Grabbing, Rolling, Swimming and Smiling like crazy!

Nevs is coming up on 5 months! Wow, where has the time gone? What's new in the world of this little ball of energy and joy? Well let me tell you!

Nevs grabs for anything that she can. If you are holding her drinking some lemonade, wine, water, juice, soda...she wants it! And not only would she like to hold it, she would like to drink it.

Nevs grabs for your face! She has discovered how fascinating faces are. She likes to poke your eyes, nose and mouth. It's quite fun!

She is a rolling machine. You can't keep her on her back for more than a few minutes before she's rolling over to see the world from her tummy. She mostly likes to roll from back to front, but if she's in a super rolly mood she will roll over from back to front and front to back.

Nevs LOVES to swim!! She loves the water and likes to splash in it. We just bought her a baby raft with a cover and she could just sit in that thing all day long. She kicks her feet and moves her arms, there's no doubt she will be a little mermaid. (I have always loved swimming so this is no surprise!)

Last but not least, the girl loves to smile. Which is the greatest thing thus far! Every time I go in and get her from her naps or night time sleep she has the biggest grin. She loves to see herself in the mirror, she smiles for herself quite well! She loves faces, so if you put your face near hers, most likely she will smile.

James 4:14 that says, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

I’m sure as the years unfold I will have many opportunities to teach my children about choices. But for now, I’ll take a lesson from myself.

Choices seem like a word you teach toddlers. “Nevaeh you have a choice, you can have oatmeal or cereal and those are your choices for today’s breakfast.” “Nevaeh you have a choice, you can obey Mommy and share your toys or we can go home and you can play alone.” I can just hear it nowJ But these aren’t the kind of choices I’m thinking of this morning. This morning I’m thinking of eternal choices. That is, choices that have an eternal value.

Through my experience as a women and being in many Bible studies with women young and old I have learned one thing; many struggle with time and choosing what to do with it. I ‘ve been in this boat many a times, but God continues to show me how faithful He is when I am faithful with putting Him first with my time.

Life is busy. Throw in a job, a family, soccer practice, dance lessons and a social life. You’re booked! But I’m reminded of James 4:14 that says, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” If life truly is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes then possibly it’s time to re-prioritizing.

The choices we make now do indeed matter. Opening up your Bible each and every morning to feast on the words of God matter. Getting on our knees to beg God for justice, wisdom, and strength to live in this world matters. When we close our Bibles for weeks on end, and tell God that we will be with Him shortly, right after we are done with our list of things we need to get done, we drift. And when we drift we start stuffing the place where only He fits with other stuff that falls short and leaves us unsatisfied. And then we wonder how and why we are in the place we are in. Choices, they are incredibly powerful.

May God grant you and I the grace we need to turn from our busy lives and toward Him. May He give us the strength and courage to say to LIFE “we will be with you shortly, right after we spend time with the GOD of the universe” and may He give us the conviction not to reverse that order.

Blessings and love,

exposed darkness

Before words come out of my mouth, they start as thoughts. Unfortunately sometimes I don’t think about my thoughts before I blurt them out and then I wish I had thought about my thought before I spoke. Are you following me? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I say. Often times it’s after the fact, but regardless I have been thinking. This thinking has led to a realization of how often I belittle people, things, events, etc. It’s very nonchalant, never super intentional, often carefree and about something that doesn’t really matter. So why do it?

When I get real honest with myself I have to admit something. These small offhand comments show a glimpse into my heart. Ugh. These comments represent a part of my soul that I’d really rather not deal with, I surely wouldn’t want anyone to see and I hope will just change into something lovely on it’s own.

Let’s get real, that isn’t going to happen. (Un)Fortunately things don’t usually change into something lovely on their own. If you plant a flower you need to water and nurture it into bloom. If you buy a puppy you need to train and exercise it into an obedient dog. If you make a friend you need to call and hang out for it to develop into a friendship. Without effort and work on these things, you would simply have a withered colorless weed, an obnoxious four-legged shadow, and a non-existent friendship. So that is why I’m willing to admit this. I don’t want that type of life. I admit I have a dirty soul, I desperately need Jesus and I’m 100% confident He will indeed change me.

I love this verse in Philippians 4:8. It says “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Isn’t that just beautiful? These are the things I am to think about.

This doesn’t mean that I will not have thoughts that are not honoring to God, or that I will not have thoughts of things that annoy, irritate and irk me. No definitely not. I will still think of those things. But as a follower of Jesus I will do this: take my thoughts, compare them to this verse (phil4:8) and then if they don’t compare I will throw them away, seal my lips and move forward.

His light exposes my darkness and it’s a beautiful thing.

Blessings!

Being Nev's Momma

My first Mother's Day as a Mommy was

FAB-U-LOUS

(adj); extraordinary, esp. extraordinarily large

About 3 years ago Peter and I started watching

LOST.

Along with half the country we quickly became

addicted.

We would watch it online after it aired, and because we started late

we could watch as many episodes in a row as we wanted. One sad day

ABC.com stopped putting the episodes online.

Long story short

we stopped watching it...until

we got netflix! yee haw.

So on Mother's day morning we finished the show and finally

caught up with the rest of the world on the

disappointing end:(

But that didn't effect the flow of the wonderful day!

Hubs quickly jumped

up and made us some yummy yummy breakfast as sweet Nevs napped.

After that we went on over to

Nana's house

and enjoyed fellowship with Peter's sweet family.

The

GIFT of MOTHERHOOD

is absolutely everything I hoped for and much much more.

Being

Nevaeh Grace's mom means so much to me

i can't put it into words.

Hope y'all had a

FABULOUS

mother's day as well:)

The blessing of Grandparents

I love quotes. I could read quotes all day long! I just google a topic and add "+ quotes" and it never fails to deliver me page upon page of quotes about that subject. I decided to google Grandparent + quotes and found a plethora of fabulous quotes. Here are some of my favorite.

To a small child, the perfect granddad is unafraid of big dogs and fierce storms but absolutely terrified of the word "boo." ~Robert Brault

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~Alex Haley

A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother's heart. ~Author Unknown

Four generations of beautiful people:)

Sweet Nana & Nevs
I love this picture of Papa and Nevaeh (in the early days!)