My Handsome Boy!

It has been a little while since I wrote last, but I joined the whole Facebook scene and have been reconnecting with people from way back on there.  I was so against the whole thing for a while obviously but I figured that if I really want to reconnect with people and stay connected with them, that was the thing I needed to do.  I prefer the blog thing because it is more personal and in some ways more user friendly, like if you want to see all the old prego pics of me you can just click on pregnancy under labels and voila you have all my entries from when I was pregnant!  Haha!  And you get to decorate your blog which is more expressive of me than a white wall!  Plus I don't really like how on Facebook you are told of every move someone makes including friends of friends that you don't even know yourself!  That is my friends business not mine.

Anyway, it has been spring weather for sure this last week here in Montana!  So beautiful, I have even broke out my Capri's which some people have commented that it is a little early but it is beautiful.  Yesterday it got up into the 60's and we went for a little family stroll on a trail that kind of goes through town and it was very busy with bikers, dogs with their owners and others like us.

Another fun thing we did this weekend was go to Pier 1 Imports, we wanted to check out there sushi dishes and supplies since Tom wants to start making our own sushi at home.  What a fun store, I was wondering why we didn't register there when we got married.  I was wishing that Tom made like 20k more a year when we were in that store but then we wouldn't fit in our apartment!  Course we probably wouldn't live in our apartment if he did!

Titus is just a curious little man as I am sure any baby is, he is exploring cupboards and anywhere he can get his little body into.  He has balanced standing about a handful or so times this last weekend hands free!  I am sure anytime he will just take off walking.  He is so much fun and such a sweet blessing.  He is just starting to get his first top tooth in, I have seen it peering under the gum line for about a week now and I think it is just breaking thru!  That will add his fourth tooth to his sweet little grin! Oh and he loves papaya, new food on his list.

Titus with one of his favorite new toys to play with, thanks auntie Rachelle for thinking of him when you needed to get rid of it.

I think his favorite part is when you look in the mirror with him and say, "Who's that baby?"  He always gets a big grin on his face.

Hope You're Inspired!

I was thinking this morning about my days in Bolivia back in the summer of 2004 that I had for a month or so and was missing them.  Missing living in a situation where I was more dependent on God, missing living in a situation where I was given more opportunity to live out my faith.  But maybe that is just my perspective, maybe I just take for granted my living situation now.  I still need God here just as much now as I did there and I have opportunities to live out my faith here just as much as I did there.  Maybe I am just intimidated by the American culture and way of thinking.  We don't see our own desperate need for God like people in other countries because we don't live in desperate situations like them.  But our souls are just as desperate for a Savior as the next person.  Our souls are destined for one destination after death just like theirs are, eternal life with God or eternal damnation apart from Him.

In my missing of those days, I tried to go searching for some of my teammates from that trip with New Tribes Mission and was not successful in finding those people in particular.  But I did find an old classmate from my days at New Tribes Bible Institute and found her and her husbands website and saw this video that goes exactly with what I am feeling.  Hope you enjoy and get inspired!

When You Find a Great Thing, You Better Share It!

Hey I wanted to share something great with all of you out there that actually read this, especially any parents.  I was introduced to these awesome Cd's about 2 years ago by my wonderful aunt who has always been such a great example in my Christian walk.  They are awesome for memorizing scripture, so if your child is in AWANAS or goes to a private school where they have to memorize verses, these would be an awesome tool to use, if the verses they need are on the CD that is.  The lyrics are taken right from the NIV Bible, and  feature some great artists you may recognize such as Matthew West.  It is very enjoyable for the whole family, it won't be one of those kids Cd's that drive the parent crazy, I promise, I love them myself at this point more than Titus!  Anyway they are put out by Seeds Family Worship and you may be able to get them at your local Christian bookstore, I got them through http://www.christianbook.com/ and I paid $10.99 AND the surprise that I found when I received it was that it is packaged by Seeds with 2 Cd's so that you have one to keep and one to share!  So you only pay $5.50 per CD!  That is a great deal for a great CD!  You can also get them directly through the Seeds website http://www.seedsfamilyworship.com/  for $12.98, they have all 6 Cd's available there, so check it out and I do have one song on my play list below if you want to check out the style, the song is called "Mighty to Save" by Seeds Family Worship (#55).  Enjoy!

"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.  And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." -Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Hello All!

It has been a little while since I actually wrote an update, so I thought I would do that this morning even though I am sure most of you just enjoy the pictures of our adorable little blessing in this home!

As you can see from my design change I am getting anxious for Spring to arrive, just to get outside and enjoy beautiful warm sunshine with Tom and Titus will be fun and refreshing.  We did get some fresh snow last night so it does look quit crisply beautiful outside now.  And we always have visiting deer outside our living room window in the gully below our apartment and they are much easier to spot with fresh snow on the ground than dead grass at this point revealed through as the snow melts away.  So I will be thankful for the snow but still long for Spring to come in my heart. 

Spring brings newness of life and reminds us of the new life we have in Christ especially with Easter approaching and we get to celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death in this world with His Resurrection.  He takes the old sin nature we have and gives us the opportunity to live with a new sinless nature, reminding us that every morning His mercy is new for us.  We have a choice of which nature we want to follow and please, ours or His?  Do we want to speak words of death or words of life into someone else's life?  Do we want to live a defeated life or do we want to live a loved life?  Do we want to feel like an old muddy pond day in and day out or a spring in the mountains with fresh, clean water coming up through us each moment?  Do we want to feel like we live in a rut or live with purpose and a mission in life from the Author of Life Himself?  Just some food for thought for you.

This last weekend we got to enjoy some time with the Sells (smallies) kids.  Daisy had a little weekend "getaway" with a girlfriend here in town, they didn't want to travel far because you never know what the weather might do here.  So Sunday after church we went over for our "shift" of the weekend for her which was till she got home around dinner time.  It was so much fun, if we had a big enough place I am not sure that 5 children would be that bad honestly.  Mia wanted to make some of her own kitchen creations so I was up for letting her get into it.  She made a "blueberry shake" with the blender.  Which included of course frozen blueberries, ice cubes, a little water and a little strawberry syrup?  Her and Sior thoroughly enjoyed it so I guess it was good.  Then she wanted to attempt to make a homemade cinnamon roll!  She mixed some flour, water, an egg and some cinnamon together and we baked it in the oven!  I knew it wouldn't turn out but I was kind of busy making lunch and then trying to get Titus to nap and the twins to nap while she was making her concoction.  And when it came out of the oven she put a packet of that raspberry Emergen-C stuff on top of it!  Yikes!  Then Sior decided he wanted to get in on the fun so we made a real yellow cake from a box and decided it was a "Welcome Home Mom" cake, (auntie Carrie's way of not letting them eat some until mom got home).  It was complete with Rainbow Sprinkle frosting!  And then I decided I wanted to make banana bread too since Daisy had some good ripe bananas perfect for it.  Both Mia and Sior helped me with that too.  They actually did the mixing and cracking of the eggs and most of the work and I loved it.  So I told them that they will have to come spend the night with us and we can make real homemade cinnamon rolls.  Poor Titus did not nap for us though which we were afraid that would happen, in a "strange" place and the twins love to make lots of noise and play very loudly before they actually fall asleep so it was not going to work for him.  But Tom ended up separating them because he could tell one was sleepy and the other was just instigating.  So only 1 out of the 3 children needing naps got one.  But Titus went to bed pretty early after we got home cuz he was so tired so that was nice, I just felt bad cuz he got extremely crabby.

Titus got to explore crawling up steps for the first time two Sundays ago!  I knew he could do it if given the chance, we just don't have any steps so we tried it at church and he went right up them!  I was kind of surprised!  Then this last Sunday we did it again and again during the Sunday School hour, I guess the part I will have to teach is coming down the steps?!

Oh I am attempting to learn how to knit!  I bought this teaching book with the tools and an instructional DVD too.  It was funny, with the first two lessons in the book so far it has been hard for me to just get it and then I watch the video and I still have trouble.  But my wonderful husband who probably wouldn't want you to know this is a quick learner and after watching the video he knew what she was doing and he taught me the first two lessons which is all I've done so far!  He is amazing, I told him I married him because he would teach me how to knit!  Lol!  No then I told him it was because he can do anything he puts his mind to!  That is partly true for me!  So I am very excited because I have recently just wanted to learn something like that where you can make your own things and I think my first project will be a baby blanket for my precious boy!  Can't wait, I will have to post pics.

Must go my sweet little man is awake from his nap now.

The Juggling Act!

Titus has had a hard time napping this week or so, he is sleepy and crabby but every time mommy lays him down he wakes up!  This became most frustrating this morning to me when it happened again and Tom was gone playing basketball and I had to deal with it on my own.  So I thought I had him down for the second try shortly after Tom got home but once I left the room he started crying again and I couldn't handle it.  I just got in the shower and left Tom to handle it.  Shortly after I got out I heard this hysterical laughter coming from his room and I had to catch it on video to share with you.  Enjoy!