Just a verse

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

II Timothy 1:9

Praying for others

The past week and a half have been SO hectic. So many things went "wrong", so many things were a headache to try and fix. So many things were scary, concerning etc and it can sometimes get you to where you just focus on yourself. Even in the midst of my own trials I can look at others and see how gracious and merciful God has been to me. And praying for others is probably one of the best things we can ever do! I have been following the story of this couple since right after their daughter was born. They are about my age so it kind of hits closer to home about what exactly they are facing in life right now. They just got some discouraging news yesterday so please go and read about them and pray for them for awhile...you may need a box of tissues.

Also the missionary family down in Mexico is experiencing some new trials. So if you would remember to lift up the Lockwood's as well.

Whenever we have days where we are pretty much flat on our back from all that's come our way, it puts us in a very good position as we are looking up...where we should be looking all the time. :)

My Baby Turned One

We celebrated end of the year birthdays a week ago and my baby was one of them...she is now a whole year old...wow! I had saved these birthday hats from Charis' 1st birthday, Rush remembered from pictures what people had done with the hats then and he wanted to re-enact it. :)

Actually, several people modeled the hats. ;)

Part of the fam,

More of the fam, tradition says birthday people have to sit on the couch. :)

The 4 year old cheesy smile!!

The 35 year old's refusal to smile. ;)

Daddy showing off his new shirts.

Emily made him his all time favorite, a yellow box cake mix with milk chocolate canister icing. It even had chocolate chips as decoration just to show how ancient he is...oops...did I say that? :)

Aunt Michele had a birthday, she liked her Neiman Marcus lamp!

I got a new light fixture for my dining room...yay!

Rush will be turning 7 and he got this medieval lego set, Caleb told me they were scary people. :)

Mercy's turn, the BIG 1, she enjoyed opening gifts.

She had lots of helpers too. (Timothy is getting tickled to death by my Dad)

Oooh, a new cup. :)

I love my new baby doll and bath toys...

What am I supposed to be doing???

Here is one of the little lego men, I thought they were pretty cool looking.

Yummmm homemade peanut butter ice cream. :)

Modeling my new dress Aunt Emily made me and my new riding/walking toy from Gigi.

I like it!

Daddy modeling his new clothes. ;)

Me & Amelia :)

A typical day at my house

This was a day at my house last week, it was quite typical of how life normally goes. :)

Here the baby saw that the cat had climbed under my sewing table so she decided to go after it and try and get the cat.

One night after dinner and devotions Charis promptly got down and picked up this exercise ball pump tube popped it in her mouth, plopped down on the floor and started wiggling on her belly.

That's right, she said she was scuba diving and she even found a shark's tooth they had previously dumped on the floor to boot!

Caleb had craft time, he loves inventing things. He said he made these teddy bears "masks" out of the tape. Charles and I about died laughing cause these poor bears looked like they were being held hostage by terrorists awaiting execution or something.

Well, thus ends my crazy post about life at my house which is pretty much crazy. ;)

Check this out...

I have been following the blog of this family since about March, right before they had their 11th child. They are mid 30's, their oldest turns 12 on the 9th of this month and they are pregnant with #12 due the beginning of May! :) What a blessing and encouragement it is to read their blog! And on top of that they are missionaries to Mexico. Wow. :)

My purpose for this post, aside from sharing with everyone a place to go for edification, is to let you know about a ministry opportunity they are asking for people to participate in. They would like to see if anyone would like to put together a Christmas box for the children in their town. They will pass out the boxes they receive at Christmas and use it as a witnessing tool to spread the gospel. Jaynee, the wife, did post a few more specifics on the Christmas boxes here.

I went around the house and just gathered a few "practice" items to get an idea of what a box might weigh. It looked like roughly 1lb 4oz might be a good guess, then I went to USPS website and it shows that to mail a package of that weight to Mexico would roughly be $20 for International Priority which gets there in 6-10 business days or about $10 if you mailed it First Class Internationally. That is always the most economic way to mail things but it also takes the longest. So if that was the option of choice I would say to mail them within the next 2 weeks if choosing this method!

Anyhoo, even if you can't participate in the Christmas box ministry I know you'll enjoy reading this blog and who knows...some of you may already know them! :)

PS I've included some hyperlinks in this post to help you be able to check things out easier. I don't know why Blogger is keeping all the words the same color though. If you scroll over, "this family", "Christmas box", "here" & "Mexico" it will highlight the hyperlinks. Oh well, I've still got a lot to learn. ;)

Matching is Fun

Matching outfits are always a lot of fun in my opinion. Ruth Ann made this little dress for Mercy and when I brought her to church that night to get a picture of Ruth Ann & Mercy together Ruth Ann had unintentionally come dressed coordinating. :)


This is Hope, she just turned 4 and we made her a birthday outfit. She and Charis love to match.


Hope-e and Charis, sweet little friends. :)



Amelia had a birthday back in May and we had made her a birthday dress, I had enough left over for Charis to have a little skirt. Charis is growing like a weed so we had to coordinate at church and get pics before she totally outgrew her skirt.

Charis & Mrs. "Cwane". :)

My sweet little girls wearing matching dresses at the Duggar/Keller wedding.

Precious Mercy...

...growing up so fast. :)

Charis with her Daddy, the composition of this pic is great Ruth Ann! Thank you for these pics from the wedding. :)