Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Busy, busy,...quiet /Happy New Year)

So, it's been pretty busy around here for the past week or so and now it's so quiet. We had a very nice Christmas here at our house and then spent time with Gabe's family and then my family came to visit. Now, it seem so lonely because everyone has left. My Dad, Claudia and Gianna have been staying with us for the past 5 days (they're on an airplane heading back to CA as I write this) and it's been awesome. It's been so fun to watch Maddie interact with them and for them to really get to know her at age 2. I have to say that there's just something about spending time with your parents while they play with your children. Something special happens. You see your parents in a youthful light as they get down on the floor to do a puzzle with their granddaughter. I kept having the thought of how thankful I am. Thankful for God, for family, for health, for airplanes (so we can all see each other), for our dogs, for so many things. My dad got an email that he forwarded to me yesterday because I liked it so much, but one thing it said was "I'm too blessed to be stressed," and I think that should be my motto for 2009. There's too much good in life to be so worried, angry, irritable...you name it. We will be staying in tonight and just keeping quiet. 2008 has been quite a year in our household, but I'm choosing to see it as a great one. It's the year that Gabe got sober, that God became the center of our home, that Grace was born, that the girls got dedicated and that Gabe and I were baptized. To me, it's been amazing. Happy New Year.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!!!


Matching Pajama's courtesy of Nonnie :)

To see more pictures of our Christmas, click here.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas Eve

*this was meant to be read yesterday!*

Well, the big day is here. Yes, tomorrow is the biggest day, but today is the big for a few reasons. Every Christmas Eve something not-so-good happens to me/us. Two years ago, I fell down the stairs holding a 2 month old Madeline on Christmas Eve. And let us not forget last year when we were trying to drive from Missouri back to Virginia and then decided to get on a plane and just get here faster. Only to be at the ER in Alexandria by 10pm that night with Maddie terribly sick. So, I'm determined to have a better Christmas Eve than we've had for the past 2 years. We're staying home, making a ham and opening one present (it's going to be the one from Nonnie that's for all of us-Pajamagram anyone? :) We're also going to leave cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer and read "The Night Before Christmas." We're also going to continue to play with our Nativity Set that I bought for the girls. It was suggested to me to get a Nativity Set that kids could touch-so that they could play and I could tell them the story of Jesus' birth. It was also recommended that no mom get too upset if their children put baby Jesus on the roof of the manger or any other crazy thing they come up with. Their just kids. Well, Maddie has made a pretty funny scenario with her Nativity Set. No matter how many times I tell her which one is Joseph and which one is Mary and how they are the parents of the baby, she continues to make Mary and the one of the wise men kiss each other! Pretty funny. She likes this particular wise man because he is carrying what we think is Frankincense and she thinks it's a bottle that she tries to drink from! It's wild to watch but I know she means no disrespect. Love to all!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

12/20/08 (approx. 15 weeks old)



Grace is really ticklish and so I took this video this morning to share with you! Enjoy :)

Friday, December 19, 2008

Baptism


Okay, so to start off, our baptism was AMAZING! It was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. With that being said there's something else that's been on my mind. In the past couple of weeks, we've been telling people that we're getting baptized. We kept finding that people didn't really know what to say to us. Many people whom are close to us didn't even really ask us what it meant to us, what it was (if they didn't know)- nothing. So that got me thinking. Maybe people thought it was weird; weird because it's something they thought only babies did or to some it may seem "too religious." Who knows? I want to be clear what it meant/means to me: It was an outward sign of an inner change that I made 7 years ago when I asked Christ into my heart as my Lord and Savior. That's one of the best decisions I've ever made and last night completely affirmed that choice. Gabe and I were the only married couple to be baptized together last night and so many people came up to us afterwards and thanked us for our testimonies. I could tell that Gabe's testimony really reached several people; one man told us that Gabe's testimony gave him hope for his brother who is battling alcohol and drugs. It was an awesome experience and I hope you enjoy the pictures. We read our testimonies side by side and then we were baptized together. To me, I felt more connected to Gabe last night than on the day we were married! Pretty amazing. There's a reason for this season that we're in :) So, thank you to those of you who kept us in your thoughts and prayers last night. I'm off to bed.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Think of us...

If you read this today please think of/pray for Gabe and I tonight at 6pm Eastern Time. We are being baptized together and could always use a prayer :) I'll have more to write about tomorrow!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

We're in the Christmas spirit...Finally!

It took a while, but I think we're there. We finally got our tree decorated, put our wreath up and sprinkled a few Christmas trinkets around our family room. It was tough this year to be motivated after the basement disaster, but now we are all set. The new carpet is really nice and we are definitely enjoying it. I'll take a few pic's and post them for those of you who want to see :) What else is going on?... Well, on Thursday night Gabe and I are being baptized. I'm really excited. I've been waiting for the past 7 years for the opportunity to do it and it really is true that God works in mysterious ways because I had no idea why I had to wait so long! I guess it's because He wanted me to wait for Gabe :) It's really neat because we are actually standing up together and reading our testimonies side by side. If you would have asked me a year ago if I ever pictured this happening I would have thought you were crazy! I did not expect to see change in Gabe the way I've seen it. I like to think that even though 2008 has been a tough year for us, it's ending in a really special way. A funny thing has started to happen with Grace. She is slowly but surely finding her fingers (just like the ones that Maddie sucks). It's really cute and A LOT easier than a pacifier because they are always with her :) She's been really working on this, so we'll see if it sticks. We are also in the middle of refinancing our mortgage which is a task in itself. It's funny how life works. You can go many months with not much going on and then all of the sudden it's like the days fly by because you're so busy. At least that's the case in my life. The last thing I want to share is that I'm reading a lot lately and one book I'm reading nightly is called Creating A Charmed Life by Victoria Moran. My mom sent it to me and I just think that it's amazing. I just read this part about "living your life in chapters." She's saying that we should just live our life in the chapter that we're in (for me it's the stay-at-home mom with little kids chapter) and not worry about the chapters that came before or after this one. It helps to live in the present which has been a huge goal of mine for the past few months. I'm trying to hurry less...in everything. I'm not totally successful, but at least I'm paying attention and attempting to change. It occurs to me that to even attempt something different is to already be successful :) Happy thoughts.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Take a minute and watch...

My mom received this today from a friend of hers and we watched it together and thought it had a great message. Take some time to watch it if you can. Click here

Have a great Thursday!!!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Bronchitis, Basement and Baptism

Well, I don't know for sure if I have bronchitis, but I think I do. Going to call the doctor tomorrow and have them listen to my lungs because I can't stop coughing and wheezing. Lovely. The basement is another story. Woke up yesterday to a flooded laundry room and to spare you the details let's just say we have ordered new carpet because a cleaning crew had to cut a bunch of our old carpet out. Gabe and I went and ordered it today and now we are going to have all new carpet in our home :) We've been wanting to do the upstairs too and now we have an excuse! Yay! Baptism is the final thing because Gabe and I attended a class at our church today about getting baptized together on the 18th and I'm really excited about that. Both of us were baptized as babies, but we really want to do it now as adults when we're really making that decision for ourselves in our own church. So, that's all of our news. My mom is here visiting and once we all start to feel better we'll be able to have some fun this week! Also, we had our first snow last night but it wasn't much and it didn't really stick to the ground. Still, it was enough to send Maddie into a frenzy yelling "snowman!" :)