So I know that it has been a very long time since I've updated on here, I have tried but for some reason my posts never saved. Kind of a bummer!

Enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Saturday Uncle Bennett, Auntie Felicia, cousins Maddy and Dawson and G'ma and G'pa VD came to SF for supper. It was so nice of them to do that so Brant could see them all. We had supper at Red Lobster, always a favorite!! Little baby Dawson (baby Da' to Kaydence) :) has gotten so big- 12 weeks and just a little chunker - SOO sweet! Kaydence loves the babies and always wants to help by either rocking the car seat or trying her darnedest to get the passy into his mouth and not an eye or nose! :) She is going to be such a little helper when we decide to have another baby! What a big sister she will be! She got very spoiled by cousin Maddy. She sat down on her lap and Maddy went through the whole pile of books! What a trooper, there are a lot of them! :) It was just so sweet!!

Mom and Dad also brought their tiller for us to use in the garden. It worked wonders! WOW, I'm getting excited to get out and plant. I don't always enjoy gardening but I LOVE to plant. I don't know why that part is so exciting! Brant has worked in all the flower beds already! He is so good with that stuff and enjoys it so much - he loves to get outside and get his hands dirty! :)

We cleared out a spot in front of the house to plant new flowers in last week. Kaydence was a HUGE help! I dug up the rocks and she carried them two-by-two to the new spot. We showed her where to put them once and she just kept growing her pile of rocks! What a goof!!

Kaydence said "four" today. As in, one, two, three, FOUR! I was excited. Don't think that she gets that it comes after three when counting but saying it is a start! She is always making me laugh, i just can't believe how much she understands and knows! Such a blessing to have a child that soaks up EVERYTHING you put in front of her. She is a constant blessing to us and I just don't know what I would do without her.
Today she ate a flower! :) At G'ma VD church they put flowers on a cross the start of the service, of course Kaydence didn't want to leave hers up there so she kept it for the service. On the way home I heard her making these gagging noises from the back seat - looked back at her and she had petals and drool running down her chin! She was making an AWFUL face and trying to wipe her tongue - I laughed at her - SOO funny. She had to have bitten the flower right off the steam because the steam was just that - a steam! Hopefully she learned her lesson! She doesn't usually put things in her mouth so I was really surprised! Big goof!

Time to get back on the right sleep schedule with going to bed on time and waking up early!
Still praying for a few more kids! Haven't got a call in a few days so I'm trying hard not to get depressed about it - it's going to be another tight month financially if I can't start making an income again - kind of scary right now! I know God will provide and I just keep trusting that He has it all planned out - Thank the LORD we can take that worry and turn it into trust in HIM. Thank you LORD for how you provide!

Good night all!

ok, so i just needed to test it and make sure it was going to post, now i can continue!!

I'm tyring to think of some extra things to do to make some money while I'm waiting for kids to fill up. Sister Sarah has some big city friends that are in love with the hate I made Miki - I thought tomorrow I would stock up on the some fabric and yarn and make a few! I thought - why not??? I can make them super fast and they are pretty cheap to make and they are SOOO cute. Maybe it will be a new business!

Today we went outside to play. kaydence LOVEd it. she just walked around with a smile on her face ... so cute! She just cracks me up. She really really enjoyed it. She also got her first summer boo-boo. She fell off the step, it wasn't too major but I always feel bad.

The little stinker has started sucking her thumb!! I just don't know what to do with her!!! she hasn't used a passy since 9mths old and now she is 16 mths almost 17 mths and sucking it EVERY time she wants to cuddle or goes to sleep. I know kids do goofy things when their lives change so maybe that is the issue. she has done really really good with kids being here so maybe it is just the change of being home all the time. I wld think that is a good change and not cause something like this but maybe not!! Her little thumb is all red and has a big sore on it.... i just don't understand!!!

Is all I can say right now is "is it April 4th yet" I'm already kind of sick of basketball and it just started tonight.............
most nights I don't mind watching with Brant - it is pretty fun, other times not so much.

I'm not sure what is up with our blog - it is being dumb and not saving the last posts that I have done. I've blogged a few times a week since the end of feb and it hasen't saved anything!

Oh what a great week this has been! I kind of don't want to ever work again!! Tomorrow we are scheduled to get our tax return so I'm out to make some big purchases!!! I found the perfect little table for downstairs and I'm going to stock up on some more toys, markers, crayons and need to find shelves and tubs to put all the stuff in! I'm awfully excited and going to be totally sad if the tax return isn't in our acct!! :)

Last night I stayed up with Brant until 1:00am. We watched 4 hours of CHUCK! We are getting the sessions through NetFlex and we are totally addicted to that show! It was SO fun to be able to just snuggle on the couch and stay up that late without a worry about how tired I was going to be the next day - I knew I cld nap when Kaydence did! We don't get to have nights like that as much anymore so it was SO relaxing and such a good time! I love him!

Last night Milo and Nancy came for an evening of playing with Kaydence! It is always so nice to see them! They played hoursy and read lots of books and we tested her on all her words, puzzle abilities and her counting. it is always so much fun to see how much she learns and remembers! So fun to be a parent and watch her grow! There is such a feeling of pride when your child does something special - nothing can describe it!!

Stacy and Sheri came for a visit yesterday! Always SO fun to see them. We worked on their grad invites! Can't believe they are graduating!


It is snowing like crazy! YUCK!! Asia was outside for 5 min and came back in totally covered in snow - SO not cool after all the melting that happened the last 2 weeks!!!!
Thankfully it is almost the middle of March and spring will be here soon!!

kaydence is talking and suppose to be sleeping - time to get the workout in before she really wants to get out of bed!!

So this weekend we decided to start a list of all the words that Kaydence says to add to her book! We have come up with 50 words so far - so crazy! I researched online to see what was normal for a child her age - they say most children at 18 mths will say 12 words clearly. kaydence is only 16 mths so we have 2 mths to add another 20 words to that list! I feel extra proud of her sometimes! I just feel so so lucky to be blessed with a child that is healthy and loves to learn. It is such a blessing!!

Tonight i had to go pick up Brant and take him to work since he blew a tire on the way to work - such a bummer! Thank goodness I don't have anything going on right away in the morning so we can go get him - bright and early at 6 am! Wow it's going to be an early morning!! I thought I might just get my groceries while we are out. Milo and Nancy are coming for supper on Wednesday to see Kaydence. We don't get over to see them as much as we shld so it is nice that they are willing to come down to visit!

Tomorrow is my first week at home and it is such an amazing feeling!! I don't have any kids lined up yet but I know it is only a matter of time and I will have a full house! I'm just so lucky Brant supported me with this. I'm starting my own business and becoming totally self employed so I shld be nervous but i'm just so thankful to be home i'm not worried about anything!! Right now we are just praying for the Full time kids ages 2 and over....the younger kids seem to be were the need it so I will always be full with that age I think!

Time for bed -

Wow - it seems i struggle to get something posted during the week - here we are, sunday evening again, dreading the Monday ahead! Tomorrow is the start to my last week at Wells Fargo! It is SO exciting but at the same time scary, since I do not have kids set in stone yet. I am getting so many calls it is hard to think that I can't get at least 1 of them!! We just keep praying and trusting God that He has brought us to this point and He will make it work!!

Today Kaydence got her Usborne books!! There is a HUGE stack of books in the living room - she really likes them - they are pretty cool books!!

I rearranged our bedroom today! It's always fun to do! We are really in need of a new comforter! Might have to look into that!!!

Wow - I love weekends so much I wish we NEVER had to have Mondays!

I had an awesome weekend with Bekah, Katie and Amanda...and of course little cooper!! What a cutie pie! I was able to pick up Kaydence and visit with sis Sheri for a little while. What a young lady she has become. We got home about 12:30 and wanted to take a nap SO bad. I put Kaydence in her crib and she totally did not want to take a nap So i picked up the house, did dishes and worked on food for Bible study. It was so fun to have everyone over for Bible Study. What a great time to fellowship and hang out with wonderful people.

I got another call for daycare tonight. I'm thinking that March 8th is going to be the day! I was really really pushing for marh 1st but i think that is a little out of reach now...kind of a bummer because I don't know how i'm going to make it 2 more weeks at WF. I'm just not into that job anymore at ALL and i'm trying so very very hard to stay positive....praying for patience! It think it will help a lot to say "this is my last day" it's all of this not knowing when we are going to start that's killing me!!!!! My goal for this week is getting all the paperwork done as far as contract being printed up, menus finalized, files started to put kids info in. Pretty excited about it!!!!

I'm finishing up my book list from my usborne book party - how super fun it was and i'm so excited about all the books i'm getting for kaydence! I'm getting pretty sick of the ones we have and i think she is getting bored with them too - so it will be nice to update our kids book selection!!!

Mom and Dad VD brought us a carpet cleaner to use! I'm rather excited to shampoo the carpet downstairs and maybe even upstairs if i get the time!!

Thinking today that baby dawson lives too far away! I would really love to see him!!

Well i should not do this at all but i'm going to skip going for a run and head to bed. I'm SO tired and i think we will end up with a busy week again with meeting with families and all that fun stuff. It makes for not a lot of relax time when the evenings are full up! I think i'll try to do crock pot suppers all week. That would give me an extra hour that would be used for cooking supper!!

I'm looking for alnother good series of books to read. I read Harry Potter and LOVED them - i cldn't put them down, i've started 2 books since then and can NOT get into them! I kind of working on Narnia books, which i do enjoy but i know those stories pretty good already! Anyone with any ideas let me know!!!

Goodnight all - I hope you have a wonderful week and a best-it-can-be Monday!!

What a productive day!! Today mom and dad decided to come up to see Kaydence and help me move stuff around! We were able to clean out a TON of stuff from old TV's to a fish tank! It was so nice to organize our storage space. We also moved out part of our big desk so it would make more room for the daycare. I got out my baby swing, bouncy seats and baby walkers to use. Mom packed up a TON of Kaydence's clothes that don't fit anymore. I find that it is very hard for me to pack away her stuff because she is growing so fast and sometimes i just miss that little little baby! She ended up packing 5 LARGE huggies boxes full of clothes. Mom also did a bunch of laundry all the way down to folding and put most of it away - such a BLESSING to have that help!!
Kaydence just loves Grandma and Grandpa so much! She has so much fun playing and snuggling with them.

I found out today that Kaydence's knows what a tutu is! She found it in her closet and said "tutu" before mom or i said it! I couldn't believe it. She then had to play dress up! So sweet.

Well I have supper dishes to put away and then off to bed....hard work today and I am very sleepy!!!

Oh Mondays after a long weekend - Never a favorite of mine. This morning started out worse then usual. On Thursday morning we were all packed in my car ready to go to Bennett and Felicias we decided to stop at the bank to cash a ck. When I put my window down it wouldn't go up. So we drove next door to a little repair shop and they said 2 hrs work and $300 to fix the window.......ugh.....So we went bk home transfered all our stuff into Brants car and got back last night to our window problem. To make things worse today was my first day working until 5:30 so we had to have 2 cars. So frustrating the timing of things. It did work out ok and the window was fixed and Kaydence got picked up on time!

We had such a wonderful time with Bennett and Felicia this past weekend! They just adopted a little boy and he is so precious! I got to take his pictures and it was so fun!!

Today I was able to move my CPR class to next tuesday so I am still on track for my March F 1st goal! SO exciting. Trying to go to work each morning is getting worse now that I know the day is coming that I get to walk out of there for good!!! So excited!

I'm praying that I can get some kids set so I can start on march 1st!

Tomorrow is Brant's birthday and we have a babysitter and are going our for supper! SO excited. It has been a long time since we have had a date with just us so i'm pretty excited.

Today I started thinking of Valentines day ... since the day is coming up soon I always start to wonder what I can give such a wonderful husband. I'm so blessed to have that problem!!!

Fun word of the week provided by Kaydence:
Yesterday while we were driving home she kept telling us that she was "stuccckkkk" because we was in her car seat and she cldn't "move" Oh she is growing up so fast!

Good night all - I have a head ache and I think the only fix is sleep in our wonderful bed with awesome new sheets (thanks Stacy) I love new sheets!!

So sick of snow, cold, icy and everything else that comes with winter!! This morning I was going to go shopping but Brant struggled to get home on the icy roads so I decided to stay home and clean instead. I hope to get there tomorrow morning ... I have nephew baby Dawson shopping to do... oh and Brant's birthday shopping too! :)

Today Kaydence ate like a little piggy...and then she had 3 poopy diapers....WOW! She took a 3 hr nap this morning which gave me lots of time to get cleaning done. She got so excited at bath time that she threw her precious teddy in the tub....it was too wet to sleep with ... she was kind of sad! :(

Time to work out......ugh

Today is by far one of the best day of the week.. THURSDAY!! The last day of the week and the start to a 3 day weekend!!

This evening I found myself looking at Kaydence and thinking that she looks "grown up!" I don't know if that is possible for a 15 mth old, but sometimes I just can't believe how fast the year has gone. She smiles these big huge smiles and you can see all the teeth that have grown into her once toothless grin, and I just think...WOW....where has the time gone? I know it is just a simple silly little thing but so true.
I made a new dish for supper tonight....Brant and I were not really fans and Kaydence gagged! Like bad enough that I thought I was going to have to clean up more than just supper mess - so I guess we are not tomato/basil people! :)

I am so excited to get my daycare going. I really wish I could get started soon. I would love to say I only have to work "weeks" at wells...someday. We are just waiting for the go ahead to put my name out there!

As I sit here at my computer, thinking of my beautiful baby girl sleeping in the room next to me, and my wonderful husband at work protecting the town we live in, my thoughts turn to something I read and I feel God totally meant for me. Right now I'm trying to work through a broken relationship, a relationship that I never thought I would ever have to try to repair. Not my husband :) but someone that is very close to me....if you are reading this...you know who you are. My thoughts start with a passage from 2 Corinthians 5:18 "(GOD) has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships." another powerful statement from a book continues to say "relationships are ALWAYS worth restoring" I read that and cry...because unfortunately we live in this world of sin, and because of that sin we are stubborn, we don't want to forgive, instead we want to blame, we want accuse the other person of the wrong...... "who will be the peacemaker?" why are there so few peacemakers ??.... because peacemaking is HARD. I'm so torn between these quotes because I ask myself .... "why do 'I' have to be the peacemaker?" "why do I have to be the one to let my guard down first, and be the first to apologize when I feel 'I' am not in the wrong. How do I know that the other person doesn't feel the same way? So instead of confronting with love, we confront with madness which results in more hurt. At what point do we say "this is crazy" and get life back to normal..........
and than I read...... " If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, ... AGREE WITH EACH OTHER, LOVE EACH OTHER, BE DEEP-SPIRITED FRIENDS" After reading those words I still fall into a feeling of "why." and I don't know if i mean that as a sttmnt or a question. Is is right to just forget the past and move on? We are also told to be honest, so in being honest - if asking for an apology is what we feel we need to move on ... is that wrong?

If we are to "sympothize" with the other persons feelings how is is not wrong for me to be selfish and want the other person to do the same thing? (because we are not to be selfish)

And now I come to my next struggle.....what steps do you take to resolve conflict when you feel you are being confronted for something you didn't do? How can you sit back and let someone accuse you of a sin you don't feel you did, or worse.... you feel it is a sin THEY have commited themselves. How does throwing it back in their face fix anything. and again i read ".....AGREE WITH EACH OTHER, LOVE EACH OTHER, BE DEEP-SPIRITED FRIENDS..." it sounds so easy when put into a sentence like that.....

I know these random questions asked to myself and partial quotes don't come down to make a lot of sense. And I don't feel I am closer to understanding why we go through the relationship struggles that we do. But I do know that my love for this person will never change, the love I have for this person will always out way the hurt I may feel they have caused me. No matter how much hurt I want to cause them in return will ever make it better until we are able to
"....AGREE WITH EACH OTHER, LOVE EACH OTHER, BE DEEP-SPIRITED FRIENDS..."

Oh what a day! SO nice to have a Monday off! Kaydence and I enjoyed a pretty slow day. Grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry! Nothing too exciting! I finished my application for our daycare so it's going in the mail tomorrow! Once it's on file with the city I can schedule my classes. Six hours of classes, pass a felony and abuse bkground ck, test neg. for TB and I'm set to go!! I was looking around the basement this morning and looking at the stuff that we need to get rid of to make room for pack 'n plays and toys! hehe! we have a weight set that is NOT used and just taking up space. Once that is out of the way I can start moving around stuff!! So excited to get started!

Kaydence put together her first puzzle today!! It was so cute because she got so upset when a piece wouldnt fit! Daddy helped her with her animal puzzle - that one was a little harder!

Time to work on some pictures before off to bed. I did 2 sessions last week of adorable couples!!Goodnight All!

So to continue with the first post on our blog - This morning after Kaydence's bath I took her into her room set her on the floor and went to her closet to pick out her clothes for the day. I was just talking to her as I do and mentioned that we needed to put lotion on her legs. She got up, walked over to her changing mat, picked up the very large bottle of baby lotion and brought if over to me - Now I ask, how on earth does a 14 and 1/2 mth old know the word 'lotion' and what you do with it? My "amazed" moment of the day.

We enjoyed a wonderful day with friends watching the Vikings game. Brant got up after 4 hrs of sleep just to watch the game - now that is some true team devotion! We came back home for some wonderful naps, planned out my very long grocery list for tomorrow, planned menus for the next 2 weeks and continued to work on paperwork for my daycare. Oh yeah, we are opening an in-home daycare!! I am SO excited to be able to stay at home with Kaydence and put our basement to good use. I have a lot of paperwork to complete yet and of course- finding kids to watch but after that we will be all set! I'm shooting for April 1st as a start date but would LOVE to start before that. We hope that the paperwork part will go quickly. So, if anyone has toys, pack'n plays, that sort of thing - that you would like to donate or even sell!! :) We will keep you posted on the progress!

Hey All Friends and Family - I decided that since I take WAY too many pictures of Kaydence and since we have wonderful G'mas and G'pas (or Kaydence's rather) that love to stay updated on what is going on in our lives, and since I have a wonderful friend that LOVES to check blog updates, it was time to start a blog.

I discovered this weekend during scrapbooking that I don't keep track of the little things as much as I should. I think back at the last 14, almost 15 mths of Kaydence's life and even though I remember each of her milestones I can't remember what date they took place - what mth or just how old she was. I decided our lives are too short to not take the time to keep track of the important things that are fun to look back on.

I have a wonderful husband who I couldn't live without and who I am so proud to be married to and an adorable daughter who is so precious and so incredibly smart I really don't know what to do with myself most day - and I decided I need to share this with the people I love the most!