christian is growing like you would not believe! here he is taking a sunday afternoon nap with his daddy!
this is elder hartley, one of the mormon missionaries who we have met with for over six months. he has left and moved on to north caroloina. please pray for him that he will see The Messiah in Truth! he is a wonderful young man.
here is gigi and emily at target. lots of love there! christian and i took advantage of the situation by getting a decaf raspberry mocha and shopping!
This is a photo we took on a Friday night trip to Tallahassee. Emily's friend from play group, Anna Leigh celebrated her 2nd birthday at Zoinks. Tyler joined us on our journey.
I am not sure who had more fun...Tyler or Emily. Kevin was definitely the most disappointed when he learned that he would not be allowed to jump because he had forgotten his socks! I really felt bad for him. Those of you who know Kev...know he really wanted to jump!
One major event that has happened over the last few months is we have decided to pull Emily out of play group. we feel that it will be better for her to play in smaller groups of little ones so that she is not overwhelmed by large numbers of kids. this has been a hard decision for us, but we feel certain that God will bless this decision as we have bathed it in prayer.
here is a picture of emily playing with her friend alyssa. she came over for a play date and they had a great time!
on a more positive note...we are attending some wonderful studies. kevin is meeting with a group of men on tuesday evenings and they are working through the psalms. i am meeting with a group of ladies on monday night and we are working through the psalms of ascent ( a bible study by beth moore) & then i am also meeting with a smaller group of ladies on tuesday mornings. we are working through a dee brestin study called becoming a woman of worship and it is also on the psalms. you may be asking yourself...does she really need to be in two Bible studies? the answer is emphatically....yes! ask my kids, my husband, my mom, my dad, and my in laws! i need all the spiritual training i can get! in all seriousness, i had a friend recommend that i do a word study in the psalms on every scripture reference to "rock", "strong tower", "defender" & "protector". i had tried doing this on my own and felt overwhelmed. then these two studies fell into my lap and it has been such a blessing. just to immerse myself in the provisions of the almighty maker of heaven and earth. and also, to surround myself with women of faith. women who have walked a road similar to mine. i have learned so much already and i am looking forward to the weeks ahead!
here is a picture of christian trying out his sisters high chair. soon enough it will be his! we have actually moved emily to a booster seat and she eats at the table like a big girl! we did try a season of letting her just sit at the table without a booster seat. after several meals with her running around the kitchen with butter and green bean juice all over her hands, we have decided to resort back to a booster seat until she can remain seated. mommies nerves can't handle sticky fingers exploring our new home!
although, according to this picture, emily is perfectly fine with just sitting in her very own chair! i believe she is eating pancakes with home made peach preserves...thus the nakedness is explained! believe you me... i busted out the windex after this meal! ( as we speak...emily is below the computer desk eating her exquisite breakfast of raisins and water...yes i have sticky hands all over my pajama bottoms! ~ praise The Lord I am ok with it...I think?~ I wonder how many raisins i will find this afternoon!)
in late september mom, dad, emily, christian and i traveled to birmingham for aunt cindy's wedding. she was a beautiful bride!
this is her new hubby daryl webb
emily had a great time at the wedding. here she is enjoying a cookie!
this is the chapel where cindy was married. it was such a beautiful chapel.
the following weekend we helped deliver hot dogs to the concession stand at the thomasville high football game. here is kevin carrying hot dogs. doesn't he look thrilled!
dad was happy to see us and busy as ever!
my mom is the gracious one who orchestrates all of the work with the concession stands. dad is really lucky to have all of her help!
on this particular evening, the dickeys helped out mom and dad. they all had a great time!
another neat thing that has happened is a new mentoring program that these three beautiful women have put together. they are simply reaching out to women our age and trying to help us along the journey of managing the many roles of being a woman.
this is the group we had and we plan to meet the 28th of October again! it was really a neat evening to just let go of all the facade and be real with one another. i am looking forward to our next meeting!
we have in fact moved. we love our new home and are working towards getting everything in just the right spot!
here is a picture of our three troopers who worked so hard to get us moved!
this is our cute little home! mom has spent a lot of time trying to make our home look cozy. i am afraid the outside looks more "together" than the inside right now...but we are trying to straighten and oragnize in between carrying for little ones!
here is christian at moms house. during our move, i stayed with mom while kevin and his parents worked hard to get us situated in our new home. i had layed christian on his back so mommy could go to the bathroom. when i returned from my potty break this is how i found him! he had turned over!
here is emily enjoying her breakfast at gigi's house.
here is a picture of emily during the great move. she really did have a great spirit during all of the moving and i feel that she has handled the transition well.
while daddy was busy working...this is where we spent a lot of our time. on mom's back porch swining in the swing. i could have stayed there forever. it was so peacful! as you can see christian also enjoyed it!
we gave emily lots of attention (and grace!). we took a trip out to the farm so she could enjoy one of her favorite things. horses!
christian also did well with the move. he was a trooper!
he has recently gotten his first two teeth! and boy is he getting to be more active. when i carry him around in the baby carrier he is constantly reaching for whatever is in my hands. he even cries if you try to take it away from him!
here is where we eat most of our meals in our new home. this is one of the first experiments with letting emily eat with "freedom".
here are the three stooges enjoying our red couch in our new home! (which i am very very very sad to report is currently out of commision because our cat decided to turn our couch into a potty spot!)
our first weekend in our new home, we went to a birthday party for brandon. kevin is such a wonderful daddy! he held christian almost the whole time and i was able to spend time with emily.
this is max, brandon's brother. he is such a cutie!
and here is brandon the birthday boy!
this is my friend heather. she is such a wonderful mom and here she is showing brandon the cake she made him.
here is emily enjoying her cake!
after the weekend...came emily's birthday! she is now 2! on her birthday mom, dad, christian and i took her for a muffin at kuppa coffee.
she had a great time and was a little angel. i have really been praying over my relationship with emily. (i know mom has too!). the last few months have been challenging and refining for me. i am grateful for all the God is doing in our lives, but it has been hard. kevin has often told me that children are a mirror to us, reflecting what we really are on the inside. i think for so long i was able to hide many issues that are deeply rooted within. similar to what many may think of my house by looking at the outside and presuming that the inside is all together & well put, some may look at my life in public and think many things about me that are not the truth of my core being. i have prayed and prayed that God would refine and purify me and i believe that He is doing just that in my relationship with emily. you see...i like to have control because control allows me to accomplish objectves that i have set for myself, which in turn gives me an identity. when i don't have control i get very angry because i fear i am going to loose my identity.
the truth is my identity needs to be in Christ and in Christ Alone. emily, being 2, is not easily controlled. she is in a period where things are very frustrating to her. she is constantly being told what to do and when and she cannot share her desires or wishes because she lacks the words. the result is she screams, bites, hits, throws herself on the floor and even sometimes she bangs her head against things. she has even bitten herself. i watch in horror as she throws these tantrums. i have prayed and prayed for our family that we would live lives honoring to God and i have the hardest time fitting this behavior into this picture. but i feel god convicting me that i do the same thing. when plans change or things don't go my way, i throw a fit just as emily does, but in different ways. the strangest thing is i believe that God is teaching me how to better handle releasing control to Him by helping emily learn how to handle dissapointments in a healthier manner.
all of this has really strained my relationship with emily. i love her more than any word could possibly describe, but i have been so frustrated with her at times because of her behavior and the behavior it brings out in me. i would ask that you would pray for us in this process as i believe it is a refining process. my prayers for many years have been to have authenticity in my relationship with Christ. to be the same in private as i am in public. i have been so ashamed by many of my responses to emily that i have lamented and asked forgiveness time and time again. kevin reminded me yesterday that when i learned to ride a bike i fell down many times and parenting is no different. i will make many mistakes but i must keep trying!
i am not sure any of this makes sense...initially i was trying to say that emily's birthday was dreamy. seeing her in an angelic light once again. seeing her as the amazing gift that she is from God and not the evidence of my failure as a parent, was so liberating. she was so beautiful on her birthday to me and i believe God had answered my prayer about our relationship. i made her a scrapbook with pictures from the time of her birth and it brought back so many memories of that special time.
all day on her birthday i prayed that God would help me to treat her like a princess every day. to make her every day a delight and to not be so consumed with trying to control her and make her behave a certain way (which by the way may not even be realistic for a toddler).
how could you not love an amazing girl so full of life! here she is showing off her new shoes and beads from grandma.
after her birthday muffin at kuppa coffee, emily took a trip out to the farm to visit with the horses. mommy and christian went to publix to get food. that night we had some of emily's friends over to celebrate her birthday.
here is emily enjoying her grandma!
and here is christian enjoying his grandma!
emily got lots of good stuff for her birthday, but one of her favorite gifts by far was her bright red boots from papa!
Emily had a great time playing with her friends. But the party was not yet over
After our celebration at our home on Glenwood we moved on to celebrate once again at grandma and pa's! we had a great time. Our celebration over the weekend at Grandma and Pa's was extra special because grandma judy and grandpa stan came up for the party! we had breakfast with them at Savannah Moon!
then, emily got to go with her papa and her ty ty to the fly in to see the planes.
after her visit to see the planes we let her take a nap and then it was off to the big party! while baby emily slept, her daddy and ty ty ran errands with little shep and mommy frantically tried to finish the scrapbook she was giving emily for her birthday.
here are our little party goers! they get their own special table for dinner.
here is the big kid table...
and another big kid table!
aunt mindy and uncle chris came up early to help mommy get things together to take over to grandma's. and even though we had help... we still arrived late to our very own party! (at least this time i got a shower. her birthday party at our house on monday i simply ran out of time so i had to do the quick powder brush trick after the first guests arrived!)
pa did the burgers (for both parties!) here he is enjoying his grandson..the mcmillan heir!
this is a classic photo of grandpa stan. how could you not love him! we are ready for them to move back whenever they are!
here is uncle chris. who i must confess emily always wants to pray for. whenever we pray together she always wants to pray for her uncle chris. and whenever we mention aunt mindy or ty ty she wants to make sure uncle chris is included! she loves her uncle chris!
here is my southern living, classy well mannered sister...
who has a wild side!
after dinner, i wondered into the kitchen and found grandma judy being a true grandma! she had already given emily cake! actually truth be known, emily had helped herself to a cupcake! this does not surprise me!
abigail was ready for her cake!
and so was daddy!
what you can't see here is that it took an entire assembly line to cut, plate and deliver the cake. christy cut the cake, i held a plate which received the cake, donna scooped ice cream and mindy put the fork on a delivered. how efficient are we!
here is everyone watching the auburn game. how boring!
here i am wearing a goofy hat. what can i say...you've got to find some way to have fun!
here is cutie, tootie aj!
here we are opening presents!
and more presents!
here is uncle allan with little shep at emily's party. allan loves to hold babies!
here is gigi sharing a max lucado book with emily & meredith.
here is papa toting around our sweet baby!
after the party, emily and her daddy were tuckered out! they both fell asleep on the bed...so i could put them both down without any extra work!
the next day was a very special day for us as we celebrated grandma & pa's 40th wedding anniversary. we surprised them with an unexpected lunch at their house! see the video below.
here is the happy couple!
we had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed spending time together.
we tried...
and we tried...
and we tried! these were some of the best we could get!
Last week in Bible Study, we were discussing how at times, when our circumstances seem contrary to a life of blessing it can be easy to fall into the trap of believing God has left us or no longer loves us. we have learned in the psalms that nothing can be farther from the truth. in our tuesday morning study, we have a time of worship before we get into prayer and study. this last week we sang a song that sweetly brought me to tears. this song so perfectly illustrates how i feel in my walk with Christ right now. i have prayed for authenticity in my relationship to Christ. i have prayed to live a life pleasing to God. i have prayed to be kind, loving, joyful & a woman of worship. i think in my spiritual immaturity i believed that by simply praying these things, God would see the goodness of my heart (because i was praying such earnest prayers) and grant me my request. like a fairy god mother, suddenly i would be transformed into the sweet wife i long to be. suddenly, i would immitate the life of caroline ingles on little house on the prarie. i must admit, i have been tempted to be disillusioned by the trials i have faced after praying such prayers. how readily i forget that gold goes through a refining process. a catepillar must live a time as an ugly worm before it becomes a beautiful butterfly. why would my journey to completion be any different?
you may be tempted to skip over reading the lyrics to this song, but i would encourage you to take the time to read through them. they are powerful!
I Asked The LORD by John Newton
1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face
2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair
3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He'd answer my request
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest
4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part
5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low
6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
"Tis in this way" The Lord replied
"I answer prayer for grace and faith"
7. "These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me."
this song sweetly illustrated the fiery trials we must go through in order to truly see God. how i yearn for the destinations!
Just in case you thought the birthday celebration was over...you were wrong! we still had to celebrate kevins and Dads! kevin's was wednesday october 15th and dads was october 17th.
so....last friday we went to valdosta to look at scooters for kevin and get new boots for emily. also to pick up some khaki pants that mommy got daddy for his birthday. (i got a little behind with birthday presents this year. i got so focused on emily that my poor husband and father were kind of left behind. dad got a check and kevin got a pair of khakis fresh from a belks bag!)
above is a picture of emily systematically setting up a tea party for her little doll house figures. note...they are having their tea on a carpeting portion of the floor (compliments of brother! this is his blanket!)
christian with his development has gotten to be a little more difficult to handle than in the past. we had to lower his crib because i am afraid he might roll out! i have found him with his feet hanging out of the crib. often we find him like this, laying on his side. he is such a cutie! i could eat him up!
here are my beautiful parents eating at red lobster. this is where my Dad wanted to celebrate his birthday.
here is emily eating her mac n cheese~!
and here is daddy being a good sport! the scooter shop closed at 5:30pm which is just about the time we arrived in valdosta. we were unable to go and kevin (as usual) was great about it. ever smiling is he!
here is our beautiful family! yes i know i am bragging. but please know i am not bragging on us. i am bragging on God! My Bible study this morning was on psalm 78. which by the way i reccommend you look at if you are feeling down in the dumps. the psalm is remembering all of the mighty works that God did for the children of Israel.
delivering them from the hand of pharoah with the plagues, the locusts, the frogs, the water turning to blood.
parting the red sea
creating water from a rock
and raining down manna and quail from the sky
all of these things God did for His people and yet, while the water was in their mouth they doubted he would provide meat! after he parted the red sea they were ready to return to slavery because they thought for sure, they would starve.
how quick are we to forget Gods provision and how it saddens His heart! This picture of my family amazes me. We are not perfect...but we are together and daily we are seeking Gods face. So often I feel as if we are going to fall apart. I thing to myslef. that's it Lesli. This time you have really blown it! Nothing can repair what you have done. Or all too often after a quite time in the Word and reading a convicting scripture, I am convinced that my heart is irreparable, that they only way to "fix" me is to "erase" me or like i told kev the other day, can i just be a computer and you can program me? but am i really believing God and trusting His sovereign mighty hand? He has delivered me from so much! I could list the same number of miracles He has performed in my own life as He did in the Israelites. Perhaps even More!
God converted my soul in 1997 from a life of death and self to a Christ centered life!
He has delivered me from temperments, habbits and addictions, He has given me a wonderful Godly husband, with wonderful parents, my parents have never given up on me in spite of myself! and i have two beatiful children to God be The Glory! All of these things have been given to me yet from the time I was 12 until I was 21 I was living in the pit! and I mean the pit!
SO after all of this...why would I doubt God's continued provision in my life? I know He will provide. It simply requires my faith and patience! Praise His Name!
here is emily in all of her glory! enjoying her new bright red boots!
in case your wondering...she wore the boots to belks and books a million...with her short shorts and her pink shirt!
so after the new boots were purchased..of course we had to team them up with a whole cow girl outfit and head out to the farm!
beautiful!
this is emily's third cousin katie. when i asked her what her favorite subject was in school she said fashion! love it~!
this is katie's mommie and my favorite second cousin! jennifer~ (author of give in to motherhood)
this is madison, jennifer's oldest daughter who is a mathematician like her mom and dad!
does this photo even need commentary? is this not a papa's dream come true? i pray emily will remember this moment for the reat of her life!
have i lost my mind? this is my daughter riding all by herself! sorry about tuffys ears dad!
dad...maybe this picture will make up for the slacky ears in the previous picture!
here are the riders!
our day of riding ended with a cookout at gigi and papas house with the fulton clan. here is tyler bing a super duper cousin!
is christian trying to tell us something?
isn't he a cutie?
well, i guess thats all for now. mom just called. she is headed to the beach in a jaguer convertible with alice dickey, carla defnall, rose marie robbins, kay alexander and donna carney! boy do i want a picture of that! pray for them!
lesli~
