Fall Festivities, Pumpkins and Princesses...

...and a sweet prince who is such a blessing!

To say we have been busy would be an understatement. :) We are CRAZY busy and I admit at some point I would like for the busyness to stop. Don't get me wrong, it's a good, fun busy. But I realized something in my quiet time recently that has me wondering.....if i am so busy all the time and have all these activities and errands to run all the time, how am I showing my kids that I cherish them. How about my husband and even Father God??

So my goal for November is to slow down. Spend more time in my PJ's with my kids and my hubby. Worship Him more. Pray more. Eat more table meals together. Enjoy Gods creations more. Love Him more. Teach the kids about His love more. Plant more seeds. How about you? Whats your goal for November??

Well since we were busy this month....by the way, where did October go?? Here are some pictures of our busyness:

So here's the list of many of the things we did this month:

1. Elijah turns 11 months

2. Barnyard Bash at Danielle's school

3. Park Day with Gumma and Poppop and new wagon!!

4. Disney Princesses on Ice-mommy took all 3 kiddos by herself! Go mommy! :)

5. Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch w/ daddy this year( Kevin has only been to the pumpkin patch 1 time other then this year due to his work schedule! This is exciting!)

There were many other slightly unimportant things but we didn't get pictures and it would make this post even LONGER!! LOL

Hope you enjoy!

Be Blessed,

"How He loves US!"

If it seems like I have been absent from our blog, I have. The Lord has brought us into a season of life that has us really thinking about the "earthly things".....people, relationships, personal belongings, behaviors and how much we really grasp how temporary they all are here on this earth. We have been reminded that we are to live for HIM and LIKE Him.

I have been struggling with this concept. There have been and are still "things" in my life and my families lives that are not producing fruit. The Lord has been slowly making me aware of these "things". Its hard to let go of things that you care about so much but in order for my life to bear fruit, it is sadly necessary.

Jesus said in John 15:1-5

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardner. He cuts off every branch in me the bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit if you don't remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.

We are praying as we are going through this time that everyone can agree with us in prayer that we will "remain in Him" so we can be "fruitful". Not just within our family life but in sharing our lives with people. WE want to be fruitful in our church and in relationships with others and when we see that certain relationships and things in our life are not bearing good fruit we have to allow Father God to prune that area so we can remain in the vine.

There is a song that I have just been in love with since I heard it at church that is AWESOME! If you have ever heard it you know how awesome it is. During this song I always feel the Holy spirit telling me that this pruning is being done because He LOVES ME! Just like I love my kids and would keep them from things that would be bad for them He has been doing the same for me! Oh how He must LOVE me to do this for me!

(See video above for the song)

On another note: The kids all have had croup this week so we have all been laying low. We did enjoy the park with some great friends so hopefully we are all on our way to being healthy!!

Have a blessed day,

First steps...

Good Evening Family and friends,

Eli has decided to follow in his sisters foot steps and walk before his first birthday! He is all over the place tonight! Over the past week or so he has been taking 2-3 steps and falling and tonight he has figured out that if he pauses he can walk across our living room! Wow...at 10 months old he is now OFFICIALLY mobile! Watch out world, here he comes!!

If you wanna see cuteness, please proceed! :)

Today I decided that 1 year without having an actual portrait taken was silly!! So I took my babies over to Portrait Innovations in Mount Pleasant to have some pictures taken! Elijah has NEVER been photographed in a studio! Miss Sally has always blessed us with on location photo shoots!! :) So Elijah was a little unsure about the whole idea...maybe by the time he has his 1 year old pictures taken he will be a little more smiley! The poor photographer really had to work to get what she did today! This was also taking care of Rylie's 3 year old pictures too! :) She was a HAM!! She kept doing all of these crazy smiles that were cute but not nice looking! LOL

Hope you enjoyed the cuteness!! Have a blessed evening!!

~*~ Love, God~*~

On an earlier post I mentioned I would share the definition of love as given by the family pastor at our church.The Marriage Foundations class is the perfect place to share it! A room full of couples who either want to experience real love with their mate and God or who want to be reminded of how to show that love and be able to receive that love from each other and God. So since now is the first time I have been cohering enough to think since my surgery, here it goes.....

"LOVE: Love is the opening of yourself and bringing someone else into your world for their benefit."

One example of this is from the Almighty, Father God. John 3:16 is a PERFECT example of this.

God so LOVED us that he (opened himself and brought us in through his son Jesus)that he gave His one and only son(for our benefit) so we would not die but have ETERNAL life with HIM! WOW!! If this is How God expects us to love someone I don't know about you, but I know I have a little bit of work to do in the area of loving people.

So my goal for the next 10 weeks is to work on showing this kind of love to my husband and all others I claim to love! Obviously this is not something you would only do for 10 weeks. But to acknowledge that God loves you this way and calls us to love others this way makes me want to learn more about it! It makes me want to share more about it!

Have a blessed day!

Elijah {10 months}

On September 3rd my little man turned 10 months old! Its hard to believe that 10 months has already gone by and in 2 short months he will be 1. My sweet boy has grown so much! In the past month Eli has accomplished some really fun stuff! Check out what this little man can do now...

Eli has accomplished standing on his own:

When Eli found this walking toy he figured out that if he stood up and held onto it he could walk with it too:

When we tell Eli to "cheese" this is the face he makes(and yes we have teeth now...3 of them and we are still working on 3 more) :)

He LOVES to play ball now. It is so cute! He gets so excited and moves his arms and legs so fast up and down!

And last but not least.....Daddy taught Eli and Rylie how to play the DRUMS!!! So we have a regular praise and worship band playing in our house! Its really entertaining as long as you have no phone calls to make or napping to do! :)

In 2 short months our baby Eli will be one year old! Since I am an uber planner I have already started planning Elijah's first Birthday party...it's gonna be "Dog-Gone Cute"!! (hint , hint. Can you tell what the theme is gonna be?? Be sure to check back and see as I will be posting posts on making the decorations and invites all on my own!! )

Also, Kevin and I have started volunteering in the marriage ministry at our church. It is a FABULOUS ministry and has saved many marriages from divorce and also brought many other couples closer to each other and GOD!! Last night we had a great first class and the Pastor in charge of this ministry gave a definition of LOVE. It ALWAYS reminds me that if I really LOVE someone this is how I SHOULD do it. Just a side note though...its not a biblical definition from 1 Corinthians 13 ;) or a Websters definition. Check in here in a few days to see what it was!! I'm excited to share! :)

Have a blessed week!

Parenting God's way!! :)

"Behold, Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." -Psalms 127: 3

When I became a mommy 7 1/2 years ago, I never knew that it was part of Gods plan for my life. I just figured I had become pregnant because I was being irresponsible. However, the birth of my daughter changed my perspective on my life and made me realize the LOVE that God has for me. Being a parent was much more than giving birth and taking care of every minute needs of a infant. It was much more. I was to nurture her tiny spirit. Raise her up in Gods instruction. But what did that mean? It was like as soon as she was born God spoke to me and said " I love you just as you love her and more!"

So, now whenever I have a question on how I should raise my children I go to the Man who created parenting and ALWAYS does it PERFECTLY....Father God.

In my quest to become a better parent, mother, friend and role model for our children I have started really searching the Bible, my heart and through prayer, our Father. I learned a few things and I am still learning but the biggest thing I have learned that applies not only to parenting but to life is that we WILL make mistakes. NO parent is perfect.

Whew! That was a huge relief. :) My biggest fear of being a parent was "messing" my kids up by doing it wrong. Thankfully God knew we would make mistakes and he created children to be very forgiving of us as long as we ask for it.

So here are some other things I have learned:

1. Discipline is mandatory. Not in the way that the child is ALWAYS in "trouble" but in the way that you are training their heart to make the right choices. Easier said then done. check out this book for Creative correction ideas! Its a GREAT book for training the heart! http://family.christianbook.com/creative-correction-extraordinary-ideas-everyday-discipline/lisa-whelchel/9781589971288/pd/971280?p=1143702&event=ORC
2. Teaching them Gods Word daily. We have decided that we would teach the kids one Bible verse a week and have them "live it out". This has been FUN!! It also gives us a chance to do the same. We started with John 3:16 and even though we taught them this verse 3 weeks ago I still hear Rylie teaching it to her babies. Sweet rewards! :) You can find where God commands this in Deuteronomy 6:5-9! We have fun with this! We make up songs, color pictures of what they think the bible verse means and at dinner we talk about how they can show somebody or teach one of their friends about God! :)
3. Teach them to pray. I always thought you kinda just learned that on your own....nope. So, we are still working on this with Danielle and Rylie. We also have been praying as a family. Children learn what they live. If they see us doing it not just for ourselves but for others they too will do it. There is nothing sweeter then seeing my girls pray for people in accident on the side of the road. Or for a friend in her class that has ADHD and gets in trouble all day. Or for animals, family members and other little children. (2 Timothy 3:15-17)

These are just a few of the things we have learned so we thought we would share. We know that we were chosen by God to be the parents of these precious children on earth {even when we are up at 2 am with screaming teething babies, in the middle of taming a tantrum, or explaining why stealing is not ok while totally embarrassed in the middle of a grocery store} and prepare them for eternity with HIM! So join us on our journey to be the parents God intended us to be! Not perfect, just real!

Have a blessed day!!