A Christmas Eve Milestone...

She rolled over! Both Mommy & Daddy were watching, so that was cool. I kept trying to get her t0 do it on video; but she only will if the video is not playing. Silly girl!

My 100th post and a Merry Christmas song

Kinda cheesy, but I actually enjoyed this music...

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

I don't get no satisfaction

All the women who read this blog will probably understand what I'm about to say easier than the men. Not trying to be stereotypical or anything, but it's a plain fact of life that men & women are very different in pretty much every way.

For those men reading who don't "get it," :) women are 99% emotional creatures. We crave the relational response, and when we don't have that in our lives, we feel empty, lost, frustrated, etc. Typically when a woman says "I don't even know why I'm crying (hurt, upset, depressed, etc)," that's what she's talking about. There's an emotional hole that is empty somewhere.

So yesterday, I found myself irritable all day. Nothing I could really put my finger on, it was just plain "yuck." Add that to the discovery that we had no hot water, so I couldn't take a shower, and my kids who hadn't had a bath since Wednesday night couldn't get clean either. So I can't do dishes, laundry, the list goes on and on. You name it, it aggravated me!

Now Marc has been super busy with work this last week due to the holidays. We haven't had a "real" conversation in about a week or so. After we did some rushing around getting dinner out & last minute stuff, we found ourselves home with the kids in bed & a little bit of free time. He was having some rare time to himself at the computer, and I made the comment, "How long are you going to be doing that? I'm emotionally starving over here!"

Now I wasn't totally serious, and we had a good chuckle...then we settled down to have some good conversation. The only problem for me, was, I was getting the emotional attention I craved, but still feeling like there was something I just couldn't put my finger on. I was enjoying our chat, but it just didn't satisfy me. (Poor husbands....they have it so hard. I mean, if I couldn't even figure it out, how is he supposed to figure it out?)

That's when I heard that still, small voice in my ear: "You're not satisfied because only I can give you what you need right now." It was so profound that I made the comment to Marc, "I think I just need to have a good chat with God instead." Later on, as I was having some quiet time, I came across this passage of Scripture:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live....Isaiah 55:1-3

Satisfaction. I had never before really understood this passage, though I've read it many times. "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters..." "Listen, listen to me..." "Hear me, that your soul may live..."

Come and get your satisfaction. It never disappoints.

The Uncles of Nashville

We took a quick trip this weekend to see my brothers in Nashville. We had such a nice time; I wish we could have stayed longer! We got to eat yummy Italian food at their restaurant, see the lights at the Opry Hotel (from a distance, anyway), visit the Opry Mills Mall (to replace the jacket we both forget to bring for Zachary), pet the sting-rays (or whatever you do to sting-rays), & cheer on the Steelers at the Steelers/Titans game (John & Marc from the stands, the rest of us from our nice warm home). Of course, my camera batteries died, so I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few.


Zachary explaining the life cycle of a tree to Johnny.

Not the best picture, but the only one of Mikey and the kids. Uncle Mikey's sleeping bag was the favorite this weekend...

She just loved her Uncle Johnny...talked to him like crazy!

Can't wait to see them again soon!

Marc's parents come to visit

Alternately titled "Let's go do something crazy like drive up the mountain for 90 minutes only to discover that Clingman's Dome is closed for the winter." (but we still had a crazy-good time!!)

The snow was beautiful up on the mountain, especially during our drive. I wish it would have been safe enough to get out & take pictures on our way up at all the snow & ice on the trees...so beautiful!

Nana & Kenna enjoying a snuggle & trying to stay warm!


Zachary kicking snow around. He had SO much fun!

Back at the house. It's always a challenge to get them to smile at the same time!

Kenna just talking away to her Papa.

We had such a sweet visit with them! We are so glad we live close enough to do this now.

Random pictures

Here is Nana & Kenna enjoying her first carousel ride (with help):


Zachary's first bowling experience (see the orange gutter ball way back there!):



My friend caught Zachary getting our little lady all ready for a night on the town. Just a little too young for lipstick, I think!

Christmas card wanna-bes...

This year, I decided to go with one of those multi-image Christmas cards. Here's why:

The second to last one was the best of them, but didn't really show off my beautiful little girl like I wanted. Christmas picture taking is definitely an exercise in futility.

Restaurant.com discount

Just wanted to pass along a link from Coupon Cravings about an 80% discount on gift certificates from Restaurant.com through Christmas Day.

I bought 2-$25 gift certificates to restaurants in town a few months ago, that's $50 worth, for $4.00. I haven't had a chance to redeem them yet with the baby & everything, but they're good for a year.

Restaurant.com has participating restaurants in all parts of the country. Just be careful to check the restrictions on your gift certificates before you purchase; for a $25 gift certificate, you usually have to purchase $35 worth & it doesn't include tax, drinks, etc. Still worth it for me, especially now that Z is eating so much! And I don't like to share. :)

Think before you speak, I mean, write...

I was reflecting last night about my "i know that you know" post.

And I just want to give a retraction. My desire for my siblings to marry & have babies was purely selfish & just so my kids could have someone to play with when we visit family. No pushiness here. I certainly don't want anyone to marry the wrong person, or settle when there could be someone really awesome out there, or get married just because. Didn't want anyone to think otherwise.

So, I'm happy with the family situation as it is (but will certainly welcome anyone who is welcome by said siblings). Peace out.

I know that you know that I know that you know you've always wanted to know these things about me.

• I still hear these "phantom cries" in the night sometimes. It must be that with all the crying & screaming I heard from Kenna in her first 11 weeks, my brain just hasn't gotten over it. I just got up from the computer to be sure she really wasn't crying.
• When I eat a packet of fruit snacks, I always eat them in the same order. Yellow, orange, red, and then purple. If any color is missing, I skip it & go to the next color in the list. I'm not sure if this qualifies me for some psycho award...?
• Deep down I have a weakness for school supplies.
• My new favorite vegetable is baby lima beans. I could eat a whole package by myself, and indeed, I almost did tonight. Shamelessly.
• I'm totally procrastinating on the Christmas cards right now. All the other delays up to this point were valid (i.e. printer issues, etc), but this one is just. plain. procrastination.
• I have never felt so alive & free in my entire life. As Martha would say, "It's a good thing."
• I'm ready for one of my 5 other siblings to get married & have some cousins for Z & K. Well, Katie, you'd better wait a few more years. :) But the rest of you...
• I'm learning a lot about prayer right now. And about the God who answers it. He is amazing.

O Christmas Cards

Hum along....

O Christmas cards, O Christmas cards
How I dread the thought of you
O Christmas cards, O Christmas cards
And yet I love to get them, too

It seems to take so extra long
Now I have to sing this song

O Christmas cards, O Christmas cards.....
I guess I'll send you out again!

All He wants for Christmas

All He wants for Christmas....is us. Our hearts, pure and unashamed. Consider this post:

"As I have thought about what present I want to give Jesus this year for His birthday, I have thought that perhaps He would be pleased with love from my heart. But not just love for Him, but generous, spilling over, lavish love shown to all precious people he has brought into my life. I have resolved to love those who don't especially love me. I want to send special notes of love to those I appreciate. I want to cover any tension in my family this Christmas with love and grace--for the sake of my great appreciation for His unconditional love......

"But love, unconditional love, that says, "No matter what, I am committed to you. I will love you. I will be loyal to you. I will accept you and I will be generous to you, not because you deserve it, but because I didn't deserve it and Jesus still loved me. I will love you for His sake. I will love you because His spirit fills me and when I am obedient to Him, I must love."
So, this Christmas, let us please Him. Let us forgive those who have wronged us. Let us put aside bitterness and malice and choose love. Let us cover over the flaws of those in our lives with His love, because it is the best gift we have to offer him." Read the rest here....

I have been living some hard, deep things right now. Pondering them in my heart as Mary did. They are for me to know and for you probably never to find out. But they are making the real me richer and better off for having experienced them....

Is something wrong with this picture?

At the corner of my desk right now are a few papers that Z has brought home from Sunday school the last few weeks. I've been saving them because they have some neat ideas on the back of how to continue teaching what he's learned the previous Sunday...but because we've been traveling, I haven't gotten to look at them lately.

So this is the paragraph I just read:

"Remember the story of Jesus' birth by making "babies" in swaddling clothes. Remind your child to wash his or her hands. Open a can of breadstick dough, and have your child pull the breadsticks apart. Help your child wrap a hot dog in each portion of the dough, leaving the top of the hot dog unwrapped as the baby's head. Bake according to the package directions. Say a prayer of thanks with your child, and enjoy the snacks."

Does anyone else see anything weird about this? Maybe it's just the picture of the hotdog/breadstick on the page in front of me, or maybe it's the mental picture of trying to tell my 3 year old (who thinks he knows everything anyway) that we're going to pretend that this hotdog is a baby and the bread is the swaddling clothes.

Then we're going to eat the baby? I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. As I type this, I'm laughing so hard at this ridiculous idea that I keep having to backspace to correct all my typos.

Should I draw a face on the hotdog before I eat it, or would that be going a bit too far? :)

I just love randomness.

Ok, here goes!

• Zachary's new favorite cereal is Post Alpha-bits. Do you remember those? I haven't been able to find them for a long time, then, all of a sudden, they show up on the shelf at Wal-mart. He hasn't eaten anything else for breakfast since I bought them.
• There's nothing better than a cookie swap.
• My itunes just went from playing an AC/DC song to playing a worship song. I was thinking, "is this my music?" Guess the spousola added some music of his own!
• My new favorite blog is www.themikefoss.com. Check it out when you have some time. Yes, it is a little political, so be forewarned. This is my blog, after all, so you get to read what I want to write about. :)
• I just realized that our neighbor has been "borrowing" electricity from us for the last 35 days. We agreed to let him plug an extension cord into a plug outside a month ago...he told me (rather mumbled) something about the power company needing to come check something so his power would be out & could he plug this cord in to check the lights in his house? Now that I realize what has happened it all makes sense, and I feel really foolish. He's been borrowing my phone every few days for the last month; you'd think I would have noticed. I guess he's moving out tomorrow, so there's not much to be done. But my power bill doubled from last month. (swallowing hard) I guess the Lord is teaching me about having a generous spirit. And if that's the case, I can trust him to provide for us.
• I mean, I know I can trust Him to provide for us no matter what, not just to teach me to have a generous spirit. Well, anyway...
• My itunes just shuffled to a song by Hillsongs...the first line says "I will bless the Lord forever, and I will trust Him at all times." Is this You speaking, Lord? ha ha, talk about randomness!
• Ok, so I just have to post some of the lyrics from the rest of that song: "You are my Shield, my Strength, my Portion, Deliverer, my Shelter, Strong Tower, my Very Present Help in Time of Need." (copyright: Hillsong Publishing)
• Ah. He has made me glad.

Sometimes I forget

Sometimes I forget...how AWEsome our Christ is. I was reading this passage from Revelation chapter 1:

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."

Now, I'm not sure about you, but when I read this description of my Savior--I mean, really read it--I was blown away by the thought of Him. And next came the thought, "He loves me? No way."

Yes way.

Quiet time.

I feel I've been a bit quiet in the blogging world lately. I've been pondering a lot of things in my life. One of which is the amount of personal information I share on my blog.

More than anything, I want my life to be transparent. In the sense that I am honest about my failings as well as my accomplishments & blessings--not to show any sense of false humility, but to draw others to Christ by showing that I need Him so much. But I also feel that I have a problem sometimes with blabbing too much to too many people, to the point where I start overdoing it. Is there a point when you can be too real with others? I think there is, but am not sure where to draw that line. Especially because I originally planned this blog to be more of a "family & friends" website where people can find out what is going on in our family and all the cute things our kids are saying & doing.

Anyway...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm sitting back for awhile. Looking deeper into my heart to see what it is the Lord may or may not want me to share, instead of sitting down to the keyboard & (pardon the gross-ness but I just couldn't think of another term) "throwing up" my junk all over everyone who reads it.

I'm not sure what that means for this blog, but I guess we'll find out together.

Quick thinking.

Last week, Marc & I took the kids Christmas shopping. It ended up being one of those nights where you look at each other & say "What were we thinking?" :) It was past dinnertime so we decided to stop at Taco Bell to grab a quick bite to eat.

TB is one of our favorite places to eat as a family. Cheap, a little bit healthier than french fries & burgers, and did I mention cheap? Z is pretty familiar with the menu, but he always gets one of two things there off the less-than-a-dollar menu.

So it totally cracked us up when we all walked into the restaurant. Z walks up to the counter and before we could say anything, tells the cashier, "I need a large combo!" It was so cute...of course, he charmed everyone behind the counter!

In "Kenna news," I don't think I've mentioned here how things have changed drastically in the last 2 weeks. For the Better. (insert "Hallelujah Chorus" here) One day, she just woke up & decided to be happy. She doesn't cry all day & half the night like she did for the first 11 weeks of her life. She's started sleeping almost through the night...I can easily get her to sleep for 6 hrs at a time. On Saturday night, she slept 9 hrs straight!

Now I know this probably doesn't seem exciting to any of you, but for me....well, I feel like my whole world has opened up wide again. Possibilities await me. Free time abounds. Well, not quite! but you get the picture! She is a happy girl, smiling all the time, "talking" to us regularly, and today, she laughed for the first time! I can't even tell you how much joy she brings to us...she is such a miracle!

Mommy love, part 2

Well, hubby love, too! Aren't they adorable?

Yesterday was a little frustrating for me. I was trying to get so much done, since I was out of town & had tons to put away & get settled in the house. Zachary was still missing his dad (who was at work) and just needing some extra attention that I was not giving. He kept pestering me, testing me, you name it, just to get my attention, which I wasn't willing to give at the moment.

My boy's love language is quality time. He just wanted to be with me. He finally got through to me when he said, "But Mom, I need you."

I'm so grateful that my heavenly Father doesn't wait until I'm exasperated and frustrated to come to me when I need Him. I think that being a parent is more about God teaching me how much I need Him and how much I don't know what I'm doing than it is actually raising my kids. The more I realize I need Him for everything, the more I can train my children to depend on Him for everything in their lives.

And after all, isn't that what they really need? When all is said & done, I don't want my kids to think that it all ends with Mom, but with Jesus.

Mommy love, part 1

The kids & I shared a room with my sister this week while we visited in Dothan. (Thanks, Katie!) It was a big room, so that wasn't a big deal. As a matter of fact, Zachary slept on a pallet in Katie's closet! He had a blast...

Anyway, one night my sis & I were reading before bed. I got ready to turn the light out about 11 pm, late for me. Something happened, I'm still not sure what, but somehow I completely knocked her lamp over. A really pretty, pink, ceramic, LOUD lamp. Which subsequently woke up my peacefully sleeping daughter. (who, by the way, has been sleeping 6-7 hrs at a time for the last week--Thank You, Lord!!)

I was initially really aggravated; being really tired myself, I just wasn't in the mood to feed her or rock her or anything. But you know, also being a Mom and having no choice, I did it anyway. :) As I nursed her and held her close, I just had one of those moments. You know, those moments as a mom where time stands still for just a second. And you realize, this moment is only just that....a moment.

I sat there holding her, wishing that I could somehow freeze this moment in time. Somehow immortalize it. Maybe even get it bronzed? Is that weird?

And then I thought of my mom, and how she tells me to cherish every moment, because it goes by so quickly. I think back over the last 3 years & realize I have no idea where the time went with Zachary. And how quickly the next 3 years will go with Kenna.....I'm not ready. I want time to stand still, to hold her as a baby forever. As long as she's sleeping through the night, anyway. :)