Our Loss

As many of you already know, this past week we lost our unborn baby. I was about 10 weeks along and when I went to the doctor for my 1st visit, we could not find a heart beat and I was also measuring off of what I thought I should be. With what we called "cautious optimism" we waited through the weekend and went back in the following week to see if there was any progress in the baby's development and to see if we could detect a heart beat at that time. I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was to "see" our baby and to be told that he or she had already passed and that I would miscarry in the next week or two. Very difficult and emotional days of waiting and a lot of pain. I have miscarried before, but it was before I had any of my 3 children. I took this one harder than the other one I think because now I have a mother's heart and I know more so how precious the life of a child truly is. Through these tough days, the Lord definitely showed up and He was completely the reason I was able to endure the loss and pain. He gave us such an incredible peace about the whole situation and more strength than I knew I had. We are completely confident in His plan for our lives and our family and nothing draws you closer to the Lord than a loss like this one. Here are some blessings that have come out of this situation:

• The day we found out I would possibly miscarry, my sweet son announces in the car without knowing at all what is going on - "Mom, God's ways are perfect." (Which has been our memory verse for the past month, but also exactly what I needed to hear. I LOVE the the Lord used my precious first born to speak directly to my heart! So amazing!)
• Last Sunday morning while Andrew was at Church preaching, I of course started having some major pains that pretty much handicapped me. So, I called a dear friend who lived close by to come and help me get the kiddos ready for Church. She went over and beyond what I asked her to do and took my kids to Church so that I could rest. (Thank you, sweet Fawnda for showing Christ's true love!)
• That same Sunday, after preaching in the first service, Andrew was "told" by the deacons that he needed to go home and be with me. So, our precious Church family prayed for us in an incredible and emotional time of prayer and sent my hubby home. This was such a gift to us and even more so, it showed us how much the people of FBC Anna love us. (Something we needed more than anyone knew. :) Thank you, First Anna for all your prayers and for taking such great care of us by bringing us all the amazing meals!
• More than anything, we have been reminded what true miracles each one of our children are and how they are more than blessings to us. I am so overwhelmed when I think about the Lord's grace and mercy on my life! I mean, look at these precious faces!!

I just love this pic! Thank you, Lord for our children! What a true gift they are!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another year and another million reasons why I am so thankful to our Savior for all that He has done in and through our family and all that He is going to do. I am so overwhelmed when I think about how good He is to us and the incredible amount of protection and blessings He has given us. Thank you, Lord!

From our wild Indians to yours - Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, fun and good food! Blessings!

Turkey Day Festivities

Austin's preschool had a sweet little Thanksgiving program last week and then we "feasted" as a class afterwards. It was such a bright spot during a very difficult week for our family. Just one more thing to be thankful for this year!

Here are a couple of pics:

Hanging out with his buddy Hudson before the program started.

I honestly was a little nervous when Austin's group took the stage. If you know my son, you never know what he is going to do. He was very excited to see Mommy and Daddy in the audience. It was too cute!

That paper vest you see stayed on for about 30 seconds...

... and then it was time to get serious with "Standing on the Rock" of the Lord. (With his own dance moves added in of course. :)

Austin did such a great job and my heart was swelling with pride. Just a completely different experience when it's your child on stage.

He of course stole the show with those dance moves I mentioned earlier. He is so animated and full of life and "on stage" it definitely came out. :)

We had a fun time eating lunch with all of his friends and their parents. It's so great to watch him interact with friends that we pray for together every night. Way to go Austin! You did such a great job in your first Thanksgiving performance!

We love you!

Mauritzen Thanksgiving

At the beginning of this month, my Dad's side of the family got together in East Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful day full of great conversations and catching up with family we only get to see a couple times a year. Here are a few pictures I took. I only wish I would have taken more of the family as a whole. :)

It was a beautiful day, so we were outside ( LOVE the November weather in Texas!) the majority of the time.

Here are some of the Mauritzen men sitting around talking and watching this...

...Bounce House fun! My Aunt and Uncle rented this for the day and it was definitely a hit with all the kiddos (and adults!:). Austin probably went down this slide a hundred times or more. He was lovin' life!

Audrey had a blast with it too.

Love this pick of my sweet Aunt Nedra and our cousin Hallie who will be a big sister next month! So fun!

And here is my Aunt Jackie being a good sport taking Ains down the slide.

And Papa of course. Can you tell what we spent the entire time doing?!

The newlyweds...

Grandaddy Mauritzen having a great conversation with Ainsley for sure. :)

We love our Aunt Zuzu! Never can get enough of her!!

It was a wonderful day and the food was amazing! I just love this time of year where we get the opportunity for the entire family (only minus cousin Cullen who is serving our country) to be together for a short, but great time. Love you all!

Halloween Cuties

I know these are coming out WAY late, but I have to show off my little Spiderman, Princess and Ladybug! So cute! We had a great Halloween full of a Fall Festival, Trick or Treating and LOTS of candy. I just love this time of year! :)

Lord, thank you for these precious children who bring so much joy and laughter to my life! How you have blessed me!

Sometimes I just love going home...

Andrew went out of town for a conference a couple of weeks ago, so I packed up the kiddos and headed back to my hometown of Waco. There is just something about that little town that I love so much. My parents still live in the house I grew up in, some of my very best friends from high school and beyond are raising their families there and it is such a family-fun place to be. There are many days that I miss this town that I swore I would NEVER move back to after high school and I am so thankful that my 1st two kiddos were born there and that it is still a fun place to come and play. And play is definitely what we did! We kept all three of my kids very busy the entire trip (thanks, Dad!) Here are entirely too many pics of our trip (sorry!:):

Bounce House fun!

What's a trip to the Grandparents without going to Chuck E. Cheese?!

We heart the Waco Zoo and always try to go each trip.

(BTW - Look at the Mr. Orangutan! He was HUGE!!)

We love our Papa!! He is the BEST!

We definitely missed Daddy, but we had a great time!

100th Post - How 'bout them Cowboys?!

I can't believe that I have finally made it to my 100th post! So fun! It's not really that big of a deal, but I love that I have 100 things to look back on and read about this incredible journey my little family is on and the many fun memories we have created. This blog is the place that I try and document the big and small things happening in our little corner of the world and I am going to be so thankful when I can go back years from now and read things I know I am going to forget and be so thankful for committing to do this. :) Just that alone keeps me going...

My sweet hubby and I had an awesome opportunity to go to a Dallas Cowboy home game 2 weekends ago! The Dallas Cowboys are a REALLY big deal in our home and one of our favorite things to do is watch the games together snuggled up on the couch. :) We are so thankful to the precious family in our Church who gave them to us and the sweet couple who took care of our kiddos for the afternoon. You guys are amazing and we had so much fun! Yes, it was a noon game on a Sunday. Yes, even though we had free tickets to the game my hubby still preached until 12:15. :) And yes, we drove entirely too fast to Arlington and made it to the game at half time. It was definitely worth it! The stadium is incredible and we honestly thought that it would be MANY years before we would get a chance to go. Last year I surprised Andrew with tickets for his birthday, but the two experiences do not compare! It was awesome!! Even down to the seats we sat in, we had a blast. And to top it off, the Boys blew out the Seahawks. So fun! Let's do it again!! ;)

A Day of Pumpkins

We spent our Family Fun Friday last week going to a Pumpkin Farm close to Anna for the second year in a row. It was freezing cold and very muddy, but we had a lot of fun. The kiddos love all the animals, the hay ride and picking out their very own pumpkins. Here is the day in pictures:

Audrey is not too excited about the animals as you can tell from her face. :)

Ainsley loved it though...

I love this pic! This is what Audrey does the first 15 minutes we go anywhere.

She is our shy, cautious child.

You can't really tell, but look at all the mud this poor cow is standing in!

About to take off on the hay ride.

Pumpkins!

Look here for last year's pictures at the Pumpkin Patch.

I can't believe how much older all three of my sweet kiddos look!!

Then we came home and made some pumpkin pie. YUM! :)

I love this pic, too! I can just hear the laughter...precious!

Pumpkin carving time!

What a fun day! Thanks for reading!