The real deal

Sadie started eating food about three months ago. She does really well and loves to eat. However, in the last week or so she has been wanting to eat what we are eating. I have always been willing to try my kids out early with food. They always seem to be eating table food by 8 or 9 months. well, it isn't any different with my baby girl. She was ready and now she eat all kinds of stuff. She has eaten broccoli, yogurt, toast, cheese, lunch meat, pretzels and crackers (just to name a few). Today she stole a chicken nugget off one of the plates and has been going to town. She looks so cute eating eat. Her are a couple of pictures.

P.S. my camera stinks. Sorry for the bad pictures

Noah's surgery

Monday marked the first day of many procedures to come for our little guy. The doctors think he may have something called Gardner's Syndrome. The long and short of it is that all GS patients have colon cancer pretty early in life. Some of the other things that come along with this are Bone tumors called Osteomas. I am not sure what affect if any those have on the body. Most boys with GS begin to develop polyps on their colon by time they hit puberty, but they can develop as early as 8 months of age. They can also develop polyps on their esophagus and small intestines. 100% of the polyps in GS patients do turn cancerous. He has to under go a colonoscopy and endoscopy quite often. They will remove polyps for as long as they can until they have to remove the colon. Every patient with GS does have their colon removed at some point, this is to stop the cancer from developing and spreading to other areas of the body.

That being said. That is the doctors word, but praise the Lord we have the word of God to stand on. We will proclaim Noah's healing and trust that God is in control.

Noah had his first colonoscopy and endoscopy on Monday and he was clean. No polyps. The doctors plan to check him every two years to try and keep a watch and catch signs early enough. They did find an ulcer in his small intestines which has nothing to do with GS, but they were concerned about him having that so they biopsied everything. We will have results on Thursday. They said the ulcer could be a result of an infection or something which is easy to treat.

I am thankful for Noah having clean test results and pray that it continues. I know God is bigger than any diagnosis a doctor can give. Please pray for him and if you think of him.

He was so brave on Monday. We took some sweet pictures of him. Here they are.

Dos and Don'ts of parenting

Here is the real scoop. For all you tired moms and dads. For all those who wish they would have sent you home with a manual from the hospital :):). I found it. Thanks to my friend Amanda. My questions have all been answered. I may now rest easy and know it will all be OK!! Just click on the link below. Trust me!

Dos and Don'ts 

Have fun and let me know what you think:):)

Struggling with you prayer life????

I have read two great post on prayer this week that were very encouraging to me. So, if anyone else needs some encouragement in that particular area of your life than read these. The first one was on Ungrind an on-line magazine that I read all the time. the article was called "Growing in the Practice of Prayer". The second post I read was on my mother-in-law Janet's blog "I Trust You" it is called "What if" It talks about prayer and also has a link to a radio broadcast that Joyce Meyers did on prayer. Very uplifting. So go read these and then go talk with the Lord I know he wants to hear from you. It's his favorite time of day ;-)

A bride

I saw this verse on a web-zine called CWO (Christian Women Online). I love this verse so I just thought I would post it.

It's over

Our 3 days of winter are over ;-). You see, here in Va. We don't get normal seasons. We get crazy. In fact the week before Christmas we could have worn shorts. It was in the high 60's to low 70's. I love that weather. Last week though we had our few days of winter for the year. It dropped to a whopping 19 at night for a few nights in a row BRRRR!!!!. I do not like that weather. I can't complain though. It doesn't last long and rarely brings snow. This week it is back to high 60's and today is made it to the mid 70's YAY!! Later on in the week it will be it the high 50's which is what it has been an average of this winter. Not to shabby. If I could I would move somewhere it was 65-70 degrees year round. That to me is perfect!

Not happening

I am having the hardest time sticking to Weight Watchers right now. I have no idea why. I had been doing so good. It seems so hard right now. Everyday starts off fine and then by then end of the day I have eaten everything in sight. AHHH!!!

Goals in 2008

I was reading an article on ungrind called "Baby Steps Towards Big Goals" you can read it here. I was very inspired to set goals this year. I usually say to myself that I want to accomplish this or that, but I dare not write it down. I have a fear of failing. After reading that article I was very encouraged to set goals and take baby steps to accomplishing them. Maybe not every one of them will be finished by the end of the year, but it gives me an idea of what I would like to do and I can work on it from there. Arlene Pellicane ,the author of the article I mentioned above, gave a great way to set goals and remain in balance. I took her advice and decided to start with her outline and set goals within that. So here goes!

Spiritual: 1. To build a trust and friendship with each youth in our Youth Group.

2. To read more of my bible

3. To expand the time I spend in prayer or communication with God every day

4. To worship with my husband

Family: 1. To read "Shepherding a Child's heart"

2. To start family devotions time at least once a week

3. To get Noah potty trained

4. To get Dawson potty trained

5. To get Sadie drinking from a sippie cup

Business: 1. Start working at the church part time to assist the Pastor and still find a balance to be at home with my babies

Financial: 1. To save by planning ahead

a. monthly meal plan

b. Sticking to my grocery list

2. Be more thrifty with my spending when it comes to the kids clothes and things that they need.

I don't buy expensive things for them anyway, but I want to learn to bargain shop and pray for good deals. I usually just buy what they need without shopping around b/c it saves time and energy that I usually don't have. I do believe that God can help and does care about these little things so I trust he will direct my steps.

Personal: 1. To loose 50 pounds ( I just lost 23 over the last few months but I need to loose 50 more to be at a good weight)

2. To develop my friendships with the women in our church. This is something I fear because of how bad things were in my old church of 18 years. I have a hard time trusting women, but God has placed me in an amazing church with some of the most wonderful, down to earth, real women of God. I am very excited about this one!!

3. To be more understanding and patient with my husband

4. To work on patience in general.

It seems to me that this is a big list, but I know God can help me, and I plan on taking baby steps towards these goals. I can't wait to see my progress next year!!

Holiday home tour is not over yet!

I didn't have a chance to participate in sharing our little bit of Christmas with everyone. So here it is. Better late then never!!!!!!

This was the first year the kids really got into Christmas so I pulled out the little table top tree which is just small enough that they can reach all the branches when it is on the floor. They were so excited. We let them decorate it all by themselves. I was so proud at how they worked together and I had a lot of fun watching them be so happy!

I don't get to into decorating for Christmas it has never been my thing. However, since my kids like it so much I will do it as long as they want to.

Daddy's little girl!

Christmas Pictures

David and I have decided that we need a new camera after all of our Christmas shots turned out blurry and bad colored. Our camera is very old and I think we just need an update in that department. I am not a photographer or anything but I do know when a picture looks bad.  We think it's a good investment since we plan to keep our pictures forever:).  Does anybody have a camera that they would recommend??? We are looking for one that isn't too expensive, but takes pretty good quality photos. I am not very good at using a camera so if someone has one that is pretty easy to navigate then please do recommend it!
Well, here are the pictures anyway. I wanted to at least post some.

Help me please!

One of the gifts I received for Christmas is some money to start buying all the sewing supplies I need to get started with using my new sewing machine. I have been looking online and researching but have no clue what any of this stuff is. Does anybody have any hints as to what would be the best stuff to get me started?????? A couple people I have ran into in the stores have told me a few things, but I didn't know what they were talking about. All I have is the sewing machine and the manual that goes with it. I have never turned it on and don't have any clue what I am doing :):) AHHHH!!! I need help bad!