Party!!

This picture was taken last night (early this morning) at about 12:00AM. We went to our Christmas/ Graduation party last night for our small group. The graduation part was for our leader. He is graduating with is Masters degree. We are so proud of him. He has had a lot on his plate with Worship Leader, Children's choir, Christmas Cantata, Family, not to mention the fact that our building has just passed all of the inspections and he was in charge of the building project. We just think we are busy :)

Obviously after such a great party and arriving home after 10:00 PM, Brian and Sadie Beth were beat. I have tons of pictures of Mili and Brian this way and thought I would capture it with Sadie Beth as well. This is Brian's favorite thing to do with babies (When they turn about 5 months old it is all about playtime, giggles and fun).



The wonderful antennas on Mili's head were my idea for "dirty santa". At our small group we bring an inexpensive (or something from home) white elephant gift to exchange. It is so much fun. I bought a package for a dollar with two in it, Mili snatched one up immediately. I must say she looks fantastic in her fashion statement. Brian brought an Arkansas phone book. One of the guys in our small group works with the youth and plans to pass it on at their party. Watch out youth!!!

We brought home a ball that has a spring and suction cup in the middle so you press it down and it sticks (looks like a frisbee) and when you throw it it pops back out into a ball. The guys were having fun with it at the party and Brian stole it from Bryan, our leader. He says he got it for "Mili". Don't know about that. I brought home a Barry Bonds baseball card (worth millions, I am sure). Just what I have always wanted.

She looks like a frog in this picture with her jaw out and her legs bent.



This one is just pretty. What can I say about my blue eyed girl. I am not partial or anything to my girls. (she looks WAY to grown-up in this picture).



4 days until we touch down in Arkansas!!!!! (not that I am counting)
Hugs and Kisses to ALL!!!
Alice

Arkansas Pride!

We are getting ready to take a trip home to Arkansas so Sadie Beth thought she would get into the spirit with some Hog gear. This outfit was Mili's and she wore it before we left Arkansas to move here (that seems like an eternity ago).

Those are short sleeves you see. Can you believe that it was 64 degrees here today. It was 48 degrees when we went to church tonight. We are suppose to have a winter storm this weekend. I am okay with that as long as nothing effects our flight out on Tuesday.

Hope you enjoy our little Razorback.


Happy to be in Razorback RED!


You caught me in Hog garb in Redskin territory.



I'm so cute in it, it doesn't matter. You have to love me anyway.



Love you all. Counting down the days.

Blessed by blogger friends!

Today, I am thankful for blogger friends. There are a few blogs that I read daily (I plan to put them on the side bar soon). Today I was blessed by two videos on two different blogs. It is amazing the things (or people) God uses in our everyday lives to bring us closer to him (in this case two people I have never met, but would like to-if not on earth I will in heaven some day).

Here is one of the videos from my blogger friend Sooz. Please check it out. I was in tears by the time it was done. The other video here is from my blogger friend Chelle's site. This video made me slow down and think about what Christmas is really about. With all the parties and things we have scheduled before next Tuesday when we fly home, we feel a little stretched. I really needed some reflecting time for Jesus today. We ALL get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas every now and then and have to bring ourselves back to the main focus. Thanks for doing that for me Chelle.

I enjoyed both videos with tears in my eyes and hope that you enjoy them as well.
Love you all!

NO, I LOVE Daddy!!!!

This morning I am thankful for a great husband but most importantly a GREAT Daddy! Mili loves her some daddy time.

As we went into the kitchen to eat this morning, I had to get out a garbage bag since Brian had taken the trash down with him (GREAT GUY, HUH). I said to Mili, "YAY Daddy took the trash down." I was clapping and cheering and said, "Isn't that a great Daddy."

Mili : "Oh, I love Daddy."

Mommy: "Oh, I love Daddy, too."

Mili: "I love hugs from Daddy "for" he go to work and kisses and kiss fingers (will explain later)."

Mommy: "I love hugs from Daddy, too."

Mili: "NO, I LOVE DADDY!" As to say that she loved him more but didn't know the words to use so she screamed it to make her point.

The kiss fingers thing is important in our house. Mili started this a while back and she only wants important people in her life to kiss her fingers. She holds up both of her index fingers so we can kiss the tip of her fingers. She started this and we still don't know why but it is too cute so we kiss them. She has started doing this with Nanny & Pawpaw and Nanny & Poppy on the video phone. The first time she did it to them I cried. It is one of those things that symbolizes importance to her. So if Mili ask you to kiss fingers then you must be on top of her list.

Brian, I hope you enjoy this post today. He has been very busy last week and the beginning of this week and has missed a lot of time with the girls. It is good to know that you still rank way up there in Mili's book.

I LOVE YOU MORE, DADDY!!! (just thought I would get in the last I love you since Mili can't defend it on the blog...smile)

If you haven't read the following entry about Heifer International please scroll down and read it.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Today, I am thankful for my extended family. We normally do a "dirty Santa" exchange at Brian's mom's side of the family. Our limit is $10 and we each bring a gift that is gender specific. Last year we decided to collect the $10 per person and give it to a family. I think it was a family that needed the money due to their house burning down. I was so excited about my $10 or really our $20, counting Brian's $10, going to something that would matter. Instead of taking home a present that we may or may not use and really didn't need, we helped a family have Christmas and start to rebuild their lives after a tragedy.


This year as I read one of the blogs I read daily I saw the Heifer International link on their site. They were encouraging others to give to families so they could be released from the bondage of poverty. It touched my heart and also made me feel foolish for forgetting about such a wonderful organization. After reading this information which is not new to me but just forgotten or filed in the unimportant file of my brain, I could not stop thinking about helping a family and ultimately a community to be freed from poverty. Brian and I had discussed buying a flock of chickens for a family which is $20, but God kept laying on my heart that we needed to buy a goat. I knew that financially we could not afford $120 so God gave me the idea to ask our extended family to do the same thing we did last year but to do it for Heifer International this year. All the family members where excited about this project and that is why I am thankful for a wonderful extended family today.


The picture above will link you to the gift catalog for Heifer International. I know that you all can spare $20 to help a family get a flock of chickens, ducks, or geese. This is a very small price to pay for someone who has far less than we do in this country. A flock consist of 10-50 chickens. A hen can lay up to 200 eggs a year. That is enough to eat, sell and share. One of the rules of Heifer is that you have to promise to share your gift. If a family receives animals from Heifer they have to share what they have. This in turn can make a community who was once dying, alive, well and able to make a living for their families. How exciting is that!!!!!!


Please consider buying an animal for a family for Christmas. If you can't buy an animal then buy a share of an animal, some are as low as $10.

Cute Suff

Mili has been saying some cute stuff these days. I have already shared all of her faith building cute stuff and now here is some more cute stuff.


While I was sick, Brian had a talk with Mili before work one morning about mommy not feeling good and she better be a good girl for mommy. After we ate breakfast that morning, she brought me a "praprise".


It was an empty wipes box with a mini tea set in it. She said, "I got you a praprise mommy to help feel you better." She tried to wrap it up in Christmas paper but decided it wasn't worth it and she just put it under the tree in the box below....








I was getting Mili's lunch ready the other day and I got out a banana and set it on the table in front of her. She could hardly wait to eat it while I was preparing the rest of her lunch. As her mouth watered at the site of the big yellow banana she said, "Mommy, I need you to zip down this please."



While Mili was watching her "movie box" (aka portable DVD player) she wanted me to change a setting on it. I was busy doing something (imagine that). Brian said, "bring it to me and I will fix it." Mili turned her head (hair swishing and all) and said, "Well, it has a plug-in daddy!" Brian cracked up because she was right she could not bring it to him, it was plugged into the wall. I saw flash forwards (don't know if that's a word, but I am using it) of the head turning, flicking hair behind shoulder, rolling eyes teenager.....OH MY!

One day I asked Mili to get something for me and then said thank you to her. She said, "You're Welcome Sweetheart." She said it so soft and caring. I melted!!








Switching to the Queen of the house.



This is how the Queen naps. She is on a boppy in her bed. We don't lay her down flat because of her reflux and I am tired of changing sheets due to multiple spit ups during one nap. I put it in the bed because Mili dropped a Christmas present on her head while napping in the floor. It was a light present and Sadie only cried for a short time but it scared me to death.




The Queen sleeping with her eyes half open.

The Queen with her eyes closed because Mommy is freaked out by the sleeping with eyes half open.

The Queen is like her mommy in that she HATES to be cold, so Mommy makes sure she is not. It was in the 20's when we came back from small group last night, but Sadie was toasty when I took her out of her bunny suit.

Hope you enjoyed the cute stuff happening in our house.

Love you all and can't wait to see you!

Mili's first real snow

Today, I am thankful for God's great seasons. There is nothing more beautiful than a white covered world. It looks like a winter wonderland and I love it. It just makes me giddy to see the snow on everything. It makes me even more giddy to see Mili in it.

This morning when Mili woke up Brian got her out of bed and took her straight to the balcony to look outside at the snow. Mili has been waiting all day to go outside to play in the snow, going to the balcony doors off and on all day. She has talked about the snow all day as well. Brian came home from work early to take her out to play. She had so much fun but I think Brian had more fun playing with her than she actually did in the snow.


Aren't they cute together. I love this picture.



Mili is stylin' in her snow garb. I love the hat.

Trying to make a snowball.

Daddy doing a little bit of teaching about how to make the best snowballs.

Mommy and Sadie got in on some of the action too. Sadie was covered from head to toe and only her little cute face showing.

I love the picture of her tongue sticking out. It means she is having such fun.

I only included this picture because I love the way her long, thick black eyelashes show up against the white and pink. We taught her how to clap her hands to get the built up snow off of her gloves.

I can not take the credit for taking this wonderful picture. Brian took this after Sadie and I had retreated back to the warm house. Mili is throwing a "snowball" or hand full of snow which ever you want to call it.

Hope you enjoyed our snow pictures for today. It is still snowing and we have about 4 inches right now. I am now going to get me some hot chocolate so I can feel warm and fuzzy inside on a cold winters night.

What a GREAT gift!

Today, I am thankful for the Internet and the way it allows my family and friends to see our children grow. This blog is really a blessing to them.

Here is the picture I used on Sadie's birth announcement. Before any of you get your panties in a wad because you didn't receive one, no one did. The picture I sent in to get printed was darker than this and it was even darker on the actual announcement. Don't worry it was a free thing so I didn't lose any money on it. They are still cute because they are black and white like the picture below and then the writing on it is in pink. I wanted to show you all the picture anyway. She is in a gift bag with tissue paper and all.

The other pictures are some pictures I took of Sadie today for my scrapbooking pleasures. I need to find Mili's from her first Christmas. They are too cute.

Hope you enjoy, there are lots!!!

Just a little catch up on the girls!

One of the girls in the house is me. I am battling a stinkin' cold and sound like a man when I talk. I guess if I gave it a little bit of a whisper it may sound sexy but I don't feel sexy right now so it wouldn't help to act. I hope to be done with this mess soon so I can start to get things ready to pack for our trip home. I think it is 14 days until we fly home.

The girls are doing okay as long as I can keep them from getting my cold. It is almost impossible since I care for them all day and during the night hours. Brian gives me a break at lunch and when he comes home from work.

Please pray that our family will be healthy for our trip home and back.

Here are some random pictures of the girls in the last few days

Sisters who love each other. Look how big Sadie is getting.




Mili got my house shoes out of my closet and decided to claim them for her own. I have worn the eyeballs off these shoes (they were wiggly eyes).


The blue puzzle pieces are for potty training. We have been doing excellent with potty training in big girl panties. All last week we had maybe 5 accidents, 3 of them being on the first day of training. The last several days we have had no accidents in our panties, in our pull-up it is a different story. We are not brave enough to let her go to church or out to shop with her panties on yet. If she keeps up the way she is now, it won't be long before she will be completely trained (with a few accidents here and there). Night time and nap time we are still using pull-ups. If anyone has any advice about the nighttime training, shoot it this way in the comments please.

We will be glad to have our living room back to normal, right now it is potty central but it makes life easier for mommy and I am all about that.

Sadie has started to grab things now. It is amazing to me how fast they start to learn after they are born. The design could only be from something as big as God.

We love you ALL!!

What happened to his hands?

Today, I am thankful for children's bible story books. Mili has one that she adores. She calls it her bible and we love that she understands there are some really important stories in that book.

Yesterday, while talking on the video phone to Nanny and Poppy, Mili was "reading" books. I was holding the book for her and she would "read" and then turn the pages. She had her bible at one point in the conversation and started "reading" the stories to us.

Mili: baby Jesus (she turns the page)

Mili: three wise ment (she turns the page)

Mili: man sick (she turns the page)

Mili: Zacheus (we stopped the conversation to sing the song) (she turns the page)

Mili: Jesus......Jesus loves me, lets sing it (a picture of Jesus getting baptized) (we sang Jesus loves me....she does the signs too, too cute)

Mili: Who is that? (it was a picture of Thomas knelling and touching Jesus' nail scared hands)

Brian: That is Jesus.

Mili: What happent to His hands, they have boo boos.

Me: bawling like a baby, sobbing, sniffing.

I couldn't even talk. I should have said those boo boos were for you. The time will present itself again and I will use it as a teachable moment. I was such a blubbering mess and Brian was truly not any better even after we got off the phone. It was truly one of those God moments when you know He is there in the same room with you and had a big fat smile is on His face.

We love you all!
Can't wait to see ya

Another lesson from Teacher Mili

Today I am thankful for preschool teachers, especially Ms. Shelia and Mrs. Lynn. These two ladies are Mili's teachers on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights at church.

In Sam's, as Brian and I always do on Friday nights, we were eating our dinner. Brian said, "Mili we are going to pray now. Do you want to pray (we always ask her that but she always says no). Mili said, "YES, with her little hands already clasped together up by her sweet, angelic smiling face." Brian tells her to go ahead and then she repeated after Brian and was very proud of herself.

In the car tonight on the way home from Sam's, Mili holds one of her bible story papers from church. Our conversation....

Mili: First we play with toys, then we sit on carpet, then we pray, then we read bible story. I be teacher and you come to my class Mommy.

Me: Yes baby, Mommy would LOVE to come to your class and listen to your bible story.

Mili: God told him to go to Nineveh.

Me: Who went to Nineveh?

Mili: Because the people be bad, Mommy.

Me: Yes, that is the reason he went but WHO went?

Mili: He go the other way on a boat.

Me: Yes and was swallowed by a big fish, WHO was it?

Mili: Jonah, Mommy.

Me: Yes, that's right.

Mili: The whale spit Jonah on the beach.

When we arrived home, Mili asked me to sit on the carpet and let her teach me. I sat down on the floor with her.

Mili: Mommy, first pray.

Me: Go ahead, I am listening.

Mili: (with clasped hands the sweetest thing I have EVER heard) thank you for bible stories, amen.

Me: (can't see through my watered eyes) sniff sniff sniff

Thanks for bearing with me while I record my sweet baby's exploration of God and the bible. I feel like if I don't record it, I will forget it and I don't want to forget anything about this wonderful time in our lives.

My God is BIG!!!

Today I am thankful for Bible Study and teachers of it. I LOVE Beth Moore and how she presents the bible to women. I am back on my study of Believing in God (thanks Leann, love ya girl). As I studied this morning (while Mili is watching cartoons and Sadie is napping) I couldn't help but think about how BIG my God is.

On Wednesday nights, Brian and I are taking a World Religion class. I have enjoyed it so much because it is teaching me why other people believe in the "religion" they have chosen. Last night we were studying Contemporary Religious Movements (basically anything that was started after 1800's). We were studying a religion last night that believes you can become your own god and they believe that their god was once a man and then became their "God" (so a sinner, before he was a god). Our wise teacher (Brandon) was teaching us how he talks with them about his God. He just had a baby and he tells them that he doesn't want his daughter to worship someone that was once as bad as him. He wouldn't want her to worship her daddy or anyone like him. He wants her to worship someone that is BIG, much bigger than we could ever be (sinless, spotless, perfect in every way). I thought it was some deep stuff to consider and very grateful for the information.

For those of you reading this right now, if your God is not much bigger than you I would reconsider who you serve. If you don't serve a sinless, spotless, perfect in every way God then let me introduce Jesus Christ to you. He is all those things and so much MORE. You can have a PERSONAL relationship with Him. You need to realize that you are a sinner (we all are) and that separates us from God. Believe that Jesus is God's son and that He loves you enough to die for you so you could be saved from your sins. Ask for your sins to be forgiven (God is in the forgiving business, you just have to ASK, tell God you are sorry). Ask Jesus to live in your heart forever and chose to follow Him and only Him from that day forward.

I have never heard a person say that they regret inviting Jesus to live in their heart. He can change your life forever. He is waiting on you to receive the FREE gift he has for you. You would never turn down a gift handed to you from a friend so WHY would you turn down the gift of eternal life in heaven with Jesus from the ONE who created everything, including YOU!!

I love you all and that is why I wrote this post. The love of God is just overflowing right now. I hope you will get out your cup and catch some of it (mine is an overflow from my teacher Brandon last night). Let the overflow continue on.

Thankful Everyday!

Head cocked back on my arm, mouth wide open, smelling her sweet breath, feeling her chest rise and fall against mine, looking at her extremely long eyelashes and appreciating the fact that she is mine. We should not just be thankful at Thanksgiving, but EVERYDAY!!! I have decided that I will post something I am thankful for each day.



Today, if you can not see from the statement above, I am thankful that God has allowed me to be a mommy. There is nothing I love more in this life than to be Mommy. Sunday at church, my adopted father was watching me with both the girls and he said, "Alice, you really are in Wonderland, aren't you?" I responded with, "I AM, this is truly the best time of my life." I waited a LONG time to be a mother. When all my friends were having children and I wanted them so badly, God was saying WAIT.....we did, and I am so grateful for that.



I have to add this to my post. Tonight as we drove home from church the conversation was something like this.

Brian: "Mili, what did you learn in class tonight?"

Mili: "It was a mean king, Daddy."

Brian: "What was that mean king doing?"

Mili: "There were frogs EVERYWHERE, Daddy."



She obviously "got it". I love that she is starting to understand things and can tell me a story back. She has been acting like she is reading a book these days and she does a really good job at getting the stories right. My favorite is when she is reading the story of Jesus and she comes to the page where Jesus is born. She says, "Baby Jesus be bornt, like Sadie be bornt". I love listening to her rendition of different stories.

Be thankful for something today!
Love to All!!

Thanksgiving Update

We are so THANKFUL this year. We have seen God's hand in our lives in so many ways. God kept Sadie and I safe through a fall during my pregnancy. He was able to stop Sadie twice from coming into the world when it wasn't her time yet. Most importantly He gave us an excellent group of medical staff to keep Sadie and I both safe during a traumatic delivery. He also kept our whole family and our car safe during a minor accident. Mili and I were able to make a trip home in the summer for my parents surprise anniversary party (the looks on their faces were priceless and forever engraved in my memory bank). My mom and sisters were able to come for a visit after Sadie was born. Oh, and it gets better, My mom came back a month later with my dad and in-laws for Brian's deacon ordination. What a great blessing. My parents will probably never forget the look on my face when I found out they were coming for the ordination (I already knew Brian's parents were coming). Brian's ordination service was so sweet and humbling.

God has changed my direction of service to Him this year. I will not be working with the middle schoolers any more (some of you would consider that a blessing in itself, not me that is where I love to be). God has given Brian and I a desire to see couples LOVE being married. We will be co-teaching (more Brian, than me) a class about marriage. God has given me great peace after a huge struggle with where I should be serving Him. It is difficult for me to step out of the youth because I am very comfortable there. God doesn't call us to be comfortable, He calls us to be obedient. It feels good to be in His will.



We are always thankful for our family, and friends and great church family (they have become our family here). We are also thankful for our health and provisions that God makes for us everyday (as some of you know, it cost a lot of money to live in this area and God has provided the entire two years we have been here).



We have a new facility at church that will allow so many more opportunities to reach out to our community and share Jesus with them. It is an exciting year for our church. We are so glad we are a tiny part of it.



THURSDAY
We were suppose to have dinner with our friends from church (our life group leader and Brian's accountability partner). They were so sweet to invite us over but we have had a cold traveling through the whole family so we decided not to go and share it with their family of 20 or so. We ended up eating here with a menu of Ham (yum,yum my favorite), mashed potatoes (Mili's favorite), and green beans. Let us not forget the pumpkin pie. We had a nice day together as a family. Our prayer time at the table was very emotional and it felt great to have that time with God.



FRIDAY
My day started at 3:30 am when the alarm went off for me to go out with the other stupid people to try and get a good deal. I ended up not being able to get either thing I went for so I just did some other Christmas shopping, not expecting to finish all my shopping but I did. During all the hustle and bustle I managed to pick up two pairs of cute pj's for me (since I stay in them all day anyway, got to look cute in the process). I did all my shopping and was back at home by 8:00 am not to miss any quality time with my family.



We also put up the Christmas Tree. Mili did a great job as you will be able to see in the pictures that follow. You can look at the last picture and see that I am all finished with our Christmas shopping. Feels SOOOO good to be done with all that (and I did get some great deals too).


Enjoy! We did!




After Daddy puts up the tree and the lights he is done, the rest is Mommy and Mili's job. He did get out his train set but then decided to put it away after finding out it is a little too big for this apartment and there would be no room for presents. Mili enjoyed the train set for a while anyway. She also played with the Christmas tea set I found in all of my Christmas stuff. Since then she has broken the tea pot and Brian has super glued it back together (almost gluing his fingers).


Sadie during most of the Christmas Tree process. Not bothered by anything happening around her.



Mili is very precise in putting the balls where they go.

Still deciding on the "right" place to put it.

Our wonderful tree after Mili placed all the balls. How do you like our bare top Christmas Tree?

My favorite Christmas ornament. For those of you that don't know, before I had children I was an interpreter for the deaf and one of my bestest friends (Marsha) gave me this for Christmas one year. I love it so much and I think of her every time I get it out at Christmas time.

PS. One of my phone friends (never met her) also sent me the same Christmas ball one year for Christmas. Barbara, I also hang your ball on the tree each year so I have two of them (I don't think I could have too many of them).

The REAL reason to be thankful!!! This picture is really worth 1,000 words or one (LOVE).

Mili has taken a liken to the nativity scene again this year. She loves playing with it and I love letting her. If it gets broken we will just get another one. I can't help but let her have full reign over it. She is so cute talking to Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus and don't think she doesn't tell the Shepherds and Wise Men where to stand and the animals always have the best seats in the house (or stable).

Oh, and don't forget a little snowman in the action. This has some ice skaters that dance around on it. Mili likes it as well.

Still sleeping!

Mili decided that her stocking would be nice to wear and Sadie's would be nice as a mitten since it won't fit on her big foot.

Then she thought she would have a matching pair if she used Mommy and Daddy's stockings as socks. She is admiring them in this picture. She is proud of herself for getting them both on.

Finished product. Not bad for one days work. I decided I would torture Mili with the presents under the tree. She asks everyday if she can open them several times a day. We will be having Christmas early in our house since we will be going home to Arkansas for two weeks during the Christmas season. I want Mili to be able to have some time to play with her new toys before we sweep her away to the grandparents houses.

By the way, I have never, ever, ever had the Christmas Tree up and presents wrapped and under it on the day after Thanksgiving but it sure does feel nice (looks nice too).

We love you all and trust that you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!!!

Throwing Hugs and Kisses your way!!!