preschool party

OK I'm just going to come out and be totally honest. Micah's preschool party was not fun. I actually felt bad for the kids. The room mother was sick so she was only able to drop off what she had planned and leave, but still. Thankfully we are just dealing with 2 year olds here so I'm pretty sure they didn't notice, but the teacher and crafter in me was CRINGING! Ok enough of my judgmental complaining. Zach and I enjoyed seeing Micah in his class and meeting his friends and I am looking forward to volunteering for the next party.

Micah showing off the back of his Woody costume

Crumpling up paper for his ghost.

Showing off the finished product.

They were supposed to stand back a few feet but Micah kind of cheated!

more boundaries

Tonight was night 3 of our women group's boundaries discussion and while I can HIGHLY recommend this book, I more highly recommend reading it with a group of people you trust and love who will share their issues and call you out on your own. It's sad to me that some Christians might have never experienced what it truly means to confess your sins to one another, to bring your struggles to one another and to have those others love you, support you, listen to you, and in no way judge you. Awww...can't you just feel the refreshment of having a safe place.

So far the greatest lessons learned have been (1) the importance of saying no and meaning no when that is what you need to do. Lots of Christian women, me included, feel the overwhelming urge to always say yes as if even thinking of telling someone no has to be wrong, unchristian like and just plain selfish. Aren't we here to help the world with anything and everything? The answer to that would be (2) we are not supposed to fix everything for everyone. We are responsible for ourselves but only responsible to others. We absolute are called to carry each other's burdens but each of us are also called to carry our own loads. You can't be everything to everyone. That is not our job. It is God's

Hopefully you have read this in the way it was intended and are not thinking that this book is just a way to get out of doing things :) Remember I have only gotten through three chapters so I still have lots to learn!!

happy birthday leah

Our niece on Zach's side had her 1st birthday party yesterday afternoon in Warner Robins, GA. She is a cute little thing who looks exactly like her mama when she was little. (not that I was around but I've seen the pictures) Here she is on her special day!

cornhole!

For those of you who do not know what cornhole is check out this site. Saturday we hosted our inaugural CCC Cornhole Tournament. It was SO MUCH FUN! I had given Zach a custom decorated (by me) Cornhole set for his birthday and we knew of 3 other people who also had some. Those along with two custom decorated CCC sets and we were in business. We had 16 teams register for the double elimination tournament and about half of the people had never played so it made for some entertaining matches! Since we use our social events at CCC not only for hanging out with members but for introducing others to 'church' who are leery of coming to actual 'church', we were hoping some non-ccc'ers would win the whole thing. However that did not happen. Zach and Justin decide to pick this day to explode with corn bag throwing talent. This came as quite a surprise to me and Steph since they have NEVER EVER played that well when they are partnered with us :( They ran away with the title and never looked back. This was one of the best socials we have had so far and will DEFINITELY be on the list for next year.

my butterball

and I don't mean a turkey!

baby blue

Zach and Micah played outside for a long time yesterday and Zach of course took advantage of the time to get some pictures. These are right off the camera (pre-editing). Check out my baby's beautiful baby blues :)

sunday song

Hold the Light

Caedmon's Call

It's been a long year
Like a long sleepless night.
Jacob wrestled the angel,
but I'm too tired to fight.
Every wednesday
for two years we've met.
I've showed you all my anger
my doubts and bitterness.

There was no judgement in your eyes
just the silent peace of God,
that felt so real in you.
Will you hold the light for me?
Will you hold the light for me?

And I stay up late
because I cannot sleep.
I don't want to face the quiet
where its just God and me.
I'm waiting for the gavel
handing me the sentence down,
because I don't believe forgiveness
or even repentance now.

There was no judgement in your eyes
Just the silent peace of God,
that felt so real in you.
Will you hold the light for me?
Will you hold the light for me?

I want to feel redemption
flowing through my veins.
I want to see with clear eyes
beyond lust and hate.
I want the war to be over,
and know the good guys won,
and I want love to hold me
to know I'm not alone.

Standing around a willow weeping,
we were praying in the backyard.
In the chill of the night
the friendship light reminded me who we are
...who we are, who we are

Will you hold the light?
Will you hold the light for me?

boundaries

Our Women's Group started a new study last night on the book Boundaries.

I love doing book discussions instead of workbook studies because there is so much more conversation and sharing. Though sometimes it is hard not to just share your personal opinion when you should be comparing the points in the book to the Words of the Bible to make sure you are on the right path. Discern, discern, discern. Man that's not easy!! Apart from just being happy to have my weekly girl fix back, I have already seen how this book is going to affect my relationships in a positive way while pulling me closer to what God created me to do and be for myself and others. I am hoping to come home on Wednesday nights and write out the new lessons learned/questions asked so I can get the most out of it.

suches, ga

Two weekends ago we, along with the cardozas and moons, went on our annual fall break mountain getaway. This is the 5th year in a row that at least some of us have gone during the October break from school. We were on a budget friendly trip this year so we looked for the cheapest, but nicest, cabin we could find. We hit jackpot with this AWESOME place in Suches, GA right on the Toccoa River. Now granted there was absolutely nothing to do in a 45 minute radius but with 5 kids under 4 years old we weren't really planning on hitting the town too much anyway :)

We spent 3ish days and 2 nights reading, eating, playing air hockey and ping pong, sitting in the hot tub, walking by the water and watching the kids. One of the most entertaining things was watching Micah and Isabella 'throw rocks at the ding.' The house had a rock driveway and they found a metal cap covering up something in the woods so they spent hours and I mean HOURS throwing rocks at it and laughing like loons every time one of them happened to hit the thing because it made a loud DING noise. So funny! Who says you need TV?

This is one of the most fun traditions we have started since moving to Conyers and I can't wait for many more mountain getaways in the future!!

view across the river

view from the back porch

Justin was trying to catch a fish but there were none to be seen :/

Micah and Isabella LOVED staring at the water

and of course throwing rocks!

Micah's face after he 'hit the ding'

silly boy #1

silly boy #2

silly boy #3

This is one of Matt and Zach's 'epic' ping pong games.

FINALLY a picture of the four of us (still not a great one though :P)

We're such a cute little group!

5 months

Connor turned 5 months old yesterday.

New things that have happened in the last month are...

* still giving me sleeping fits :/ but now I'm trying to stay tough about it :)

*weighs over 18 lbs

*started rice cereal

*LOVES to eat his toes

*LOVES to stick out his tongue ALL THE TIME!

*follows you around the room with his eyes

*constantly watches Micah do anything and everything

Overall Connor seems to be a pretty easy going little fella. He definitely has his moments, especially when he's tired of being on his tummy and when I want him to go to sleep, but seriously he's pretty smiley and chill the majority of the time. He is oh so cute and squishy too :)

first taste

Connor had his first tastes of cereal tonight!

I think he liked it!

sunday song

Just as I Am

Andrew Peterson

What's that on the ground?
It's what's left of my heart
Somebody named Jesus broke it to pieces
And planted the shards
And they're coming up green,
And they're coming in bloom
I can hardly believe this is all coming true

(chorus)
Just as I am and just as I was
Just as I will be He loves me, He does
He showed me the day that
He shed His own blood
He loves me, oh He loves me, He does

All of my life I've held on to this fear
These thistles and vines ensnare and entwine
What flowers appeared
It's the fear that I'll fall one too many times
It's the fear that His love is no better than mine
(but He tells me that)

(chorus)
Just as I am and just as I was
Just as I will be He loves me, He does
He showed me the day that
He shed His own blood
He loves me, oh He loves me, He does
He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does

Well it's time now to harvest what little that grew
This man they call Jesus, who planted the seeds
Has come for the fruit
And the best that I've got isn't nearly enough
He's glad for the crop, but it's me that He loves

Copyright 2003 New Spring Publishing, Inc.

never thought i'd say that!

I am not going to do this story justice right now because I am slightly preoccupied with the Auburn/TN game but it popped into my head to do so if I don't do it RIGHT NOW it won't get done and then I might forget this hilarious yet slightly gross story about my handsome yet mischievous little boy.

Last week the kids were slightly crazy. Micah has started to have this goofy aura about him all the time which is sometimes funny, sometimes not. Connor is rolling over to his tummy every time I put him down and then crying because he doesn't want to be there. William wasn't feel well so he cried a lot more than normal. And Bella was a 3 year old girl :) None of them were 'bad' per say, they just kept me on my toes. Especially Friday!!

Friday was already going to be a crazy day. All four kids were at the house since there is no preschool on Friday. I was leaving for a preview sale at 2:00 so I was having to get certain things accomplished so that Zach could watch the kids with no problems. Zach was leaving after I got back from the sale for the weekend so I needed to finish laundry for him. Connor decided to nap for a whole 30 minutes that morning so I was carting him around while fixing lunch in the kitchen and getting Williams milk warmed up when I heard Micah and Bella laughing like loons. My naive mind thought how nice it was that they were playing well together so I went to take a peek at what they were doing. I walked into the guest bathroom to find them shoving their ENTIRE HEADS in the toilet and by entire I mean faces and all. They were both soaking wet from the neck down and had little swirly peaks of hair sticking like alfalfa from little rascals. I, in a calm manner I'm sure, said WE DO NOT STICK OUR HEADS IN THE TOILET! and then preceded to strip them both down and put them in a VERY soapy bath and scrub any trace of toilet germs off their little bodies.

After they were all squeaky clean and redressed, in clean clothes of course, I tried to get some kind of explanation out of them. The best I could get from a 2 year old and 3 year old was "We wanted to get our hair wet." OH. Well of course you did.

squeaky clean and banished to the chair until lunch was ready :)