This is our Christmas Card this year!!!

I am thankful for all of the prayers we recieved. Grandma was able to leave her earthly body last night and arrived in His loving arms where she is celebrating her new life with Jesus. The prayers were felt today as we had no power from the storm last night, our shower broke when I went to take a shower this morning (tub broke last week), & I swiped the corner end of another car with my trailer on the way to get it repaired for something else. I’m going to follow one my Grandma’s many sayings and take those lemons we’ve gotten over the last week and make some awesome lemonade. God is only giving me as many lemons as I can handle!

We just need tons of prayers right now. Joel’s Grandmother passed away on Friday afternoon. We left for Pittsburgh on Sat early am and while we were their asking for prayers for Joel and his family on Monday my sister and 1 1/2 month old nephew were in a car accident. Everyone was ok and just shook up but my mom was at the hospital with my sister when she got a call that my Grandmother had a mini heart attack and was not doing well at all. We just got home last night at 10pm and we were packed and back on the road again this morning. We stopped to see my Grandma on our way out of town for Joel’s Grandma’s visitation tonight and funeral tomorrow. Unfortunetaly my Grandma only seems to have a few days left max according to her hospice care. So we will be doing this all over again in a few days I know that Heaven is where our Grandma’s want to be but it’s a bit much all at the same times especially since my Dad’s dad is in a rehad center from a broken hip while we were gone 3 1/2 weeks ago and his Parkinsons is getting really bad and my Dad is worried he may not be around long either….

Just send them up please for all of us as we celebrate the lives of these great women and that my Grandma is able to go peacefully and pain free.

It feels so good to say that… a week long trip with the kids is truly my limits especially when 4 of the days were 6+ hours in the car. We had a great time and did lots of fun stuff but now it is time to get settled back into home life!!!

Tuesday morning we got out of the house and on the road to Pittsburgh by about 8 am. We arrived just before dinner and found that after an 8 hour drive Logan should never be taken in public. We had half eaten food and had to head back to the hotel for a very short swim and bed time. We enjoyed a nice day at the Pittsburgh Zoo on Wed in celebration of Joel’s birthday. We then headed into Baltimore for an night at a hotel before we took a day trip to DC. We saw the Smithsonium National Museum of Natural History and got a tour of downtown DC from my friend April who I have known since highschool. The metro rides were very exciting for the kids and nice not to be in the car. That night we had to spend an extra night in a hotel as the railings for my cousins house were not in and made the house not pass inspection till they were.

Friday we spent just walking around downtown Baltimore and enjoying some time outside. Saturday and Sunday we laid low with Sara, Ryan, and Claire in and around their house. Lastly on Monday we hit the National Aquarium with the kids and had an absolute blast.

We took off for home on Monday night hoping to drive through the night and just have the kids sleep all of the way with Joel and I taking turns. Logan was not a fan of night driving so we had to stop for the night at 1:30 am in Ohio. He was asleep by the time we hit the highway leaving Baltimore and Allie mins later but then we stopped to get gas, drinks, and fixed his seat about 45 mins later and he woke up and was up till we turn off a second movie we put in for them at 11:30ish. So then he feel asleep for an hour but then kept waking up every 15 mins insisting on being touched till he fell asleep again. Eventually found a lullabuy movie to calm him down but Maddie was wide awake. Allie slept for a good portion of it all LOL! We stopped in Independence and slept for 6 beautiful hours!

We pulled into Spring Lake today at 2:15 pm and we all did a little happy to not be in the car dance. Thanks again April, Sara, Ryan, and Claire for a great time. It feels so good to be home though!

We are taking off for a week to go visit my cousin in Baltimore. The computers are being left at home and we looking forward to some catch up time with my cousin and her family and visit a high school friend of mine.

We are leaving first thing tomorrow morning and I am so ready to go and just enjoy some time with my family. Granted when we get home next Tuesday evening I’ll probably need a vacation from them. On Tuesday we will be driving to Pittsburgh and spend the night there. The next morning we plan on getting up and heading to the Pittsburgh Zoo to celebrate Joel’s birthday there. Then we will head to Baltimore for the rest of the trip.

Have a great week everyone!!!

Can my first baby really be 7 already? Where has the time gone since I swear 7 years went by while I blinked or something. Maddie has turned into a very special and wonderful young lady. There were times when I wondered if she would make it to 5 and now here we are at 7 and those days are only foggy memories of leaving toddler times. I can not see what God has in store for her and all of us as more years come upon us.

Well in the last 4 days all 3 of my kids have gotten haircuts The girls needed nice and short summer cuts and the boy….well quiet frankly he needed to look more like a little boy. I have take pictures of them all and posted them on their personal pages of our family picture site. I can not believe how much older they all look.

RossFamilyPhotos The Ross Family Website

Well musical rooms is well underway here now and to a functional completion point. Maddie is resting peacefully in her new room that was once the playroom. We were able to get a large amout of the basement organized and cleaned out this past weekend. Carpet has also been laid and the kids are enjoying the play area. Check out the pictures on our Family Photo site.

Over the last week we have been cleaning out our back yard and making it better and larger to spend time in. We moved a fence that was in our side yard from the back corner of the hosue to the front coner. This alone made the yard look huge. We also took down 5 pines that were killing the grass and not letting enough light in. Now the backyard feels like it doubled in size. This was all done in prep of the idea of putting the house on the market next spring. On Sunday morning when Joel and I were finish a few small things we started talking and both agreed we didn’t want to move now that we had done so much work.

So the next step was to figure out how we can make our house work longer. We have a 3 bedroom house that doesn’t have a lot of indoor entertaining space. We really want another bedroom for Maddie and want a family room. We both agreed we could take and turn the playroom/den area into a bedroom for Maddie. Down the road we’ll try and sell it as a office/study or bedroom. We are going to put up some french doors that will lead into her room and she will share the huge walk in closet in Allie’s new room. We are also going to move the playroom into the basement and turn the space into a family room with a play area.

We are so excited because we had all of the details figured out in how it would work in less than an hour. We have even gotten paint picked out, new bedding for Maddie, and placement of toys and other bedroom stuff planned out as well. Maddie will go into the playroom, Allie will go into what is Logan’s room now, and Logan will go up to what is the girls room. This will make nap time better for Logan this summer as well.

So what’s next? Well this week I will be moving things around and maybe even doing some painting. It’s just crazy because we hope to have Maddie at least sleeping in her new room by this time next week. Hopefully by the end of Memorial day weekend we will either be ready to make up the space in the basement or really close. We are so excited because this will allow us to stay in this house much longer and over the next few years do some other great improvements. We want to redo the main floor bathroom and we also hope to eventually redo the kitchen. With not selling and going up to a bigger more expensive house we can afford to do these things but also make it worth more to sell!!!

The sun is out and shinning today after a couple of days of rain.  It seems as though God mourned with us and is now giving us hope and comfort.  After a goodnights sleep I woke up feeling just a bit more at peace.  I know that I miss him like crazy but I also know that we will heal.  I am someone who needs to totally talk these things out so I have decided to start really sharing my feelings in my posts to help me heal and continue to stay present.