He ate all of it, and didn't reject it, yet made these hilarious expressions! He would take a bite, and a few seconds would go by, then the faces! We enjoyed a good laugh! :)
Friday, September 13, 2013
The Many Faces of Gideon
This is what Gideon thinks of Hawaiian Delight Gerber baby food! Never mind the pink bib he is wearing, (it was the closest one handy at the time).
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Baby Dedication
We dedicated these miracles to the Lord on Sunday, June 9th, 2013 in front of our church family at FBC Mustang. God's faithfulness to us is shown in the lives of our precious children. We are so thankful God has gifted them to us, and it is our desire to raise them up for Him. May we be found faithful!
We chose Jason's verse a long time ago. We prayed a long time for him, and the Lord granted us the desire of our hearts. 1 Samuel 1:27- "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him."
We recently chose a verse for Gideon and Bethany. We were so amazed and humbled that God chose us to be the parents to twins. They are both precious miracles, and we thank God for them. Psalm 52:9- "For what You have done I will always praise You in the presence of Your faithful people. And I will hope in Your name, for Your name is good."
We recently chose a verse for Gideon and Bethany. We were so amazed and humbled that God chose us to be the parents to twins. They are both precious miracles, and we thank God for them. Psalm 52:9- "For what You have done I will always praise You in the presence of Your faithful people. And I will hope in Your name, for Your name is good."
The slideshow/program
These children, Lord, in faith and prayer,
We now present to Thee;
May they redemption's mercies share,
And true salvations see.
Such helpless ones didst Thou embrace,
While dwelling here below;
To us and ours, O God of grace,
The same compassion show.
In early days their hearts secure
From worldly snares, we pray;
O give them grace to persevere
In every righteous way.
Before them may their parents live
In godly faith and fear.
-Thomas Haweis
The dedication was supposed to take place several weeks prior, but the Lord had other plans. All of or children came down with the flu. We were able to try again on June 9th. Despite a blow out (on the one week I didn't bring an extra outfit for Bethany), a quick trip home, and somewhat cranky children, we were able to participate in the dedication service.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Date Night
We had a date night!! Last night! One of the many benefits of moving back to Texas will be all the family willing to watch our kids while we enjoy some dates. I bet you can't guess what we did...
Okay, so maybe you can guess! We are back in Texas, we have babysitters, AND we scored free tickets to a Rangers game. We were thinking our first date back would be dinner and a movie (we almost never go to a movie, like less than 10 in our over 6 years together...for realz!!).
Aaron's boss offered him his tickets for the game since he couldn't go, and of course we said yes. We ate Chick-fil-A on the way...YUMMY!! The traffic on the way there, not so awesome! It took nearly 2 hours to get there. But hey, we made it, and we had lots of time to talk in the car. So that's a plus! The first responders from the Moore, Oklahoma tornado were there to be honored, so that was really neat. It was free hat night at the ballpark (check out my camo Texas hat). I was all about getting the free hat! Aaron brought the other one back for his boss. Our seats were amazing!! So close! The Rangers won! After the game we hit the road home. Much better traffic! We grabbed some chocolate shakes...also yum! Then we arrived safely home, albeit late. And get this...no kids! Yep, they spent the night at the grandparents. I was able to sleep in a bit, and leisurely get ready this morning to go pick them up. I am so used to waking up and hitting the ground running. It was such a blessing to have a morning off. This morning would have been a great time to be a coffee drinker. I could have sat in my pj's and sipped my coffee while reading the news...HA! That wasn't happening! No coffee for me. I gulped my water down as usual! But still!!
So here's to more awesome dates with the one I love more than anyone else on earth!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
TEXAS At Last!
Well, we are here, we are settled in, and we are glad it is DONE! Moving wasn't as fun for me this time around...I wonder why! ;) And we moved on the hottest days of the year (that isn't a fact, but it sure felt like it!, it was HOT!!). We are so thankful to have it all behind us! Huge shout out to Brandon McSwain who helped us load and Adam Palmer who helped us unload our truck. You guys were a huge blessing to us! And a shout out to Aaron who worked so hard to help prepare for the move and put up with me when I was tired and grumpy and stressed. He is the bomb-diggity for real!! :)
We are so happy to be back! 2 weeks today! We unpacked quickly for several reasons. We just wanted to be done for one! We wanted to get our lives back to our new normal for the kids sake. The move was hard on a certain little guy. He had so many questions and didn't seem to understand. He was a trooper though!! And finally, we are working with a smaller space and wanted to see if it was going to work. We are here to report that it will work just great! We don't even feel squished. It's amazing really! We are thankful for the Lord's provision of this apartment, He knew just what we needed. Prepping to move meant working hard when the kids were sleeping. It meant getting rid of and/or selling ALOT. It meant saying goodbye to a place we had come to love.
And now we are here and ready to see what the Lord has in store for us. Aaron is settled in at his new Discount Tire store, and get this...it is about 10 minutes away from home!! WONDERFUL!!! We are thankful for his job, and the close to home part is an added bonus. The kids are adjusting well. The twins seem to be mostly unaffected. The biggest change for them has been sharing a room with Jason. Oh, and adding more "real" baby food to their diet. :) And Jason is doing so much better now that we are back in a routine. The room sharing is going well. They all go down to bed at the same time, and they all fall asleep, so that is great. We play a cd of hymns for them at bedtime, and Jason has been singing them, and sometimes we hear the babies laughing or cooing along. Cute!! After seeing lots of family last week, I think Jason is understanding we live closer to them now. He is always talking about his house in Texas, Walmart in Texas, Grandparents in Texas...everything in Texas...EXCEPT church. We visited a church Sunday and kept Jason with us for the service. Half-way through he started (loudly might I add) saying, "our church now Papa, go to our church now." I was embarrassed in the moment, and then I was sad that he missed "his church". :(
I am back to cooking nutritious food for our family, grocery shopping (because when you move, that doesn't happen), and I am freed up again to spend quality time with the kids. The twins are busy little babies these days. Bethany is sitting herself up and doing her version of crawling. She is in to everything! She also FINALLY started holding her own bottle (after we moved ofcourse). Gideon is rolling and scooting and still very chill. He only gives attitude when he wants to eat. And Jason is enjoying all things Handy Manny, duplos, coloring and seeing his family and friends in Texas. I will be attending BSF intro class in a month or so, and hopefully we will get plugged in to that very quickly. I am so excited to bring all the kids!
I hope to blog a little more frequently now that life is calmer. I will leave you with a video tour of our apartment. Apartment Tour
We are so happy to be back! 2 weeks today! We unpacked quickly for several reasons. We just wanted to be done for one! We wanted to get our lives back to our new normal for the kids sake. The move was hard on a certain little guy. He had so many questions and didn't seem to understand. He was a trooper though!! And finally, we are working with a smaller space and wanted to see if it was going to work. We are here to report that it will work just great! We don't even feel squished. It's amazing really! We are thankful for the Lord's provision of this apartment, He knew just what we needed. Prepping to move meant working hard when the kids were sleeping. It meant getting rid of and/or selling ALOT. It meant saying goodbye to a place we had come to love.
And now we are here and ready to see what the Lord has in store for us. Aaron is settled in at his new Discount Tire store, and get this...it is about 10 minutes away from home!! WONDERFUL!!! We are thankful for his job, and the close to home part is an added bonus. The kids are adjusting well. The twins seem to be mostly unaffected. The biggest change for them has been sharing a room with Jason. Oh, and adding more "real" baby food to their diet. :) And Jason is doing so much better now that we are back in a routine. The room sharing is going well. They all go down to bed at the same time, and they all fall asleep, so that is great. We play a cd of hymns for them at bedtime, and Jason has been singing them, and sometimes we hear the babies laughing or cooing along. Cute!! After seeing lots of family last week, I think Jason is understanding we live closer to them now. He is always talking about his house in Texas, Walmart in Texas, Grandparents in Texas...everything in Texas...EXCEPT church. We visited a church Sunday and kept Jason with us for the service. Half-way through he started (loudly might I add) saying, "our church now Papa, go to our church now." I was embarrassed in the moment, and then I was sad that he missed "his church". :(
I am back to cooking nutritious food for our family, grocery shopping (because when you move, that doesn't happen), and I am freed up again to spend quality time with the kids. The twins are busy little babies these days. Bethany is sitting herself up and doing her version of crawling. She is in to everything! She also FINALLY started holding her own bottle (after we moved ofcourse). Gideon is rolling and scooting and still very chill. He only gives attitude when he wants to eat. And Jason is enjoying all things Handy Manny, duplos, coloring and seeing his family and friends in Texas. I will be attending BSF intro class in a month or so, and hopefully we will get plugged in to that very quickly. I am so excited to bring all the kids!
I hope to blog a little more frequently now that life is calmer. I will leave you with a video tour of our apartment. Apartment Tour
Monday, July 22, 2013
Catching Up with Photos aka...photo dump
Most of our time lately has been devoted to packing our home and prepping to move, but here is some photographic evidence that we have been doing other things as well.
WE HAVE BEEN:
Making friends with our stuffed animals...
snuggling with bears from Aunt Andrea
Watching big brother swim while we dry off from our swim
Climbing in cribs (hasn't happened again) to be sweet with sister
Sitting up like a big girl all by herself!
Playing in the excersaucer and growing 2 teeth (not pictured)
Little brother is starting to look more and more like big brother
Playing with Papa!!
Sharing swings...
and picnics at the park!
Going to Texas...
for July 4th...
and watching a small town parade.
Swimming with cousins!
Teaching little sister how to clap...
Playing together nicely
Interacting so much...
and letting mama know she is weird when she makes funny noises to get us to laugh!
Turning 6 months old!!
Becoming more and more independent (or trying to)
We are having fun! Enjoying life! Ready to move to Texas! I bet the next blog post is written in Texas, in our new home.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Operation HOUSE HUNTING
Something I have discovered I DO NOT love to do...house hunt. Not my thing! I think it could be fun if we were looking to buy, but looking to rent is a big hassle. Everything from scams to not in our budget to wrong area, seemed to interfere with our house search. We went down July 4-5th with one place lined up to view. Just one! As we drove up to the property to look at it my heart sank. There is no nice way to put this, the place was a dump. It looked good on paper. On paper only. We drove away discouraged. We prayed for God to direct our next steps. We really had to find something on Friday if at all possible to avoid another trip down before the end of the month.
We decided to drive to apartment complexes and just ask them what they had available in our time frame and in our budget. After 2 complexes, we were feeling even more discouraged. They had nothing available in our price range. We stopped for lunch and took a deep breath. We were racking our brains for what to do next, and still praying. During this time we thought that maybe, just maybe, we could downsize to a 2 bedroom apartment for a year while we look for a home to buy. This idea had crossed our minds on several occasions previously, but we weren't sure if it was possible. Also during this time we were waiting to meet with a lady concerning her home that was further out than we wanted to live, but doable. Since we had time to kill before the meeting, I told Aaron we should try just one more apartment complex, and I had a specific one in my head. So we drove there. We went in and told the lady we needed a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, and asked if there were any available. She informed us that they don't have 3 bedroom apartments, but that they had a couple 2 bedroom apartments available in our time frame AND in our budget!! Actually, below our budget. I could feel the weight lifting off my shoulders as she was talking. I was praising the Lord, and wondering why I wasn't just trusting Him all along instead of worrying. I could see Aaron was feeling really good about it as well. We looked at the model, and asked a couple questions and then we left. We barely walked out the doors when we knew this would be our next home. We conversed briefly, filled out the application, got the money order, and turned it all in.
We drove away praising the Lord for directing our steps to this place. He knew where we would end up, He knew all along! We had a lesson in trust throughout this process for sure. God has NEVER failed to provide for us, so why oh why did I stress out about it??? I am ashamed to admit my lack of resting in God's sovereign plan for my life. It is something I am continually working on.
So a 2 bedroom apartment!! (pending acceptance of application)!! Can we do it?? This is where my handy dandy love for cleaning, organizing and keeping "stuff" to a minimum comes in handy! I truly think we can do it!! I don't believe we have a choice now! I am up for the challenge :) I am not much of a sentimental person (sadly!...maybe?), but today I discovered some things that do hold sentimental value to me. I am just a wee bit sentimental. Like our coffee table that I put up for sale today. We bought it when we got married...it was one of our first brand new furniture purchases. As of right now it sits up against the wall (coffee tables are not really child friendly) and it has random things stacked on it. We don't need it currently, it isn't conducive to children, and it won't fit in our apartment. So it will be going to a new home, among other things.
Somehow by July 31st, we will be packed, loaded up, and this current home will be sparkling. Speaking of sparkling...I recently heard about Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and how awesome they are. I will let you all know if I agree with this after I give them a try. We have a couple areas that could certainly benefit from some "magic". We will be in our new 2 bedroom apartment learning how that is going to look/work.
We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives! Oklahoma will always have a special place in my heart, and I will miss it! But Texas also has a special place in my heart! For those praying for us, thank-you!
A few ways to pray for us in the up coming weeks:
-Pray that the application will go through fine (it should).
-Pray for the packing process. I love it!!, but it is much harder with 3 kids! Last time we moved we had no children.
-Pray for a smooth adjustment, especially for the kids.
-Pray for us to be creative with hospitality in our new place.
-Pray that we will trust and rest in the Lord's timing.
We decided to drive to apartment complexes and just ask them what they had available in our time frame and in our budget. After 2 complexes, we were feeling even more discouraged. They had nothing available in our price range. We stopped for lunch and took a deep breath. We were racking our brains for what to do next, and still praying. During this time we thought that maybe, just maybe, we could downsize to a 2 bedroom apartment for a year while we look for a home to buy. This idea had crossed our minds on several occasions previously, but we weren't sure if it was possible. Also during this time we were waiting to meet with a lady concerning her home that was further out than we wanted to live, but doable. Since we had time to kill before the meeting, I told Aaron we should try just one more apartment complex, and I had a specific one in my head. So we drove there. We went in and told the lady we needed a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, and asked if there were any available. She informed us that they don't have 3 bedroom apartments, but that they had a couple 2 bedroom apartments available in our time frame AND in our budget!! Actually, below our budget. I could feel the weight lifting off my shoulders as she was talking. I was praising the Lord, and wondering why I wasn't just trusting Him all along instead of worrying. I could see Aaron was feeling really good about it as well. We looked at the model, and asked a couple questions and then we left. We barely walked out the doors when we knew this would be our next home. We conversed briefly, filled out the application, got the money order, and turned it all in.
We drove away praising the Lord for directing our steps to this place. He knew where we would end up, He knew all along! We had a lesson in trust throughout this process for sure. God has NEVER failed to provide for us, so why oh why did I stress out about it??? I am ashamed to admit my lack of resting in God's sovereign plan for my life. It is something I am continually working on.
So a 2 bedroom apartment!! (pending acceptance of application)!! Can we do it?? This is where my handy dandy love for cleaning, organizing and keeping "stuff" to a minimum comes in handy! I truly think we can do it!! I don't believe we have a choice now! I am up for the challenge :) I am not much of a sentimental person (sadly!...maybe?), but today I discovered some things that do hold sentimental value to me. I am just a wee bit sentimental. Like our coffee table that I put up for sale today. We bought it when we got married...it was one of our first brand new furniture purchases. As of right now it sits up against the wall (coffee tables are not really child friendly) and it has random things stacked on it. We don't need it currently, it isn't conducive to children, and it won't fit in our apartment. So it will be going to a new home, among other things.
Somehow by July 31st, we will be packed, loaded up, and this current home will be sparkling. Speaking of sparkling...I recently heard about Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and how awesome they are. I will let you all know if I agree with this after I give them a try. We have a couple areas that could certainly benefit from some "magic". We will be in our new 2 bedroom apartment learning how that is going to look/work.
We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives! Oklahoma will always have a special place in my heart, and I will miss it! But Texas also has a special place in my heart! For those praying for us, thank-you!
A few ways to pray for us in the up coming weeks:
-Pray that the application will go through fine (it should).
-Pray for the packing process. I love it!!, but it is much harder with 3 kids! Last time we moved we had no children.
-Pray for a smooth adjustment, especially for the kids.
-Pray for us to be creative with hospitality in our new place.
-Pray that we will trust and rest in the Lord's timing.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Pinterest Fail!!
Because Pinterest said they were easy to make, and because they are cute and festive, I decided to give these chocolate covered marshmallows a try. Here is what they looked like on Pinterest. Aren't they looking all yummy and fun??!!
WELL...
Let me just tell you what, THEY ARE NOT so fun to make!
Not in the least. Okay, maybe it's just not in my creative bones to be able to make these, but whatever the case, mine did not turn out so hot.
Enter my picture...
Here lie the remains of my Pinterest attempt!
What a hot, burnt chocolate, melted marshmallows, run out of sprinkles (not to mention Walmart didn't have just red, white and blue sprinkles), MESS!!!
The marshmallows melted in the chocolate that was burning in the pan that will take forever to clean out. So what did I do? I took a plastic bag, threw everything in there. Then I took a picture to record my epic fail AND to warn you all that these are not simple to make (at least not for me). And then...I threw them into the dumpster!!! EPIC FAIL!!
Words of Advice: Don't believe everything Pinterest says! :) Or, stay out of the kitchen if that is not where your skill lies! :) Or...if at first you don't succeed, don't try again! :)
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