Tag!

I got tagged by Nikki! This is a photo tag game & I had to post my 4th picture out of my 4th picture file. This one will take you back...

This is a picture we took for Christmas the year Zachary was born...trying to get a nice one for our Christmas picture. This one didn't make it! But Z has such a cute look on his face, like "mom, get this hat off me!" I think Z was 4 or 5 weeks old here.

Well, no time to tag anyone else. Kenna is crying! Thanks, Nikki, for tagging me though...it was fun to look back at some old pictures!

Snow & sweetness

This was Zachary at 13 months enjoying one of the many big snowfalls we used to have. I have so many pictures of him enjoying the snow while we lived in IL.



Here he is this morning, enjoying the tiny tiny bit of snow on top of the car. (can you see it?) He's been asking about snow for a few months now and was so excited to touch it. Poor kid, we took him away from his snow playground!


And here's the sweetness. I came around the corner today to find them holding hands, with Kenna just looking at him like he was the greatest big brother in the world. Of course, that could be because he gave her cinnamon toast for breakfast this morning. You really can't leave him alone for a second with her--you never know what he's going to do!! Lesson learned....

Something to chew on

Check out this thoughtful post from my sister. Forgetting what is behind...

What a great reminder. I was just thinking about that the other day when I read the passage in Hebrews 11:32-12:3. Paul mentions all those heroes of faith, then says "in light of everything they've done, let us throw off everything that hinders..."

I've been really thinking about what that means for me, throwing off everything that is not Christ or does not point to Him. That is a lot of things for me. I mean, really, how many things in our lives don't glorify Him?

The New Living Translation of the Bible says in Hebrews 12:1 "...Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sins that so easily trip us up." This makes me think that it's not just sin that hinders our running free for Him; it is other things, the "cares of this life" that choke the Word that is trying to grow in the good soil of our hearts.

Sometimes it's not just bad things that hinder us, but the good things done in a wrong way. Like too much time on the Internet (my biggie), or reading too many novels & not enough of the Bible, or being lazy when we should be productive.

Something I'm dealing with right now is overeating. It's so easy for me to not think about what I'm putting into my body because I'm breastfeeding & starving all the time. I have so many extra calories I can take in because of that, but I'm not choosing the best calories. I felt the Lord gently speak this to me the other day. I mean, not only am I not glorifying Him with my body, a temple of His Spirit, but I could be losing those pregnancy pounds instead of just maintaining my weight.

Then in Hebrews 12:2 Paul says "We do this [running our race with endurance] by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."

I guess you could call it "food for thought." Ha! I'm feeling rather corny today. (wow, truly didn't mean that pun but it was funny nonetheless!)

Caught on camera

Some cute pictures of my little girl...

Here she is showing off how high she can lift her head up during tummy time:


Showing off her beautiful dress & cardigan sweater that she wore to church today: (I am having a blast dressing up a little girl!) oh, and tights, too! As a side note, I just have to say I am proud we made it through the whole service without spitting up or pooping on this dress...

Trying to get a sweet picture of the kids...didn't work out so well. She went from looking sweet in the picture above to telling us exactly how she felt!

And, drumroll please......she is finally smiling!!! I don't think I've mentioned this on my blog, but she's been smiling very selectively at Daddy only for the last 3 weeks. In the last 3 wks, I think I've received about 3 smiles from her; Daddy has gotten about 10 times that.

But the last 2 days, she has been smiling like crazy! And look at what a beautiful smile it is:

Plus I just love that purple headband! I promise her smile is even sweeter in person; it's so hard to catch on camera. There's nothing like these sweet babies when they smile back at you!

My day with 4

Yesterday I watched a friend's children for her...plus my own. I have to say, the day went so much better than I expected! (not that I didn't expect the children to be good, because they are all naturally good kids, but because I wasn't sure how I'd handle it)

All 4 kids are under the age of 4...the funny thing is, my friend figured out I could have actually given birth to all 4, how their ages worked out. That would be a bit crazy, I have to say!

This picture doesn't quite describe what I walked in on since I caught it too late, but here is Easton leading the other 2 kids in worship songs. It was super sweet! You can see Zachary is clapping his hands & when I walked in, Easton was directing them all with his hands...funny! It's so neat to see kids praising the Lord when you're not looking.


Yes, I actually had a chance to take pictures of my day. That tells you how well it went! Here they are having fun coloring. (well, I think they're actually having a serious discussion about which colors to use...)



Sweet Makenlee

Z-man

Easton...he was coloring his picture for his mom!

Did I mention I went to bed at 9 pm? :)

The Birthday Boy

Zachary's good friend Michael came over for a birthday playdate. I just didn't have it in me to have a birthday party, plus we really just forgot to plan something in enough time. But a playdate still counts, right? They decorated these birthday cupcakes & had a great time. I think they ate more sprinkles than they put on the cupcakes!


Blowing out his birthday candle. Again, showing my lack of planning, he is blowing out his "1" candle. He didn't seem to notice that it was a 1 instead of a 3! This was the first year he's really gotten into his birthday...he told everyone that day it was his birthday, even the people at the post office that morning! He had a blast blowing out the candle and asked us if he could do it again!

Showing off his new Barney DVD, Let's Play School. A bargain we found for $2 at an antique store. Marc hates Barney but I don't mind it...good thing I'm the one who has to see it all day! He is obsessed with school lately so this was a good choice for him.

He said "Diapers!" when he opened this gift. Poor kid, thought he was getting diapers for his birthday (a bummer anyway, but especially when you're potty-trained!)....

Oh, here it is! A Little People ferris wheel, courtesy of Duck Duck Goose. He's played with this toy at his grandparent's house & just loved it. I was glad to find it on sale.

He got a few other small things. The cutest part of it all was when I brought his wrapped presents downstairs...there were only 4 of them. He started passing them out to me & Marc like it was Christmas time! So sweet! You should have seen his face light up when Marc told him that all those presents were just for him....precious.

What is this world coming to?

....never thought I'd see the day when you can use your credit card to get a can of Coke from the machine.


(This was at the zoo, by the way)