Thursday, January 26, 2012
Crawling
Kate has been army crawling for about a month now. She's gotten up on her hands and knees more and more lately, rocking back and forth, sometimes taking a little step or two, then falling over. Today, I look down at her on the floor, and she's crawling on her hands and knees as if she's always moved this way. I caught it on video right after that, briefly. Wow how quickly they change!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Canton Update
I realized I haven't put an update in a while on how life is going in Canton, other than all things Kate...which, really, is what everyone is most interested in :). But I figure I will give a little update on our life and ministry here in Canton, along with a few ways you can pray for us!
The Lord really has been blessing Trey's student ministry in our church. For a while we had about 8-10 students on Wednesday nights. We were maintaining that core group, and Trey and our youth volunteers were pouring into them and discipling them. Over the last few months, though, we have seen rapid number growth in our group. This past Wednesday night, for instance, we had 31 students. The only explanation we can see is that the Holy Spirit has blessed this ministry and is drawing students in...many of whom are not Christians. I asked Trey the other day how many he thinks are actually saved, and he said maybe about 1/4...and that might even be a liberal estimation. How cool is it that these kids are choosing to come to church on Wednesday nights and to hear the gospel week in and week out. Most of our students do not attend church on Sundays because their families do not come to church. Our church has a huge age gap of families with teenagers. We have a thriving children's ministry and a thriving senior adult ministry, but that middle age group is largely missing as a result of a church split many years ago. We are slowly rebuilding, though, and this is where we are also seeing God's blessing. So if you feel the Lord moving you to pray for our church, here are some ways you can do so:
- We are currently searching for a pastor. Our previous pastor, who Trey came in under, has retired from the pastorate. He came out of retirement to pastor our church after the split a few years ago, and he helped bring about much healing and direction to a broken body of believers. We are now searching for God's man who will provide leadership in this next phase of our church's life.
- Salvation!! Like I said previously, many of our students are not Christians. Pray for the Spirit to soften their hearts and to enlighten them to the saving grace found in Jesus Christ. Also, pray for the spiritual growth of our students who are Christians. Ask the Lord to deepen their faith and draw them into strong relationship with Him.
The Lord has blessed Trey, Kate, and me in our family life, too. I am so thankful to be a stay at home mom. We know this is God's best for our family at this time, and while it takes great sacrifice in some ways (especially financially!), it is worth every bit of the sacrifice. Me being home and not working has also allowed me to get more involved in our church and in making friendships with other women. Here are some ways we covet your prayers for our family:
- We are beginning the process of looking for a home. We aren't sure at this point if that means renting a home that's a little bit bigger or buying, but we have outgrown this little parsonage we're in. We are so thankful for our time in this home, and we will stay in it as long as possible, but we are also looking to the future and settling down here in Canton. I specifically am praying for a home with 2 bathrooms...because just 1 bathroom gets a little bit crowded at times. Ha!
- Friendships. We have already made some great friends, but we are wanting to find a friend group that we can do couple things with on a more consistent basis. We get plenty of family time, and we go on our regular dates, but we would love to have some friends to double and triple date with, too. I am involved in MOPS and am also looking forward to some play dates in the near future so I can establish and deepen friendships with other moms.
Thanks for reading, my dear family and friends abroad. Love you!
The Lord really has been blessing Trey's student ministry in our church. For a while we had about 8-10 students on Wednesday nights. We were maintaining that core group, and Trey and our youth volunteers were pouring into them and discipling them. Over the last few months, though, we have seen rapid number growth in our group. This past Wednesday night, for instance, we had 31 students. The only explanation we can see is that the Holy Spirit has blessed this ministry and is drawing students in...many of whom are not Christians. I asked Trey the other day how many he thinks are actually saved, and he said maybe about 1/4...and that might even be a liberal estimation. How cool is it that these kids are choosing to come to church on Wednesday nights and to hear the gospel week in and week out. Most of our students do not attend church on Sundays because their families do not come to church. Our church has a huge age gap of families with teenagers. We have a thriving children's ministry and a thriving senior adult ministry, but that middle age group is largely missing as a result of a church split many years ago. We are slowly rebuilding, though, and this is where we are also seeing God's blessing. So if you feel the Lord moving you to pray for our church, here are some ways you can do so:
- We are currently searching for a pastor. Our previous pastor, who Trey came in under, has retired from the pastorate. He came out of retirement to pastor our church after the split a few years ago, and he helped bring about much healing and direction to a broken body of believers. We are now searching for God's man who will provide leadership in this next phase of our church's life.
- Salvation!! Like I said previously, many of our students are not Christians. Pray for the Spirit to soften their hearts and to enlighten them to the saving grace found in Jesus Christ. Also, pray for the spiritual growth of our students who are Christians. Ask the Lord to deepen their faith and draw them into strong relationship with Him.
The Lord has blessed Trey, Kate, and me in our family life, too. I am so thankful to be a stay at home mom. We know this is God's best for our family at this time, and while it takes great sacrifice in some ways (especially financially!), it is worth every bit of the sacrifice. Me being home and not working has also allowed me to get more involved in our church and in making friendships with other women. Here are some ways we covet your prayers for our family:
- We are beginning the process of looking for a home. We aren't sure at this point if that means renting a home that's a little bit bigger or buying, but we have outgrown this little parsonage we're in. We are so thankful for our time in this home, and we will stay in it as long as possible, but we are also looking to the future and settling down here in Canton. I specifically am praying for a home with 2 bathrooms...because just 1 bathroom gets a little bit crowded at times. Ha!
- Friendships. We have already made some great friends, but we are wanting to find a friend group that we can do couple things with on a more consistent basis. We get plenty of family time, and we go on our regular dates, but we would love to have some friends to double and triple date with, too. I am involved in MOPS and am also looking forward to some play dates in the near future so I can establish and deepen friendships with other moms.
Thanks for reading, my dear family and friends abroad. Love you!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Christmas
Christmas 2011 was the best Christmas yet. I never knew just how much more meaningful that time would be once I had a child of my own. Trey, Kate, and I were in Canton for Christmas weekend. We spent time with his family Christmas Eve, had our own little family celebration Christmas morning, and then grilled steaks with his parents that afternoon after church. It was very restful time. Kate and I then flew out early Monday morning to Georgia. We spent almost 2 full weeks there. Kate got to meet my Aunt Jenny and cousins for the first time. We shopped quite a bit, ate some delicious food, and spent wonderful family time together.
What is my 7 month old up to these days? Well, crawling all over the place. Her favorite thing to do is crawl wherever the dogs are and try to chew on their tails! She says "mama" whenever she is tired or hungry, and babbles all other sorts of words at other times. We are still nursing, but she also takes solid food twice a day now. She is such a delight to watch as she grows and discovers the world around her.
What is my 7 month old up to these days? Well, crawling all over the place. Her favorite thing to do is crawl wherever the dogs are and try to chew on their tails! She says "mama" whenever she is tired or hungry, and babbles all other sorts of words at other times. We are still nursing, but she also takes solid food twice a day now. She is such a delight to watch as she grows and discovers the world around her.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thriving Family
Last fall a friend of mine told me about a free magazine from Focus on the Family. I do enjoy reading good magazines, and I especially enjoy anything free, so it seemed like an ideal situation! The magazine is called Thriving Family. There is an online version and a hard copy. I don't particularly like reading things online, so I get the hard copy in the mail (like I said, for free).
What prompted me to share? Well, the magazine has excellent, uplifting articles that challenge me in my faith in Christ and encourage me as a wife and mommy. The most recent issue has an article on fun, cheap, creative dates, and I wanted to share the article. Click here to read the ideas that readers suggested. Trey and I especially liked the "drive in movie" date and the "rooftop" date.
It's easy to subscribe...you can read the online version, or if you want to get it in the mail, like I do, you just call and give them your information, and you will start to receive the magazine. It's so great! Click here to get the info on subscribing.
I will update soon on all our holiday fun. I just got back in town Sunday haven't had the chance to do much blogging. We will also be going on our "H" date soon; I know you're all waiting with bated breath to hear what it will be. Trey (who is planning this date) says we have to wait for better weather. More later!
What prompted me to share? Well, the magazine has excellent, uplifting articles that challenge me in my faith in Christ and encourage me as a wife and mommy. The most recent issue has an article on fun, cheap, creative dates, and I wanted to share the article. Click here to read the ideas that readers suggested. Trey and I especially liked the "drive in movie" date and the "rooftop" date.
It's easy to subscribe...you can read the online version, or if you want to get it in the mail, like I do, you just call and give them your information, and you will start to receive the magazine. It's so great! Click here to get the info on subscribing.
I will update soon on all our holiday fun. I just got back in town Sunday haven't had the chance to do much blogging. We will also be going on our "H" date soon; I know you're all waiting with bated breath to hear what it will be. Trey (who is planning this date) says we have to wait for better weather. More later!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Kate Holmes Seal of Approval
Kate is a little thumb sucker. I know the whole pacy vs. thumb sucking is a heated issue for some. I'm not really a strong proponent either way, but I do love that my little girl sucks her thumb. Perhaps it's the fact that when I put her down at night, I don't have to keep going back in there to search for her pacy in the dark to give to her so she can soothe herself back to sleep. Or the fact that when she's sleepy or fussy, I pick her up and she sticks that thumb in her mouth and lays her head on my shoulder. But one reason I really love it is the Kate Holmes seal of approval. Every night we give Kate her multivitamin. It's a liquid, and it smells just like vitamin. You would think Kate would hate the taste, but she's never really protested it. As a matter of fact, she actually likes it. Every night after her bath, we dry her off, put on lotion, a diaper, and pjs. Kate also gets her multivitamin at this time. It's a nightly routine that Kate stills cries through at times...she just doesn't like being taken out of the warm bathwater into the cold air! But whether she's upset or happy, once you give her the multivitamin, that thumb goes straight into her mouth and she sucks away like a pro. It has become her seal of approval. Now that she is eating solids, too, she sticks her thumb in her mouth and sucks away once she's tasted something she really likes, such as the banana she tasted for the first time the other night. I love it. It's such a precious little things she does, and I wanted to write it down so I'd always remember (and yes, I am going to write it in her baby book, too!).
Monday, December 12, 2011
Christmas Traditions
I love hearing about different family Christmas traditions. Being married for a little over 3 years, it's been fun beginning our own traditions. Now that we have kid in the home, it's going to be especially fun making Christmas traditions for our little family. One tradition Trey and I started our first Christmas together as a dating couple was buying an ornament together. We now have 6 ornaments from our 6 years together. Every year I look forward to pulling out the ornaments, putting them in order, and reminiscing about our memories for each ornament and why we chose that particular ornament. Today, I'd like to share with you our special ornaments.
2006: We bought this first ornament at the Dallas-Symphony Orchestra. Someone gave Trey tickets to the DSO Christmas concert, so he took me there on a fancy date. This was our first Christmas together, just a few months after we first met in August at SWBTS. I've tried to find a picture on my computer of that date, but I can't find any.
2007: This was our second Christmas together, and we were engaged for this Christmas. For this year we bought a glass-blown fish ornament. The reason we bought this ornament is because we used to always make fish faces at each other. We did our fish faces differently. I will include a fish face picture to illustrate.
2008: Our first Christmas as a married couple!!! I must say, our Christmas tree looked a little pitiful this first year (Charlie Brown Christmas? Yes, please!) because we literally had only 4 ornaments total (someone had given us one for a wedding gift). When I said something about this at work, though, a few people pitched in and gave us some more ornaments. So we had maybe...10 ornaments that year?
2009: This Christmas was both rough and beautiful. We lost Burke (my sister-in-law's husband) in a car accident a week before Thanksgiving, then Trey and I had a miscarriage three weeks later. It was certainly a painful Christmas, but it was also so beautiful knowing the Lord and experiencing Him through this loss and tragedy. We had our ornament made in memory of our unborn child. We named him Bennett (we were too early to know the gender), which means "Little Blessed One." How much more blessed can you be than to go straight to be with the Father in Heaven?
2010: I was in the 2nd trimester with Kate for this Christmas! Oh how the Lord restores us from the ashes. After the heartbreak of our miscarriage, it took us a while to get pregnant again. But this, our 5th Christmas together, was one of celebration. God had granted us new life! We found out "it" was a girl (Kate!!) the week before Christmas. What a joy it was to know our daughter was being fashioned in my womb while we celebrated Christ's birth that year.
2011: And now we come to this year, our 6th Christmas together. We have a "baby's first ornament" for Kate, but we wanted to keep that separate since we will give it to her someday (a long, long, time from now!) when she moves out to start her adult life :). I made this ornament in MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and we decided it would be our ornament for this year. It's a simple little ornament with Kate's cute little baby face inside. I'm going to cut up one of her birth announcements into little strips and put it in the back, too. (thanks for the idea, Jenny Graves!). This Christmas is our first as parents. What better ornament than one of our precious baby girl!
2006: We bought this first ornament at the Dallas-Symphony Orchestra. Someone gave Trey tickets to the DSO Christmas concert, so he took me there on a fancy date. This was our first Christmas together, just a few months after we first met in August at SWBTS. I've tried to find a picture on my computer of that date, but I can't find any.
2007: This was our second Christmas together, and we were engaged for this Christmas. For this year we bought a glass-blown fish ornament. The reason we bought this ornament is because we used to always make fish faces at each other. We did our fish faces differently. I will include a fish face picture to illustrate.
2010: I was in the 2nd trimester with Kate for this Christmas! Oh how the Lord restores us from the ashes. After the heartbreak of our miscarriage, it took us a while to get pregnant again. But this, our 5th Christmas together, was one of celebration. God had granted us new life! We found out "it" was a girl (Kate!!) the week before Christmas. What a joy it was to know our daughter was being fashioned in my womb while we celebrated Christ's birth that year.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
First Solid Food - 6 Months Old!
This past month has been a fun one - I am loving this age! Kate has been working hard on crawling, and she figured out the army crawl yesterday. Yikes! I'm not pushing the "mobile" thing...I do enjoy my little girl being stationary. But I guess it's inevitable, so I need to start baby-proofing! She also had her first sickness - croup and double eye infection. She had her first Thanksgiving, rode on the horse for the first time with her daddy, and today had her first solid food. Up until this point Kate has been exclusively breastfed, so this was her first taste of anything other than momma's milk. I roasted and pureed a butternut squash for her. At first she didn't quite know what to think about the food, but after a while she really seemed to enjoy it. Trey and I, of course, had so much fun feeding her and seeing how she reacted. Here are some pictures of her eating solids for the first time and a couple just because she's so dang cute.
Before the first bite...not sure what's about to happen
First bite in, and thinking hard about it...
Trying to figure out what just happened :)
Another bite
I think she likes it!
Bring on the solid food...and the bibs!!
Having fun on the floor!
This pic cracks me up. I was trying to snap a quick one when she smiled, so I was making all sorts of funny noises to get her attention. Of course, that always gets the dogs riled up. Right when I snapped this pic, Dapple jumped up to see what all the excitement was about.
What a cutie-pie. I love my little cupKate!
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