Cuteness

I couldn't resit sharing a few impromptu photos of the cuteness that I have opportunity to see everyday!

This is as good as it gets when a redheaded 2 year old is involved!

Big and little brothers

Merry Christmas everybody!:)

Teammates

Nathan and I have been so blessed to be a part of FBC Malakoff. To be perfectly honest Malakoff would not have made it on my top ten best places to live list if you had asked me a few years ago. I never really thought much about Malakoff it was just a town that I drove through time and time again on my way to my parents house in San Antonio. Never in a million years would I have imagined that God would call us to Malakoff. But... I am so glad He did! What a blessing it has been to get to know the people here and to get to serve along side them. I have especially been touched by our church's willingness to "get out of the boat" and reach out to those who are in NEED of a savior. Instead of sitting back and waiting on people to come to us this church is going out to the people and meeting their needs in the name of JESUS. This church is making a DIFFERENCE. I love this place!

I am especially thankful for the staff that God has given Nathan to work with. They are his teammates, his partners, and his friends. Each of them brings such life and light to our church. As much as I appreciate and love each one of them we seldom get the time to just hang out or visit with each other. Thanks to Donna this year was different!

This week we had a progressive dinner around Star Harbor. The food was WONDERFUL but the company was unbeatable. We started off at our house where Nathan gave each staff member something to celebrate the Christmas season with...

What is Christmas without a Marshmallow gun fight?? Can't you just see how much fun they have together. Watch out next time you're at the church...marshmallows hurt when they hit your eye...just ask Kaden...he got caught in the crossfire during the battle.

From our house we headed out the Donna and John's house for the main course. Their home is stunningly beautiful and the sauce she made for the sweet potatoes...oh my!

For dessert we went to Kim and Eric's where enjoyed Eric's sour cream twists...(yum) and other desserts. Kim has two beautiful trees up and all of her past Christmas pictures are out on display...too cute.

It was a wonderful night that we shared with some of our favorite people.!

Frosty the Snowman

This week we decided to have some friends over to make snowmen out of paver bricks. It was something my friend Kasey did with her students last year and it was just too cute to pass up. This has by far been one of my favorite things about having Kaden at home this year...I have gotten to do so many exciting things with him. I love seeing him create things...he has a great imagination! I am not the most creative person but I do want to make sure I encourage creativity in my children. After all...if I am teaching my children to be like God it definitely involves creativity...He is the ultimate creator.

Speaking of creativity here are some creative photos that KADEN took!

I love this picture of the "supplies"! For some reason I have a thing for school supplies...I love to color with new crayons!

Pictures of some of his creations...

Karter is still not at the age where he really enjoys the whole project but he did have fun painting for about 2 minutes and he liked picking out the pom poms for his buttons. We are so blessed to have other friends in the neighborhood to create with! Thanks for making some really cute snowmen with us Rance, Austin, and Kaitlyn!

Fruits

I have been doing school with Kaden for 16+ weeks. We have learned sight words and word family words, we have colored, played games, learned bible verses, the works. I have really seen him grow in his academic knowledge but have wondered if he was really catching on to the biblical character traits we have been learning. Things like being content and attentive, being thankful and patient. I feel like I am constantly saying the same things. Kaden, please listen...Kaden are you having a good attitude...Kaden be patient. All the while I have wondered if it has been getting into that brain of his.

The other night God gave me just the smallest taste of the things He is doing through my efforts to train our son to be a godly young man.

We had the opportunity to have Trenton and Jonah Estes over for the evening to play. The boys had played their little hearts out when Kaden and Trenton decided to color. Trenton watched Kaden for a while and decided he wanted to color the same thing that Kaden was coloring. Trenton tried his best and then looked at Kaden and said "I can't". Kaden turned to Trenton and said "you can do it...be patient...keep practicing...I will help you". It was so sweet and I was so thankful that God allowed me to be in the room to over hear their conversation. I am sure God knew I was in need of just a little encouragement. Thanks Lord!

6 months...Really?

Our sweet Kolson is 6 months old. I am not sure where the time has gone. He is still holding on tight to his title as "pure sweetness". Even my Dad, who is not a baby person, loves to hold this sweet little guy.

I am not sure if it is because there is a possibility that he could be my last baby or the fact that I am not as nervous as I was with Kaden and Karter but I am so enjoying this little one.

I find myself taking time to memorize his "baby smell" and the way his sweet cheeks feel next to mine. His sweet baby sounds and the way he sucks in his breath when something really excites him is music to my ears.I love that he just wants me to hold him in the evenings before bed time. He is so happy and loves to smile. It doesn't take much to get a laugh from this little guy. I am praying that as he grows he will always be full of such joy and that he will come to know our precious savior the giver of pure joy.

We love you so much Kolson Noah!

Change of plans...

We wanted to have a family picture made this month....

I guess we will have to wait on that!

Poor little Karty feel today during a squabble with Kaden and this was the result. Everyone's advice to me is to "get used to it...boys will be boys"! Karter is such a trooper, he barely cried. Of course I freaked out and called my nurse friend to come over and have a look (Thanks D'ann)! But all is well and mommy is praying for no scaring to that sweet little face of his.

Maybe someday we will get a family picture!:)

The Blind Side

On Thanksgiving my parents gave Nathan and I the RARE opportunity to have a date! We were so excited...we felt like kids at Christmas getting out of the car with nothing to carry and the only hands to hold were each other's. We lived it up and ordered popcorn and a large coke!:) I went into this movie not knowing much about it...hey, I like Sandra Bullock and I knew it was a movie about football so I thought it was a great choice that would appeal to both of us. I had no idea how God was about use this movie to reach out and grab out hearts.

God has been doing something unexplainable in our hearts lately. To be honest we are not sure what it is or what He is trying to lead us to do. We just know that He is working and we want to be willing, open, and available to WHATEVER He has for us.

Recently I have been previewing a new book for our next bible study. It is called "Lies Women Believe" what really stuck out to me was when the author, Nanci Lee Demoss, said that if Satan can't get us on the BIG lies like abortion or adultery he will certainly try to get us on the small lies. The little subtly things he sneaks into our lives.

When I saw this movie I was struck by Sandra Bullock's character and her willingness to serve in a small way that eventually lead to serving in a way that changed her life and the life of the boy she was serving. But how often does Satan get us on the small lies, lies like...oh that doesn't really make a difference, or who cares if you are nice and polite to the cashier, or somebody else will come along and give that homeless person a meal or some money, or even better when Satan convinces us that we shouldn't give because they won't use it in the right way. As my sweet friend Jennifer pointed out last night, we are held accountable for what we do for those in need and not for what those people do with what we have given.

My heart is so full and I could probably write a whole book but I will end this blog by saying...yes this movie has it's ugly parts but it is all together inspiring and a great picture of what can happen when we put our own desires, and the worries about what others will think to the side all for the good of serving someone else.

So my question for myself and anyone reading this is....what are you doing to help others with what God has given you?