700!

as in in the history of this here blog this is blog post 700!

yikes. 

that is a lot of writing, picture snapping, typos and grammar errors on my part and A LOT of reading on your part. 

top five reasons i love blogging

1. writing. one time in a professional development session the instructor shared a bunch of research on how writing is good for students health. your health. my health. i would agree. just the process of writing is so good for me. it challenges me to be creative. it challenges me to express myself. it challenges me to find my voice. 

2. picture sharing. i love god. i love tim. i love my girls. i love my family. and i love everything about photographs. taking them. looking at them. sharing them. this blog has given me a place to put all those pictures and share them with the world. 

3. i love reading and looking at my own blog. this my sound extremely silly but i could sit for hours and look through my blog. i love looking back at the story of our life. is every detail in there, no. but there are so many amazing memories stored on this blog and i find it so fun to be able to walk back down that road again. i also wish i would have started blogging sooner. 

4. working through hard stuff. oh man this blog has been a place for me to work through some hard things. like the great amount of loss i have felt over the last three years after losing four grandparents and a cousin. sometimes the hard stuff is explained on this blog. sometimes this blog is a place for me to see past those hard things and focus on the good stuff. 

5. getting my thoughts, feelings, emotions about my life,  my girls, my family in writing. sometimes its serious others its not. i write this blog so at some point my girls can read back through it. i want them to know what i liked, how i felt, what i was passionate about. i want them read about my creative endeavors. to see how much i loved decorating their rooms and making stuff for them, with them. for them to know its cool to be crafty, creative and to love junk. i want them to know my thoughts on serious things. and silly things too oh and random thoughts are ok too. i want them to know how much i love their dad. how much i love them. how much i love being their momma. how proud, grateful, and humbled i am to have them as my family. from them to know how much i love jesus and how much jesus loves me and them. to know they just need to trust jesus. have faith. cling to hope.


here is a random list of my favorite blog posts
birth stories {ellie} {cecilia} {maggie}
good friday
monkey see, monkey do
guess what came in the mail today
cooking with ellie {chef ellie} {mac n cheese}
snow angels
end of the year posts {2010}{2011}{2012}{2013}
best snow fort ever
dora birthday party
thomas panties
flooding the sandbox
crafty posts {family rules} {pillows} {little sister's room} {because baby gates should be pretty} {door to headboard} {dollhouse}
funny videos {the randy voice} {t-weezy} {so not ready--maggie crawling}
oh baby!
introducing
happy saturday ---one of my favorites ever
soccer mom status {ellie the soccerstar} {summer soccer} {hello monday ---the one where cece doesn't stop smiling}
preschool graduation
american baby
lake michigan
maggie one year
oh these faces
this girl

now that was a fun little walk down memory lane.

there are so many posts i love. this list could be so much longer. blogging has been such a wonderful thing for me. for so many reasons. but getting these sweet memories in one place that is one reason for sure that will keep me going.

hope you can bare with me for the next 700 posts :)