Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!

I know I'm a little late on this post.  Forgive me for that!  But we had another birthday boy recently and I wanted to share it with the world!  My Nathaniel just turned 4!!!

Now in our home, birthdays tend to stretch out over a few days.  When the actual day comes it is certainly special.  But for the whole week, we are doing special things together, and the birthday boy/girl gets to choose the special things we do.

Nate really enjoyed his race car birthday cake.  Mommy did a very professional job with it!  We got to share it with some friends of ours, and it was a very memorable time.

Then we took a day and went to Monkey Joe's in Raleigh.  It was a blast! Micah sure was in his element.  Nathaniel absolutely loved it.  Well, I guess we all did!  I think I had as much fun as the kids did.  It wasn't very crowded, so it was very enjoyable.  We stayed for hours!

Happy Birthday, Nathaniel!  I can't believe you're four years old already.  Your growing up to be such a handsome young man.  You certainly are one of a kind, that's for sure!  I love you, little buddy!

A Gospel Perspective on Motherhood

Read these words and see how the Joyners challenge us regularly by their example.

http://nothing2bring.blogspot.com/2011/03/here-we-go-again.html

An Evening on the Town

Ashley and I got to have an evening out on the town last night. It was just the two of us! It was great! When my warehouse hosted its Christmas dinner party for all the managers last December we were unable to make it because we were at the hospital with Caleb being born! So my boss let us have a rain check, which we cashed in last night at probably the fanciest restaurant we've ever been to. We had a great time. Ashley looked absolutely amazing!! The pictures turned out well, but none of them did her elegance justice. I wish I had a quarter for every time someone almost broke their neck trying to get a look at her last night! We considered this an early anniversary dinner since we probably will not be able to afford to eat a nice place like this for our real anniversary. Hey, we got a free dessert out of it!

At the Car Wash!

I guess you can say Spring has sprung! We are loving this 80 degree weather! Abigail and Micah decided to do a little spring cleaning and get their stylish coup back into mint condition.

Snapshot Arguments

When we don't like someone or something, we pick at them.  We use hyperbole and any other fancy argumentation to make sure they know how much we do not like them.  "You always do that."  "I never do that." Humility is not even on the radar when we find ourselves here....

I am struck as I see another one of those bumper stickers that was taking a cheap shot at religion.  (I hate political and religious bumper stickers of any kind by the way - we can't share the gospel with those closest to us, yet we have a soapbox bumper sticker for perfect strangers to read and not respond....lame!) I know the bumper sticker that says "Abortion stops a beating heart."  Well, the sticker I saw today read, "Religion stops a thinking mind."  Rather than react in anger (which was certainly the desired result of the driver), I thought about it for a second.  And to be perfectly honest with you, I think I can see why someone would think that.  They have had a snapshot of "religion" where they have witnessed someone doing something they think is irrational, and have concluded that only those without any sort of ability to reason or "think" as they put it, would follow any sort of religion.  I disagree with them, since only the dead lack thinking minds.  But here's my point...

We do the same thing as Christians.  We take a snapshot of our "enemies" at their worst and make that the poster image for why we are glad we are not like them.  Why does this sadden me???

Because when we were at our worst, Christ wasn't taking pictures.

Instead, He pursued us with His love, even when we put him on the cross.  We need to think past the sinful images we have of our neighbors and co-workers and view them as Jesus does....a soul desperately in need of His truth - THE truth of His unending love.  When we are tempted to remember someone at their worst - our neighbors, co-workers, friends, family - spouses...we need to be reminded that we are no different, and therefore no better.  We need to listen to the profound truth of the gospel yet again - humility, grace, forgiveness.  Then and only then, can we love like Christ.....and that is the smartest bit of reason and most rational thing I can think of.

Abigail is 5!!! Wow!

There are two celebrations that our kids are going to think last for days and days....Christmas and Birthdays.  Even though the day of Christmas is Dec. 25th, we managed to celebrate it many times over the course of two weeks.  The same has been true for birthdays.  Even though Abigail's birthday was on Feb. 8th, we celebrated it over and over again.  We celebrated it as a family, then with friends, and then with even more family.  We had a great time.  There is on thing for sure, our kids know how much we love them and how special each one of them is.

I just can't belive my little girl is 5 years old.  As you might be able to see from the pictures, she already is missing a tooth.  Another one is already growing back, too.  She will start school this year.  Boy....time is just flying by for Abigail.  She is so advanced, it's crazy.  She's already spelling and writing.  She can write the name of everyone in our family all by herself.  And the letters are very good!  No scribble scrabble.

I'm one proud Daddy...but sad one too.  I miss her little pink dresses, but I guess I love the big ones, too.  Guess I can't slow her down...just hope my memory can keep up!

Happy Birthday, my Abigail!

Happy Birthday, Micah!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  Micah is two years old today!  And boy is he every bit of two.  He has given Mommy and Daddy quite a fit here lately.  But we love him still.  Every one of our children is so unique.  Micah is certainly no exception.  He is definitely the scrappiest one of the bunch, ready to man-handle anything that comes his way.  I'm already praying for both his future teachers and his spouse.

Well, Happy Birthday my Micah!  You are special indeed!  God has some incredible things in store for you!  That is...if you live to see three!  At this rate, you might just make it, but may not have all your teeth.  You've already chipped one - twice!  You certainly are one of a kind!  

God's Handiwork!

This photo absolutely takes my breath away every time I look at it. God has made my life so beautiful!
WOW.

New WebCam Experiment

We wanted to test out our new WebCam. Here's a few of the results.
Click here! These sent us rolling!

Enjoy!

Ashley Had a Birthday!

Because of all of the baby and Christmas festivities, I was unable to announce to the world that my bride had her 30th birthday the other day!  December the 19th to be exact!

We decided to attempt to make it to church for the first time since Caleb was born.  After church we took Mommy out for lunch to Applebee's.  The restaurant was at Brier Creek were they were doing horse-drawn carriage rides.  It was a little chilly, but we had a great time!  It was amazing how different it is to attempt "going out" with the whole family now.  Life will never be the same that is for sure.

Thirty years ago, God did an absolutely amazing thing when he brought my Ashley Dawn into the world.  I am so grateful to him for giving me the incredible opportunity to share life with her.  She is the love of my life, and I adore her so much.  I only wish we could have done something really big for her birthday to show her how special she is.  I guess you could say we gave her a new baby for her birthday.  That's a pretty big deal.  She got round-the-clock room service and two nights away from home.  But we decided to take her to Kirkland's while we were at Brier Creek.  I think she had a really good birthday.