Day of Silence

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38,
When 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house."
When what to their wondering eyes did appear,
But Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
Then He opened His arms and He called them by name,
And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.
Those children all flew into the arms of their King,
And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
One small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
And as if He could read all the questions she had,
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of Mom and Dad."
Then He looked down on earth, the world far below,
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe.
Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools."
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound

"Come now my children, let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

My thoughts and prayers are with all of the families that have been affected by this tragedy. I will be loving and hugging my little firsties just a little tighter as I have my own children in the wake of these events.  

Catch up and Instafaves

This past Tuesday I went back to work and I must say the transition has not been as bad as I thought it would be. On the home front I know my super dad husband has got everything covered. He's actually pretty good at managing kids, house chores, and a business on top of that!  I truly admire him for being able to handle all of that. I always say he's better at it than I am. I remember when I stayed home with our first child he would come home from work and I hadn't even started dinner yet! The house had not been picked up and I was completely exhausted. Now that we have three I must confess I don't like when left by myself with all three. At first I thought it was because I come from a small family and am not used to being outnumbered. Where as Johnny comes from a family of 4 boys and having a loud house is totally normal. I am currently taking a leadership class at our church where I have been learning a lot about myself and I finally figured it out! My personality type enjoys peace, order, and stability. And when I am not in that kind of environment I easily feel flustered and out of control of the situation. I know that's weird to think about considering that I am a teacher and am outnumbered every day of the week in my classroom. BUT, when their not your own kids their usually at a somewhat decent behavior and I have routines and a system for every little issue that can come. But for some reason your own kids know you so well, know what cards you hold, and know what buttons to push to send you over your limit sometimes. I think the key too is that at school the kids are almost ALWAYS busy. Where as at home they get bored of playing with each other or with their toys and thus will get into some sticky situations just because they have nothing else better to do. Anyone have any ideas how to keep a 7 yr. old and a 2 yr. old busy aside from watching a movie? hmmm......

On the school front I have been super blessed with a great group of kids! They have been looking forward to having me join them this year. My long term sub had my coming back to school day noted on the classroom calendar and the kids had a countdown going. They were super excited for the big day and it's been fun so far interacting with these little first graders! Not a day goes by that something is said or they do something that cracks me up. I love to share the funny stories! Here's one...

1st Grader- I just want to let you know I won't be at school tomorrow b/c  Iam going to the airport tomorrow to pick up my cousin. I have to go to welcome her to Texas.

Teacher- Oh ok. That sounds like fun. I am sure your cousin would love to see you at the airport. Will miss you tomorrow.

The next morning.......

Same 1st grader- As you can see I decided to come to school after all. I told my mom I could not miss today because I am scheduled to go to the computer station during center time. And I was not about to miss computer time over going to the airport. I told my mom she can go without me and I'll just see my cousin later. She'll do fine without me.

So funny! I am glad to see these kids love computer time so much!

Here are some favorite instagrams of what we've been up to! 

Go Texans!!!

Going to the Texans Game with some friends IN STYLE!

Secret to get a 2yr. to smile.....Tickle time during the pose!

Let's play "Can you copy my face?"

Oh yah!! You go girl!

Happy Halloween from Trouble 1, Trouble 2, & Trouble 3!

Trick or Treat!

Our small group hosted a gender reveal party for my sweet friend Trina! It's a boy!!! Boy # 3..you guys are on a roll!

    

InstaDump

I am usually the last one to join any kind of bandwagon. But I recently fell in love with Instagram! I am still not one to take pictures all the time but am hoping this gets me rolling. We'll see! Here are some of my favorite pics. We'll see if I can have regular posts where I just dump all my instagrams on here on a regular basis! I should probably stop making promises about doing anything on the ole' blog on a regular basis. I epically fail each time! Oh well....better to make and live the memories vs. trying to record them. : )

BIG BROTHER....little sister

Why is she putting this thing so close to me?! What is going on?

LOVE!

A New Time Out Spot

Our little Maciah has officially entered into his terrible 2 stage! He tests his boundaries with us constantly and pays a visit to time out several times a day....well on a bad day that is. He has his good days sometimes.  He has become accustomed to time out and doesn't argue when the consequence is called for. He calmly walks over to his time out spot and sits down quietly. It's the cutest thing to watch him accept his consequence so eloquently. EXCEPT when as a parent you wanna see some sort of emotional reaction for those bad choices. Well on one of those bad days we got that reaction we were looking for by just changing his time out spot. I think it worked! What do you think?

***Disclaimer*** Before you go calling CPS this is the picture of him before we threatened to walk away. Which we never did. It only took 2 seconds to get the cry and for him to learn his lesson. He's back to his original time out spot where he is safe instead of hanging by a thread! LOL.  Our little terrible 2...gotta love him! At least he's got cuteness going for him!

A peak into the waiting area....

For the birth of Illana we had a sweet friend take pictures of our special day to capture the moments and reactions of our family to the gender reveal! Being that I was in recovery I missed out on the jumping and hollering going on in the hallway. I wish I could have been there to introduce little Illana but having pictures taken was extra special because we get to keep those forever. We had a photographer for the birth of our second child as well and it is awesome to go back and see still pictures of his birth story. These will be cherished forever! I just got these pictures from my friend this weekend and here are some of my favorite!



Waiting Patiently.....



How much longer till this baby comes? It's past my nap time!

You think my mother in law really wanted a girl?

It's a Girl!

Illana Eve Garcia

7/30/12 12:54pm

7lb.15oz. 19.75in.



The Lord blessed our family with another little girl on July 30th! I meant to post a birth announcement sooner but the sleepless nights have gotten the best of my energy during the day! Enjoy some shots of the special day we got to meet this little bundle of joy! Maciah has officially become not only a little brother but also a big brother. He is learning how to pet his little sister gently instead of slapping like he normally does everything else. And big sister Atianna is back to smothering mommy mode like she was with Maciah when he was a baby. She asks to hold Illana every 5 minutes! So the adventures continue in the Garcia household....especially now with #3 added to our growing family! Fun times ahead!

Enjoy some shots of the special day we got to meet this little bundle of joy!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Photo slideshow made with Smilebox

Patio Final Reveal!

The Patio is finally furnished and done! We got it completed as soon as summer started and have spent a lot of time in the back patio enjoying family dinners and just lounging around in the shade listening to the palm leaves rustle in the wind. The kids love to play in the sprinklers, baby pool, and slip and slide while we watch them from  the comfort of our patio furniture. When we shopped for patio furniture the retail price was way out of our budget as it was high demand season in the beginning of summer. So.....we got our Craigslist skills on and began the hunt for some outdoor furniture. We scored big time with the furniture we found! We got super great deals on both the conversation set and the dining table set. We LOVE us some Craigslist deals!