Funny Stories

#1- One of the rules of our house is that the kids are not allowed to get in the van when it is in the garage. For obvious reasons, it is too hot! Well, we usually keep gum in there and in the past the girls have just gotten into the van to get a piece. So the rule has been made that they are not allowed in the van. Eliza was the culprit this time. She got in the van, got a piece for herself and one for Adrianna. They both came in the house and said "We have gum".
Well, we are re-establishing some things around here with some new discipline techniques. I am trying to tell them once, then turning around, and then walking away. If they don't obey, they receive a consequence. Since I have already told them they are not to get in the van I spanked both of them. I explained to Adrianna that yes, Eliza got the gum, but that she took it. She could have said no and told Eliza that they were not supposed to be in there.

We were then on our way to run an errand and the story of Adam and Eve came to mind. I reviewed the story with the girls and Adrianna did a really good job of remembering it. I pointed out that Eliza was like Eve because she took the gum and that Adrianna was like Adam because she accepted it from Eve.
Adrianna then pipes up from the backseat "But I wanted to be Eve!"!!!!!
Then she asked me if she could be Eve for Halloween. I'm pretty sure there is a rule about walking around in the nude..:)

#2- During our family time this past weekend we were serving pop for dinner. I asked Adrianna if she wanted Diet Sprite. She looked at me with a funny grin and said "I don't like that kind, it makes my butt fizz." I don't think she has ever had sprite but apparently it makes fizzy butts!

#3- When we were at the beach there was a water spicket right by our picnic table. Eliza went over there and got under the water. Pretty soon we hear " I got my booty wet".
Don't really know where she heard that one....

9 Months Old

Caleb is such a happy little guy! He is so content and I can pretty much take him anywhere and he hardly makes a peep! He is sitting up very confidently by himself and seems much happier. He loves to be around people and laughs at just about anything, especially Adrianna. He is starting to really like food he can chew and LOVES meat. He will try anything but he always looks at it first to see if he likes it. He loves his sisters and really likes when they sit down to play with him.
He is sleeping about 12 hours at night and still takes 2-3 naps a day. He loves swinging outside and seems to really like being outside in general. He is so joyful and happy.He always makes me smile and he also causes others around him to smile! We are blessed beyond measure to have him in our lives!

Mmmm...watermelon!








It's so much more fun to eat it after I hit it first!

Family Time

This past weekend we had a great time with our family! My cousins and their 3 kids drove up from Arkansas and it was so great to see them. My cousin Denise has a 10 year old daughter whose name is Alayna and Blake is 7 months. He is crawling and pulling up on stuff! My cousin Jackie has a daughter whose name is Izabel is she is 1 year old and so sweet! My grandparents came as well as my aunt and uncle and my cousin Alex. Adrianna LOVED playing with the older girls! We all met up on Saturday morning with the intent of going blueberry picking. Not so much in the thunderstorm! We went out to eat first and by the time we were done it had stopped raining.
I forgot my camera so I'll have to recall the experience using words! The girls did so great picking. Adrianna got about a 1/4 of a bucket filled and decided she liked blueberries. Eliza picked about 20 of them, ate one, decided she didn't like them, and then dumped her bucket on the ground! She was done after about 5 minutes! Of course, it was so much more fun to take our shoes off and traipse through the mud and puddles! Caleb was his content little self just sitting in the stroller. I think we picked about 12 pounds or so! Thanks Denise for buying our blueberries! That was incredibly sweet of you!:)

My grandparents with Caleb. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and hanging out together. It was so fun!







On Sunday we had these grandiose expectations of Millennium Park. We did go but we had to lower our expectations drastically! It was crowded and hot and fortunately we were able to find a picnic table and grill under a pavilion! The water was very murky, black, and pretty gross so that experience lasted 5 minutes. Plus it was only about knee deep so it was very difficult to actually swim in it! We did make it to the splash pad but had to wait in line because there were so many people. This experience lasted about 10 minutes!
This was our 3rd time to Millennium park this year and I have loved it every time! I wanted my family to experience it but sometimes the things we think are great don't measure up to everyone else's expectations. Plus with kids, they get tired and cranky and we sometimes have to fight the bad attitudes! We did have fun as a family in our "germ-free" environment..:), and that is what is most important! It is what you make of it!


Bathing beauty who is very happy to pose for mommy's camera!







Can I just say that I LOVE little boys! I had to keep reminding myself that he didn't need a shirt on because he is a boy! I'm so used to covering up my
girls that it just seemed natural to cover him up also!










Eliza is not a big fan of having water sprayed in her face so she was quite unhappy with the splash pad! She does look sweet in her bathing suit though!

In a Pit- Part I

God has been teaching me so many things lately that I'm just bursting to share some with you! I have been reading A LOT and the books I'm reading are addressing very different areas in my life. I hope to share a few thoughts with you in a couple different posts. I hope I can adequately convey all the things I'm learning.

The 1st book I am reading is "Get out of that Pit" by Beth Moore. I am about part way through and it is changing my outlook in many areas. I am not good at sharing what I'm thinking and feeling very well so I'll do my best! After all, it is my blog..:)
I have struggled with depression for most of my life. I think the peak of the darkness was in college and my 1st few years of teaching. I can't really think of any reasons for it. I had a good life. I have supportive family and friends. I just don't think I was aware of how Christ could truly heal me. I relied too much on material things, and on the support of family and friends to get me out of it. (Even though God has used many people throughout my life to help me!)

Beth Moore shares 3 ways we can be in a pit.
1st- We can be thrown in. This is a pit that we have no control over. We are thrown in before we know what hit us. This is from things that are done to us that are just plain horrible. It could be death, abuse, or other life issues that happen. The first pit ever mentioned is in Genesis 37:23-25 when Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers. They had the intent of leaving him for dead. (I'll get back to this in a bit!)

2nd- When you slip into a pit. This is a pit we put ourselves into even though we didn't mean to. We just weren't watching where we were going! We get so distracted by the appearance of something being "good" that we don't realize how it can lead us astray.

3rd- When you jump into a pit. This is when you are fully aware what you are about to do is wrong but you jump in anyway.

So how do you get out of a pit? Well, you can't get yourself out. You can either opt for human help or for God's help. He is our deliverer! Sometimes we look for people or things to be our deliverer. Going back to the story of Joseph is a good example. His brothers dropped him in with the intent of leaving him for dead. You would think that they were his deliverer because they pulled him out of the pit. But they just sold him into a worse pit, slavery. Sometimes people can pull us out, but they too can sell us into a worse pit... whether it's the expectation that we now owe them for what they have done, or they choose not to become our friend anymore because they are tired of helping, or we have to live with the possibility that they are disappointed in us because we ended up in a pit to begin with.
The Bible records many instances when Israel cried out for a deliverer and God gave them a human one. Whether is was Moses or Joshua or Abraham. The people ended up trusting in those great leaders rather than God as their deliverer. People can help us but they can't heal us. They can pull us out of a pit but they can't keep us out.
Only God can do that! Only he can go to the depths with us. Only He who began a good work in us can complete it! (Phil. 1:6). I think many times I tried to rely on friends that I had along the way in my life's journey to help me out of pits that I was in. I'm not saying that having friends' help is a bad thing. They can actually be put there by God as a stepping stone for where God wants us to go. It's just that only God can truly go to the deep places of darkness and truly heal and help us out of whatever pit we are in.
In Isaiah 43:11 it says "I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior". So I ask myself, "What am I making my savior to be? Who am I trusting to be my Deliverer?". I think back again to Joseph and I realize that yes, his brother helped him out of the pit that he was thrown into but ultimately God had delivered him to a higher calling and used him for His purpose.
I pray each day that I will stay out of the pit that I continually throw myself into. That I will put my complete trust in God as the only one who can go to the depths with me and bring me out! It is amazing how God is healing me day by day.

In the Nude....partially

Happy Birthday Adrianna and Jaedon!

On August 5th, Adrianna had her 1 year spiritual birthday! She has been in God's family for a whole year! It has been so amazing to watch her grow and learn how to be a follower of Christ. We are stepping up our expectations and our discipleship of her so she can continue to learn how to love God with all her heart.
It is also her good friend Jaedon's 6th Birthday! I think it is so cool how it worked out that they could share this day!




What is a birthday without cake!! Please do not laugh at my attempt at a cake! I actually almost forgot about it and fortunately had a cake mix in my cupboard! We also did not have any candles so Shawn taped a match to a toothpick. Very clever I must say!







I wanted to get her something to help her grow in her walk with Christ. We are working on how to pray so this book looked like it would explain things in simple terms for a 5 year old. It talks about how God loves us, how He shows us he loves us, that God gives us our needs and not always our wants, and how we can talk to Him about anything just like you would talk to a friend you can see.

We are really struggling with Adrianna's attitude and the way she treats people. She can be so mean sometimes, especially to her sister. I'm trying to figure out what is going on in her little head because she is just like me! She wants to do the exact opposite of everything we tell her. She hears what we are telling her to do but there is no movement to obey without delay. She wants everything to be her idea. Some days I want to wring her neck and other days she is so helpful I just want to spend the whole day with her! EVERY thing is a teaching opportunity because she makes it so! Although I love teaching her, it can get pretty exhausting at times. She wants everything to be equal which in some ways that is good, but we have to remind ourselves that Eliza is only 2 1/2 and cannot be expected to do and say the same things Adrianna does. Why do siblings have to fight? I wish I could go back to my growing up years in my parents house, take what I know now, and treat my siblings a little better. This could be a complete new blog post! All that to say, God's grace is sufficient for EVERY moment, for every new situation, for every new issue that daily comes my way! I have been praying for patience in my tone and my actions A LOT lately! I keep thinking that she is not going to make it to her teenage years because I'm going to ship her off somewhere before that! This is all new territory for us and we are learning with each new issue that comes up. I am so THANKFUL Jesus is there to help me!

Horseback riding with Anne

Meet Jack! One of my favorite things to do is go horseback riding. One of Shawn's student's has a horse and she offered to take us. It was so much fun! The girls were so excited to meet her horse Jack. Anne was so good with them. She was very patient and taught them a few basic things you need to do to care for a horse.




We all got a chance to brush him first.























Then we had to clean out his hooves.











The girls were absolutely enthralled by everything Anne said. You can tell by this picture!







Adrianna looked like a pro. She acted so comfortable and would have stayed on the horse all day. As you can see, she rode by herself all around the yard.






I was actually quite surprised that Eliza wanted to ride by herself. She did so good despite the fact that the helmet was too big! Daddy helped her a long a little bit!







The evil rooster! I guess if you get to close to these chickens the rooster will peck at your ankles! There were a few dogs running around that all you had to say to them was "get the rooster" and the dogs would chase it away!


Shawn and I both rode and it was so fun! I will try not to get it in my head to seriously think about getting a horse! Hmmm....I could board it at this farm and go riding whenever I wanted!
Alas...a dream that will have to wait!
Thanks Anne for taking us and giving us a fun memory!