Annual Christmas Card Photo Shoot

It's that time again already...Christmas card pictures! This year, our talented friend, Ashley (one of the amazing G Town 4 pack that we love), took our pictures at a neat park in North Georgetown. You might notice that Aaron looks a little scruffy- he is growing out his beard for "Novembeard" at work, yet I needed to get the pictures done so I could get cards out on time before we leave for CA on the 14th, so we went ahead with his rugged look. :-) I think that Ashley did a great job, and she even played with some on her computer....here are a few favs, but I won't show you the ones I'm putting on our card. :-) Thanks, Ashley! You can check out Ashley's blog if you follow the link on the side of my blog to the Wonderly Blog.

Give Thanks to the Lord...

Psalm 107:1 ESV

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!


Princess Leia woke me up at 5:30 this morning, and the boys bounded downstairs about 6:30, so I was able to watch the Thanksgiving sunrise in beautiful blues and pinks with my kiddos. Praise God for a new day, and a day to be thankful. We have thankful hearts!

Water Fight in November

My dear friend Heather and her trio of sweet girls came over today for a long overdue play date. Landon, Lincoln, and Ava decided to have a little water play fun in the backyard, which quickly escalated to a water fight. Poor Lincoln was on the losing end of that battle with a measly squirt gun, while Ava and Landon charged with the special firefighter nozzle on the hose! He was a good sport though, and quickly figured out how to duck into the house for cover and emerge to snipe them! Have to say that I am thankful for the 80 degree weather at the end of November...knowing some of my wonderful family and friends in Wyoming and Nor Cal are in the snow and below zero temps these days... hooray for Texas sunshine and a delightfully warm Thanksgiving.... really, a water fight in November?!?! How nice is that?

And while I am mentioning Heather in this blog, I have to say that she is just an amazing friend, mentor, accountability partner, and incredible wife, mother, and loving servant to so many. Our friendship has developed over these past three years from fellow servants in Zoe Kidz (I was on her first children's ministry team and she asked me to join the leadership team and serve with her, and then under her, and now with her again!), and then we agreed to meet at least once a month as accountability partners, and challenge, encourage, and pray for one another as we share life. Such an amazing blessing from God to be real and vulnerable with a sister in Christ and memorize scripture together and grow in our faith together. Heather has been such an encouragement to me, and I am thankful for the many, many prayers she has lifted up for me and my family. She challenges me....she is a foster mom to a newborn, leads a children's hunger fund ministry through our church, serves on the Zoe Kidz worship team, is traveling to Africa to serve on a mission trip, serves our church as an elder's wife...all with a joyful heart that just desires to glorify God and love on others for Jesus. I am thankful for you, Heather...you are a good gift from God in my life. :-)

I am thankful for so many wonderful friendships....health...my husband and kiddos...our extended family members...our church...our neighbors...
Thank you, God, for all of our blessings.

Rice Cereal

I gave Leia a little bit of rice cereal last night while we were eating dinner. She wasn't impressed. She basically gagged on it after a few "bites", so I think I'm moving on to sweet potatoes! Perhaps her Thanksgiving treat will be some sweet potato tastings. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, from our very own little butterball turkey, Princess Leia. :-)

Leia loves her toes...

It's official, Leia loves her toes! :-) She has reached the stage where she can grab her toes and pull them up to her mouth to chew on. She is basically trying to chew on anything and everything...think the teething has begun. She has also hit the milestone of being able to roll from her stomach to her back, adding that trick to her back to stomach roll, and now she is mobile and can move around a little (found that out the hard way when I sat her on the couch and came out of the bathroom to a thud and loud cries from poor Leia...her first fall from the couch...no more unattended sitting on high places!). So sorry, my sweet girl. She is just about five months old.

Turkey songs

Landon and his good buddy, Kale, star in this video of their preschool Thanksgiving program. Landon is in the 2nd row in the red shirt, behind the tall kid!

One tangible way God shows me He loves me...

From the start of my journey as a mother, God has showed me His love by using several different people that have generously passed down clothes to us. Before Landon was born, a friend of a friend in Chico gave us at least eight storage tubs full of clothes, and another tub full of shoes and hats for Landon. I never had to buy any clothes for him during the first two years of his life, and of course those clothes were passed on to Lincoln. Then, here in Texas, several of my friends have passed down their sons' clothes, and when I found out that I was having a girl, they gave Leia clothes too, and I haven't needed to purchase any clothing for her (thanks Kelly R, Carol, Barie, Tomi, Allison, Alison, Amy G, Cantu fam, and I'm sure there were others)! :-)

I feel like this is a very tangible way that God provides for me and my children and shows me His love. Whenever someone brings by clothes, I feel like it is Christmas, and it just blesses me that I don't have to spend time and money shopping for kids' clothes. It's so much fun to go through all the bags of clothes and the kiddos have fun now jumping in them like leave piles and helping me sort through them! And it's so "green"...we reduce, reuse, and recycle clothes with the best "greenies" out there. :-)

She will laugh when she reads this, but God has used Carol Taylor several times over the past few years to bless me in big ways. Just last week as the weather started to get cooler I realized that Landon only had one pair of jeans that fit (he is so tall! and growing quickly!), and I was prepared to go buy some more this week, but on Monday night Carol called and said that she had a huge bag of pants, jeans, shirts, and shoes to bring over for Landon, and I just had to laugh with joy and thankfulness- the timing was perfect, as I had been feeling a little down and not really "feeling" God's love, even knowing that He still loved me just as much as ever, but one of those seasons of dryness...anyway, it was just neat and I could picture God smiling down at me and enjoying my happiness at the random bequest of clothes at just the right time. I love hand-me-downs and freebies, and my heavenly father knows this!

But, the even neater part is that God used Carol (who didn't even go to a Hill Country Church) three years ago when we first moved to Texas,to introduce me to Barie, who has become my best friend and is my favorite part of Texas, and also to Hill Country Bible Round Rock, our amazing church full of generous, loving people that have become our "family" out here and our support system. And over the past few years Carol has given us clothing that her son, Evan, has outgrown several times. So, thank you Carol...you don't even know how much you have impacted my life, and how God has used you to love on me. :-)

PS...it's been fun to pass the clothes on and share the love....these hand-me-down clothes have been through at least three kiddos, and will probably be used by at least two more- how fun and green is that?!?!

Leia's Dedication

We dedicated Leia at church on October 24th. We went up on stage and Pastor Keith asked us some questions about whether we would commit to raise Leia to know and love God, to the best of our ability, and then the congregation was asked to affirm that they will support us and also help to point Leia to Christ. It was neat to dedicate Leia next to my dear friend Heather Knipstein and her family as they dedicated Baelyn, whom they adopted this past summer after lovin' on her for over a year as foster parents. We started our foster care journey with them and both had babies placed at the same time (although our little Fernando left after 3 months, and now Baelyn is part of their family).