lots of smiles (& pics, too!)

1. God’s Word.  especially loving this today: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  -James 4:7-8

doesn’t it bring such a peace & comfort to know that when you draw near to God, he also draws near to you?!  and i don’t know about you, but i love that it says, “resist the devil and he WILL flee from you.” not he might, but he WILL.  so thankful i have the Lord on my side to help me resist the enemy!!

2. this cutie patootie who decided on her own that it would be fun to hang a spoon on her nose :)

3. dominoes fun!

4. this cute letter my 5 year old nephew daniel wrote to liberty a couple weeks ago…precious!

5. you can never have enough sleeping pictures of your kiddos…and i know i have tons of leila b/c she is always falling asleep in the most random places (notice the piece of cereal in her mouth when wearing the purple & pink shirt??). the last pic is nadia.

6. i finished knitting the cabled fingerless gloves.  they turned out to be too big for me, so i sent them to my mom for her birthday :) 

7. valentine’s puppies from great grandma (my dad’s mom)

8.  liberty fixing her own hair…and dressing herself (and yes, we did go out in public like that :)

9. celebrating 7 years of marriage to my hubby :)

10. celebrating 2 years of our precious, spunky girl nadia

11. reading this quote from bebo norman’s webpage, “But as I struggle to feel adequate enough to even approach Him, in some miraculous way I’m reminded that the God of the universe thinks my prayers are nothing less than stunning—simply because I am His.”  great reminder!!

12. friends.

13. bones…and the body.  liberty has been obsessed with bones and learning about the body lately.  she tells everyone she sees all she knows about bones and the body.  we got this book about the body from the library and she reads it every day. 

14. new yarn for new projects!  the pink yarn is for another pair of cabled fingerless gloves for myself :).  the brown yarn is for a cardigan for myself (as long as it fits me…i am following some size modifications and using a smaller needle and hoping it turns out ok!).

15. a pointy elf hat for liberty

16. making chocolate heart-shaped cookies for valentine’s day (leila was the only one who wanted to help!)

17. heart-shaped sandwiches for valentine’s day lunch

18. weather warm enough to play outside in :)

19. wyoming winters…they may be cold and windy, but they are mostly sunny…and we all know sunny days help you get through the winter and being stuck inside so much!!

20. the view from my backyard…beautiful!

21.  doggie doors…hahaha!

22. a couple more verses that have touched me recently:

“I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, becasue You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, and You have have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have sent my feet in a large place.”  Psa. 31:7-8

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” Psa. 37:23-24

so so thankful for God and his presence in my life…thankful for His Word…thankful for His blessings…and even trying to be thankful for the trials in life :)

two

somehow this tiny babe (born 2-10-09)

is now 2 years old!!!

i’m always amazed at how much more quickly time passes with each child you have.

so…what is this 2 year old nadia like?  well, i think she is a good combination of her older sisters.  she has lots of energy and spunk (daddy likes to call her spunky), but can be laid back and cuddly.  she talks a lot…she spews out these little sentences that constantly surprise us.  she loves her big sisters.  she knows what she wants and she will do everything in her power to get it, much to the chagrin of her sisters!  she’s a busy little girl, but she still needs some “hold me” time every day.  she likes to be held in the mornings for a while before she’s off & running.  i adore this time.  she loves babies…dolls or real ones!  she’s such a good little “mama” to her babies.  she likes to watch “dora” (much to mama’s chagrin…i find that show annoying!).  she’s a thumb-sucker, which i find so cute!  she’s the best sleeper out of all 3 girls.  she smiles a lot.  she loves shoes.  she likes getting dressed.  she’s generally not super shy (once at story time at the library, she got up on the stage in the room and hid behind the curtain and jumped out over and over yelling “surprise!”).  she’s still quite clingy to me…i like to call her my little cling-on.  she still will sometimes hold her breath until she can’t catch it when she’s upset or gets hurt, causing her to pass out.  she’s always happy in the mornings when she gets up…telling us “good morning” when we walk into the room.  she still sleeps in a crib (if she’s not in the crib, she just won’t let herself go to sleep)…why ruin a good thing?!  she’s so sweet and loving.  she can have quite the temper at times.  she’s sitting right next time right now as i type, sharing my  blanket and leaning her little head on my arm…sucking away on her thumb.  oh how i love this little girl!  we love her dearly and are so happy and thankful for her life!

nadia & i with the bear i made for her birthday

she got mrs. potato head from her sisters…she loves wearing the little glasses, haha!!

prayer for miranda & the cole family

***update***

precious miranda passed away last night. what an inspiration this family's faith is!! they have a long road ahead...please remember to keep them, especially chad, in your prayers!!

chad's blog

this is miranda:

she is in great need of our prayers today…as is her family. you can read more about it here.

i went to school with miranda’s uncle…this family is heavy on my heart right now. please pray!

answered prayer

since we are living in a place where we don’t know anyone, i have been praying and praying to make some connections and friends.  i have been claiming psalm 66:19-20 (“But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be god, Who has not turned away my prayer nor His lovingkindness from me.”), knowing God does hear my prayers…and this week i am seeing a ray of hope in this area!

i’ve been going to a local church here that i’ve really been enjoying. the people are so embracing the teachings so great.  i met one particular lady who has to be one of the kindest, sweetest and most positive persons i have ever met, and she invited me to a ladies Bible study this week.  i went last night and was so so blessed.  i’m so thankful God heard & answered my prayer by connecting me with these ladies.  i cannot wait to get to know them better and study more with them.  i cannot express to you just how much this has lifted my spirits.

i also wanted to share a quote from charles spurgeon that i recently read in a beth moore book. it really spoke to me and maybe it will you as well.

“Oh, dear heart, what is your condition? Are you torn with anguish? Are you sorely distressed? Are you lonely? Are you pushed aside? Then cry to God. No one else can help you. He is your only hope. Wonderful hope! Cry to Him, for He can help you. I tell you, in that cry of yours will be the pure and true worship that god desires. He desires a sincere cry far more than the slaughter of ten thousand rams or the pouring out of rivers of oil (Mic 6:7). . . . See then, poor, weeping, and distracted ones, that it is not ritualism, it is not the performance of pompous ceremonies, it is not bowing and struggling, it is not using sacred words, but it is crying to God in the hour of trouble that is the most acceptable sacrifice your spirit can bring before the throne of God.”                        -Charles Spurgeon; Prayer & Spiritual Warfare

hair cuts & other randoms…

warning:  this post contains lots of pictures!!

i hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and new year’s!  we enjoyed our Christmas this year with just the 5 of us.  of course we missed all of our family and friends, but it was also nice to have time with just our little family.  liberty was so much fun Christmas morning because she was thrilled with every single gift she opened from toys to clothes to toothbrushes. 

 

for Christmas we got the girls bunk beds.  they were so excited!!

i made my girls and my nephews all pillows out of my dad’s favorite t-shirts.  i hope they are something the grandkids can treasure for a long time.

on new year’s eve we went to casper for the  day (about an hour and a half to two hour driver).  we got to eat out, walk around the mall, and go to wal-mart :). 

we’ve had some hair cutting incidences around here recently.  apparently liberty sees herself as a hair stylist, haha!  last thursday i found that she had cut leila’s hair…and she did quite a job with it!  i had to cut it to leila’s chin to get it all evened up.  then this past week libbs got to nadia’s hair, which also had to be cut chin-length.  (i forgot to get before pics of nadia’s hair!)jonathan and i decided we should cut liberty’s hair as a consequence.  i did that tonight.  unfortunately she was actually happy to have her hair cut. :)  she really did need a good chunk cut off anyway because it was ratting up so easy.

leila:

nadia:

libbs:

i found this book for the girls…and it’s one of my new favorites to read to them:

making pizza with leila tonight (don’t you just love her face in the last pic?!):

the silly faces of libbs & leila:

craft projects:

just starting a new project for myself…trying to do different and a little more complicated things so i can learn more!

  more baby bonnets for precious babes of special friends.

pointed hats for our nieces for Christmas

capes for our nephews for Christmas

other random pics from the last couple of weeks:

bunk bed forts

3 beauties in the tub

fun cardboard house i scored for $5!

love the flannel shirts on the girls!

snuggles from a teething baby

new year’s day nap

this girl LOVES the magnadoodle!

jonathan’s friend bryce came to visit for a night, but then his semi broke down and he ended up staying 4 nights :).

i’ve made it a goal this year to read through the entire Bible.  so far so good, and i’m really enjoying it.

blessings to you!