Open House, Open Heart...

I am not so good at writing on a daily basis! So here are days 15- 18.. Day 15 is somewhat cheesy, but its my heart. <3 to truly get the full experience you must listen to the hopeless romantic song that reminds me of Caleb & I While looking at the pictures. I am grateful for my Incredible husband.  Some of these pictures may seem a little random but they are some of my favorite memories with Caleb. He's been an amazing husband and is such a good man. I am blessed. Day 16: I am grateful for the joy Axel brings me. We have gone through so much craziness in a year and a half. He has been quite a fun guy to have around. Day 17: I am grateful for music. Pandora has been great to listen to during the day. Axel loves oldies. Its our new way to prevent screaming in the car. :) We're making progress! Someday he'll love that car seat! Day 18: I am thankful for Pumpkin spice lattes and friends named Sheri! ;) both these things have made this transition into m...

I wasnt able to blog for the past five days. We've been working on getting Axel on a better napping schedule (which is going great actually) so I dont find much down time between getting him to sleep & upkeep on the house. I also try and find time to rest myself. I have thought through out the week of so many things I'm grateful for so I'm going to try and summarize my week in thoughts. i'll do my best to keep it brief. DAY 10: I am grateful for My heart for missions. I was talking to Caleb over dinner one night and I told him that I had come to the conclusion that I am grateful for the fact that God gave me a heart for the nations and for missions. Had he not, I dont think I'd ever leave. I looked over my life and realized.. just how blessed I am. I have a great husband, sweet baby, a cute cozy house, running vehicles, a cute pet, an amazing family, helpful parents, tons of siblings to love and my extended family is constantly growing.  Why on e...

I am thankful for Axels new favorite video to listen to for napping.. lulls him right to sleep today. I have been thinking about getting one of those lambs that mimic the mothers heartbeat for him to sleep with. havent decided yet. I've learned that motherhood is a lot of trial and error. Today this works. Tomorrow it might not. what a precious face. I'm thanking God for it today. Im grateful for the peace it brings to my baby and to our household. Lots of Love- Briana

Its been awhile since I did an update on Axel. Of course for my 21 days of gratitude Im going to have to say.. I am grateful for my son & grateful for his good health. Axel will be 11 weeks old tomorrow! He is a very large 11 week old baby. The last time we weighed him about a week ago he was 16lbs. Pretty impressive. Here are his 2 month pictures. Isn't he adorable! He has my smile :) This is one of my favorite pictures of Caleb and Axel. I love my boys. They are my treasures. We decided to do a mechanic theme since thats one thing Caleb loves. Cars/trucks/Vehicles. I love the wrench in his hand.  Some of the fun things we are seeing right now: Cooing. Smiling. Tracking Mom & Dad. Fake crying (ha.) Blowing bubbles. Back and forth Conversations. (sounds) Laughing in his sleep. A recent one that is my favorite is clicking his tongue .  Its been alot of fun and at the same time full of its challenges. We are blessed to see him gr...

Today I am grateful for a well rested baby.  Today we headed to Minneopa State park to take my sisters pictures.  Axel napped the whole time. He also napped again later when we got home I was then able to do some dishes and make protein bars for the week!    Rest was something much needed in this house and I'm grateful that we got some!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend too.  Lots of love- Briana 

Today I am thankful for 2 major things. Things that have changed my life entirely. I wouldnt be the same without them. I am thankful for the people who showed me who Jesus is. I am forever grateful for those who demonstrated to me what a relationship with him looks like. Just to name a few.. The DeTurks & Greens- You loved me from the beginning. Showed me that faith is tangible if you believe. You invested in me when I was a child & because of that I've had a foundation to fall back on years later. The Swansons- You showed me grace and walked with me even when I wandered off at a young age. You showed me that Gods love isn't conditional.  My Parents- You reminded me that we are all in this together. That a relationship with Christ is a Daily Journey. My Girlfriends- You pushed me to keep searching when I couldn't find answers & encouraged me to not only dream but allow those dreams to become reality. my YWAM family- I am forever in debt to yo...

This is my inspiration for my post today.  I am thankful for life in itself.  Im grateful for my ever growing family.  I am blessed by my husband, who reminds me to keep dreaming.  And I Am joyful because I have him to love.  Life is rich & full of blessing. I am finally starting to see it.  Be blessed- Briana 

This challenge Is so needed for me right now. In my frustrations lately I've had a hard time finding things to be grateful for. Terrible. Seriously.  I am a privileged person. It's actually sad to me that in all the good I have in my life that I have trouble recogniZing it.   So for Day 2 and Day 3  I'm going back to the basics. I think I need to learn to appreciate that first.  So, I am thankful for a warm shower.  And I am thankful for running water.  Clean running water.  Being clean is a luxury and I'm blessed to have it.  I'm grateful that God has given even when I don't deserve it.  Goodbye ungratefulness, hello gratitude.  Godspeed- Briana 

Alright, as always I really should be cleaning but I've decided that I want to join a fellow blogger in her 21 days of gratitude.   They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit and I need to rid myself of some negativity so I'm taking the challenge! If you're feeling up to it, please join in! Day 1: Im grateful for my rocking chair. I have spent so much time in it over the past couple weeks and my son truly loves it. My rocking chair was a free-be someone was getting rid of and we couldn't pass up. We actually got it before we even knew we were pregnant. I'm also thankful for my cat. He is so entertaining. Meet Thriftshop. We are blessed, even in the small things. Thank you Lord. So here is to a new chance to be more grateful. Phillipians 3:13 0 Im not good at being grateful and this will probably be a fairly challenging 21 days. So long discontent. Hello gratitude. Briana

So we are getting closer and closer to being settled at the new place, but lets be real.. we have so far to go. My main goal is to try and do dishes, laundry & keep us fed. Unpacking will come in due time. I have a handful of things i want to share with you so lets get to it! 1. I finally got Axels Cloth diapers! I bought them here.  They are bamboo flats & I am using bummis covers as of now! They are working pretty well. the flat is very basic. literally just a large piece of organic cotton/bamboo. I have tried 3 different ways to fold and not quite sure which i like best yet.  Trifold - Newspaper fold- Origami fold. I think I'm going to stick with Newspaper for now. If you're interested in this there are plenty of youtube videos to check out! Cloth diapering is a huge money saver! We have already spent more on disposables in the first 2 months than we did on our cloth diaper supply! On top of that, disposables create so much waste! It is estimated that in the Uni...