Archive for May, 2007
So last night during our prayer time Colby and I were thanking God for our family and friends and then we started to thank God for Christ and what he did for us. Here’s the transcript of the end of our prayer:
Me: Thank you God for Jesus.
Colby: Tank you Jesas.
Me: Thank you that Jesus died for our sins.
Colby: Died sins.
Me: That’s right, Colby. Isn’t God great?!
Colby: Grape!
I couldn’t help but laugh. However, it reminds me how a child is born with a sinful nature and lacking a knowledge of Christ. Both of those together is a recipe for an eternity apart from God. If you have kids or you plan to soon, I encourage you to pray with them.
May 31st, 2007
I have often wondered why we have middle names… most (some?) of us are not called by our middle names, and unless they are family names, there really is not a point, except to sound pretty.
My middle name is Renee. Why? My parents liked the sound of it. Plus, it would roll right off their tongue when I was in trouble: “JENNA RENEE!” Kevin’s middle name is Matthew. Why? His parents liked Matthew for a middle name. But, when we were first dating, I found a verse for him that has become his favorite – Matthew 6:34…
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
When we were first married, we also did a wonderful verse-by-verse study of the book of Matthew in Sunday School. Coincidence of Matthew? I don’t know. But, I know that there are no coincidences with God.
Fast-forward to Colby’s birth. We knew we wanted to name him Colby but we weren’t sure of his middle name.. we wanted it to be Biblical, but we just weren’t sure until we really talked about it and decided on Joshua. One of our favorite family Scriptures is Joshua 24:15 -
“Choose for yourself, this day, whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
We love that Joshua was such a warrior for God. He was a leader, a conqueror, and a musician! (See Joshua 6; maybe Colby will play the trumpet?) So, for Colby’s dedication, we read Joshua 1:9 -
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
We wanted to pray this for Colby (and all our kids) because we know how tough the world can be. With God on our side, there is no one against us.
Kennedy’s middle name is Faith. We also thought about some other Biblical middle names and even Renee. But, when she was born, we looked at her and knew that’s what it should be. While I was pregnant with her, I did Beth Moore’s study, “Believing God”. (Beth Moore writes wonderful Bible studies with women in mind, but men can do them as well, and in fact, I know many men that have enjoyed her studies. I highly recommend them.)
The main premise in Believing God is Hebrews 11, which has been dubbed the Faith Chapter of the Bible. Brother Tim calls it “The All-Star List of Faith” because many of the Verses begin with, “By faith…” and continue with a list of how Biblical giants (and some unsung heroes) have shown faith in their life. I love that this chapter starts with, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Isn’t that the very essence of pregnancy? I had so many hopes and dreams for Kennedy, and I couldn’t even see her! At first, I had to have faith that she really was in my womb, and at the end, I had to have faith that she really was going to come out! 
The specific Verse we chose for Kennedy is Hebrews 11:6 -
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
I will not pretend that I earnestly seek God as much as I should, but I know that He has rewarded us with two wonderful children. And, it is our prayer that Kennedy (and Colby!) would come to know their Heavenly Father and earnestly seek Him daily.
Not many people ask my kids’ middle names and if they do, they don’t ask why we gave them that name… But my hope is that they can use their middle names for God’s glory and to increase His Kingdom!
May 30th, 2007
A word of caution. Do not order the Mango Tea from Sonic. I repeat, DO NOT ORDER. It tastes almost as bad as a Diet Dr. Pepper with Berries and Cream. Almost.
Kevin was sweet enough to ask me what I wanted at Sonic during Happy Hour, and I faintly seemed to remember hearing a commercial about some sort of new tea they were introducing. So, I told him a “mango peach tea”, thinking this sounded pretty good. Kevin ordered me a Tropical Mango tea, and it tastes more like sweet tropical dirt than anything. And we both like tea! (Note: The commercial was actually advertising peach tea OR tropical mango tea. I guess I could have had both flavors in the tea, but Kevin was ordering.)
So, I’m still searching for a non-caffeinated Sonic beverage to replace vanilla Dr. Pepper that I can’t have for awhile… any suggestions?
May 24th, 2007
This weekend we went out to our friend’s the Downie’s for a “Pick ‘n Play”. This is the second year we have done this with our ABF at church. Their next door neighbor is Farmer Bobby and he has probably a half acre (or more?) farm with lots of vegetables and the kids come out and get to pick whatever they want. He was growing many things this year and we picked Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Red Potatoes, Green Beans, White Onion, Red (Purple) Onion, and Blackberries, mmmm!
It really got me wanting to plant my own garden next year. Our friends Clay and Shala did one this year. I think this summer I am going to work on a compost pile because I have always wanted to do one, and some other friends of ours Thomas and Rachel do one and apparently Thomas is some composting expert. So, he’s gonna teach me. Jenna likes to roll her eyes at my idea… we’ll see who rolls their eyes when we have delicious vegetables next year!
May 21st, 2007
So even before Colby has been able to talk, he has been saying his name… well, sort of. He calls himself “Lell-a” mainly because when he was very little I used to make faces at him by sticking in and out my tongue and making kind of a lell-o-lell-o-lell-o sound; Colby would mimic it. So I would say to him, “What does Colby say?” and he would do this thing with his tongue.
So since then he has called himself, “Lell-a”. Even when we try to train him to say “Col” and then “bee” and then “Colby”, he would always repeat back “Lell-a” to us. Well I finally decided I better catch this on tape before he started saying it properly.
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And sure enough… this was the last time it appears that he will say it the old “Lell-a” way… in fact… check out this next video. He has never said his name before today and now he’s just crazy with it!
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May 15th, 2007
So we went outside after I got home from work today and it was real pretty outside. We pulled out the bubbles that Aunt Charlotte got for Colby for his birthday. He loves them! Here’s a short video of him playing with Jenna.
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Here’s another cute picture of the kid:
May 14th, 2007
Kennedy will be 6 weeks old on Wednesday, and she is opening her eyes more and more. She’s also smiling! I love to see her little mouth make a big toothless grin. At 3 weeks old, she weighed 9 lbs., 4 oz., and was 22.5″ long. She is growing and eating well… and spitting. 
The doctor says she doesn’t have reflux or any sort of medical problem, she just spits. I’m hoping she outgrows it soon. My mom said I spit up a lot when I was a baby. And, I’m not spitting up now, so she will be okay. It does give me a very good reason to use all the cute clothes we got! We don’t go anywhere without multiple outfits (and burp rags!) in her diaper bag. Colby never spit up, he just peed all over creation, so we had to do the same thing, minus the burp rags.
When Kennedy cries, Colby says, “Kendy cwying!”, like, ‘Do something about it! Fix it!’ He is a very good big brother to his little sister.
Speaking of, we have a 2 year-old in the house! AAAAAAHHHHH!! Life is definitely an adventure. We had a fun birthday party last weekend with mostly family and a few of Colby’s friends from church. It was a challenge to try and fit all our family and friends inside our house, but we managed quite well!
The weather was beautiful; the forecast was 90 degrees but it ended up only being in the low 80s, and there was a lovely breeze while we ate in the backyard. Kevin grilled burgers and they were wonderfully tasty.
Colby’s latest thing is the Disney/Pixar movie “Cars” . He LOVES it and watches a few minutes before naptime and bedtime. He tells me, “Lightning 5 minutes!” (The main character’s name – the little red car – is Lightning McQueen.) Sometimes, if we’re in the car going home for naptime, I’ll think, “He’ll fall asleep in the car and I’ll just put him in bed.” But, his little voice will pop up as soon as we get into the garage, and he says, “Lightning 5 minutes!” Funny kid.
Almost blew out the candle!
We got Colby a Lightning birthday cake. It was very cute, but because there was lots and lots of blue, black, and green icing, there was lots of icing all over the kids’ clothes at the party.
Gabriella
The Birthday Boy
Yesterday (on Mother’s Day!) as I looked at my two gorgeous children, I realized how very blessed I am. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all my blessings. But, I am out of time now! Goodbye for now!
May 14th, 2007
