Always Forgiven

love the words to this song.....I most definitely needed to be reminded tonight...check out Sovereign Grace Ministries to hear it....

I don’t deserve to be Your servant
And how much less to be Your child
Anger and wrath, sure condemnation
Should be my portion, my just reward
Never have seen it, never will know it
Your loving kindness enfolds my life

All You have shown me is
Grace, love and mercy
Now and forever I am Your child
Freely You pour outYour loving kindness
Father of grace
You welcome me in

All of the sin I have committed
Was placed upon Your righteous Son
And now You see me through His perfection
As if I’d never done any wrong
Always forgiven, always accepted
No fear of judgment before Your throne

Goodnight Gorilla...

I know you must be wondering...... "Goodnight Gorilla?" Well let me tell you it is Luke's absolute favorite book - thanks to the Ferst Foundation. This is a literacy foundation that sends all three of my kids books in the mail once a month for free!! It is so much his favorite that the first copy of it is tattered and torn ... in fact I almost threw it away but decided for sentimental reasons to keep it and put it along side his baby book which is half empty but that is another story. Fortunately when I called the foundation to sign Ethan up I was telling the girl on the phone how much Luke loved Goodnight Gorilla and how we read it all the time so much so that it was getting to be unreadable.... you will not believe it but she sent us another copy - FREE and wrote Luke a sweet letter about reading. This was was in my book no pun intended second mile service - as if getting free books wasn't already going the second mile??!! Well I happened to be in Target with my mom before Christmas and you won't believe what is on video... you guessed it Goodnight Gorilla!! So needless to say he got it for Christmas and we watched it tonight. It is only about 8 minutes long so we watched it twice and he sat on the couch with his book while he watched!! It was so precious. After watching I of course had to read it to him and I always have him help me read it because now he knows it by heart. So when we come to each animal I ask him what kind of animal it is and tonight when we got to the Lion he says "that's a lion - probably Aslan." For those of you who don't know Aslan is from The Chronicles of Narnia. It was humorous to me not so much the Aslan part but the probably in front of Aslan.... So now if you can get a hold of a copy go read Goodnight Gorilla and if you haven't seen either Narnia movies - watch those too!! Let us know what you think!! (Amy -you should be proud several posts in a row!!)

Thank you Amy

Ethan and I say thank you - we did it!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Always playing catch up...

So it seems to me since we added a baby to the mix I am always playing catch up ... on everything .. house cleaning, laundry, picture taking, sewing, and obviously blogging! I keep telling myself if I would just post as things came along as opposed to letting pictures and memories all pile up. Since my last post we have had Thanksgiving, anniversaries, birthdays, play dates, parties, musicals, more parties, cookie baking, Christmas and a new year!! I will try to update you as best as possible without writing a novel.

This past week Ethan turned 3 months old. I can't believe how fast time is flying by!! He is such a sweet baby!! He has the most precious smile!! He recognizes me and it just melts my heart. I have even heard a laugh or two. He has been on the search for his thumb - taking after his brothers. He got an activity mat for Christmas and just loves to be on it. Other than that he still just eats and sleeps - what a life!!

Luke - hold on is what I tell myself when I am with him which is 24/7!! He is as busy as a bee always into something. We recently potty trained and he is doing so well - I am sooo grateful! Now that he goes "potty" he thinks he is ready for school. His vocabulary is expanding and he says so many funny things. He absolutely loves music. He is always singing - not always the right lyrics but he definitely has a song in his heart!! He has an insane fetish with cell phones - he got several for Christmas!! He is so full of life and excitement!!

School has been out for the last two weeks and Nathan is loving life! He is doing so well in school and mommy just loves seeing him learn. I love the excitement in his voice when he thinks he has figured something out. For example a few weeks ago they were learning the letter "m" and at one point in the afternoon we were talking about words that start with "m" well after I had put him to bed he hollered to me "Mom I know what else starts with "m"...... "mvelope"! He was so thrilled to have figured one out. It was priceless. He is still very much into guns and camou!! And he got some of both for Christmas. We are still in the phase where he asks everyday if he can wear his camou clothes!! I cannot believe my eyes when I look at him sometimes. Where did the time go??

David is still loving his job at CFA. It just seems like yesterday he got his promotion to BC (business consultant) and here it has been exactly a year. He has been home this month but will hit the road again in January. And of course there is seminar in February which I will unfortunately miss this year. He has done alot of hunting this season but no meat in our freezer. The season ended this week here in GA but he has one last trip he will take this month in AL.

Me - I am just playing "catch up"!! And feeling very blessed. I love life and being able to watch my children grow every day. I am thankful to God for the special privilege I have of being a mommy.

Well that is what is up with us for the moment. I know I always say this but I will try to be a more diligent blogger :) I hope you my dear friends and readers had a most wonderful blessed holiday season! I am praying that 2009 brings you much joy and happiness as we all wait patiently upon our God and King! May we live our lives in such a way that brings honor and glory to the risen King!!

Happy 2009

I am sitting here next to Luke who has been talking to me non-stop as I catch up on other blogs and I realize I must catch up Hopefully I will get to this sometime soon. For now if you have facebook I have posted some recent pics on there. Hey Amy Cathy if you happen to read this can you tell me how to send pics from my new blackberry to this blog site - I read that you helped Connie!! Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!

My favorite time of year....

This is absolutely hands down my most favorite time of the year!!! I love Thanksgiving and I am a Christmas fanatic!!! And to have cold weather this time of year is fabulous and a bit unusual!! David put a fire in the fireplace the other night and the boys were just fascinated - more so Luke than Nathan - but both were enthralled!! I decided to make us some hot chocolate. Yummo!! Of course both boys had to have some!

Hot chocolate and fire places make me think of the Winshape Retreat Center. If you ever have the opportunity to visit - please do so!!

Ammonia...

As most of you know Nathan made a trip to the emergency room at Scottish Rite this past week. We are very grateful that Nathan did not have an appendicitis as we had expected - he did however have pneumonia. He missed most of school last week but we allowed him to go on Thursday so he could take part in their Thanksgiving Feast. While he was at school the class was going to be going outside and Nathan told Ms. Dana one of his teachers that he had to wear his hat outside because he didn't want to get "ammonia" and have to go back to the hospital!!

This is a recent picture of him one morning before church. It was actually probably several weeks ago seeing as how I have had sick kids the past few weeks! Isn't he so handsome!!

Mischief part II

Soo.......I have been tracking back time to see how mischievous my little Luke is these are the things I can remember..... the last few being just in this week.....

1. dumps out the contents of my purse - eats all my little york peppermints - busted with a super chocolatey face

2. hides all of our important electronics (ie blackberry, ipod) in the back of the pantry along with stashing a few oreo cookies

3. dumps out the contents of my purse again (I am putting this to what I thought was out of reach) eating the entire travel sized bottle of tums. "yummy candy mommy..."

4. colors on himself with marker

5. tips over the cradle with Ethan in it - Ethan is fine - please do not call dfacs :)

6. dumps the cereal out onto the floor and all over in the pantry (I know I should get a lock for this door)

7. unrolls a roll of paper towels into the toilet

8. colors on self again this time with a sharpie "i color on newt mommy" newt is what he calls himself because apparently it sounds very much like Luke.


I am sure there are other things that I am just not remembering. You are probably wondering what in the world kind of parent I am that he gets into this much mischief. I often wonder myself. But you cannot leave this kid alone for one second!!! Let's hope Ethan's personality is not as mischievous as Lukes!!

Mischief

This is what happens when I nurse Ethan. Luke gets into all sorts of things. Mischief is his middle name. Thankfully the walls and carpet were spared he only colored all over himself with markers - particularly orange and brown.

Surprise

I know I have said before that I have the best husband ever - but it is sooo true!! You are probably wondering what he did this time so let me just tell you!!

As you know he travels a good bit and we just had a baby so you can imagine it has been awhile since we have been on a date. So about a week ago after he had been on a trip he said he wanted to take me out somewhere nice because you know he gets to do nice things when he is out of town - you have seen the pictures! Really though it doesn't bother me. I was fine with going out but I thought we should just stay local and hit up the Olive Garden or something - at this point in my life anything out with my hubby was going to be considered fine dining. Besides we were going to have to take Ethan anyway so close was fine with me - but no David insists we go to Maggiano's. I actually tried to talk him out of it and really I tried to reschedule the date - he had told me he was going to be pushing getting home because of meetings and such and that I should wear something a little nice so we are not mismatched so to speak. I could not understand why just not reschedule - but no - I must admit this had be wondering. But he closed that suspicion when he told my mom we would be home by 8. See I had been really wanting to see the musical Wicked and it was going to be playing at the Fox in Atlanta so I thought maybe but like I said he told my mom we would be home early so I didn't think twice about it. Besides he had said to me awhile back when I told him I wanted to see it that he would rather wait and see it in NYC and how would I watch a show with a baby so I really didn't think another thing about it.

So on our date night we head out to Maggiano's - David, myself and Ethan. And I was sooo tired!! I can remember thinking on the way I hope I am at least decent conversation since we are going all the way to Buckhead to eat!!! We arrive and I need to feed Ethan... I want to feed him in the van but David says we need to go on in and he is sure they will have a special room to feed him in. Okay they didn't but that is beside the point. I was surprised to meet our best friends David and Angie there!! What a surprise!! It was a surprise for Angie as well!! The last time the 4 of us had been out together was in July!! So I fed Ethan in the bathroom and then got to enjoy a wonderful dinner with our great friends!! About 7:30 ish David kind of abruptly is ready to go. He had told me he had work to do when we got home so I wasn't really caught off guard but I remember thinking he was kind of abrupt and dinner and our fun was over. He makes sure I can wait to feed Ethan when we get home which was totally fine. So home we head. I am actually thinking of taking a quick nap on the way home knowing I will have to feed Ethan when I get home. We get in a little traffic due to an accident and just some traffic. David begins to change lanes toward exits and he is talking about how he wonders if Ga. Tech has a game because of all the traffic and I am asking have they even started playing basketball and then he proceeds to get off the exit and I am thinking man he really wants to see if they are playing ... and finally I ask what are you doing ... to which he replies ... " I thought we would go and see Wicked!!" I was ecstatic asking if he was for real .. which he was!! I asked if David and Angie were coming too. He said no and he didn't want to say anything at dinner because he didn't want to hurt their feelings. And I am thinking man how I am gonna tell her about all this without her feeling bad... but oh well because I am super excited at this point.

We get there and David drops me off so I can go and feed Ethan before the show. Much to our dismay - we ran into a little trouble and had to buy Ethan a ticket. Insane I know!! So I didn't get to feed him but it was okay because he was sleeping anyway. In fact he slept the entire musical - great for me ... but a little silly that we had to buy our barely 4 week old baby a ticket to a musical where he sat in my lap the whole time and slept!! Of course my husband is going to call about this because he was told Ethan would not need a ticket so hopefully we will be refunded. Needless to say his ticket will be in his baby book :) !!

It turns out David told me a lie because after about 10 minutes into the show David and Angie show up!!! The musical was super fabulous!!! I am still singing some of the songs from the show!! The whole evening was great!!

Dave - I love you - not just for your surprises they are indeed great - but for so much more! You challenge me to be a better person all to bring honor and glory to Christ! I am so thankful to Him for giving me you !! Thanks for such a great evening!!!

To my dear blog readers... I am so sorry I have not blogged in forever!! I am very good at keeping up with your blogs ... reading is easy.... finding time to type my own news... not so easy. I remind myself this is a season of life and a short one at that. Our little Ethan is getting to be so big and I just can't stand it!! How is it that you feel pregnant for so long and it feels like an eternity until you get to meet your precious baby. Then they get here and the time FLIES!! We are adjusting well to having a new little one around. The boys absolutely adore their little brother and I am so grateful!! Life with boys what can I say.... they love thier mama and their guns - what more could a mom ask for??!! Here is a picture of Ethan at 1 month and then my little hunters and pumpkin at Halloween. Aren't they adoreable!!!