Reflection & Our Weekend

Well, for those of you who don’t already know, our house will officially be listed ‘For Sale’ later this afternoon. We, along with half the world, are lucky  enough to feel the ‘hit’ that the economy has taken over the past 6 years. It’s a bittersweet day for us. We are both very much ready to be over with this ‘storm’ but its also sad knowing we are leaving the house that we brought both our kids home from the hospital in. So as I am sure you can all guess we have been going through a lot and lots of emotions have been stirring up around here. So as we have been a bit anxious, nervous, sad, happy & worried we have been constantly turning to God for guidance and wisdom as we embark on this next chapter of our lives. As I am sure all you fellow believers already know, but God has a very awesome way of speaking directly to you when you need it and when you seek out His wisdom.

So this past weekend while sitting in church, it was one of those moments where I felt God was speaking directly to Brandon and I. Our pastor is in the middle of a Sermon Series where he is basically going phrase by phrase over what it means to ‘Live’ out the Lords Prayer. This week he was going over the phrase “give us this day our daily bread,” Matthew 6:11. It was a perfect verse that Brandon and I needed to hear. Our Pastor was basically talking about how we need to turn to God in every aspect of life and to know, depend and trust that God will provide our ‘Daily Bread’. In that moment of hearing this, I knew I needed to just completely give over the situation we are currently in fully over to God and stop worrying and being nervous or anxious about anything because ultimately God is in control of this whole situation, not me. (So humbling to hear you are not in control of everything.) After the sermon, I said a lengthy prayer asking God to take the drivers seat and take over for me. I immediately felt a huge burden lifted from my shoulders and I have a peace that I can not explain. God is so amazing. Here is a little insert that was in our bulletin this week that is really helping me right now:

* When we don’t know what to do, God is our source of wisdom. –Psalm 36:9

*When we feel like life is caving in around us, God is our source of happiness. –Psalm 43:4

* When we feel like all hope is gone, God is our source of hope. –Romans 15:13

* When our life is stressed out, God is our source of peace. –Romans 15:33

*When we feel like giving up, God is our source of encouragement. –Romans 15:5

*When we are overwhelmed with guilt, God is our source of salvation. –Hebrews 5:9

Anyway, I guess the point I am trying to make in all this, is that even though I gave my life to Christ 4+ years ago it is still a daily struggle for me to give up full control of hard situations and circumstances over to God. I am so thankful to have God’s word to read through Daily to comfort me in times like these. Please pray for us and the sale of our house as these next 3-6 months are going to be rough. Keeping a house ‘show worthy’ with 2 kiddos under 4 is quite a challenge and a lot of work but I am up for the challenge and know we will get through this.

Okay, onto the weekend. Besides cleaning sewing and doing laundry, we mainly spent all our time this weekend with one of my Best Friends, Melissa and her two kiddos Aiden & Aubryn. Her husband and middle daughter are out of town visiting his very sick father so I decided to keep her company so she doesn’t have a chance to be lonely. It was a blast. Saturday we met up at Dion’s for lunch. It was delish and all four kids had a blast. Sunday, I watched Aubryn for her so she could take Aiden out for a little one on one time. After their Mommy-Son date they came back to our house for some play time. My Sister and Abigail also joined. It was a blast watching all the kiddos play. Then this morning I went over to her house to watch Aubryn and the two boys she babysits for, Mark & Jace, while she took Aiden to school so she didn’t have to load up 5 kids to drop 1 off at school. I basically had to force my help on her since she is super independent and doesn’t like to ask for help. Love my stubborn friend! Haha. Then we hung out for a bit once she got back. It has been fun spending so much time together. I absolutely LOVE her and her family! Since this blog has been a lot of writing and reflecting, here are a few pics from the weekend for all you who stuck it out and listened to me ramble and reflect…

Aubryn (13 Months), Autumn (19 Months), & Abigail (14 months)

Then Owen and Abi switched places. Haha

Love these girlies!

Snack Time!

Abi was so sweet and offered to feed Aubryn her snack. Lol, kids crack me up!

Owen, Autumn, Jace & Aburyn playing!

My attempts to get a picture of these three was not very successful.

See what I mean. They are all wiggle worms. Haha.

Mark, Owen and Jace playing trucks and cars together. They are all total boys!

Have a great week everyone!

Our Week & Our Struggles…

Well my friends….the sickness goes on. Yes, you did hear me correctly. I’m going to be honest my friends, I feel defeated. I feel a bit down and quite frankly I have hade it! I officially had a major melt down on Tuesday. It needed to happen and afterwards I really felt a bit better.

Poor Autumn ended back up in the doctors office for the 5th time in the past 3 weeks. She has another double ear infection. She is averaging 1 ear infection every 3-4 weeks. Yuck. Needless to say we have an appointment next month with an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor) to get ear tubes put in. The good news is that we have been through this process 2 years ago with Owen so we know exactly what to expect and absolutely love and trust the doctor who will be doing the procedure. Having Owen’s tubes put in was by far one of the best decisions we have ever made. He got them in at 18 months and hasn’t had an ear infection since and he is almost 4! Definitely looking forward to no more ear infections for poor Autumn. The bad news is that our appointment is a month away which means she could potentially have 1 or 2 more ear infections before than. Keeping our fingers crossed! On top of all the sickness going around our house Brandon and I are also having to make some ‘not so fun’ major decisions (don’t really care to get into it all now) that have not been making anything much easier around here. All I can really say is that we are in major need of prayers around here!

So as this month is coming to an end the Burgess household is feeling a bit beat down and exhausted. Not the best way to start off the new year. I have to keep reminding my self that despite our current situation with all the sickness and other stuff we are currently dealing with that we still have it very very good compared to most people. I can not imagine what families struggling with terminal illnesses are going through, or people who can not afford to put food on the table or clothe their children, or people facing persecution for defending their faith, and the list goes on and on. Thinking about all that just reminds me how lucky we are and how much God has blessed this family with. So in the times like these where I am feeling kicked down, beat up and just a bit hopeless I cling to the Bible and surround myself with the words that God has given us.

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:2-5

Well, now that I have fully vented to you my dear blog, I am finally ready to share our week with you. Despite all our struggles we have actually managed to have some fun this week. Okay, here we go…

Wednesday:

Wednesday afternoon I had my niece Abigail as usual. It has been so nice because they usually drop her off right after my kids go down for their naps so Abi and I have a whole 2 hours all to ourselves. I am really cherishing and enjoying this “special” one on one time with my sweet little niece. Her little personality is really coming out and I have to say she is quite the crack up. She is so silly and loves to make you laugh. After we have our fun together she gets about an hour to hang with Owen and Autumn and then she goes down for her nap. Its our new Wednesday routine.

Here is what I mean by ‘Personality’. She is so silly!

She also has this super sweet and loveable side to her too! I love this kid!

Once my kids got up Abi had a dance party with Owen, and then

she enjoyed reading a book with Autumn.

And they also took turns playing with my camera lens.

After Abi went home for the day, the kids and I packed up and were off to attend a Birthday party! Owen and Autumn’s very good friend Averie was turning 5! I can not believe how fast time flies, I remember holding her the day she was born in the hospital. She had her party at this really cool place called I Scream Ice Cream. It is obviously a big Ice Cream bar with all kinds of different Ice Creams and a million different toppings to choose from. It is decorated very eclectic and has a really cool play area for the kids with hundreds of toys and games. The owner was so friendly and made sure all the kids had an absolute BLAST!!! We are strongly considering having Owen’s 4th Birthday there in a few months. Here are some pictures of our fun time at the party…

 

Here is a glimpse of what I was talking about. This place was so fun. There wasn’t a blank spot on any of the walls.

And this is a glimpse of the play area. They have so many fun toys. They had some really cool vintage toys from way back in the day too. It was a blast to watch the kids go crazy in here.

“…Happy Birthday dear Averie, Happy Birthday to you!” I can officially say I have attended all 5 of Averie’s Birthday Parties. So Crazy!

All the kiddos enjoying their Ice Cream and Cupcakes with the Birthday Girl.

Playing, playing and more playing!

Owen was obsessed with the arcade games they had. He spend about 90% of our time playing them. He is a total video game nerd like his daddy. Jk….okay, no I’m not!

Finnley, Linkin and Aubryn.

What a super fun party. Thanks again for inviting us Lucio Family. We LOVE you all dearly!

Thursday:

Brandon and I had lots and lots of appointments today so thankfully my Dad, aka Pampo, offered to help out with the kids. He came and watched them for a few hours while Brandon and I took care of things that needed to get done. The kids had so much fun! They just absolutely adore their Pampo! When we got home Autumn was attached to her Daddy’s hip, as usual…

Here they are chilling on the couch after dinner while Autumn was finishing up her last bite. Little chipmunk stores food in her cheeks. Silly girl!

And once we all finished up dinner I decided to surprise the family and treat them all to some Cold Stone Ice Cream with a gift card I have had since my Birthday.

So precious! Owen is giving Autumn a bite of his Cotton Candy Ice Cream with Sprinkles!

Yummy!

Thanks for listening to me vent a bit and share a bit of our struggles and our week with you! Have a great Weekend!

The Past Few Days…

Well, I did not think it was at all possible, but the sickness in the Burgess household continues. Thankfully it’s me and not the kids, but nonetheless I am sick of all the sickness. We are going on a MONTH of sickness going around our house. Insane. I went to the doctor on Tuesday to find out I have a double ear and sinus infection. The good news is after 48 hours on antibiotics I am feeling like a new person again. The unfortunate part to that is that Thursday I ended up with the nasty stomach bug that has been going around. Needless to say, I am choosing to ignore the fact that my tummy feels terrible and go on with life because if I slow down to think much about it I may go insane. So that is how the week started. Sorry, I really needed to vent it out!

Ok. So what did we do this week. Tuesday I made a Valentines Day post but that evening my Mom stopped by with more Valentines so I thought I would share. So here is Valentines Day Continued….

My sister and Abigail were over too. My wonderful sister came to watch my kiddos while I went to the doctor. She was a super big help. Then my hubby came home early from work to take over so I could get some much needed rest. I have such an amazing family. So blessed!!!

Skittles and Hot Wheels!

Autumn got a really cool new ABC puzzle.

Auntie got a pretty necklace and Abi also got a puzzle.

And I got a matching necklace to my sisters. Love it.

Thanks so much Nana & Pampo for all the generous gifts. You guys spoil us rotten. Love you guys!

 

Thursday we mainly just did the usual weekend stuff. Took Owen to school, ran some errands and did some major cleaning/reorganizing around here….

So this is a glimpse of what our guest room turned sewing room looked like all spilled out in my living room. This is all my sewing stuff. My mission for the day was to get all this stuff organized to make my new ventures with Nessy’s Dressy’s a little easier on myself. I should have taken an after picture but I forgot. It is finally all organized and I now know where all my supplies are. Yay!

Later that evening Brandon and I went on a much much needed date. We called our amazing sitter Kenzie and she was stoked to come spend the evening with our kiddos. It’s a treat for the kids too because they absolutely adore her! We went and had dinner at Lone Star (too bad my tummy felt like poo and I couldn’t really eat much) and then headed to the movies to see Safe House. Great movie by the way. It was such a fun night and a great time for Brandon and I to connect. Thanks again Kenzie for watching the kids, Owen is still talking about how much fun he had!

Friday morning we went with some of our very good friends (the Lucio Family)to spend the morning having some fun at Chuck E. Cheese. The kids had a blast! What a fun fun way to start the day. Just a little secret if you go to Chuck E. Cheese right at 9am when they open they are testing all the rides and games and they let you keep all the free tickets that are coming out of the machines, and there is no one else there. We had the entire place to ourselves for 2 hours!

 

Autumn, Aubryn & Jace taking a ride. Jace is the little boy my friend Melissa babysits who happens to be our friends Brittany and Travis’ son. Aren’t they adorable?!?!

Owen riding the horse.

Averie & Owen riding the bike!

Aiden was so into this racing game. I think he spent all his time playing this 1 game. Haha

I have to admit, Chuck E. Cheese is seriously overpriced but every once in awhile it is worth it to watch your kids have a blast!

Later that day we packed up the family and headed across town to Uptown Albuquerque. I had an appointment at Alfred Angelo Bridal Salon to try on some bridesmaids dresses for my Best Friends Wedding in August. It pretty tough because all of us bridesmaids live in different states so we are all trying on her dress choices and e-mailing her pictures so she can decide what dress she likes best. I was a little worried about how the kids would behave while I was trying dresses on but they really did great and Brandon was able to take pictures of me to send to her. After that we spent some family time walking around uptown. I snapped a few pictures of the kids since we had the camera  from my dress shopping and they actually came out super cute.

Autumn watching Mommy Model. Haha. She loved the giant wall of mirrors.

Enjoying an outdoor stroll.

And to top off our fun filled family day we decided to head to the very first Chipolte to come to Albuquerque for dinner. If you know my husband at all you know he absolutely LOVES Chipolte and has been dying for one to open up here. He was so excited!!! It’s too bad the only Chipolte here is so far from our house. Maybe they will open one up on the Westside of town. Fingers crossed.

Again the only thing that could have made the day even better was if I was actually able to eat. O well, next time!

And Daddy was one happy guy after his giant burrito! So worth it!!!