Tuesday, September 22, 2009

40 Days for Life

More than 200 cities across the country have launched 40 Days for Life campaigns. 40 Days for Life is a coordinated effort of focused prayer and fasting to help bring an end to the injustice of abortion.

A campaign is going on right now in OUR town outside of The Women's Center, Nashville's premier abortion facility. The goal is to have people praying outside the clinic from 6 AM to 6 PM every day from September 23rd - November 1st.

"The mission of the campaign is to bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity during a focused 40 day campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism, with the purpose of repentance, to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion in America." Christians from all around the community will be participating in this effort. Will you and your family consider joining others in prayer outside the abortion facility?

For more information, check out the website, register here, and then sign up for a time slot here. For those of you who are not local, look here to see if there is an organized campaign in your area.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sleeping Beauties


DINKWAD

Congratulations to Rebecca for correctly defining DINKWAD.

Dual-Income-No-Kids-With-A-Dog.

Rebecca, I learned this term after you moved because it ever so appropriately defined our new neighbors. You know, the ones who let their dog poop ALL OVER both the front AND back yard so Elijah had nowhere to play. Yep, those neighbors. All I can say is, well, it made me miss having Thomas downstairs~:-)

If you are a DINKWAD, we can totally still be friends....just save a corner of the yard for the children. Please.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Search & Earn

Have you heard of Swagbucks? It's a search engine (like Google) which allows you to earn points for searching. Your points, or Swagbucks, can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards to Starbucks and such. You just download the Swagbucks toolbar, use it as your search engine, and start earning points.

I've had a link in my sidebar for a while now, but kept having people say "Have you heard of swagbucks? I just signed up!" Then I kept responding, "Oh! You should of signed up through my link!" Then they would say, "Oh! I wish I had known; I totally would have!"

So, now you know. If you are interested in using Swagbucks, sign up here!

Pretty Girl, Pretty Dress

These pictures are for Aunt Abigail who so kindly gave this wonderful dress to Haven. It is my very favorite 3-6 month dress we have. Thanks Ab! Look Ab, she wants to see you!

Daddy's Home!

We took advantage of one fun Saturday with Daddy to try out a new bakery. I kept hearing great things about Sweet 16th so we ventured into East Nashville to check it out. Although not as wonderful a find as The Cupcake Collection, it was cute and fun plus had good food. We ate outside so as not to disturb the dinkwads frequenting the establishment. I would not describe this as a kid-friendly establishment. The male owner of the store, however, was really nice to us. Just make sure your kid does not get a toe in the flower bed during your visit~:-) Elijah's favorite part of the trip was running up the handicapped ramp and down the stairs over and over and over again. (Do you see why we chose to eat outside?)Daddy accomplished bathtime that night with one very happy and clean girl in tow!
Leave a comment if you know a dinkwad or if you are a dinkwad.

How My House Gets Cleaned

Some weeks, this is the only way it gets clean. Thanks Grammie! (And by thanks I mean a really, really, really BIG thanks!)

Growing

My little girl is getting so big;.......and so are my zucchinis!Thankfully I've now learned I can freeze grated zucchini. My freezer is full of bags, each filled with two cups of zucchini. Zucchini bread all year long! Yum! (Thanks for the tip Amy!)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Children's Room

Elijah has started being (a tiny bit) more adventurous in his climbing attempts.He's trying so hard~:-)Besides climbing, we also do lots and lots and LOTS of laundry folding in this room.Then we stash the folded laundry in the basket, to be put away at a later time, and indoctrinate Haven with our favorite fun activity - reading books!I am thankful for this room.

Friday, September 4, 2009

One Sunday

Church can be really eye opening for the whole family, even the youngest among us~;-)I love this dear little outfit with the bonnet and long pantaloons. (Thanks Bubba!)
The sermons can get really long, so often a nap must be taken.
Ooops, Grammie got a little too comfortable during the sermon! Just kidding, this is after a hard day's work at church. I was so happy to have someone get Haven back to sleep.
Later we attended Luke's baby dedication. I really like dedications; to me it seems like baptism: publicly declaring your intent to walk in the ways of the Lord. We will be praying for you to run well and parent well, Laura and Matt!
Elijah had a great time climbing on the pews.
The whole family was together, and Uncle David even joined us for this special event.
We celebrated by going to the DQ. Laura gave us some fabulous coupons and our family ate for under $5!
Then we went home and fell into bed!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Thomas the Train

Thomas the Train came to town and we got to go see him thanks to some courtesy tickets from Eric's work. Since Elijah has never seen Thomas the Train, we checked out some books and videos from the library a few weeks prior to the show. Elijah wouldn't watch the videos, but he did like the books. Eric and I, however, found the books annoyingly moralistic and otherwise irritating. But we read them...and read them...and read them so Elijah would have fun at the show. (See the ways we sacrifice for our children?) I have never been so glad to make library returns.
Elijah's friend Abiel and his Momma accompanied our merry troop to the show. Abiel requested a snack immediately upon getting in his seat.
Haven enjoyed looking around until she became overstimulated by all the lights.
Aren't these boys just darling?
The show was really fun. Whenever I see people sing and dance, I think "I want to do that!" Thankfully, the audience was allowed to participate in some of the dance moves (or song motions, if you prefer). Standing up with Haven allowed me to get jiggy with it even more than the typical Thomas the Train fan. Even Eric was caught up in the magic. Here he is performing the move "Chugga Chugga Chugga CHOO CHOO."

Lovely Faces






As promised, we saved our cow shirts for this year. Can you believe how much Elijah has changed in just one year? Oh my, that makes me sad! My little man is all grown up...well, almost.



Namesake

My two dear Havens: Having a chip treat while looking up the price of log cabins:
Sweet Haven and Big Man Isaac:
Yay! A friend with whom to ride the rocket glider!
Little Haddie:
Playing:
Reading:
Lovely friends:

We were honored to have the Weis family in for a visit. Their time with us was cut short due to a repeat pinkeye visit - extra gross! To prove what loyal friends they are, they stuck around until our second round of antibiotics had worked its magic. I was especially thankful to have time with my dear friend and her sweet children. Aren't friends one of God's very best gifts?