An Easter Blessing

Today was an incredible day. Kayla asked Jesus to come into her heart. It was such a sweet time. For a while I have been praying for God to guide me in talking with her so that I wouldn't push her and that I would have the right words to say. I have felt for a long time that she has the knowledge she needed, but we hadn't said anything about needing to pray to ask Jesus into your heart. Yesterday at Cubbies I brought my Resurrection Eggs and went through them with our class. We had been doing them one a night leading up to Easter, but since we teach her class she was able to get through all of them. Then we took the class to "Walk Where Jesus Walked" where the kids experienced the way things were during Jesus' day. Our friend Tracy talked to the children about Good Friday through the Resurrection. It was a great experience. I wanted to ask her if she had any questions about anything she saw yesterday, but Wednesday nights are so crazy once we get home. Today I felt the Lord telling me to ask her so we sat down and talked. At first she said no, but then we got into a discussion about going to heaven. In her little mind only "bad people" don't go to heaven, but I explained that some good people also won't go to heaven because they do not believe in Jesus or they didn't believe that Jesus was the Son of God who died for our sins. I told her about how we need to pray and tell Jesus that we know He is God's Son and that he came to earth to die for our sins. A few minutes later she said that she wanted to say that prayer. My heart was so thrilled, but I wanted to make sure this was from her and not because "mommy told me to do this." After some more talking about what it means and how by praying to ask Jesus into her heart we are to live each day striving to be like Him. I called Marc and put him on speakerphone and she prayed in her own words what she wanted to say to Him. It was so precious. We then spent some time reading in the Bible about what she just did, what it means, and what God expects of her. She has been on cloud nine all afternoon. She is so happy and can't stop smiling. That's like confirmation to me that she understands what she did and how important that decision was in her life.

Thank you Jesus for such a special little girl. Thank you for the opportunity to raise her. Thank you for calling her to Your saving grace. I pray that You would direct us in guiding her in Your ways and teaching her how to live for you. May she be a light that shines Your love to others. Amen.

I Didn't Think I Was That Bad

I'm not a great singer. Never have been and never plan on it. I can match pitch okay, but don't ask me to sing harmony or acapella. I sing to my girls, but an audience of 3 is about it for me - sometimes 4 if Marc is "lucky" enough. Today in the car the girls were singing and then Macy made a request for "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Since Kayla didn't start singing it, I started. I managed to get through the first line and Macy says, "Not you! I want Kayla to sing!" Gee thanks Macy.

10 Years Ago Today

this man asked me to be his wife. God blessed me with a truly amazing man and my life is better because of him.

I love you babe. Thanks for asking me to join you through the adventure of life. I am blessed beyond measure.

I Could Just Eat Her Up!

Seriously??

Leave it to a 2-year-old to eat a cracker using her feet. And leave it to a dad to give her another one so he could get a picture.

2 Months Old - A Little Late

Oh that smile melts me! Brooke is starting to smile in response to me and I love it! Those first thing after waking up ones are the best, but unfortunately it turns to screaming quickly. She always wakes up starving, but after sleeping 7 1/2 hours I guess she is hungry.

Right now she is 2 1/2 months old, but at her 2 month appointment she was 10lbs. and 22.75in.
I think her eyes might stay blue like Marc's and Macy's.

Chores

I just started working with Macy on chores. We do make her help us clean up her toys, but it's pretty difficult. I waited until Kayla was 3 before starting this, but I decided to go ahead and try with her. When Marc and I decided to start this we had to decide do we pay or not. There are pros and cons to both, and this is what we decided would work best for teaching our children. This is my second version, and it is working well. Every day they are supposed to do 2 chores. They need to know that they have responsibilities as a member of the family. There are no daily set chores per se, but the do 2 things. We also wanted to teach them to work for money - it is not freely given whenever you want something. After they do the 2 chores that are required they may choose to do 2 more if they wish. They are then paid for those chores. Today they both helped me sort a box of 3T clothes to get the summer clothes out for Macy and they helped unload the dishwasher.

Macy is starting to catch on. She doesn't understand that she has to do 2 chores or that she gets paid for more, but she is excited to get to put her picture up.

Weekend Recap

Rehearsal Dinner
Brooke has a matching outfit but she wasn't in the mood for pictures.

Kayla and her cousin Clay love spending time together. They were so cute talking with each other during dinner.

Before the out-of-towners luncheon on Saturday we went downtown to let the kids run around and play. They had a blast.

As you can see, they weren't really in the mood for more pictures.

Me and my baby. I can't believe how big she is getting!

All of the cousins (except Brooke) after the wedding. They all did so great during the ceremony.

Kay was surrogate grandmother to Brooke this weekend. She held her for most of the reception so Marc and I could tend to Kayla and Macy.

After the wedding we went to Freddie and George's house - parents of the groom. The kids were fascinated with how the bark came off of the tree.

We had a lovely weekend and all 3 girls did great. Brooke even slept 9 hours last night - well if you don't count the 10 minutes she was up making us a dirty diaper. We hope to see a lot of these family members again in September when Marc's brother Chris gets married.

All is Quiet

Moultrie, Georgia. A small town in south Georgia. Away from the hustle of the suburbs. It's nice out here. I'm not sure it's somewhere I would want to live, but that just comes from living in the same area for 24 years of your life. Down here it's quiet. There is no traffic yet they have just about any type of store you would need. I haven't seen a Target, but surely they have one somewhere. There is a Chick-fil-A for me and a Home Depot for Marc. There is farmland and pretty cool farm equipment we have never seen. Oh, and it's 75 degrees today and that makes me happy.

We are in town for Marc's cousin's wedding. Everyone has been so gracious and welcoming. We haven't seen a lot of these people since our wedding almost 9 years ago and some I have never met. The girls have been doing great and we continue to get comments about how adorable they are. Can't say I disagree! haha Apparently last night there was a big commotion over how cute they were when Marc took them downstairs. I had them dressed alike in these adorable outfits that my mom got for them. I don't have my contraption to hook up my pictures right now, but I'll be sure to post one.

Today we had a lovely luncheon for out of town guests and then we headed back to the hotel for a nap. Yesterday I was finally able to get Macy to take a nap. It was 5:00, and at that point I would usually skip it for the day, but I knew we had a late night coming up and I didn't want to introduce her to everyone as "Macy, the one who didn't nap and is really cranky so please excuse her and know that we don't usually allow such behavior in our household." That would take too long. Anyway, we needed the girls to nap again this afternoon to prepare for a late wedding and reception this evening. (Why is it that kids can go to bed 2 1/2 hour later than usual and still manage to wake up at the same time?) It was yet another chore to get both of them to sleep, but right now they are both sleeping - one on either side of Marc. He's sleeping too. Brooke fell asleep before we got to the luncheon and I knew that she would wake up hungry probably around 1:30. I decided that I wasn't going to nap because when she wakes up she will be hungry and will be crying. It's not worth it for her to wake the girls up so I decided to piddle around on the computer so I could get her before she starts crying. Oh the sacrifices mother's make. My sleep is not worth having 2 cranky children for the night. So here we are at 3:00 and Brooke is still sleeping. I'm tired and have a headache so I cracked open a Mr. Pibb. Why did they change the name to Pibb Xtra anyway? It will always be Mr. Pibb to me, but I digress.

There's not much else going on around here. Sorry to bore you with the napping details, but I have nothing else to do. When we get home I'll be sure to upload some pictures. Thanks mom for helping me get everything organized so I can show off my babies. :)

Sickness

Poor thing doesn't feel well, but those eyelashes amaze me everyday. All three of them have gorgeous eyelashes and hopefully one day they will realize how blessed they are.