Jesus Loves Me

Misti's Debut

My friend Misti did this segment on Good Morning Texas and I just had to post. She's the publisher at Modern Babies and Children in Dallas and they asked her on the show to talk about their upcoming issue, which deals with teaching children to save money and learn about money. I watched it several times and, though the content is great, just kept thinking, "she is SO cute!" Isn't she? I'm so proud of my friend!

Getting Children to Save

Spillin' the Beans

Well, I guess it's about time to spill the beans.

What beans, you ask?

Let me just tell you what beans.

The beans that make me cry every time I open the pantry and see nothing I want to eat.

The beans that require me to take naps everyday.

The beans that put our house in a state of shock and awe this time around. Very surprising beans!

The beans that almost made me want to gag when I searched for pictures of beans and saw pinto beans covering a piece of toast. Yuck!

The same beans that strike our home every 10 months.

The beans that made me cry during an episode of Hannah Montana. After that happened, I just knew it...there is absolutely no other valid reason to cry during that show.

I thought, I MUST be pregnant.

That's right, folks. I'm spilling the pregnancy beans. I am once again, preggers!

I went to the doctor on Monday and was shocked (once again) to find out that I am due July 31st. I had no idea! We found out around Christmastime so I must have been around 2 months at that point.

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with Taylor and that I was 5 weeks along, being sad that I had somehow "missed" the first 5 weeks of pregnancy. So silly! This time around, I am thrilled to be further along than I thought! Woo hoo! But then again, I think I also cried when I found out you weren't supposed to drink cokes because I had one before I knew I was pregnant. First time moms do crazy things!

This pregnancy is going to be very laidback. We may not even find out the sex, who knows!

So, 3 months along with this little one and I am already feeling the pinch in my jeans. When I get a good bump going I will post pics. Until then or the next post...

Happy Birthday, Hunny!

Happy 27th Birthday, Sweetheart!

This is the 7th birthday we've celebrated together and I can still vividly remember your 20th birthday and each one after that. I baked a cake and brought it to your dorm room. You told me you liked that cream cheese icing so I made a cake with that stuff. Some other girl made you a cake too (now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure it was Cassandra who is such a great friend of mine now!). Back then, I just thought, "Aww, man. I'm not the only one in love with this guy." But you told me mine was better and you asked me on a date shortly after.

I'm so blessed to be making memories with you everyday of my life. No other girl gets to say that (except Taylor Joy, now. And she thinks today is her birthday or at least that she gets a cake!)

I'm absolutely blessed to watch you grow in the Lord day by day and year by year. To see what he's teaching you and to see it followed through in our family. You teach us so well. You lead us with confidence and give me much peace and contentment with your leadership. What an amazing shepherd you are to our family and so many others in our church and community.

You are more than I could have ever imagined in a husband, father, best friend, leader, shepherd and lover. I love you OH-SO-MUCH, hubby of mine!

Padre in January!

Our good friends Erin and Scott got married last weekend in South Padre...I think they were excited to get away and have a destination wedding and we were ALL about it! My sis came in town to care for our sweet Beckett (since he wasn't a part of the wedding festivities) and we headed off for our 8 hour trip.

I must say, not having a baby in the car was quite pleasant. Although I did do my share of reaching back to get things for Taylor or help her with something, that's nothing compared to the arm cramps that come with reaching back for lengthy periods of time to actually HOLD a pacifier in a baby's mouth. Ouch! That hurts just thinking about it.

We were blessed to have wonderful trips, to stay in a beautiful hotel and get to be involved in one of our favorite couples' wedding festivities.

Here are some pictures of the fabuloso weekend!

Taylor's Questions

During family worship we have incorporated a book, called the Family Worship book into our time together. Although there are many great resources in the book, the main thing we use right now are a compilation of catechism-type questions aimed at children and we have been teaching Taylor Joy the answers to those questions. Hopefully the answers are not just rote and memorized, but we are trying to incorporate the answers into our daily living as well, so she's getting it all the time.

I finally got around to getting this on video. All the people who have been a part of our family worship say, "You have GOT to get that on video!" and I finally had the time and got her to cooperate.

Some recent bloopers during family worship that make me laugh (not in the video) are when asking her how God made Adam and Eve and she said, "God made Adam's bottom and Eve from Adam!" and also blurting out that Adam and Eve wrote the Bible! Silly girl!

Enjoy the video!

Christmas Sermon

Courtesy of my hottie husband. I know it's late, but in case you're still interested in hearing from John 1:1-13.

Crafting with Appliques

Thanks to my friend Candice Sutterfield, these have been so much fun lately! I've made onesies, linen towels and the birthday banner that I posted from Beckett's party, all using appliques. Since several people have asked me how to make these, I will attempt to impart my limited knowledge here and divert you to others who are experts.

1. First, pick out some cute fabric at the store. Buy some Wonder-Under as well.

2. Read the directions on Wonder-Under and follow them by ironing the fabric to it.

3. Draw the shape/letter that you want to cut out on the Wonder-Under (with fabric on the other side) and cut it out.

4. Wonder-Under side down, iron it to the desired surface (burp rag, onesie, dish towel).

5. Then, follow these instructions to do a blanket stitch around the cutout with embroidery thread. OR you can use your sewing machine on a really tight zig-zag stitch around it. I seem to prefer the look of the embroidery thread. It just screams Anthropolgie to me and I happen to LOVE that store.

I taught this at my MOPS group and it was a great craft for sitting around and chatting while doing something productive. I hope all this makes sense and I want to see pictures if you make something cute with these instructions!

I Guess...

I guess it's about time for me to blog again.

December was wonderfully focused and filled to the BRIM with activities, company, friends and fellowship. Blogging is usually the first thing to go when times get filled with other things (I won't say "busy" because that's not necessarily the case, just FULL because we shared much of our time with others and enjoyed the time we had together as a family). So, for that, I'm sorry. No, actually I'm not. But I am sorry you kept checking my blog and nothing was ever there.

We spent a couple days in Dallas with our families and it was a beautiful time. Here are some pictures:

The kids with my parents...it actually turned out decent. Wow!

Beckett and Nanny

Sweet Taylor... (a long list of Taylor Joyisms to come...)

Cute as a button Beckett

Taylor helping Mima (Allen's mom) open her gift

Beckett and Aunt Lizzie (Allen's sis)

So, as you can see, a wonderful break for us. A wonderful time to celebrate our Savior's birth. A wonderful reminder to slow down on the silly things and meditate on the eternal things. We hope yours was amazing too!