Close of 2015!

Without a shadow of doubt, I can confidently say that 2015 has been my best year yet. God showed me abundant Mercy in every area of my life. I can honestly testify to God’s goodness in my life without it being one of those cliché statements or conversations that Christians should have at their disposal. 

When I think about how Faithful and Merciful God has been to me this year, it brings me to tears. I would be doing myself a great disservice if I do not continue to say THANK YOU. It seems like as the year comes to a close He continues to surprise me even more! I have been consciously teaching myself to trust God. Not just to trust Him, but to FULLY TRUST Him without reservations. It has been hard because sometimes when I commit stuff to God’s hand, I still try to use my own power to make things work. Now, I’m not saying just pray about things and expect God to be a magician without you taking necessary steps. Is it possible for Him to move as a magician? Absolutely! It’s called favor. However, I’m talking about when you’ve done all you can and you say “God take over, I don’t know what else to do”. At that point, if you’re still trying to work things out, trust in God is lacking. There are a couple of things in the past weeks that I put in God’s hands and walked away. I’m talking about when the thought of those things came up I blasted it out and filled my mind with other things or just did something to keep busy so I won’t think about it. I kid you not, I’ve seen God move in those areas and He is not finished yet!

While I’m thankful for God’s faithfulness, I also realize that there are people who have been through it this year. It’s on the news every day, and it hits closer to home when I see it on my Facebook news feed. Things happen at times and it causes me to question God because I simply do not understand why. All I know to do is pray. For anyone going through a rough time, I pray that the Holy Spirit will comfort you and send you His Peace that passes every understanding.

Well this year for the first time in my adult life, probably my life ever! I can’t say I’ll be at church on New Year’s Eve for a watch night service. Matter of fact I’m clueless on what I’ll be doing but I know for a fact that I’ll be having a good time with my baby boo and our babies boos.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Regardless of what you’re going through, please have an expectant heart and faith/Trust in God for 2016. All it takes is a mustard seed. I’ll leave you with this Bible verse:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

Cheers to 2015!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

A few weeks ago, the kids took some pictures in their traditional Nigerian outfits and the photos turned out great. Hubby and I decided we would select a few and use them for our Christmas cards. The plan was to use the kids ONLY and not include us this year.

Hubby handles Christmas cards every year. He started it the first year and that has remained his household department. He puts design together online and selects pictures with my consent, sends to print and picks up and I address and mail. When he worked on the design this year and showed it to me, we some how were on it contrary to our plan. I laughed and thought to myself, dude you just couldn't help yourself. This guy dug up our traditional pictures from when we got married and included them!! I wasn't too crazy about it but I let it be because it seemed like he had put a lot of thought into it. LOL!!! Anyhow...

From my family to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Check out our previous Christmas cards..

2012 2013 2014 

Peeking!

In a few more days, we will say good bye to 2015. That is so wild to me. I can’t believe this year is gone! Just like that!

Looking back, I’m kinda sad that I didn’t blog as much as I would have loved to. I just went through my blog and it made my heart smile. Trust me when I’m not blogging it is abandoned totally. I read a post from earlier this year where I promised to blog more. Looking at the stats from 2012 when I started, let us just say if we threw the numbers up on a bar chart, it wouldn’t be one I would be pleased to stare at if I were looking at my growth numbers at work.

I’ve missed out on sharing so much. From my 29th birthday (hello!!! Last year of my 20’s), to me hosting my entire family right here in Northwest Arkansas for Thanksgiving! Now for people who know me, hell that was a BIG DEAL!!!I would still love to share, so if not before the end of the year, I’ll carry it into the New Year.

Let me be honest, I love blogging. Not so much to have family, friends, and random people all around the world that I probably will never meet read it but because I think it’s a special way for me to preserve memories. I pray Mo and Demi will appreciate this someday. I can only imagine what joy it would have been for me if I had something to go back to and read and know exactly how I was as a kid. Hubby and I do our best to capture the kids through, photos, videos, voice recordings and of course I also want to with this blog.

Thank you so much to everyone who encourages me about it. My sisters are constantly asking when next I’ll blog. Hubby asked me about it about a month ago, and I thought to myself… huh? That’s random. Trust me it was like so out of nowhere! Just yesterday a friend of mine left a message on one of my photos. It read #bringtheblogback and before I had a chance to respond, she left another “#Lauretbringbacktheblog”. So this is dedicated to you Nana and all who have inquired. I appreciate you!

A couple of Sundays ago, we were photo giddy before church and decided to snap away. I thought I’d share… 

Our Demi is 2!

Demi turned 2 on August 4^th and telling myself I’ll put a post up later has turned into a couple of weeks.

It’s no news that the world is moving at such a fast pace. I feel like I wake up on a Monday morning and get ready for work and almost ten minutes later I’m driving back home ready to enjoy my weekend. Well.. maybe ten minutes is an exaggeration, but goodness, my week goes by pretty fast. 

Demi, two years with you has literally flown by and a lot of times when I think about how quickly it’s going, I stop to ask myself if I’m making the best of every moment. If am capturing memorable and epic moments the best I can. Also, am I doing everything I can and should as a parent to make sure with each moment, each day, and months leading to a mile stone you’re balanced emotionally, physically, and spiritually? Ah! I guess I do the best I can and enforce the rest in prayer.

Demi you bring me so much joy. I love how you need me and make me feel like your world revolves around me. Trust me I’m enjoying every moment of it because I know it won’t last long. It’s different for me because I didn’t have the same experience with your big sis. MoMo became very independent quickly and I wonder if that’s because the focus was on you. Ha! You want to be cuddled for 20mins past bed time and still it’s not enough, you want me to do every single thing for you even when you know you are now able to do it on your own, you want me to carry you around while we’re inside the house! It’s true what they say about the name you give your child, because heaven knows you are acting yours out to the max!

Here’s a little bit of what your life is like now…

It’s clear to your daddy and I now that we had a boy. Demi the things you do, MoMo does not even dare try them. You are so adventurous and you explore without fear. We always have to keep an eye on you because there is no telling what mischief you’ll get into if we’re not watching. You could live outside if we left you to it. You’re never too tired to go outside and play. Thankfully you’re very homely too! You’ve developed a love for your sister’s play kitchen and you spend minutes cooking imaginary food, stirring it, and even tasting it! It’s so funny to watch. You also love to watch your shows and rarely allow any interruptions because of how focused you are. You enjoy watching your DVD movies too. You pick one from our growing collection and then hand it to me and point to the DVD player. Next you get on the sofa and point to the throws indicating I get one for you. Great part is that you want to share the moment with me. You make me sit down too and then you lay your head on my chest while we both enjoy the movie. That’s another thing.. you are one heck of a cuddler! You always want to lay on me. Whenever I join you on the couch or bed, you immediately come closer and put your head on my chest. Never fails. I LOVE it though!

You’re still learning how to talk and even though we went through this with MoMo, daddy and I get very tickled when we discover you’ve said something new! You say a lot of single words and you’ve also started making sentences like “I want chicken”. No surprise there. Lol! You’re favorite sentence these days seems to be “I want daddy”! You say it way more times than I can take. Ha! You love drums! This love started at church. You always wanted to play the church drums after church and so daddy finally got you a set of drums for your birthday. You were all over it the first day and now you go bang on it randomly.

Some other things.. you wear either 2T or 3T. You’re still in diapers. You tease me a lot of days and tell me you want to pee pee, but when I put you on the potty nothing happens and you just laugh. You think it’s funny. I console myself knowing you can at least say it. Lol. You wear size 7 in shoes. You probably will be in 8 before the end of the year at the rate you're growing. Your favorite TV show right now is Yo Gabba Gabba and Thomas and Friends. Thanks to having a big sis, you also love shows like Dora, Sofia the first, and you can sing “Let it Go” from Frozen. NO LIE!!! You LOVE singing, you sing all the time!!! From abc’s, to nursery rhymes, to tunes you come up with on your own. I don’t think a day goes by where you don’t sing something. Right now your fave song to sing is “The wheels on the bus”. By the way… It’s official. You weigh 3lbs more than big sis!! Lol!

One of the things I and your daddy love the most is your relationship with your big sis and we pray it will always stay that way. We pray that you two will always, love each other and have each other’s back. Whenever I pick you guys up from school, I go to your class first and then we go get Mo. You always run up to her and you two hug. It’s so sweet and it makes me so proud! You look out for each other at home however, you can also be really mean to each other but I think the loving times far outweigh the mean times. Recently I had to get you from school because you weren’t feeling well, but I didn’t get MoMo. You kept screaming MoMo as we were walking out because you expected us to go to her class next. And when you got in the car, you wouldn’t stop. You were pointing at her car seat still screaming her name. Ahhhhh….

DEMI we love you so so much and look forward to  a terrific year with you!!!

The morning of your birthday...

Cups Cakes at school. MoMo joined in...

Your drums...

Note To My 3 Year Old Daughter...

So Mo Booski turned 3 on June 4th!

My baby Morayo, it’s amazing to watch how much you have changed. Just a year ago, you were saying a few words here and there and now we are having full conversations. You are very talkative, very intelligent, and so full of life. 

You love the outdoors yet there is a girly balance because if you see even an ant you lose it. You are extremely touchy feely! You love to cuddle and you love rubbing arms, legs, and holding ears! I mean you just want to touch skin! When we sit on the couch in the evenings, you have one hand controlling the IPad and you try to use the other one to rub my arms or legs, whichever is exposed. At first it drove me crazy, especially the holding ears but I’ve just come to realize that’s what you do. I don’t tolerate it all the time though. Lol. You forget NOTHING and you remember EVERYTHING. I do not make promises to you that I cannot keep. For one I’ll never hear the last of it and two I hope I’m teaching you about integrity. You throw bad tantrums every now and then but sometimes you act so mature when you’re upset like when you tell me “Don’t talk to me mummy”. It gets me every time and I remind you that I’m the mama and you’re the baby. You can also be very strong willed. You do not follow instructions most times. You do just what Morayo wants to do and it makes me mad because I expect you to listen to my EVVERRRY word. Lol.  

You are such a LADY! You want your purse, you want make-up, you want jewelry(my lawd), you want nail polish on your fingernails and toenails and know exactly what color you want! Oh yeah… you love perfumes(thank you aunty Harriet). I’m still trying to figure your personality out because you’re quite dynamic. When you’re in a crowd among adults or even your peers and the attention is focused on you, you become very shy. You put your head down, your voice drops volumes and it drives me crazy! Lol. As your mom, I want you to be outspoken and I want you to own the attention.  Then again, if no one is paying attention and everybody is going about their business, you become the boss in the room and tell all your friends what they need to do. Lol. 

One of the many things I absolutely love about you is how caring you are especially when it comes to your baby brother. You guys fight A LOT but when you love on him, my goodness! You want to help put on his shoes when we’re going out, you make sure he gets his own snack when I give you yours(maybe you don’t want to share yours, ha!), on the weekends, when he wakes up from his nap, you literally drop everything you’re doing and run to get him out of the room. When he’s crying you go hold him and give him a hug and say “It’s okay Demi, say sorry mummy!”. If we’re going out and Demi doesn’t want to leave his toys, I say “Let’s go Morayo, bye Demi, we’re leaving without you”. You scream “No!” and you run to go get him. You hold his hands and walk him to the door. Your latest thing to do is to feed him. You’ve been the one feeding him his dinner when I don’t feel like doing it and when I don’t feel like cleaning up his mess if he does it himself. You do it so well!!! You tell him “Sit down Demi” and you even blow the food if it’s hot before you put it in his mouth!!

Mo I’m trying to enjoy every moment with you. I don’t do a very good job all the time but thankfully I realize and acknowledge it when I don’t. I’m also kinda learning along with you because you didn’t exactly come with a manual. Some days are fun and some are challenging but I wouldn’t trade any for the world. God keep us all, I look forward to every moment of our relationship in the future.

No bias… but you are the smartest, sassiest, most beautiful, loving 3year old girl on planet earth ;)

Daddy, Mummy, and Demi love you dearly Queen Morayo! Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

Fun with friends at school. You had frozen themed cupcakes and dressed up as Princess Ana!

Fun with friends at church...

#FUNTIMES

Times We Look Forward To

We spent Mother's Day weekend in Atlanta and we had quite a good time. The kids and I left Arkansas very early in the morning on Friday and arrived in Atlanta at about 9:00 AM. The fun started at the airport! My brother Emmanuel also landed in Atlanta from Chicago around the same time we did so we got to see each other before we separated briefly. He headed home to our parents and my sister-in-love Renny picked me up and we headed to hubby's parents!

Nana and Papa Odesanya were too excited to see us. Demi was so in love with his grandpa. For the rest of the day and the next until we left for my parents house, he just wanted his Papa. He would scream "Papa!" whenever he saw him and hold up his hands so Papa could carry him. Demi noticed the overblown photo from our engagement of hubby and I that is still stuck to the mirror above the mantle piece and started pointing and yelling "Daddy!" I thought that was pretty cool! 

Fun with Nana Odesanya and cousin Izi...

The next morning on Saturday, we were up bright and early again. Mo had her first hair appointment! We ran into my friend Mary and her daughters Mackenzie and Madeline. We would see them again in just a few hours for Mackenzie's birthday party.

Later that evening at the party...

Demi went for a haircut after the party!

Then we headed to my parents house. Everyone had already arrived by now and the house was filled with love and laughter! We had a treat for the night! SUYA!!! Thank you Aunty Khamisa and Uncle Charles!!! What a fun night!

We were up early the next Day for church. It was Mother's day too!! Hubby initially didn't come down with us because of work. He called early in the morning but I missed his call because I was getting the kids ready, so he text to say Happy Mother's Day. At about 4:00PM that day I was out running errands with my sis. I hadn't heard from hubby since his text so I called twice and there was no response. At this point, I'm upset because I'm thinking it's Mother's Day, I missed your call and you haven't called since to say hello? Uh uh... Lol. We got done and headed to the house, only for me to walk in and hubby is sitting at the breakfast table! I just knew he would pull some stuff like that! I was so excited to see him! That evening we celebrated my dad's 60th and my little sister's graduation. It was a good time with family and friends!

On Monday morning, we were all up early again for my sister's graduation! You can view the photos from that in my previous post. After the graduation, we went back to spend some time at hubby's parents house. Hubby's immediate younger brother was home. He surprised their parents by showing up the previous night! I know... they're full of surprises!

On Tuesday morning, we were up early yet again! LOL. It was time to head to the airport back home to Arkansas!

It's always a joy to be with my family! I can't wait until the next time!