1 month old

Our sweet James is already 1 month old. Right now he is 9lb 8oz and 22.1 inches long. It's hard to believe that he is pretty much the size that Landon was when he was first born! He's starting to outgrow his newborn clothes, which is sad, but he is smiling more! It's so fun to start to see his little personality shining through. He's sleeping pretty well at night, usually only waking up once to eat and goes right back to sleep. I just need to start going to bed earlier to get the sleep that I need!

Olivia is getting better with sharing her mama. It was rough at first... Any time I would leave the house, she would throw a big fit, at bedtime she would ask for me to stay with her, and one time a 10 month old wanted me to hold him and she ran up to me pulled my arms around her and said, "That's my mommy!" During this time she said things like, "I pull baby's head off?" "I squish the baby?" and other mean things... Needless to say, I bring the bouncy seat into the bathroom and lock the door when I shower! Little by little though, she is coming around. She loves him, and smothers him with kisses and hugs whenever he is in her reach. She's always asking me, when he's down for a nap, "Where's Jamesy boy?" Landon is a good big brother to him as well and loves to hold him and give him kisses.

That's where he's at, can't believe a month has passed since he's joined our family, but we're enjoying every minute with him!

Samuel's 6th Birthday

We had a nice weekend remembering our sweet Samuel. Landon and I made cupcakes on Saturday. Landon picked out confetti cake mix and frosting with sprinkles. He loved helping make these and "helping" me by licking the beater clean :)

My sweet friend gave me a gift at church that morning and Landon asked if we could open it. I told him we would wait until we went to visit Samuel. Then, Landon said, "Are we going to heaven??" I said, "No, we're just going to where Samuel's body is buried." These things are so hard for a four year old to understand. It was heartbreaking to see how excited he was to meet his brother. One day...

When we opened the present, this is what we found... Little figurines of our whole family! It is so sweet to see what our family really looks like. From the left: Olivia wearing a tutu (she was thrilled with this!), Samuel holding 6 balloons, Daddy, Mommy wearing my Samuel necklace, Landon because blue's his favorite color, and James because the James on Thomas is red ;) Landon and Olivia kept insisting that James lay down since he can't walk yet :)

Then, we went to Steak N' Shake, our family tradition.  It was a sweet time.

After supper, we came home and sang happy birthday to Samuel and had cupcakes.

There's a helium shortage, so we weren't able to let balloons off on Samuel's birthday, but we did the next day. It was so windy....

 ...and I'm sad to say that the balloons got stuck in our neighbor's tree. This really upset me at first and I couldn't pin point why. I guess I just wanted everything to go perfectly for his birthday. When I thought about this later, I realized that life doesn't go perfectly with our other kiddos, and he is just as much our kid as they are, it's not practical to expect things to be perfect and that's ok.

The pregnancy loss support group I help out with had a balloon release the night after his birthday as well, so I got to send a balloon up then too.

We miss our sweet firstborn so much and celebrate his being in heaven the only way we know how. Can't wait to join him one day on those streets of gold, but until that day, His mercies are new every morning - great is His faithfulness.

Six Years

It's hard to believe that Samuel would be six tomorrow... I was laying here trying to picture what he would be like, how our family dynamic would be different if he were here. Would he have a strong personality like Landon, or would he have been more calm and have been taught Landon how to share and be kind? How would Landon, Olivia, and James be different if he were here? Would he have been into sports or legos? What it all boils down to is, I just want to know him. As his mother, I want to know everything about him. And yet, it is all just blank. I try to picture him as a six year old... I so want to know if he would have had brown hair and brown eyes like his daddy or would he have had blue eyes like his siblings and I? So many things... but it is all blank.

I realize he wasn't meant to be six here on earth. The Lord knew when he would be born, and knew he would leave this earth just one minute later. The Lord fashioned him and perfectly formed his beautiful face, each finger and toe. It is not blank to Him. He had a purpose for our little guy. Our little Samuel was created to worship the Lord.

I cannot help but cry every time I read the story of Hannah in the Bible. How she wanted a child, so much that if the Lord granted her request, she was willing to give him back to the Lord. It's one thing to say that you would give your child to the Lord and another thing to do it. Hannah did not go back on her word, but as hard as it was, she made the journey to the temple and gave her Samuel to serve the Lord. "'I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.' And he worshiped the Lord there." (1 Samuel 1:27,28)

I remember the Lord reminding me of Hannah as I lay in the hospital bed the night before my c-section. I knew that our baby boy belonged to the Lord and whatever happened he was not mine, he was the Lord's. I remember wrestling in prayer with the Lord, begging Him to let our boy live. I remember my loving Lord giving me peace that He was in control and I committed our sweet Samuel to Him.

How tiny, how precious our boy's delicate body. It was so precious to feel his heartbeat, and yet heart wrenching since no breath ever came. Still the Lord was in control.

I was thankful for a sweet friend who shared this poem from a blog recently. The challenge that went with it was to change our prayers for our children. Not to pray for safety and protection, but that our children would have a passion for the Lord. Period. No matter what path gets them there. I would not have chosen this path, but I am thankful for how the Lord has used our sweet Samuel's life in so many ways and that right at this very minute he is with our Lord and worshiping Him there.

Had I been Joseph's mother 
I'd have prayed 
protection from his brothers 
"God, keep him safe. 
He is so young, 
so different from 
the others." 
Mercifully, 
she never knew 
there would be slavery 
and prison, too. 

Had I been Moses' mother 
I'd have wept to keep my little son: 
praying she might forget 
the babe drawn from the water 
of the Nile. 
Had I not kept 
him for her 
nursing him the while, 
was he not mine? 
--and she 
but Pharaoh's daughter? 

Had I been Daniel's mother 
I should have pled 
"Give victory! 
--this Babylonian horde 
godless and cruel-- 
Don't let him be a captive 
--better dead, 
Almighty Lord!" 

Had I been Mary, 
Oh, had I been she, 
I would have cried 
as never a mother cried, 
"Anything, O God, 
Anything 
--but 
crucified." 

With such prayers importunate 
my finite wisdom would assail 
Infinite Wisdom 
God, how fortunate 
Infinite Wisdom 
should prevail.

From newborn to baby...

I knew this would happen, but had forgotten just how quickly it would... that one day this little one would go to bed a newborn and wake up a baby. Well, that happened yesterday. I looked at him and realized that he's much more alert, his wrinkly skin is smoothing out, and he was even concentrating and attempted a couple smiles! Every stage is so sweet and flies by, now more than ever with my attention being divided three ways. Here's a movie of him sleeping at two weeks old... yes, I he really is sleeping despite his eyes being opened!

Last night, James went to his first TU game!

And here he is today at three weeks old, his face is always so grumpy!

Here he is with his crazy big sister who always wants to be around him

...and with big brother who loves him so much

He still looks a little bit like a newborn when he's sleeping, but the newborn look is very quickly fading...

I am so thankful for the past three weeks with this sweet boy.

The weeks, months and years seem to be flying by faster as life moves forward and I am reminded of the brevity of life and have been asking the Lord to help me to redeem the time. 

Here are ways the Bible describes our life: 

Like water spilt on the ground

Like a shadow, it will not stay 

Like a swift messenger, a swift ship, or a swooping eagle

Like a mist or vapor from a pot

 Like grass, leaving no memory 

Few days, like a flower 

Like a wind

Like a sigh

Psalm 90:12

"So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom."

James David

We are so thankful for our precious new bundle of joy! I thought I'd a little bit about how he made his appearance into this world. 

I had been having some harder contractions that started Sunday evening. There was never anything regular with them, but I knew they were the kind of contractions that were doing something! I was scheduled to be induced at 6:00AM on Wednesday morning September 19th so this gave me hope that maybe I would go on my own before the induction. My parents came down Tuesday evening around 8:00pm. I was so thankful and relieved to have them here.

 We all went to bed around 11:00, but I started to notice that these hard contractions that I had been having were getting a bit more intense. Around midnight I started timing them. They were about 10 minutes apart, so I figured I would try to get some sleep... Well, these contractions did not allow for that! I woke Seth up around 1:00 and told him even though the contractions were still about 7 minutes apart I really thought we needed to start getting ready to go to the hospital. By the time we left the house they were 3-5 minutes apart. At this point I decided I wanted an epidural... NOW! :)

We got to the hospital around 2:00AM. They checked me and I was already 6cm dilated. The worst part was trying to sign paper work and get the IVs in between contractions. At this point it was just one contraction after another. I was begging for an epidural and they just seemed to be taking their sweet time (I see now that I was a bit irrational then...). She told me that I had to have a whole bag of the IV solution in me before they could give me an epidural. Well, the bag of fluid was full so I said, "there's no way that bag of fluid is getting into me before this baby is born!" I was so glad when she decided they could go ahead and do one after all.

At 3:30 I got my epidural and my doctor came to check me. She said I was complete and ready to push! The epidural had slowed down my contractions though, so they had to give me a little pitocin to get things going again. 

At 4:03AM  our little James David was born. It was so exciting to hear our doctor say, "it's a boy!" We were so surprised! He was 8lb 3oz and 21.25" long. I love his wrinkly skin and old man face :) He always looks so grumpy!

Our first look at the little guy. We feel so blessed and so grateful that everything went so well and he is finally in our arms!

Our new family! Landon was very excited it was a boy and I think Olivia is too. She is having a bit of a tough time adjusting to sharing her mommy, but all in all she is doing pretty well. Landon can't wait to teach James all the things that big brothers do :)

Summer

This summer has flown by and I can't believe we will be meeting our sweet little baby in just a few days! I have totally neglected this blog, but I hope that will change... Let's see, my last post was April. I'll try to recap our summer:

May - Landon turned 4 and had his first friends birthday party. The kids had fun playing games with water balloons :) It was already getting very hot!

June - Getting hotter... We stayed inside a lot, or played at the mall. Landon took swimming lessons and finally got comfortable in the water! This was a huge accomplishment for him. His teachers were great. I never would have thought of telling him to hum when he goes under water, but that really helped him not to get water in his nose and take away his fear of going under!

A sad thing for us that happened was Seth's sweet aunt, Donna, passed away. I really enjoyed getting to know her these past several months, she was an incredible woman who truly loved the Lord and trusted Him until the very end. I am thankful for her sake, she isn't suffering anymore, but miss her dearly.

July - Hotter still... We made it up to Iowa for the annual 4th of July conference. It was so refreshing to spend time with family and friends and being reminded of the Lord's love and faithfulness. We had a new niece born, Evy, and got to meet her on our way home. She was so tiny and precious!

August - I didn't think it could happen, but yes even hotter... Went to Lake of the Ozarks with my family. We celebrated Olivia and her cousin, Aubrey's 2nd birthdays. They were very excited about their pink watermelon cake :)  It was such a sweet time. We enjoyed watching the olympics, boating, swimming, late night talks, so much fun! I couldn't believe how Landon was in the water. He was doing flips off the side of the boat! Such a change from last summer. We had a break-in, but I am thankful that the kids and I weren't here and it truly has been a good reminder not to hold things here dear. We can take nothing from this world with us - only what's done for Christ will last.

September - Still hot... Labor Day weekend, most of Seth's family came into town and we had a work weekend at his parents house.... well, the guys worked while the kids played and the ladies talked - it was great! I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family. My labor day didn't come unfortunately ;) but we are patiently waiting this little one's arrival. We can't wait to find out if this baby is a he or a she. I already know he/she is a night owl (must take after daddy). Every night my favorite activity is to watch my belly jump around :) An induction is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:00AM, but I'm praying that I will go into labor on my own. Anyway, can't wait to post next time as it will probably be about our newest addition!

Spring

I can't believe my last post was about Christmas and here we are four months later! A lot has happened. I'm almost 20 weeks pregnant with our fourth little one. It's been so fun to recently be able to consistently feel this sweet one move. Seth just started feeling the baby kick too! It's such a comfort and I treasure each kick. I pray the Lord will continue to bless this pregnancy and we will be able to meet this precious baby mid-September. This time we won't know whether this little one is a boy or a girl until that time, we're excited to have the surprise!

Life has been crazy, but I feel like I've started to be able to get back into somewhat of a routine after feeling sick and tired a lot of my first trimester. Landon and Olivia are growing so fast, I sometimes wish I could just pause time and enjoy them longer at each stage, but time just keeps going. Landon will be four in ten days. I can hardly believe it! He is becoming more and more independent, and being able to help around the house. He just learned how to swing all by himself and is out on the swing almost every chance he can get. Olivia wants to do everything Landon is doing. She loves to read books, especially Good Night Moon, "Goodbye Moon" as she calls it :)

We have been enjoying spending time with Seth's aunt Donna. She was diagnosed with ALS last summer and came to live with his parents here in Tulsa back in November. She has such a joyful spirit through this all and we love her so much. Pray for her if you think of it. She is now bed-ridden but is able to communicate via iPad, but it is getting more difficult for her.

We had an eventful month of March as we had termites, rotted wood under the toilet, reconstruction in the bathroom (that we are still doing... cant't wait to get our toilet back in there!) and two sets of visitors. I'm so glad our visitors weren't deterred by our construction mess - we had so much fun! First, my sister, two good friends, my sweet niece and my friend's two boys came to visit. They did so much work while they were here, it was so sweet of them! We redid my fireplace which totally makes my living room look like a new place! They also helped paint our bathroom which was also in desperate need of attention. I so appreciate such good family and friends and it was so sweet to spend time with them as I don't see them often enough.

Our next set of visitors was my brother, Alan, sister-in-law Lauren, and darling nieces Nora, Gillian, and Aubrey. The kids had a blast playing with each other and we even got to celebrate Nora's 6th birthday together. I so appreciated Lauren's help with picking out tile and ideas for decorating. We had such a great time together and sweet memories were made.

We had a nice Easter this year. The kids had a blast Easter egg hunting. They also loved learning about the resurrection story using the Resurrection Eggs.

Enjoying this spring and looking forward to this summer :)

Christmas Recap

We had a great christmas with both families. This was the first year we stayed in Tulsa since we've been married. Seth's aunt Donna is staying with Seth's parents right now. Unfortunately, Donna and Seth's mom were both sick on Christmas Eve, so we stopped in for a short visit, but let them rest up. We had a great Christmas Eve with Justin and April and the kids. We made chocolate dipped marshmallows with the kids. Then the kids watched "Elf" and the adults played Spades. We hadn't played cards in so long, it was so much fun to play and laugh.


Christmas morning was so much fun. We had to wake the kids up since it was Sunday and we wanted to open presents before going to church. Landon was so excited to open his stocking and presents. It was so much fun to see his joy :) Olivia had fun opening the presents, but didn't really get what was going on. Her favorite presents were her Tea Pot, dolly, musical book and bear. Landon's favorite gifts were his stand up sand box, shark car toy, lego Thomas and all the little legos :) I got a coupon from Build-A-Bear for a free bear and Seth and I decided to go as a family to pick out a bear "from Samuel" for the kids. I think this is going to be our new Christmas tradition. Landon named the bear, "Cucumber" :)


We had cinnamon rolls and just overall had a nice morning together. After church, we went over to Seth's parents since they were feeling a little better. We watched the Thunder game and had a yummy dinner together. It was very relaxing and just nice to be together.

The next weekend, all of Seth's family came into town. We had so much fun laughing and spending time together. Seth's parents went crazy for Christmas, and I got a guitar! I'm super excited about learning to play. The kids love to come and help me strum while I learn. We had some nice big boxes from all the loot so the kids decorated them and had a great time playing house in them.






We also celebrated Camryn's 8th birthday with a pinata and a cake that she decorated with melted chocolate and Andes mint chips. It was such a sweet time.


This last weekend, we made it up to Iowa for our last celebrations. We traveled through the night getting in at 4am on Friday. This worked out really well with the kids. Landon slept from 9pm-8am and Olivia was up for a couple hours on the trip and woke up again when we got there, but overall did great. On Saturday we had almost the entire family together, minus two husbands. We ordered pizza and just had a nice day together. We watched some old home movies which had us all laughing and some blushing :) We had such a wonderful childhood, it was so fun to look back and remember.


I loved holding my precious two month old niece. She was really smiling and almost laughing, it was hard to leave her!


Sad to see things come to an end, but sweet memories were made. It's a new year now and I'm excited to see what the Lord has for us this 2012.

Menu

Breakfasts:
Crepes
Blender Pancakes
Baked Oatmeal
Yogurt Parfaits

Dinners:
Smoky Yukon Gold Chowder with bread and salad
Sesame Soba Noodles
Chicken Enchilada Pasta with chips and salsa
Spinach Rice Casserole with salad
Creamy Chicken Taquitos with black beans
Warm Barbecue Chicken Salad with Texas Toast

House stuff and Menu

This is not a very complete menu plan, but it will get us through the week. So excited to have new carpet in our living room! Poor Seth though is so allergic to new carpet... His throat swells and he gets a bad headache. So tonight we're sleeping with the windows open. Thankfully, it is a pretty nice night!

The new carpet motivated me to re-do (pretty much just painted it) an old trunk that I found at a garage sale over the summer for $3.00. I was pretty excited! I decided it works great as a TV stand in our new carpeted living room :) What do you think? Should I paint the whole thing white, should I rough it up with a little sandpaper?





Anyway, I better get to bed, it is getting late...

Here is our menu for the week:
Breakfasts
Granola Bars
Pumpkin Muffins with fruit
Whatever we find in the cupboards and freezer :)

Dinners:
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken over pasta
Whole Grain Chicken Soup with Rice

Chicken Lo Mein
Bean and Beef Burritos

Calzones

Menu and Update on Life

My hopes are my weekly menu posts will remind me that I still have a blog and to post more frequently on it... For now, I will just give an after midnight rambling, sort of update on our lives. The kiddos are growing so fast! Olivia is finally taking steps! I think the most she's taken is seven, but she still prefers to crawl. I think she just walks to get us excited :) Oh well, hopefully she will take off soon!

Landon's Thomas the train obsession is starting to diminish and the "tiny legos" are starting to take that place of love in his life. I don't know why this is a little sad for me. I knew this would happen, interests change, they grow, but I guess it just means that that part of his childhood is becoming history. Soon it will be, "remember when you loved Thomas the train?" and there will be more and more of those, "remember when"s. I just really want to treasure their childhood and not miss it being too focused on how shiny my floors are, or getting too caught up on whether or not I can walk through the living room, or re-do my fireplace :)

I loved Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Blessings." It is such a good reminder to take notice of the tremendous blessings we have right in front of our noses. The car rides with lively voices, the smell of a candle, quite reading time with the older child while the other naps. We have so many sweet blessings around us if only we stop to take notice and remember to thank our Father for each one.

Ephesians 1:3

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"

Breakfasts:
Baked Apple Oatmeal
Cinnamon Rolls
Cold Cereal with fruit
Smoothies and Toast
Yogurt Parfaits

Dinners:
R: Chicken Pot Pie
F: Pasta with White bean Sauce
S:Golden Veggie Fried Rice with stir fried vegetables
S: Easy Barbecue Chicken sandwiches
M: Chicken Parmesan Casserole with salad (didn't get to this last week)
T: Creamy Vegetable Chowder
W: Homemade Pizza with salad

Menu for the week

Wow, life has been just a bit crazy! In the midst of moving, house projects, going to Iowa, celebrating Thanksgiving, chasing after the kids (and their messes), and church activities, I need a little bit of structure in my life. So, here is my menu plan for the week. I usually like to do it on Mondays, but I thnk shopping is going to work out better to do on Thursdays. So, I'm going to try to start doing a Thursday-Wednesday menu. We will see how it goes :)

Thursday: Turkey (free from Seth's work - I need cook that thing!), Potatoes
Friday: Calzones with Salad
Saturday: Crispy Southwest Chicken wraps with Mexican rice
Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Potato Salad
Monday: Chicken Parmesan Casserole Bread, Salad
Tuesday: Vegetable Chowder
Wednesday: Homemade Pizza with a salad

Samuel's 5th Birthday

We "celebrated" Samuel's birthday today, the fifth time we've done so without him. Even though it is so hard to not have him here, and the memories of those few days are still as vivid as the days themselves were... the Lord is so good through it all.

On Wednesday, my sweet friend, Anne, brought us a cake for Samuel's birthday. It was such a thoughtful gift that meant so much to us all... That cake was amazing by the way! I'm sure Samuel would have loved it with all the Oreo goodness crumbled over everything, I know we all did :)

Today, was a bitter-sweet day. The day, five years ago, when we held our sweet son while his little life slipped away. I never would have thought that there would be any "sweet" in this day, but there was...

Over lunch we sang happy birthday to Samuel and opened the present we had got "for Samuel." Landon really wanted to get him a James train. There are two reasons for this, because James is the #5 train and Samuel is turning 5; and Samuel's middle name is James. So, we picked one up the other day at Landon's favorite toy store and had it wrapped for today. It was bitter-sweet watching Landon open it and see his excitement over "Samuel's" toy.


My other dear friend, Brooke, offered to watch the kids for a little while today. One thing I had really been wanting to do was to write a song for Samuel. Our piano is not in working order, so I knew this probably wouldn't be possible. So, when Brooke offered, I took her up on it, and I went to our church to play. Music is therapy for me and it was so healing to play the piano that I have rarely played over the last couple of years. The Lord had been laying a few verses on my heart from 1 Thes. 4 and 5 and He gave me words from those verses to help me write a song. I never would have imagined to do this in the couple hours that I had, but the Lord loves to give us good gifts and that's what this was, directly from Him. He is so good. I love Him.

After this, I picked up the kids and Brooke gave me a package. I opened it later to find an incredible gift that I can't express how much meant to our family. She had written a children's book called, "Samuel Takes a Trip." It is about Samuel going to heaven from his perspective and it even has a page at the end explaining the gospel for anyone that wants to go to heaven, to be where Samuel is. Words just can't express how much this meant to us...


We picked up 6 balloons (5 to release and 1 for Landon) and then headed to the cemetery. We found five more balloons waiting there :) what a sweet surprise. Landon was happy to help release both sets. We brought the book and James. It was a bitter-sweet time. Remembering the cold day that we laid our sweet son to rest here five years ago, how could it be five years ago? Today wasn't cold though, it was perfect and the sun was setting, coloring the sky with all sorts of beautiful colors. We visited Samuel's aunt Beverly's resting place as well and wondered what they were both doing in heaven right now...


We left the cemetery and went to Steak N' Shake, our tradition that officially started last year :) It was really nice apart from Olivia being at a very difficult stage as far as not wanting to stay in one place. I saw a little boy who looked about 5 in the booth right across from us. He had brown hair and brown eyes and looked very similar to how I've always pictured Samuel. Another bitter-sweet moment.

That was that, another October 14th that has come and gone. To most, just an ordinary day, but to us it will never be just any day.

I wish, but I know...

I wish I could celebrate five years on earth with you today
I wish I could buy you your favorite toy
I wish I could watch you blow out your candles
I wish I could hug you and tell you, happy birthday, my sweet Samuel

But I know you don’t wish any of these things, because where you are, is so much better than here. There are no tears, there’s no death, and no pain where you are. There is only rejoicing and sweet fellowship with our Lord.

I wish I could know if your eyes were blue or brown
I wish I could have known if you would be shy or loud
I wish I could have taught you how to ride a bicycle
I wish daddy could have taught you how to shoot a basketball

But I know you don’t wish any of these things, because where you are, is so much better than here. Beautiful streets of gold, no need of light as the glory of God gives heaven its light and the Lamb of God is heaven’s lamp.

I wish you could know your brother and sister
I wish our family could all be together
I wish that this pain would all go away
I wish I could see you again one day

And I know that you know, one day these things will come to be, because we will all be where you already are. We will see our Lord face to face and the place He’s prepared. I can’t wait for that day. The day we will all be home where you already are.

Happy 5th Birthday Samuel!

Love, Mom

God's Sovereignty

I am studying Acts this year in my BSF class and it has been powerful. Last week we studied Stephen and there are a few things that have really struck me and I needed to process. Since I am a verbal processor, I am going to try to process this here :)

Stephen was a truly remarkable man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom. Chosen by God and the apostles to ensure the care of widows along with other necessary tasks.

He delivered an amazing message, before the Sanhedrin, from the time of God's promise to Abraham to God's deliverance of the children of Israel and to the rejection of Christ by the very men he was speaking to.

Then, this remarkable man, was stoned to death by men who falsely accused him. Stephen, even at the end was asking the Lord not to hold this sin against these men.

It seems that a man like this could be used greatly for several years beyond this to spread God's word and reach many people for Christ.

But he wasn't... He was killed. Yet, God is sovereign.

God knew that Stephen's testimony would leave an incredible impact on those who stoned him, on the believers (at that time and even now!), and on Saul (later to become Paul).

This passage brings me comfort as I remember and miss our sweet Samuel. Sometimes I wonder what his little life would have been like. What kind of man would he have become? What kind of impact who he have had on people? As I process this story of Stephen, it is a powerful reminder that God is sovereign and He can even use the most horrible events for His glory and to bring others to Christ.

One last thing I noticed through the horror of Stephen's death, was that God is gracious. God revealed Himself to Stephen before he died. As the stones were striking and bruising his flesh, he saw the glory of the Lord - "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" (Acts 7:55) What a sight and a help to Stephen to endure the pain, gazing at the one whom he was suffering for.

Let us live out Hebrews 12:2 in our own lives:
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God"

Olivia is One!

A little late on this... but keeping up with a three year old and a one year old is very busy and difficult to find the time to sit down and blog (as many of you know).



On August 12th, Olivia turned one year old. I can't believe how fast this year has gone! This little girl had two birthday parties. Her first one was a combined party with her cousin, Aubrey, who was born just nine days before her. She didn't really like her first taste of cake, but had so much fun with all her cousins on my side of the family.





Her second party was also a combined party with her cousin Finn, who was turning four years old!



Here is a poor attempt at a doggie cupcake, but she really liked it :) She is so into dogs right now, it is so fun to see how excited she gets when she sees or hears one.



She didn't really care for the cake the second time either...



But Finn (and the rest of us) sure did!



She prefers spaghetti... and she likes to pretty much cover herself in it :)



Here is something she is always doing. She says, "please, please, please" over and over and points at something, and we're trying to teach her to say it nicely:



She loves going outside. If one of us goes out, she darts for the door. Before we completely figured this out, we knocked her over a few times coming back inside, poor girl!



One of her favorite things to do right now is climb the slide and let herself go down backwards. She loves it and does it over and over again.



Some facts on Olivia at one year old:

Weight:18lb 6 oz
Height: 29.5"
Diapers: Size 3
Clothes: 12-18 months
Sleeping patterns: Usually two naps a day, and still sleeping all night.

- She loves any animals and practically jumps out of our arms when she sees a dog.

- She is still not walking, but will walk along the wall and push chairs around. She's just scared.

- Favorite foods: Rice, spaghetti, any pasta, bananas ("nanny" as she calls them), grapes, blueberries, oatmeal, and yogurt.'

- Favorite things: She loves her bear and calls it, "beh, beh." She also loves her doggies and her glow worm.

- She likes signing time and is starting to learn some signs (play, please, more, all done)

- She is talking up a storm saying: mommy, daddy, bubby, done, nanny, bumpa, poppy, mamaw, play, please, Sophie ("ophie"), mmm (after she eats/drinks something her likes), and puppets lots of words. It's so fun to see how excited she gets when she says something we ask her to.

- She loves the outdoors, she would stay out there all day if I let her.

- She loves music and hums when I sing to her :)

I love this girl and am so thankful for the year the Lord has allowed me to have with her and look forward to seeing her continue to grow and learn.