Halloween Dress Rehersal

You'll like this post, it is short and quick....unlike my week has felt this week!  I'm so glad Thursday (which is my Friday) is almost here...

Tonight I decided to be sure Collier's halloween costume actually fit...and that he would actually wear it!  He did pretty good.  I'll do a complete post on the costume alone - it is EXTRA special to me.  But I thought he looked awesome and I can't wait for him to wear it on Saturday for our halloween block party...

We're working on Roaring...

Impact of 1 Peter

In CBS we are studying 1st and 2nd Peter the first half of this year.  1 Peter has really captured my heart in a surprising and unexpected way.  I didn't expect to be this convicted by the study of 1 Peter.  I've read all of Peter at one time or another but never an in depth study  - like CBS gives.  This is why I love CBS so much.  You study verse by verse and you are really getting to know the Word of God - CBS is about God's word and not so much about other commentaries or perspectives but strictly God's word!  You should look to see if CBS has a class in your area...if you're in Bham please email me if you are interested in joining!  Sorry for the slight CBS distraction... Back to 1 Peter.    Convicted it the word that I use over and over and over again. 

Am I a stranger and alien in this world that we live in?  Do I stand out for the sake of Christ?  Am I different or do I try to blend in so that I am accepted by my peer's?   We're called to be light in this darkened world and I pray that God's light will shine through me so that I am different a stranger and alien in the world.
1 Peter 1:1 '... To God's elect, strangers in the world...'
John 15:19 ' If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you"
Hebrews 11:13, 16 'aliens and strangers on earth..longing for a better country - a heavenly one'

Holy - I am called to be holy in all that I do.  Not just when it is convenient....like going to bible study, having my quiet time, or in going to church - its easier to be 'holy' in those activities.  Am I holy when I am cleaning my house, when I am disciplining my child, when Justin leaves his work stuff in the den, when I am at work....am I holy in ALL that I do? No!  that is what we're called to do to be a faithful child of God. In this obedience come to mind and realizing the need to be obedient which will result in my living inside of God's will. 
1 Peter 1: 15-16  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy"'
One of the questions for this verse was.  Do you think it is possible to fulfill this command [to be holy]?  I do think that it is possible.  God wouldn't give us a command or task that we couldn't ever be.  He never says 'be perfect' because he knows that is not possible.  The definition of holy is to be set apart, sacred.  I think that with the help of the Holy Spirit we can be this by being convicted of our sin, repenting of the sin and drawing nearer to God!  How Awesome!

Spiritual Growth - I know that I go through dry spells where I just coast along and really am not laying in the lap of God.  I am driving instead of letting Him drive...or even better I'm letting Him drive but telling Him along the way which direction I want to go.  This isn't good!  We all fall short - every single day.  But He remains the same forever.  He is the cornerstone/capstone and we are the living stone.  There fore we must trust, believe, obey, and live out His truths so that we are 'being built into a spiritual house' 1 Peter 2:5.
1 Peter 2: 9 'Bu you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light'
Deuteronomy 7:6 'For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.'
Holy cow....HIS TREASURED POSSESSION!  I am speechless! 

Servant hood - this is a hard one because it covers everything from submitting and praying for government leadership (which right now I am not a fan of) to our masters (bosses or others who have authority over us) and even our husbands.   We are to serve as Christ served.  To work as though working for God...not man (Ephesians 6:5-8).  Always do what is right (Colossians 3:22-24)

My words, my thoughts, my heart.  I believe that what is in your heart will reflect in your thoughts and what you think will be reflected in the words that come out of your mouth.  Here are some verses that grabbed my heart and makes me hold my tongue
1 Peter 3:9-12 'Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.  He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil"'
Ephesians 4:29 'Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.'
James 3:9-12 'With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.  My brother, this should not be.  Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?  Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.'
WHAT?  You mean when I was at the Jefferson County DMV in line for the 2nd time (1st time for 2 hours) and calling the rude people that work their idiots and incompetent....that this can not be justified?  Nope.  I was wrong and must seek forgiveness.  I realized through these verses...CONVICTED.... that I need to evaluate what is coming out of my mouth and ultimately what is in my heart! No unwholesome talk or deceitful speech.  I am asking that God will help me do this.  I can not do it on my own but I know that with His help I can do better! 

If I trust in Him and rely on Him I will draw nearer to Him. He is all that matters.  If I wrap myself in His arms and find rest in Him there is a peace and joy and love that we can not understood to the fullest.  We are told that we will go through trials and we will be refined like gold, He will discipline us out of love so that in all of this we will seek Him first and grow closer to Him.  We have a mighty and awesome God who loves us beyond measure and calls us precious and treasured possessions.  How sweet this is!

weekend time

I keep having moments of 'oh I need to blog about this' and then time gets away and next thing I know I am laying on the couch or crawling into the bed instead of blogging!  So, I have lots that I want to share but don't think that I can get it all done in one blog.  So, I'm going to try and break them out and get what I can posted this week to get caught up.  This is a big week by the way because a sweet little man will be 18months this weekend.

I know that I have mentioned over and over again how much I love not working on Fridays.  I am so thankful for that extra full day to be at home.  Some Friday's are more productive than others.  Justin reminded me that I justified that one day off as a day to get the house in order, clean, laundry, etc.  I have such good intentions but the truth of the matter is that I consider my Friday's off as 'My Collier day' and this past week was just that.  The weather was awesome and he was in such a great mood.  It was just one of those really great days.  It started of with little man sleeping a little late which results in me doing the same...What a great way to start the day!  We ate a quick breakfast and put the laundry on and then went for a run.  It has been several months since I have actually run with the jogging stroller and it is a lot more work with that stroller than running alone.  I have to find a flat service because a little hill will kill me with the stroller.  I ran in a neighborhood with a park but when I got to the park my little running buddies was fast asleep.  Which gave me a chance to run further and longer than I thought.  the weather was perfect and I was thrilled.  When he woke up I headed back toward the park and gave him a chance to stretch his legs.  He was supper silly on the play ground but ultimately wanted to swing....like I said before if we would let him he would eat and sleep in a swing...he just loves it!  They also have a wide open grassy area and he and I ran around on.  Very sweet.  He loves to run down a hill yelling with his arms straight out.  We did that several times and I think that he really enjoyed it.  I thought it was rather funny.  We finally made our way back to the car to go home for lunch.  We played outside for a little bit after lunch and then  Collier laid down for a nap - lasting 3 hours!  I got laundry done and sat at the computer to blog and decided that I was going to take advantage of the quiet beautiful day and I sat outside and read - I am reading 'Parenting by The Book' which is for another post because it really is an awesome book.  I read a chapter, sat and prayed and was still able to catch a quick nap myself before CH woke up.  We of course went straight outside and played until almost dark.  Justin cooked yummy spaghetti  and we were all happy campers!

Saturday morning we left CH with mom and dad and Justin and I went for a little run.  Loved every minute of it.  I love when Justin and I get a chance to do something for ourselves and something about taking a run together is really awesome and satisfying to my soul!  The rest of the day was filled with football and friends!  I am so excited about Auburn and how well they are doing this year.  I have to be honest that at the beginning of the year I was considering it would be another year of growth for Auburn and much to my surprise they have done really well.  Everyone keeps saying that it is all because of Cam Newton, I know that he is a HUGE part but as a whole they are doing better than I was expecting!  War Eagle!  I am very proud of those Auburn Tigers.

Just was tickling Collier this weekend and realized that he has a tooth breaking through toward the back of his mouth....which completely explains the wining, crying and fussiness last week.  Mom even said she felt bad for fussing at him about the wining one day.  Wining is like fingers on a chalkboard for us, it has no good purpose, doesn't make me want to be very nice and  my patience comes to an abrupt end.  But hopefully now that it has pushed through it won't bother him as much.  He had a few days of runny nose and I figured it was teeth but now I know for sure.  Back to tablets and Tylenol!

Yesterday was amazing, we opened the house for almost the entire day and loved the fresh breezes through the house!  Last night we had strong storms and lots of rain...praise the Lord for the rain!  It has been weeks since we have seen a drop of rain and God showered it down on us last night!  I laid in bed watching continuous flashed of lightening and rumbling thunder and prayed for safety and protection yet praising Him for the much needed rain.  How awesome He is to be an all protecting, all powerful and all providing God!

Wordless Wednesday

Except for singing praises to God!  He is awesome and I am so thankful for His abundant blessings.

  

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.

I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

Psalm 9:1-2

On our way home from the beach on Sunday we needed to break our long drive up and stopped in at my brother's for a few hours to let Collier stretch his legs.  I am so glad that we did!  Collier had his first experience on a trampoline and although he was jolted around a little by his bouncing cousin he finally figured it out.  Ashlyn is quite fearless and does great on the trampoline and has even masted a 'sommer-flip'.  Collier wasn't quite as interested in the trampoline as he was the tractor but I know this will change in the probably near future!  

Sweet Cousins!!!

 

Uncle Chris was willing to go down the slide with Collier since the slide was so hot.  We didn't want any burned hineys!

We also got to see this precious baby!  She is growing and changing so much!

To bad we don't live closer so that we could see them much more often than we do right now!

Beach Trip

Last weekend we had a fun opportunity to head to Port St. Joe/Mexico Beach for Justin's cousin's wedding.  It was a great and fun weekend and Collier's first beach and wedding experience.  We got to spend the weekend with Popoo, Nunny, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Eve and that time was really fun and special.  The weather couldn't have been better...matter of fact it was warmer than I thought it would be and I even put on my swimsuit once!  Popoo was gracious with his time with Collier on the beach.  Collier really liked the sand especially the soft sand and loved all of the seagulls!  I told him to chase them but he didn't quite understand.  I know that in another year it will be completely different....he wanted to be held and go and get them.  He would point and grunt at them.  I wanted to feed them before we left but we never did, I think he would have loved seeing them all flock around him - in hopes of no accidental droppings from them.  Oh well, next time for sure!    The condo that we stayed in was just perfect, directly across the street from the beach and Mexico beach is such a quiet area with so few people on the beaches.  You almost felt that you had the whole beach to yourself!  It was really awesome.  Plus the seashells that are on the beach is unbelievable, there are millions of them. 

Collier showed his independence through the weekend at all of the wedding events.  He was more social than I had ever seen him, he walked around (at both the rehearsal dinner and wedding) all by himself.  He didn't want us to  hold his hand or hold him.  He would walk up to people and touch their leg or let them hold him for a second - people that he had never met.  Justin and I just stood back and watched I am sure at times people were like 'where is this child's parents'.   He watched other kids and really was funny how he was so independent.  He danced a lot at the wedding and was just mesmerized by the band.  To have both events be a little later than we are used to being out he did awesome!  The weekend was very sweet and fun and I didn't want it to end.  I really wished that we had a few more days to enjoy.  Hopefully this summer we can do it again renting the same condo plus by then Collier will have another girl cousin and that will be loads of fun.

I will not be held or restrained....let me down...I have people to see

Some random table he walked up to and let this guy put him in the chair.  Who knew he didn't know a stranger???

 

 Dancing, Dancing and more Dancing

aren't they cute?



For the Love of Brinkley

 Since before we had Collier, I have thought often about the dynamics of our four legged babies with our human babies.  I guess because we love our dogs so much and they are apart of our family I have always wanted Collier to love her as much as we do!  I have to make a side note: I still to this day wonder about how Doc would have been with Collier, I think that Doc would have taken to Collier must quicker than Brinkley has!  BUT since it is just Brinkley for now, I am happy to report that Collier loves this little girl!  The first 3-4 months Brinkley tried her best to pretend that Collier didn't exist and he was just too young to be aware of her.  Gradually he became more and more aware and interested in Brink.  Now he adores her, he sits on her, he bounces on her, he stands on her, he calls her name, he even opens his mouth wide for her to reciprocate kisses, he looks past me every time I walk in the room to see if she is behind me, he chases her with his car,  (that she doesn't like), he pulls her tail,  he finds sticks for her to chew on, he loves to give her his dinner treats and has even learned to feed her - that is put her food in her bowl!  When I ask Collier, 'do you want to go and feed Brink' he jumps up from whatever he is doing and runs for the backdoor.  I scoop the food, he carries it to her bowl and pours it right in...well sort of, he gets most of it in.  But he will at least pick up the 'missed' pieces and put back in her bowl.  This is a HUGE step toward him sitting at her bowl hand feeding her and himself.  He then takes the scoop back out and puts it in her bin.  It is so sweet and I love it deary.  I am not sure that the feelings are as mutual with Brinkley. She is just a mommas girl.  Don't get me wrong I know that Brinkley loves him.  She appreciate all of the goodies that she gets at his meal times, she licks his entire face (usually with his mouth wide open from excitement) in the morning and anytime we walk back into the house, she doesn't move when he sits and bounces on her or when he stands on her to get onto the couch, she is twice as excited when he feeds her than when I do and she especially likes all of the sticks that he gives her.  She doesn't like the tail pulling and we are working VERY hard on that not being a habit.  I've told  Collier more than once that he will 'get a boo boo' if he continues to do that!  Brinkley is so tolerable and patient with him.  But I can tell that he is way more excited about her than she is about him, but still I know that they will bond more and more.  Sometimes I can just look in her eyes and it is as if she is saying....'seriously you are letting him do this...  The more that she realizes that he will/can play with her the more that she will pull toward him.   

Lindsey and I had a BLAST at the Sugarland concert last week! It was perfect weather and I don't think we hardly sat down...my feet hurt after the concert from wearing boots for the first time this year! So much fun!







they are such great entertainers


not to mention funny and a little crazy!

play date with sweet friends...





this is becoming a trend...jeep rides with pretty girls!





Bath time fun...




This child would eat, sleep and live in this swing if we let him...