Catch up!

Wow! Time just keeps on flying by! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since my last post..oops! So for today's post, I will catch you up on what our "Party of 5" has been up to!

My sweet niece came for a visit with my big sis from Guatemala! Her and Olivia quickly became the best of friends. This is my very favorite picture of them when she was here...makes my heart melt! I was so blessed to be able to spend a ton of time with her while she was here...I miss her terribly!

Look who graduated from Kindergarten!!!! What an awesome Mommy moment it was for me! We made it through our first year of homeschooling! I have enjoyed teaching my son so much, and am already planning next year. He is growing up so fast, I am cherishing every moment I have with him!

Next up was trout fishing! We went with our very best friends to Bennett Springs to celebrate very early Teddy's 30th! We had a blast! So many memories were made that weekend together that I will cherish for a lifetime! Can't wait to experience it again!

A few weeks ago we were able to get away for a few days just the 2 of us to celebrate early our 8th Anniversary! We don't have nearly enough time together at home, and let me tell you it was SO nice to be able to focus solely on each other!

After the lake it was time for Miss O's 1st dance recital!!! What a fun time it was to watch her! She knew her dance better than any of us thought possible, and of course she looked cute as a button too!

Here we are on 4th of July! We had a perfect day by our pool with just the 5 of us! Then, we headed to my parents for our annual celebration! We had tons of food, fireworks, and of course laughter!

Well, that bring you all up to speed on what has kept us so busy! I will be back with more soon!! Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Sara Beth is 30!

My big sister turns 30 today!!!! I feel like just yesterday we were living at home fighting over the mirror in the mornings to get ready for the day. Oh my how times have changed! I am so excited that I get to spend her 30th birthday with her! What better way to start off the day than by telling you 30 reasons why I love her so much!

#1: She was my very first best friend!
#2: She was one of the first people to really talk to me deeply about loving the Lord.
#3: She always had my back...even when I didn't deserve it!
#4: She was my maid of honor and stood by my side as I made the best decision of my entire life!
#5: She has always laughed at my jokes and made me feel like I am the funniest person on the planet! #6: She was always pushing me to be better!
#7: I can not talk to her for months (she's in Guatemala people!) and we can always pick up right where we left off!
#8: She always listened without judging me
#9: She loved me for me and never once asked me to change how I am...even though we are VERY different!
#10: She has always dropped everything whenever I have needed her even if it was just to talk.

#11: She asked me to be her maiden of honor in her wedding, and I felt so privileged to stand by her as she was marrying her prince!
#12: Even though she is not even in the same country as me most of the time, she always makes an effort to keep up with my life.
#13: She is a great Tia to my kids and they adore her!
#14: She always looks for the best in someone
#15: She is a very positive person to be around and it is infectious!
#16: She taught me meekness
#17: She taught me to always go after my dreams
#18: Never once in my life has she ever said, "you can't do it!" 
#19: She is one of the most passionate people I know...I learn from her!
#20: She never stopped believing in me...even in times when I stopped believing in myself.

#21: We were pregnant together! I wish every sister could experience that!
#22: Even though my niece and nephew are far away, she has always made sure they know who their Tia is!
#23: I love her laugh...it is infectious and always makes me laugh too!
#24: I love that she always made sure I was included in whatever she was doing...even if it was making me eat Taco Bell sauce packets when we were young!
#25: Every time I see her she always compliments you on something...makes you feel like a million bucks!

#26: She is one of the most self-LESS people I have ever met
#27: I love her clothes! I have since a young age...which is why we fought over them frequently!
#28: She really is the rock that held our family together
#29: She taught me anger wasn't ever worth it!
#30: Most of all I LOVE that I get to call her MY sister...my 1 and only sister!

Sara Beth, I love you so much and have been so grateful for how close we have become over the years. I hope today you feel loved and so very special!

Friends: Please pray for her to enjoy her day today without being sick! She has had a rough few days, and today I am asking the favor of the Lord that she would enjoy this day sick-free!

bad case of the Mondays!

What a crazy month my sweet boy has had for sickness! As you know, he had a double ear infection, sinus infection, and a break out due to his allergy to his antibiotics! Well, Sunday about 12:30 am, which I guess means it was actually Monday, he woke up screaming! I ran in and checked on him only to find him doubled over in extreme pain. I held him and gave him some medicine and tried to get him calmed down. I finally got him calmed down, went back up to my bed for about 15 mins when I heard more screaming! This time, he was on the floor doubled over and and screaming! He begged me to put him in the shower, so I did even though it was the wee hours of the morning. I got him calmed down again and put him back to sleep, only to have this happen every 15-20 min! By morning, I was a zombie, he had these huge dark circles under his eyes, and I knew we had to get him to the Dr. since he was still in extreme pain! My husband, graciously called into work late, and drove him straight to the Dr! There he was diagnosed saying he had a viral stomach bug and sent home. The hubs was told he had to come in to work, which left me with the littles and still doing my best to care for my sweet boy! I was running on fumes by this point! I couldn't leave his side because the pain just kept coming more and more! After hours of doing this, I thought to myself, "I am his Mommy! I know him better than any of those doctors, and something is wrong with him!" I called the Dr and they thought they said go immediately to Children's Mercy. My mom over to drive us, since I was in no way able to do that after no sleep! My bro-in-law came to sit with the kids until my bestie could get there! My hubs was at work and stuck in traffic trying to get there as fast as he could. We arrived and only had to wait around 5 minutes (that felt like a lifetime) before we were taken to triage. When we were in triage, he got another severe attack of pain! I could barely hold him still while they were trying to get his temp and vitals. I had been able to hold it together all day until that moment. Here I am holding my baby who is in extreme pain and I can't fix it! The tear just started streaming down my face as I am trying to hold him still. In my head, I am having this conversation with the Lord. I kept saying, "Lord, this is ultimately your child, and I don't know what to do! Please, please, please help him and help me to get through this, I am nothing without you! I can't do this alone, and we need you!" Then, He told me Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." It's a verse I have heard all my life, but at this moment He knew it was exactly what I needed! I needed to trust the Lord and forget everything else! Forget the worry, the unknowns, etc! From triage, they took us immediately back after telling me, they have never seen a child in this much pain before! A room of doctors and several nurses were waiting for us. After MANY hours and MANY tests, they told us they found something. The Dr came in and told my husband and I that they found something on his ultrasound. He explained he has a condition called kidney hydronephrosis. The Dr also said that he he thinks he has reflux meaning at times the urine is going back in his body instead of out. He isn't sure if this is linked to the pain that he was having, but he urged us to follow up with our regular Dr. ASAP. We got home at 11:30pm, ate some dinner, and went to bed after being up for almost 24 hrs. Morning came too fast, but I called our Dr right away. He had already received all the info from Children's and had already looked at it all. He too, could see the problem with his kidney and told me that he wanted to personally call the specialist at Mercy. He explained that there is a risk of having surgery to place a stint, but he needed to talk to the specialist for a 2nd opinion.

So now all we can do it wait, wait, and wait some more. While I have been waiting, I have been praying and digging in His Word! I don't know what is going to happen, but I know I can rest assured that the Lord does. I know He will take care of us in this time and give the doctors the wisdom in how to proceed.

It has been a VERY long week, but everytime I see my son wanting to play it brings me great joy! Through this, I have learned to cherish your kids health! Cherish that they can run and play outside. I know for me there have been times when I have been too tired to take them outside, but now I feel totally different! We never know how long we have with them, so cherish those moments together! Please continue to pray for our sweet boy and our family! I will update as soon as we know anything else!

We had the best nurse while we were at the hospital! She rounded up a Nintendo Dsi XL, with games for him to play. It really helped distract him! So, thank you Misty!

Spring is here!

Oh how I LOVE Spring! I love waking up to the birds chirping...or in my case, the chickens talking! Every day I look outside there seems to be some new plant or flower coming up! I LOVE it! I thought I would share what is growing at my house!


These are some herbs I have been growing! I miss fresh herbs!


Look at our grass finally coming up!!! SO happy about this! Teddy and I are always wanting the perfect yard!



These are our fabulous David Austin Roses that my sweet MIL bought for me last year! Can't wait to have fresh roses!


My 2nd favorite flower is a peony. I thought I had killed these for good last year, and was SO shocked to see them come back this year. Happy dance!!!


I have always loved tulips because I always think of Spring coming when I see them. I found a great deal on these and we planted them a few weeks ago. Teddy and I were taking bets on if they would bloom this year or not...I WON, cause they did! Don't they look beautiful?!?!


What pretty things do you have growing at your house? What's your favorite flower or plant?

Chicken Dance!

Oh what a day it has been here at the Duff household! First off, sorry I took like almost a year hiatus! I didn't plan to, I just got busy with life I guess. My morning started off with my youngest spilling my fresh cup of coffee all over him and me, not fun to clean up either! Coffee + carpet = no bueno!

After that my oldest, who mind you has been fighting a double ear infection along with a sinus infection came to me with a rash over his whole body! He is on such high doses of meds that I guess he's allergic to one which left his body in an itchy mess! I got the littles put down for a nap and then got Mr. Rash boy settled with benadryl and movie picnic. I knew our chickens were out of water since yesterday, and thought it was a perfect time to go water them. That's when the chaos began...

It has been raining for like 3 days here, and when I went out there to tend to my sweet hens, it was raining rather hard. We have been trying our best to grow grass because our poor backyard is a mudpit! I knew it would be muddy so I put on old clothes and shoes and head out to the rain! Apparently from the rain, the wood has expanded on our coop which was making it near impossible to get into the coop! After a while I was able to get in one side and fill up with their water container. All was going rather smooth until I went to re-attach the board of the coop. HUGE problem!!! I can't get it shut because of the wood expansion!!! I am still in the pouring rain with my muddy dogs jumping on me and trying to figure out what to do since my sweet husband was at work! SO...I left the door lying against the coop so I could run in the garage and get some tools and a phone to call my hubs. In the meantime, the chickens decide they want to go exploring and leave their cozy home. I peek out the door and see all 5 of my hens in my yard! I drop everything and sprint out the door...remember the part where I said it was a mudpit?!?!? Yeah! So I went sliding all over my yard and falling too! I get a stick and herd the hens back to safety after a LONG while of spills! I get them back in there and still have no clue what to do! Luckily my Daddy showed up!!! He helped me drive a nail in to wedge it shut until my hubs returned! Whew! The hens are now safe and sound! Me, on the otherhand, was sopping wet with mud everywhere...off to the showers!!!

What a day! I am ready for bed...until next time!

Congrats Teddy!

I am so proud to announce that Mr. Italian Stallion graduated over the weekend with his A.A! He has been working so hard for the past 10 years on getting this done and he did it! This was a very big deal to our family because when he was in the 8th grade he had made the decision to drop out of school. A few years later he completed his GED with AWESOME scores might I add, and then in the fall of 2001 he enrolled in Penn Valley Community College. Shortly after, we met, married, and had 3 children so it took him a little longer than expected to finish. This is was his very first graduation and I wanted to make it extra special for him! We invited out family and our closet friends to the ceremony and the next day we hosted an open house to thank everyone for all the support over the last 10 years. Funny thing is that only our family and our faithful bestfriends were able to make it to the open house...I was so embarrassed and felt terrible! After the day was done, my sweet husband told me the party was absolutely perfect because all of his favorite people were there and he did indeed feel very loved! So, thank you to all who came and helped me make that weekend a memorable one for him. I kept telling him I'm the luckiest woman in the world to be able to share that special moment with him, I had tears in my eyes as he walked across the stage and never had I been so proud of him in all of our time together! Seriously was one of my best moments ever!

Teddy, I love you so much! I stand in awe of you everyday, you are the most disciplined and hard working person and you have been a great example to our family. Thank you for all your hard work!

After all was said and done, he told me, "Not too bad for an 8th grader, huh?" LOL
Oh, how I love that man!

p.s. I'm trying to get better at blogging...I know it's been 3 months, but hopefully I'll have a little more time to do it now! :)

1 already?!?!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, Bobby!

I can't believe a year has gone by since my last baby was born! He was our surprise baby, and I'm so happy to have him! He completed our family and has continued to teach me new things everyday. Here are a few things I love about my sweet boy the most!

*He loves to cuddle!
*His smile is seriously the BEST smile we've ever seen!
*His eyes, they are seriously gorgeous and you can tell exactly how he is feeling
*The way when he wants to crawl fast, he tucks his head and looks at the ground and takes off...the kid is made to be a racer! lol
*His laugh...his daddy is the only one who can get that boy cackling!
*Every time I go to look for him, he either has a car in his hand or he's playing with the dogs (or dog toys)!
*His hair! He is getting blonder by the day...crazy, I know! The last few weeks after his bath his hair starts getting curls in it! I have curly hair and wanted so badly one of my babies to get it, and I think he did!

There are so many things I love about this little boy! He really has changed me over the last year and forced me to slow down. I usually go a million miles a minute, but with 3 kiddos under the age of 4, it's impossible to go that fast! And guess what?? I don't even miss it for a second! I love being a Mama and I'm so blessed to spend 24hrs a day with them!

I love you Bobby-saurus! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for your life!