Dear Mamachka, 

You are such a treasure in my life. I wouldn't be who I am and where I am without you. You are always there when I need a shoulder to lean on. You never say no for an answer, when it comes to helping someone out. Your servants heart is so loving and compassionate, anyone who crosses paths with you is touched and changed in one way or another. Your wisdom and words of advise are always an answer from God and the time you spend in his presence is felt and seen in your daily life. Over the years you have learned to change, let go and grow.  I love watching your life because you never cease to teach me by the way you live.

I cannot believe it's been two years since I started to blog! I want to start off by thanking you, for following along on my journey for reading, supporting, commenting and encouraging me in one way or another. Without you I wouldn't be where I am today. There have been many times that I wanted to quit. But whenever someone reached out and says that they have been touched that helped me change my mind and press through the hardness of it. I still have much to learn but it's been a fun journey for me. I don't think I've ever shared the story with you about how and why I stared blogging. So I'll do it today.  :)

Over two years ago at the end of 2014 I stared having this feeling that I can and should be doing more in life. At that time I already had my four kiddos, life was busy and fun but I felt like I should still be doing more. I wanted to find something to work on that I could do from home. A few opportunities came up and I thought for sure one would be my answer from God. I prayed for a specific yes or a no...

I'd like to start by thanking my dearest mother for having my kiddos for a few hours, so that I can have a moment of quiet to journal. *Thank you Mamachka for loving my kiddos as much as I do ;) you are a blessing in my life more then words can say. I love you!*

I hope all my rambling will make some sense to you guys, as I sit here on a rainy day and try to put my thought together. :)

So this past weekend we celebrated the Resurrection of our precious Savior and in my last entry I wrote about Life with Jesus and all that he is to me. He doesn't sees to amaze me! His love for us is more then we can comprehend and I am so overwhelmed yet again at how much he loves me and how near he really is! 

As I let myself "feel" about an incident that happened the other day, I realized how bad I was hurt. I started sobbing and you wouldn't believe the amount of thoughts that started flooding my mind.

It's Easter Sunday tomorrow and I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Jesus and all that he means to me. And what he's done in my life and how to me he is everything. 

Without him I wouldn't have had the family I grew up in. I don't have any idea what my teenage years would have looked like because he literally was my life! Every spare moment I had I spent locked up in my room spending time with the lover of my soul. He was the one who opened my eyes and had my heart skip a beat when I saw the man who would later become my husband. That man has been the greatest gift ever, I can't imagine life without him! Together now we have four precious little gifts, whom we love more then words can say! 

Without Jesus I probably would have quit on my marriage a few years ago. Without him I might have not had my precious twins. As a family we wouldn't be where we are today. 

I'd rather see a sermon
than hear one any day;
I'd rather you walk with me
than merely point the way.
The eye's a more ready pupil
than ever was the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing,
but example's always clear;

As I sit here alone, on this cozy spring morning with the birds chirping outside, I am so overwhelmed by the love that our Father has for us. I am learning how to embrace it and understand it but sometimes I just have to receive it. I just finished journaling in my personal paper journal and felt like maybe someone else out there needed to hear this too, so I'll share what I've been going through with you guys. 

Last few weeks have been hard for me personally and I feel like my family as well. We were on the edge with each other and I was disappointed with myself and started to question the Lord. There are things I've been praying about for many months and even years. I felt that it's been long enough and the Lord probably forgot to answer. When clouds like that come over, one thing triggers another and it feels like your whole world is coming apart.

No matter what season you are going through in life, contentment is the key to being happy. You might be a young mom hardly sleeping through the night, or a faithful father who needs to work a lot to provide for his growing family, or in any other busy or hard time you find yourself in life. We might not always like the season we are in but it's truly up to us if we will be happy in it or not. Accepting who you are will help you live life to the fullest. For me the most difficult time was having kids shortly after getting married, we had four kids in four years! That all felt like it happened way too fast and I had to learn how to process it all and find true joy in life despite my circumstances. 

It's been over three years now since my twins were born. I had very mixed emotions about their birth story and couldn't get myself to freely share about it. But a few weeks ago a family situation made me re think about how I feel. I realized that this is really not even my story to hold on to. So I prayed and released it and since then I've shared it with a few people and it gets me excited to be reminded of how great and awesome our God is! I want Him to get all the praise and glory that He deserves and I want everyone to know that God still does miracles today.

My last pregnancy was hard, emotionally, physically, mentally and in every way possible. But how I love it when God uses such hard times in life to bring out the most incredible stories. 

So when I was pregnant with the twins I was at high risk of having them prematurely.

I wrote about why we moved to South Carolina in my last post HERE. I wanted to do a follow up of how we like it here so far, I hope you enjoy!

We left Hawaii September first, from Kona we flew to Vancouver, Washington. I really wanted to visit friends and family on our way down and my honoring husband agreed, tickets turned out cheaper that way so it was a win win for us. It was a great visit we stayed with a friend and used the fireplace to it's fullest! It was so cold and cozy, something we haven't felt in years! Our kids did't know what it was and kept refusing to wear sweaters, socks or shoes it was a battle haha. 

The number one question we get when we tell people we moved to South Carolina from Hawaii is, why in the world here out of all places!? I kind of agree, why here? LOL We don't really know yet, but we love it and one day we will know the full story. But for now here's how it all happened.

My husband and I had such a sweet weekend together. We left our kiddos with my mother and went to Gainsville, Georgia to a marriage conference hosted by the church we attend now. Two days and two nights away from our kiddos, leaving the twins over night was a first. I cried when we pulled out of our driveway and I watched all my babies wave good bye to us. To be honest though I expected it to be much harder leaving them but I know they were in awesome hands and I actually let myself enjoy my husband all to myself. ;)

We had time to talk, dance, meet new people, go out and be together and even sleep without having to wake up! Although I will admit I felt guilty for not getting up to check on the kids in the middle of the night lol. I woke up feeling like I was in a debate all night, like I knew I could sleep but at the same time I kept having this guilty feeling hat I should have woken up to go and see them. (Maybe one day I'll learn to sleep "normal" again.) 

I cannot believe it's almost Valentines Day!! It feels like we just celebrated new years! Yet another month has flown by and its been a great one for me, I hope it has been for you as well. I am such a goal oriented person and had so many plans for the month of January but the Lord seems to enjoy coming in and rearrange things his way, which in the end are always much better.

At the end of December I felt that I needed to start the new year off

Whenever I'm in the mood to write the kids are usually awake and very needy. By the time I'm done with them and it's nice and quiet in the house I'm all out of energy and have no desire to think. But today I am writing with kids crawling all over me and Star Wars ships crashing on every side of me! My background "music" is the sound effects of my little ones playing with action figures and I'm actually enjoying it. :)

I haven't been writing much because I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share with you guys. So I've decided to just share life with you as it is. I'll start with a little glimpse into our week so far, so here it goes.. 

Since it got cold here we have all been sick one after another, by the time the last one would be over it the first one would get sick all over again... Its been this way for a month now if not more. But this week Kyle and I got sick pretty bad and we were trying to stay away from the kids as much as we could. For a few days I've been living inside the room and getting to hear my kiddos interacting on their own without us hovering over them. It's been very interesting actually to hear how they do life together, help each other or how the older two try disciplining the younger two.

I love my kids so much!! But oh how I treasure nap time. Nap time could be something you look forward to or dread, depending on what stage in life you are in at the moment.  

Naps are so important for children and even adults, (when pregnant, nursing or for those with new borns especially). But It could be hard to get your toddler to sleep sometimes. I actually gave up with my oldest but now I realize that I shouldn't have. I just didn't know how to go about it. 

First, I wanted to share on how I managed the transition with my twins, from two naps to one. (Or three to two..)

Hey everyone it's been a while since I've wrote anything on here, but I'm finally able to carve out some free time to get back into writing (I hope). Anyway I thought I'd give you a short update.

 We are finally here in South Carolina! It's been almost a month since we drove up here, (sometimes feels like we've been here forever though). For those of you that don't know or haven't seen, we left Hawaii on the first of September and flew to Washington state to visit friends and family. After WA we flew to Florida for about two weeks also to visit family (well and Disney world on the side ;). And then finally after that we drove up to South Carolina. 

I wrote this a long while back and haven't posted it but, as I reread it I realized this story needed to be shared for God to get the glory! 

As I look around my house every day (for the last few weeks) I feel like "how in the world are we going to make it in time??" We have two weeks to pack our boxes, suitcases and sell all that we own. On top of that we have just been sick for ten days, so everything was on pause. But even in what seems to be chaos I can't explain how but I have absolute peace, it's incredible!! I feel like I should naturally be panicking, stressing and rushing to get things done but I'm not. In the middle of it all I hear the still small voice telling me that we will make it and it's ok to have peace and fun in the process. 

It's been three months now since we decided to move and it's probably been that long since I last wrote on here. This summer has flown by for us. So many things have happened but during this whole time, one day at a time I've been saying good bye. Letting go and saying good bye are one of the hardest things for me to do. God has been so gracious to me, he's been preparing me and helping in ways I couldn't have thought of or imagined, even starting from the first post I've ever written on this blog , Not our home. Honestly in my heart I always knew that day would come and now it's here. 

My twins are potty trained! I can't be more excited, it was a long journey but it's behind us now. I've potty trained three times now and the first two were different then the last. I'll share my experiences to hopefully make someone's journey in this stage of life much smoother. 

First off, I want to say that kids are smart! Much smarter then we may think sometimes. They act up to what we expect of them. I'm learning this by comparing my oldest, with my youngest two. I still treat them as babies and they are to me, but when my oldest was eighteen months she did, said, and had more responsibility then they do at two and a half! They will live up to what you expect of them. 

I am so excited when the Lord answers my prayers!!

I've been noticing my kids behavior get a little disrespectful and independent. It started to concern me because I was going all out for them, taking them to beach and other places, and trust me I don't typically go out with them all to relax. But the response I would get back is rude and disrespectful behavior. It grieved me because I didn't want to stop treating them to fun activities but I saw no other solution. Of coarse I brought this issue to my dearest Father(God) and what do you know he answered and quite quickly actually.

The answer came in one word. CONNECTION.