Our Neck of the Wood

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Typical Night in Our Neck of the Wood

Seriously!

Just installing a couple canned lights…it’s what every preschooler dreams of…right?

Be blessed.

A’s Dedication

It is our continued and fervent prayer that both of our nuggets come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Rescuer & Savior.

We know that ultimately, this will be their own personal decision, but pray that we may be able to equip them both to understand the height and depth of God’s love for them.

It was an honor to be surrounded by family and friends as we publically committed to raise our Little A in such a way.

We continue to marvel at the little personalities evolving in both of our nuggets. We can’t help but wonder how God might use their little hands, feet and hearts to bring Himself glory.

Little A’s dedication proved to be another sweet and pretty hysterical example of how God is continuing to knit our her little independent and spunky personality together.

She was quite the little ham before the service started (and yes, in typical A fashion…very very wiggly!)

When we were invited to join our pastor at the front of the church, Little A became quite still.

When the pastor reached over to take A from C’s arms, she looked at him very critically with B’s typical eye brow raise…

And in the interchange, stuck out her arm as is to ‘stiff arm’ the pastor all while providing her continued and unchanged disapproving eye brow look.

The entire congregation erupted in laughter!

Our pastor was gracious and politely encouraged C to hold A while he spoke and prayed a blessing over her…

While he did this, she continued staring at him, as if to remind him of her disapproval!

The laughter that A provided our hearts (and the hearts of many with) was a gift…oh, how great it feels to laugh. Despite the antics of our precious toddler, the entire evening was a gift. Afterwards, we invited everyone over for dinner and dessert. Our house was filled with sweet-chaos as kiddos played and we all simply enjoyed being together.

Be blessed.

Whirl-Wind Weekend!

At the beginning of October, Gigi, Papa and Auntie B flew into to cheer C on as he ran in his first marathon!

In true Our Neck of the Wood fashion, we packed a lot of fun/memories into our time together…though this weekend we may have set a record!

After picking Gigi and Papa up from the airport, we headed to the Mall of America to stretch our legs…it was chilly outside and to be honest, we weren’t really dressed to go to the park!

So we found the fountain that B likes to throw pennies into…

And ate a super special lunch…in a rainforest!!!

Both nuggets were infatuated by the fish!

While at the Mall of America, Gigi stumbled upon a sweet ‘grace gift’ for our transportation enthusiast!

Needless to say, B was thrilled!

The night before the marathon, Auntie B flew in. It was quite a treat to be able to provide this type of cheering support for C as he ran!

God truly blessed us with a pretty seamless marathon morning (spectating-wise), as we got to see C at miles 4, 8, 15, 22 and then a touch after he finished.

The nuggets were troopers as they suited up in their cozy gear and proved to be ‘in it to win it’! C said that at the starting line the announcer mentioned that they were experiencing the third coldest start in the history of the Twin Cities Marathon!

Auntie B was a trooper as she jumped in at mile 15 to run with C and continued on till just before the finish!

C did great! He was all smiles (the times we got to see him)…and said that it was one of the most humbling, fun (and challenging) experiences he’s ever had.

We were thrilled to inaugurate him into the ‘marathon finisher club’ at the end of the race…he was thrilled to be done!

Later that afternoon, we headed to church to have Little A dedicated.

Despite the craziness of the morning, and C’s exhausted legs…we wanted to jump on the opportunity to celebrate such a special milestone surrounded by family! (More on A’s dedication to follow).

I think we’re still exhausted by the weekend and everything that it held, but so grateful to have been able to make the most out of the time we had together!

Gigi, Papa & Auntie B, Thank you for a sweet trip!

Be blessed.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Some Truth to Share!

Still waaaaaaaaaaaayyy behind on posts…but wanted to share this before Halloween this week. If you’d like, please by all means copy this, make it your own and share it with your own neighbors and friends! And if you happen to be in our neck of the wood…please stop by, rumor has it that the nuggets picked out some super tasty…super sweet and possibly FULL-SIZE candy Smile …yep, that’s right!

My idea behind the poem came from the Pumpkin Patch Parable by, Liz Curtis Higgs and My Happy Pumpkin: God’s Love Shinning Through Me by, Crystal Bowman. Both are fantastic nugget-friendly books that encourage truth!

Our hearts are like pumpkins, they might not be orange and round…

But there are many similar traits that can easily be found.

See the outside of a pumpkin looks real nice and smooth as can be…

But inside there is lots of pulp and slime that’s pretty gross and icky!

The icky-ness is how our hearts look as they reveal our need for grace…

When we accept Jesus’ gift of love, our hearts become a clean place.

And once they’re cleaned they are able to shine, to glow and share bright light…

And that bright light is what spurs others on to shine, even in the dark of night!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Corinthians 5:17

May your hearts be blessed!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Apple Sauce

After picking apples, there is one obvious this left to do…

make APPLE SAUCE!!!

B was thrilled to pull the apple peeler corer slicer out for it’s annual spin…

Little A watched from the comfort of her own seat…it’s crazy to think this time next year, she’ll be standing at the stool helping alongside her big brother!