Sunday, July 28, 2013

10 months!

Evie Joy turned 10 months old yesterday!
I can't believe we are only 2 months away from her 1st birthday!  She is so much fun these days.  She gets into everything, but is so stinkin' cute :)
I constantly find her pulling things out of baskets, books off of the bookshelf, magnets off the door, and turning the wii off and on multiple times.  Oh, and then there is the printer she likes to play with too.  And the carbon monoxide detector in the hallway that makes a really loud noise when the button is pushed.  She is a mess, but a beautiful one :)

She is starting to eat more and more table foods, which I am excited about.  Yesterday she gnawed on my pizza crust and today she loved getting to eat baked beans :)

She pulls up on everything these days too...

Still napping twice a day, one being a good longer nap, the other being a shorter one.  For the most part she is still sleeping through the night, with an occasional night where she wakes just 1 time.

Her nicknames these days have included:  Sugar bear, booger bear (for the times she might be a little cute booger), boo, and SK calls her Sissy :)

Let's compare pics of SK and Evie now...shall we?? :)



 Here is a comparison...these pics above are SK at or close to 10 months old...
And here is Evie....



SK def. had more hair :)  Do you think they look the same???  We can see similarities, but def. see differences.


And while we are talking about SK.   She cracks me up these days :)  Yesterday we were in the car and she wanted to play pretend, so she wanted to be the momma, her friend was going to be the baby, so I said I would be the maid, to which she responded, "I am the momma, so I am the maid too.  Cause, the momma's the maid!"

Oh my.   That is all I can say.

And I will leave you with one more pic of our cuties!






Monday, July 22, 2013

Chain of Rocks Bridge

Last weekend, we decided we needed to venture out and have a fun day as a family.  This being our last summer here in St. Louis, we are trying to do as many things as we can that we might or might not have gotten to over the last couple of years.
So we decided on checking out the Chain of Rocks bridge.  It is either the world's longest or 2nd longest pedestrian bridge and has all kinds of cool history behind it.  You can read about it a little here instead of me giving you a history lesson :)
We let SK ride her bike along with Michael while I pushed the jogging stroller with EJ in it.  Then we traded on the way back with Michael pushing the stroller.






(And side note...Evie was there, I promise.  Just never took a picture of her.  Oops!)

After biking the bridge, we asked some other people who were out there if there happened to be any good ice cream or custard places nearby that were good :)  It was a hot day and just seemed fitting!  SO then we were given directions to a place called Bobby's frozen custard that we were told was better than Ted Drewe's :)
I must say, it was really good custard...too bad I didn't get a picture there...



Sunday, July 14, 2013

So tired...

"Momma, have you ever been so tired you can't get up?" "I mean, like you just wanna keep laying and not get up?"
Says SK to me this morning when I crawled in bed with her at 8:00 a.m. since she was still asleep and needed to get up...

That girl cracks me up.  And yes, I do feel like that.  Many a days...

And our other girl is giving me a work out these days.  Now that she has mastered this whole crawling thing, she is all over the place exploring.  She loves to check out all the shelves which hold SK's crafts like markers and such, then heads over to the kitchen to pull out what she can in there like the plastics bowls and plates.  Oh, then she heads to the bathroom.  We find ourselves constantly chasing her down.
Today she figured out how to eat puffs.  She has been eating mum mums for about a week or so now, and that is fun :)

I love my girls.

We have been swimming every day for the last 6 days.  SK had swim lessons last week and will continue this coming week.  Then over the weekend we have been swimming too :)  She can now jump off the diving board and swim to the ladder!  She is working on swimming underwater doing big strokes, but isn't quite fully confident yet.  She is getting really good though!

I think we are going to take tomorrow for a fun family day.  Pics to come maybe...
Might be going to a place called Elephant Rocks where there is hiking and fun to be had we have heard :)

Just thought I would do a quick little post to say hey and wanted to write down what SK said this morning...

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

New pics!

So I have this thing for taking family pics.  I like for us to do it 1 time a year.
We have done it for 4 years now and I love them.
So this year was our first time to do pics in St. Louis.  Every time before we have done them in Birmingham, either when we were living there before moving or when we were back visiting.  I am so glad we got to do them here, since this will be our last full summer here!

Leigh Ann Smart did the pictures here on campus and they turned out so awesome!  She is a great photographer and we highly suggest that if you are in the St. Louis area and want some good family photos (or any other kind of photos, like graduation or wedding, etc...)--check her out!  Here is a link for her facebook page!

Without further ado...here are some pics!  I know I posted some on Facebook, so most of you have already seen them, but I wanted to get them on the blog to :)










Love these pics :)  Thanks Leigh Ann for capturing our little girls personalities and taking some really cute pictures!



Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Swim Babies!



If you look closely, you can see EJ's 2 bottom teeth sticking through!

In other news, if you are friends with me on facebook, you might have seen where I am cleaning out :)
I know we aren't moving overseas for over a year at least, but I am a planner.  It stresses me out to wait till the last minute, so I do stuff early :)  Michael has learned to just let me be my crazy self...
Our plan (at least for now) is to do a major clean out of stuff before moving back to Alabama (which will happen sometime after Michael graduates next May), so that we won't have to have a larger truck to take stuff down to Alabama, which we won't be able to take over to England.  And we are planning to come to Alabama in August, so I thought I would take advantage of being able to bring some things down then if someone in Alabama would be interested in buying anything :)

Fun fact--whatever money we make will go straight to our one time need in getting us overseas :)

Ok...enough selling right :)

We are off to swim lesson this morning for SK!  So excited to see how she does this year :)


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Our calling...

I read this blog yesterday, and it made me sit and think.  Think about our calling.   Think about how we are all called.
I don't need to rewrite what was already said so beautifully, so here are some quotes from it that really were powerful to me:

Living radical isn’t about where you live — it’s about how you love.

It’s about realizing– Love doesn’t happen when you arrive in a certain place. It happens when your heart arrives in a certain place – wherever you are, right where you are, dirt road Africa or side street America.

 Radical isn’t as much about where you move – but about looking into the face of Jesus – and letting Him move you where you are.


Hospitality isn’t for the good housekeepers — it’s the grid of life for anyone keeping company with Christ.  Hospitality is meant to shape our churches and politics, our work and our schools, our homes and our faith and our schedules and our meals and our lives.
Hospitality is Life with no Gates.
Hospitality means if there is room in the heart —
Don’t start with a program. Start with a plate.

That is just a portion really, but you can go and read the whole post if you want more :)

So what does that mean for us?  Why are we moving across the sea so far away from everything we know?  Why not just stay here and be used by the Lord here?  

Why are we uprooting our family?  
There is a need for the gospel to be proclaimed here in America just like there is a need in England.  

All we can really say in response to that is the Lord has put England on our hearts.  We truly have no good logical answer to why we would go except for our hearts yearn to love the people of England and share our love of Christ with the people there.

Even in coming here to St. Louis for Michael to come to seminary didn't make sense except for we felt the Lord's calling to come here.  We didn't know how we would make it with finances, but the Lord has provided thus far.  He has graciously given us all we need and more.  We have been blessed with incredible relationships that we will have years beyond living here.  The Lord has shown us that if he calls us and places it on our hearts to go, he will provide the way.

What will it look like?  

We don't really have a set agenda.  Our hope is to see churches planted throughout the northwest in HIS timing.  We would love to be a part of the spreading of his gospel.  For us, that won't mean standing on the streets proclaiming scripture, but instead diving into relationships and loving the people whom the Lord puts in front of us.  It means opening our home to whoever.  Opening our lives and living life and sharing the love of Christ in our actions and building trust where we can speak the truth of Christ in love and once their heart is softened to receive.

Our desire is to see His church growing and spread throughout the surrounding villages of the Warrington area and beyond.  But we know it might not happen the way we think it might.  The Lord will probably shake it up a bit and do it a completely different way that the way we are thinking it will.

So really, we have no set agenda.  We have thoughts on what we could see happening, but the Lord is in the driver's seat and we are open to following his path.

But doesn't England know the gospel?  Aren't they a "Christian" nation?

Less than 5% of the population attend church regularly.

96% of Children in the UK will grow up with no gospel influence at all.

70% of pop. have no intention of ever attending church.

There are 10 million people in the northwest alone.  About 62 million in all of England...which by the way is about the size of Alabama.

That's why we go.  I know this blog is getting long, but I just wanted to share why our hearts are drawn to go.  






Friday, July 5, 2013

4th of July festivities!

We had a fun day yesterday with friends!  Starting out our morning, we headed to Webster Groves for the parade and had lunch.  After that we let the kiddos splash around in the pool then had a little rest before grilling out some yummy kabobs then watching fireworks!  It was a full day of fun!

So here are a few pics I grabbed!
 Buds!
 This little cutie says he is going to marry SK one day :)
 Family shot before the parade--Evie is there if you look closely :)
 Up from her little nap ready to watch the parade!
Swim time!
We had family pics done last week with a new friend who lives on campus and happens to be an awesome photographer!  We have only seen a few photos, and can't wait to see more!  Here is the sneak peak we got....

I am off to get lunch made and find some form of caffeine in my kitchen...coffee or chocolate...either will do.


Wednesday, July 3, 2013

New news, new look!

So we have updated the ole blog!  It kinda goes along with the "news" I was speaking of a few days ago...
We are officially candidates for support raising with Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship.  Woo to the hoo!

We got accepted last week and have been working this week to get set up with everything and are so completely excited to begin this journey.  We know this road won't be easy, but we are excited to get to England and see how the Lord will use our family there.  We want to be used by him to share in bringing His Kingdom to the United Kingdom!  Hence the url change to the blog and all :)

We still have some details to work out, but with Michael being done with his class, we have a little more time this month to devote to that.

My heart is mixed with emotions and all as we get started.  I am excited.  I am anxious.  I am fearful.  I am overjoyed.  Overall, I want the Lord to be glorified during this time.  I want his kingdom to come and His will be done.  My hope is to thrive during this time and see the Lord working, and not lean on my own strength.

We are excited to share our heart's desire and our sense of calling to the UK.  As I have time, I hope to share some more on here, and also be able to get together with anyone who has an interest in hearing about what all is going on in the UK and how we feel like we can be a part of the work already going on there.

For now, I have to run, but keep checking in on here.  It's a new URL, remember :)
If you are interested in hearing more about where we are at with everything or hearing more about our hearts for the UK, please let us know.  We would love to get together with you!

(This is Leigh, where we are looking at moving to!)

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

9 months!!

Evie Joy is now 9 months old!  I am just a few days late :)
So what all is she up to, you ask???

*As of this last week, she started to figure out crawling!  She has crawled just a little ways so far, but is getting more and more confident with it!

*Last night she pulled up all by herself for the first time!  She was really proud of herself too.  She has been wanting to pull up but needing help to get all the way to her feet until last night.

*While she is just now starting to crawl, she has been able to get her way to things of interest for a few weeks now.  If she sees anything out of reach that she wants, she will figure out a way to get there.

*Last week she slept through the night 3 nights in a row!  Then she did 3 nights of waking once.  Last night she did better, sleeping from 8 to 4, then nursed and slept till 7:30ish.  SO we are getting better.

*She still loves to blow raspberries.

*She can now kind of wave "bye-bye!" then typically follow that up with her "Yeah!" claps.

*She still just gets 2 meals (an occasional 3) a day and nurses 6-7 times a day.

*It looks like her 2 bottom teeth might be getting close to coming in...maybe.  SK was a week shy of her first b'day before cutting her first 2 teeth, so I am waiting to see if her sister beats her in that department :)

*She is such a happy baby :)  I mean really.  Her middle name couldn't fit her any better.  She is a pure joy.  Her smile and giggle is infectious.

More updates coming...I know I left y'all hanging last time.  Still gonna leave it at that :)

BY the end of the week, that is my promise.  I do want to update on where we are at with the whole "going to England" thing :)  We are pumped and excited!

(this was last night--first time to pull up all on her own!)
And one more sidenote....Evie's favorite toys are our movies :)