I love it!

Can I just say that I love it that more of my friends and family have begun to blog because of what became my newest "addiction"?!?!?! I feel like my "places I lurk" grows longer every day!

The Ocean.....

"I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
they may roar, but they cannot cross it." Jeremiah 5:22

With our family beach trip coming up very soon, my whole family is extremely excited and counting down the days. As I was reading the other day, God revealed this verse to me and it made me stop and think. I've always known that God made the ocean but I've never stopped to think that He created it in such a perfect way that it will never cross over the sand and flood the earth. This made me realize that surely if God is powerful and mighty enough to do that, then He can definitely help me through the daily ins/outs/struggles that come with being a mom, wife, daughter, sister, teacher, friend, etc. I just have to trust and have complete faith in Him. When I go to the beach and see the ocean, I know I will think of this verse and feel God's peace in a whole new way.

First Steps

I can't believe it, but Makinley is starting to walk!! A few weeks ago, she started just standing up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything and then last week she started taking those first steps. She definitely still crawls most of the time but she is getting to where she will take 4-5 steps before sitting down and starting to crawl. Tripp was walking all the time by 10 1/2 months. Right now she is a little bit ahead of him in how early she is doing this. He couldn't stand up without holding onto something until he was 11 months so she is way earlier than him on that. She seems to walk better when she is holding something; I guess it helps her balance. We practice all the time every day and I'm anxious to see how long it will be before she walks everywhere she wants to go. Tripp is loving it and he encourages her saying "Good job, sis!!" I love it!

Happy 4th!

Madison has a big July 3rd celebration every year. So, Thursday night we had some friends over for dinner and then we went to watch the fireworks at the park. It was Tripp's first time seeing fireworks and he was mesmerized. He kept naming all the colors and he told his GiGi all about them the next day. On July 4th, we went and hung out at my parents house all day. It was low key....family time with my parents and Trey and Jennifer. We always enjoy just hanging out together.

I'm so thankful for the troops that are fighting so that my children are able to grow up in a country that is free! I pray God blesses them and their families as they are away and that He brings them all home safely!


Tripp couldn't stop watching the fireworks long enough to smile
He loved the fireworks and riding on his daddy's shoulders

I'm waiting on someone to realize it's WAY past my bedtime!

The bathroom floor....

This is where I slept for about 1 1/2 hours last night. Why? Because I am trying so hard to get my daughter to start sleeping through the night a little bit better. For whatever reason, God decided to bless Joey and I with children that don't really like to sleep. Tripp didn't start sleeping through the night until he was 17 months old and Mak seems to be heading down that same road. But with me going back to work in just 4 short weeks, I really need her to start doing a little bit better. I don't mind her getting up once a night....but two, three times a night is killing me. However, the only room in my entire house that I can't hear her when she cries is in our bathroom. Last night, I got up with her when she woke up at 11 and nursed her back to sleep. But then when she woke up again at 2, I thought "No way". I knew she wasn't hungry and I had just changed her diaper. She is just in the habit of waking up. So, I took my pillows and a blanket and layed down in the bathroom floor until 3:30 this morning. When I woke back up, she had stopped crying and gone back to sleep. I have no idea how long she cried. This might seem cruel to just let her lay in there crying, but she is 9 1/2 months old and it is time that she starts sleeping longer than 3-4 hour stretches at night. Joey came stumbling into the bathroom last night and stepped on me! He knows though that I can not just lay in bed listening to her cry....it obviously makes my mommy's heart hurt to listen to either of my kids cry. I have to go where I can't hear her. I plan on doing it again tonight and tomorrow night. They say it takes about 3 days to break a habit in a baby; we'll see! My goal is to get her to sleep from about 7:30-1/2 and then sleep again from then until around 7 the next morning. Until then...I may have to sleep on the bathroom floor for a little while every night!

This is an old picture, but could you resist this face either? This is why I hide in the bathroom!

the coolest thing.....

If you look at the "places I lurk" on my blog, you will notice one called "keeping awake". I don't know the author, Boothe, personally, but I have been following her blog for some time now. If you have ever clicked on her blog and read any of it, you will see how awesome her faith is/has been during a very hard time in her life. In September, she lost her baby to Trisomy-18. Through reading Boothe's blog, I have also read several other women's blogs who are going through the same thing she is.

Well, this weekend, there were a group of women walking in front of me that had on t-shirts that said "Our little ones are dancing with Jesus now" and then it had the names of babies and how long they lived listed. I stopped one of the women to comment on her shirt. The cool thing? It was one of the women who I have been reading her blog on-line for months. In fact, these women had all met each other face to face for the first time this weekend. They've been corresponding through emails and things for months as they have each suffered from losing a baby. So, they decided to meet for the first time at the Deeper Still conference. Anyway, Boothe was not there (but they all knew her and talked with her) but I couldn't believe that I was getting to meet a couple of the women who I almost feel like I know just from reading their blogs. I just thought it was the neatest thing to be able to tell them myself how much they have ministered to me through their writings.

they deserve it......

I just finished reading my friend Stephanie's blog and she made so many good points. I feel as if in the past, I have been the type of Christian that goes through extreme highs and then just kind of stagnant times in my relationship with God. Actually, before the conference started on Friday night, while we were eating dinner, I told the women that I was with that the biggest thing I was afraid of was that I would leave the conference "on a high" and then let every day life set in and go back to just living life day to day without seeking God's face. I am DETERMINED not to do that this time. I'm trying to figure out how to seek God's word on my own and figure out His true plan and desires for my life. The women this weekend stressed to us that we have a direct line to God on our own.....we don't have to go to conferences or read devotionals or hear speakers. We can pick up our Bibles and let God speak to us Himself. That is what I am now trying to do. It won't be easy.....moms of young children know how hard it is to get time alone to do anything, especially something that requires your undivided attention like reading God's Word. However, I am making it a priority in my life. I realize that the more time I spend delving deeper and learning more, the better mom and wife I will be. No one deserves me living a Godly life and seeking God's face daily more than my children.