Saturday, September 29, 2012

God Gave Me You

Last weekend my awesome husband Josh and I spent 2 blissful nights at the beach, sans kids, to celebrate our anniversary. We've now been married for 8 years! And having dated for about 5 years prior to that, we have been together for 13 years! Whew, what a ride it's been so far! We've certainly been through ups and downs as any marriage does, and happily, we are at a wonderful place in life right now. God has used all of the challenges, struggles and valleys to shape us and teach us, and most importantly, to draw us nearer to Him.

Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We sent the kiddos off the their grandparents'. Judah spent the weekend with Josh's mom for some special one on one time, and our older 2, Cana and Loyal, spent their time with my parents. They were all spoiled and doted on and I do believe that they had as much fun as we did! Hopefully the grandparents had some fun too. While the kids were blowing bubbles and making forts and creating special memories with their grandma's and grandpa, Josh and I luxuriated in the quiet! We relaxed, walked the beach everyday, took an uninterrupted nap, ate good food, and did some leisurely shopping, of course picking up a trinket for each child, and goodies for the helpful grand-folk. It was nothing fancy, but it was exactly what we needed. God has brought us to such a wonderful place in our relationship, a place of closeness, understanding, fellowship, and deepened love. I see God still shaping us, individually and as one. I can't wait to see where God leads us from here on out! Here we are married 8 years and we are awaiting the birth of our 4th child. A surprise pregnancy at that, when we thought it was impossible for us to have such surprises due to my fertility issues. We are so thankful and blessed! I know God has more in store for us, and I look forward to discovering what it is. May we step out in faith wherever He leads us.

Psalm 26:2-3 (ESV)

2 Prove me, oh Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind. 3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

I heard this song today and it made me think of you Josh. (And how appropriate that the music video was shot at the beach!)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/5hQK6GIrpYU]

"God gave me you for the ups and downs. God gave me you for the days of doubt. On my own I'm only half of what I could be, I can't do without you."

And now for a few pictures that Josh took while we were at the beach:









[caption id="attachment_54" align="aligncenter" width="610"] The obligatory self portrait. It was bright. :)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_55" align="aligncenter" width="764"] 25 1/2 weeks pregnant here.[/caption]

Happy Anniversary Josh. I love you more than you can know.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, September 28, 2012

Nature Exploration

My kids enjoy exploring nature, and I am continually impressed with what they discover in our own backyard! When rummaging around in the raspberry patch, scavenging for the last few berries of the season, Loyal discovered a large slug (he is always finding slugs!) and Cana found a snail! I've never seen a snail that large that wasn't contained in an aquarium of some sort! They corralled them into the kiddie pool and spent a long time observing them. Cana even drew them in her nature journal. Here are a few pictures of our little morning adventure in the backyard.

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Contemplative[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_39" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Curious[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_40" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Judah brought a snack along for the show.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_41" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Ah, the simple wonder of childhood discovery.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_42" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] I must confess, I was pretty impressed with the snail myself![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_43" align="aligncenter" width="764"] On the move.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_44" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Up close and personal.[/caption]

My kids are never bored in our modest backyard. God's creation abounds! Thank you for the visit slithering creatures!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Kindergarten! Homeschool style.

We are a few weeks into Cana's kindergarten year. We loosely did some homeschool stuff last year, but this year we are taking it more seriously since she is officially Kindergarten age. Cana loves doing school and is overall doing really really well, we are so proud of her! Here she is on her first official day of Kindergarten, in a special first day of school outfit picked out by none other than Cana herself. Here she displays her nature observation drawing of the day.

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We did a special first day of school activity for all the kiddos. I got plain t-shirts at the dollar store and discounted fabric markers at Tuesday morning and let the kids go to town!



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More to come soon!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Us

Us

This is us! The Parents; Josh and Chelsea. And the kiddos; Judah, Loyal and Cana.