Fun at the Park

Jeremiah's face after his 3rd time down a slide by himself.

God blessed us with such a beautiful day so we took a walk and went to the park.

A good reminder

I read this somewhere awhile back. I have needed this reminder many times today.

"In parenting the days are long but the years are short."

Growing Up

Jeremiah is changing fast. On Monday he weighed 8lbs and 15.5 oz. Today he lost his umbilical cord. He is starting to stay awake a little bit longer. We are enjoying him very much.

My little man

Micah adores him.

Gabriella adores him too. In her defense he had already started to fuss before she came to love on him. But she is rougher with him than Micah is, so we have to watch her very, very closely.

Pathetic . . .

my family that is. We can hardly stop coughing or blowing our noses. Micah and Clay are a running a fever. Gabriella and I both have elevated temps but not to the point of fever. I got a call Tuesday from the church saying that Gabriella was in a room with a kid on Sunday who had just come down with the chicken pox. So, we are watching for that. Micah keeps getting these spots that look like insect bites on her body but then they've been disappearing. But I just noticed they all reappeared in the first place we saw them two days ago. We've all been coughing. But I've been coughing since Wednesday. My stomach is sore and I fell as if I cough much more I am going to push this baby out. None of us want to eat. Which just leaves me nauseated. Of course the coughing makes me nauseated too. So if you have taken time to read this - we would really appreciate your prayers too.

The Time Is Drawing Near . . .

Nine and a half weeks to go. I know that still seems like a long time to a lot of people. It seemed like a long time with the first. But now that I have two little ones to chase after, I can look at the calender one day and we will be at the beginning of the week. Then it feel like the next time I look up we are already in the middle or the end of the month.

So around here we are getting ready for baby to come. We got the crib set up last week after Micah's 3rd Birthday party (more about that to come - at least that's my plan). Today Clay got in the attic with Micah's help (she has been talking about helping Daddy get the stuff down for the baby for weeks. She is so excited!!!) and got the all the 0-3 month clothing down. I figured that I would go ahead and wash it all since it could easily be a girl this time around too. If its not a girl, then I figure it will be easier to just throw all of the girl clothes in a box and put them back in the attic than it would be to wash all of them at that point.

Looking through all those newborn clothes that my girls wore sure brought back sweet memories. It can be very bittersweet watching babies grow up. It sure made my arms long more to hold this baby than I have so far in this pregnancy. While I've been extremely excited about adding another blessing to our family - I don't think I've really spent a lot of time just looking forward to the arrival of this sweet baby. But now we are in a season of preparation, and hopefully things will continue to be much slower than they had been for the last few months and we will have plenty of time to enjoy the two we have now & dream about the one on the way.

Leaving A Legacy

That is what it is about, right? Leaving a legacy for Christ. Not a legacy of money or fame or a good name - but one for Christ. That's why as parents we are so concerned about traditions, and teaching our kids to memorize scripture, teaching them Bible Studies, and discipling and disciplining them in the Lord. We want our children, and our grandchildren, and our grandchildren's children (all the generations that may follow after us leading up to the return of Christ (if He does not return in our life time)) to be grafted into the family of God through the blood of Christ.


Here is a link to a blog that has three videos of Dr. Voddie Bauchamn preaching about this concept. These are the best I have ever heard on the subject. I will say I love these sermons but I don't know anything about him more than what I've heard on these sermons.

They are well worth your time to listen to. I listened while preparing dinner and his sermon made me laugh at how ridiculous our society is and cry as the Lord used some of the things he said to convict me.

Christmas Traditions

My friend, Jenna, has started a discussion on Christmas Traditions and Santa Claus. Most of the discussion so far has centered around to do or not to do Santa Claus. She asked us to share our traditions - but since my response about Santa was so long, and I wanted to ask some of you what traditions you have in your homes to keep Christmas Christ - centered - I decided to do my own post on it.


Traditions in our household include:

The lighting of the Advent Candle Wreath.

Unwrapping a "present" which is a book related to Christmas every night preceding Christmas. We read the story to the kids and will talk about the book as much as they want. Some of the books are the story of Christ birth, some are legends about Santa Claus, some tell the truth about Santa, and some are just about how different families celebrate Christmas.

We give each kid three gifts to represent the gifts the three wise men brought Jesus.

Reading of the Christmas story before opening any presents.

This year we are going to try something new. We have been working on memorizing passages of scripture as a family. I have been meaning to post on this subject for several months. But starting after Thanksgiving, we will start reading the Christmas story from the Bible every night at dinner. My hopes are that Clay, Micah, and I will memorize most of it by Christmas and that Gabriella will be familiar with it. I will have to share the key that I have found to getting Micah (and me) to memorize scripture with y'all soon.

I also started this last year: I either have everything cooked by Christmas Eve or we eat a pop in the oven pizza for lunch on Christmas Day. I know it sounds silly - and even makes me sound lazy. But if I don't do this - I will spend the whole day stressing on making a big production on a meal. I then miss out on sitting still and giving thanks for the wonder of the birth of Christ and reflecting on Him. Secondly, I miss out on creating special family time with the family. It is kinda like making time stop - by not having to deal with all the normal duties - and savoring the day of Christmas.


Traditions we wish to start this year or as the kids get older.

A night of Christmas Caroling with good friends and hot chocolate.

The telling of the Christmas story on the felt board. I really need to get busy making all those pieces because I want to start this year.

Making a soft bed for baby Jesus (I have been wanting to do this with my kids for over 10 years - when I first read about someone else doing this with their family.). You set up an empty manger somewhere in the house for baby Jesus. You tell the kids that baby Jesus will need a soft place to lay when He comes on Christmas Eve. Then you all draw names of those in your family. Everyone has to secretly do kind things for that person for a week - or how ever long you decide, before you draw different names. But for every kind deed done, the person who does the deed gets to put a single piece of straw in the manager. The hope is that by Christmas it will be filled with hay for the baby that you will lay in the manager on Christmas Eve night.

The reenactment of the Christmas story - complete with makeshift costumes and stuffed animals.

What are your family traditions?

Waiting at the Door

Our precious girls waiting at the door to leave for CBS

The Answer

The answer to our game that no one cared to play is that it is the ages of our family now and will be the ages of our family in March.

YEAH! We are going to be blessed with another baby. We are very excited. I am now 11 weeks along. I was 10 weeks when we posted the game.

Micah keeps telling us that she wants to bring 2 babies home from the hospital. Unfortunately, the doctor said there was just one.

This information is for blog readers only. Please do not pass this information along to others who choose not to read our blog. We have another way planned to announce to them. Thanks in advance for your cooperation!

Newest Addition

Meet Lambchop! He's a male Bichon Frise about 12 weeks. He will get between 7 & 10 pounds. He does not shed! The girls love to play with him. It is very important to Gabriella when we are praying that we pray for "puppy" and Micah chimes in with "our puppy Lambchop." It is very cute! They love him very much. We've enjoyed hearing Micah talk about him. When we first got him, Micah would sit next to him and say, "He's cute! Momma my Lambchop is so cute." She also says of him, "My puppy is beautiful." and "He's so handsome." We are so thankful that we are able to let them have a puppy to take care of and to love.

A Trip to The Fair

We went to the fair to watch Payton show his goats. He did a great job handling his goats. As exciting as getting to watch their Uncle Payton - the girls really loved all the sights of the fair. Micah was very excited to get to pet a pig, a cow, and a goat. Gabriella was excited about petting a cow - but much more reserved with the rest of the animals. When we first got the the fair there was a clown with her little monkey. The girls really enjoyed seeing the monkey & we were able to take a few cute pictures of them with the monkey. When Gabriella first saw the monkey she started pointing repeatedly saying, "Baby! Baby!"


In this last picture the clown had given the monkey a peanut as an attempt to get her to look at me with the camera. As she was eating her peanut, she was dropping the shell - which Gabriella tried to pick up and eat!




Micah really wanted to pet a pig. PePaw helped her find a pig to pet.

Gabriella with Aunt Shan

Sisterly Love

Pictures

We are going to put up a few pictures from the past few months of the girls. Sorry we've been so bad about sending them out before. But now maybe everyone who wants to see will get a chance to look.

Micah Turns Two


Daddy and Gabriella

Micah, Gabriella, and Mommie playing the piano

Say, CHEESE!

A Trip to Grandma's

We drove out west to visit Grandma this weekend. We really enjoyed getting to visit with her. The girls had an absolute blast. If Micah was not sleeping on the way there she was saying, "I want to go to Grandma's." Gabriella and Micah both loved playing and exploring in Grandma's house. Gabriella especially loved getting all of the books off of Grandma's shelves to look through them. Micah really loved going to into the basement to play. She would tell Clay and I that she wanted to go "upstairs" - which meant she wanted to go to the basement. It is a blessing to get to spend time with Grandma and to learn from her. I am also so thankful that my girls are getting a chance to know her. I hope that they will always remember the fun they had at Grandma's - just like my sisters and brothers remember the fun we had when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's.

Below are some pictures of the girls playing in Grandma's beautiful yard.







Here you see Micah and Gabriella wrestling. This is a very common occurence among our two sweet girls.