Cuatro turned Cinco!

Dear Cuatro,

You turned five two weeks ago and I have been meaning to do this post/letter since before your birthday. Five is a milestone and it deserves some celebration and fanfare. When you were two I didn't think with all the daring stunts you performed that you would see the five year mark.
You are every bit as daring still. You are my only boy and such a novelty to me. You are so completely different than all your sisters that I am constantly asking boy moms if you are in fact normal. You are, of course, but some days I need reassurance.
Right now you ask questions all day everyday. You ask EVERYONE questions even strangers. I gasp sometime with how outgoing you are since I tend to stay on the shy side. You put me in alot of uncomfortable situations but your father loves when I recount these stories because he knows that I embarrass very easily and you do not--AT ALL,EVER. You love to play with your sisters but tend to love them "too much" which results in a happy moment going to a chaotic moment in about two seconds. I know this phase is brief but oh how I wish you would get the concept of "personal space".
You think your daddy is the best person in the whole world (I do too) and love to be by his side all the time. You are crying less when he leaves every morning but still jump up and down when he comes home every night. I love this about you and pray you stay best friends even when you are a teenager and we can't get you to talk as much as you do now.
You and I have a love/dislike relationship. I probably should not write this but I want to remember everything about your fivenesss(I know it's not a word). You love me sometimes and other times you know which buttons to press to just send me over the edge. God is working on me through you and I pray the verse daily that "he who began a good work in you (which is me in this instance) will be faithful to complete it". But at night, even on the bad days, you sweetly ask me to cuddle with you and we say your blessing and you are my little boy in my arms for those minutes. I know these years are going to go fast and you are not going to want me to lay down with you at night to cuddle so I am savoring every night that we do.
You are reading and writing but we kept you in preschool this year due to your late birthday. I hope this was a good decision. You love your new preschool and the move from Texas to Maryland has been almost seamless. You make friends so easily that I am not worried.
I love you sweet boy and I pray that you come to know and love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul. You are so charismatic and love so fiercely that when you take that energy and use it for Our heavenly Father, many lives will change for His glory.

Love,
Mommy


(Had to include this one since this is what happens alot these days)

New House part 3

This is a tour of the bottom level of the house. It is the part of the house where it is very dated but Joe and I love this floor because the kids can play and mess up down there and we never see it if we do not want to. If we have people over, we visit on the second level and all the kids go downstairs and play or watch TV. Some people would call this a basement but it does not feel like a basement because of the floor to ceiling windows. We have the playroom/TV room, the girls room, girls bathroom, laundry room, and a utility room with extra fridge down here:

Looking from the second level down:


The playroom/TV area:











Girls room:




Girls closet--love this closet since it has room for all of their stuff!:






Laundry room:



Bathroom downstairs:



Utility/Fridge "room":

New house part 2

We had a guest coming to stay for week so the house was clean except for the office which I am working on SLOWLY (and by slowly I mean I pick up a paper and move it to another spot once a week). I decided to use my Canon to record pictures of the CLEAN house for the blog. So here is the tour of the third floor of the house in Maryland:

Master bedroom:


Master Bathroom:




Office off of Master bedroom (we have the whole third floor and we love it):

The New House-part 1

So we moved recently. Not just across town but halfway across the United States. We are in Maryland for Joe to pursue a PhD. AND we are going to be here awhile. So this blog will come in handy to update our family and friends back in Texas with all our activities. Some people have asked for photos of the new house. So for the next few days, there will be a series of instagram pictures to take you on a tour of our new digs. Some areas are not ready to be photographed since the "little people" around here need to clean up. But I will try to get everything in as soon as I can.


Entryway:



View from one of the basement windows:



Grace and Laura's room:



Another view of their room with Audrey:



Messy Basement with lots of big windows:



Kitchen--hate the wallpaper:

Recent pictures I love...and why

Audrey's second Birthday...she was into eating like a "puppy" at this time so why not eat the cupcake this way?

This is Easter where all the family members were teaching Audrey the fine art of cracking cascarones.

This is Cuatro and his "best buddy", Carson. Cuatro and Carson have been close since birth and are considered "armed and dangerous" wherever they go. This Picture was taken the day that Carson's grandparents had two new horses delivered to their property. (That is Carson's dad with the boys---someone must be with them at all times).

This is the girls at the end of Dance Camp with two of their favorite friends. We also love the families of these girls as well. Dance Camp was fun even though the theme for the week was Justin Bieber...Grace was not happy about this.

Thank you to all my "moms"

I read a blog post recently where a woman my age recounted and thanked all the women who shaped her spiritually. These women came along side her own mom and added something unique and special to her life. And that got me thinking to all the women who have come into my life to do the same. I think first of my Mimi. She was my mom's mom and some of my earliest memories are of her dining room table filled with a Bible, commentaries, and so many notes from her various studies. I remember saying goodbye to her as she got on a bus every summer taking underpriviledged kids to a Christian camp many hours away. I remember her prayers every night before dinner. I long to hear her alto voice once more sing the old hymns we sang when we visited her church. Her life radiated so much love for her Saviour that it was poured out onto all of her grandkids. And then I think of Mrs. Coppin. She is one of my mom's oldest friend's. She showed me the gift of hospitality. She was always so cheerful and so willing to teach us lessons about God through stories and hands on experience. I never saw her cross or angry. She had five kids of her own but treated each one of us like we were the most special person in her house that day. I also recall Mrs Gordon who gave me so much advice and quietly served our high school youth group with enthusiasm and grace. She showed me how important it is to serve the church and find the "least of these" and serve them faithfully. Then there are women who taught me how to be a mom as I was learning seven years ago that this was harder than I thought. There were my own sisters who showed me how to bring God into life's simple lessons. They came along side me to help when I was drowning. And they faithfully prayed for me when life was just too hard. There was also Elizabeth Erhart and Deanna Sanders who taught me the joy of cooking for my family and the art of decorating my home to make it inviting for others. The memories I have of the three of us in the Erhart kitchen while all the babies played will forever be a precious one. There is also Jamie B. who led our women's Bible Study when I moved back to Texas. She prayed for each one of us faithfully and God so clearly spoke to my weary heart as I was in the midst of pregnancy (after pregnancy) and todlerhood. She prayed over me and cried with me and still does. There is also my dear friends Lori and Leanne who took in children not their own and constantly remind me of the love Christ had for us while we were yet sinners. They are my prayer warriors and confidants and they are the women shaping my children's spiritual lives right now. And finally, there is my own mother who has faithfully prayed for me for the last 33 years. She led me to Christ and that alone is enough but she amazes me with all she takes on and accomplishes so well. And these aren't fundraisers or the like that she busies herself with. She takes on people and ministries that further the gospel of Christ. I will never forget her repeating to me over and over when Joe was deployed and I was pregnant with the girls, "God is good and whether Joe comes home or not, He is still good." The women above are all so special to me and I am so indebted to them for showing me the love of a wonderful Saviour. I am indeed blessed. Happy Mother's Day!!

"I've got this"

So things in our house, as always, have been crazy. It is at these times that three words are sometimes more precious out of Joe Tidwell's mouth than, "I love you". These three words comfort me, make me smile, and make my heart stop pounding everytime. The words are. "I've got this". When I can't make sense out of our schedule or am overwhelmed by the complexity of a situation, all I need to hear is,"I've got this". And he just does what needs to be done and I fall more in love with that man every time.

And the same thing is true of our heavenly father. I have felt Him so close these past few weeks as we have faced some moments that could change our life forever. He gave me a peace that should not have been there. He gave me friends who would text me Bible verses like 2 Corintians 10:5 where He says to take every thought captive. To not dwell on the "what ifs". Or Psalm 46 where it says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea." He has calmed me and whispered every single time I start to lose heart, "I've got this". He can take care of every overwhelming decision and health scare. He's got it. There is no need to be anxious because my God, the God of the universe, He is more than capable to walk me through the valley and He is capable to get my little family through the valley as well.

I started reflecting on all the times where my life has changed paths, where it started to look different than what I thought. They all came to me like a sequence out of a movie when someone is having a flashback. It goes like this:
"I'm joining the Marine Corp", "We are moving to Virginia","We are moving to Oklahoma", "We are moving to North Carolina", "I am deploying in August","You are having twins", "Your mom has cancer, Joe","Your mom died last night, Joe","They are here, Grace and Laura are here!", "Welcome home, Joe", "I am deploying again", "We are moving home, mom", "I'm pregnant, Joe", "It's a boy!","He has pancreatic cancer, Sharon","I'm pregnant Joe and I don't know how!","Bob died last night","It's a girl", "We are taking your daughter to the NICU", "Your dad is in the emergency room", "Your dad is in surgery Joe","He is not going to make it through the night, Sharon, come say goodbye","We are going to do a CAT scan on your son's brain", "They found something in my pancreas, Sharon","They found a lump in my breast, Joe"--it goes something like that.

All the times the phone rang and I wished it had not are burned in my brain. All the times I looked a doctor in the eye as they gave me news I didn't want to hear are all there for me to remember when I am going through the valleys. But God was there too. As 2 Corintians goes on to say in chapter 11, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In every moment whether I saw Him or not, He gave me the grace and peace necessary to get me through each moment. HE provided a comfort only He could give and used His people to share His truth day in and day out to my weary heart and body. And today as I get good news back from the doctor, I am reminded that whatever the outcome would have been, "He's got this" every single time.