Kenley is ONE

I have been meaning to post this for the past month, better late than never.  It took me about 2 weeks to really accept that she is now one.  When people ask me how old Kenley is, my first instinct is to say 10 months, see what I mean.  She is ONE, my goodness!  Where did the past year go, it just seems like a blur and I think that she should still be snuggled up cozy in my arms.  But she is one now and quite the opposite [of being in my arms] since she won't even lay in my arms long enough to drink a bottle.  She is on the go, busy and independent.  She is so sweet and will love on you and even pat your back, which I think is the sweetest thing ever!

At her 1 Year check up here were her stats:
Weight: 20.4LB - just above 20th percentile
Height: 29.5" - in the 75th percentile
Head: 18" - she didn't tell me the percentile on this, but I know it is high...my children have large heads

2011

2012

'Hi Mama...I want to sit by myself to drink my bottle.  I don't need to lay in your arms.'

Favorite position in the bath tub is directly under the faucet.

IN.TO.EVERYTHING.

She is a HUGE Brinkley fan and is trying so hard to say 'Brink Brink'.  It won't be long before she is calling for her.  Brink is her personal jungle gym.  Kenley shares ALL of her food with Brink and also likes Brink to share her food with her (she has had at least 3 handfuls of dog food, that I am aware of)

 Oh these two, Kenley adores Collier.  He is growing to love her more and they have started interacting more together.  Kenley follows him around everywhere he goes [this is good some days and bad other days].  She thinks he is funny and even laughs when he is not so kind to her. I just pray that they will continue to grow close.

 if this doesn't make you smile...nothing will!  A smile so big it wrinkles her nose!

She will put her baby or lovey or bunny on her shoulder to 'love that baby' and it is so sweet.  This is only one of the many joys of having a little girl!

 Have I mentioned she is a climber?  Yep, she is on top of this music table all the time, it is her personal step stool.  She is always making her way up to the highest points that she can reach.  Yikes.  

She loves chewing on her toothbrush, she sequels at the sight of it.  

She is such a blessing.  she is a joy and gives the biggest smiles when she sees us.  I love when she reaches her sweet little arms out for me to hold her.  I love when she will rest in my arms and lay her head on my shoulder, it is precious moments that melt my heart!  I am so thankful for her.  She hasn't always been the easiest baby, but she is my baby girl and I am honored to be her Mom!

A Wedding Weekend

Justin's cousin got married this weekend.  And Rawley and Caleigh were so kind to ask Collier to be a part of their wedding.  I love a wedding with children and they had two ring bearers and two flower girls. It was a blast.  And Collier was the cutest little man ever!  He also did awesome since we were up late at the rehearsal dinner and also at the wedding....and with all of the activities he didn't get a solid nap either day.  Waking him up from a nap is like waking a grizzly bear out of hibernation...so getting him up and dressed and to the church was a little rough, but after about 30 minutes he warmed up and was fine!  And then we got to the reception and he saw the dance floor and it was on.  He danced and entertained the entire time.  He stopped long enough to have a bite to eat and then danced some more.

 They had sunglasses for everyone and we loved it! The bride and groom are fun like that!

 He wanted to do this in EVERY picture...the photographer kept saying, put your hands down! But then thankfully they did a silly/fun picture.  See what I mean when I say fun!!

The dancing begins:

 He Danced with Young

 And he danced with older

And then there was this guy.  His mom (who is the lady in the navy above) told me earlier that Collier reminded her of her son. That he loved to dance and was such a busy little boy and that he was still the same to this day.  I laughed, thinking about what I have to look forward to.  It was only about an hour later that I see this guy on the floor dancing ALL OVER and interacting with Collier.  They were so funny and then she walked over and told me that was her son.  Oh my!  He was so sweet and fun with Collier.  They were precious and loads of fun!

ok.  brace yourself...just keep your eye on the move'n and groove'n man!

This is the happy couple - picture courtesy of Collier - and we are so happy that they are now married and we pray that they have a lifetime of love and are abundantly blessed by God!  Thankful to be part of such a fun and amazing weekend!

Truthful Tuesday - What we get in His Resurrection

We really get so much.  Peace, Power, Strength, Hope, Joy, Love, Salvation, Forgiveness, Redemption...and the list goes on.  To me personally, all of these things come down to life!  Life in Christ.  We have new life; renewed life through His resurrection.  Alleluia and Praise be to Him!  It is because of Him and because He rose that we have purpose and life here on earth.  Yes, I can't wait to get to heaven and get to experience being in His constant presence with so much joy and gladness.  But He has us here for a purpose, each of us a different purpose, but all so that we can bring glory and honor to Him.  But there is no way to accomplish that if Christ had not given up His life.  No one can even come close to being 'good enough' for God.  He is perfection and we are no where near that.  But, Jesus died and rose....we are cleansed.  We are made right in the sight of our Lord.  Isn't that just amazing?  It makes me so joyful.

See here is just a little from Romans that speaks of this very kind of life:

Romans3:23-28 NLT

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.  For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

 Romans 5:1 NLT

 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

Romans 10:4

For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. 

 We are made righteous by Him.  All of the wrong that we do is made right with Him, we just have to believe...trust!  I love the image of Jesus being our defender before God.  It is usually used in reference to the fact that Satan is on constant attack and accusing [Rev.12:10] us and it is Jesus who stands on trial with us and it is He who takes the punishment to swipe our slate clean.  He makes us white as snow.  This is what we have in Him.  Living life for Him and in Him.  We alone can not live a life that is worthy to God but through what Jesus accomplished on the cross...we have it all!  We have life!  We can live this earthly life that is pleasing to Him and rest assured that when we stand before Him we will get to hear Him say 'well done, good and faithful servant' [Luke 19:17].

Easter Celebration 2013

We made a whole weekend of our Easter celebration [and I am going to highlight it all in one post, consider yourself warned].  I was slightly worried about the rain setting in on Sunday and decide we would hunt eggs on Saturday morning. It was fun to talk and read and teach Collier this year about why we celebrate Easter.  I know that he is getting reinforcement of this from school and bible study and it is awesome to see him actually retaining the meaning of it.

Me: Collier, Jesus rode a what
CH: a donkey
Me:into
CH: Jerusalem
Me: and then what happened
CH: He died on the cross
Me: what did He do wrong
CH: Nothing
Me: and then when He died, He..
CH: rode
Me: Yes, He rose. and then where did He go?
CH: to heaven.
Sweet boy and sweet truth.  He did RODE indeed!  He rose and redeemed us in the process, making us righteous by His blood!  Praise be to Him.

We started our weekend by dying Easter Eggs with Deidre and William.  The boys had a blast playing and were quite engaged in the Easter Egg dying - we were shocked that they were, just think 3 year old rough and tough boys! And I got to spend time with my sweet friend.

Saturday we hunted our eggs with Nammy and Pops.  Kenley needs a little practice, maybe next year she'll catch on a little more!!  Collier loved it.  The Easter Bunny hid both the real eggs as well as a few plastic eggs.  Collier wouldn't put the plastic eggs in his basket, as he felt those were for Kenley and would place them in her basket.  That is until he realized there was candy in some of them!  So funny!

 oops this one was empty...guess the bunny got hungry and ate that candy!

  Sunday when Collier got up, he discovered the Easter bunny had come back AGAIN!  and brought a few goodies and hid lots of plastic eggs inside!!  He hunted then all and even opened his and Kenley's baskets before she was even up!  I was really happy we hunted outside on Saturday because it wasn't long after little man woke up that it started raining!

 bunny brought a bunny for Kenley...and she loves it! 'Love that bunny'

We then made resurrection rolls...thanks to Amy for sharing this link.  It was great fun and something that we will start doing every year.  I loved it and Collier did to!  Kenley even got to have a bite of the rolls after they were baked.  

The rolls are empty just the Jesus' tomb! 

We got dressed and ready for church, clipped some flowers for the cross at church, and flew out the door.  It was a beautiful and wonderful service!  I just love Easter and the joy that we have in this day.