A picture that speaks for itself

My sister and her husband's first greeting when he returned home from war.

Priceless and precious!

Its been a day...

This has been my day.............

Old picture, yes, but perfect visual description of baby girls attitude today. 

See the left clenched fist and right flexed hand? That's been it all day! Only now that little right hand doing all of that flexing comes right at mommy when baby girl's mad. :-/ You also don't want to miss the furrowed brow which she has down to an art.

We also tried our first timeout today for one minute. She climbed down off the couch three times, each time laughing like it was game and then scrambling to get back up when I would come towards her with my "stern" look. L o n g e s t minute of my life I'm sure. She's also limber enough to now crawl up onto the window seat in the living room, yea the one that sits a foot off the hard lamanent floor...::sigh:: the window seat is what landed her in timeout. 

Most of the day was centered around fits of rage over not being allowed to turn the CD player off,  throwing juice across the kitchen, melt down over not being allowed under the sink and  etc,etc. Only problem is that she remains so cute :-/ I can't help but laugh sometimes.

Thank God for Motrin, Reeses and his Word! Shew!

Mine

    These cuties are why I wake up every morning smiling :) 

He's the best daddy and the greatest husband! 

           She's the cutest princess and the sweetest little girl!

Reading bedtime stories together

My cup overflows...

I must apologize to Barney? :-/

Ava Grace has discovered BARNEY...and its all my fault! I had a lot of house work to do this morning and her typical cartoons were not doing the trick. Jon was gone mowing his dad's lawn for him and burning our trash, so I had no assistance. I stooped to drastic measures and broke out Barney on our Netflix live stream. And of course...

my girl fell in love with him and his sidekicks Baby Bop and BJ. ::sigh:: 
I for one used to strongly dislike him. Okay, I hated him and his friends and his dumb TV show.

I was raised in a culture enamored by Barney one that basically worshiped him. He was EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! I remember being in VBS and singing a catchy tune along the lines of..." I hate you, you hate me, we're a hateful family with a big shot gun..." yea will end it there. Let's just say that as a mom, looking back on it I'm scared to death that we were allowed to sing that at VBS!! :-p My sister Bethany, ( pictured above and now 20 yrs old) was obsessed, in love with Barney and he was all that I heard, read and saw for many years! One fateful day when I was nine Bethany decided to take her talking Barney toy on a trip to Florida with her! Barney...in a car, for many, many hours...by the end of that trip Barney had suffered the sudden loss of his vocal box :) He never sang again...

That makes me sound so evil and I assure you at that age... I was.

However, on this day Saturday July 24 2010 - being a mom myself I must confess that Barney has a bad rep for no reason :-o I found today that he is really helpful to keep your children entertained for an entire 15 minute time span! He's also educational and I'm ashamed to admit...his songs are catchy. ::gasp!:: Plus it was the cutest thing to see my girl dancing and twirling like a ballerina to his theme song and hearing "B Bop and Barneeee" in her sweet voice all day. Its amazing how different we see things when "mommy" gets tacked onto our name.

So Barney and your friends, I owe you all an apology for all the years I've hated you and everything you came in contact with. I'm sorry for making sure you never sang again in our home and I'm sorry for egging on the other kids at VBS to sing that awful song. 

Barney, you are welcome in my home any day!

Ava Grace eating a snack and watching "Barney and Friends"

Double the trouble

One turkey, cheese on white bread sandwich,
One ham, mustard on soy bread sandwich,
Countless cups of juice,
Two really nasty diapers,
Two cups of orange jello,

Lots and lots of hectic fun....

I had this extra cutie this afternoon :)

This is Lucius Allen, he is 29 days older then Ava Grace. He is one of the 3 babies all born in March, delivered by the same doctor and yes, we're all related! Heather and Cara are my sister-in-law's. He is my first nephew and what a cutie pie he is! He's Heather's son- yea, she is gorgeous! It is pretty much ridiculously unfair :-p

 Ava Grace loved having a cousin to pal around with for a while. The two of them together entertain one another very well. We had our hectic moments though. You always do when we get them together. Thankfully we survived the afternoon without passy wars and only one melt down over who's juice cup was who's.

They love juice!

Lucius: Let me tell you the way I do things! Ava Grace: I'm not sure that's a good idea...

Such cousins, even from behind.

Yummy lunch! You improvise when you have just one high chair.

Over all it was a good afternoon and I love every second I get with this little guy and that darling princess :)

Walk it out

I'm thankful today! I'm so incredibly thankful for the love of God and the sacrifice of his son! I'm so thankful for the voice of the Holy Spirit and the intimacy I have with Christ. I'm so thankful that God will take the time to meet with me, little 'ole me where I'm at and minister to me. 

The other day (Saturday to be exact) I woke up feeling yucky! Have you ever felt spiritually gross? I did! I had really been allowing my flesh to take over the days prior and my husband and I had been in a bad fight the day before! I had not slept well and I woke up desiring time with the Lord and needed to be washed in the word! I told Jonathan I was going to spend some time with God and retreated to our bedroom where I stayed for an hour and a half. In that time the presence of the Lord fell and I was literally wrapped in it. I had christian radoi playing and every song that played related to how I was feeling and what I was praying about. It was like I could feel the arms of Jesus around me. It was such a sweet time of worship and after I confessed sin and emerged clean I then just sat in his presense and without saying a word worshipped him. I think sometimes the scripture that says "be still and know that I am God" is really what he's after for us and we should spend more time silent before Him and allowing our heart's to communicate for us.  


Sunday was a big blessing as well. The message was so encouraging and worship was wonderful. By the second service I really began to feel the spirit of God around me. I so love singing on the praise team and being able to enjoy two song services before 11:00, one at 8:30 and one at 10:30! What a kick start to my week! 


I've been going through a spiritual desert. I've just felt so disconnected from God and didn't know why. As often as I work to put God first and spend time with him everyday, I don't always follow through with what I'm told to do in scripture. I don't always walk out what I read and God really dealt with me this past weekend about how that was where my disconnect was at. I was reading and soaking in all of these instructions that I wouldn't walk out. I have to remind myself that I've grown in a lot of area's but for me my stumbling block is my mouth. I run off at it if I get mad. I mean I can tear someone up...so Christ like, I know :-/ and I am bad about allowing life to effect my every mood which in turn affects those around me. I was allowing my flesh to control me way too often and saying "well I know what it says to do...but I feel differently right now and can't..." Well, as God reminded me, I CAN because he gives me the strength to do so. So my goal is to begin to really live out what I read in the Bible and not just know it and ignore it when I don't feel like it. . I've placed sticky notes around my house that say "afm, ( as for me) I will be a doer and not just a hearer of the Word of God." I placed them where I will see them 100 times in a day or where I find myself tempted to not walk something out, like at the TV or computer. It works for me because I'm visual and if I'm mad and about to run off at the mouth and see a sticky note with that reminder on it, it grabs my attention and reminds me of how I'm supposed to act. 


I'm not perfect, I'm so terribly flawed but this is my ambition and I pray that I will see myself growing in the Word and catching myself walking it out more often then not. :)


"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does." James 1:22

I'm an aunt for the 3rd time

My first niece Raelee Alise Shore was born yesterday at 7:36 a.m. 8 lb.s 11 oz. and 20 inches long :) She is happy, healthy and plump! I just LOVE her!!!! Cara is doing great, God is good!

More pictures on my facebook!

Pride

"My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

 
I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because you demand your own way.

 
I cheat you of contentment...because you "deserve better than this."

 
I cheat you of knowledge...because you already know it all.

 
I cheat you of healing...because you're too full of me to forgive.

 
...I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to admit when you're wrong.

 
I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look in the mirror than out a window.

 
I cheat you of genuine friendship...because nobody's going to know the real you.

 
I cheat you of love...because real romance demands sacrifice.

 
I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth.

 
I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince you to seek your own.

My name is Pride. I am a cheater. You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you.


Untrue.
God has so much for you, I admit.But don't worry...
If you stick with me, you'll never know."

Goodbye can be so hard

Ava Grace is having a tough time giving up her walker that she is now too big for...


I had to lower it all the way to the floor because I turned around one day to see her standing on the top of it, while it was fully extended. Now she pushes it around on the floor and tries to fit inside of it.


Poor girl, she gets it from her momma! I have a hard time saying good-bye to things as well, like my favorite pair of jeans I have had for seven years and really should be using as a dust cloth at this point. :-/

A Journey through our fourth's

In honor of mine and Jon's 6th fourth of July together, I give you a recap of our past 4th's together!!

July 4, 2005

Here we are the year we turned 20 :-o I know many of you don't think of us as old, but this picture and memory makes me feel that way! I mean we're over half way to thirty...please don't smack me :-p We flew together for the first time for this Holiday while visiting my Dad in St. Louis. My dad's side of my family threw us an engagement party and we were full of hopes and dreams for our future :) Happy first 4th babe!

July 4, 2006
Ah, the month before our wedding day :) What a time that was!!!! We were so dang excited ( can't you tell) and READY to be married! Jonathan had just bought a first car for us and he felt so grown up haha. These were our first fireworks together on the trampoline in our backyard surrounded by my mom's side of the family. These are sweet memories my love!

July 4, 2007
We were about to celebrate our first wedding anniversary :) It had been an interesting year living in a marriage dorm in an "apartment" the size of a shoe box and believe me I use the word apartment lightly here! Jon had a not so pleasant job and I was trying to finish college. God provided though and on our first 4th as a married couple and our 3rd together we went to visit my family and his. Heather had a concert at a local school and we enjoyed that and then drove to my parents house to stay the night and spend the next day with them. We had a great time ( as you can tell by this picture) and never thought that I would get pregnant one year later!

July 4, 2008

Our fourth 4th together was spent in Asheville, NC at my friend Sarah Bennett's wedding, I was in it and Jon went along as my guest, obviously heh. We had a really wonderful time and enjoyed catching up with college friends. On our way back we watched firworks from the highway and it really was beautiful with all the NC mountains in the distance. If  we did our math correctly, we are about 99.9% sure this was the day God began Ava Grace's life :) Wedding's will do that ya! :-p

July 4, 2009

One year later and we are parents!!!! :) This was our first 4th with missy muffin and as "mommy" and "daddy." It was our 5th together. It is so obvious by our eyes that we had a 3 month old and that I was still recovering from a c-section. Oh well, we still had a blast! The three of us got together over at his parents house with all of his family and their babies ( all 3 the same age, born the same month) and we had yummy food and watched a movie...well we tried to watch a movie, but with three 3 month olds, you can only imagine how well that worked out!

July 4, 2010

Wow...six 4th's later and a lot of love and here we are!!!!!!!!!! Mommy, Daddy and Ava Grace :) This was the first time that Ava Grace saw fireworks and she wasn't outright scared of them, but didn't really enjoy them either. She did have a GREAT time at Aunt Heather and Uncle Curtis's house, surrounded by our family and friends and her cousins Lucius and Justus. She also had a wonderful time over at our friend's house, Mumba and Beebee ( she named them, not me!) We had a slight firework accident, but all were safe and it was great for a laugh! Jon and I can't believe we are married 4 years this year, together six years as of this past January AND parents!!! How awesome God has been to us!!!!!!!!!!!! Such GRACE he has given me! Such RESTORATION and HEALING he has given us!



Many, many, many more to come :-)