White Monday!

This morning we woke up to this......




SNOW!!!! This is sooo not an everyday occurrence here on the island and the boys were very excited. Colby's school was delayed two hours so we bundled up and headed out for some fun in the snow.

After a few snowball lessons from big brother Brayden was all ready for the inevitable snowball fight!

And we built the cutest little snowman....ok...maybe its a little pathetic but we had fun building it and thats all really matters right?? And you better believe it....those are Stampin Up! buttons for the eyes and nose!!

It was a fun morning! What a great way to start off the week.....and the forecast calls for more snow thru the week.....CRAZY! So Colby is at school now, lil one is going down for a nap, and I must clean!

Love....

There is nothing more heartwarming than seeing the love between my boys. Today as I was doing laundry and cleaning they were watching a movie and I walked into the living room to find this......

There just aren't words to appropriately describe the joy that the love between these two brings me. Colby is such a protector and wants to help his brother in any way he can. And Brayden adores his "Bubba". Love....such a powerful word and I had no grasp of how powerful until these two came into my life.

Toothless Colby!

Colby has been obsessed with having loose teeth and teeth falling out for about a year now....since his friends at school started losing them. Finally a few months ago he had his first loose tooth! He was soooo EXCITED and couldn't wait for it to fall out and get money from the tooth fairy. As time passed we noticed that not only was the tooth not coming out but the permanent one was coming in behind it so long story short......the dentist decided he needed not only the one tooth pulled but BOTH bottom teeth pulled. He was a total champ about the whole thing and is now missing his 2 bottom teeth. TOO STINKIN CUTE! I love it!





AND we got to use John's tooth fairy pillow from when he was little! Grandma "Culka" was very excited to send it to us as soon as Colby discovered his loose tooth and Colby was equally excited to use it last night! It was so fun to begin the tooth fairy fun with our boys using the very same pillow that caused such excitement for John so many years ago! So here is a pic of the Bert pillow and Colby's loot!

And I had to take a picture of Brayden of course.....if anyone is getting their picture taken you better be planning on taking one of him too in his mind! So here is Brayden being Brayden!

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! We aren't planning on doing a whole lot....it was kind of a tough week so we are going to relax and possibly go to the library tomorrow!

Hope for the Homefront

I started a bible study yesterday through the women's ministry at our church and I am so excited. It is called Hope for the Homefront and is a whole study of scriptural encouragement for military spouses. What a blessing this is going to be for me at this time in my life....wednesday mornings with a wonderful group of women who have a desire to learn God's word and live a life for him while gaining knowledge to help me on my journey as a Navy wife!

I left yesterday with a new outlook on my life as the wife of a US Navy sailor. My lord and savior has called me to this marriage and therefore has called me to be a military wife. What an honor......he has great plans for me and this is something I have always known. But it put it into perspective for me that part of his plan is for me to live this lifestyle and I need to strive daily to look to him for his guidance and do his will for me and not my own. Its not easy and he never promised it would be but he KNOWS I can do this and who am I to question that?? I CAN DO this and I WILL make the best of it and do my best to learn from every challenge I face along the way.

So no doubt there will be more to come as I continue to grow and learn in his word....I am so excited and grateful to be so incredibly blessed. This bible study is already doing wonderful things for me and i can't wait to see where else my savior may lead me!

A Broken Heart

Gosh....I remember taking orders to come to Whidbey Island about 3 years ago and talking with John about how he would have to deploy and trying to imagine what it might be like when he did. But nothing could have prepared me for the very real emotions and heart break. The emptiness and loneliness. This is the 3rd time in 2 years we have had to say good bye for a deployment and it has not gotten any easier. Each time brings different challenges....this time the hardest part of the goodbye was Brayden. He understood as we watched the plane take off that his Daddy was gone and there is no way to help him understand. All I can do is reassure him that his Daddy loves him and will come home to us as soon as he can. And I am so very proud of Colby......he is growing up so much and does his best to be "the man of the house" while his Daddy is away. So...the house feels very empty and there is a hole in my heart that will be there until my very best friend is home with us again. I am going to make the best of this and do everything I can to keep busy and make this as easy on the boys as possible. Please pray for strength and guidance for me and understanding and peace for the boys as we navigate yet another deployment.

Being a Mom.....

As a Mom, I find it rather easy to teach things like "that can hurt you" and "that's not healthy for you", colors & letters, but what I struggle with is how to ensure that my children are truly learning values like honesty and gratitude. I set the best example I can, I speak with them about these values and try to take advantage of every day opportunities to incorporate these in our lives. But I wonder am I doing a good job? Are they truly learning how to be the men I can only hope and pray for them to be one day??

We had an incident this weekend with Colby that made me question his level of understanding of just how blessed we are as a family, and how blessed he is as a child. After a long one on one talk with him I asked him to take time alone in his room to write a list of all the blessings in his life. When he finished and brought his list to me my heart swelled. I won't include the entire list but here are a few of my favorites:

I hav a brathr ( I have a brother)
I got food
I hav skool
Kuvr (aka blanket)
Bibl (e)
Lit (light)
I hav a mom and dad

And of course there was the toys, books, puzzles, games, etc. But to see that he does appreciate the little things that really matter brought such comfort to me. And of course I would be lying if I said the spelling didn't bring a smile to my face....its so darn cute to see his writing! =) So I'm guessing (and hoping) that this "attitude" of his is just a stage he is going thru that will pass like so many "stages" before. And while I will continue to be diligent in trying to ensure that my boys are learning values that I believe are so very important, it is such a blessing to know that atleast some of what I have been trying to teach all these years just might have sunk in! And I am always open to hearing how others go about teaching their lil ones.....is there something special you do in your family to help instill these values in your children?? I would love to hear any fresh new ideas that I might be able to incorporate in our lives as well!

Here I go....

So....I read alot of blogs and have always been very intrigued by the idea of blogging, but just recently did my interest turn to thoughts of "maybe I should start a blog"! So here it is....Miculka Madness! Madness would pretty much describe the life I lead and absolutely love! I hope this can be a place to record the day in and day out happenings in my little family's life that can so often be forgotten when tomorrow comes. A place to connect with family and friends and keep them updated on what is going on in our little corner of the world! A place to acknowledge just how incredibly blessed I am and a place to look back at those blessings when the going gets tough. I'm excited to have taken this step into the world of blogging and I am looking forward to keeping everyone posted on the Miculka Madness!!!