Princesses!

For a CARES event we went backwards trick or treating to introduce ourselves. The girls wanted to both be princesses this time!

Julie's Baby

If you want to see Julie's baby check out their website!! Simon is BEAUTIFUL!!! I love you Julie and Simon! http://www.theholtsonline.com/

Mia's Mishaps!

I wish I had a pic for this embarrassing moment but it is totally imprinted in my mind! Today at Super Target we went straight to the restroom (as always for a potty break). After shopping for about 30 minutes I looked down at Mia and she had toilet paper hanging from her cute little skirt. I got so tickled I couldn't even speak. I finally told her and she turned bright red and we had a good ole laugh!

Checking out the Firetruck!

Are we going that high? 78 ft. is that all?

Climbing into the box!
Mia was a little hesitant so mom had to go too...wahoo!
What is daddy doing down there in the orange shirt? Shouldn't he be up here!!!
Phew we made it ...and curbside service at that!

Our First CARES event in the new apartment!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIA

Sweet Mia, you have such a tender heart. I am amazed at your intuitiveness and ability to discern other's emotions at the mere age of eight. Your Daddy and I are so blessed to be your parents! We love your love for your Saviour, your love for your sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and, your love for the lost. You are so loyal and devoted. You are compassionate and silly. You love anything horses, drawing and anything to do with people. You love one-on-one time with people and people of all ages! You love to read, tell and hear stories and you love jokes. Your Daddy and I prayed that you would be a light in this world from the moment we found out we were pregnant with you. You are a light every where you go. We love you!

Final Stop Birthday Stop!

Opening presents...
Eating Cake...and celebrating with Nonnie and Poopie!!

2nd stop... Dewberry Farm!

Abbey was seriou about beating her sis in the duck races!

#1 Pumpkin

Mia and Mommy jumping on the pillow!
Acting like gerbils!
Daddy racing sissy!
Getting lost in the corn maize!
Surviving the maize!

Taking a ride with the tractor!
Mia and Poppie
Even Nonnie and mom joined in the fun!
Birthday Girl
What a day at the farm!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIA

We started off with a scavenger hunt that Nonnie and I put together the night before!

Abbey was not going to be left behind in the hunt!

The hunt led us to none other than Rao's! Mia drew her own cake!!! A horse of course!

Rejoicing in hope...

The first week I found out there was no heartbeat I began to ask the Lord what he wanted to teach me?( Not my first response but none the less)! There was a continued theme of hope over the course of the next few days. Hope that my baby would survive because the God we serve is a Mighty God, hoping in my Salvation and just trying to understand what hoping in God means on a daily basis. Hoping in His will but not knowing how that will flush out. I was offered some sweet wisdom along the way to keep hoping, not giving up on my little one. It was difficult to fully understand what giving up and not knowing if God was going to take my little one home or not...meant.

"BE DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER IN BROTHERLY LOVE; GIVE PREFERENCE TO ONE ANOTHER IN HONOR; REJOICING IN HOPE, PERSEVERING IN TRIBULATION, DEVOTED TO PRAYER, CONTRIBUTING TO THE NEEDS OF THE SAINTS, PRACTICING HOSPITALITY...REJOICE WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE AND WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP..." Romans 12:11-15

This hope is from the Greek: elpis (a noun)1 from elpo which means to anticipate usually with pleasure. 2 joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. (Heb 3:6 and Col 1:23)

"...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things..." 1 Cor 13:7

This hope is elpizo ( a verb) to wait for salvation with joy and full confidence. (1 Pet 1:1 and Heb.11:1)

So hoping in the Lord with joy and a grateful heart is the theme I am seeing and of course the Lord tied it back to joy... the theme He was teaching me about last year! (really sense Abbey was born) Which is why my title to the blog is Joy in the Journey from James 1:2

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces enduranc and let endurance have its perfect result..."!

Thanks so much to everyone who has done a WONDERFUL job of rejoicing with me and weeping with me!!! It is so sweet!! Love you guys

Goodbye little one..

So many sweet memories in between the last post... sweet time with my nephew Caden and sis in Tulsa, sweet times starting school, sweet times with friends in Dallas, sweet time with sis-in-law making tinctures, but by far the sweetest... was one I never got to post about because I was trying to keep it a surprise.

So here it goes...we got a beautiful surprise in the middle of August that we were pregnant. I was excited because the Lord had changed my heart to meet His (and my husbands). It is almost impossible for me to keep sweet gifts like that a surprise because they are such miracles.
I never knew I would find so much joy in sharing that surprise with my girls but they were ecstatic to become big sis's again! (and for Abbey first time big sis). We had names for a boy or a girl and for us to come up with a name that quick is a miracle too!

We got another surprise on September 20th! There was no beautiful heartbeat on my sweet little one. We tried to wait hoping in the Lord to work another miracle...only to find out the same thing a week later and then a week after that. It is still crazy to me that the life inside me is gone and as a sweet friend said never to be met on this side of Heaven. I have so many different emotions it is at times difficult to sort through them and not just ignore them (which I think is my tendency) !

We have been super blessed with some wonderful fellowship of believers who have gone through this numerous of times. I feel blessed to only have experienced this once thus far. Wes and I more now than ever see the Sovereignty of the Lord and the provision of children He gives us! Some children we get to raise and care for while on earth and some we never even get to hold but love no less.

This post is more for me but I wanted to be able to remember how much I loved this little one already! I love you sweet baby and am so thankful that I got to rejoice with my family and friends in my discovery of you! It is such a strange feeling to say goodbye........

Mia's skills!!!

I bought Mia a how to draw horses book from the homeschool conference! Wes and I were astonished by the end product!!! She drew this the first day I gave her the book!!

Naptime

Mia and I found Abbey sleeping inside my pillowcase with my pillow still inside!!! I have no idea how she fit her whole body in there!

Does this count????

Abbey asked me if she could tell this older man (a grandfather) at the pool about Jesus (right in front of the older man), so of course I said sure. She proceeds to turn to him and sing Here I Am to Worship!!! Does that count as sharing the gospel??? After singing him only a few lines she informed the grandfather that "God does miracles!!!"

This encounter went over better than her 1st attempt to share the gospel with an elderly couple in Rockwall at IHOP. She informed some strangers that Jesus loved them.....they really didn't have anything to say to her............................... I wonder if her tendency to share with older people is out of the sense of urgency?????


Abbey also askes Wes yesterday if she could marry Jesus???

Kingdom Minded Children

Psalm 78

"Give ear, O my people ,to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord ,
And His strength and His wonderful works
that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they a arise and declare them to their children,
That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the work of God,
But keep His commandmnents;
And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation..."

" Asaph's message not only passes down from one generation to the next, but is itself the message that must be passed down from one generation. That is, Asaph isn't just telling multigenerational secrets, but the secret itself is ' Pass it on to the next generation.' Theis is always a critical part of God's covenant. To simply fulfill the immediate demands of the law is never enough. It wasn't enough that Abraham should receive the mark of the covenant. Nor was it sufficient that he should place the mark on Isaac. Rather, Abraham was commanded to teach Isaac to teach his own sons the covenants of God. In simplest form, the covenant God has made with man is simply this: Love, trust, and obey God...and teach your children to do the same. And to take it one step further, we haven't taught our children to do the same unless or until we have taught them to teach their children"

"Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, Whether good or evil." Eccl. 12:13 and
Matt 12:36 and II Cor 5:10

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children" Deut 6:7

" ...you shall lay these words of mine in your heart and in your soul ... You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way when you lie down, and when you rise up..." Deut 11:18


"Only take heed to your self, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren..."Deut 4:9


I decided to write about a sermon I heard about a month ago that really challenged and inspired me to continue reading and researching what God's Word says to us moms about parenting. If you are reading this my prayer and hope is that encourages all you beautiful moms about the precious and mighty gift of parenting we have been given! The quote is from R.C. Sproul Jr. When You Rise Up!!! Have a wonderful week and I love you guys!!!

The Girls

First Trip to Galveston

Mia is just not sure about the shrimp but it did not hold her back too much1

Just being silly

Can anyone see Wes in this pic? He was trying to make sure he would not get sunburned...he got the job done by camoflauging himself in with the sand!
Mia and Daddy fishing for some shrimp!
The sweet people we met kept letting the girls throw the extra fish back into the ocean...Kennah loved it but I am not quite sure about Mia!
Abbey loved the sand!
The younger two were getting tired after a long day in the sun

Schooling with Abbey

Need I say more??

Sisters

We went to Tyler this past weekend to my uncle's funeral. The same Nanny, that said goodbye to her sweet husband just two months ago, just lost her son. It is a blessing that the Lord took him, he has been suffering from cancer for quite some time now. It was good to see all of my sisters again if only briefly!!

More Horse Riding Lessons!!!!

Mia tightening the saddle
Abbey working on keeping her hands and the reigns lifted off of the saddle!!
Abbey practicing her circles with Rocky!
Mia loving on Ruby before she puts the reigns on her!
Abbey getting ready to put the bit in Rocky's mouth!
Mia riding Ruby beautifully!! We were so proud of her! Sayer (her teacher) said Ruby is a pretty stubborn horse and Mia took charge wonderfully!!!
Abbey doing a wonderful job as well!!! She did great with Rocky!!!
And Rocky did great for her!!!!!