Officer Bryar turns 3!

It seems so surreal to me that my little "baby Bryar" turned three on October 5 and will soon be starting preschool. We celebrated police style and he seemed to love his party oh so much! 

This was such a fun party for me to plan, especially since Pinterest is not full of very many creative ideas. I pretty much just had to go with what I knew about law enforcement and try to make it as cute as can be. I feel as if it worked pretty well - thankfully.

Bryar's favorites:

T.V. Show - paw patrol 

Food - biscuit & gravy or broccoli

Toy - guns and tractors

Drink - chocolate milk

Phrase - "what dat?"

Book - Jonah or The Giving Tree 

Bryar qualified in June for first steps with a speech delay. The progress that he has made in the last month has been astonishing. He can say 3-4 word sentences now and comes up with a new word each day. Since he does have a speech delay he will be able to attend preschool at the school I work for and where charli attends. He is overly excited about this new transition. He will begin on October 14. 

Dear Bryar, 

I feel as if I am in a dream that you are now a big three year old. Year three is going to bring lots of new lessons and experiences for you and us as your parents but I am certain that we can handle them. You are the firecracker of our little family and sometimes that worries the fire out of me. In just the first two days of being three you have busted your mouth (which is still swollen) and put a knot on your eye. I can only hope these days of being accident prone will

make you tougher and way more strong for the years ahead. 

You have taught me so many lessons over the past three years. The major one being, how to love no matter how sleepy and irritable I am. You still wake up most nights and sometimes, it's only to get a cuddle. Which I am totally okay with. But when you just scream my name for no reason, it slightly drives me over the edge. But you will learn that in time. 

You are already quiet the little sports player. We're still holding out for you to designate life to being a bull rider. I'm kidding. You're actually a really decent baseball player. I'm sure that you many nights of watching Charli Beth play has only helped this factor. 

I pray that this year is full of fun, laughter, love and new memory making moments for you. I am so excited to see you grow and develop over this year. You are my I love you. 

Love, 

Mommy 

The Bad "C" Word.

In 27 years I have always felt blessed to not have known someone personally that has been affected by cancer. I have known of people, I've prayed for others and I have heard of thousands of different cases. But three weeks ago, my 27 year count came to a close when my Dad was diagnosed.

It has felt like a grieving process that we have been going through. I believe that I am grieving that this man, this good, heart of gold man is having to go through a testimony that I wish no one would ever have to experience. I've been sad, I've cried on a playground full of preschool friends as my Mom called to keep me updated with results. I've cried to God in confusion, and in anger. 

Yet the hardest moment I've endured has been crying, arms in arms with my eight year old daughter on her bed. To have to explain to her that her Pa, who we lived with for her first five years of life has "the bad c word." To have to explain to her the unknown and how we cannot let that effect our attitudes or control our lives was gut wrenching to me as a parent. Her attitude and maturity that night was such a blessing to me. As I explained how we cannot let the bad thoughts of "the bad C word" control our lives she states to me a quote that she once heard. 

To see her mind become positive after we prayed, cried and just held one another while talking was such a blessing to me. It is comforting having a young innocent spirit to keep my mind in place as well. 

My Mom has been more than amazing during these last three weeks. Her strength has out poured for her Husband and us as well. This is her one true love and to say that she needs prayers during this time is an understatement as well. 

In closing, I would ask that each of you prayer for my Dad, (Tim.) We recieved the phone call today that it is stage III rectal cancer that is within his lymph nodes. The doctor did visualize something within his bladder during the MRI that seems concerning as well - she will be setting them up with a urologist. The oncology appointment should be made by Thursday and they have told him to expect six weeks of chemo with radiation, then surgery then chemo again. 

This is difficult and has changed his spirits a bit from wanting to make sure that he is able to provide for his family. My Dad is a truck driver and this time off work will dramatically change their livelihood. Yet, I know that The Lord will make these means work. 

It is such a difficult process even just as his child to watch and listen to the details of. It's hard to speak about it and not feel an extereme amount of guilt for some reason. I have not spoke to a great deal of friends because I just do not have the words. To say that he doesn't deserve this experince is so, cliche because of his heart of gold yet I just keep telling my self that over and over. 

I know who is in charge, and my comfort lies there. 

Please pray. 

My Baptism

 To say how beautiful this afternoon was, would truly be an understatement. Since I was saved at an early age in life, it has always been my personal want to be baptized within a creek. My family and close friends were in attendance, the weather was great and the moment was more than perfect. 

I suppose you can say that I am a little old school when it comes to my faith. I love old gospel hymns and I love strong preachings that leave you thinking for the rest of the day. Those are the moments in church that I always remember. The days that pondered on quotes and the notes I've written based on what I got from a sermon. 

I suppose this is the reason that a creek baptism was a must for my announcing of faith. 

Could their be anymore of a sweet moment in life that my husband and children watching upon this? I can only pray that this day touched Charli's heart. 

The farm is so beautiful and hearing the men's choir sing It Is Well With My Soul, made me want to run to the water to be the first. Yet I waited patiently and almost nervous as the third person to be baptized. 

(Only nervous that I would float away and be the only person ever to drown during a baptism. Ha!) 

The water was so cold and I may have squealed a bit when first going under. All I could think about was how amazing it was to come straight up and seeing the sunset through the creekside. It was truly an unforgettable moment. 

I joined our church that morning as I had finished the membership process and interview with the pastor. It's a wonderful feeling being a member of a church that Curtis has attended since birth. 

This church has grown to huge depths over the years and we now feel comfortable in our church home with my "new" church family. Yet in saying new, I also feel that it is given that I should always say that I will never leave my love or family from my previous church. 

8/3/2014

Drakes Creek

It Is Well With My Soul.

A little bit of Summer.

This Summer has been wonderful yet very short lives it seems. I continued keeping children in home throughout the week so most of our days were spent here. We had many days of playing outside and learning the tricks of gardening. 

We also spent some days of sickness. At the beginning of Summer Curtis, Bryar and Charli Beth all caught the stomach bug. How I missed it I have no idea? Then at the end of June all three caught a terrible viral throat infection. It was miserable and lasted for days for each. Their throats were swollen or blistered like I had never seen before. The temperatures lasted for days as well. How I missed out this one I'm not sure either but boy was I thankful! 

Kentucky has had some incredibly strange temperatures. We've got the highest temps to even now record lows. While Charli was recovering from her throat illness I took Bryar out to play in the back yard. His favorite thing is to run naked but playing in the little pool made it even more fun. 

Our Summer is now coming to a close and we have big changes for our family ahead. 

First Day of School - Third Grade

We've been back into school for almost a month now and I've completely failed on blogging. 

Why must you ask? 

Because I am back in the work force, along with a busy softball, church and life schedule. I officially accepted a position
at Charli Beth's school in late July within the preschool and have been loving it since. It was been a wonderful transition even though I miss the sweet babies that I was keeping within my home. 

Look how grown she is? Third grade has been hard on my Mommy heart. It just sounds SO grown up! 

As you can tell she is still horse obsessed and was showing it all around on her first day. It's funny that her "I dream to be..." has not changed in years. This girl is determined to make it happen. 

The first day of school was Bryar's third day or preschool. He seems to be enjoying it a lot and has picked up so many new words within his vocabulary. 

He is actually still on track to head into preschool within our classroom once he turns 3. His speech will continued to be worked on and he will be able to attend for two and a half years until kindergarten. 

The teacher that I am working with is incredibly sweet and she also has a daughter in Charli's class. It has been a true blessing to see them become friends so quickly. 

Third grade has been an adjustment but Charli seems to be doing well! I can only hope and pray that this year brings lots of wonderful memories and experinced for her. 

Wyoming 2014

 We recently arrived home to the Bluegrass State from visiting Wyoming. No, we were not visiting family. We were actually making the dreams of a little cowgirl. Curtis has been to Wyoming a few times and visited te area of Cheyenne during Cheyenne Frointer Days. As a former bull rider and bullfighter saying that he loves CFD is an understatement. 

We really wanted to travel somewhere new this year but knew that taking off with a two year boy who gets car sick was not the greatest option. After our sweet parents decided to help out we finalized our trip to the west. We were not to keen on the idea of driving 16- 18 1/2 hours away but airline tickets are crazy high into Denver. 

We routed our trip to spend 2-3 days in Cheyenne, Wyoming then move onto Centennial. You have probably never heard of Centennial and I would not have either if it were not for laying in the floor and using Pinterest to find the prettiest places close to Cheyenne. My dream trip is Yellowstone but I could not push my family into another 8 hours of driving this time. So the town with a population of 270 was it, and we were ready to see centennial after our short stay in Ft Collins, Colorado. 

CFD is such a neat experience for anyone who loves the cowboy way of life. They host pancake breakfasts 3 days out of their week, a parade on 3 days as well and not to mention the Daddy of em' all rodeo! It was by far the best rodeo I've ever laid eyes on. Charli was in complete Heaven watching all of the dandies and rodeo queens. She now has goals to be the first ever Miss Kentucky Rodeo. 

In CFD they have a frointer village and a Native American village. The Native American village was one of my favorite parts. History and culture is such an interesting topic to me and watching these individuals talk abou their heritage was pretty amazing to me. I purchased a few wood wick candles and pottery pieces in this area that I was so very fond of. I am now regretting my decision on not purchasing more. 

We visited the rodeo on Monday as well as the behind the chutes tour. It was almost mind boggling being in the same arena where the world famous Lane Fost was killed. It was the 25th anniversary since his death and I was actually stunned that they did not honor this anymore than they did. My favorite part of the rodeo was the wild horse race. Watching the teams try to tame a horse that had never been riden before was crazily amazing to me. Brave souls they are. Especially to not get much earnings out of the pot. One of my favorite bull riders was also there to ride and although he has been on the downward slopes lately Curtis said he actually pulled out the win for CFD - yay Austin! 

We watched the parade on Tuesday morning before heading towards the mountains. It was truly the longest parade I have ever been to. Adorable to say the least. No candy throwing everywhere just true western class. 

As we headed to Centennial we made the stop in Laramie, WY. Which is an adorable town if they would not have been doing roadwork through their Main Street at the time. Speaking of that I swear all of the western states are doing roadwork right now or else they just throw out roadwork signs every two miles. 

When we arrived into centennial I could not help but to smile at just how cute it was. There is one gastion, a mercantile, post office and 4-5 restaurants. We became quiet the little regulars at one place. Our hotel was The Old Corral Hotel & Steakhouse. It's cuteness was so  just our style - minus the fact that it did not have air conditioning. Yes! Apparently this area only has around two weeks of warm weather. We just so happened to be there at one of those times. The sweetest family owns this hotel and made our stay manageable by purchasing an air unit for our room since we were opposite sides of the mountain breeze. 

We spent our days traveling the mountain and fishing thanks to a local waitress who graciously let us borrow rods. The view was absolutely breathtaking. I will never forget just walking the trails and smiling due to the beauty of Gods creation. It was a perfect time to reflect on how amazing our Lord is. I may never be able to live in an area that shows that type of beauty but I truly hope that I am able to visit again. 

On the last day we made arrangements to go horseback riding through the mountains. Thankfully we found a place that let us do our own thing and take in as much time as we wanted. Of course this was Charli's favorite part of the trip. She is such the little cowgirl and adapted to her horse quickly. It was pretty neat to see her in action even out in the west. 

When it was time to leave, we were all ready to get home fast as possible as we were missing our little guy. I cannot even begin to explain how long that 18 1/2 hour drive was. Was it worth it though? Yes! Next time I just hope to be able to take Bryar so he can enjoy the area as much as we did!