't possible to fit perfection into each day.  For me, prioritizing simple little things I want to accomplish each day and balancing these things out on a weekly basis is very helpful.  I am the type of person that wants to do everything and I really have to make an effort to slow down my pace to make sure my children are not overwhelmed.

 We all had a great Thanksgiving with our entire family, Tim's parents, his sister, her roomate and my dad. Our family also did the turkey trot this year which was really fun and as long as we are not hosting Thanksgiving at our house I would do it every year. Timmy is talking more and more everyday.  His favorite more recent words are Boots (from Dora), yo-yo since Abbie has been playing with a yo-yo a lot recently, and Blue when he is coloring.  He still loves dogs which he calls woof woofs.  Abbie is still enjoying her dance class and has a recital coming soon. It has been fun listening to her inquisitive side as she has recently began to ask a lot more questions about everything. She also has started singing a lot more so I am wondering how her musical interests will grow as she grows.

We have enjoyed our fall and now we are getting ready for a great Christmas which will probably be my next blog post.

My halloween princess Cinderella, didn't get a picture of the superman this year:(

Our fall craft wall

close up of our thankful tree

Pumpkin farm time

Timmy enjoyed feeding the animals, Abbie wanted nothing to do with it!

They both LOVE to swing now!  They are so big!

They had fun at the zoo with a friend!

Time

Today it hit me how fast time really goes.  There is so much we can do in life and when we have children, life goes even faster! To think I have a 20 month old and a 3.5 year old is just crazy to me.  It almost does really seem like just yesterday I was pregnant with my first child.  I had a privilege of going to a baby shower for a friend this weekend and it was just SO exciting to see all the anticipation that the first child brings.  The start of a new life, what could be better, or more exciting?!

Life in our house has been busy with the start of me teaching more now, I have enjoyed being able to do one of the things I love most, well two of the things I love most, teaching and music.  My kids adjusted well to it, they still do miss when I am gone, but when I am teaching at my house Timmy always comes around the corner pointing to the music room saying, "Momma, Momma."  Abbie kept telling me she was dreaming about playing violin.  She has been pretty interested in what I am doing in there.

Our life at home when I'm not teaching is filled with quality time with my kids.  I do enjoy this time so much and I am very grateful that I can work just a little but still have a lot of time with my kids.  I know parenting will be full of many different seasons and my mind wants to plan and prepare for EVERYTHING, but I just have to trust God and live in the moment.  Abbie is so smart, she knows all her letters and is very curious about reading so it will be fun as she gets older because I really do enjoy teaching her.  Timmy is starting to loose his babyness and turn into a full toddler.  I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet, but it's inevitable.

When I think about how fast life has went since Abbie was born it does scare me a little.  That's already 3.5 years.  In another 3.5 years she will be 7.  Okay, that does scare me!  It is so fun to watch them grow and all the challenges that you go through at each little stage just makes you that much wiser for having conquered what you were dealing with. At this point in my life I can really see how being a mom is really the most consuming job anyone could ever have, but it is the BEST job anyone could ever have.  Being a mom teaches me more about myself then anything else ever could have and it makes me a better me each day.

Each and every day with my kids is a true blessing!  I am excited to watch this journey unfold, but part of me really just wants to freeze time.

My girl and her silly face

quiet reading time

Dance class:)

Splash pad fun

This is Timmy doing the happy and you know it song

Best friends forever!

Princess Cinderella

Craft time, sometimes it's the little things that make her day!

Isn't he too cute?!

Timmy likes crafts too:)

dealing with pain in the past

I am sitting here, remembering my mom.  I do have to say that I miss her and part of me has been running from sitting still long enough to have any memories.  I remind myself that it is okay to cry but I am not so sure it is okay to run from ever thinking about it to escape my emotions.  I am sure every person on earth can think back to something in their past that would bring them painful memories, the thing is I just don't want to recreate in my life the things that were created in my past.  History does have a way of repeating itself.  But God never ceases to amaze me and tonight I just meditate on these scriptures:

Philippians 3:13-14 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You see my faith in strong, I have a belief that you cannot mess with about the creator of this universe.  I may not be able to articulate my belief as strongly as I feel it, but it is something that has been revealed to me through many series of events in my life.  I must admit, I had my own share of trust issues and I am still working through some but when I let go and put my whole and complete trust in God without any doubt, He ALWAYS shows himself faithful.

So nights like tonight, when I have a sadness in my heart for something painful that happened on this earth, God fills my heart with all that I could ever need and comforts me that I can use what was meant for evil to bring good into this world.

I am a strong believer that there is way more going on in this world then we (even the most intelligent of humans) can understand.  And so one of my all time favorite scriptures is

Proverbs 3:5-6

New International Version (NIV)

⁵ Trust in the Lord^(A) with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths^(B) straight.^[a](C)

 I love how this verse is so simple yet so profound! You can apply SO many life situations to this one verse and your heart can be calmed.  Writing this blog and reminding me of these truths sure did calm my own heart and I know what God does for one person He will do for anyone. 

Life here with the Burdick's

Once again, it has been awhile since I last blogged.  I am so glad that I am taking the time to blog, since I know that many times my memory might fail to remember all the fond details of my everyday life with two little ones. The biggest change since my last blog is that Timmy is starting to explode in his talking.  And when I say explode, I mean before he was really just saying baby babble and now he is saying real words. I attempted to write down all of what he says now, but I know I am still leaving some words out, but here is what I can remember, Momma, Dadda, Ball (which I must say is his all time FAVORITE word, he says this one like 40 times a day), Choo-Choo, Bah (like a sheep), Woof, Red, Yellow, Grape, Juice, Water, Dora, Moo, Fish, and Dark (for when he helps me sort the laundry into lights and darks). His personality is SO different from his sisters that it is really interesting to watch this talking explosion since it is nothing like what I experienced with Abbie.  Abbie is loving her time playing prince and princess with her little brother, which usually is just her trying to boss around her little brother.  In all fairness, she really plays really well with him and they are so sweet together much of the time! I have started teaching violin/viola and piano again and Abbie does get pretty excited when a student leaves to want to try piano.  I haven't done much of anything but show her how to hold a violin and with that she did do amazingly well.  We are in the process of looking for a dance studio for her so I'm sure my next blog will be filled with details about that. For now, enough writing, here are some pictures of our fun!

Fun riding on daddy's mower

Abbie is getting excited to try new hair do's

Timmy loves his kisses

playtime at the mall

Mommy's little baker girl

Mommy's handsome little man

why can't I use two spoons??

Let's go down together

Swimming and trying out our floaties

Just watching a show together

Abbie got a turn too

Thankful for the holy spirit

I am wide awake, 3:43 in the morning and I can feel God working things together in the supernatural realm.  After taking some time to seek Him I feel the need to write a few things.  I have noticed this pattern in my life where I can feel a change coming in the spirit.  Life was given to us by God and He gave us a spirit to sense things so we don't have to live by our natural senses alone. Everyone's life is going to have high and low points, this is how we are created to grow and change.  If we just all lived flat lives it makes me think we would just be robots programed to just go through the motions, but praise God, we are not!! Everyone of us has different ways of handling all life brings us and there is no condemnation in Christ but we are all on this journey of growing that putting out that purpose that God has created us to do.  The unanswered questions in our life will one day be revealed but until then, God's rhema words to me each day are life and joy to my heart.  "Trust in the Lord will all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight" Proverbs 3:5 Such a simple and profound verse.  Praise God that I am continually growing in this.

Things I LOVE!!!

A few things I love:  God, Music, reading, family, friends, taking pictures, cooking/baking, writing, and teaching.  As I was thinking about things I love to do, it pretty much encompasses my life right now as far as how I spend my time.  I am blessed that I get to do the things in my life that I love to do!  We just returned from a quick trip to San Diego.  It was very fun but way too short!  Our next trip will be longer for sure.

We also recently got to see a college friend and met up at Bass Pro shops.  I didn't realize all the fun things they have for the kids: crafts, carousel, fishing, and shooting games and they have some other special things like smores on certain nights.

Here's what's new with the kiddos.  Abbie has a new habit of waking up from her nap with 9 pairs of pj's on.  I lay her down for her nap in her regular clothes and then she wakes up and looks like a football player. She has been enjoying preschool and has been reciting humpty dumpty poem to all our family this last week.

Timmy's personality is coming out more and more each day.  He LOVES music and dances all the time.  The happy and you know it song was playing on our radio and he started dancing and clapping when it said if you are happy and you know it clap your hands.  He also loves cookies!! He got so excited the other day when we were swimming about a cookie he was going to eat as soon as we got his swim suit off that he just took his whole swim top off himself in a jiffy.  The kids both got to watch Auntie CoCo pass her miss Arizona crown down this weekend and they enjoyed having their little slumber party in the same bed at the hotel that night.

One picture

They say one picture is worth a thousand words.  Have you ever thought about this?  As I was going through and organizing some things I stumbled upon a picture.  That's about all it took for me to get distracted, can you tell I may need to work on my focus?  Or maybe God has just given me a gift that I can easily change my focus, however you perceive it, this is a common story in my life.  Anyways, as I look at this one picture it contains some family members including myself as a child.  One of these family members happens to be my mom.  As I look at this picture I see more than just the people in it, I see their hearts, their joys, their insecurities, their personalities and relationships can be seen at a deeper level.  Sometimes when you see into things like this it helps you to have grace for your present moment.  It helps to see that we are not made to live this life through human righteousness and it helps to see the full benefit of Jesus' sacrifice so that we are made righteous through Him.  All history just exposes the hearts of people in the past and all pictures just capture this history.  So in this one picture it is more than just a picture, it is a glimpse at real thoughts that came from real hearts that tells a real story.  This one picture allows me to see a moment in time that was way past, right now.  What a gift!

Burdick happenings

I am sitting here thinking how much I miss writing in my blog.  Life has been busier than the normal busy and I am taking some time to reflect on life in general.  It has been a good couple of weeks, I did do a lot of teaching between three sub jobs and some teachings at my church.  As much as I LOVE teaching I am more and more convinced of the full blessing that it is to stay at home with my children. This gift of relationship time that I have with them now while they are young is irreplaceable.  So.... speaking of my children, thought I'd write a little bit about what is new in their world. Timmy is starting to walk but he still prefers crawling.  I think it is a speed thing because he is all about going fast.  He probably will just be running once he is actually done with crawling.  It is SO fun to watch his little personality bloom each day.  Today he got so excited when he saw a bird fly by and the hugest smile just popped on his face. We were all reading "I love you through and through" tonight and there was a part in the story that said I love you when your crying and Abbie said, "No, mom's don't like crying, mom's fix crying"  I got to talk to her about how we always love our children even if we don't like the action. Abbie has been entirely obsessed with dressing her dolls up and playing with all her dolls lately, she also and always has loved to color and she is starting to color in the general area of the lines which is pretty cool to watch.  I am so enjoying being a mom right now.  I think about how fast this journey is going to go and I can't even fathom them growing up and even starting elementary school, but one step and one season at a time I am learning even if I don't have all the answers, God's grace is sufficient!

our first duncan donuts trip

some outside time in our amazingly hot weather

I think she likes her pink donut with sprinkles

This picture just makes me laugh!!

Ah...Daddy time, we SO love every moment of this!

Her fish bowl craft from the storytime at the library

influence, authority, worth and grace

I have always been a huge believer that there is SO much going on in this earth that we are not even aware of.  I am constantly striving to increase my awareness but at the same time I am constantly reminded from God how although God is limitless, we do live in an earthly body that has limits. I do believe all things are possible through Christ but I also believe in grace for each moment because we are never going to achieve perfection and if we could be perfect in each moment we would have no reason to have a relationship with God.  You see the great thing about this relationship with God is that it is all by grace.  God knows that we will need His grace and so He gave it to us as a free gift.  We just have to receive it as we know that God loves us SO much that He has made us righteous through the blood of Christ, not at all by our own works.  This has not always been an easy concept for me to accept as deep down I have always thought that my worth was given to be by my works.  What God is continually revealing to me is that He has given me worth, influence and authority in this world which is limitless, but it is not by my own works that I have any of this but only through my faith in Christ. I am writing this out because I want to be reminded in those moments when it is so easy to not take authority and have low self worth that this is the worst contribution that I could make to the world.  It really is a very selfish thing to play victim in life and what I choose do think and do each day is always affecting the world around me. Today and each day I choose grace!  Thank you Lord for truth!

All our goings on

Thought I'd take a minute to update on the kiddos.   These pictures and video show our unique, fun and silly family. Timmy is almost 15 months, he can say mama, dada, ball, dog and woof.  He loves to color, signs please and all done and can wave bye bye.  He still isn't walking but is crawling fast as can go.  Abbie is getting excited to start preschool in the summer, we have been keeping busy with going to the library, visiting my dad, swimming, church and play dates.  Abbie loves to put puzzles together lately and she always enjoys helping me with anything, cooking, laundry, etc... She loves to play princess and we just went to a wedding last weekend where she enjoyed watching the princess get married. She actually colored the letter A all my herself while we went out to eat one day and I was so impressed since I never taught her how to do that. Another one of her favorites is playing dress up, she LOVES picking outfits to dress up in! One of Abbie's new phrases she says all the time now is, "I'm just kidding" She loves her brother and loves to pretend that he is rescuing her. She makes me laugh daily and I am so blessed to have this time with my children!  I know if I don't write all this out, at some point in my life I will forget these details so I am so thankful for my blog. Here are some pictures and video to share our little family.  Thanks for reading!