Shout for Joy!

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us, and we are His;

we are his people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations."

--Psalm 100

This was the thanksgiving message Bro. Johnny delivered this year. How wonderful! SHOUT for JOY! Why shouldn't we? I must admit, though, that joy is something I have had to pray for specifically this year. It's not that something happened this year to make me lose my joy. Quite the opposite, really. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to be stressed with a new baby around, but how awesome is it to be a mom? (Most of the time...)

For Thanksgiving this year, Kyle took a couple of extra days off and we decided to drive up to my parents' house on Tuesday night. Luke was still sometimes going to bed between 6:30 and 7, so I thought he would sleep like an angel all the way. He did sleep until just north of Birmingham, which was a really good nap to get him energized.

After the excitement of driving the rest of the way home and of seeing Granmama and Grandaddy when we got there, he didn't cry himself to sleep until about 1:30! Driving at night was a bad idea.




On Thanksgiving, his cousin Kate let him borrow her pink car. Kids love these things. His other cousin, Dirk, wouldn't let him drive, but he was nice enough to let him ride along...



More cousins, Dylan, Charlie and Reid, playing a game of 'shirts and skins' in the front yard:



It was cold, but a nice day to play outside.






And for learning new tricks:



And for feeding Sophie pickles:



Later on Thursday we made it to Albertville for more Thanksgiving fun with grandparents and great-grandparents.





Luke and Madelyn say: "These people are crazy!!"




I love this picture. Love the hair, love the outfit, love the belly. Madelyn's, not mine, of course.



On Friday, Luke spent the whole day and night with Grammy, Paw Paw and Aunt Kim while we watched the Iron Bowl and had another Thanksgiving feast with the Rodens.



This is their living room. How cool is that?


We made it back to Dothan on Saturday, exhausted. So much to be thankful for this year. And that night, we kicked off the Christmas season with big boy flannel PJs. So cute!

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Mitzi made this for our family on Luke's Dedication Day. Delicious! Looks really fancy, too.

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Cooked chicken(rotissere works great); if you cook your chicken, save broth for cooking rice
Boxed wild rice mix, cooked as package directs, using chicken broth for part or all of the water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1-8 ounce sour cream
Finely chopped celery

Grated onion( I keep it to about 3 tablespoons, but you can do more)
Sliced almonds, lighty toasted

Mix, pour into greased casserole, bake at 350 until bubbly.
Can top with crushed cornflakes dotted with a little butter.
I have used both cream of chicken and cream of celery, also. Freezes well.

For the large pan we had on dedication day, Mitzi used 3 Sam's rotissere chickens, 3 boxes wild rice, a large can cream of chicken soup, large container of sour cream and the 6 ounce pkge of sliced almonds.

"Unless the Lord builds the house..."

Psalm 127 says that anything we do on this earth is in vain, unless God is the foundation for it. Life's work is senseless without Him. That is why we are to dedicate our home and our children to the Lord.

This past Sunday, with the help of Brother Johnny Fain, we committed to raise Luke in a Christian environment and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the fellowship of Christ's church. We promised to share Christ with him, with the hope that he will one day trust Christ as his Lord and Savior.


The gown he wore was made by my mom, the first project she had ever done of this kind. It was gorgeous! Absolutely perfect. It will definitely be an heirloom.

His bib was smocked by Mitzi Chambers. (Click on the picture below to enlarge it so you can see the detail of the bib.) She is wonderful. I am so glad to have gotten to know her through Apples of Gold. Her husband, Mark, is Kyle's mentor. They were paired up in a bible study they did last month called "Real Men Matter." It was like Apples of Gold for men. I don't think they did any cooking, though...


Mitzi also was so sweet to coordinate our dedication day lunch. She made us a Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole that really was superb. (I will post the recipe for you later, when Mitzi sends it to me;)). Debbie Fain brought us an awesome loaf of homemade bread and Paula Coleman made a yummy, gooey, chocolate cake. I need to get that cake recipe, too. I don't know if I'm ready to make homemade bread, do you think? There's no way it would be as good as Mrs. Debbie's! Denise made us a strawberry congealed salad that was a HUGE hit. (An Apples of Gold recipe. I already have that one.) She also brought the flowers for the kitchen and dining room and a big jug of sweet tea.





On Friday, Luke's Grammy, Paw Paw and Aunt Kimberly came down and kept him for the evening so we could have a date night. They kept him the next morning while we did a hunter's safety course, too.


Granmama, Grandaddy, other Aunt Kim and cousin Kate came Saturday night, just in time for the Bama game. We made a huge pot of Taco Soup (need to give you that one, too. It's another AOG recipe. So easy.) Luke and Kate had so much fun together.


Luke said he missed his Uncle Colby, Aunt Rachel and cousins Brooklyn and Madelyn. And Uncle Shane and cousins Reid and Charlie :(

Everyone stayed at our house, which worked out really well. We finished up the apartment above the garage just in time. I think it is comfortable. The hot water heater is just a little small. Sissy Kate does not like cold showers!

How many grandmoms does it take to give a bath?


They must have been doing a good job because he didn't want to get out!


On dedication day, we miraculously made it to church early enough to get Luke dressed on time. He was not too happy with the process of getting dressed and he was fussing and kicking while we were waiting to go into the sanctuary...




but once we got out there he stole the show. He had all the appropriate responses: clapped and smiled when the congregation clapped, he waved and he babbled and yawned when the preacher was talking :). Everyone said it was the cutest baby dedication ever!



It was a great weekend and we are so thankful for the time we got to spend with our families.



We had some wonderful friends there to support us, too. This is Jordan, Alicia and Ava Yates; Barry, Deborah and Canon Moss; Ed and Leslie Cox; Shay, Denise, Mary Selwyn and Adeline Nichols; and Josh, Mary and Colt Parrish. Thank you guys so much for coming! We missed Will, Tuan, Alex and Julia Blank, but they were getting ready for Alex's third birthday party!

First Baptist is such a huge blessing. We were excited to join on the day of Luke's dedication. It is a loving and friendly, Christ-centered church that has helped make being so far from home a whole lot easier.

Luke is a wonderful blessing and a gift. We will do our best to raise him in a Christian home, according to God's standards.

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him."
--Psalm 127:3

Apples of Gold

A few weeks ago we had our celebration dinner after completing the program Apples of Gold. I am really behind at getting this in here, but better late than never!

Apples of Gold is a study started in 1995 by a lady named Betty Huizenga. It was created as a way for the older women and younger women in a church to connect and is based on two passages of scripture:

"A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." --Proverbs 25:11

"Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited." --Titus 2:3-5

It is a six week program and the lessons come from that passage in Titus.

1. Kindness


2. Loving Your Husband


3. Loving Your Children


4. Submission


5. Purity


6. Hospitality

The lessons have been incredible, but it has been so much more than that. The mentors involved are so obviously kind, generous, hospitable and virtuous and definitely love the Lord with all their heart.

The lesson each week was held at a different mentor's house and we were pampered and spoiled beyond belief. We were always greeted at the door with a nametag, drink and appetizer. We usually then had a cooking demonstration before the lesson. One week, we had a flower arranging demonstration. The ladies' houses were so beautiful and they always had fresh flowers and candles. After the lesson, we had a sit-down dinner and were served wonderful meals by the mentors and previous "Apples" graduates. I am so grateful to everyone involved in this study. They all gave so generously of their time, effort and money and I hope they know how much we appreciate it! One of the greatest things about it for me is that through it, I have gotten to know so many wonderful people at our church.

Thanks, Denise, for encouraging Mitzi to get this together for us! And thank you, Mitzi, for all your hardwork and organizing. I hope to share some of what I learned in the lessons with you, but you see how long it took me just to get this much posted. We'll see...

So Cute It's Scary

This Halloween several moms got together to take the cutest picture ever of 6 infants and a toddler in their costumes. It didn't go quite as perfectly as we had hoped, but it was memorable nonetheless. After the photoshoot on our elaborate backdrop involving about a ton of candy, we spent the afternoon creating picture frames using Deborah's cricut machine. Our friend Alicia pasted "So cute it's scary" on hers, so that's where my title came from. I love it. It is so Alicia!

I'm sure everyone driving by thought we were insane.



This is about the best we could do. We've got Luke (headless monkey), Colt Parrish (bear), Ava Yates (ladybug), Julia Blank (peapod), Jack Peacock (puppy), Canon Moss (lion) and Alex Blank (spiderman).



We spent the entire day at the Moss's house in Grove Park. We got there around 10:30 to get the pictures done and really didn't leave until 12 hours later. It's a good thing we got there early, though, because at trick-or-treat time it took an act of Congress to get into that neighborhood. They had cops at the entrance checking ID's to be sure you really lived there. Otherwise, you were not allowed to drive in. I bet there were about a thousand kids! We were actually toward the back, so we didn't see quite as much action.

Overall, the babies did pretty good in their costumes. Luke still refused to wear the monkey head and since he was actually pretty entertained by looking at all the candy, I had to use it to get him to join in the fussing for this shot:



Here is the finished product of our entire day's work. The dad's were so sweet to babysit while we crafted, even though they thought our project was ridiculous.



Speaking of dads, Kyle joined in the fun, too. He was dressed as someone from the 60's and always likes to sport his 'stache. Julia and Alex's dad, Will, dressed up, too, but I don't have a picture! Didn't you take one, Mary??




By that night we didn't even try to get the babies in their costumes again. They were much happier without them, for sure.






Halloween at this age is much more fun for Mom than baby!