1 Year

It is very hard to believe our little niece is already turning 1. What a quick year. But, it has been fun to watch her change over the year. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, is great about getting us photos. I thought I would share a taste of what she does.
She took a picture of Emerson every month by the same teddy bear. This really helps us see her growth and how much she is changing. Plus, we were able to see her a few times this year. That was a huge blessing!

Happy Birthday Miss Emerson!!!

Your Uncle Preston and Aunt Courtney love you!

Zoomaloomba Answer

The time is here to announce what this picture is



You were close Jello guesser...it is Jello with ants in it!!!
I went to make a package of Jello and this was right after I mixed everything together. There were lots of little ants floating around the top. They must have been in the package somehow. Yuck!!
Take a closer look at the picture to now see the Jello mixture with ants...eat up!
Good guesses everyone!

MOMs

I love Moms. There is a special glow and beauty about them. A woman completely changes the day she gives birth. I have seen this first hand in the lives of my friends. There is such a special bond that a mother has with her children. This year I decided to ask some of my friends what their favorite part of motherhood was. Here were their answers. Keep in mind...these are all new mothers.

• There are so many amazing things about it, but one of my favorites is the way he looks at me sometimes. It's genuine happiness or love that he's expressing. It's not something that you can teach them it's just something that happens. I guess it blesses my heart to know that he feels loved & safe.

• I do love to watch him sleep. He is so innocent and beautiful. I just stand there and think "wow, my husband and I made that".

• just seeing his smile when he sees me each morning when he wakes up, him holding out his arms to me and resting his sweet lil ole head on my shoulders in complete trust and satisfaction.

• Right now I love that there is this little life that is fully dependent on us. And I have the great privilege and joy of getting to shape that life the way the Lord wants us to.

• Well, it would more than likely be how I have seen myself and my husband change over our years of being parents. The Lord has used parenting to mold our views of grace with ourselves and each other, to convict us of how our lives need to show "Holiness Matters Most" and to make us more aware of how it really isn't about us.

• My Favorite thing would be how I feel about her, how my heart swells when I see her smile, hear her voice, look at her and know God has given her to us to bring us closer together.

• Probably tops is just watching them grow every day. Each day one of them amazes me with the new things they are doing, or saying. It is those little things that make me love them more every day.

• Now my favorite thing is watching the changes everyday. You can see them figuring things out.

• I love that she is brutally honest and of course the hugs and kisses but I would say that best part for me is having a "little best friend".

• It is a lot of fun. It is amazing to watch him learn new things. I love his kisses.

• I would have to say that I love the eternal mission of shaping and molding little minds to love Christ. I also love the random, "I love you mommy" statements, the adorable blue eyes and bright smiles, the never-ending giggles, the night time kisses, the fairy tale stories

• To this day, I still look at my daughter and some times cry because it's so much love that you place into this one little girl. And in return she loves us no matter what.

• Watching him grow and learn and smile

• knowing I am not simply taking care of myself anymore. I love being alone with him and watching him focus on my face. I can tell he is trying to figure it all out. It is quite overwhelming to realize he is relying on me to thrive, but also very satisfying.

• Being able to know my children and watch them grow and change like no one else can because they know at home they are safe and loved so they can feel free to be themselves, whatever that looks like, and be able to have an impact on how they think and view life, God and people.

• It's the look of love he has in his eyes for his mommy.

Well I think they summed it up well. Now we can know why these mothers and all mothers have "the glow". The thing I loved about this was, they were all so true still to this day. Even though these comments were made about babies and toddlers, it made me see how many are still true with my mom today. I still have a different excitement when my mom walks in the room. Even though we grow up, the bond between a mother and child never ceases or even decreases!!

Happy Mother's Day to ALL you Beautiful Mothers. Thanks for all you do for us. Mothers make the world a better place. A special thanks to Betty G and Collin, you are the best Moms we could have asked for. We adore you both!

Up close

Here is a zoomaloomba. What is that you ask? I have zoomed in really close to an object. You are to guess what the object is. You will have to wait a few days to find out the answer. So check back in and Have Fun!

Cookie Time

I was a girl scout and the most dreaded part of my year was cookie time. I am NOT a sales person. I am a very shy person deep inside of myself. I don't like to bother people and I hate to ask people to buy things. But, I don't mind being the baker of the cookies.

We are trying to plan a mission trip with the church here in P.V to go work with the people in Chihuahua, MX. In order to help the people here raise money we have started a cookie fundraiser. The people here order and pay for the cost of the cookies, I make them and bag them up, they come pick them up and go out to sell them.


To display his support, Preston is even selling cookies. He headed to basketball one day with 10 bags and came back empty handed! What a salesman! (yes, he did come back with $10 as well)

Pray for us as we are super excited about this endeavor. It is awesome to see the church beginning to raise money so They can take the gospel around the world!

Apologies

Millions of apologies.
1. To Preston
2. To all the ladies who came down on the February trip
3. To all our blog readers

Preston worked so hard to make a video after the women's trip left. There was a total miscommunication and I never put the video on the blog. So please check it out even though it is a few months old. It is still a great video and we were so thankful for the ladies and all their hard work! Sorry about that :(
Love you guys

Finally!!

So, 9 months later, I am just getting around to making the cherry pie. For those of you who don't remember check out the last time I tried to make a cherry pie..... August 8, 2008!!

It was well worth the wait and this time it was bug free!!!