Thursday Thirteen

13 Reasons Why I need it to be WARMER WEATHER!




I am somewhat horrified by this picture. Keep in mind that Reece is 10 wks old and I was nursing at the time. (I'm a little self-conscious about the girls)



1. I am sick and tired of being sick. We just caught another cold- thanks to other moms who can't keep their snot nose kids at home!



2. Reece can be outside and play in the mud like he keeps trying to do.



3. Avery can go to her "castle" (the playground) and release some energy.



4. I can sit on my deck in my comfy furniture and blog.



5. I can get a little color in my pasty white skin.



6. I can knit something besides a chunky wool sweater.



7. We can go on walks on the nature trail in our neighborhood.



8. I can pack away these winter clothes. I am over sweaters for a few months.



9. I can walk around barefoot because I hate wearing socks. But I have freakishly cold feet and have to when it's less than 80 degress outside.



10. I won't be cranky.



11. I can have my kids' birthday party outside where they always want to be in the first place.



12. Shane doesn't have to grill in the snow.



13. I can get myself to a beach and burn out any leftover chills and germs from winter.
Can I get an AMEN!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Big Milestones...

I cut his hair and this time it turned out quite cute. There have been a few touch-ups though!
He has the most adorable smile. His face just lights up my heart.
Yes, my little man is taking steps!
I saw this picture and choked up. She is such a little girl. Time has flown by. I am getting nostalgic with her third birthday coming soon.
She is potty trained!!!!!!!!!!! This was my feeble attempt at keeping her focused and away from Reece. After she went in it once, I was so grossed out that we went to the "big girl potty."

Time to Grow

The Desert, Avery 13 mos.
The promiseland, Reece 11 mos.

The last couple of years have been a desert for me. They have been really really happy years in terms of becoming a mother and falling more in love with my husband. But I haven't felt like I was living life to the fullest for Christ. I compare it to the desert (which is also a literal comparison after living in NV). I felt like I was isolated in the middle of nowhere floundering around, wondering what the purpose of this time in my life was. I had quit teaching and lost a little bit of myself in the process. I'm a pretty social person and I like to have things planned in my week. Living 35 miles from anything in a brown wasteland far from the beach and family was torture. But just as the Israelites needed the desert to learn to trust and follow God, I did too. I whined almost as much as they did about not being where I wanted to be, but God knew all along it wouldn't last forever. So my desert was geographical and spiritual. We had to travel really far to get to a church that shared our beliefs and it was very difficult to be involved in any way. Since that is one of my main ways of meeting friends, then came the isolation. I had a lot of "why me" and "when is this going to end" moments. But in Jan. of 07, I finally gave in and told God, "OKAY, I"LL STOP WHINING AND DO IT YOUR WAY, TEACH ME PATIENCE." I figured the Lord just wanted me to give up what I needed most. If I just let it go that I didn't want to be there anymore and accept that it was his plan, his direction, his best for my life- then I needed to trust it. Guess what? A week later Shane called me and said we were moving to Virginia. HELLO! Two long years in the desert of isolation and loneliness and suddenly I am going to the promiseland. God's pretty amazing how he times things. Sometimes he is really subtle and other times he takes a frying pan and knocks you over the head with it. That was definitely a frying pan moment.

So why am I bringing this up now after living in for Virginia exactly a year? Because life is totally opposite for me. I am involved in ministries, I am on steering for MOPS, I have friends, we are close to an amazing church, I'm on the praise team, I might play the piano for it, my house is just right for our needs and my husband actually likes his job. I know that the time in NV had a purpose, I grew and stretched, I questioned, I trusted. But I am so much happier here in VA. I almost feel guilty for having a life that I am really happy with. God is so amazing! My words are a jumbled mess and the English major in me is cringing, but it's just how I am feeling. I am so thankful that God has brought my little family out of the desert. I understand there may be more deserts, but life is really good. I want to impact my little world for Christ and I am so excited that I can get involved in things that I love to fulfill his purpose for me. I want God to receive all the glory. I wouldn't be anything without him and I am just really happy right now. I just wanted to publicly thank God for moving in my life, for changing me, molding me, and growing me to become more like him. After whining in the desert, I'm ready to thank him for the promiseland.

Very Sweet

A newborn's conversation with God
A baby asked God, 'They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?' God said, 'Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.'The child further inquired, 'But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.' God said, 'Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy.'Again the child asked, 'And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?' God said, 'Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel wi ll teach you how to speak.'
'And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?' God said, 'Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.''Who will protect me?' God said, 'Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life.''But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore.' God said, 'Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.'At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, 'God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name.'God said, 'You will simply call her, 'Mom.

Some cute moments

Avery had a lot of fun
pulling Reece around.
Not sure if he enjoyed
it though!


Lucy and Sadie are always cuddling. It still cracks me up 4 years later.

Reece loves being on the move, except that his feet don't touch the ground on this one yet.


Avery fell asleep when she had the flu. Notice she is NOT on the towel. How do they always miss it? It's hard to tell, but her eyes are a little bit open. Both of my kids sleep with their eyes like this. A little creepy.

Totally Obnoxious

Ok here are pictures of my mom and sisters' shoe shopping spree. Apparently shoes were half off of a clearance sale and ended up 5 bucks a pair. So they bought shoes for themselves and Julie and me. Can you imagine what they looked like checking out. I wish I had a picture of that. Anyway, Jules and I feel like celebrities having personal shoppers. And how much fun we had shopping with them over the phone as they attempt to describe and try on shoes for 4 different people!

For the Grandparents

Everyone else was doing it...

A revelation...

So today as I was folding mounds of clothes on my bed, something dawned on me. We really don't know how much our moms love us until we have our own kids. Of course I loved my mom growing up, but I didn't understand HER love. I didn't know the depths of such an unselfish love. I was a kid. But the amount of love I have for my kids is immeasurable (I have been using this word a lot because on t.v. and in conversations I keep hearing people say "inmeasurable" and grammatical errors drive me crazy, although I am not immune from them myself, admits the former English teacher, anyway, back to the topic...). The way that a mom loves her babies is incredible. Some days I have a hard time with it honestly. It's a love that can invoke tears, anger, fear, joy, etc.

Then it got me thinking. I have NO idea how much Jesus loves me. I don't get it. I am obsessively in love with my kids, but the amount of love God must have for me , the ultimate Creator and the ultimate Sacrificer...it's impossible to comprehend. I just couldn't get my head around it today.

I think as moms (and maybe everyone does this) we put ourselves down a lot. There's always more to do or it's never enough. But when I started thinking about how much God must love me none of that seemed to really matter.

The ironic thing is how much more I got done thinking about this. Maybe it was God's way of blessing me for keeping my thoughts totally focused on him.

Anyway, I am so totally in love with my babies. And I am so glad that God gave them to me so that I could try to grasp His love for me a little better.

Catching up on some things...

My first pie. Fresh blueberry, yum. The ironic thing is that we made this for our homegroup, but when we got there it had been cancelled! We enjoyed the whole thing though!

This was Shane's choice for the Christmas cards we didn't send out because we couldn't get to our Kodak online account. It was going to say, "Hope your Christmas is all it's cracked up to be." I wanted to send a family picture of all of us on the front steps. Goes to show the difference in taste! HA!

Reece was sick with this cold for over 3 weeks. YUCK! The poor guy kept waking up with a super crusty nose.

Avery insisted on going outside to take a picture one night.


Behind our house is this dirt road through some woods. Someday this will be a real road with houses, but right now it is our private park. it was raining a little bit and we let the dogs go run. Thankfully they did come back. (We never know with Lucy.) Reece is in the baby bjorn and very happy. Avery ended up walking and I pushed an empty stroller. Sometimes we'll do anything to get some fresh air.

I'm HERE!!!!!!!

FINALLY! We bought a house in a neighborhood that only has 8 houses and there were no internet services!!!! We finally gave up on DSL and exhausted every option and went broadband. Tomorrow I will be spending hours checking up on everything I have missed. I have missed being a part of all of your lives these last couple of months.Talk about being out of the loop- with no internet; it was horrible. Talk to you all soon!