New Header Photo

This photo seems to capture our little family to a tee right now…quite chaotic…but laughing despite the chaos!

A sweet friend from Fort Worth did a fantastic job capturing our little and extended family this past weekend. 

She is graciously snapping photos of families as a way to raise money for her family’s ongoing adoption costs as they are working to bring their littlest child home sometime this coming year.

If you live in Cowtown and are looking for a special and meaningful way to capture your family for the upcoming Christmas card season…and want to bless this family as they anticipate their upcoming adoption please let me know (I’d be glad to get you in touch with our friend).

Be blessed!

This Year More than Ever…

Enjoy a blessed beginning to this Thanksgiving week!

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord: let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” Psalm 95: 1-3

Be blessed.

Our Bathroom Foreman, B,…

Has kept his ‘whorka’s’ on schedule with demolition and prep as the plumber comes next week…

We are so excited to have a bathroom for little ones to go potty during play time (that presupposes that little ones are potty trained!) and separate place for house guests to enjoy a little more privacy!

Check back for more photos as this project continues to take shape.

Be blessed.

Gatsby

A got to take her first Gatsby ride this week…

She seemed to be quite impressed!

Be blessed.

Band-Aid ‘Magic’

B has learned that band-aids make everything feel better…

Be blessed.

Just Be(ar)cause…

Happy Tuesday!

Be blessed.

Beautiful Noise

As I rewind back to November 11, 2006, when I got to marry my very best friend,  I remember thinking that 2011 seemed that seemed so far away…

…Fast forward to today and I feel like it was just a blink of an eye when it felt like time stood still (at least for an evening) to celebrate our wedding surrounded by family and friends.

This photo was snapped after our wedding ceremony when all the guests had left to enjoy the reception celebration.  The photo captures a brief moment where we were simply just the two of us together in the quiet of a BEAUTIFUL Texas November evening…before the hustle and bustle of our life together officially began.

There are moments when my heart craves this simple quiet when I didn’t hardly have a care in the world…yet I am humbly reminded that the lack of quiet/ hustle and bustle are evidence of God’s gracious gifts in our little family’s life. 

When this photo was snapped, neither C or I could have comprehended the ‘noise’ that would graciously interrupt our ‘quiet’ life together (especially this past year’s noise).  The noise of sweet family, friends and of course our precious B and little A.  The noise of life’s joys and the noise of life’s obstacles and challenges. The noise of laughter and the noise of tears.

On 11.11.06 we couldn’t have comprehended how God, in His goodness, would weave our two lives together and take us on a ‘loud’ journey far beyond either of our expectations…we still can’t fully comprehend God’s goodness but appreciate little glimpses as we celebrate five years of our little family’s life.

We look forward to quiet moments when we can enjoy simply being together and reflect on the noise…and bask in the more consistent noisy moments where we get to enjoy God’s various blessings in our life.

I love you C… ‘You’re the best!’…thank you for walking alongside and listening to all the sweet ‘noise’ with me.

happy anniversary.

love,

iz

Be blessed.

Baby It’s…

Cold Outside!

We couldn’t be more thrilled!

Be blessed.

Potty Training

We haven’t thrown in the towel with potty training…though I have wanted to on MANY occasions the past few days.

We have bumped the intensity down a notch in effort to keep our sanity.

Everyone seems to appreciate the break…though the big boy pants and potty remain quite novel in our neck of the wood.

Be blessed.

p.s. B found the purple ‘rally’ band on his own accord and placed it on his ankle…if you see him, be sure to ask him about it…he may just encourage you to stop what you’re doing to pray! oh, to have faith like a child!!!!!

Noises from the Garage

One of my new favorite noises is listening to these two as the ‘work’ together in the garage. B follows C around like a little puppy…asking questions, holding tools…helping in ways that only B can help!

He wants to be just like his dad…and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

Be blessed.

Guess What...!?!?

We saw snow flurries dancing in the sky today!

To celebrate  we read…

(image taken from barnesandnoble.com)

…before naptime.

Now I totally understand that this book depicts more than little snow flurries…but it does make us anxious for play days in the snow!

Everyone in our neck of the wood says it will be here soon enough…we sure hope so!

Be blessed.

Ugghhhh!

So it turns our that potty training is SUPER SUPER HARD!

Seriously, one of the hardest things we have attempted to date!

I even admit that teaching a classroom filled with preschoolers is easier  than helping our own little guy understand the potty process!

Let me paint a picture (promise, I won’t provide a literal one)…

This morning, B woke up and sat on the potty for a bit. When I encouraged him to get up to go play, he politely declined. I assumed that was okay, I mean what kid actually wants to sit on the potty?

Less than five-or-so minutes  later I noticed that he had gotten up and was looking at something on the floor…yep, he was looking at a real human specimen of his very own POOP!

When I asked him why he didn’t put it in the potty he said “It’s on the floor, I need my diaper!” (WE WERE SO CLOSE!!!!!)

I proceeded to help him clean it up (I helped because I didn’t want poop all over the family room) and then he offered to sit on the potty again…and asked if he could watch Potty Power (which we all have memorized) for the 25th time since Friday… REALLY!?!!?!

B continues to floor us by his desire to sit, we just wish this sitting on the potty would transpire into actually figuring it out!

I have done more laundry in the past 72 hours than I typically wash in one week…but deep down know that this too shall pass and praise God for a healthy little boy who has a body that even allows him to pee and poop!

Happy Monday.

Be blessed.

Could it Be?

My cousin just introduced me to a new store/website...

http://shopruche.com

Now I can't say that I have ordered anything just yet...but she described it to be an inexpensive version of Anthropologie  which is a store I enjoy but typically just 'window shop' in.

I can't pull off (or don't have the confidence to pull off) a lot of the Anthropologie styles...though I secretly wish I could...but just might be a touch more tempted as I am always up for a good deal!

I know I ultimately need to remember 1 Peter 3:3-4 which reads "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." 

As long as it doesn't consume my heart...it's fun to click and explore the good deals.

M...thanks for sharing your find.
Be blessed.

p.s potty training is SUPER HARD...thanks for the prayers!

Could It Be?

That our little guy is ready to enlist in Potty Training Boot Camp?

If so, his mom and dad are ready…at least we hope we are!

We have a timer…

Lots of incentives…

I’ll be honest, the M & M’s were supposed to be incentives for B, BUT they turned into momma incentives about 4 hours in (B didn’t have one, I on the other hand almost polished them off!)

Salty pretzels to make our little guy thirsty…

Lots and lots of special juice…

Lots and lots and lots of big boy pants…

Disinfectant(s)!

And a little play room makeover sans the area rug…

We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t push it and make life miserable for B and for ourselves.

The verdict is still out on whether or not our little guy gets it…though we did have two small potty successes just before dinner…this could make for a long long long weekend, but I’ll be honest, seems to be quite a rite of passage for little ones and their parents!

Thanks for the prayers for patience, we most definitely need them!

Have a great weekend.

Be blessed.

A Little Goat’s Lesson

This recent post that Ann Voskamp shared touched my heart as it is so easy to question if God really hears our prayers…our tears…etc. etc.

Ann writes:

“Faith is this unwavering trust in the heart of God in the hurt of here. Unwavering trust all the time though I don’t understand all the time. “ Ann Voskamp

Right now…the ‘here’ of life is hurting…it’s scary…it’s uncomfortable…it’s uncertain…it’s hard to even comprehend let alone understand. 

Praise God for His unwavering heart in a time and place where so much seems to be wavering.

Happy Thursday.

Be blessed.

Go Tim!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/frogsforthecure

Getting a glimpse of this flash mob reiterates the pride I feel in my heart for all things purple….not just for the frogs… not just for beating breast cancer…but for the battle at hand in our family’s life…WE’RE GONNA SURVIVE!

Be blessed.

A Couple Book Suggestions

Thinking about the Pumpkin Patch Parable reminded me about some of my other favorite classroom Christmas books that I thought I might share (probably best for ages 3-6).  Crystal Bowman is the author of these sweet rhyme books that center Christmas around Christ and His birth.

(Each image is taken from amazon.com)

Hopefully our boxes will be unpacked by Christmas so we can enjoy these books again this year.

I hope you and your family enjoy them as much as we do!

Be blessed.

Pumpkin Patch Parable

Each fall, I looked forward to reading this book in my classroom…

(photo taken from amazon.com)

The book is a simple presentation of the Gospel.

The pages explain that our heart is like a pumpkin…before we know God, the insides of our hearts are full of sin which is  icky, slimy, gooey, etc. It is God who cleans the inside of our heart out and Jesus who comes to live inside of our hearts which results in a heart change…He shines through us so others can see and experience God’s goodness. 

My copy of this book is still packed away in boxes waiting to be unearthed from the move…but I tried to tell B the story as we carved a little pumpkin together…He didn’t ‘get’ the story…but hopefully over time God will help B begin to put the pieces together in his own spiritual walk.

B wasn’t too interested in touching the seeds and pulp…he smelled it and just waited for mommy to ‘keen’ the pumpkin out.

Look at the evidence of his excitement (and disregard the cartoons on in the background…we had had a tough morning in our neck of the wood)!

We decided to carve a heart out of the pumpkin to represent Jesus shinning in our hearts.

After carving, B helped put the pumpkins ’lid’ back on…

And was enthralled by the candle that flickered inside.

Afterwards, I cleaned the seeds and roasted them for old time sake (another classroom tradition). B wasn’t too interested in trying the roasted seeds…but C and I will be sure to enjoy them

A little side note: Next year I’ll splurge and buy real $2.00 carving tools…apparently kitchen knives aren’t meant to carve pumpkins, go figure.

Let your lights shine!

Be blessed.

If There is Ever Any Question…

Who B resembles…

Check out this hair…

Check out this look (specifically the shoes)…

It’s true…the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree as B continues to want to be just like his Daddy!

B has big shoes to fill (literally and figuratively)…the hair…we’ll just say it’s a ‘tousled look’ that not everyone can confidently pull off!

Be blessed.

Just Sayin’…

Check the clearance tags with the electronic scanners at Target…you may be surprised to learn that items are on sale for even more than you think!

Case in point…my very first pair of one star’s….$8.42!

The color of these kicks have multiple meanings these days!

Be blessed!

Resemblance?

Be blessed.