Estes!!

Just the big crew on this trip and we had fun!!

 Hiking and,

 Hiking and,

more hiking!

Three!

Oh Sweet Baby Girl, 

How can one little girl be such a bundle of WOW? I am so intrigued to see how God is going to use the gifts he gave you. You are so intense. You do everything hard. You run hard, you play hard, you cry hard and you love hard. It is amazing how contagious your joy is. You light up a room with your laughter often. Life with you keeps me full of both gratitude and desperation and I am seeing clearly how well those two things go together.  

 We've had several easy months where your obedience was quick and your countenance joyful. Right now you are in a season of testing the boundaries again and your Daddy and I are walking you through it. We know the discipline is for your good, but its hard. We are looking forward to seeing the Lord's fruit from it. I love how you make up songs and sing them in the car.

 You are a quick learner and Daddy is teaching you lots of Scripture and we just started working on the Heidelberg catechism. I am excited for you to have all these precious truths in your little mind and praying that the Lord will quickly move them to your heart. What an amazing gift you are to me Eliya Grace! 

One Year Old!

Well,  I meant to do this at a year, but time got away from me like it often does with these things and now you are already 14 months. Sweet Jadon this first year with you flew. Since I last wrote you are doing some seriously awesome stuff. You've got bunches of words and I love to hear you trying to put them together. Some of my favorites are "cracker" and "outside". Your most used words are probably "mama" and "water". 

 You are trying out your climbing legs. You love to climb up on mama's bed, but you often fall off. I just weaned you and now you just crawl up in my lap several times a day for a quick snuggle. You and your sissy are learning to get along. You sometimes bite and pinch her, but we are teaching you to be kind. She shares with you so well, most of the time :), the two of you spend hours playing outside. It's such a treat to watch you together. 

Your birthday was awesome. We dedicated you to the Lord in front of lots of friends and family. We prayed for you and committed to raising you in the fear of the Lord and so many people stood with us and committed to walking through this journey with us. You a truly blessed! Love you bud! 

Vision

So, I am a little late for a New Years Resolution, but I can't shake this. It's not even a resolution really, just a big ask. The Word says without vision the people will perish. Vision: a word from the Lord, especially concerning future events.  If we don't have this we perish. We have got to know where we are and where we are going. We must have purpose and direction or we perish. What does perish mean? Perish means to be without restraint. Restraint is a beautiful thing. To be without restraint is death. I have lived certain areas of my life without restraint and sometimes my soul fears restraint. The very thing it needs. We are mixed up. We think restraint takes something away from us. Indeed it is just the opposite. Freedom is not the ability to say yes to everything, but it is the ability to say no to ourselves. What gives us this beautiful gift? Vision. So I am asking the Lord for this. I am asking for vision for myself and some incredible women in my life and my church. Without vision the people perish...vision causes us to live! So I here I sit in full expectation for the Lord to give me vision for motherhood and for being a wife and for all the good works he has already prepared for me. Not a light coming form heaven vision, or a writing on the wall vision, although those would be great, but a quiet and confident heart vision, trusting Him to direct my steps vision. I am trusting that as I go to Him he alone is able to fill my heart with purpose and He will do so! 

Proverbs 29:18

9 months

Sweet Jadon,

What did we ever do before your smiles around here? 9 months tomorrow. 

You have gotten so big so fast! 

Crawling is by now an old hat. You are working on the walking thing. You love when someone holds your hands and walks you around the house. You can stand up on your own for a handful of seconds. And that smile.

You love to wave hi and bye-bye and you say dada and a form of Isaiah that I hope I never forget the sound of. You love to climb on your big sister and cover her with big slobbery kisses.

You love to snuggle down when we dance in the kitchen. If I would let you you would live on baked oatmeal and applesauce. Those are definitely your faves. Life is so much sweeter with you in it! 

Learning

 We are all in a season of learning and life is sweet around here these days. Isn't the Lord sweet to teach us?  Little Jadon just learned to crawl and he is already getting into everything. He is such a sweet little guy, easy going, with a ready smile. We are beyond thankful for this little guy. Eliya gently and sometimes not so gently, explains life to him in her sweet two year old little voice. Eliya is learning obedience and submission and manners. She always mixes up asking to be excused from the table and saying excuse me when she wants to talk. Johnny and I will be talking in the car and she pipes in "May I be excused". She is learning to sit still with her hands in her lap. (I think we are successfully up to 2 minutes) while we read our Bible story in the morning. I love this girl with a big fierce love. She is teaching me so much about what is important.She is in a season of learning so much and who has the Lord given the privilege of teaching her these things? This momma. SO I am learning to lay aside the things that are not as important in exchange for the great work that the Lord has given me of raising this little girl. Oh my fiesty little bundle of joy. She is so energetic and creative. She loves to dance and to sing. I think her favorite thing in the world is to play with water. So some days we just go with it. We grab towels and buckets and cups and just sit on the kitchen floor for a good long while and pour water. I digress...learning.

Isaiah...well this boy is learning HOW TO DRIVE!! How did we get here. How is it that I hear a man's voice when he calls me from the basement. How in the world is he 6 ft tall and strong enough to beat me in an arm wrestle. Yes he's learning how to drive. He's learning other important things to, like how to navigate relationships and how to prioritize time and Lord please teach his heart the most important thing. Please teach him to hear your voice. Help us not to get in the way, but to direct him to You in every circumstance. 

Me,  I am learning to give myself grace in figuring out this stay at home mom thing. By His sweet grace I am learning to rely on Him in the moment more than ever before and to let things go that are just not that important. It's like I know the secret and it takes practice. Practice to set my mind on Him. To train myself to think the right way at the right time. That is our work. To believe. That is what Jesus said when the people asked Him, "How do we work the works of God?"... We believe on the one whom He is sent and believing is a gift, but the Lord asks us to be diligent to put that gift to work. We must take our thoughts captive...we must set our affections on things above...we must consider Him. These things are worth our time and our effort. And even our effort we trust to come from Him. It's a mystery really...a stunning beautiful mystery...a mystery worth reveling in and pursuing with all of our hearts. and when we look at the right things what can come forth but worship. Oh the sweetness of Jesus. 

So a season of learning around here. Grateful for the most patient teacher! 

Doing 2 with Eliya Grace

OH sweet girl! You are so full of life. And this season it's a hard one. It is a season of training for you most definitely, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is also a season of training for me. You see you are fiercely independent. God has chosen to gift you with the desire to set things in order and make sure all is as it should be, but you are two. You are two and you are having to learn to submit. And I pray the Lord would cause your Daddy and I to be faithful and diligent to teach you this. Because I know that gift sweet girl. I know it and submission does not come easy to those like us, but it is sweet. To be under God's authority and if the Lord is willing your husbands authority is not grievous. It is a great and precious gift and with all my heart I want to teach you this now that you would quickly submit when the Father asks things of you.

And while I am teaching you the Lord is teaching me the same lesson even still. HE is speaking to me. He is teaching me again to willingly lay my life down. Our days right now are full of fits and fussing and you are pulling hard against Mommy and Daddy. The days seem long so that I am ready to lay down on my pillow at 3:00 in the afternoon. And you are not sleeping well and you are wanting your own way in everything. I mean everything. But I know, even when I don't remember, that this time is opportunity to give you the gift of submission. And only God can give you a heart for it and I pray even now that He would do this soon.

But I would be remiss if I did not record the sweet, sweet moments of joy. Motown dance parties in the kitchen, the way you love to comb my hair. The funny way you say poo poo, so that daddy makes you say it over and over. You are so smart sweet girl. You amaze me daily with the connections you figure out and the way you are able to retain information. You love to pick out your own clothes and as long as both items have pink in them you declare them a perfect match. You love to jump, you can jump far and high like your daddy. You love to give daddy big long snuggles or sneak in when daddy is hugging mommy and do a giant family hug. You love to read books. I have yet to read until you wanted to be finished. I'm not sure how long that would take. I love you sweet girl. With all my heart.