Mother's Day Monkey Business

Here are a few pictures from our Mother's Day photo opt:

He looks good in that new suit, doesn't he!

Sadie Grace Dedicated

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Earlier today, Jim and I had the honor of standing before our church congregation and dedicating our precious fourth born, Sadie Grace, to the Lord. Today we not only dedicated her, we willingly submitted Sadie to the will of God, while at the same time acknowledged the command of God upon our lives to raise her to love, honor, and obey Christ above all things. This is nothing less than a command to teach her the Gospel, show her the Gospel, and love her with the Gospel each and every day. Jim and I are so thankful to have been entrusted with the care of this precious little girl, and we take our responsibility to bring her up to love and serve the Lord seriously.

Sadie,
We are absolutely in awe of the gift that God gave our family in you. You bring your daddy, mommy, big brothers and sister such joy each and every day. It is hard to comprehend that as great as our love is, God's love for you is infinitely greater! We have so many hopes and dreams for you, Sadie, most importantly that you would come to understand His amazing love and know Jesus as your Lord and Savior at a young age and live for Him your whole life. We pray that God would help us as your parents to model that love and guide you always toward Him. We can't wait to see what wonderful things He has in store for your life. We love you so, so much, Precious Girl!

To My Mom:

My Mom is a remarkable woman and an amazing Mom! 

Mom, 

It was 32 years ago that you were celebrating your first Mother's Day. You were only 20 years old and I was only 2 months old. I am sure that I was sleeping through the night with a belly full of formula and rice cereal, no doubt. This is my Mother's Day present to you this year. 32 years later:

You are an incredible woman and an amazing MOM! You exhaust yourself taking care of those around you and you truly only want what is best for those you love. You give of yourself tirelessly without expecting anything in return and you find true joy in the happiness of your children. 

You have always been a great source of strength for Colt and me. While growing up we knew we could always count on you and now as adults, we still turn to you for advice, support and encouragement.

Mom, you always place our needs above your own and make sure that we are well provided for and that we always have what we need. Thank you for always striving to make us feel important and showing us how much we are loved. I cannot think of an instance when I have ever doubted your love for me. 

Thank you for always giving of your time, your energy.  Thank you for always knowing what I need, even when I don’t know it myself.  Thank you for being such a blessing in my life.  Thank you for being you.

I count myself blessed because it is a honor to have you as my Mom. I am so thankful God created me and allows me to be your daughter. I count it a great joy to spend the rest of our lives not only as mother and daughter, but as friends.

Happy Mother's Day!

We love you!

Jim, Stephanie, Jake, Judd, Anna Kate, and Sadie!

p.s. I chose the picture above and not the one from the blizzard at our house! You know that you love me!

Love

He loves this little girl!

6:45 p.m.

Thankfulness #209-228

I am thankful for 


209. Living He loved me
210. Dying He saved me
211. Buried He carried my sins far away
212. Rising He justified
213. One day He's coming
214. new Easter outfits
215.10 more days of school
216. growth and new life
217. Victory in Jesus
218. Jesus is alive and the tomb is empty
219. having Easter lunch with friends.

220. the flashlight Easter Egg hunt
221. seeing Sadie do a standing ta-daaah at six months old

222. capturing this sweet moment

 223. seeing Anna Kate "hide" from me. She thinks that I can't see her.

224.  silly pictures

225. Our first strawberry harvest

226. Jake losing his second tooth. (Pic to come)

227. this smile

228. Bianca, our Compassion, child in Peru.

Thankfulness #193-208

193. the coos and gabbering of Little Sadie as she is going to sleep. She loves to "talk."
194. Anna Kate turning 3.
195. a Fancy Nancy birthday party with 3 of Anna Kate's girl friends at church.
196. being a mommy to two little girls.
197. a safe flight to Georgia
198. making it through security in Memphis with two girls, one stroller, and three bags.
199. a magnificent vist with my mom and the girls.
200. coming to Elko and seeing family. My Dad, Brother, Grandfather, Granny-Peggy all came to visit.

201. seeing one of my best friends, Kelli Sikes. We even had a sleep over and stayed up entirely too late.
202. that Sadie let me sleep in after I stayed up so late.
203. for my husband spending time with the "boys" while the "girls" were in Georgia.
204. my kids getting to spend time with and know their great granddaddy!

205. that God is still God and God is still good.
206. An Elko sunset

207. for Crosspointe choir and the dedication to record such an awesome, God honoring CD.
208. our first t-ball practice

Fancy Kate Turns 3

Today we celebrated Anna Kate's 3rd birthday. She has been telling us for months that she wanted to have an all "girls" party without any boys, however, she did want her Daddy and brothers to come. We decided to have a Fancy Nancy Party. We invited 3 of her friends from church and asked that they come in their "fanciest" ensemble.  


This is our two days in pictures:


Yesterday, I put her down for her nap and at bed time in her crib for the last time. It was a bittersweet moment because that was the last time I was ever going to put her in her crib. It was just one of those mommy moments!

 This was the last time I got her out of the crib after nap time!

 7:15 a.m. Birthday streamers

 9:45 a.m. All dressed up and waiting for the party guests...

 Fancy Nancy Cake

 10:00 a.m. The guests started arriving....

 All of the fancy activities: stickers and painting!

 11:00 Cake and parfaits

 Noon: PRESENTS!

Her three year old letter is to come.....

4:16 p.m.

Typical Monday!

Laundry, Toys, School, Babies and Life! My Ordinary Life!

A Whole Hand + 1 Finger

This post is just a bit late:

A momentous occasion occurred in our house on Sunday. Jake now has to use a whole hand plus + 1 finger on the other hand to count his age. Two hands, does it really take two hands now?

Friday night we celebrated his birthday at Cordova Bowling Center. He has been planning a bowling party since February of last year. It was a lot of fun and he really enjoyed his birthday party. For Christmas, he received Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. He and Judd have a lot of fun playing during their designated times each weekend. This is one of his favorites so he asked to have a Super Mario cake this year. 

Since his birthday was on a Sunday this year, he was fortunate enough to get to go to church, decide where we got to eat after church and then home for cake and presents. He received a lot of games this year, and we have throughly enjoyed playing all of them as a family. 

If you look closely you can see that he was given some money! He was excited!

Jake: 6 years ago you changed our lives forever. We went from being a couple, to being a family. 6 years. My first born, I can't remember today what it feels like to hold that little chubby hand with those sweet cheeks. It happened without me knowing, and I try so hard, but I can't remember what it feels like to squeeze that sweet baby chub. It is gone from my memory. How is that possible? I wipe away happy tears as I sit here watching you play Mario on the Wii, a rare Sunday afternoon treat since after all today is your special day, and I remember back on how fast this time has flown.  And if it weren't for who you are now- honest, helpful, a leader, silly, I would be sad today. Well, maybe I am still a little sad.  Time sometimes seems like an enemy, doesn't it?


When you were born you weighed 7.1 lbs and now you weigh 58.2 lbs and you are 47 3/4 inches. I am utterly amazed a how quickly you are growing. As of right now, you are wearing a size 7 pants because all of the size 6 pants are entirely too short. 


We are getting close to the end of your Kindergarten year. This year has been a pure joy! I have enjoyed teaching you. I have enjoyed having you are home with me each day. I have needed and appreciated all of your help since Sadie was born. You are an amazing big brother and best friend to your siblings. My heart melts when I see you loving, playing and holding Sadie. I couldn't ask for a better son. You are so giving and thoughtful. Yes, you can drive me absolutely nuts,making random noises, touching and invading others personal space, but you are an awesome kid with a kind heart. God had blessed me in a huge way on February 27, 2005 when he allowed me to become your Mommy! Please don't ever stop learning about and pursing Jesus. Remember when you are afraid you can trust Jesus! I love to see you reading your Bible and memorizing the Word each week for AWANA. Your brain is truly amazing. I am sure that I have left out so much but know that I love you, Jacob Clayton and I am so proud of you. 


Jake, remember a good Bible is the most important possession you have. It is the most important book you will ever read. It is God’s book. My hope is that you will read it for yourself and love that book, not because your parents are standing over you, asking you to read it, but because God puts a desire in your heart to know Him and His word. That would be such a joy to me.

As we pray for continued wisdom, guidance and understanding from God in parenting you. We also pray for your future and your walk with God! Enjoy this year!

Thankfulness #172-192

I am thankful for:

172. silly faces

173. the smell of freshly cut grass! (Oh how I missed cutting grass)
174. a hubby that was able to fix both lawnmowers in one day.
175. the birth of Logan Barnes.
176. matchbox trucks and toothbrushes. (Judd was waiting to brush his teeth).

177. siblings playing so well together on a warmer day.

178. high heel dress-up and purses. They are never far from this little girls hands.

179. sweet smiles! Who can get tired of these? When do we stop smiling so much? When does life change?

180. my first tomato sandwich of the season....tomatoes, miracle whip and a whole lotta salt!!!yum!
181. ur first Awana Grand Prix. Go #6!

182. Sadie sleeping until 4 a.m. and then until 7:30 a.m.
183. Sweet I love you Cards from Judd.
183. Seeing my boys curl up with their Daddy to watch the NCAA Championship.
184. Pick and Draw, a new game for the boys.

185. marvelous grace!
186. grace greater than all my sin!
187. a fun game of Twenty Questions while finishing dinner tonight. Really, who would have guessed the Sun?
188. seeing Sadie sit all by herself for the first time today.
189. getting to be a stay at home mommy!
190. getting to homeschool Jake.
191. the obedience lessons that we are learning about this week.
192. MY life! I am beyond blessed!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I took a photo today for the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. 

This is where our garden will grow! 

Plans:

This is our first year gardening. We are so excited to see how well we will do this year. We have built and are planning to use four raised beds. We are planting vegetables and flowers in three of them while using the other for compost.

We have already started planting carrots and strawberries. We are going to finish planting the rest of the vegetables and flowers this week.

What will we grow?
We are going to focus on just a few things that:

1. we enjoy eating as a family. 
2. that are "supposedly" easy to grow.

Here is our list:

1. carrots
2. bell peppers
3. strawberries
4. watermelon
5. corn
6. cucumbers
7. squash

We are also planting sunflowers. 

Resources:

I have already printed  Gardening Preschool Pack and I must confess that I'm looking forward to the 15 page BONUS for joining the Gardening Challenge!

Involving the kids:

This entire garden has been Jake's idea. He began asking to plant a garden last summer. Since it was so late in the season we told him that we would plant one this year. His birthday is at the end of February and he received Home Depot gift cards. This is when we built the raised beds, bought the soil and seeds. Jake will work right along side Jim and me in preparing the garden. We will read The Carrot Seed and The Tale of Peter Rabbit to go along with the Gardening Preschool Pack. We cannot wait to see this garden grow!