What we've been up to

Here is Emma on her very first day of preschool. She loves her teacher and going to school two times per week. She has already gained confidence and has learned so many new things. She sings songs about the days of the week, the months of the year and the seasons.

 Greyson is doing well. He has been hard at work on getting more teeth. As you can see. He's a happy boy! He is so close to walking. I am weaning him to soy milk which he drinks right up! However, he still wants to get up once per night for me to feed him. Here's to better luck getting him to sleep all night.

 Here he is in his Sunday "little man" outfit. We went to my neice - Cecilia's baby dedication today. Greyson didn't make it through the service so he and I hung out in the car for awhile. We turned the back seat into a play area and he and I had fun although you can see his eyes getting very heavy.

Jon and I are doing well too. I have been working a couple days per week the last couple weeks. We enjoy going to garage sales every weekend. We are done with our big house projects but we did find the perfect mirror for our bathroom at a garage sale for five dollars! All I need to do is... you guessed it... spray paint it. I'll post a picture when it's all done.
We are still so thankful for this house and are looking forward to watch the leaves on the two big Maple trees change color. And maybe even jumping in some piles of leaves.

How fun, Grey turned one!

Greyson was very happy on his birthday... Until I tried to put the birthday hat on him. He immediately started crying. Fortunately, as soon as I took the picture and took the hat off, daddy held him and he was happy again.

 Here's the cake- and the birthday theme. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

 He hadn't had cake before but it seems he likes it.

Right after this picture he got a birthday bath.

 He enjoyed opening his presents and like all babies thought that the wrapping paper and tissue paper were more fun than the actual gifts.

We are so thankful and blessed to have the joy of raising our little boy. We daily pray for wisdom as parents and that he has a heart for Jesus all of his life.

Happy birthday Greyson Joshua!

Come and listen

Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for me.

Psalm 66:16

God saved my soul.

God saved my marriage.

God saved my life.

Literally...

When I was a child I accepted Jesus and became a Christian. I was an immature Christian because I was immature, a child. But He has been patient with me and allowed me to grow. I believe that Jesus is God's perfect Son. That He died on the cross for my sins and was laid in a cold dark tomb. He was dead. 

He wasn't breathing. At all. For three days. No life was in His body. And then God breathed life back into Him. Praise be to God, He breathed life back into the lifeless body and Jesus's cold, dead body was alive! He rescued me and my soul.

God has never given up on me. When I couldn't set foot in a church, or even in a church parking lot, He met me at home or in the woods or huddled on the bathroom floor. When I have been mean and spiteful, He has been kind and patient. When I have been unforgiving and angry He has been compassionate and unchanging. When I have been hungry for more of Him He has graciously and generously, in His goodness, poured into me until I am overflowing.  

When life appeared "perfect" from the outside my marriage was bleeding out. It was painful and hurtful for both of us. It was raw and wounding. It was lonely and awful. It felt hopeless but we never gave up hope. We clung to God as we yelled, as we cried and finally, as we both forgave. And only by the grace and goodness of God our marriage was healed ... we have the scars to prove it.

In His mercy, Emma was fine. She was a perfectly healthy baby, I was not a healthy momma. I was going downhill fast. I was sleeping, then I wasn't breathing, a nurse came in, then the doctors. I was given oxygen and could breath and just wanted to close my eyes so badly, just wanted to sleep, to rest. Then I was in ICU, then the ambulance, transported to a different hospital. I just wanted to be with my baby. The doctors met with each other, they met with my family. Jon came to my bedside and held my hand and told me I needed open-heart surgery. However, my body was doing downhill so fast they couldn't do the surgery. We were praying. Everyone we knew and then some, were praying.

All the doctors and nurses left my room. Jon left momentarily and I prayed a prayer I wasn't sure I was allowed to pray. Jesus had prayed it for such a bigger reason. But it was in my heart, so I prayed it.

"Please take this cup from me".

And then I slept.

And I woke up as I was pumped full of medicine and the doctors answers to my familys' questions were "pray harder". My mom kept vigil at my bedside as Jon went back and forth between hospitals to be with me and to go be with Emma.

God heard me.

He took the cup. Just like when He took it when He saved my soul, He took the cup of death from me and saved me. Saved my life.

My doctor came into my room and smiled.

He said "I can't explain it."

We could.

My chart says unknown heart failure, unknown reversal and at the bottom shows that the tests reveal a now perfectly healthy heart.

Jesus saved my spiritual heart.

He saved my physical heart.

So please, come and listen, let me tell you what He has done for me. Praise God! What He has done for me! 

Some more house stuff

We weren't fans of the dirty pink walls. We still aren't fans of the dark teal carpet but we are happy with the other changes we made...

Before

After!

 I am excited about my abstract paintings above the bed. It was my first attempt to do abstract oil paintings. The bright white walls look clean and are the only color that doesn't clash with the carpet. And I really like the lamps and nightstands. We will hopefully save for a new black bedframe/headboard.

The bathroom was also that lovely shade of dingy pink.

 We also weren't fans of the brass fixtures. So like everything else in our house...

I spray painted it!

 We painted the bathroom walls charcoal gray which turned out beautiful!

In other news, we went to Great Wolf Lodge for an overnight vacation. That's another post, but we had a great time. Jon had a whole week off work which, while we were only gone one night, we enjoyed having him home with us the rest of the week.

Grey is all over the house in his adorable crab, bear, funny crawl. He is very happy and even sleeps through the night more now.

Emma is ready to start preschool in a couple weeks. She keeps insisting that she will be eating lunch there and I can't convince her otherwise. We have been working with her in the swimming pool. She has a fear of the water but is making progress.

I'm hoping to join a Bible study this fall. Most took the summer off so I have one I am ready to join as soon as it starts.

That's everything about us... including our bathroom sink!

A basket full of fun

Emma was in the basket which meant that as soon as Grey saw her in there, he scrambled to climb in too. With little help he was in and they were happy to have me pull them around the house for a little bit.

If only I could have gotten Jarrah in too... now that would have been a picture!

Odds, Ends and some about Jon

Awhile back I promised to post pictures of the treasures we found on our date. Here are some of those things.

Emma is taking swimming lessons for two weeks. She really loves it and it's a parent/child class and Jon has been taking her. She has yet to put her whole head underwater on her own yet (she did go under when she went down the slide) but she'll get there.

However she and Grey are sick. The last couple nights have been rough. Last night, I was tired, I was also not feeling well and Grey had been up for about 3 hours, Emma had been up as well. Jon had gone to bed late afternoon and I finally hit my end. I went to bed, flopped down and said "I'm at the end of my rope. Tag, you're it."
Bless his heart, Jon got up, took care of both kids, letting them sleep in his arms and on the couch, he even fed Grey baby food in the middle of the night so he didn't have to wake me to nurse the baby. I was so thankful! And this morning, Jon met me with a smile on his face after having taken care of two sick kids all night.
I'm so blessed to have him. He takes such good care of all of us. 

I even got breakfast in bed a few weeks ago, for no reason. "Just because" he said. What a gem!

He is on vacation this week after completing a full year of work! We got to go on a date and see Spider Man which we enjoyed. We reminisced about when we saw the first Spider Man. We hadn't been married long and had driven to Columbus, met friends there and hung out until the 12:30am showing. This week we saw a matinee, just the two of us. Boy times have changed- and we love it!

In other news:
Emma and I also were treated to a birthday lunch with our friend "lowlee", which we really enjoyed. What fun to visit with her and have lunch out.

Grey is crawling everywhere. He has mastered getting his knees under him and doesnt' army crawl anymore. He's so very happy now that he can go where he wants (often, NOT where I want him to go though). Freedom agrees with him.

We have 4 butterflies in our kitchen. Emma got a "butterfly kit" for her birthday which included 4 caterpillers. We watched them create crysalises and yesterday and today they all emerged as beautiful "Painted Lady" butterflies. We are feeding them sliced grapes and flowers dipped in sugar water. We will release them tomorrow. It's really incredible to watch that transformation. Emma has really enjoyed it but I have been even more enamored I think.

Jon and I are going to try our hand at some paintings. We have been looking at all kinds of things and have some inspiration. I'll post pictures of our painting when they are done. Also, I think we are going to hang my painting of the poppies I painted this winter once we get it framed. We might try to make the frame ourselves too. We'll see.

It's been and continues to be a fun and relaxing summer.

Happy 4th birthday Emma

Emma has been so very excited to turn four years old. She surprised me by choosing a butterfly cake instead of Hello Kitty. She even helped me make it. One of the things she has been most looking forward to is getting to move up to the next Sunday School class. During their storytime they combine classes and each class sits on a separate colored rug. The three year olds sit on purple and when you turn four, you get to sit on the ever exciting yellow rug! She was so thrilled to go to church Sunday to get to sit on that special rug.

Here is her great cake we made together.  

 She is so big! Her smile makes me so happy.

 Even though the cake wasn't Hello Kitty, many of the other birthday gifts and such were. She is quite the fan right now. She was so thrilled with the Hello Kitty suitcase from Nana and Papaw that she packed it and took it to church with us Sunday. On the way I asked what she had packed and she listed quite the long list of stuffed animals. The suitcase stayed in the car while we were in church but she just liked packing it, wheeling it to the car and having it with her. I also asked if she was excited to get to use it, meaning, for clothes and overnight items when she stays at Nana's next time. She replied "buy mommy, I AM using it!'. I guess, even just taking it to church counts as using it.

The backpack is also Hello Kitty. Which is for preschool. I can't believe she'll be going this fall. It's only two mornings per week, but I sure will miss her. She, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited. I watched her at library storytime today. She sat on the rug, listened to the books being read, did the motions for the songs and poems and even chimed in with answers. I was so proud of her. I see her growing in her abilities to join in groups and follow directions.

She is such a doll.

She is my sunshine.

She is four!