.refreshed.

So this is post not like the usual ones with cuteness jumping from the page... this is one where i just share what the Lord is teaching me... hope you find this encouraging and refreshing!.

Last Monday night, I started a 4 week virtual conference with other staff wives from the Summit. Its called the JustOne Conference. It is put on by the writers for the Leading and Loving It blog. it is designed for pastors wives. It is awesome! So here are some thoughts and things that I have taken away from these past 2 weeks-

*Am i intentionally leading with my life? Hebrews 12:13 says, "and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed." is my life leading in a way as to heal and not throw things out of joint? and then 1 thess. 1:6-8 says, "and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in these places, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything." ----- in the same thought i think sometimes its so easy to get caught up in who is doing what in ministry and trying to imitate that, but realizing that the Lord has created each of us different and gifted us differently and the only way we are going to be most effective with proclaiming the Gospel is by leading/serving the way he has created us to lead/serve- and the only way then to know how we were created and gifted is to be spending time with the Creator. And when we are confident in our calling then we will be most effective- He has given us everything that we need! "God's work, God's way, God will supply" (forgot which lady said that)

*If God isn't pouring into you- you can't be pouring yourself out to others- I was so convicted of this- we have to be spending time with Him in order to be able to be poured out- in that same thought, its not that we need to be adding more things and creating a check list, but maximizing every moment! Having scripture posted around the house, listening to sermons, listening to music that proclaims truth and the Gospel, using the time in the car with the kids to speak the truth of God's Word to them. Also one lady said, "when you are shaken or rattled, what comes forth?" OUCH! Man, how I long for when I react instead of respond to Andrew, HattieJo, my students, friends, or whoever may it be a response that is filtered through the Gospel and the Word- only when i am spending time in His word and hiding it in my heart will that happen. "Keep your heart with all viligance, for from it flow the springs of life." Prov. 4:23 and Luke 6:45 says, "for out of the abundance of the heart a man speaks."

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." John 15:9

.nanny bec.

The day finally came about 3 weeks ago for my sister to move in with us to be our nanny!!!!....
It felt like forever ago that she had started her last semester of college with no real plan for when she graduated. We knew we were going to be planting a church in Greensboro, so I just casually one day mentioned to her to pray about joining our team for that and becoming our nanny. I really didn't know what she would say- she has lived at home for college and loves being at home; but I went ahead and threw it out there. So she spent some time praying and talking with my parents and her mentor. A few weeks later she came to me and said that she really felt like this was a great opportunity that the Lord was opening up for her and she said, YES! I was so excited!!! So she moved in with us the beginning of January. 3 weeks into this deal, things are going great. She is such a blessing.. I love knowing that she is the one at home with the kids everyday. The kids are doing good and have adjusted so well. I am so excited for her in this stage of life and thankful that this is a decision that she sought the Lord and has seen His hand in guiding her! Not to mention she really helps out with things around the house which frees me up in the evenings to spend time with the kids and Andrew.
We love you Bec Bec!! Here are some pics that she sent me last week-

.pure joy.

.puddle jumping.

.we went on a walk saturday morning around the property and stumbled upon LOTS of puddles- we were not dressed for puddle jumping, but boy was it a blast! HJ loved jumping in them!. love the sound of her sweet laughter when she is enjoying something. needless to say we were SOAKING wet and muddy, but it was worth it!.

.Potty Training.

..sniff sniff... the little 2 1/2 year old booty in my house is no longer bulky in clothes... she is in her "big girl panties"!!!! YAY HattieJo... She has really taken off with potty training and is doing GREAT. She isn't hesitant to go in a public restroom and is doing so well in letting us know when she has to go! We are so proud of her. She has a potty chart in the bathroom and LOVES putting a sticker on it each time she goes...

:6mths and 7mths:

AP is 7 months today! WHAT WHAT?!?!?!... So I was slacker and didn't do a 6 month post with the craziness of Christmas travels and such i just FORGOT! ooops!So today he is 7 months old! He has changed so much in the past 2 months. Here are some things that he is doing:
*sitting up alone
*standing up when holding on to things(love the chunky legs!!!!!!!)
*trying to pull himself up with a bit of help
*eating 3 meals a day and 1 or 2 baby food snacks-not a big fan of taking a bottle these days
*he is still NOT sleeping through the night!!! his smiling face wakes up still to eat...crazy!
*he loves to babble... he says, mamamama, dadadadadada, bababababab, and lots of pitches of squeals
*when i get home he about jumps out of his skin to get to me..I.LOVE.IT!
*prefers to stand versus sitting to play
*loves to empty a basket or box
*SMILES.NON.STOP.
*he likes to jump
*he has his 2 front bottom teeth.... 2 top teeth have just broke through along with another one the bottom (i am hoping this is what is causing him to wake up in the night)
*he adores HJ... he wants to be right where she is and playing with her
*has great hand/eye coordination when it comes to reaching and grabbing things he wants
*the cousins have named him the "hair grabber" and boy is it true!
*he will listen to a story as long as he can be in control of the pages
*he is SO SWEET!!!!!
*LOVES water- as soon as he hears the water running for a bath, he gets SO GIDDY! he splashes the whole time he is in there
*he is NOSY- he will whip his head all the way around if he hears something going on that he needs to know about

AP- We love you more than you know. We praise the Lord each day for the blessing He gave us in you! We pray that you will come to know and follow Him early in life. We love you baby boy!

.pinterest.

...so i might just be IN LOVE with pinterest.... yeah i know, but its WONDERFUL and has so many great ideas... here are a couple that i have done recently:
*Prayer Pail- took a pail with cute ribbon(thank you JennT. this is one that she had for me at a shower for HJ!).. .then i wrote names of people we would pray for; family, friends, Mercy Hill Church, fundraising, etc. on popsicle sticks..each night at dinner HJ pulls out a stick and we prayer for whatever is on that stick. LOVE IT!*Clothespin Learning (at least that is the name that I gave it!)- wrote the alphabet and numbers 1-10 on clothespins, then wrote it on strips of paper. I did the lowercase letter strips and clothespins in blue, uppercase in red, and then the number is blue. HJ has to match the clothespin to the correct letter or number. She has really enjoyed this! It is helping with letter/number recognition and then fine motor skills with working a clothspin.

.we love a park.

For Christmas the Summit had 2 services on Thursday, 2 on Friday, and then 2 on Saturday- so that meant over those 3 days Andrew was gone ALOT! So on Friday between the 2 services we met him at a local park to play. The weather was so nice and it was good for HJ to get some fresh air with the nasty stomach virus that she had. We even took Opie with us!

.date night.

While we were in Florida, Andrew's parents kept the kids one night and we headed to the movies! It was so fun! We hadn't been to the movies in FOREVER. Thank you Gigi and Poppa!

:Cousins Christmas Party:

Every year there is a "cousins Christmas party"... All the cousins on Andrew's mom side of the family get together for a party for the kids. In years past the kids will exchange names at Thanksgiving and get gifts, so that you aren't buying a dozen gifts. This year they decided instead of spending money on gifts that they would donate the money that they would spend on the gifts to our church plant! What a blessing to have family that is willing to partner with us in this journey! We were so thankful!

All the cousins- Too bad they aren't all looking, but its as good as it gets with this crew!

Here are Gigi and Poppa's sweet matching monkeys!

This boy TOTALLY STEALS my heart with that sweet smile!!!!

:Collins Cousins:

Andrew's sister has 3 boys and we love them so much!!!! I am so thankful for cousins that HJ and AP have to hang out with and grow up spending time together and making such fun memories- just wish we all lived closer, but we cherish the times that we are able to spend together. Here are some shots of our time together while we were in FL:I don't have any pictures, but one day while were down there the boys came over to Gigi and Poppa's house to play- the weather was GORGEOUS, so we were outside having "a war" they had gotten nerf swords, shields, and axes for Christmas, so me and the big boys were in a war against Andrew and Mike! It was so fun! Those boys are so creative when it comes to crafting a plan of attack!

:sneaky snake:

I am afraid we have a sneaky snake on our hands when it come to HattieJo and treats that she likes to eat!!! Let me explain:Picture1: Mr. Snowman- he lives at Gigi's house and holds Hershey Kisses
Picture2: This is a hershey kiss wrapper behind Gigi's couch
Picture3: The hershey kiss that once resided in the wrapper that was on the floor that once resided in Mr. Snowman
Anytime HJ would get quiet while we were at Gigi's house, you could bet she would be behind the couch with a hershey kiss!!!!

Recent incident:
Me: HJ where are you?
HJ: I right here, I not eating anything mommy
I go into the dining room and she is behind the dining room table with the bag of powder donuts, a cup with a donut in it and powder all over her face!!!

.LOVE.MY.GIRL.
here she is in her "model" pose

:FL Christmas:

We left Christmas Day to go spend time with family in Florida. We had such a great time while we were there. HJ and AP traveled so well, we were so grateful for that! Funny thing about traveling on Christmas day- there are NO fast food places open!!! So our wonderful Christmas day lunch consisted of; jalapeno cheddar chex mix, a beef stick, granola bars, apple(which got thrown out the window after we thought about eating an apple from a gas station), banana(peeling protected the edible part!), peanut butter crackers, peanuts, dr. pepper, and a diet cheerwine. That is a memory that will last forever! haha... I should have packed us a lunch, but we left in such a hurry and I just wasn't thinking. So back to our time in Florida- When we arrived we spent the evening opening some gifts with Gigi and Poppa. Don't worry they had a delicious lunch with all the family and saved us some for dinner!! We did lots of playing with cousins and lots of just being together. It was wonderful!

.Christmas Morning.

HJ had a TERRIBLE stomach virus the week before Christmas. It was just at night that she was getting sick, but it was BAD. I was in tears as I watched her get sick each time, it was breaking my heart to see her like that. We took her in to the doctor on Saturday (Christmas Eve..ugh!) and the first thing the doctor said to us was, "man she really doesn't look well." She was right- on top of the stomach bug she had an ear infection. So we got 3 prescriptions to help with the virus and ears and left praying! We had so many people praying for her on Saturday for which we were grateful and we saw the power of prayer when our sweet energetic HJ woke up on Sunday morning. WHAT A BLESSING and an answer to prayers! So we decided at 8am that we would leave by 10 for Florida- AHHH! You can only imagine the mess that we left the house in- oh well!
HJ was very excited about her gifts on Christmas morning as well as helping AP open and enjoy his! Neither one of them have on their Christmas pj's because we didn't know how things were going to go Christmas Eve so we didn't want to get them messed up!!

.Christmas MercyHillGSO style.

The week before Christmas we also had our first Mercy Hill Christmas party! It was such a sweet time of fellowship with a HUGE spread of food. Everyone pitched in to bring different things and the room was decorated all festive with some great Christmas tunes in the background. Once everyone finished eating Andrew got up and just talked (while holding HJ who by this time wanted no one but her daddy!) about all that the Lord has done over the past year. Then several people shared where they were this time last year in the decision making of joining the team. It so neat to hear story after story of people sharing that GSO wasn't even on their radar, yet now they are going and are pumped about it! What a blessing. I sat back as Andrew and others shared, so thankful at how faithful the Lord has been in this whole process. Next Christmas we will be celebrating together in Greensboro, so EXCITING!!!!

SC Christmas (part2)

While we were in SC we went to my uncle Kenny(my mom's brother) and aunt Lynn's home. They live on a farm with goats, chickens, horses, and a mule! It is awesome. HJ loved being able to feed the chickens and pet the goats(baby goats were 5 days old!) and horses. It was great to be able to spend time with them since we don't see them often.