Merry Christmas, Part II

:)

Merry Christmas!

Here's a pic from last weekend's Christmas party.  We hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.  We have all three been sick the past week.  Titus is doing the best of all, he just has a bad cough, but seems to feel OK.  He is having to do breathing treatments--which he hated at first, but it's getting easier.  I've been letting him watch Peanuts Christmas while he does them and that helps a lot! 

And some laundry pics for you too!  

Also, David put up our Christmas lights before we all got sick--they are so fun! He did a great job. We had a tiny bit of sleet too this past week, so it is feeling like Christmas here.

Peace on Earth

Anybody else see this last night? Pretty cool. We bundled Titus up and took him out for a picture.  OK--so the picture isn't that great, but you get the idea.  :)  Here he is putting the first piece on our Advent Calendar!  The Apple--Genesis 3:15.  The Apple reminds us of the sin of Adam and Eve and begins the long wait for the Redeemer God promised.  "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heal."Titus had his 4 month birthday and weighed in today at 16 pounds, 11 ounces.  :)  He is doing great.  Last night, he did so well in church.  He slept through most of the service and woke up just in time to get really upset at what Jackson was saying.  The text was Matt. 10:34-39 and he started screaming when Jackson said we must love Jesus more than our son or daughter.  (Listen here.) Pretty funny--and a good memory to tell him about and to use to teach him that Jesus should be our chief Treasure!  It was also a great first Sunday of Advent sermon with the verse, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."  Something to think about this season as there is lots of talk about "peace on earth". Jesus is our true peace!

Happy Thanksgiving, Part II

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving. It was a good time. Titus did great in the car. We felt like a real family with the car loaded down: playpen, stroller, dog and his kennel, ice chest full of food, plenty of diapers and changes of clothes... Mr. T did great too. We saw lots of family, played some games and watched some football. Of course, we ate lots of turkey too--Dad fried one this year that was wonderful!
Here's a picture of Mr. T for those of you who miss seeing his pictures here. He did "escape" my parents' house a couple of times. Grandpa and Dad rescued him and carried him back to the house on Grandma and Grandpa's Mule. It was pretty exciting. I love this picture of Titus hugging Grandpa!

Here's Titus with Meemaw in his candy cane PJ's that Aunt Alma gave him.  *Please note, they are "candy cane" pajamas, not Santa pajamas.  :)
And here he is sound asleep! Too much turkey?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We hope you have a great time with your family and friends. We have so much to be thankful to the Lord for!!! Here are some pictures!
Here's Titus in his latest outfit! Thanks Rhonda!
Here's his newest stuffed animal--here he is playing with the Elephant.

A Christ-Centered Christmas

What are your Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions? How do you make sure they are Christ-centered?

I have been really enjoying this book--you can read it here online "for free"! I love the practical suggestions for the special days and everyday occasions that shape our families.  

It is a great read as we look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

One way we celebrate Christmas is with the Advent calendar my mom-in-law made for us.  It has a large felt tree with different velcro ornaments for each day.  

Example:  Day 1: Apple; Read Genesis 2:15-3:15.  "The Apple reminds us of the sin of Adam and Eve and begins the long wait for the Redeemer whom God promised."  

Noel Piper has a format for one too in the appendix of the above book.  You could use it to make your own--as simple as you like: with paper, stickers, kids' drawings, etc... or fancier with fabrics and velcro.  Let me know what your family does!

Along those lines, I read a great post on Shepherd Press Blog about gift giving.  Check it out here.  A couple of highlights:

"Giving to honor God is not necessarily the same as giving to make your child happy. In fact, the two goals may be in opposition to each other! The ultimate example of giving to glorify God is Jesus Christ."

"Following Christ in giving also means that your gifts must be holy. Your gifts must not be stained by the love of the world. If you choose gifts that based primarily on what the world thinks is cool, the gift is not a holy gift. If your gift is an attempt to make the recipient beholden to you, it is not a holy gift. "

"Some gifts given at Christmas would be better repackaged and given throughout the year. The overtime it took to earn the money to buy the really special gift might have been better invested in being home and spending time with your child. No one knows more about giving that pleases God than his Son. This year, truly seek Christ as your example for the giving of gifts."

I Rolled Over!!!!

Woohoo!  

Happy Election Day!

Just a reminder to vote and mostly to pray for our country and its leaders. Here are a couple of verses to think about today.
The man who fears the Lord, "He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord." Psalm 112:7
"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord ; he turns it wherever he will." Proverbs 21:1

Let's remember to thank God today for His Sovereignty over all events!

Tagged

So, Loriand Alison tagged me, and now I will try to come up with six random things about myself for you....
1. I've been tagged before and never got around to doing this--sorry!
2. I really like this show. If you have ever seen it, please comment. My favorite character may have been Hector--I use past tense because sadly this show is no longer on PBS.
3.hmmmm... This is harder than I thought. OK--I love Christmas. I plan almost all year long. I have finished about half of my shopping already, but if things go as they normally do--I will wait til the last minute on some of it. Besides, it is fun to get out in December and do some shopping. I try to go out the day after Thanksgiving--just so I can say I did, but I refuse to fight for any items. I also decided last year to avoid Toys R Us during this time. Sorry Titus!
4. I worked with my dad some during the summers growing up. He's a builder and I learned a lot--for example--how to dig a ditch for pipes.... and also that I never wanted to build my own house. I know you get to pick your own bathroom faucets, and tile, and paint, and appliances, and.... But you get the picture. I actually prayed that the Lord would give us a house that we liked that was already built--and He did! I am so thankful for it--and that we got to avoid the stress of building!
5. Out of time for now--I'll finish later... maybe.
I'm back... I love to bake and I especially love this time of year and baking with pumpkin.  Last week I baked a pumpkin for the first time.  It turned out great and I used it for a pie for the neighbors. (They took care of T for us during the retreat, so I figured a pie would be good payment.)  Try the pie recipe, learn how to cook a pie pumpkin and roast its seeds here. Roasted pumpkin seeds taste like popcorn to me. It does take time but it's really not that bad. I did it in stages throughout the day while Titus was playing or napping. I got the pumpkin at the pumpkin patch--here's another picture from that trip. Also I thought I would add the tractor picture just for fun--it's also from the pumpkin patch!
6. I don't believe that any of you are still reading....

I tag TITUS and MISTER T.
6 Random things from TITUS!
1. I love Mr. T. Here is evidence:2. I am a big boy. I had my 3 month birthday. This above is a picture of what I did for my birthday.
3. Can you believe I had to get a bath after that???
4. I don't like to get my hair washed.
5. I made it through Sunday morning worship Sunday! OK--so Mom was keeping the nursery with Rhonda and I stayed in there with her. But no crying.... So some of the other kids were crying, but I just slept and entertained everyone. Did I say that I am a big boy???
6. I can ALMOST roll over.

6 Random Things from MISTER T:
1. I love Titus.
2. I love Word of the Day and Camp corn dogs.
3. I have now changed my lifestyle and make healthier food choices. I now eat only Eukanuba and whatever is on the kitchen floor.
4.. I love rescue vehicles and howl at them every chance I get. If they need me, I am ready!
5.. I am 6 years and 3 months old.
6. I love the neighbors Louis and Fay. I ignore the dog, Israel, on the other side of our home.

Titus Says Don't Forget To Vote

Just a reminder from Titus to go vote Tuesday! :)

Titus' First Trip

This weekend was the Dayspring Retreat. The weather was wonderful and we had a great time.  Titus also did well in the car. Getting there took a little longer due to a lot of traffic and 40 miles of cones that were set out for a bike race. But we got there, and coming home was much faster--the cones were still out, but less traffic. He slept the whole way back. Of course, here are some pics!


I was excited for some cool weather so he could wear this jacket!

Here he is with Daddy, tired after all the fun he had all day!
It was a fun time. There was lots of singing, hanging out outside (in spite of a ton of mosquitoes), good food (Buzzy's BBQ and pumpkin pie) and David and I got to keep the "nursery" during the Sunday morning worship service. It was a lot of fun having Titus there. We are excited about next year--he will be walking and we will be chasing after him! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Well Titus has decided he isn't going to bed tonight, so I decided to do another one-handed post. I'm actually getting pretty good at typing with one hand now--hence the large amount of posts I have been doing lately.:) Normally he does very well going to bed at night, so I'm not sure what's going on with him tonight. I think he wanted to watch the end of the football game.
We had a great weekend and took Titus out to a pumpkin patch. It was really fun! I also tried a pumpkin recipe from Kari's blog. Then we plopped down in front of the computer and watched some of the conference. It was great.


Well, I think we will try to go to bed again. :)

The Purpose Driven Death

If you are interested in watching via the internet, here is the info. on this conference.
The Purpose-Driven Death Mission Conference is almost here! If you are not able to attend, you can still watch the conference live over the Internet. Simply go to: http://www.hpbctv.org/. Once there, you can watch the conference from that webpage or you can view it in your own program, such as Windows Media Player. If you have trouble, follow the links for Troubleshooting or FAQ Information.

We encourage you to connect early and make sure the stream is working for you. This is especially true for the Sunday morning worship service with Dr. Piper. If the stream locks up or drops for more than a few moments, please try to re-connect.

For your convenience, here is the schedule for the conference sessions:

SATURDAY
6:00 – 6:30 pm Welcome and Worship
6:30 – 7:30 pm Session 1: Not Too Young to Die; Brett Harris
8:00 – 9:00 pm Session 2: Hitting the Bull’s-eye in Missions; Gregg Harris and Rod Conner
SUNDAY
9:00 – 10:15 am Session 3: Dead is Better; David Sitton
10:30 – 12:00 am Session 4: Worship Service -- Dr. John Piper, Preaching
Filling Up What Is Lacking In The Afflictions of Christ

Shopping Update

We made it through shopping yesterday with no major events. There was a small breakdown in the checkout line at heb. But we got through it. :) Here are some fun pictures. The weather is wonderful here! I couldn't resist getting out this little hoodie and taking a walk.


A friend gave us this swing a while back. So, a couple of days ago we got it out and David set it up. Do you think he likes it?

Scattered, smothered, covered.....

I bet you can guess from the title where Titus went for the first time on Sunday night after Church. The last time I ate there was Christmas morning with David's family. (That is also a big clue if you haven't guessed it yet!)
This morning Titus and I headed out to do some shopping... Hobby Lobby, Target and then HEB. The outing was cut short after about 5 minutes at Hobby Lobby. Titus spits up...everywhere... spit up is actually a huge understatement. He was in the sling--so it is all over the sling, my shirt, my jeans... and a little bit on him. Also on the floor in the store. So, I am laughing, and just leave the cart to go to the car and get us cleaned up. A cashier gives me the last of her paper towels, but they don't really help much. So, I change Titus, change my shirt and put him in his stroller. We ran back in for a couple of minutes and then just decided to call it a day. We are back home now, doing the laundry, except our water is off for some reason. hmmmm... Titus seems to be feeling well--I don't think the little guy is sick, maybe he just wasn't up to a day of shopping. :) We'll try again tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!
Here's a picture to keep you reading. :) I got out Titus's Christmas PJs, and since he is almost too big for them, I figured I better take a picture.

What's New With Titus

Well, here are even more pictures of Titus. We got to spend the day with Whitney and her niece Ava on Tuesday--it was a good time! Ava is just a few days older than Titus, so they enjoyed playing together. Really Titus was more interested in the ceiling fan than in making friends, but that's OK. Here we are trying to get all 4 of us in a picture and then on a walk. Titus saw a butterfly and a really big dog!

Titus is growing each day and getting more and more interested in his surroundings. In a recent post, I mentioned how he does NOT enjoy shopping... Well, Home Depot doesn't count. He spent about an hour and a half with his Daddy in there last Saturday. He was a happy baby! Here he is in his new "I Love Daddy" PJs with Little Lamb.
Here he is on a walk!

Weighing In....

Titus weighed in at 13 pounds 8 ounces on Monday. He is 24 inches tall. :)

Titus in His Bumbo Seat

So Titus likes his bumbo seat! He looks like he is just "chlilin' like a young adult" in his version of a recliner. We took these pictures for Kristy's mom for her birthday. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall to all of you! We are enjoying the cooler weather! Saturday, Whitney came for a visit and we watched the Aggies play. Titus is sporting his newest t-shirt, but that didn't seem to help the outcome of the game. We also enjoyed some of David's famous Ranger Dogs. :)Titus--upset about the game!

Sunday was Dayspring's 30th Anniversary. Check out Jackson's sermon from 2 Corinthians 4 here.  You will love to hear the stories about the church, it's theology, it's missionaries, evangelism, etc.--The Lord used so many people in so many ways over the past 30 years.  All glory to Him!  Jackson included fun stories about many people you will know--Camp folks, seminary folks, missions folks--So check it out!!!  Here we are on our way to Church.

To celebrate the anniversary, we spent the evening out at Ben and Lynnda's.  During the BBQ, Titus wore his A&M shirt again.  I know, it looks too big on him, but Daddy says it is NOT too big.  :)  Titus had a great time in spite of some criticism he received about his new favorite shirt.  Someone even turned it inside out when I wasn't looking!!!  

No Dayspring fellowship is complete without some hymn singing.  Here's Titus and his version of making a joyful noise!

Here's Jackson and Richard singing a fun song for us!

Me and Titus in our new sling--he loves it!  And I love that I can use both hands again!  And here's the pumpkin Titus and I decorated.

And here's Titus this morning.  He is so happy about Fall!