Royalty

 When I think about the Bible and how God calls us his own and that we are like Royalty adopted into his family I cant help but think about the millions of Babies....Royalty in God's eyes that lay awake at night longing for a forever family. Dreaming of the day that someone will come rescue them from there present state of living a nightmare and treat them as they should be treated....as God sees them.

Its true friends....what you hear people say...Once your eyes are opened up to truth you are never able to shut them. My husband and I have recently been asking for God to continue to open our eyes to this dying world around us and find ways to connect with the heart of God and make a difference for the Kingdom in this short life here on earth. So our most recent convictions come in the form of 2 very hard truths...Abortion and Orphans....yes you can stop reading right now if you arent in the mood for the heaviness that those 2 words bring....but take heart that God also feels that same weight with those words.

As we are sorting through and educating ourselves on these 2 topics My heart has taken me on a journey to explore the world of Adoption...and specifically China. I have no idea why other than the holy spirit nudging me to read...educate myself and after prayer allow God to show us what our response is to it.....

Im not saying we are going to adopt a baby girl from China but what I am saying is that its important that we as Christians face the hard Words...and allow God to change us.....We need to be open and honest with ourselves and know that as hard as it is those things exist and they are at the center of the Heart of Christ.

My worst day at home with 2 kids....is some childs best day that lives in an orphanage....

They are Royalty my friends....they are the least of these.....

      This is where we are today....He is always in character ....spiderman, fireman, policeman.....and in this picture he was a tiger. And she loves being on the go in her stroller.

I love her so much. 

 And Parent fail of the week: I sometimes forget how short I am...i mean I am really short.. so when I put my big 3 yr old boy in a high baby swing I didnt really think about how I was going to get him out. Poor kid was stuck there for about 20 minutes and we had to call Andrew to come get hime out!

Josie

 We welcomed sweet Josie to our lives on May 18th at 730 in the morning. While the Dr was doing the c section as soon as she touched Josie she started screaming, Dr said...your not born yet, hold on....and I think at that moment I realized this one is going to be a pill. She has colic and acid reflux and continued to scream at us for the next 3 months. After we started her on meds and also figured out she has a severe milk protein allergy she finally started to feel better. And now here we are at 7 months with the sweetest little girl ever. Many days she is easier than Noah and is all smiles. She is only 7 months but has been crawling since she was 5 months old. I guess she is just trying to keep up with her brother.

  Merry Christmas from my family to yours! as you can tell Josie was way more interested in looking up at the cars overhead and Noah was in a crazy mood. but hey thats our life right now....a little distracted  and crazy

 Oh Josie.....she has been the biggest blessing and challenge yet. At 6 months she is crawling, sitting up and able to sit in a high chair. Her first 6 months we were stuck in survival mode but now im learning that maybe that is just life right now..... She is a passionate baby and loves her momma.

Back to Blogging

 Its happening. I am back in the blogging world and I am so excited. My super sweet amazing husband surprised me with a MacBook Air which means we have a computer! Its been over a year since we have had one and I feel like I need to go to a class to relearn how to use it. So what have we been up to? well we have had a kid, Josie who is the sweetest and worst baby ever.... yes all at the same time! Noah really is the sweetest kid and has an amazing heart. We have decided to embark on an awesome adventure with God and our family....we are moving to Hyde Park to start a church and live in community with people who are not like us but who need the gospel. I will be blogging about our adventure along the way.......also I plan on documenting my weight loss journey after baby 2. For some reason my body has decided it was done...I cant lose baby weight, my hair is turning grey and i had skin cancer....its done.....anyway stay tuned!

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah !!!

Projects

This past weekend I was sick but needed to get out some craftiness in me so I had a couple of projects I have been waiting to do.....It was my first attempt at making a pillow.....with a gluegun....and lets just say...who needs a sewing machine when a gluegun is just as good other than the burn marks left on my fingers. Just battle wounds, but so much fun. I am about to re do our bathroom and bedroom so stay tuned for before and after pics !!!!

Inspirations

I have been searching for a while for something to do with my blah khaki walls in the guest room, and I have found it.....Painted walls.....this should thrill my husband when I tell him my new project. I love these walls !!!

Playroom finally done

We are finally done with Noah's Playroom and it turned out just the way I wanted, although the color green is not the grass color I was going for I am pleased with how it turned out. He has a fun reading area and he loves his chalkboard wall. The next project will be our bathroom and the master bedroom.

Im going to start blogging again I promise Its just been a while since I have had the time to dedicate to sitting down and writing about our life and my many projects I have in my head right now.

The hunts are doing great and Noah is growing into a little boy quickly before our eyes. I wish I could hold back the time to embrace every hug and sweet kiss because I know before to long they will be few and far between.....

First for everything

When you have a baby and they start growing up you begin to celebrate the firsts for everything....first words, first steps, first real food....we get excited and celebrate each and every first....but this week we did not celebrate this first......First Hospital overnight, first surgery and first IV.....

Monday began with a trip to the Dr's office for a fever and an infected bug bite and ended with being admitted to the hospital for surgery. Nothing hurts a mothers heart like hearing your little one has to have surgery. As we walked through the halls of the Childrens Hospital we passed several hospital wings full of children sick....families stressed and moms and dads dealing with there own firsts.....

I realized at that moment that our children really are in God's hands...there was not a thing I could do to protect him...keep him healthy or kiss away his bobo...It was up to God to take care of him and trust that he will be ok. So after it was all said and done.....I have been able to now celebrate this first...The first time I truly trusted God with Noah...and he was faithful....as he always is ......

I'm Back

Wow...its been a super long time since I have blogged...and to be honest I have really missed it. Noah is 16 months old and in such a fun stage right now. He needs Jesus as much as the next kid and will hopefully decide to follow him at a young age...but until then we will just enjoy the awesome sinful little child of God that he is.

My baby is to big

Wow, sorry it's been so long since my last post, not that anyone even reads this but it has been a while. I feel like I haven't really written an update on what Noah is up to at his sweet age of 14 months...so here is a recap

He walks really well, everywhere

He loves his stuffed animals, Douglas and Brodie

He loves to eat, especially blueberries

He is an emotional kid ( wonder where that came from) if a kid cries, he cries, if someone looks at him weird he cries, he loves to give hugs and wants to make friends with almost anyone

He is still taking 2 naps but most days its only 1

He can say juice, mommy, dada and duck

He is such a joy and I love that little guy more than life....he has stolen my heart.

Wedding, Walking and Waves

It has been a really long time since my last post and that's because we have been super busy. We just got back from South Padre where Andrew had to go for a conference and we tagged along. 2 other couples went with us and there kids...we had a blast. Noah didn't like the sand or the water but he liked to look at it. We are hoping that he gets over his fear and gets used to the water because we plan on going to the beach again soon.

This past weekend Andrew's brother Tom got married and it was a beautiful wedding. 2 days before the wedding Noah decided he was going to start walking and now you can't keep up with him. He is all over the place, which is one reason why we had to stay in the lobby to watch the wedding...he wanted to get down and walk and didn't want to sit still with me. We had a great time with family.

Now back to the real world and back to house decorating and painting........

Playroom

Let me first begin by saying that Noah is almost 13 months old...I have a toddler...What? When did that Happen. Here is a pic of his first train ride at zilker park...so cute. He is really starting to express his little personality even more now and let's just say it's a good thing we are currently doing a study about how to raise your child because the time of pushing boundaries has come....He is such a sweet boy though and has decided to do things in his own time. He is my little man

I have finally decided on what to do in the playroom so next month once things slow down for us we are going to do this room, then his room the next month. I found these cute puff chairs on http://ohdeedoh.com and it actually has a tutorial on how to make them yourself. I love this site by the way.

On the same site I found these really cute book slings that will also be making an appearance in the play room as well. He is going to also have a chalkboard wall and his own art gallery...look for before and after pics next month.

Dining Room in Progress

I finally found plates for the dining room and I love them. I found them at Marshalls for 2 dollars a plate. I bought the same plate at a boutique store for 20 dollars so they were a steal.

I still need to fins a china cabinet to go on the wall behind the table but I am so in love with how it is turning out. ....sorry my camera sucks...We plan on getting a better one for Christmas.

Also decided what to do in the art nitch....I put out fresh flowers every week and honestly I love it...and where do I get them.....

From my amazing Hydrangea plant outside in my front yard......

Noah's room idea

After lots of searching and looking at ideas I have finally decided on what I am going to do with Noah's room. I wanted it to be a room he can grow into so we won't be changing it for a while. So his entire room is going to be done around this 1 pillow that I just love...Its from Serena and Lily...I love that store.....

It is going to be awesome..I have tons of ideas going through my brain but the big idea is " A boys best friend"..we have 2 labs and Noah just loves them so much.

A year of Blessings

Wow it really seems like time has flown by this past year. I love this little guy so much and he has brought a love into our hearts that I never knew existed. We love you so much Noah. Today Noah had his 12 month pictures so I just wanted to share some of our favorite pictures from the past year !!!

Love This

If I could do it all over again it would be something like this.....

Mommy Tip Tuesday

It's Tuesday so that means it's time to share some tips with each other. Today I want to talk about baby/Toddler food. When Noah started on the journey of food from the beginning I decided I wanted to make his food and make healthy choices for him. I loved knowing what was in his food and it actually make me realize how many poor choices in food I make for myself. When we passed the puree stage to real food it seems like it has been a little harder to make healthier choices. I still make his food but at times I turn to the processed foods just out of plain convenience. I give him fruit 3 times a day but I seem to be having trouble with some of the other stuff. Like, what do you fix for Lunch? I make him sandwiches but other than that what else do you feed a toddler? I can figure out breakfast and dinner but Lunch throws me everytime....what do you fix for Lunch? Any tips on healthy non processed foods that are easy.
The tips I would like to share today are from my experience with baby food. I found a couple of things that worked really well for us.

Tip #1 - I would bake everything at the same time for the whole week. potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, beans....I would decide what foods to make and I would just throw everything in the oven. Then after he went to sleep for the night I would puree it all and pour it into ice cube trays then into the freezer. It was easier and allowed me to have the whole week done.

Tip #2 - I tried to make everything fresh and organic but when I couldn't I bought the bags of frozen...steam in bag....veggies and they works really well. Most of the bags that are frozen are really simple to use and cuts down the baking time. Read the food label to be sure to avoid and added salt or preservatives.