One year ago today, Lillie Grace came into this world and it has never been the same since. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by already. She still seems like a baby to us but seeing these pictures are a good reminder of how little (sort of) she was. She is sweet little girl, who brings lots of smiles to our family.
Lillie, sweet baby, we love you....Happy Birthday!
Here are a few shots of her little birthday party today. She was a little sleepy so she wasn't really wanting to take a lot of pictures. Her birthday cakes were really cute (and very tasty!) As you can see, she got her own personal cake to devour.
Lillie loves to push around cars, so this gift was a big hit...good job Aunt Hannah!!
We were wondering exactly how much of the cake Lillie would eat. Well, as you can see, she impressed us big time.
This is Lillie saying, "Mom, please stop me before I hurt myself."
This week Madison and her friend Emily went to Vacation Bible School at Immanual Lutheran Church. The theme for the week was Friendship Trek and they talked about different stories in the bible where Jesus was a good friend and how he is the best friend we could ever have. Today they had their end of week performance, which was really great. There was a brief overview of the stories from the week and they performed some of the songs they learned about Jesus being a friend. They also raised money for different items for a mission organization that lets you specify what you want your money to go towards. They raised enough money to buy a llama, a ram, some ducks and a few other items that I can't seem to remember. Madison had a great time and did a great job performing.
One of the songs that I really enjoyed was a song that I have heard a million times, even remembered most of the words, but for some reason today it really touched me. A couple of weeks ago we found out that one of Dan's aunts has breat cancer. She will be having a full mastectomy in just a few days. As I was listening to the words, she came to mind. So for those of you who have never heard this song or maybe it has been a while, I have posted the words of the song and a video.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bearMay we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayerRapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.
Now that Hannah is home, I have been slacking a little on my postings, so I am going to try to do a little catching up. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately,) there is not much to report. We are still very much enjoying Moez. Sorry the picture is a little blurry, it is nearly impossible to get all of them in a picture but I thought this one was really cute. We took him to the park on Friday to meet our friends, which was a little crazy, but all in all he is a very sweet dog. He definately is part of the family.
Usually our summer days are filled with hours at the pool, but with three kids and the yucky weather that we have had we haven't spent tons of time swimming. While the rest of us have complained about the weather, Eli, our little weather man (he loves to tell us that is either raining or going to rain), has quiet enjoyed our muddy back yard with his furry friend Moez.
Here is the last picture of what used to be Dan's motorcycle. No, he did not crash it, he sold it. He has already found a replacement but I won't put up pictures until the deal is final. He is proud of his new find, so hopefully it won't take long to post the new pictures. Good bye R6.
Today I had a good reminder of precious life is. This afternoon Eli was playing out back with a couple of the neighbor boys while Dan and I were inside. This is pretty much part of our daily routine, so I wasn't really worried. Suddenly, I heard the boys in the garage, so I sent Dan out to find out what they were doing. Upon asking them why they were in the garage they said they were looking for Eli and Moez. At first Dan didn't worry, assuming that they were out back, probably on the side of the house looking at the neighbors dogs. He quickly realized, however, that they had somehow escaped with unlocking the gate. Immediately Dan rushed inside to tell me that they were nowhere inside. After a few minutes we realized that a barrier we had placed over a hole in the back fence had been removed. So I peered through the hole expecting to see them in the yard behind ours as Dan rushed to get into the van and drive around the block. As I looked through the hole calling for the two runaways I begin to panic because they are nowhere in that yard either. At this point, I am on the verge of being totally frantic, knowing that they were somewhere out of the protection of the fences. Just then, as I am near screaming their names, I hear a woman's voice ask, "Are you looking for a little boy and a dog?" Crazily, I yell, "Yes, do you know where they are?" To which she responded, "They are in my front yard." I ask her to keep a watchful eye as Dan comes around in the van. As I calmed down I could hear Moez barking and two men talking, so I headed out front to watch for their return. As I waited, the fear of the situation set in and I sat on my front porch, crying, for what seemed like eternity, waiting to see my little boy return home. Upon arriving home, I hugged him and then shook him telling him never to leave the yard again and gave Moez a big pat on head. After all the excitement was over, Dan told me the man that was waiting with the two boys had tried to approach Eli, and Moez would not let him near. So it seems that we have found ourselves a good dog, who already desires to protect what is precious in our home. Looking at Eli in bed, has never seemed so sweet. Thank God for His protection.
Introducing the newest member of our family, Moez:
We weren't totally planning on getting a dog, but I looked online and saw this little guy and simply could not resist. He is a very busy dog that turned one year old just this month. We adopted him from PAL here in Tulsa. He is a Puggle (Pug/Beagle mix) but was bigger than his siblings so he was difficult to sell and ended up being given up for adoption. He already fits right in.
Now that Lillie is crawling, she is enjoying discovering all that she has been missing in her stationary life. In her explorations, she has recently found a new toy that she loves....the magna-doodle! The funny thing is, she actually puts the pen on the pad, like she knows what she is doing. Maybe she has a touch of her Aunt Hannah's creative side??
We have been waiting and waiting for Lillie to start crawlings, and last night she finally decided that it was time. Dan found her in the kitchen eating cat food. YEAH LILLIE! She has been crawling back and forth to the front door, so I thought I would share this little clip of her exploring her new found freedom.
With summer well on it's way to Oklahoma, we loaded up this week for the first of many trips to the pool. This is Lillie in her little sun bathing outfit. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of her in her swimsuit, but I'm sure one will eventually make it to the blog. The kids had tons of fun! Madison hasn't skipped a beat on her swimming. She jumped in that freezing cold water and picked up right where she left off. Eli is going to be a handful (big surprise). Right now he is a little of leary of the water, but it is obvious that is not going to last long. We had to fish him out twice. Lillie is going to follow the other two in a love for the water, she loved to kick and splash. It will be a busy summer (which makes for some really great afternoon naps!)
This week has been absolutely crazy, but it is finally over. The week started with finals; luckily, I came through with good grades in all my classes, which was a good way to start the week. Wednesday, I returned to my old job and have worked every day since. Meanwhile, Madison has had t-ball in the evening and it has been a true juggling act trying to figure out what kids were going with what person in which vehicle. CRAZY! So, finally, Saturday arrived and Dan and the kids came to visit me at work. As soon as Eli walked in the door, I knew something was wrong with his eyes. So I called Brad, our friend the optometrist (who, by the way, is getting ready to open a practice in Broken Arrow behind Panara), and he confirmed my suspicion that Eli had pink eye. As the night has progressed I have been shocked at how awful his eyes have become, so I decided to post a couple of pictures, but this hardly does it justice...they are nasty.
Needless to say, it has been a crazy week. But, what are you gonna do?
This post is really just for my sister, who has recently complained about the fact that I don't really have any recent pictures of Eli posted. This weekend I had the pleasure of going out of town with a couple of other girls in my community group for a ladies conference. It was absolutely wonderful and refreshing and as a added bonus my mom let the two girls stay the night Saturday night since I wasn't home until late. Consequently, Eli was the only child that needed getting ready for church on Sunday morning, which caused us to run unusually ahead of schedule. So, I decided to take a couple of pictures of the little man, who looked especially cute that morning. So here he is, my little prince:
