Timmy video 14 months

Change, growth and fun!

Well I set out to blog once a week and I haven't been able to follow through with that over the course of the last month, super thankful for grace!  My month has not slowed down at all but taking some time to write a quick update. A few MAJOR changes have taken place in our family, first Burdick Landscaping is growing and my husband is now working it full time.  I am very proud of him and how it is growing him personally also. My dad has also moved much closer to me which is such a blessing.  It seems like the past few weeks have been filled with activity after activity that was planned and we have been way too busy for our own good.  I am writing this to remind myself that it is okay to slow down! Abbie being three now seems like she is growing up soooooo fast! She is little miss negotiator on everything and is really putting me in a position where I have to set clear boundaries.  Her favorite phrase right now is because you love me, for example she will ask, can I have a snack now because you love me? She is a complete mirror of me and is wanting to talk all the time now to the point where I say enough talking.  Over the last few weeks we have had a lot of fun times.  Here are some pictures of our adventures which includes the Phoenix Children's museum, Phoenix zoo, Abbie's bath art whale (which I think I may have a budding artist), Coloring Easter eggs, and just being silly at home.

Abbie's third birthday party

So Abbie had her third birthday party this past weekend and she had a wonderful time. The theme of her party was a ballerina party.  We had the cutest tutus for all the girls to wear during dance time with little wings.  We rented a bounce house and had a craft time and dance lessons.  In the morning while we were setting up Abbie enjoyed the bounce house all herself and told me, "This is my best day ever!" I really enjoyed watching her and tried to take as many pictures as I could but I am realizing I am not a very good photographer.  At any rate, here are some pictures that will tell the story better than my words could of her special day.

It was a great day, and now I am fully aware that I have a three year old!  I must admit every year just gets better and better:)

Abbie's ballerina party video.m4v

Abbie's 3rd birthday and other events

I haven't been blogging very often lately, so I wanted to make a point to sit down and at least write a little about our week. Weeks like this have very little down time for me, which I miss but at the same time I enjoyed every part of my busyness this week. I had an opportunity to teach at church on Wed, an opportunity to sub orchestra at Fremont Jr. High on Friday, and I have had rehearsals for a concert I am playing tonight. Our family got to celebrate Abbie's birthday which was also on Friday and we are still working hard planning her ballerina party coming up on March 10. This has also been a HUGE week for Abbie as she gave up sucking her thumb.  We are on day 5 of no thumb now and we are planning to take her to Peter Piper this Thursday to celebrate!  I am not going to write much about it, cause we have been talking to her about it for at least a year, and I could probably go on forever about it, but she is really proud of herself and overall it has been a great change. She does take much longer to fall asleep now, but I think in time that will get easier for her. Timmy is starting to get his personality out a lot more and he gets SO excited anytime we go outside.  He completely LOVES it, he still isn't walking so I am really excited for when he is walking and we can do more things outside!  Abbie and I have had some interesting conversations this week.  One of them went like this, "What is your name?" says Abbie, I reply "My name is mommy." Her response, "No your name is Marget". Okay you are right my name is Margaret, but you get to call me Mommy.  We repeated this conversation a few times and then she went through the whole process again with daddy but hasn't brought it up again since then. She also just lately has been completely fascinated with weddings and wedding rings, and has used multiple items pretending they are her wedding ring and of course she has asked to wear my actual wedding ring as well. It is cute, and make me wonder what she is really thinking sometimes. The relationship between her and her brother is always something cute for me to watch.  Yesterday she started saying Timmy and I are best friends forever and then she would hug him.  She did this multiple times as well and I thought it was SO cute!! The weather has been gorgeous here outside this week even hitting the low 80's so we have really been enjoying living in AZ this week! Here are a few pictures.

As a man thinks in his heart....

God has been bringing this verse to me this past week.  As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7) Just this simple statement to me brings such deep revelations.  Much more than I have time to go into right now. Our thoughts are what creates. When I ask myself why I do the things I do, when I wasn't even thinking about doing them, it is because somewhere hidden in my heart (the unseen) there are heart thoughts about what I am doing.  For example, the light bulb in our bathroom burned out the other day and I didn't fix it immediately.  Throughout the day, I knew that the bulb was burned out in my head, but my heart obviously hadn't gotten that concept down yet because every time I went in that bathroom, what did I do, I attempted to turn the light on.  When the light wouldn't turn on, I would think to myself, why am I trying to turn it on when I know it doesn't work? That seems very stupid of me. Then it dawned on me that there went my heart otherwise known as the subconscious operating my life again. I think about how our subconscious heart is so powerful, how it basically steers the course of our life because we make most of all our decisions in life out of it.  Lately, I have been making a conscious effort to operate out of my conscious instead of my subconscious, but even as I do that, I always end up just doing things because it is in my heart to do it, without even thinking.  So then I began to wonder, what is it I really want to change if I am always going to be living out of this subconscious part of me at least for some of my day?  I realized the answer was in God's word.  (It always is, we just have to seek it out).  Romans 12:2 says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" The answer is to continuously put the truth of God's word into my subconscious mind or heart.  Today I was feeling a little bit of failure as a mom, as my daughter started to get a temperature, but I am choosing to not let any thoughts of failure in my mind or heart because God has said that I am made righteous through the blood of Jesus.  I will not let the enemy have any foothold to open the door.  God's word says if you submit yourself to God and resist the devil he will flee from you (James 4:7).  A lot of times as a mom the accuser can come in and accuse me that I was not good enough.  At least this happens to me sometimes, I don't know about you.  But the truth is, I am not good enough by my own works, but I am perfectly good enough through my faith in Jesus.  I am choosing to always resist this thought that I am not good enough, from here on out.  God knows my intention is to be the best wife and mom, and he knows that I live in an earthly body that does have limitations.  By no circumstances will the enemy open this door again!

Valentine's party and other happenings

Today was a great day, I got to play my violin at church and listened to an awesome word.  I love how the word transforms my mind.  I believe it is vital for moms to have this kind of support to come together and be lifted up with God.  Today I was thinking about how our role as moms compares to running a business, not just working a job.  Our life attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs vitally affect our children each day. We need to be recharged too so we can give our best to our children.  I am so thankful for my God, my family, and my friends.  Every once in a while I get this victim mindset in my head that wants this pity party and I am glad that I can leave this mindset quickly because I know it won't produce any fruit in my life.

I haven't blogged for a few days.  Abbie is starting to enjoy singing songs with me.  She has the you are my sunshine book and loves singing it with me.  She is also singing her abc's which I will have to get on video one of these days.  In 9 days it will be Abbie's 3rd birthday.  I can't believe she is growing up so fast!! We are celebrating her party of March 10th so I am busy working on party planning lately as well.  I am also getting back into playing my violin more often, playing once a month at our main campus at church and will soon be starting to play in our Scottsdale campus.  I also am playing with a professional orchestra and choir at an RV park at the end of this month.  God is really speaking to me that I need to do things that I enjoy just for me so I am going for it. Yesterday was valentines day and Nanny and Pap Pap came and visited and brought over valentines gifts for each of the kids.  Abbie had her first valentines party, her friends Violet and William hosted it and it was a ton of fun.  They got to play outside, make a valentine card gift bag, eat lunch and decorate their own valentines cookies.  Abbie had a ton of fun! Here are some pictures from the party.