Life Happens.

"Mia got in trouble, Mikayla is crawling, Maggie dropped a 5 lbs. weight on Mia's big toe and I went to McDonald's wearing my nightgown without realizing it. How was your morning?"

That's the message I sent to my husband this morning via text message because he made the insane, soccer-fanatical decision to go with his dad to help coach a soccer game that started at… 8 a.m. I was wide awake at that time but instead of at a game, I was stealing the wi-fi signal from the McDonald's down the road. It was only after I had left the fast food restaurant that I realized I was in my nightgown, a pair of sweatpants, sweatshirt, and had not even considered brushing my hair. Yeah. That's what memories are made of. I'm a winner.

The biggest news out of all of that is that our dear little Mikayla is now mobile! We're calling her scooting the "Aspen-slide," after my niece, Aspen, who crawled with one leg curled up beside her. I've decided that this unique crawling technique is likely because of the tile/wood/linoleum floors that these girls spend the majority of their time on.

Regardless of the form of it, the truth is that Mikayla is on the move. She's also pulling up and taking assisted steps. Mia walked at 13 months, Maggie at almost 10 months. Someone please help me if our littlest decides to walk at 8 months!

We have been fully enjoying our time with our family. The temperature was almost 70 today. That’s crazy to me! But it's a dry heat, which I am so, so happy to greet again!

Maggie is proof that a year is too long between Arizona visits – she's been calling the cactus "cat-trees". We've also had a few random encounters: when we drove up to the house a woman riding a Rascal motor scooter flew by on the sidewalk wearing a white cape and toting a lit Christmas tree. Random. Then we stopped at Fiesta Mall for lunch between soccer games and were a part of a flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Also random, but much more exciting than Casper the friendly Christmas tree.

When we went to get the tree from the tree lot Maggie trotted up to the Santa Claus dressed up for photos and Mia hung back. I asked why and she wanted to know whether he was a real Santa or not because, as she explained to me on the trip out here, she believes in Santa Claus.

"Mommy, I believe in Santa. Well, I believe in God the most but then Santa after that."

I asked her if the tree lot Santa smelled like beef and cheese (yep, it's an Elf reference!) and she said no. But after we said we weren't going to pay $5 to take a picture with him I heard him say, "Darn!" under his breath, so I'm pretty sure it was just another case of identity theft for Saint Nick. That guy gets impersonated everywhere!

We've had lots of funny things and quite a few challenging ones. Mia, in particular, is struggling with the reality that she's not an adult. It causes much sadness, angst and gnashing of teeth for her. Yesterday I hit the limit and sent her to the Naughty Bench, only to remember that Popi and Mima's house doesn't have a Naughty Bench.

"Just… just, go to a corner somewhere and sit there and think about what you've done!" I said to her.

She went into the corner, sat on a small box, and surrounded herself with chairs. It was like her bat cave of remorse. Except that she's not really remorseful!

Those are a few of the adventures of our week, but I don't want to finish up without asking for help from you.

Some of our best friends in Oklahoma have two girls the same age as Mia and Maggie and then were blessed with natural triplets this October. The pregnancy went great and the boys have been doing really well even though they were born prematurely.

This morning when my friend and her sister went in to feed them they found little Jeremiah, just 2 months old, blue and unresponsive. Though he was life-flighted to Tulsa he did not revive and has died.

One of the things that is so difficult about a tragedy is that, if it's your tragedy the entire world slows down to the sound of your heartbeat in your ears. Your world goes numb, stops spinning. All of your nerve endings scream, How?! Why?! What now?!

Then comes what can be an even greater curse. You walk outside and there are birds chirping, completely oblivious to the fact that your world is shattered. Stop lights still blink, people honk their horns, ESPN still shows the highlights of the games… The world moves as it always has, unresponsive to your pain and disillusionment and distress.

It's even worse at Christmastime. People are preoccupied and stressed and excited. And that's a good thing, because that's a part of living.

In light of this, would you please pray with me for the Hay family? Not just right now, but consistently throughout the next few weeks? They are an amazingly strong family, but this is the type of challenge that brings even the strongest people to their knees. So, if you would take a minute regularly to send comfort their way it would be awesome.

Thanks.