the perfect southern January day!

60 something & sunny! Such a great day......Spring we can't wait for your arrival!!!!

some favorites

I don't have a ton of words today - but I was looking through some pictures & these are a few that I ran across from the recent past. Some really good memories - mostly from around Thanksgiving.

This was taken late one night as we were getting back to the hotel....my husband is a strong man :)

the Levys

There's this amazing family that I have gotten to be friends with & right now, Amy (the mom) is in Uganda to bring her little girl, Sarah, home. Sarah is in the hospital right now & there are many prayer requests that we would love for you to join us in.......check out their story here.

so.....

who does the baby resemble the most? I know these pictures aren't totally fair as their ages aren't lined up correctly.....but it's the best i can do since the computer crashed & sent my photos into the abyss to never be recovered.......but, what do you think?

oatmeal snapshots

This was just me trying to get a picture of the baby eating oatmeal. She was having the best time & she is in desperate need of a bath & whenever the camera comes out she reacts a lot like Chandler from Friends

snow!

Can't talk right now - making hot chocolate to warm up these littles :). Hope you're enjoying your day as much as we are!!!

revisitng the 70s

I mean, it looks like I took a curling iron to the sides of her hair. And anyone who knows me knows that I am not of the schooling that will acutally add something like curling my infant's hair to my to-do list. I do love her hair.......and she has a personality to match.

big change

My girl just came in here to tell me that her brother told her that her favorite color was brown & she was mad because her favorite color in fact is not brown, it is pink.

"Is it true?" I said.

"No" - she responded with sniffles

"Then tell him it's not the truth and then shake it off" and then I did a little shimmy shake dance to, you know, illustrate the shaking off.

She smiled.

What if for your whole life you believed something so strongly that you would do anything because of that conviction. What if you were told your whole life that you were allergic to peanuts - spent your life avoiding all peanut products & things made on equipment that is also used with peanuts.........and then one day you learn that you are not allergic to peanuts. Maybe things within your body changed. Maybe you were never allergic to peanuts to begin with. I don't know. But would you immediately start eating peanuts? I think I would have a hard time. I think all of the years of being afraid of & accustomed to avoiding peanuts would make it more difficult to just jump into a peanut eating free lifestyle.
I read about Paul. No one was more convinced of his rightness that he was. Few people have moved forward in a mission to defend what he believed to be true & honorable. We can all agree that from the outside his ways seemed wicked - but his heart believed that he was defending God. And if Jesus wasn't Jesus, then maybe he was.
Paul, who at this point is called Saul, was on his way to take believers in Christ to prison & he had an encounter with the Lord. Everything changed. Everything he had believed was different. And he didn't run from it.
The truth was so big for him, that he changed his mind. He learned - it says he sat with the disciples for several days.
He was teachable.
That's the word that most people will use to describe my husband. A quality that I am learning from him. A quality that I am seeing my daughter learn from him. An amazing quality.....and rare. So, I guess today I am thankful for my husband.

just to explain all the noise

These are some of the pictures to help you understand the noise level on Christmas morning. I wish I cuold say they were playing in unity a rendetion of "Joy to the World" but it was really nothing like that. At this point i wonder if we will ever have visitors again....the loudness, the licking of the food.....it's just his food remember.....but still, who would really want to visit at this point? And why would I keep telling about it all?? Well, friends, it's just the reality....and we kinda like the reality. We kinda like it a whole lot :)

Christmas morn

This picture actually helped to explain a lot of Christmas morning to me - after the fact. You see, I realize from this particular picture that my boy was woken from a deep sleep to come check out the festivities. He was confused. He is 2. He wasn't even sure what was going on. And some of the gifts given involved noise - a trumpet, a violin, a harmonica, a saxophone, a guitar........it was loud. It was nuts. And there was crying. Lots of falling apart & crying. I remember looking at Lee with my arms out with a "What in the world is going on here!??!" Now, don't get me wrong......there were happy moments & I was successful at recording each smile on film. Just a lot of pictures taken one right after the other.
Following a good breakfast, lunch at the grandparents & a nap....the Christmas magic was back in action. All smiles & giggles......& jumping.....Granddaddy sent a mini indoor trampoline & the kids just jumped & jumped. Our families were SO incredibly generous with gifts, as they always are......i haven't been able to pick which gift was the favorite of the year...which is great. The kids have been joyfully occupied by all of their new gifts. Was there a favorite gift in your house this year?

cookies & saliva

I am just so behind on documenting this season....it was crazy. Crazy fun. But nevertheless, it was a little bit full of the crazy. I am making notes to avoid - or at least try to avoid - the craziness next year. These are pictures from Christmas eve. Our church gave the kids the ingredients to make cakes or cookies to celebrate Jesus' birthday. So we made them & my boy licked his hands & then touched each cookie so only they truly got to enjoy the sugary goodness of the cookies. We have actually learned that in my boy's short life not to ever eat after him.
He licks his food. You should know that if you ever come over here. He "marks" his food the way a dog marks his territory...a little different in that I have never seen him pee on his food - but he does lick it. And that falls into the same category in my opinion.
Just know you've been warned.
It was a great December! The kids are at such fun ages.....except for the baby - a story for another time.
Much to update.....I know. I'll get it done. Just check back this week....you'll see.

the unexpected

As we get ready for the big celebration day I can't help but remember that the people of Israel were waiting for a King - the Messiah - a Savior - one that would rush in and save the day. And He came. God kept His promise. He sent a Rescuer. And He was not what they expected. Which simply reminds me to take hold of that unexpected excitement & enthusiasm that I see in my children & place it everyday in my walk with the Lord. To remember that when I learned the truth of who Jesus is - He was not the condemning, mocking God that I had expected him to be. He is not to be figured out. He was expected, though unexpected. He was a baby. He was poor. He was a servant. And He is the King. I pray you will hold dearly to the celebration of this Christmas. Merry Merry Christmas!

"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.""That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.""Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

MERRY Christmas!

my baby

Lots going on & am too sleepy to write anything, but these pictures made me smile. She's getting too big too fast.

a great gift

At the beginning of this year I sat with my daughter's teacher to tell her some useful information about her personality & to learn some specifics of what they would be learning. One thing she told us was about the particular Bible they would be studying. The Jesus Storybook Bible - where every story whispers His name. I wanted to know a little more. So she got up & got it & just said something to the effect of "it shows all through the Old Testament the picture of Jesus" and went on to say, "just like with the story of Jonah - so many people use that story to show God punishing Jonah for disobeying (eh-hem, guilty) and it was actually God rescuing Jonah." Well, there was a perspective shift for me.....I ordered it immediately. I realized in that moment that I have read so much of the Bible with ME as the main character. Learning about what God has to say about ME ME ME ME ME! And it was all about Him. Every story was a whisper pointing us to Jesus. I was amazed.

Even with the story of Abraham & Isaac..it concludes with...."...many years later another Son would climb another hill, carrying wood on his back. Like Isaac, he would trust his Father to do what his Father asked." I felt like scales had dropped from my eyes once more. How I have gotten so hung up on the scary-ness of that story for...well, for as long as I've known it.....because i feared God would ask me to do something that unthinkable.

I see God's mercy differently now.

I see, once again, that I have been shown so much that I don't know.....that there must be so much more that I don't know.

So, if you need an AMAZING Christmas present for your child....that will end up being an amazing Christmas gift for your whole family...this is it.

not the Christmas card

I actually almost put together a collage of these pictures plus others to truly be our Christmas card because it really is the picture of Christmas. Not because we've got it all together did God come to save us but even at our very worst He still calls each of us to Himself. Someone said once something to the effect of God never said "don't sin and then I'll love you" - He always knew we would never get that part right. He never asks us to be perfect on our own. But rather He loves us like the good Father He is - always helping to put us on the best path. Loving us through our stuff - begging us to just lean on Him so that His grace will fill us up - that grace that we simply don't deserve. When that part fills up my heart I am free to give it away - to love others out of that knowing that I am so fallen short & will never get it right. Knowing that I can love others that also will never get it right. It's when we think we actually can get it right that we miss the true grace that came with Christmas.

he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy...Titus 3:5

So......here we are. Me with my bra peeking out, my baby checking out something intriguing & my boy.....pitching a fit.

who knows....

Big sister with the baby in a choker hold. This one is my favorite. That angelic look on her face & the baby screaming. Like a messed up Norman Rockwell image.

So here's to getting that heavy burden of trying to be perfect off your back so that you can actually be free to love others. Jesus took that one on for us.

Merry Christmas!

Poor Old McDonald

my precious boy singing tonight...
"Old McFarmer had a cow. E-My-E-My-O. With an oink oink here & an oink oink there...."

it really is the most wonderful time of the year....

And this ranks up there with my top 5 favorite things about Christmas....does that make me a nerd? Maybe. But I take this over the Santa visit anyday.
This gets me thinking - what are my top 5 things about Christmas....
1. Of course, the truly actively remembering that we could never ever get it right on our own & that God sent a rescuer in His Son.
2. Christmas music
3. Food, hot chocolate, gingerbread lattes, sugar cookies, brownies, peppermint ice cream,....
4. Christmas shopping
5. Elf Yourself
Such a fun time of year!!!!! Enjoy the magnificent dance moves of the Mitchell fam. I can't get over Lee's moves.....stellar stuff.
and now, for whatever reason I cannot get this thing embedded on my blog...it was there...now, not so much. so let's try this.... CLICK HERE

SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! It was a big day for us. If you've read this blog for anytime now - and chances are real good that all former readers have simply abandoned any hope that I would ever update again....and I'll admit that I wondered myself from time to time...it's been a little wild around here & I won't bore you with the details.....and I'll move on.
OK, where was I? Oh - right. If you've followed our little family for anytime then you will remember Santa visit here & Santa visit here. That big girl of mine has been talking about seeing Santa since around July. She does a great job of talking herself into things but you never really know how it'll pan out until the rubber meets the road, or in this case when my almost 5 year old actually catches a glimpse of the man in the big red suit.
She was a champ!!! I wore a shirt with Santa on it to help get things going & they told him that :) - they said, "YOU are on my mom's shirt!"

I was so proud. My boy has never had a problem & the baby was fine last year when she wasn't old enough to know that the whole thing is just a little weird. All of that was quite clear to her this year & she screamed her apparent displeasure for all to hear.....and for all to ignore. Poor thing. She recovered nicely & I hope to have those pictures back soon to post....but for now, this is all I got.

Look at that baby...she still looks a little undone, doesn't she? Well, it's not Christmas without a little terrifying trip to see Santa Claus - then man who is supposed to make all of your Christmas wishes come true......