Big Girl Ella

I have moved Ella from her high chair to a booster seat at the table. Man oh man does she think that she's big stuff. She loves to eat so much more now as she is at the table and she feeds herself. I must say that she is by far the messiest eater of the family. Even the boys were not this messy. She will have food all over her hands and then will run her hands through her hair, all down her clothes, and wherever she can for that matter. But she is sure cute in the process!

Check her out! Oh, and don't try to help her eat. She can do it herself! ;-) LOL! My baby is growing up way too fast.

My precious boys!!

If there's one thing I can say about having boys. . . there is a lot of energy in the house ALL the time. Man, I wish I had a 10th of their energy! As I look at these sweet faces, I can't help but be thankful for the joy that they are. You can look into their eyes in these pictures and see that they are innocent, happy children! I hope to protect this innocence as long as I can.

A quick story about Reid. Our dear friends, Rachel and Trev are expecting their very first baby!!!! They just found out this week what they are having. What does Reid have to do with this? Well, my other dear friend Jeffie had just had her 2nd baby back at the end of September. One night in October, Reid was praying before bed, he prayed for baby Sam and then he prayed that God would protect the baby in Mrs. Rachel's belly. When he finished, I told him that Mrs. Rachel didn't have a baby in her belly. "Yes, she does Mommy!" Let's just say that even Rachel didn't know that she was pregnant. But apparantely, she was, but it would have been way too early to tell. When I asked Reid what she was having, he told me a girl! Well folks...guess what she found out this week? That she is having a girl! I might have a little prophet on my hands. This is the 2nd time that he has prayed for a baby in a belly and he seemed to know the sex of the baby! Crazy, huh?

And another story about Reid. If you don't know my mom...scroll down to see pictures of her. Friday at school, Reid has grandparents day. This is a special day that the children's grandparents come into their classes and spend 1/2 a day with them. They have worked hard to make special projects for them. I was telling Reid that Gran (my mom) was going to be there. He replied: "Well, mom that's fine, but it's going to be a bit tricky."
"Why's that?"
"Well, because my Grandma is supposed to come."
"Reid. . . Gran is your Grandma."
"Oh, ok...then that will be great that she's coming!"

The next day, he gets in the car and says: "Mom, if Gran is my Grandma . . . why isn't she old?"

I couldn't help but laugh. That was so cute. So, I had to explain to him that his Grandma might be younger than most, and that he was blessed to just have a beautiful Grandma! Too cute.

Malachi 3:3

I emailed this out to some of you, but I just had to post it. I really love what this says! He knows when I am refined when He can see me. If I would just keep this in mind, my refining process would sometimes be a little quicker. I have been on a major refining process the past 6 months. It has been painful and hard at times, but God has taught me so much. I am loving where I am with Him right now. Grant it, I still have a TON to learn.

Hope this encourages your heart as it did mine.

WOW! This is powerful!

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that He had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that He not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered,

"Oh, that's easy," "When I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

"Life is a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once."

D.L. Moody on Sovereign Grace

"You remember the Israelites used to gather the manna fresh every day: they were not allowed to store it up. There is a lesson here for us Christians. If we would be strong and vigorous, we must go to God daily and get grace. A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next six months; or take sufficient air into his lungs at once to sustain life for a week to come. We must draw upon God's boundless stores of grace from day to day, as we need it."

Sovereign Grace

My beautiful Mother....

I don't care what they say....She is beautiful! Ok....like anyone has ever said anything different.

We went to my mom's house over the weekend and I did a photoshoot of her doing all those Pilates moves! I also took some of her up close for her mug shot. Well, ok, they are for her upcoming website.

Anyway, I just had to share a couple so that you could all enjoy the beauty of my Mom. I know, I know...we look like we could be sisters...we hear it all the time! Hopefully this means I have good genes and I'll look this good in a few years!

When her website is ready, I'll be sure to let you all know. She will have all sorts of great information on health, pilates, working out etc. She is an excellent writer and a GREAT Pilates instructor. Can you tell that I am proud of her? Love you Mom!

A short visit with dear friends....

Over the weekend, we got to visit with some of our dear friends, Stephanie and her 2 darling children, Adeline and Adam. Last summer, God moved our sweet friends to San Marcus. It was really sad to see them go, but we all knew that God had a big plan for them. In just the short time that I had with Stephanie, it was evident that God has been using them in a BIG way down South. I must be honest though, I still secretly hope that they will get to move back here! My boys love their Adeline. They still pray for her every single night. We loved being able to spend a few hours with them on Friday. We hope to see them again soon.

I just wanted to share the pictures of the children from Friday.

Don't they just look so cute together?!!

I still can't get over how big Adam has gotten (he's the little guy by Cole)

I have to tell this story on Ella. I have been trying to take some pictures of her this week for her very late 18 months pictures and she won't have anything to do with it. She went from loving the camera to running from it. Well, as I was trying to take the pictures of these kiddos on Friday, she decided she was going to be front and center. The kids had lined up to get ready for the picture; however, Ella decided that she wanted to stand where Cole was standing...so she tugged on his shirt and yelled at him. He didn't move of course, so she went to plan B. She literally pushed him with all of her might. In the process, she actually pushed the whole line of kids down some which left enough room for her to slide in where she wanted to stand. At this point, she turned around, faced me and kept yelling "CHEESE" and giving the biggest smile she could. I must say that all the moms were laughing all the while telling me that I will have my hands full with her. She is truly a delight. My mom describes her as a child that grabs your heart! I love that little stinker!

Update on my writing

I have had many of you email me to ask me what is the latest with my writing. I thought I would just put a brief update on my blog for all to read.

In the Christian publishing industry, nothing moves fast. It is a really long process as each publisher will read your manuscript to ensure that they are only publishing things that align with their theology and morals. It is actually neat to know that if you are published by certain Christian publishers, your work is already deemed reputable because of this.

With that said, I'm actually not quite to that stage just yet. I have been working with a writing coach and editor on my Romans manuscript. I received my first Unit back from her a few weeks ago to find that there were quite a few grammar and formatting things that I needed to correct. No surprise there. But, she did send me an email that really encouraged me. She expressed in her email that she did feel that there was a need on the market for my study. She loved the fact that the study forces the reader/student to dig a bit deeper into the Scripture and start thinking for themselves. She felt as though it wasn't a study that told the reader what to think.

I have been taking a theology class from Reclaiming the Mind and last week, we studied about the various forms of theology that have saturated our postmodern culture.

RC Sproul stated: "We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization...We must have passion--indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti-intellectual spirit of the world."

The more I learn, the more I know in my heart that we, as Christians, need to understand why we believe what we believe. We need to not just base our beliefs on what our pastor preaches, what our parents told us growing up, or what authors of books or Bible studies tell us. We need to understand why we believe what we believe. We need to wake up our brains and embrace the Word of God so that we can incorporate the Holy Spirit into every area of our lives.

I really say all this to say that her email to me was quite encouraging as I have this deep passion in me to move forward in reaching as many as I can on some level to challenge them to dig deeper into Scripture and not let others tell them what or how to think.

My next step will be to clean up my manuscript with the advice she has lent me and then work on submitting to the various Christian publishers. I don't know where this will go, but God does. At least now, I can say that I have done my part and I have learned a WHOLE lot in the process. God has been faithful. Thanks for all the prayers and support and the patience!

Valentine's pictures

I know, I know...I haven't posted anything in forever. Once I got back from my Scrapbooking retreat, I was sick for almost 2 weeks. So, I am just now getting back into the swing of things. I thought that I would post a couple of pictures of the kiddos from Valentine's Day.