Elizabeth Turns 18 Months

Elizabeth is now 18 months old!!! What is she up to these days???

She LOVES; to be outside anytime of the day, dancing to really fun music (one of her faves is The Itsy Bitsy Spider), seeing Daddy come home from work at the end of the day (She is always the 1st to greet him), eating ice cream, swinging and sliding at the park, taking baths, LOVES doggies, LOVES playing with balls, LOVES to play peak-a-boo with anyone, LOVES to read books, LOVES to eat ice,

LOVES to play "wrestle time" with the family, and LOVES to see what her big sister Sarah is up to. :-)

She is a true joy in every way!

Blessings,

Until next time...

10 Years Today!

I love you Buddy! Happy 10 Years today!!!

Not only are we celebrating a special day today but we are also celebrating the very surprising news of our 3rd baby on the way! Thank You Lord for a week full of Your blessings!

10 Years Later

Tonight we had a WONDERFUL dinner at Tripps to celebrate. Some great friends of ours kept the girls for us so we could enjoy a quiet dinner together. They had such a fun time playing with Jackson! Thanks Denise!!!

Full of thankfulness,

Until next time...

Easter Sunday 2009

Aren't they darling in their Easter dresses? Elizabeth is holding a little puppy she received and Sarah is holding a "Fur Real" Piggy with a bottle she received this morning. Thank you, thank you Aunt Connie for these sweet dresses!!!

Both of our sweet Easter girls are sporting bruises on their foreheads tough. I guess it's our hardwood floors to blame.

Today has been an absolutely wonderful Easter Sunday! The weather was beautiful and the girls have really enjoyed themselves. We kept nursery this morning so Mike and I missed the service. I did pick up a bulletin though and wanted to share some of the sermon highlights.

I thought they were really good and worth passing on:

1. The Easter event proved Jesus to be true in all He claimed to be, and all that He did.

"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead." -Romans 1:1-4 (NIV)

2. The Easter event showed that humans are not a product of random chance, and that life does not end at the grave.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them." -Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)

3. The Easter event speaks to the nature of human beings, and their serious condition.

"As it is written, 'There is no one righteous, not even one." -Romans 3:10 (NIV)

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -Romans 3:23 (NIV)

4. The Easter event proves to us we are greatly loved by God, whether we realize it or not.

"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:7-8 (NIV)

"This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." -1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)

5.The Easter event tells us there is a power available to change our lives.

"I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of His power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms." -Ephesians 1:19-20 (NLT)

"But although the world was made through Him, the world didn't recognize Him when He came. Even in His own land and among His own people, He was not accepted. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan--this rebirth comes from God." -John 1:10-13 (NLT)

Aren't these all such wonderful Scriptures to ponder on!?! I hope they are a blessing to you as they have been to me today! I am the same age Christ was when He was crucified on that Friday. It's amazing to me what He endured for all of us. As you may or may not realize, when He hung on that cruel cross, He felt each and every sin of ALL of mankind- past, present and future! There are no words to describe what He bore so that we could be set free from sin and have eternal life.

I love You Lord! Thank YOU!!!

I hope and pray that He is the One who is filling your cup this day for His glory. I'm reminded of the sweet hymn, "Knowing You Jesus, knowing You, there is no greater thing... You're my all, You're the best, You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love You Lord, and I love You Lord...." :) Bless You Lord!!!

Here are a few pictures from our Easter 2009!


Sarah smiling big with our Easter project this year. This is our hill of Calvary and notice the stone HAS BEEN ROLLED AWAY!!! :)

Daddy helping Elizabeth get her socks and shoes on.





Elizabeth getting her sippy cup out to take to church.





Our Easter egg hunt at home. And, Elizabeth's 1st egg hunt! :)



Mommy helping Elizabeth open her eggs. She LOVES to see what's inside each egg! :)



One very proud Easter egg hunter! :)




Elizabeth says, "Yippee!!! I love Easter egg hunts!" :)

Sarah blowing bubbles

Happy Easter,

Until next time...

Sarah Turns The Big 4!

This past week has been SO busy celebrating Sarah's 4th Birthday!!!! She enjoyed a small party at school with all her preschool chums, a family party at home, and finally a "girls-only" Hello Kitty party this past Saturday. Here are some pictures from the WEEK of celebrating! "Whew"..., I'm worn out from all the party fun! :-)



The birthday girl at her "High School Musical" theme school party. Elizabeth had to get right in on the birthday action too. :-)

Everyone saying the blessing before they eat.

Mommy and Sarah

Daddy LOVED coming for Sarah's party at her school.

Sarah blowing out her "number 4" candle during our little family party at home. And the little plate sitting there to your left of the cake is a "birthday dessert" plate I recently made at a local pottery place to use for our family birthday parties. Whoever is having a birthday gets to use the "special birthday plate" for their slice of cake. I'll post a better picture below so you can see it more up close. Maybe this would be a fun idea for you to try with her family. So far, it's a hit at our house. :-) This cute bunny cake above is actually a Carvel Ice Cream Cake! Mmmmmm! I just adore Carvel Ice Cream Cakes. They can be found at your local Harris Teeter - if you are not close to an actual Carvel Ice Cream Shop.

And, here are some pictures from her "Hello Kitty" party at our home the weekend after her birthday. Thanks to her Grandma for coming and helping me. I couldn't have done it all without her help! I also have to thank a very special friend of ours, Jessica for assisting me during the party. She is 11 years old- she made slushies for all the little girls, painted finger/toe nails... (the list goes on).

Sarah is out front in this picture waiting for all her friends to arrive. :-) She is wearing Hello Kitty flip-flops with her dress. She was SO excited for everyone to arrive.

Elizabeth and Jessica. I LOVE this picture!

Sarah and Grandma dyed all the eggs before her friends arrived. Aren't they beautiful!?! They did a really great job! :-)

Decorating Easter Eggs

Abigail working hard on her eggs and Elle "lovin" her slushie! :-)


Little Miss Ellie!



Don't you just love it? Check out Elizabeth... LOVING her slushie! :-) Jessica is in the background giving Elle a Hello Kitty tattoo.

One happy birthday girl! :-)

Ellie and Savannah

Love this one - Elizabeth and Grandma

Sorry for such a LONG post, but I hope you have enjoyed seeing some pictures of our past week of celebrating our sweet Sarah.

Happy Easter Week,

Until next time...

Easter Craft For Children

This is a wonderful Easter craft for your whole family to take part in. I wanted to go ahead and post pictures of ours so if you're interested you would have time to get yours ready before Easter morning arrives. I saw this idea at a recent M.O.M.S. bible study I went to and just loved it so much. So... what this is suppose to represent is the hill of Golgotha (Calvary) where Christ was crucified. What you will need to make one:

*1 large Terra Cotta saucer (the larger the better- mine could actually be a little bigger but it works)

*1 small Terra Cotta pot

*potting soil

*rye grass seed

*sticks from your yard

*stone/rock

*hot glue gun or twine/string

*flowers

*small white fabric

*something to mist the grass seed with

Tonight we put ours together. It was really a lot of fun! Sarah loved helping us and learning a little about what actually took place. I hope this project will help to provide a visual for her to better understand what Christ did for us so long ago.

I've provided pictures to give you an idea of how to put it together. We picked sticks and a rock from our yard. Daddy used a hot glue gun to mold the sticks together to make the 3 crosses. Be sure and mist the grass every day and within 3 or 4 days the grass should begin to grow.

On Good Friday explain as best you can the story of Good Friday and that Christ was crucified and was placed in the tomb. If you have a small figure of Christ... or I'm probably going to try and draw one on card stock and cut it out - have the children watch you place Him in the tomb. Explain that 3 days later He rose from the dead to eternal life so that we also may live forever one day with Him. Yay!!! On Easter morning when the children go to look - they will find that the stone has been rolled away and all that is left inside the tomb is the white burial cloths that were used to put around Jesus. He has risen!!! I'm planning to also place pretty little yellow flowers around the saucer to make it look fresh and spring-like for Easter morning. But once the grass has grown in, it looks just beautiful! This is our kitchen table centerpiece now through Easter. I will post some more pictures of ours as the grass begins to grow. :)

Here is Sarah putting out the grass seed. She can't wait for the grass to begin growing.

"Finally Pilate handed Him over to them to be crucified. So the solders took charge of Jesus. Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified Him, and with Him two others - one on each side and Jesus in the middle." -John 19:16-18

Remembering what He did for us,

Until next time...