A Little Pink Fishie

Hey readers...sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been a little busy clearing out the entire guest bedroom to make room for this little boy in my tummy. I really wanted to clean out that closet (and all the other closets in my house) as soon as I got pregnant...hmmm...must be a nesting thing.

It feels SO good to have that done with and finally feel more organized! Isn't getting rid of things great? Now I just have to take it all somewhere (Twin City Missions) and get rid of the good stuff I didn't throw away.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures to appease the Taylor Joy fans out there...all 32,000 of you. That's how many visitors we've had. My goodness! I had no idea!

We've been at the pool quite frequently and this was one day last week.

The Verdict is In...

That's right! We found out this morning that we are *most likely* having a....


BOY!





He's a lot like his sister in that he is stubborn...he was facing the wrong direction with his legs flat against the placenta so it made that "region" very hard to get a look at. Although, we (the doctor) saw something hanging so we are pretty sure there is a baby boy in there.

I really thought I would be surprised either way, but the past few weeks the Lord had been confirming with both Allen and me that there was a little boy in there.

We are SOOO excited!

Oh, and we also found out that he's an Aggie! There was a crystal clear shot of him giving the "gig'em" sign! It really was hilarious...and that little hand was SO cute! I can't believe he's learning the ropes already!

I will try very hard to get sonogram pics uploaded, but I'm afraid none of them turned out too great. He is a very big baby apparently and his body wouldn't fit in the screen so there are no cute profile pictures. I just have the aggie hand one and one of like the side of his head and spine (which is very dark).

Only 18 weeks until that little babe arrives! Yippee!

Stepping Heavenward

Oh, the suspense! Was anyone wondering what book I would recommend next? Here it is. It's the book I read during our lovely 10-day vacation entitled Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss.

It's the journey of a young girl as she grows into her faith, starting at age 16 and continuing through her later years. The book is actually her personal journal complete with refreshingly honest thoughts, a gripping storyline and faith that is challenged and strengthened through her experiences.

As a young girl she writes about her mother who went away daily to pray and seek the Lord for her children and family. She and her brother knew it was the time of day that their mother enjoyed more than anything. They actually felt the prayers of their mother in their lives and were thankful to receive them. At that point in her life she honestly recorded the reasons why she felt unable to pray, the distractions and difficulties surrounding prayer...reasoning I could definitely attest to. Later on in her life she had become like her mother, a woman of prayer. She couldn't get through one day with her prayer time with the Lord and her children felt the same way that she and her brother once felt about their mother. A place of spiritual maturity she felt she could never reach was finally in grasp.

I think this spoke to me because so often I desire to be all-wise, all-understanding, and all-Godly overnight. I pray for something one night that the Lord might help me change and then get frustrated when it isn't gone the next morning. I see older women in the church and wonder why I can't be as wise as them. I forget that these things take time. Most likely they are wiser because they are older and have been through many more experiences than I have. They have allowed the Lord to speak to them through their daily experiences and eventually those days turn into months and months into years. I trust that the Lord is maturing me, it's just harder to see when I'm with myself everyday and I see how often I fall short. Seeing her journey in the book allowed me to see what hopefully the Lord is doing in me now...refining me slowly but surely, in His timing.

I highly recommend this book and I also recommend keeping a journal so that you can go back and read each year how far you've come each year in your spiritual journey. In the past I wrote in my journal furiously...ripping through journals in a month. I'm going to try to be better about it this year so I'll be able to look back. One other thing I have been doing since Taylor Joy was born is writing in a journal for her...prayers, thoughts, memories of things that she did or said, encouragement and praise. I want her to be able to look back one day and know that the Lord's promises are true and that her life has been covered in prayer from day one. I believe it will be a treasure when she's older.

Enjoy the book while you are reading! Those 300 pages go very quickly!

Big Sister In Training!

Taylor Joy finally got her big sister t-shirt and she's training for the new baby's arrival. She LOVES babies (be-be) and is excited to be a big sister (ti-tuh). Not only does she give the baby lots of kisses and hugs, she rocks her in the rocking chair, changes her diapee (bi-pee) and pushes her around in the stroller. What a wonderful big sister Taylor will be!




Now if we could just find out if she's having a little brother or sister! More on that to come NEXT WEEK!

Hairspray Recap!

Last night was a ladies' night to remember forever! We got DECKED out, went to see Hairspray at the movie theater and then on to Cafe Eccell for dessert.

Oh, what a night!

Just seeing everyone dressed to the nines pretty much made my evening. Everyone looked SO good! WOW ladies!

Here is everyone in the theatre...people were looking at us like we were CRAZY, but I know they were wanting to hang with us too... ;)



Ashley and I went to the bathroom and we heard some people whisper, "Oh, how cute, they dressed like the movie!" Haha, yeah...we don't normally dress like this and I am glad! I don't think my hair was cut out for the ever popular "flip", it is just WAY too thick and fell after about 30 minutes.

I would like say that Chelsea Groves could go back to the sixties and fit RIGHT in. Did ya'll see her? She's in the lower left corner of the above picture. Doesn't she look like the perfect 60's girl?


Me and Cate...the soon to be bride!



Me and Kelli...This was her mother's old dress! Her and Erin looked "to die for" in them! So so CUTE!



The Hairspray girls! They brought some in case our 'dos fell...

We really should do this more often gals!

Summer Vacay Part II

We love Ruidoso. It's a small quaint town with lots of interesting things to do, but the thing we love most is sitting outside on the deck swing, reading, meditating, watching the hummingbirds and enjoying God's creation in 70 degree weather. If you're lucky you might even see some deer, which we did one night as we were eating dinner outside.

We went to the shops one day (we didn't buy a thing!). We like to save our money for things like expensive dinners instead. Which we did a couple of nights that we were there and then we cooked at the house or grilled out the rest of the time.

One night we went to this place called the Pasta Cafe, which was similar to an Olive Garden. Taylor started off the night being fussy, but when the food came I started giving her my noodles and she went to TOWN on them. She was slurping them into her mouth and it was one of the funniest things I've seen. She loved it and she was a MESS!



Another night we went to a Dinner theatre that was actually like dinner and a concert. They had a band there that was amazing. It was almost kinda like a comedy show as well. They were very entertaining. I can't say so much about the food and the experience with childcare, but I definitely could have watched that show again.

Here's a picture of the stage where they played. One of the guys in the band played ALL of these instruments. Can you imagine? He really was amazing. He was the guy who sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and he can make his voice go real high.



We spent a day at the horse races and thanks to Bobby and Caryl Merchant had wonderful box seats. In between races we entertained Taylor by putting on Baby Einstein in the box and during the races we took her down there to watch the horses and tractors. She loved the "awsies".





While the weather was wonderful most of the time we were there, wouldn't you know it the day we planned our picnic it rained in sheets??? We went to Bonita Lake for a scenic picnic and ended up eating in the car. It wasn't all bad though. Seeing it rain from inside the car and with the amazing view was quite beautiful. We rather enjoyed it and made the best of it.



Other than that we read a bunch and just enjoyed each other. It was such a lovely vacation. Later I will have to do a book review on one of the greatest books I've read. I blew through 300 pages while we were there. I think my life changed while reading it. But like I said, that's for later...

Summer Vacay Part 1

I wanted to start off with a picture from last year's vacation to Ruidoso taken in the same spot with the same baby, only this year she is ONE year older (as are we too, of course, but who likes to think about that).

This was our first family vacation with just the three of us. I guess we didn't really know what to expect. Our hopes were that she would nap a lot and keep herself entertained so we could do what we love to do on vacation...READ. We both had ordered books to bring and were very excited about reading them. Allen's book somehow didn't make it there...among that and other realizations of things that we had left and incidences at the airport, we didn't have great attitudes to begin with.

The flight with Taylor (the 3 of us being crammed into 2 seats, for cheapness sake) wasn't all that we hoped it would be. Taylor's greatest fear, I'm convinced is being pinned down, not able to move and go where she pleases. (This makes for lovely times at the doctor's office...) So this situation on the plane was not one that anyone envied. She wailed toward the end probably less than 5 minutes, but I guarantee you that was the longest 5 minutes of my life.

And I'd like to add that traveling with a baby is just very HARD. You are talking about toting along pack-n-plays, carseats, strollers and then during the check having to take off everyone's shoes. I mean, seriously, what could possibly be in that tiny baby shoe?

Anyhow, that will probably be the last time we travel with a toddler. When she was littler it was easier, but now it's a little too much to handle for both of us. Although she did do MUCH better on the way back with her own seat. Don't get me wrong, Allen and I were having to put on an entertaining show for her (books, songs, games, etc...people probably thought we were crazy singing, dancing, playing peek-a-boo), but she kept entertained.

So all in all the travels taught us a LOT about our own attitudes and how WRONG they were! I think our reactions to those hard situations are the Lord's way of showing us if we are really growing like He desires us to and how we think we are (in our own prideful eyes). Glad He brought us back to Him from the get go. That actually provided the best possible outlook we could have had for our little once-a-year getaway. It actually got things started off RIGHT! Praise God, He really knows what He's doing, huh?

I will leave you with some pictures and continue where I left off later, after the loads of laundry disappear, the emails are all deleted and the blogs have all been checked.

Grown a LOT in 2 weeks!

The picture on the left is the one I posted about 2 weeks ago and the one on the right was taken yesterday. I can REALLY tell the difference and just feel like I have totally pooched out in the past couple of weeks! There's no way anyone can say they can't see a pooch now!!! (Janette! Michelle! Yes you!)

I am so glad to finally be "showing" in a way that (hopefully and selfishly) strangers don't think it's leftover baby weight from Taylor Joy. I know that's dumb and I'm pretty much over caring what other people think of me at this point. I know that most of the time anyway I don't even get a second glance when I'm with Taylor, which is all the time. And that's FINE with me! I get all the glances I need from my hubby. He seriously LOVES the extra "thickness"(as he calls it) on my body. Yay for that!

I love that there is a little baby inside that we get to love on in less than 5 months.

I love that I can feel that babe kicking and moving around inside of me.

I love that Taylor Joy loves the baby and gives it kisses and raspberries.

I love that she really has no idea what kissing my belly means.

I love that a life is growing inside of me at every minute of the day, whether or not I am aware of it, no matter what I'm doing.

It reminds me that sometimes I have to stop, slow down and enjoy a little kick, give a little rub, read a book, or sing to that little one.

It reminds me that our Heavenly Father is constantly ready to meet with us. He never stops His work whether or not we are a part of it. He never stops growing or changing His people as long as we allow it. He's always available to us. The God of the Universe...available to US. Crazy. Our time given away to Him or His work is always a blessing to Him and blesses us in return.

A sweet little lesson from my sweet little fetus ALREADY! Wow! Children are a blessing in so many ways and they teach me so much about our Lord.

Our Little Flower Girl

Taylor Joy is set to be a flower girl in Ryan and Cate's wedding! We are so excited that our good friends are getting married and our little girl gets to be a part of it. Well, all of us really. Allen is the best man and I'll be helping Cate in the House Party.

As soon as we found out about Taylor being in the wedding I went shopping for little flower girl dresses and quickly found that there was none less than $100. There was NO WAY I was going to spend that much money on a tiny little fits-around-my-arm dress. There's just no way.

Anyhow, Cate and my wonderful husband convinced me that I could use my sewing abilities to sew Taylor a dress. I was leery at first. And all along the way, really. But, turns out that I may have a knack for this. Check out the dress I made! I really am very impressed with myself! ;) I think the total amount I spent was probably around $20. I spent more than that on her shoes!





I am really unsure of how Taylor will do at the actual ceremony. I will be praying that she just walks down the aisle normally and doesn't do anything embarrassing, but nonetheless, I know she will look adorable!

A Day at the Gym

Yes, Taylor Joy went to the gym. We figured she needed to work off those tiny little rolls on her tummy.

Just kidding!

We went to Dallas this weekend with the Youth Leaders for their camp and they had some team building exercises at a gymnastics place in Garland, so we joined them. Taylor really enjoyed herself there. Check out the pictures!

Taylor Joy and Daddy



Taylor Joy jumping on the tramp (which was really just bending her legs a little bit...just about the same thing as when she "dances")








Some sweet girls that I just wanted to slip in here...



The progression of slide events that went down...





This girl had such a long day...it was definitely time for a nap...

A Little Pooch

Here's my baby belly since people have been interested in seeing it. As you can see, it's HUGE! Haha! Just kidding. I was only sticking it out a little bit but not too much...not enough to make a difference. 16 (1/2) weeks down, 23 (1/2) to go! I can't believe I'm almost halfway there!

A Duty Recap

What are we DOING with our summer??? Here's the answer in pictures!



Swimming...LOTS! The whole family enjoys it...especially when it's HOT HOT HOT like it has been the past couple of days.




Playing with that sweet girl. She is stinkin' hilarious and keeps us rolling with things that she says and does.

Yesterday morning I had to wake her up for church and she wasn't the happiest so I sat and rocked her for a minute. Well, while we were rocking I sneezed and tried to go back to rocking her, but oh no! She laid there and went "a-shoo!" repeating me and giggling and then looked up at me with the biggest, sweetest smile! I just had to laugh.




Did I mention how BIG our girl is getting?



Playing with fire...



Watchout! We can get pretty crazy after the baby goes to bed!

Doggy Love

Yes, as you can see she was showing Angel some love, but was unsure when it actually happened. I'm quite sure you will either think this is the cutest ever or the grossest ever. Enjoy either way!

Going Green!

Allen brought home a new book a couple of months ago with the title, "Serve God, Save the Planet." I was a little skeptical at first I guess because I figured the author was probably one of those tree hugger types and it would make me feel bad to even read the book because we are so far from that. I can't say there's not the tiniest bit of truth in that statement...but not enough to keep me from recommending this book.

The author's name is J.Matthew Sleeth and he comes from the perspective of a doctor that used to work in the E.R. and started seeing some medical conditions actually caused by environmental issues. I didn't even know this existed besides like asthma or allergies. Although that's not the main tenant of the book, his background does set the stage for what he set out to discover.

He simply and eloquently shows scriptural evidence for why we should be better stewards of our planet and gives basic steps in how to do it. I appreciated the book because he comes from the perspective of one who used to live in a huge house and accumulate huge masses of trash to now one who lives in a house that is the size of his former garage and his family only produces one plastic grocery bag of trash a week!

He doesn't look down on those that live the way he used to, he just gives simple, everyday steps to becoming more green, like: running the dishwasher only when full and without a heated dry, running the dryer as little as possible and line drying when the weather is nice, conserving gas by combining trips, cooking two casseroles at once, recycling, using less paper (plates, napkins, cups), buying things with less packaging, etc.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from the book.

He talked about the changes they made in their home and commented,

"Because of these changes, we have more time for God. Spiritual concerns have filled the void left by material ones. Owning fewer things has resulted in things no longer owning us. We have put God to the test, and we have found his Word to be true. He has poured blessings and opportunities upon us. When we stopped living a life dedicated to consumerism, our cup began to run over. We have seen miracles."

The workbook is available online at: Workbook

The website is: Serve God, Save the Planet

A Way to Serve

For the Bryan/College Stationites/Living Hopers who read this blog, here's a great opportunity:

Host families are still needed for the Athletes in Action Women's Basketball girls who are coming in town for training. I spoke with Jenn Jones and she said they are still in need of 5 or 6 homes for girls.

If you have a bed they can sleep in, you are qualified! All you have to provide is a bed, somewhere to wash clothes, and meals.

These girls are training so that they can travel to Taiwan and serve on missions projects there. This is a great way to show hospitality to those in the body.

"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:13

If you are interested the dates are July 1-8 and let me know so I can get you Jenn's number. Thank you for serving our body so faithfully!

A Taylor Joy Update

Since this is what most of you wait for anyway, here goes...

Taylor thinks laughing is the MOST fun...she seriously just "ha ha's and ho ho's" all day long. It is her favorite thing to do and it's really hilarious.

She is also attempting so many words and sounds. She tries to say Taylor and she says, "tay tay". She also tries to roar like a lion and baa like a lamb among other things.

Yesterday she put her hand on my Bible and clear as day said, "bible." I was pretty floored but excited that she knows what it is!

This girl LOVES books! I seriously read books to her all day and if you ever come over that's all you have to do to keep her entertained. She loves them and walks around with her books saying, "booh booh!" No "k" at the end, which is the case with many of her words.

We have had some issues with fits and tantrums and even hitting but just have to trust that we are doing the right thing for her by discipling that kind of behavior and selfishness. Afterwards I hug her and tell her that I love her and that's why I discipline her. The Bible says that, "The Lord disciplines those He loves" and I repeat that to her too. I know she's young, but she definitely knows better and knows she's done something wrong after it happens. It really doesn't happen often, but she has her days for sure.

Another of her most favorite things to do is push her baby stroller around the house. It is a funny sight to see! She readjusts baby every couple of seconds and baby gets tossed in on her head, upside down, backwards, you name it! Thanks to Anika and Ariana for such a great gift! She loves it!

We are approaching 13 months! What a big girl! She is so much fun!

Worth a Listen...

New Attitude Conference Sermons

These are definitely worth a listen. I've had a chance to listen to a few and so far they have been AMAZING! They are from the Sovereign Grace Ministries' New Attitude conference with speakers like Josh Harris, John Piper, Mark Dever, etc.

I also have one by C.J. Mahaney called, "The Soul of Modesty" that I bought if anyone wants a copy or to borrow my ipod for a day. It addresses some things that will benefit anyone: husbands, wives, the modest, the immodest, the "I think I'm being modest, but I'm not sure", the friends of those who may need some help, and everyone in between.

Please let me know!

While I am recommending these resources, they have a children's CD that is so precious! I downloaded it for Taylor and they are her favorite songs with SUCH great messages. Your children will really enjoy them!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I seriously can't believe we've been married for three years! In a sense it feels like it has flown by and we've done WAY too much stuff to have crammed it all into three years...in another sense I feel we know each other in a way that we should be having our 10 year anniversary! Marriage is crazy like that!

Listen to all the stuff we've done...

Getting married, 6 week hunniemoon (yep! our jobs hadn't started yet!), moving to NC, creating a new life together, new jobs, church hopping, trying to find couple friends, buying a house, only living there for 6 months before we moved back to C.S., coming home to our church family at Living Hope, being close to family, having a baby girl, going back to seminary, doing a million things at once, finding out baby #2 is on the way, our princess turning one... isn't this too much to cram into 3 years!?! (and I left a lot out...)

Life is so much fun when we're together.

I tell people who are engaged this all the time (not to scare them!) but, compared to the way I know you now, I might as well have been walking down the aisle to a stranger! And we had known each other for 4 years!

Walking with you through life is fun, wonderful, sweet, organized, sometimes spontaneous, and always hilarious...it's simply AMAZING!

I love you way more today than over 5 years ago when we started dating...I love you tons more than the day we got married 3 years ago...and I love you more today than yesterday. Everyday with you is my fairy tale.

I love you, boo bear!