Eleven Sweet Years

It is hard to believe, but Matt and I just celebrated eleven years of marriage. I am incredibly blessed by the wonderful man God gave me to be my husband.

We spent the day shopping for a bicycle for me and a bicycle trailer to pull behind it. We bought the bike and brought it home. Matt and I took a short bike ride. It had been years since I last rode a bike. It felt good, but I quickly saw how out of shape I am.

After our bike ride we went to dinner at Lupe Tortilla's. It was a simple anniversary but good. Anytime I get to spend with my husband is good in my eyes. We seldom get time to go out without all the children, so it was good. We did take Lilly Faith though.

After eleven years it is encouraging to look back and see how the Lord has grown us in our knowledge of Him, our understanding of each other, and He is continuing to grow us as the years fly by. We are both striving to grow in Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood. It is our desire to live out the roles God has designed us to fulfill. As we live out what God has created us to be it draws us closer as a couple.

I am so blessed by my husband's sacrificial love and leadership of me and our children. I love his passion for the Word of God and how he directs me to God's Word for encouragement. I love how he is my best friend and listens to me share my heart. I am very thankful for Matt and love him with all my heart.

I found this poem over at generationcedar.com It ministered to me immensely. Is it just enough that my Father God sees my endeavors day in and day out? He sees and He cares even when no one else fully understands. I thought this poem was really powerful. I hope it blesses you as much as it blessed me.

Let It Be Enough

Let it be enough, that just my Father sees,

The child-shaped castles that I build,

The falling on my knees.

Let it be enough, that just my Father knows,

The tasks I start and have to stop–

How fast a two-year-old goes!

Let it be enough, that just my Father feels,

My every waking moment spent

With “The Questioner” on my heels.

Let it be enough, that just my Father hears,

How many times a day I referee

Between the tears.

Let it be enough, that just my Father understands,

The messes I clean up–the toes, the bottoms, and the hands!

May I be, (without an eye to see) content to work,

Without a paycheck, no “teacher of the year” or other perk.

May I resolve, each passing day, while all around me mock,

To press on–keep investing in this sweet eternal stock!

Kelly Crawford

March 8, 2008

Strawberry Shortcake

Lauren loves an opportunity to crochet gifts. She made Annagrace a Strawberry Shortcake.

She was a happy girl!

Even Daddy played pin the jewel on the tiarra.

Annagrace is a sweetie. See Lilly Faith in the background?

A "Berry Special" party for a "Berry Special" girl. :) I cannot believe she is four.

Happy Birthday, Annagrace!

Our Precious Annagrace turned four on October the 2nd. We had a good time celebrating with her at home and taking her to a fall carnival at her Grandad and Grandmother's church. She dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake since that was the theme of her party. The fall flowers were for her.

Lilly Faith is Three Months

I am very late in posting this since Lilly Faith turned three months on October 8th. I think I am late in posting every month, but at least it gets posted at some point. :) Doesn't she look huge? She is growing like a weed, loves to babble and smile. She is the sweetest, easiest baby imaginable. She is sleeping through the night every night now. That is a huge blessing to us! What can I say, I just love and adore this precious gift from the Lord.

Mama's Cooking

Today we are in the car and Gabriel says:

"Mama, I think there is something special about your cooking." I asked him what that is. He said, "You put a special ingredient in it called love." Oh my goodness! What a sweet boy I have been blessed with. Have I ever mentioned I love this boy? :)

Steven Curtis Chapman Cinderella Music Video and story

This one is powerful. It made me cry like a baby. How fast our little ones are growing up. Such a good reminder to love our children well while we still have them in our homes. They will be all grown up before we know it. The video made me bawl my eyes out, and Stephen's story after the video made me laugh. Be sure to watch this with a box of tissues.

Seven Quick Takes

Jess, over at http://makinghome.blogspot.com/, gave me the idea to do a recap of the week sharing any seven items I fancy. I have been wanting to try this even though I am not sure how faithful I will be to post each weekend. It is worth a try though. :)

• On Friday Lauren yells the dreaded words, "SNAKE!" I checked it out from a distance and discovered that yes indeed there WAS a real live snake on the side of the garage very near our house. Matt found and killed another yesterday. May the Lord protect us is all I can say. My nerves are a bit frazzled over the matter.
• Fall weather has finally made an appearance here in Texas, and we are Very Much enjoying it!!!
• Today we had our family picture taken at church for an upcoming directory. I won't bore you with the details of how much work it took to match everone's clothes, socks, hair bows....let it suffice to say that it was a LOT of work finding all the matching this and that. Well, we barely made it to church on time, and when it was time to pose for the picture Gabriel was sticking his tongue out with Annagrace following suit. After several shots someone was nice enough to let us know, so then we tried again. Well, none of the pics came out good. This means that we have to wash and iron the clothes and then try again at another time. Hmmm I hope he learned his lesson. Daddy and Mama were NOT happy.
• We finished our third week of school last week. It is chaotic with the little bitties, but overall I think it is going well.
• I love a bargain, and I love smocked dresses. Today I found a dress for Lauren that normally costs 132.99. It was the last one, and I paid 26.00. That is still more than I typically spend on a dress for her, but I thought over a hundred dollars off was hard to turn down. It is beautiful.
• This cooler weather has motivated me towards making soups, chili, fall breads, etc. I stocked up on ingredients to make winter foods and am going to try to start with chili tomorrow.
• Annagrace turned four yesterday. She enjoyed a small party at home with a Strawberry Short Cake theme. Since she turned four she now gets to go to Children's Worship training at our church and a Sunday school for her age. Before she was just in the nursery. She came out very excited and telling us all about what she did. I am so happy that she is excited about it. She also gets to attend big church with us for the singing before the sermon. It is nice to have her worshipping with us.

Well, that is a recap of some of our happenings this past week. Perhaps I will do a seven quick takes from time to time. Have a great week, everyone!