Everlasting

So today, church was awesome. Bummed T had to work but obviously God knew I needed this message. We were talking about the chapter Exodus and salvation. Our pastor said such a key life lesson: When we find ourselves in terrible circumstances, salvation doesn't mean God neccesarily pulls you out of that mess, but he jumps in and joins you there. So many of us forget we are "free." We might not feel as if when we are faced with these giants in our lives but God's word says we are and He is bigger than these giants.

We sang one of my all time favorite songs that literally moves me everytime I hear it. It is called Everlasting. I am inlcuding the lyrics because when life is down like it is for some many of those close to my heart, hearing God's words in the way of worship does wonders for me in reminding me who is in control.

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Chorus 2x
Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out Lord, my soul cries out

From Diapers to Dor*

***for those of you thinking I am over the edge and now inlcuding expletives in my blog, think again. I just don't want any search engine to pull up this when anyone is looking for anything to do with the popular little spanish speaking toddler character. And to my family who might not be able to figure out what the final letter is, email me and I will give you a quick lesson on toddler characters!

Well, Dor* has become a part of our family...of course not literally but in the panty sense. Dor* is now a fixture (along with Elm* occasionally) as our big 2 year old made the transition from diapers to Dor* very easily. Her older sister kinda set the bar HIGH and I almost expected the worst from having such an easy first experience. I mean how lucky does one mom get to get two easy potty trainees in a row (maybe it's a girl thing from what others have said???). Anyways, princess #2 is napping as we speak and announced right before bed that she was refusing her right to a pull up at nap time and insisted on her rights to Dor*. So it's a good thing I haven't washed her sheets yet but thinking the best as we have come off of two nights of dry pull ups....oh ya and waking mommy in the middle of the night and early in the morning because she had to potty (oh honey that's why you have a pull up on, I am not ready to start night wakings just yet :)).

I do have to be honest and tell you that this time around potty training completing intimidated me...maybe because of all we had going on these past few months or that we were only two weeks away from traveling. Or that honestly I realized I enjoy the results of something more than the process or journey, oh that's hard to admit! Praying for that one. So I took the other way out for the first few days of her wearing pull ups if I was in a hurry to take princess #1 to school or pick her up, or run errands, or whenever I was just plain scared. So I think it sent mixed messages but last Thurs. morning I put her in her panties and said here ya go kid, it's no turning back even while we went to dr's appts and errands it finally clicked. She must be like her mommy, an all or nothing kinda girl! Oh and we did get to frequent quite a few potties that I hadn't visited yet before in the area...kinda like wonders of the world for potty trainers.

And so this pretty much labels me as a total mommy or lame, whichever you choose when I can write an entire post on potty training. Wow...who knew??

Armed & Ready

Enough Said! We will see how it goes???

Saying Goodbye To Our "First"

Well, it happened! Yes finally. I neglected to mention to anyone in case something changed at the last minute which we had gotten very accustomed to on this journey. We weren't going to believe it until we were actually sitting at the title company signing papers. It was a great feeling after, especially with how slow things had gotten with selling houses and already being in our new home for almost 4 months but we had faith (and a great realtor) and it was a great feeling walking out of there.


We had been able to go back and forth now, checking on the house, grabbing things we had left, and cleaning so I don't think it actually hit me until yesterday morning as I was checking the house one last time...as I walked around each room the reality set in. I got to B's room and that's when it happened...a flood of memories all poured in all at once and the tears fell. Here are a few that came to mind:

*Moving in to our very first house we bought as a family and bringing our precious 16mos. old there to show her her new house.

*Watching K take her first steps in that house right after we moved in.

*Having our first Christmas in a place other than AZ with our very own Christmas tree.

*Oh the numerous fun themed birthday parties that were hosted there from ages 2 on up for K and the first 2 for B. It was a good backyard for that sort of thing.

*Having our family and friends come to visit us in our new home...good times!

*Biting my lip as I watched T teach K how to ride her first bike without training wheels and praying for no broken bones the first time around!

*Working as a family to put B's room together, green with stripes on the bottom and creating that room just for her...our first room we planned and worked on together!

*Watching T make many pancake breakfasts for the girls on the weekends.

*Bringing B home from the hospital and watching her grow.

*Sending K off to preschool for the first time from that house and welcoming her home with the infamous garage signs (yes I will be doing that until she goes off to college :).

*And then the day we decided to put it up on the market and potentially say goodbye to our "first" and welcome in the "second".

As I took off the keys from the key ring yesterday it became bittersweet. So excited and relieved that this journey was coming to an end but sad that we couldn't run over there and get a glimpse of the place we first fell in love with in our new town and filled to the brim each day we were there. The good thing is all the special times and memories can come with us along with the chance to make so many new memories in our new place we call home!


We pray that the house brings as much joy and as many memories to the new family who is moving in as it brought to us. There's nothing like the first home and the memories that come with it but we are excited to start this adventure and start enjoying our new home with lots of room that will be filled pretty quickly.

A New Beginning For More Than Just The Year!

Happy 2009! It's a new year and a new set of beginnings, for more ways than one. This past year has been full of new beginnings but in the new year we are excited to see the blessings of all of them! We spent our New Years Eve with a very exciting event...no, no party, but something better...getting to see our sweet little busy blessing of 20 weeks growing away. It was the most amazing US we have had up to this point. The tech was great and pointed out more, shared more and spent more time than ever before. Everything looks great, see pics below and still on track for mid May. And one of the better parts was sharing it with my mom! What a celebration, a new life and new beginnings! My mom did everything in her power and pulled out the old lawyer book to try to pursuade us to find out the sex. But amazingly enough Tim and I didn't budge, what willpower! The cutest part of the whole thing was watching my mom sit there and analyze the screen trying to see if she could see anything. The tech needed to turn the screen a few times because she said the baby was so busy and legs everywhere. So my mom would peek. And then she said, "oh how cute are those the ears?" And the tech laughing said, "oh I don't need to worry about you seeing anything and spilling the beans because I am checking out the kidneys!" :). I love you mom! Since I am so behind I will share some Christmas pictures in the days ahead and go backwards a little bit. As you can see I started this back in Oct. but never sent any of it out.

Here is our precious little prince or princess: