A New Journey

Recently I have been doing some thinking along these lines..."man I really miss blogging. But I haven't blogged in almost a year, and what if I don't keep up with it..and..and..and". Have you ever done that before? Had a mental argument with yourself? Well at the end of all my thinking and arguing I decided to give blogging another go.

However, I really don't like limiting myself to just crafts or stuff I make. I really want my blog to be about more. To be more of a reflection of myself. Not just the things I do or make but the experiences, journeys, and changes in my life. My hope is that in sharing with you, you will be encouraged, or challenged, or simply just laugh.

So I will start out by sharing with you our latest journey. My husband, two children, and I live in Oklahoma. We are very happy and very comfortable. My husband works at a church as the children's pastor and I stay at home with our kids. We love our life. We love the people in our life. For us, life is really pretty wonderful. Comfortable, is a great way to sum it up.

...but God...

It is amazing how powerful those two little words can be. Three months ago we would have never imagined how powerful. So here is the whole story...

Three months ago, close friends of ours from college called us and said they wanted to talk with us. We told them we could skype later that night, but they insisted that is had to be in person. My husband and I were pretty confused, but decided to make the drive to spend a weekend with them.

On our way to visit my husband and I were discussing the possible reasons why they would have to talk to us in person. I thought maybe they were pregnant again, but they had always told us that over the phone in the past. My husband decided that it had to be something job related. He figured that either one of two things were happening. That either they were leaving their church to go plant a church and wanted us to come, or they wanted us to come be the children's pastors at their church. (Our friends are youth pastors for a church about two hours away from us) Either way, my husband said, we were NOT doing either of those ridiculous things. We are happy where we are and love the work we are doing. Besides, there is still so much to be done!
NO, NO, NO!

...but God...

Our plans, are not always God plans. Our plans were to stay put for AT LEAST the next 5-7 years. Our plans were to continue ministering to the people we love here. To stay here. Little did we know while driving to see our friends, that God was about to radically change our plans and our lives.

Our friends told us that they were in fact leaving their ministry position, salary, and house, to move to Houston, Texas to help a team plant a multicultural church. They then told us that they wanted us to pray about moving with the team to plant this church.

Our response was...“But God you just don’t understand! We still have so much to do here! We love these people! We...we....we...we”

...but God...

To make a long story short God’s plans finally won out over ours. I can say that God has truly called us to help plant a multicultural church in Houston and we have fully surrendered to His will. We are so excited and scared at the same time. Leaving everything comfortable and familiar for the uncertain and completely different is going to be difficult to say the least. What will Chad do for a job? How will we provide for our two kids? How...how...how?

...but God...

Aren’t those two words so wonderful! In man’s eyes none of this makes sense. To leave a wonderful job, safety, security, comfort, friends, it just all seems so ridiculous. But my God is bigger than man, He is bigger than a job, than finances, than security! With my God ALL things are possible! And that is what we are believing Him for... ALL THINGS!

God will provide my husband with a job. He will provide us with a home. He will provide us with food. He will provide us with security. As long as we are willing to do whatever God’s will is, and not our own, we have no need to fear!

I will be continually sharing our journey with you all, to let you know what God is doing for the team and Advance Church. Please be praying for us as we step out on this great journey.

If you want to know more about Advance Church check out our website
http://www.advancehouston.com/

Two Years

Two years ago we were blessed with this precious little guy...

and now...



...he is growing up and becoming a little boy. I love to watch him learn and grow. To wake up each morning to his little face in front of mine whispering "mama..juice...". To snuggle with him and read "The Big Red Barn" for the fourth time that day. To play cars, and dinosaurs, and blocks all at the same time. To play hide and seek and listen to him ask his daddy "where go?". To hear him yell at the top of his lungs "Pana!!!!" every time he spots a panda bear some where. To see him bring his little brother a pacy and blanket when he is crying. To watch him eat the ketchup off of his plate before anything else. To watch him jump off the couch onto his daddy with no fear of falling. To listen to him pray at the dinner table then watch him throw his hands in the air and say "amen!"

Every single moment with this little guy is so precious. And I wake up every morning and fall more and more in love with him.!



















Thanks again to my wonderful sister Erica for taking these amazing photos!!

My 9 Month Long Project- COMPLETE!

I have been super busy lately...and have finally finished up my nine month long project :-)
He is cuddly, soft, and so incredibly precious!






























Big brother loves his "baby!" as he calls him. I feel so incredibly blessed to be the mommy to these two precious boys.

My wonderful sister took these pictures for me when baby brother was only 4 days old :-) She is so talented!

Coloring Eggs

Today we...colored Easter eggs!






This was Jack's first time to color eggs.



He was so fascinated and excited about the whole process. He kept saying "bath"! (He thought the eggs were taking a bath)

He loved using the egg scooper to take the eggs out and drop the new eggs in.



Our eggs!



Jack actually put on all of the stickers. He did a great job of putting the eyes and mouth in the right area!



We had so much fun! Jack now just wants to play with all of the eggs.

He looks so serious in the picture on the right....he is trying desperately to restrain himself from touching the eggs and look at mommy for his picture. Hahaha!

Ring Bearer Bow Ties

Here is one more project that I have been working on lately...



Jack is going to be one of the three ring bearers in my sister's upcoming June wedding. S0 she asked me if I could make the bow ties for the boys. Like I have mentioned before, her colors are yellow and orange- LOVE IT! So we went to the store and picked out some adorable orange and yellow fabrics.




This bow tie is Jacks. He looks so adorable in it! The small bow is for his puppy dog. My sister and her fiance requested that instead of pillows with the rings on them, that each of the boys carry their favorite stuffed animal down the aisle.




Pup pup (as Jack calls him) is looking very handsome in his matching bow tie!




So I made an extra matching bow tie for each boy's favorite stuffed animal to wear. Too cute!

(this is Jack saying cheese while trying to smile...what a goober!!!)

Here is my little man all dressed up for that big day. Not only are the boys wearing these adorable bow ties but they also each have a different color suspenders!

If you want to make a bow tie for your own little man visit Prudent Baby's Blog and check out her bow tie tutorial that I used to make these bow ties.

I started out using the measurements that the tutorial calls for, but found the bow tie too big for my little guy. After adjusting it a bit I finally got it just right. I also used velco for the closure...it's what I had on hand :-)

Truly a Little Miracle

It is truly an amazing thing to me, that a precious little miracle goes from this...


(My 5 Week sonogram picture)

To this...

(My 33 week sonogram picture)
in just a matter of months!

God is so good! Can't wait to meet our new little guy!

Bridesmaids Clutches

A lot, a lot, A LOT has been going on at our house lately! With things only going to get busier rather than slower!

We found out about two weeks ago that we are going to be moving out of our apartment. We are very excited to move, but the whole packing and unpacking business...not so excited about! Especially since we will be moving 2 weeks before this baby is born!

So between packing, baby dr appointments which are now every two weeks (and will go to every week here shortly), taking care of a little one, keeping the house organized and livable while packing, and helping hubby with our normal ministry stuff, I have managed to find some time to sew...

believe it or not :-)

My sister asked me a little while back to help her with her bridesmaids gifts. She wanted to do something special and unique with a little handmade touch.

After I showed her this tutorial over at Noodlehead, she asked if I could help her make them. Being the wonderful sister I am... ;-)
I agreed.



We had so much fun picking out all of the different fabrics at the store together. All of the colors basically match the color scheme of her wedding= yellow & orange, with touches of purple and red (super colorful!!!) I love how they turned out!



I have been dying for an excuse to try the tutorial and this project definitely gave me tons of practice! All in all it took me two nights to put these little beauties together. Not too bad! I really thought it would take much longer! But the tutorial is very simple and easy to follow, plus she has step by step pictures that really help.



The inside even has two credit card pouches and a divider to keep all of your little odds and ends organized.



This one is mine! I love the yellow fabric! And the orange zipper that matches the accent fabric is so fun.



And this one is for the bride :-) I just couldn't leave her out of it!



This one is another one of my favorites...I love the yellow and blueish/purpleish (probably not words...hahaha) fabric combination!

It was actually hard deciding for myself which one I wanted...they are all so pretty! I am definitely going to have to make more for myself...they are pretty addicting!

...and if you are one of Erica's other bridesmaids and you see this post...just pretend you didn't, and that you have no clue what she is giving for presents :-)