Blessings...Blessings

When talking about counting our blessings we usually think of the small things, but Jason and I had a HUGE blessing this weekend. We are like any other young family with kids struggling to run a small business and live off one income. We do not have much money and are trying to be faithful with our money to God and wise about our spending. This is a true story of how God honors and hears our prayers. On Thursday I finally decided to surrender my anxiety and fear over our finances and how we are going to make it. I released it to God. Friday I did not think about it once which it has been running in my mind all day everyday for months now. Then Friday night God brought us a blessing through my step-dad.



Friday night my step-dad showed up at our house and handed us the keys to a 1999 Chev Suburban. It is gorgeous and I love it! I was so shocked I was speechless for about an hour and those of you that know me know I am rarely speechless. :O) After getting over the initial shock of it all we were filled with excitement and took it out for a spin with the kids. It is so great and such and answer to prayer. I have a radio & CD player now and can listen to music with the kids. I have A/C and so much more.



So how do you say "thank you" for such a gift I do not know words just can not express how thankful we really are. I Thank God for such a great step-dad that he would think of us and our needs and be willing to do something like this for us.




Thank you Mom & Goobs!





Here is our new ride...Liam calls him "James" ~ imagine that!

More Birthday Pics!

Happy 1st Birthday Natalie

It was one year ago this past Friday that I labored at home and had Natalie in about 1 hr on her due date. I can hardly believe a year has past and our baby is 1! No, I am not wanting another one, but it is just sad. She is growing up so fast.

She is a trooper even with a double ear infection she managed to have a great weekend with family and friends. Friday, Mema and Papka Goobs came over and we had dinner and chocolate cupcakes. She loved the chocolate! Then Saturday us girls went to Costco and out to run errands while Papka Goobs and the boys went on an adventure to the Auburn Train station. Sunday all the family from both sides came down to celebrate with us.

Natalie was such a little princess and just loved all the attention. She kept saying "wow" in this really cute voice and with pucker lips. She seemed to really have fun and I know we did. It is such a blessing to have such great family and friends. Liam and Reilly thought the whole thing was a lot of fun! Liam loved helping her open her presents and Reilly can not wait for his birthday. Next is cousin Grants in June. They have all the kids in the families birthdays memorized. Liam will list them all and then go "then it is mine"...like in a another 9 months!

Here are some pictures from the day. As always we miss those who could not be here and are always thinking of you :O)

The Chicken Coop

Jason worked so hard on Saturday to finish the chicken coop because those darn chickens are growing fast. It turned out AWESOME and way better then what I was expecting. He is not finished just yet as he has the nesting boxes to add. He is actually making them so all we have to do is open them from the outside and get the eggs out. This way the kids do not have to go in the pen. What a great daddy!

Check out his work I was so impressed. I put the chickens in today because they are just going stir crazy in the bunny cage. They love there new home. I used a card board box from one of Natalie's birthday gifts for the back of the temporary nesting box. I did not realize until it was in the the background is of grass and a sun - how cute!

Happy Thursday

Well the day ended up to not be so bad. We had some breaks of sun - enough to play out side when we could. I am finally almost done with the laundry I started on Monday. The kids still have stuffy noses and Natalie is teething again. She is walking like crazy and thinks it is so much fun to hang with her brothers.

We had a few friends over today to play from out small group at church. This was a lot of fun! I am getting a bit antsy about school getting out so that I do not have so much running around to do. I have decided to homeschool Liam and Reilly in the fall pre-k (3) and kindergarten. I just feel like it is worth trying out and the idea of not having to run him to preschool 3 days a week and work around nap schedules and the other two is very nice.

Here are some pictures for today - I just had to get Natalie in her little piggies!

Love ya,

Jess

Its a Monday!

Today was another sunny day! We hung out outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We got sand for the kids sand box. Reilly says "Thanks Mom". We finished one of our little boxed gardens. We played in the jumper and the cool "T-Pee" that grandpa Chucker made. We went for a walk on the Cedar River trail. Liam is getting so good riding his bike without his training wheels. He was a little scared of riding in the dirt though. But it started to rain this evening so I guess tomorrow I have off to do the pile and when I say pile I mean HEEPING pile of laundry at the bottom of my basement stairs.

Have a great night!

Back to Rain...again!

Everytime it is sunny I spend the entire day running around trying to do all I can while the sun is here. We woke up to rain again today. So we are making the most of it. Natalie is feeling a bit under the weather. Liam and Reilly desperatley needed their hair cut so I busted out the clippers today. Boy does there hair grow fast! We are off to the basement to make the blow up jumper into a fort and watch a movie on the big screen. Hope you all have a great day!

Its a Sunny Day

Cavanaugh Clan Top 10

10. We made $275.00 on our garage sale - big success!

9. Got my hanging baskets up and feels like Spring.

8. Went to the gym 4x last week.

7. Lost 2lbs - it is a start!

6. Hung with my girlfriend Lindsay this week and kids played outside all day - it was great!

5. Liam is acting alot better towards me since him and Jason had a long

talk and some spankings - and he loves is Responsibility chart.

4. Almost finished with laundry I started over two weeks ago and I finally cleaned

our bathroom and kitchen - it was driving me crazy.

3. Spent time in the word today - finally.

2. Did I mention it is a SUNNY DAY - oh and I need to weed some more!

1. Jason is SINGING on Father's Day at church - a long time coming.

Hope you are all doing great - love you and I will try and post some new pics soon.

Love & God Bless,

Jess

We are off to Yakima...

The kids and I are heading to Yak today to visit with Mema & Papka Goobs. My SIL had surgery yesterday so I am hoping to go and help her out a bit with the kids. Looking forward to the beautiful weather over there...beats the rain here.

The chicks are growing...the chicks are growing

OMG...the chicks are getting so big. I thought we had a few weeks until we needed the coop done, but I guess this is what we will be working on this weekend. They are getting so big and their poop is getting even bigger - yuck! They love the outside, but we have had rain lately so they are stuck inside. All the excitement has worn off for the boys - they are uninterested. Well atleast Reilly still pays attention to them. This is CrackerNut the biggest of the big ones.

Mom trying to cut wiggly girls hair
CHEESE!
The Finished Cut
Hanging with my bro's

Happy Easter Sunday

The Weeks Top 10

10. Two days of beautiful sunshine - a preview of summer I hope

9. Nana's annual Easter egg hunt and watching all the kids run around and have fun.

8. Spending the day with my SIL Laura and laughing and just enjoying the kids and our time together...plus our new business plan.

7. Eric, Jodi and Nathan coming down to visit and hang out - Nathan had so much fun with the boys and Jodi and I had a blast in the jumper with the kids!

6. No one is sick in our house for over a week - yahoo!

5. Easter service was great and our friends Steve & Jenni came with their son Will - which was so fun!

4. Our nephew Jack spending 3 days with us and making us laugh - seriously belly laugh - he is a riot!

3. Listening to Liam tell me about Jesus dying on the cross (he knows the entire story and just teared up listening)

2. Liam telling me that "he likes me" and me responding "good because you can not trade me in for a new one" and Reilly saying "well you can not trade us in for new kids" (in a Reilly voice of course). Belly laugh funny!

1. ALMOST being done with my cousins wedding invitations - oh and I might add they are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

Our Baby Chicks are growing...

The Chicks are growing "James" the new one is the one in Red, he is a Rhode Island Red Pullett. They love to perch on this log I found outside. They boys went down to make sure James was fitting in tonight. They seem to all be getting along.

Bye to JuJuBee...

We had to sat goodbye to JuJuBee today. We took her back to the feed store because something was wrong. They said she probably has some neurological damage or is a weakling. I wanted to keep her but they suggested not to as the other chicks will peak at her until she dies. How mean! I did not ask what they would do with JuJuBee - but they gave us another bird we named James. Liam and Reilly were so good about the whole thing. I was sad - who knew one could get so attached to chickens - geez!

Opening Day Mariners 2007

Jason and Liam have gone to Opening Day for the past 3 Years together. They were not going to go this year because we did not have tickets - but Jason got a call this afternoon from a good friend who had tickets and he rushed home to take Liam. They had a lot of fun together and brought home Mariner Mooses for the kids. Next year Jason gets to take both boys!
What a blessing!!!!!!

Easter Egg Coloring w/Mema

Mema came to visit this past weekend and colored eggs with the boys. They had so much fun. Liam said he was to young to hunt only big boys could - I had to explain what it meant to hunt eggs. He is so excited. We had a great weekend! Rain, but fun!