Merry Christmas!!

I enjoyed celebrating my first Christmas this year. It's kind of funny that we're celebrating Jesus' birthday, but I get lots of presents. I can't decide what I liked most, the presents or the wrapping paper & boxes. I got to celebrate with both sets of Grandparents & was able to meet my Aunt Kristen from California for the first time. Uncle Todd, Aunt MB and Uncle Carlos helped me to celebrate too! Unfortunately I have not been feeling so great over the holiday. I had a top tooth come in, which was quite uncomfortable. I've also been struggling with a urinary tract infection which the doctor has put me on two types of medicine to cure. I've had lots of high temperatures. Needless to say, I haven't given Mommy & Daddy much rest. For many nights I had to get them to rock me to sleep 3-5 times in the middle of the night. I'm feeling much better now, back to my old self of crawling ALL over the place and pulling myself up onto anything I can. I also went to my first Christmas Eve service. I had a lot of fun singing all of the Christmas carols. I hope everybody has a Happy New Year!

Wow, this toy is FUN.

Hey Aunt Kristen..glad I finally got to meet you.

Is this for me??

This paper sure does taste good. Laid back in a perfect sized rocking chair.
A family picture after the Christmas eve service

Mommy & Daddy finally decided to get some real photographs done. I think I am pretty cute. Enjoy.

Christmas Pics

Our little daughter continues to grow and bring us joy. We are very excited about celebrating our first Christmas as parents. Anna is fully on the move now. She crawls very efficiently and can pull her self up by herself. We decided to take some Christmas pictures. As you can see from the follwing pictures, it's not easy :) And the winner is.......................................The family at a Young Life Christmas party.Anna's first injury requiring a bandaid. She stuck her finger in the vent & cut it. She is a cute patient.
She still loves to snuggle & suck on her fingers.
She loves playing with toys and pulling them out of the basket herself.
Full of smiles.


Discovering her basket of toys for the first time.


Worn out from a hard day of playing.
This is how she wakes us up in the AM now. She just hasn't figured out how to get herself down yet.

Redeemed!

Redemption…

Last night at YL club I had the privilege of sharing the cross with our high school friends, sharing they are redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood. This morning I was listening to praise music with Anna (once again) and I was reminded of my redemption with the words of this song…

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

This song sums up what I wanted to convey to my high school friends. Jesus seeks us out. There is absolutely nothing we can do to save our wandering souls. Jesus paid the price for us. Last night I used the illustration of Anna’ dairy intolerance. Anna ultimately needed the milk to quench her hunger but it left her unsatisfied and with many unpleasant symptoms-gas, explosive diapers, spitting up, inconsolable crying and sleepless nights (just to name a few). Our life is a lot like Anna’s. We are trying to quench our hunger, a longing for more. We try to fill it by being the best mommy or best spouse, trying to look good, with alcohol, making the best grades or winning the approval of others. But we are left unsatisfied. No matter how much we try to fill the void with these things we are left empty. All those things I just listed are symptoms of the bigger problem-our separation from the Father. Just like Anna could not fix her problem we cannot fix ours. I had to pay the price for Anna’s dairy intolerance. I had to sacrifice dairy in order for her needs to be met. God did the same for us, by sending his son to die on the cross for OUR sins. Anna did nothing to deserve me sacrificing some of my favorite foods-ice cream, pizza, pasta, etc. In fact the difficult weeks of not sleeping, her crying and changing one outfit after another would cause you to believe just the opposite but my love for her is not conditional and our Father’s love for us is not conditional. He is willing to meet us where we are at-we don’t have to clean up our act before we meet him at the foot of the cross. He wants our ALL. He knows we are prone to wander but he wants to rescue us from the danger, he wants to save us with his precious blood and save us FREELY. I am so thankful this morning for our Father’s redeeming love. I am thankful he chose to rescue me.

I am also thankful this morning that Kevin chose me. Today is our 4-year anniversary. I am thankful that he chooses to love me (and now Anna) despite our flaws but I am most thankful that he too has been redeemed. It is because of the love of the Father that lives in him that he is able to love us well.

For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, AND are justified FREELY by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. Romans 3:23-25

Happy Halloween

I got to celebrate my first Halloween the other week. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I got to help carve a pumpkin and dress up as a lady bug and hang out with some of my other friends. It was a lot of fun, although Mommy & Daddy wouldn't share any candy with me.Here I am with my friend Madison @ the party.
Here is the pumpkin I helped to "carve". I really just played with the scooper, which looked like a fun toy. Here I am at a wedding with "uncle" Benton. I think he really likes me.
I got to meet some of daddy's old Young Life guys at the wedding.

I love to sit in a chair like a big girl
If you can't tell, I LOVE to smile too.
I love sucking on my two fingers and my toes. I constantly alternate so I don't get bored with either one.

mmmm these fingers are good.
I still love bath time.
And nap time.

Here I am sporting my Young Life onsie. I don't get to go to Young Life club with Mommy & Daddy anymore since I'm going to bed before 8:00 most nights.

I also like to play in my "exer saucer"
If you look closely you can see my two bottom teeth.
I've learned to roll over back & forth from my stomach to my belly. It's a lot of fun. I haven't quite figured out how to crawl yet. Do I look cute in my jeans or what?
I just went to the doctor today for my 6 month shots. Those were not very much fun. The doctor said I'm still in the 75th percentile for height @ 26 3/4 inches, and I weigh in at 16 pounds, which is in the 50th percentile. I continue to grow and keep Mommy & Daddy on their toes. I also got to go to my first two birthday parties this weekend.