For now I can make it all better....most of the time!

Broken hearted...

For now I can "make it all better" at least most of the time....I am going to enjoy that while it lasts!

What have we been doing?

Keeping things out of his mouth.....

& chasing him.....

That sums it up. Logan has kicked it up a bit & can get anywhere with his backwards crawl & rolling. I seriously think the kid is going to go from this technique to running! He has already been into things that Jacob would not have dreamed of, turned over a garbage can, fallen from pulling up onto his knees & busted his lip, torn pages in a book (Jacob NEVER tore a page in any book!) & the list goes on.... & I am with him every minute!

Oh yeah, & we are having a lot of fun with him too!

Another day for Stellan

I get very "attached." Maybe it is the nurse in me when I read of (sometimes even complete stranger's) stories, I really hurt for them. Sometimes I can't get my mind off of them. Maybe that is the prompting of the Spirit to continue to pray. I follow several blogs of sick children. It all started with Carter & I have "met" so many kids over the years. Some of them I just can't let go. This is the case with little Stellan. Maybe it is just the mother in me & I can't imagine what she is going through. So many times over the last week I have been holding my little one & just can't fathom him clinging to life. Please join me in praying...Stellan is already quite the miracle & wouldn't this be the perfect time for the Lord to really show off? Whatever the outcome is for sweet Stellan, I know the Lord has been glorified through his & his precious family. GO. PRAY.

Spring time

We've been gearing up for spring around here...I have tons of pics to catch up on but thought this pretty much said it all. This is the shortest haircut Jacob has ever had, I guess we are ready for warmer weather!

(Whose big boy is that anyway!?)

Praise Baby

The blog world is one of it's own isn't it? I have "met" so many neat people, some that I eventually get to meet in person (like Kristi a couple of weeks ago) & some that I hope to meet one day like Boomama...our worlds collide with a couple of connections/friends plus the fact I liked her from the begininng (she's a hoot) & we have a love for the south & I read about her Louisiana days. Boomama invited some of her readers to submit blog entries for the new Praise Baby blog. If you have read even one of my posts, you know very quickly that I. am. not. a. writer.

But I love my kiddos & I love exposing them to the One that makes me sing & saying just a word about that was a treat.

Check it out @ the Praise Baby Blog

We thought you should know.....

Over the last month or so, God has really used several things to encourage me & affirm over & over my calling to the ministry. At our church's ladies retreat I was able to share a little bit about my life & it was very important to me that I shared how I felt called to ministry and that I would marry someone in the ministry well before I ever met Inman. (I remember the intersection that I turned to Laura & told her & she said "like a pastor's wife?!") 

This is very helpful on long days or weeks that I know I was just as called to ministry as Inman. I realize everyone's profession brings different challenges but something I learned in our seminary days was to get a few women I could lean on. When it was just us, we could share our concerns, our frustrations, pray for one another & usually go away encouraged...most likely having laughed and cried:)

One of these times was this past weekend I got to go to the Beth Moore minister wives' conference....SO GOOD! I had a great time with both Heather Platt & Heather Whittaker. Once again, God refreshed me & affirmed the calling on our family. 

Beth Moore and her praise team really spent a lot of time preparing for this weekend & it showed. It was prayed over & specifically targeted wives of pastors & ministers. She really let her hair down too! One of the things she did to prepare was asked her blog community (ministers wives to answer only) if minister's wives were asked "We thought you should know...." What would they share with her?

Visit www.livingproofministries.blogspot.com (post from 3/18 I believe) to see the video clips we saw over the weekend. We laughed & cried but maybe we have a warped sense of humor & will cry anytime anyone else is crying:)

I will be posting those other pics I promised of our last couple of weeks but for now I need to clean my house for a new member open house tomorrow, watching these clips again gave me inspiration though!

Jacob's friend party

These pics are in the wrong order but it has taken me over a week & sitting down several times to actually post it so I just better record the event while I can!

We had a great time celebrating Jacob's 4th b-day with his friends. We weren't sure our house was ready for this crew so where else does the pastor's kid have his party? The church gym! And it was perfect! 

After all of the games, presents & cake, the kids went wild with balloons & loved it! Again, my house was not ready for that!

Present time was a little chaotic...Jacob had lots of helpers:)

Yes, I am the mother that sent your kid home with a semi-permanently stained mouth or anything else that came in contact with the fun red & blue icing. Hope you didn't have family photos scheduled or anything!

The pinata.... This was a lot of fun. The kids all had their own plan for busting it including Brooke trying to use the bat in a less traditional hold!

They were ready with their bags to collect all of the goods

We had several little stations for them to collect the items for their goody bags. (it takes a village, thanks to all my sweet friends & parents for helping:) There was a tattoo station, coloring station with spiderman & woman pictures, a "spider" walk & the pinata. All in all, it was fun. Maybe a little less chaotic than just running loose & more economical than some parties. Jacob had a blast!

For now

I have a lot to post, lots to catch up on. I still have Jacob's birthday friend b-day party & other fun pictures from last week. We are celebrating another tooth for Logan. I will get to that but for tonight, I will ask in the days ahead that you will pray for a sweet couple. Please continue to pray for Cabell & Sweeney. The news these last couple of days is not what we would hope for but we do worship One who is full of HOPE. They have spent the last several years investing in kids to share that HOPE & we will continue to pray and hope for healing for Sweeney. 

Four BOYS!

Welcome Peyton Garner! We finally got to meet Russ & Helen's new addition (we had to stay away because of our boys being sick a couple of weeks ago)

We get a kick out of the fact that betweeen us we have 4 BOYS! Can you imagine a play date in a couple of years?:)

We each have several friends that have all boys so we have lots of BOY playmates!

I was so excited to meet this little guy. And tiny he was, weighing in about 3 pounds smaller than his big brother. They grow so fast & it was fun to hold a tiny one again.

Congrats Russ & Helen!

snow day

I still can't believe it snowed! Maybe it is living in NOLA for years or maybe I am surprised that it was so late in the season, but regardless I still can't believe it.

We had a fun time in the snow yesterday again. We limited our time because Jacob picked up a cough and runny nose....maybe the 70 degree temps one day, 30 degrees the next, back to 70's again by the end of the week-ya' think?:) We are TOTALLY unprepared for snow, very few clothes that are snow friendly & no snow gear for playing. Our neighbor brought over the above for Jacob so we were able to go down the hill a few times. When we went to return it today they said to keep it, their kids are growing up! So maybe next year, we will be ready...because I WILL be getting several pairs of gloves off of end of year clearance ASAP.  (I will stock up and be ready for years & it won't snow again for another 10 years:) How do people live like this for months in the winter? I guess they have several pairs of everything. We went through some serious clothes & that was just playing for a short time! What fun though...I don't know who enjoyed it more me or Jacob!

Happy Birthday!

Logan loves going into Jacob's room every morning & this morning we took him breakfast in bed for his birthday!

I guess since this is the 2nd year, we now have a tradition....breakfast in bed (complete with "sugar" cereal...make no mistake there is plenty of sugar in all of our cereal but the bright colors convinced Jacob I had bought it on the "birthday cereal aisle.")

After church we gathered at mellow mushroom for pizza, cake & presents to celebrate the b-day boy. Being on Sunday we were trying to figure out how to make a big deal out of his b-day and this worked out well.

Jacob had a great time & spider man was the official mascot!

To top off a great day....SNOW! Who would have thought snow on March 1st? The boys check out the first snow but it kept coming!

Evening church activities were cancelled & we came home to play!

It was pretty messy since it has been raining for 3 days already but we had a great time.

It ended up snowing for hours. When I measured before dark, there was at least 3 inches. (which is a lot for us since Jacob has not seen snow since winter of '06 & that was just flurries)

Even though it was Jacob's day, we were excited that Logan got out for a few pictures of his first snow. Momma was a kid herself and made Jacob go back out later in the afternoon since I didn't get to play the first time:)

Our house is a mess....toys every where, we haven't recovered from me being gone for 3 days (preparing for & at a ladies retreat @ church), plenty to do but we have a very happy, tired 4 year old boy tucked in & 2 very happy, thankful parents! Happy birthday Jacob, we love you buddy!