I LOVE our new family picture! :) Brandon's little sister Britny is staying with us and we had her take an impromptu picture of us before church on Sunday. ... she nailed it! :) I am so in love with my little family and can't get over how blessed we are! I have an amazing husband and TWO fantabulous children! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Happy 4th Birthday to THE SWEETEST little boy on earth! This morning, amidst his birthday celebrations, Zion said to me, "I'm so glad God gave us a baby, I love her." Oh Zion, I am so glad God gave us YOU! 4 years ago we welcomed you with hearts overflowing with love....and you have blessed Mommy and Daddy EVERY SINGLE day since then by just being YOU. We love you SO much Zion!
We've had an awesome day so far! Zion even got to blow bubbles. .. IN THE HOUSE! Oh what a treat THAT is to my little man! :) Such fun! Can't wait for daddy to get home! And then off we go to chuckie cheese with monny, poppy, the uncles and their gals! Woohoo!
Good ol' Poppy. Just need to start out by saying, I love my Daddy! He has been in Paris for the last 2 weeks (including father's day and my parents anniversary) and we missed him! ! He took off of work this morning to have a swim lesson with Zion. They'd been working on swimming and they've greatly improved his skills in the water, but they'd both missed their time in the chlorine together. :) What a great Poppy! There is no other person on earth who is as patient, caring and hard working as my dad. Zion adores him. And my mom, Monny. :)
Monny and Poppy. (Zion named them) No one on earth like them. My amazing parents! ! God blessed me with the best parents EVER. I am SO thankful for the amazing example they provided and provide still.
Poppy and Monny are certainly covered in prayer too. The only thing Zion consistently remembers to pray for is them. Lol. It's so cute. His prayers go as follows: Jesus for our day. Thank you for Monny and Poppy. In jesus name, amen. I love it. We're working on adding to it. But that's the go to prayer, for sure. Lol. It's a deep love that he has for them. :) I didn't intend to write this when I sat down(blog title started out as Summer Fun), but my parents mean so much to me and I'm so thankful for them and all they've done for me. .. It's just kinda spilling out. They've sacrificed so much for me, from my mom not working to stay home and "invest" in my brothers and I, homeschooling me, driving 45 minutes each way (sometime's multiple time a day!) for me to swim and train with the best of the best FOR YEARS, giving me unconditional love, being amazing examples of Christ's love and showing me how amazingly wonderful it is to have the privilege of raising a family with Christ as the center. What a heritage I have. And my children have! SO thankful Zion and Joelle have their Monny and Poppy... It makes my heart glad every time Zion prays his little prayer and every time he asks to go to their "happy house". :) Thank you Lord for my amazing parents. I am so blessed!!
Lol. Here's what we're up to today! A chunky monkey princess who doesn't want to sleep, a daddy who does, and a little Mr hanging out with his dog. Lol.
My one of a kind, nutty hubby! This is how he came in from work today. :) Love him so much!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Fathers Day! Especially all of the wonderful dad's in our lives! We are blessed by all of you! We had a lovely day spoiling our amazing Daddy! ! Ellie got to go to church for the first time! :) And it was a fabulous message by Pastor Zane on the importance of father's protecting their family "ark". Good stuff! If anyone would like to, you can watch sermons at victory worship center's website. Www.vwcaz.org
And... to my wonderful husband: Thank you for being THE most amazing Daddy to our TWO wonderful, amazing, extraordinary, and precious children! You are so good with them and it truly gives me joy and a deeper love for you to see you love them so wholeheartedly and tenderly. You are an amazing supporter to me and I am so thankful that God blessed me with you when He did! It has been such an awesome adventure to grow up together and go from goofy teenagers to newlyweds to parents! I've loved every adventure you've taken us on and every day just gets better! I love you! Happy Father's Day!
Zion got to go play basketball with daddy and uncle Joshy! He was SO excited! 
Stay tuned for pictures of the squirrel head... I'm probably the only wife on earth who got their husband a squirrel head for father's day. Lol. But he LOVED it and actually wore it to work! Only my silly hubby... But I love him! What is it about a sleeping child? ! They look SO innocent and peaceful and WONDERFUL! Lol. I love this picture of my sleeping babies this morning. I am still moved to tears when I look at these two amazing children that I am blessed to call mine. (They are HIS, but entrusted to Brandon and I!) They are miracles. I do not know how anyone can look at a child, especially a new baby, and not see God at work. Only HE is able to knit together such perfection.
AND aren't genetics amazing?!? They look so much alike!
I've honestly been dreading Brandon going back to work.... not just for the last week, but for awhile now the thought of being left home with TWO kids had just seemed like it would be overwhelming. And that's what everyone says..."oh, having 2 changes it all. .." Well, I LOVE it! We miss having daddy home with all day. That was AWESOME! But Zion, Ellie and I are rocking or new routine! :) I have been blessed with amazing kiddos!! We put worship music on when we get up, and it sets the tune for the whole day! Awesome! Okie dokie. Just thought I'd share. :) And the princess has added some additional rolls to her little figure! I love my chunky babies! What an amazing privilege to be able to stay home with them! Thank you Lord! !!
Slow down please time! How is it possible that my baby is already one week old!? She is absolutely the most precious little girl ever! She fills our days with smiles and has brought even more love into our lives. A week and one day ago i didn't know how it was going to be possible to love another child as much as I love my Zion... boy was I wrong! !! It is amazing that the moment I (we) laid eyes on her our hearts just opened up, welcomed her in, and overflowed with love! It makes me think of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
WOW, what crazy love! The love you have for your child is so insanely strong, yet God chose to give Him up here on earth so that we could live with Him forever. Wowza. May I never unappreciated His love for me. I don't think you can truly realize the sacrifice God made until you have children of your own. That kind of love is incomprehensible. Anyways... It's 4:30 am and she's laying on my chest with a little tummy ache and my heart is obviously overflowing with the concept of love. :) Thanks for reading. And enjoy the pic of my 1 week old and 3 year old [19 more days until he's 4]! Such a super sweet pair! And last night we had a lovely evening of playing "Feed the Kitty", Zion's new favorite game. As you can tell in the picture, it's serious business!
Isaiah 41:10: "So don't worry, because I am with you. I will make you strong and will help you; I will support you with my right hand that saves you."
This verse really helped me through labor! My Aunt Jenny texted it to me on our way to the hospital... God's timing! I tend to worry. .. Alot... too much. And I was especially nervous/scared about giving birth again, because Zion's was so traumatic and hard. BUT, God has promised in Hebrews 13:5 "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." And I certainly was relying on these verses/promises, as well as others about strength, peace, and the ability to do ALL things through Christ.
And we did it! Dispite some scary moments where my blood pressure dropped really low (93/40) and baby girl's heart rate was all over the place, God totally got us through! And with JOY! We were able to witness to many nurses, including one that didn't believe me that neither Brandon nor I have EVER drank alcohol or smoked. Lol. She said the ONLY person that had done that was her mother. .. definitely not young people. :) Well, when God had been your strength, JOY, and foundation for the majority of your life ALL things are possible! HE is truly all we need!
Okie dokie. Enough blogging for today! I've got babies to enjoy! ! :D
"Thank you Mary for taking these amazing and priceless photos for us! You are awesome and we love you."My babies! Zion is loving his role as big brother! And as Brandon says, "Guess this is what the 2 of us together look like!" :)
We think they look SO much alike!
