nothin’ like a son

I have the cutest little boy!  He was an unexpected surprise.  I found out that I was pregnant when my 2nd daughter was only 9 months old.  I had never imagined my life with three kids, and now I can’t imagine my life without my little Matthew.  He is such a pleasant child who loves to smile.  He is the first one of my kids to remember “please”, “thank you” and “ma’me/sir” without constant prompting.  He really is the child that every mother dreams off.

My favorite time of day with him is at bedtime.  We just lay in bed singing songs and snuggling together.  When he puts his arm over my shoulders and begs for “just one more mommy”, i can’t resist.

I am so excited to see how God will use this little guy.  He is the blessing that I didn’t know I needed.  God is so good!

Vegas, baby!

Next week Michael and I are traveling to Las Vegas.  We are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  Neither of us have ever been there.  We have gotten lots of suggestions from friends and family of what to do while we are there.  We plan to visit the Grand Canyon while we are out there as well.  Tell me what is your favorite thing to do in Vegas.

slumber party doesn’t mean slumbering

Last night, my daughter and I hosted a Valentines Day sleepover for 7 of her friends.  We planned, cooked, cleaned, and prepared for this for a few weeks.  I have to admit, I loved slumber parties when I was growing up and I wanted Lauren to have some of the same great experiences.  All of her friends who attended were great.  They are still young enought that they didn’t try to sneek out, or have toothpaste/shave cream fight, or called boys or any of the other silly things that I know will come with other slumber parties!

It was so neat to see how they all interacted with each other.  When one girl got upset becuase her feelings were hurt, the others rallied around her and tried to make her feel better.  We did have quite a few “cheifs” in the group, but I learned that my daughter isn’t the only bossy one.

So after lots of pizza, chips, cookies, cupcakes, candy, popcorn, chocolate, movies, crafts, dress-up, games and a very late bedtime, I think they all had a great time. I am so proud of Lauren and the great girls that she has chosen for friends.  I am looking forward to many more fun times with my girls. And I am going to take a nap now!

Things i love about my husband

Well, Valentines Day is tomorrow and next week is my 10th wedding anniversary so I just wanted to brag on my Michael a little.

I love that….

he calls me “Sweetie” even in public

he is always reading books and learning about new things

he is passionate about Oak Leaf Church

he takes the kids to movies

he always has the best taste in clothes

he doesn’t expect me to be Martha Stewart or June Cleaver

he is a leader that many people follow and look up to

he encourages me to challenge myself and not take the easy way

he still plays his guitar and dances with the kids

he calls me alomost everyday to say hello

he unloads the dishwasher!!

he obeyed God and moved our family to Cartersville

I love you Michael and I have loved the past 10 years and I am looking forward to more adventures with you.

getting out of her comfort zone

Over the past several years, a theme that Michael and I have noticed in our lives is that God wants us to get out of our comfort zone to obey Him sometimes.  Obedience is not always easy but He blesses faithfulness.  I am always fascinated at the stories in the Bible where God calls people to get out of their comfort zone to obey God.  Ruth is one of those examples I have been studying about lately.

My journey group is studying the book of Ruth right now.  Last night we dove into it by discussing how hard it must have been for Ruth to leave everything she had known (culture, family, friends, religion, etc.) and follow her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and live life as a Isrealite.  I think a few factors influenced her decision.  Her new family she married into must have exhibited great faith in God.  She married into a family that worshiped the one true God and that had an impact on her.  Remember, she was a Moabite whose culture hated Jews and worshipped many gods.  Second, her mother-in-law, Naomi must have been more like a mentor than the dreaded mother-in-law.  I would hope to think that her loyalty to Naomi shows us that Naomi truly invested in her son’s and their wives’ spiritual well-being.  Lastly, God’s provision and protection of His people, the Isrealites, was well-known in the region and Ruth made her alliegance to the one true God of Isreal.

The story of God’s love for his people and his son Jesus, has many parts throughout the BIble, the book of Ruth is one piece of the whole picture, Ruth’s faithfulness was blessed in that she was a part of the lineage of David and also Jesus.

visiting santa

This past Sunday our neighborhood hosted “Cookies with Santa”. Since Michael and I didn’t really want to stand in line at the mall for 2 hours and then pay $30 for a crummy picture, we decided to take a chance on the neighborhood gig. Well, it was a great experience. We dressed the kids up, drove to the clubhouse and had a great time eating cookies and visiting with Santa. No lines, no waiting, free cookies! You can’t beat that. I hope they do this every year.

Lauren, Matthew and Emma

every wife’s dream

This past sunday, Michael did a message on parenting and how we are supposed to model good behavior in order to teach our kids. He used a book called “Have a New Kid by Friday” as a source for a lot of his points. I have read it and used a lot of the tips and wisdom from it. I recommend it to parents.
Anyway, it was a good message, but I told my friend Heather that “it must be every wife’s dream to hear a sermon on parenting techniques from her husband”! LOL

Overwhelmed

I have been blessed with many things. The Lord has given me more than I could ever need and want. I count some of my most precious blessings to be my friends here in Cartersville. I have never had the love, support and friendships like I have experienced here. Last night I thought I was pulling a fast one on my friend Carrie by surprising her with a baby shower while we were having a Girls’ Night Out at Olive Garden. When she got there I said surprise and then she looked confused and said the the surprise was on me. All the girls there were in on both secrets. Carrie didn’t have clue that I had planned the “baby shower” and I had no clue that she had been planning a “birthday dinner”. Needless to say I was just overwhelmed with gratitude and I didn’t know what to say. Thank you so much for the gifts and the night out. I Love you all!

Halloween

I must say that Halloween my become one of my favorite holidays.  My family had such a great time this past weekend.  I didn’t get to dress up much as a kid, but I think i am making up for it with my own.  We didn’t just have a Halloween night, we celebrated all day!  Emma and Lauren both wore their costumes to school and paraded around the place.  My mom flew up for the weekend and we had such fun.  We dressed up Matthew and took him to Emma’s party.  Later in the day we went downtown trick-or-treating and then back home for the traditional neighborhood run.  All three kids really got into it.  They even helped hand out candy and OLC invite cards to the other neighborhood kids.  We had a great time and we now have more candy than we could ever consume.  I don’t think I have laughed that much in months!

Here are my cuties

Emma as a china doll

Matthew as a pirate

Lauren as Hannah Montana

My Cuties

Just a few pictures from the summer.

Matthew

Emma

Lauren

Matthew swinging

Emma being cute

My big girl