Happy Easter!

We hope that each of you had a wonderful Easter yesterday. We certainly did! We started out very early. The girls and I loaded up around 9am to drive to a small town about 50 minutes outside Amarillo, where Jody was leading worship for the morning. This may sound simple, but it was a little stressful, in all honesty. To get two girls, plus myself, in our pretty Easter clothes and out the door by 9am, was quite the event. Especially since both girls dont usually even wake up until 9am. But we got there, just in time for the service. I am so thankful we have Saturday night church, because getting the family together in the mornings is quite a feat. :) After the service we went to my parents' house for lunch. My grandparents (my mom's parents) were in town for the weekend too. We had lots of fun. The girls loved getting into their Easter baskets and enjoying all the candy. My sister's family was there too, and my brother and his fiance. After lunch, the girls had a great time hunting the Easter eggs we had dyed the Friday before. Mia's been talking about the Easter eggs since we dyed them initially, so I'm glad she finally got to hunt them. Some eggs even had money in them. The girls were so excited over pennies, nickels, and quarters. It was a fast and furious day, but we had a great time. I am so thankful for my family. I just wish my in-laws lived here too. If Jody hadn't led worship this weekend, we probably would have gone to Childress for the Easter weekend. (Maybe next year Becky.) We did miss them though! I hope you each had as much fun making memories as we did! Have a blessed week!

I love it...

I love the sound of Mia and Jody laying in her bed at night, reading a book, then singing songs, then Mia, ever so convincingly saying, "Lets talk about sumthin." as she knows its about time for her to go to sleep. Its just beautiful. As I sit here, I can hear them talking so sweetly. What a joy.

What I don't love, is waking up this morning with a horrible back pain. I'm not sure what happened. I think that during my seriously deep night's sleep that maybe I just turned wrong, and hurt my back. All I know is that I woke up this morning and can hardly walk at times. Its feels the best when I stay in one place for an extended period of time, but then, when I try to move, its all over. And with two kids, that is what happens. Oh well, I survived. I am just praying that its all better by morning. My sister and I are training (if thats what you call just trying to get in shape enough to not fall over during the run.) for our 5k March of Dimes race at the end of April and I can't miss my workout tomorrow. Oh well, we'll see. I will gladly receive any advice offered, on the back pain that is.

Who does she look like???

Okay, so this post is dedicated to my great friend, Ashley. She has been waiting ever so patiently for me to post some pictures of Eisley and baby pictures of Jody and my family. Well, since my mom couldn't quite remember where my baby pictures were at the moment (must be a middle child thing, I wont hold any grudges, just kidding mom!) I did see some pictures of my brother as a baby (only because he is getting married in may and his pictures were out for the wedding slideshow thing.) Wow, I really think Eisley looks like my brother's baby pictures, but I still think that, in person, Eisley is still a spittin image of her daddy! So, tell me what you think. (I didn't ask my brother's permission to post these, but I'm sure he won't mind. Thanks matt!)
Jody at 3 months

Jody at 6 months

Eisley at 4 months

My brother, Matt, at 3 months

Perspective.

Its amazing how life situations so quickly change your perspective on every day life. Earlier this week, Monday actually, we found out that our friend's niece passed away suddenly during nap time. I couldn't believe it. This baby girl was only 2 weeks younger than Eisley. Babies don't die, especially babies you feel as if you know. We had grown to love sweet Lilly, even though we had only known her through Mandy's sweet stories and pictures.

It didn't help that this was the second baby that we know, the same age as Eisley within two weeks that had such sudden deaths. I have really had to battle my thoughts this week. My heart aches for this family and has left my mind in some what of a vulnerable state for Satan to attack. Thankfully, I have recognized these attacks as those of the enemy, and have somewhat quickly taken those "thoughts captive and made them obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians...or is it 1 Corinthians.) Satan will not lie to me or make me fearful of death or take my emotions.

Yes, I will mourn. I will mourn on behalf of parents losing their precious baby girl. I will mourn, as a mother, who can not imagine the pain that would come with losing a child. But, I will also praise the Lord for His sovereignty, even as Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Imagine, who knows better than God Himself what it is like to lose a child.

The Lord is my family's protector. Therefore, there is no room in me to fear the unexpected. He is our Rock. And that is the only thing I can rest my hope on. I will continue to pray for the Lord's complete, indescribable peace that passes any kind of understanding for this family.

So, as I carried on life this week, yes, my perspective has been different. I treasure my hugs with my girls far more. The things that would so quickly upset or irritate me don't seem to be that important any more. I want to delight in each day, to praise the Lord each day for the life He has blessed me with. I am blessed!

Here are some pictures we had taken of Eisley on Tuesday. I meant to get them taken at 3 months, but truthfully, I kept waiting for her to get bigger. (which she is, as we went to the dr today and she gained half a pound this week. She is now back to 10 pounds after losing half a pound last week when she was sick.) Good thing we took her pictures when we did because she is now covered with a rash due to a penicillin allergy. Yes, all I can do is laugh at all the things we have gone through with Eisley. Again, Satan has no hold on us, we will rejoice in these trials. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we do.

Let the little children come to Me....

"Let the children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14

I love my daughter Mia. She has the sweetest and purest heart. Jody and I try to live our lives both in our home and away that is very real. We like it when people are real with us, so we too make sure to be real with others. The same is true for our spiritual lives. We long to see the day that our daughters choose on their own will to follow Jesus Christ. But for the time being, it is our soul responsibility to teach them daily what it means to love the Lord. We also love to teach them the things of the Spirit, as we too are learning.

I love it when I hear Mia in her room singing "You are Ho-ly, You are Ho-ly,..." along with her CD player. (It has to be very similar to the sounds the angels are singing at this same time.) When no one is even around, she is just singing, and sometimes even dancing to the worship music. Even more than this, I love it that she is learning that the Lord is our Healer. We have always shown Mia how to pray, but it seems like recently she is really picking up on it. We have seen a lot of sickness lately in our family, with this cold that is going around, so we have had many opportunities to pray. But the best part, is now, Mia simply does it on her own. If we mention that someone is sick, she immediately says, "lets pray for them." So we tell her she can, and she just says the simplest prayer for healing.

She even prays for herself. The other day she was coughing, which she is now getting rid of, and she immediately said, "Jesus, take my cough away, A-MEN." She immediate then replied, "Mommy, my cough is all better now." Another example is the other day when Eisley was spitting up (which is all too frequent) Mia said, "Jesus, take Eisley's spit up away, Amen." Then, immediately, again, she says, "She's all better mommy, Jesus fixed her spit-up." Every time, this is how she responds after her prayer. I love it. This must have been what Jesus was talking about when He he mentioned having "child-like faith." Its that easy to Mia. You pray. Jesus heals. Why do we as adults put so much more into it. I long to have the faith that my own child has. Jesus is our healer, and I love that my daughter is growing up to know that truth too.

So here are some pictures of my sweet Mia. Our friend Bethany is going to school for photography, so she asked to take some pictures of Mia for her class. She did a great job!

I love winter thunderstorms...

It is raining here in Amarillo. I love a good thunderstorm in the winter. It makes me want to just cuddle up on the couch, with a fire in the fireplace, and watch a good movie. But since that is not a reality for me right now, since I just picked Mia up from Mother's Day Out, then I thought I should just post some wintery pictures. Stay warm!

Good news, Bad news...

Well, the bad news is that I have two sick babies at our house. Both Mia and Eisley have bronchialitis. This just means that they both have a bad cough, runny noses, and Mia has a sore throat. Mia also has an ear infection in her left ear. Eisley was just starting to get the cough and runny nose this weekend, so I thought I'd take her in too. Plus, I was just anxious to weigh her. Which brings us to the good news...Eisley officially weighs 9.8 pounds (which is about 9 pounds 13 ounces). Which is exactly a pound more than she did last Monday! This is amazing. This means she gained 2 ounces a day, which is double what the dr wanted to see! Praise the Lord. It also made me so happy to know that she was only on half formula half my stored breastmilk all day tuesday through friday. Which makes me realize that it truly was probably a problem with her getting to the hind milk rather than a problem with my milk. Good to know next time around. So, needless to say, we are pumped! We are close to finally being out of newborn diapers. She goes in for her 4 month appointment a week from Thursday, so hopefully by then she will be weighing more than 11 pounds!!! Praise the Lord! Oh, and one more thing, Eisley giggled for the first time last week on Valentines Day for who else, but her daddy! Its the most amazing sound ever!