Ice Skating

Last week I took the kids ice skating for the first time with some friends for a field trip! I was all ready to skate myself when Chris reminded me the morning before we left that I was pregnant and that might not be the smartest thing to do. Ha. I forget some days.

So I threw the skates on the kids and pushed em' out there :) I was thankful for some of my friends older kids who took mine under their wing. It was very sweet and I wasn't quite sure how it would all work out if I wasn't out there with them. Taylor was the only one that towards the end had it almost figured out. I think it awoke in her the desire that every little girl has once in their life to be a figure ice skater :)

Welcome to the World Austin!

This morning was a delightful morning! I woke up to my nephew Owen, talking & laughing in Taylor's room and a couple hours later got to hear his brother Austin crying a healthy cry for the first time!

I am so happy that I got to see Austin! Thank you Danae for having this baby before we leave town on Saturday :)

Here's the beautiful baby:















Glad I'm pregnant... after today I would've had the itch :)

Gardening Success

I started my first gardening adventure mid-fall, a couple months after my husband began his first church planting adventure. A few weeks into it my dad informed me that I wasn't watering it enough. I guess water is fairly important in those early days :) Small sprouts began to show before Christmas and then the birds came and ate quite a few of them. Bummer. I started to think we'd have to try again in the spring. Winter came and brought an unusual amount of rain (for AZ). One day I looked out and low and behold we had new sprouts and the few plants the birds did not eat up in the fall, took off like crazy! Particularly my zucchini plant! Taylor came running in one day yelling with excitement that she found a zucchini. It was quite a large one too! We've also had success with carrots, beautiful sunflowers, parsley and the occasional tomato. Birds like tomatoes too apparently :)

As Chris and I were working in the yard last night. We marveled at the fact at how my garden took off with fruit around the same time we saw an increase in visitor's and new members at Grace Church. At the end of 2009 we were grateful for the work the Lord was doing amongst us as a body but desired to see more believers come & join our mission as a church. Shortly after asking the church to specifically pray for this we saw answers to prayer in large quantity. It's been quite exciting. But whether it's a starting a garden or building a church we've seen it's all dependent on Lord's doing!










Here's a recipe for a wonderful Zucchini side dish my grandmother use to make:



Layer Zucchini and sweet onion. Top with a can of diced tomatoes and cheese and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

"Look Mom"

"Look Mom!" That's what I hear while talking with some friends at our PE co-op. I look over and there's Trevor riding a two wheel bike on the basketball court.

"Buddy when did you learn how to ride a bike?!?"

I don't know I guess I got off easy with this child. He just sat on the bike and off he went. Starting, stopping, & turning. I can't say I'm surprised as he's my athletic one.

We came home and he told Chris that he could ride a bike now and he wanted his training wheels off. I was a little nervous cause his bike at home is a bit bigger then the one he was riding at PE but sure enough off he went like it's something he's been doing his whole life.





As he was riding around the street he kept saying "God has given me a gift! A gift of balance!" So sweet :) I think I know what we are going to be doing during these final days of decent weather!

Windy & New

Someone got a much needed haircut. I knew it was time when my own mom, "but her hair is so beautiful", was like, "cut it", after watching me try to brush it out for 30 min. then braid it for Easter. I think it was about 7 inches and now that it's done I'm thinking I could have gone shorter!

Man the camera just loves this girl :)

Perseverance

Perseverance
noun.
steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

I've been at this pregnancy thing for 10 weeks now. I'm tired. Tired physically, but mostly tired of feeling sick all the time. Add in a couple migraines, an ear infection and constant indigestion, I'm ready to cry "uncle". But the Lord gave me a word at the very beginning of this pregnancy that has been such an encouragement through this season. I know, or I hope, that one day soon I will feel better. I have a choice to wait anxiously for that day, and in many ways I am. But I can also press on. Persevere. Steady my faith.

Upon days of finding out I was pregnant Chris sent me out for some time in the word. At this point their seemed no end to my tears. Tears with reason, tears without. Before I left I went to Chris' bookshelf to find something to take and read along with my bible. Immediately I found a book called "Depression: A Stubborn Darkness" By Edward Welch. I opened up to see the chapter headings and there was one on perseverance. I grabbed it and off I went. I found this chapter profound and most helpful.

"In Scripture, the word "surrender" links you directly to "persevere, be patient in trials." This doesn't sound very liberating to be sure. "Hang in there," keep at it," "you can do it" are trite and unhelpful responses when offered by friends and family. It's as if they have nothing else to say, so they offer this "encouragement" just to say something... But remember once again that we cannot avoid God. All paths lead to him. If you are tempted to skip over his words on perseverance, remember that he is life. His words give life."

He then goes on to point out that in God's very character is perseverance. This was a new thought for me. I am well aware that I am called to persevere but have never meditated on the way God perseveres.


The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you... 2 Peter 3:9

For I endure scorn for your sake and shame covers my face. Ps 69:7

May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. 2 Thess. 3:5

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, for the joy set before him endured the cross... Heb 12:2

Welch says, " All teaching on perseverance, patience, and endurance finds it's source in the character of God. Just as we love because he is love and he loved us before we knew him, so we persevere because he is perseverance and he has persevered with us throughout history."

I found this truth so encouraging. The Lord is not calling me to do something he hasn't done before. And for our Lord the trials and hardships were MUCH greater then my 1st trimester blues. Whatever trial you find yourself persevering in take heart knowing that our God has gone before us. Fail we will. But the Gospel is there. Jesus, our perfect sacrifice. Perfectly endured and persevered in our place, freeing us to press on in grace.

Faces of Rylee

This girl cracks me up!


*click on the picture to view larger, where it looks best :)

A 1st Trimester Poem

A Poem for my Baby

You are nausea.
You make chocolate look gross.
You put slow in my step.
And I hold my stomach close.

You are headaches.
You make me tired beyond belief.
You are constant heartburn.
You often bring me to my knees.

But today you become something new.
One that goes beyond this temporal view.
There it was steady and strong.
A beat that showed with such might,
You are life.

Worship the creator I did.
What an undeserving women I am for this gift.
I will endure and persevere.
For in seven short months you will be here.

A West Side Baby

The last 3 1/2 years can be summed up like this:

We're most definitely done having children.
Well maybe not definitely.
Let's just pray about it for awhile.
Let's go ahead and give it to the Lord and see if we get pregnant.
Not pregnant, not pregnant, not pregnant...
Let's stop trying for awhile. We have peace we tried and his answer was no.
We're done. Yep done.
uh, babe, we're pregnant.

It was quite the surprise for the both of us. Maybe more so for Chris. I had five days to wonder but I didn't bring him in on my wondering. It's taken 4 pregnancies to learn that my husband prefers to be brought in on the wondering. Rather then my, "Surprise".

The week itself was crazy. It started off with a bad case of the stomach flu. I was in bed Monday & Tuesday. And yes it really was the stomach flu and not the pregnancy. We went to a block party and a little kid there had it the night before and consequently almost everyone on the block got some form of it. Wednesday, I get a call from my mom who left her scheduled heart dr. appointment. She called with some less then great news. Her Doctor was talking seriously about open heart surgery. Something that has kind of loomed in her future for quite some time now. But this time in addition to her three vales needing replaced, her aorta was enlarged too. More tests needed to be done to confirm. So I prayed, cried, begged with God for his will for her life to be done. And that at the end of the day that his will would be for her to be healed and live. Then, what served as a beautiful distraction from it all, I was throwing a large bridal shower for my friend Luz. In the back of my mind I knew I was late. Each passing day had me wondering. But I'd been late before and I knew that there was no reason why I would be pregnant. We weren't trying. On a whim I bought a test. I took it in the afternoon, walked away and fully expected to come back and confirm that I was indeed not pregnant. I was wrong. There were two lines, clear as day. Looking back I think I would've been better served to have waited till after the weekend was over. After I had a chance to recover a little more from the flu and catch up on life. After I knew that the next test would reveal my mom's aorta isn't in as bad shape as they originally thought and they would wait another year before discussing surgery again. There probably would've been less tears.

All of that being said, we are truly excited to have another child! What the pregnancy has revealed more then anything these past couple of weeks is my selfishness. Upon the confirmed test I was quickly aware of how life would change and how easy life had become having children who sleep through the night, dress themselves and wipe themselves :) I use the word easy loosely. There's nothing easy about staying home with three kids AND homeschooling. But having done it before I also know how fast babies grow. I am purposing myself to treasure each and every moment. Every kick, hiccup, the delivery, first smile, laugh and all the things that are gone before you know it. In a blink of an eye this child will join the older three in doing big kid things! Of course this nausea and tiredness could go away just a tad bit faster...

It's strange to think that this child might grow up only knowing this house and this side of Phoenix. Of course we will quickly introduce him or her to all of our friends and special places we love on the east side but this child will forever be our west side baby.

San Francisco

Last month Chris and I had the privilege of visiting our friends The Kurth's & their recently planted church, Christ Church. Toby asked Chris to come preach for him as Rebekah was nearing her due date. I was grateful for our friends and family who took our kids for a couple of days so I could travel with Chris.

We arrived Friday afternoon and from there got a non-stop weekend tour of San Francisco from Toby. And Toby if this church planting thing doesn't work out for you, you could easily have a job as a tour guide :) We toured the city Friday and had some amazing food. Actually lots of amazing food. I believed I gained a few pounds that weekend :) On Saturday we drove to Napa Valley and had breakfast at the most amazing place! I'm still craving that omelet! Then we headed out to Beringer Winery, where we got a personal tour from Toby's dad. Apparently tour guiding runs in the family. We felt so blessed to have such a tour and learned more in that day then in our entire life about wine. It was also this tour that pushed us over the edge to favor red wine more then white.

Sunday was a great time of worship with Christ Church. It was encouraging to see all the ways God has blessed them. They have recently been given a building to use in the city & partnered with the church that was meeting there to spread the Gospel!


Toby is also preaching through John like Chris is at Grace Church. So Chris was able to step in and prepare a message in John that he will be able to preach in a month at our church. He preached his message on the Glorious Future that Awaits us. Heaven. I am eager for our church to get to this part of John as my heart was greatly encouraged.

By far the best part of the trip was seeing our friends and catching up with them. We are grateful for their hospitality and I am eager to see more of San Francisco one day!

It rained almost the entire time we were there but I was able to snap a few pictures in between downpours!


I was happy to see a trolley as that was the extent of my knowledge of San Fran


Some amazing views that are just a short walk from their house!




Before breakfast:


The wine country


barrels of aging wine





Thank you Toby & Rebekah for your hospitality & showing us a wonderful time! It's been such a blessing to be on this church planting adventure with you all.

Starbucks Trip

I love my kids. One morning I surprised them with a trip to starbucks for chocolate milk. I sat there watching them interact with each other, laughing together, sipping their milk with their beautiful lips and thought "these are my children?!" What a blessed woman I am! Thank you God.

5yr old Trevor

Well I feel very behind on my blog! I'm hoping to do some catching up this week.



First off is that we now have a 5yr old boy! February 16th Trevor turned five. Where has the time gone? He has highly anticipated this birthday. Since turning 5 he has informed us that he know can do five year old things. Like something magical happens on the day of your birthday. He woke up that morning and we started school and I was informed that now he was 5 he was ready for harder things in school.

Speaking of school... Trevor has grown leaps & bounds this fall in academics. He is beyond excelling in things that Taylor did in kindergarten. He can read, he doesn't love to read, but he does it and we have moved onto blends and long vowel combination's. What he does love is Math and all things numbers. He didn't get that from me I promise. He is rocking with the math facts! We are working on numbers with sums up to 20 and I'm constantly amazed at how he just seems to know the answer. He counts up in his head and so far isn't dependent on his fingers like his mom :) He is even beginning to show interest in writing. Something that he hasn't been thrilled about. Yesterday he wrote out "Happy Birthday Ellie" all on his own. Of course he loves Ellie Payne :)

Trevor's heart has softened this year to things of God. He asks the most amazing questions. Like why did God create Adam & Eve? Cause if God knows all things, he would know they would sin? Most of the time I'm like great question... let's ask dad :) He has joined the older kids Sunday School class and is learning and retaining much of the bible story lessons! It's so encouraging to see him grow in these ways.



Trevor is all things passionate. He can passionately disobey or passionately obey. And when he wants to be, he's the sweetest boy ever. Telling me I'm the best Mom ever, loving and serving his sisters and yes He still wants to be a Pastor one day like his dad :)

We love you Trevor!

Valentine's Day Ideas

This week we have a Valentine's Day party with a homeschool group we are apart of and I will be hosting our neighborhood's playgroup. I've been searching for some crafts/cards/baking ideas to do with the kids. There are so many creative, fun ideas out there. I'm not sure what all we'll have time to do this week, as I'm having a bridal shower here friday night for a dear friend, but I did want to share some of what I found.

I love these cello topper bags from The Celebration Shoppe Blog! I'm hoping to use these as Valentines! Seems easy enough :)


Melt Your Valentine's Heart Necklace:
I really need to do something like this one day... I've been saving up all our broken crayons and they're just sitting there :)

Martha Stewart, as always, has some great ideas! I'm thinking of doing the Flower/Lollipop creation with Taylor.



Secret-agent-josephine has a really cute free valentine download for kids to pass out. I'm thinking of gluing them onto cardstock and having Trevor sign his name on the back!




My friend Megan has all sorts of links and idea's that she's been posting in her "I Heart" series. Love the heart garland she made with her kids last week and her most recent one "I Heart Baking" has got me craving all sorts of goodies!




And my favorite that we do every year is Rice Krispy Treats (colored pink) and cut out into heart shapes. Doesn't get much easier then that :)

Hope everyone enjoys their valentine week!