Puppy Love

As if baby fever wasn't enough, I've had a case of puppy fever since our little Gemma is not so little.

Gemma was my dream dog. I wanted a German Shepherd so badly and for so long.

Kyle adores her, but he kinda wanted a little pup to take with him everywhere and to teach to skate (haha).

Sunday evening we came across this cutie 

A six week old Boston terrier.

Who is now the newest Hoverkamp.

Spinelli Hoverkamp.

Yep. She's a keeper!

3 already??

We celebrated three blessed years of having our Noah! although his actual birthday is Friday, we celebrated it on Sunday with many amazing family and friends.
Noah decided Angry Birds is what he wanted the theme to be, so it was.
I was pretty stoked on the ribbon I found at Michael's craft store.
Now the cake.
Oh the cake.
Lets just say it was good enough to make me cheat on my diet...several times. 
Since several of my family members, including the kiddos have allergies to things like Gluten, Dairy, and a few other things, it seemed a little unfair to have everyone come to a party where they watched us all eating cake that they couldn't have. I went to my cousins house and he showed me how to bake a gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, soy free cake. 
It was heavenly.
Most things that lack things like gluten can taste, well like cardboard. But this is SO good.

 We were so fortunate to have all of our friends and family drive towards our side of town and be here to celebrate. Some I haven't seen in years. As a mom there is nothing more special than to see your kids face light up with excitement.

Thank you so much to all who came out to help make this day special for this little man!

I wasn't raised to just see holidays or birthdays as a day to receive gifts. Im grateful for that. And I try my hardest to teach Noah the same thing. He was very excited for the new shipment of toys he received, to say the least.

Prayer

Much needed Prayer.

 I want to lift up my poor husband. After months of complaining about stomach aches and heart burn, he was suddenly in a lot of pain.

Now I just want to say, Ive known him for over 8 years, and he has only gone to the hospital/dentist  3 times. 

He went to urgent care suspecting he had an ulcer. 

The doctor spent a brief moment speaking with him then just dismissed it as "constipation" and sent us home with a 400.00 bill.

After the pain only became worse and worse he went back last night in the emergency room and it was confirmed he had a pretty nasty stomach ulcer.

He's on the mend, but still has long days of sitting at work ahead of him. 

So my friends, if you could please pray for my Kyle, we would appreciate it. God is good. And kyle knows it.

This too shall pass.

Stoked

Well here I am almost done with week one of my no bread/pasta/grain diet and I was so stoked to see I had lost 4 pounds! Hold me accountable friends and pray that I stay strong on this because I can't wait to reach my goal weight and feel healthier!

I like skinny more than I like french fries...

Okay just right off the bat when I say "skinny" i'm not talking about being malnourished or unhealthy. I'm talking about getting healthy, and a good body weight for MY body.

With that being said. I'm DAY 3 into my "diet" or "lifestyle change". Diet, is one of those words that people get a little uneasy about when they hear. So, lifestyle change it is.

Ive decided to cut out bread, pasta, grains, and unrefined sugar from my diet. And beer. Yes, that includes my favorite hazelnut beer.

when I first heard about this from a dear family member my first thought was " what the heck do you eat then??"

Ive been grazing on salad, meats, cheeses, more salad, nuts, and things like that.

Although its Only day three, I doubt its possible to lose any weight in terms of fat, BUT I have noticed even on the first day I didn't have that bloated look and feel that you get from fillers like grains, breads, pasta, etc.

So that's been encouraging to look just a wee bit trimmer in the first few days.

Ive never been one to be able to stick to a diet for more than 12 hours.

No seriously.

I always felt like I was starving and couldn't imagine living like that. But since i've started this diet I dont feel like that because its not that im starving myself or not eating, i'm just not eating the things that "fill" you up.But eating other healthy options.

Another benefit is that although I do not have a gluten allergy, my naturopath said I should still avoid gluten as much as possible since the allergy runs in my family AND I already have one autoimmune disorder (which we are working on solving). So eliminating all the bread and pasta which I ate A LOT has cut back on my gluten intake.

Cheers to that!

Eat, Drink, and Be Married

Eat, drink, and be married. 

That about sums up our weekend.

Anticipating the most busiest weekend of the year (so far), I was stressed, and nervous to see how it was all going to pan out. 

And it was good. So good!

The plan was:

friday-wedding

saturday morning-bridal shower

saturday night-wedding

sunday afternoon-birthday party

sunday night-church

Thursday night/friday morning

we kicked things off a little early with a 3 am visit to the vet. $125.00 later we discovered miss Gemma has Kennel Cough

Friday night
 we went to a very well put together wedding of our friends.

 Noah was looking like quite the stud muffin

The food was good, to say the least

It was a good night.

Saturday morning was my beautiful soon-to-be cousin's bridal shower. And since I was a bridesmaid, I was lucky to be part of helping it all come together.

SUCCESS.

Saturday evening was a blast.
Noah went to a sleepover at his cousins house, while mommy and daddy went to another wedding.
One of the best weddings we have been to .
 the night was filled with  dancing, food, cupcakes, an open bar, more dancing, a photo booth WITH props, and more good times than we have had a very long time.

With all of the stress we have been under lately, God must have know we really needed a night like this to blow off some steam and enjoy being a married couple.
we can get so focused on getting things taken care of like work, or school, or parenting that we forget that our marriage IS a BIG priority. I have really been enjoying investing time into my husband and our marriage.
We also were lucky to meet and reconnect with some newly married couples that are our age. We see a lot of double/triple/quadruple dates in our future.
and im excited about that! 
Hearing the words spoken about marriage at the wedding we went to this weekend reminded me of how amazing and blessed we are, and how blessed I am to have my Kyle. And to enjoy marriage, and being young. and being married to my bestfriend.
 Im grateful for kyle, and that God has given me him to go through life with.

I pray that we get the blessing of growing old and wrinkly together. 

And we were lucky enough to be able to bring this beautiful centerpiece from one of the weddings home with us!

Sunday
kyle and noah went to our nephews  birthday party while mama stayed home to catch up on some homework.
then it was off to church!

So the biggest, craziest weekend of the year was amazing, refreshing and totally rad.
Thank you LORD for taking something I saw as stressful and overwhelming and making it into a blessing that I wish I could do all over again.
I may have picked up a nasty head cold, sore feet from dancing in heels, but I also picked up memories and friendships.

Simplicity

Has it really been five months since my last post?? wow. That just goes to show how crazy life has been. And as much as i'd like to say its calmed down now, it hasn't. But im finding moments in the chaos to sit back, take it all in, and enjoy "the now". Before my adorable husband gets home, and while my not-so-little boy sleeps I though I would take a minute to write, and HOPEFULLY get into the habit of writing more often then every six months.

So amongst the car accident, the homework, the tantrums, the potty training (both boy and puppy) and everything else piling up, I felt a little overwhelmed, to say the least. I have a lot of stress, from all directions, and started to lose track of whats important. whats in front of me. and what I have to be thankful for. I praise God for my husband, who can handle stress better than any other person I've met, and even in the midst of the chaos, he has a way of bringing me back down when my head feels like its spinning. Sometimes I wonder what its like to live with me, a total control freak and spazoid, and when I picture that, it makes me love him even more for the love and patience he shows me. As much as I wished I would have turned to Gods word and just got on my knees and prayed when things got stressful, I didn't. No its my stubbornness and my control freak attitude that makes me think I can face it all on my own. Ive always been one to learn things the hard way, and in this case that proved to be true yet again. But by Gods grace he always picks me up and pulls me back to him. Hopefully next time it wont take me as long to remember that :) 

Its the moments like when my husband gives me the hug on our living room floor that makes it feel like the world slows down around me, and I know when im 80 years old I will remember that moment. It reminds me that when im stressing over the bills stacking up from the accident, that im SO grateful my husband is still in my arms, when an accident could have been a lot worse. when the world finally catches back up to me I realized Noah is climbing on kyles back and I have a clumsy German shepherd trying to step on my head. But for that moment, I was able to take it all in and realize how good I have it, how much im blessed.

Its all about having a moment, even in the middle of the chaos.

It is so easy for me to see the little things, that really don't matter. and when I do that, I see miss the things that God has set before me that really do matter. During this season of life I think what God is trying to teach me is profound, yet so simple: Love what you have. Don't stress about what you don't. realize what matters. Don't be distracted by anything else. The love you share, that's what will matter in eternity. not the bills you paid.And above all things, trust Him.

My prayers sound a lot like this today: Lord thank you for blessing me, far more than I deserve. Thank you for you love, and your willingness to help me. I cannot do it on my own. And I know I do not have to. I thank you God that when I try so hard to figure things out, and what you want me to do, you are always faithful. Ever ready to guide me and teach me. I love the depth yet simplicity in your ways. Continue to lead me Lord. And thank you for all you have done.

Mamas, love your babies. Don't miss the times to be silly, play trains, blow bubbles, read just one more story, or tickle until they just can't take it anymore :) They grow too fast. Mine will be bowing out his candles next month. Wives, love your husbands. Don't forget to laugh, and be best friends with him. And above, all love God, he is so good.