Girls' Trip to Port Aransas!

Sophie, Mom, and I got to take a little vacation to Port Aransas. We wanted Sophie to experience the beach: the sand in her toes, the wind in her hair, the roar of the waves, the salt in her eyes...you get the picture. She liked some of those things, and was not a big fan of the others. The sand and wind were great. The waves and salt were not. :)

On our first day, we had a ball playing in the sand!

 The second day was so windy, we couldn't get our trusty shade shack to stay upright. Sophie seemed to want to go back and forth from the sand to the water, being carried the whole time, of course. This pregnant mama couldn't do it all, so Oma did most of the carrying. Sophie was afraid of the waves and wouldn't let us put her down anywhere near the water, but she did let us hold her and walk out into the water quite a way.

Unfortunately, Sophia seemed to prefer the pool a lot more than the ocean. We also got to see some new sides of her. Being so active and out in the sun all day, she didn't sleep very well although she was extremely tired. We saw her "wired" personality- it is something to behold! Look out!

Her fear of the water suddenly evaporated when a family with a baby and a dog put up shelter next to us. Sophie the Socialite ran over to introduce herself and play. She even went right up to the water! That is, until she saw the next wave coming. Then she backed up as fast as she could and ran back to safety. :)

We shared a lot of laughs and had a great time! Penelope also really enjoyed the fried shrimp po boys I ate both nights we were there. Delicious!

Introducing...Penelope Mae!

Most of you should know by now that we are expecting our second baby girl! My heart swells when I think of all that we are excited about and how good God has been. We hoped to have our kids close together in age, and our little Penelope should arrive a few weeks before Sophia's second birthday. I cannot wait to meet this little girl and wonder what she'll be like. All I know so far is Sophia, but I keep reminding myself that God has fashioned an entirely new body, soul, personality, life! What will she be like? I can't wait to get to know her!

And I admit, I am both excited and anxious about how Sophia will respond. She loves touching my belly and saying, "baby!" but will she feel the same way when Penny is not in my belly anymore and moves into her old room? :) I see her love for babies and think she will be the best big sister in the world and she will love Penelope from the minute she sees her. A beautiful relationship will begin that will last a lifetime. And then I will be cooking and Sophie is clutching my legs, wailing that I'm not giving her my 100% attention and I think, "oh Lord, how is this going to work?!"

When I was pregnant with Sophia, I had daydreams about our perfect family and this sweet perfect baby and how my days would be filled with songs and the sound of her giggles and "I love you"s. And to be honest, those moments come, often, and they are beautiful and precious! But so do the cries, the tantrums, the missed naps, the thrown food. I know in experience now what I only knew as theological truth before. And that is this: raising kids is a messy business. All of life is a messy business. It has been since Genesis chapter 3. Did I think my kids would be any different? Did I think I would somehow instantaneously and miraculously become patient, gracious, peace-filled? The past 20 months have shown me in real life what I have long believed in theory: I am a sinner. And so is everyone else.

Yet, if it is possible, we are even more excited to have our baby. We had only ideas about what having children would be like before we had Sophia. We wait with anticipation now with a sense of reality. Yes, it will be hard. We have done hard. Yes, it will be tiring. We have been tired. But...it will be beautiful in a way we only know from having raised a child already. It will be rewarding beyond understanding to raise another little girl. We know this, because we are raising one now and it is better than all my perfect daydreams. If anything, the tantrums make the "I love you" even more miraculous.

Will Sophia get jealous and act out? Probably. Will Penelope cry and give us sleepless nights? Yes. Will the girls fight with each other? Inevitably. But I look past those moments, to the eternal perspective of their lives in the greater scheme of God's will. Our job is a big one: the shepherding of our girls' hearts into the Kingdom of God. It is messy, but it is what we were put here to do. And it feels so right to do what God has planned for you. This is what he's planned for us- the raising of two daughters. We know the cost. We also know the reward, and it is priceless.

Easter unload

Because we're past a month overdue on this post, I'm just going to dump my Easter pics. It was a great time! Sophia enjoyed her first egg hunt and was very good at it. We enjoyed the anticipation of the season and soaked in all that God accomplished in those few days- the payment of our sin in full! We were again amazed and humbled by this great act of mercy, and filled with a renewed excitement. He is risen, He is alive, and He is coming again! Amen!

oops...a bone! Was I supposed to find something else?

had to take a break to water the herbs and do a little digging:

chocolate mouth

and then we played a bit with bubbles...no dress required ;)

All better!

Being in daycare three days a week, we've had our share of sickness. We've done double ear infections and stomach bugs. Sophia is always a trooper and makes the most of it, seeming to bounce back quicker than it took to get sick! But not last week...

After a few scary days of high fevers not relieved by medicine, not knowing the cause or the effects of this mystery illness, she slowly came around. We have never seen her feel so bad, never felt such fear at the unknown. Of course, I can say all this now, because she's better. ;)

In the midst of it, I found my heart warring within me. I felt helpless. But it was no different than any other day, was it? Am I ever in control of how healthy she is? No matter how many vegetables she eats, no matter how many times we wash her hands, wipe down grocery carts, or try to keep her away from germs, she's going to get sick. And some sicknesses have no means of prevention. And some have no means of a cure.

I know this all the time. But isn't it easy to forget about it when everything is good? Don't we start to believe that we are in control? That we are the reason for the good things in life? We have the lives we do because of the good choices we've made or the good things we've done? All it takes is one big fever to blow it all up in my face. My good mommy skills are not the reason Sophia is healthy most of the time. God's grace is the reason she's healthy.

The real war wasn't Am I in control? I knew I wasn't. I knew God was. The real war was this: God will do what He wants to do. Is what He wants to do good? Is He good? Always no matter what? Is He good if this is a blood infection? Even if it causes bacterial meningitis? Is he still good if this goes the absolute way I don't want it to go?

Yes. I believed it. But I confess I didn't always feel it. The real question I was asking was Does God really love me? And He does. I know He does. And He promises to always do what is for my very best. Even if it's not what I want. Even if it hurts.

I know this as a parent. I do the same thing for Sophia. I held her down as she kicked and screamed and cried while they put a catheter in, drew blood, x-rayed her chest, injected antibiotic. We needed to find out why she was sick. I knew it would hurt, but I wanted her to get better. Temporary discomfort for the more lasting comfort of getting better. God is willing to do the same for us. Temporary pain for the more lasting joy of getting more of Him.

He is good. Always and no matter what. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Sophia's healing! We will never know what she was sick with. But we did learn some good lessons along the way.

Admit it, eating healthy feels good!

Since Sophie was born, I have found myself deeply devoted to eating well. This was easy at first, because I made our own babyfood. (Which I highly recommend doing, both for the health of your baby and your wallet!) So while Sophia ate pureed carrots, I snacked on potato chips. :)

Fast forward a couple months and things get a bit trickier. It's after school, I'm sitting down at the table with our girl and I offer her some broccoli with parmesan cheese sprinkles. She starts eating it up. I reach into my bag of cheddar bunnies. Sophie reaches for them. I hand her broccoli. She pushes it away and wants only what I'm eating. Of course, I don't give her any. I put the cheddar bunnies away and reach down for a bite of broccoli. Yuck! I smile anyway. She eventually finishes the broccoli reluctantly...the next day we both sat down to a bigger portion of parmesan broccoli to share. My life with potato chips was officially coming to an end.

Now, for the most part, we eat the same things at every meal. Don't worry, I still sneak in Little Debbies or Oreo cookies during her nap time every once in a while. Luckily, Sophia is a better vegetable eater than me. There are several she likes that I don't: mushrooms or butternut squash, for example. But I used to not touch many vegetables with a ten foot pole not too long ago. Now, I happily eat broccoli several times a week. Carrots are great too. Spinach and lettuce is an easy one for me, and I l-o-v-e bell peppers, but am still working on hummus. Needless to say, I'm always on the lookout for ways to incorporate more vegetables in our meals and snacks.

During one of Sophie's nap times last week, I found myself researching types of vegetables, because it's important not only to eat a variety of vegetables, but a variety of types of vegetables. There are five! Who knew? Here is a convenient list of vegetables organized by type- I keep it on the inside of the pantry door.

I also found this great printable that is also on the inside of our pantry door. I use them both in creating our weekly meal plan, or for serving snacks on the fly.

Dark, leafy greens are easy for me to get in, but Sophie is less of a fan. I have found, the best way to sneak them in is to drink them! Here's the recipe for an all time favorite snack: Green Monster Smoothie.

1 cup chopped spinach
1 cup chopped kale
1 cup berries
1 refrigerated banana

Combine in a blender or food processor, and then pour in your favorite of the following until desired consistency:

almond milk
apple juice
vanilla yogurt

(if you use the yogurt, you will need to add some of the apple juice or almond milk to help thin the mixture, unless you want to feed it like you would normal yogurt, with a spoon. I'm thinking of trying that myself!)

Happy healthy eating for the love of kids!

Make it. Keep it.

I have never been a fan of New Year's resolutions. Here's my thinking: if you know you need to change something, don't wait for an excuse like January 1st to do it. If something needs to change, change it now. Besides that, I hate how it starts out so adament, and a few weeks in, people all over the country are caving. Why do we keep doing it? It's never proven to be very successful. In fact, when we come up with our resolutions, we do so expecting them to not last.

I just finished writing a Christmas letter to sweet Neema. We have photos of her up on our walls. We sit in wonder as her drawings to us show how she is growing before our very eyes. I cry when I read of her prayers for me. She prays for me more often, and no doubt more fiercely, than even I or most of my friends and family do. God has used her to change the way I see things. She is ten years old and lives in Tanzania. I have known Neema since she was six, when Andy and I became her sponsors.

You can make a New Year's resolution this year and keep it. You can sponsor a child from Compassion. Writing letters to your child is worth its time in gold, for your child's heart, but even more for yours. Compassion makes it easy. You can go to their website, type out your letter, upload some photos and click send. They'll do the translating and mailing for you. This New Year's resolution comes with an eternal impact. And just in case you feel failure lurking in the shadows of February, sign up for automatic payments. You'll never miss your $38... we never do.

With this one act you can:

- love a stranger in the name of Jesus
- begin a new relationship
- change a person's future
- break the cycle of poverty
- help spread the gospel to the ends of the earth

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25; 34 - 40

Resolve to make a resolution you can keep. Sponsor a child today!

Thanksgiving in December!

So yes...Christmas is this week. But I never got around to posting about Thanksgiving. There's no better time than now to do what should be done. ;) Here's just a few photos from our great Thanksgiving with Grammy and Bumpa:

as close to a group picture as we could get...

Sophia is lovely, but what I like most about this picture is the background ;)

Berkley and Sophie are not the most willing or obedient posers

I love this dress. I got it last year at the JBF sale for $8. I bought it specifically for Thanksgiving, but also got to sneak it on for my cousin's baby shower.

Precious girl- I love every inch of her!

just like her mama..."No shoes, no grass!"

these were the cute little bloomers that went with the dress. Once inside, we let her take off the dress and put on her cheetah cardi...I thought it was adorable. Clearly she's much more interested in eating Christmas decorations...