Visiting

is always so much fun.

Back in March we went to visit Aunt Sally and Uncle Jack.  They live about 30 minutes away, and Aunt Sally has seen our munchkin a couple of times but Uncle Jack had yet to meet her.  We thought that it would be important to remedy that!

Just take a peek at how adorable they both our with our little joy!

I love that they are both smiling, well Zoe was smiling.  My camera takes pictures too slowly to really ever catch the good smiles. 

Just chilling with Uncle Jack.  

We always enjoy the time spent with Aunt Sally and Uncle Jack and it has nothing to do with Uncle Jack being the best cook ever. . .oh wait, that might not be true.  But actually this weekend Aaron and Aunt Sally did all the cooking.  We had a wonderful time looking at old photo albums with Aunt Sal.  My family came to visit while we were there which was awesome.  My dad and Uncle Jack are both outdoorsmen and can talk about hunting and fishing!  We would love to have our families spend even more time together in the future.  I unfortunately didn't take any pictures when my family got there. 

And the best part, DaDa played with Zoe while MaMa got to take a nap.  Aunt Sally and Uncle Jack were figuring out all the bells and whistles on her new car.  Ah 45 minutes of extra sleep plus daddy getting some much needed alone time with ZoZo = one happy mama.  

Then that night we went to see Robin, our sole youth group attendee, in her high school musical, Annie.  Zoe slept through the whole first act (AMAZING) then I fed her and daddy got to change that diaper. . . Oh it was gross, he got to change her because I had to go wash my hands immediately.  So gross. Then Zoe and I watched the first 20 minutes of Act 2 and when she started to fuss we went outside.  No big deal though we could still hear it!  They did a pretty good job! Go Robin!

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Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged.  It's been super crazy here lately but I'm so thankful I got some blogging in! YAY!

Happy Belated Birthday

To Robin!  From our youth group.  Actually, we celebrated her birthday over a month ago and we celebrated it early.  :) Aaron and I worked together with our church to throw her her first ever birthday party, and it was a surprise party!  I had convinced her the whole two weeks leading up to the party there was a church picnic she should REALLY come to.  We pulled in and she was excited to see all the people and completely missed the "Happy Birthday" banner until everyone shouted SURPRISE!  It was priceless!

 There was DQ Ice Cream cake.  What's a surprise party without ice cream cake, in July, when it melts before you can finish eating it.  But that's ok it was sooooo tasty!

 It was so windy that Robin blew out the candles and then we sang Happy Birthday.  She was laughing because this was about the 3rd time we lit the candles.  Silly wind.

 Then, of course, there were cards and presents. 

 Doesn't she have the sweetest smile???

 Give a 16 year old a sticker and she will put it on her face, and on many other faces as well. 

Showing off some gifts, including the one I made her that's in her hair. 

YAY FOR BIRTHDAYS!

YAY FOR ROBIN!!!

YAY FOR CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY!!!!!

Have you ever had a surprise birthday party?  Have you ever planned a surprise party??? I'd love to hear about some of your favorite surprise memories. 

Thankful Thursday

I forgot to actually post this yesterday!

1. Thankful that I remembered to post it today! :)
2. That I haven't really gotten sick too badly this year despite all of the sickness the little ones I watch have had.
3.  I get to visit some of my in-loves tonight!
4.  Two of our youth group kids are in a musical this weekend and we're going to go watch them! =)
5. There will be puppy snuggles tonight.
6. I have finished my handmade items to send to my friend Karen.
7. Prayer meeting was super awesome on Wednesday! :)
8. Carrington, (the one I've been asking prayer for) is up from 11 lbs to 13 and some change!  Praise God!  Please visit her blog for more updates.
9. That I had a lot of time to craft this week.
10.  That the creative juices are flowing!

How about you:
What are you thankful for this week?

Oh #11 My husband did the dishes from youth group and our apartment last night!  Great hubby!

Thankful Thursday

It's that time again!!! I'm so glad I started this feature on my blog. I love that this gives me a chance to reflect on my week and the things that I am thankful.

1. God's providence - this week, we had to make a decision by Wednesday, we were given our answer on Tuesday morning.  Praise God for His quick reply.  We had only started praying about a week ago.
2. The girls that I watch.  They are sooo adorable.  I love them very much.  In the car the other day the 2 year old sang to me, "Night, Night Manda, It's time to go home."  While we were going to pick up her sister.  Too silly!  When I put her to bed, I always sing "Good Night M, Good night M, Good Night M, it's time to go to sleep."  She decided to adapt it.  I love it! =D

3. These guys

They are our youth group kids.  We love them sooooo much!!! We weren't able to have youth group last week because of my tooth pain.  This week we are having it and I'm so excited.  We're having breakfast for dinner! Yum!  Chocolate chip pancakes for dinner.  Amazing =D

4.  My Church Family - I love these people soooooooo much.  Went to prayer meeting last night.  there are only about 20 of us that go.  It's such a sweet time of sharing and praying for one another's needs. I love Grandview Alliance Church.  I'm so thankful for what they are doing.

5. Seeing two of our youth group kids that haven't been at youth group in a few months at church on Sunday morning. Praying they come back tonight.  That'd be so amazing! :) Love them so much.

6. Seeing my friend Melanie on Tuesday and teaching her what I know about sewing.  She's going to be making a purse soon.  We cut out the pieces on Tuesday and she practiced just straight stitching on some scraps on Tuesday.  We'll practice some more probably next week.  She's going to teach me to play guitar in return.  Awesome! I've had a guitar for a year and half and still don't know how to play. I'm hoping that once I learn how to play I can lead some worship for our youth group.  Right now we don't have worship and that makes me a little sad. 

7. The blog Melanie showed me.  http://carringtonscourage.blogspot.com/ < Please visit this website. This little girl is so precious!!! I'm so thankful that there are people out there willing to adopt children and be the hands and feet of Christ as we should be.  I hope someday the Lord allows Aaron and I to adopt.  I've always wanted to adopt kids.  Perhaps that's because I'm adopted.  Not by my parent's but by a Loving, Holy Father through the work of His Son!

8. That my dad has been ok for so long even though he apparently fractured one of his vertebrae in a fall at work about 25 years ago.  He also has Spinal stenosis on two of his vertebrae.  He also has artheritus all along his spine.  I'm so thankful that he's been able to do so much for so many years.  I'd also appreciate prayer for him for his back but more importantly for his salvation.

If you'd like to participate in Thankful Thursdays please feel free to do so :).



Baptisms

Are awesome!!! I was so excited to get to go to a baptism a week ago at our church.  There were 3 people there who were baptized.  Now, just a few heads up.  In our church we believe in "Believer's baptism."  That means no baptizing babies, no forcing people to be baptized.  Baptism is a choice that those being baptized make.  People must first confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of their lives and meet with our Pastor before they are baptized.  Being Lord means that you have given your life over to Jesus.  He is now the driver, you are the passenger.  You are the tool He is going to use to bring His Word to the world.  Being Savior means that He has saved you.  What has He saved you from?  Well, He's saved you from your sins.  The Bible says in Romans 3:23, " for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  That means to miss the mark, it's an archery term. That means, we can't get to Heaven on our own, where God's Glory resides.  We also find in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." So the wages (your earnings) for sin, is DEATH.  This does not mean physical death but spiritual death.  In that death we deserve to go to Hell.  Thankfully, God doesn't give us what we deserve. It doesn't end there, the GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE in CHRIST JESUS.  God gives us a gift when He gives eternal life in Christ Jesus.  The three that were baptized at our church recently were publicly stating that they have received this free gift and that they have surrendered their lives to Christ.  


With that said, I want to also acknowledge that baptism does NOT save someone from their sins.  Romans 10:9 tells us how we will be saved.  "That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."   That's it.  No other way to heaven but through Jesus Christ, which He says also in John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 


I would also like to point out that baptism does have to occur AFTER accepting Jesus.  In Acts 8:26-40, Peter comes across an Ethiopian eunuch.  The Ethiopian is reading scriptures but can't understand it, so Peter starts with the passage the former is reading and presents the good news of Jesus Christ.  Then the Ethiopian says, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” Then they went down INTO the water.  In our video you'll notice that Robin is taken down into the water.  It is a picture of what happens when I person is saved (receives Christ).  Romans 6:4 says it best, "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." When we accept Jesus, we are a new Creation, a new creature, the old has passed away.  What an exciting change!!! 


I asked Robin, of our youth group, if I could post her baptism on my blog and she gave me permission.  So here is Robin's baptism.  I hope it is an encouragement to you.  The sound isn't great.  If you'd like to know what she says, I can post it in a later post.  

Miscellaneous ramblings

So, I realized, I don't normally blog if I don't have a picture to share.  I might have to stop doing that.  I have a lot of fun things I could talk about if I didn't feel like I needed to share a picture.  Although hopefully this summer I'll get out and get more pictures again.

Recently one of the things I did was quit facebook and become more active on Twitter.  I love Twitter because I can follow a lot of the Christian musicians I love to listen to and see what God is doing in their lives.  It's awesome.  There also are no photo albums for me to get immersed in with Twitter, another plus.  I don't feel like I have to go through alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the status posts either like I did with FB.  I do miss keeping up with some friends but that's why I started a weekly email list.  Also on Twitter, I started looking up people that make handmade products.  Oh man, this has been fun.  I love it because someday if I'm a stay at home mom, I might try to run a business from home so these ladies offer good insight on how to do so.  One in particular I love to follow is Gussy Sews.  I love the stuff on her blog and in her shop.  Through following her on FB I recently found  out about a contest/giveaway from Cupcake Mag : http://cupcakemag.blogspot.com/2011/02/cupcakemag-loves-gussy-plus-giveaway.html < oh my goodness. . . I'm so excited about this.  Yes I'm doing as much as I can to enter.  I don't normally splurge on buying things (tight budget right now) but I love Gussy's products, sooooooooooo I'm entering.  Too freaking cool :).  I love it.

I think that's it for now, as we have a progressive dinner tonight and I think I might go take a nap before since I got out of work early today which was AWESOME!!!

Back in December

Aaron and I, along with our good friends Carol and Carolyn Schuler, took these three youth group kids to the Toby Mac/Skillet Concert in Pittsburgh.

We made pasta salad that they could eat in the car for dinner. We also had snacks for on the way back.

Robin, James and Aaron

 KT

Skillet's Drummer

Yup, He was that close to us

Love TobyMac. . . I totally got a high five from him.  (Thanks Carol and Carolyn :))

Skillet wasn't really my style of music, too loud, screaming, almost hard rock. . . the kids really liked them though.  Toby Mac was much more my style because I could actually worship the Lord.  I LOVED IT!!! They even performed some DC Talk songs :) :) :).  (DC Talk was a group Toby was in that broke up a few years ago).  On the way back most of the kids fell asleep.  We had an overnighter at the church, we ate a few snacks started a movie and the kids fell asleep.  Sky and Andrew helped us out and we played a game with them and then also went to bed.  The next morning we had eggs, sausage and toast for breakfast.  :) 

That's it for Toby concert, stay tuned for more back posting in the future.

Did I ever mention

how much I love these kids???

The three in the picture above are always at youth group.  It's such an encouragement to have such faithful attendance!

The two girls in this photo come everyone once in a while, but they brought two friends this time.  :) 

Youth group didn't go as planned as a result, but God always makes good of our situations.  We ended up with 5 more people than we normally have (the four above and Brandon showed up).  We ordered some pizzas, played a fun game of Telephone Pictionary, and had a different Bible study than we had originally anticipated.  Although things turned out differently they turned out well. 

The three that were normally there, didn't participate as much but they were still engaged in the study, which was good.  Katie even answered a few questions. 

It was a good night.  Next Friday we're taking the kids sled riding, which should be fun :)