Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas!!!





Merry Christmas to our sweet family and friends!!! I have been slack on our Christmas cards but I didn't want Christmas to pass without you knowing how special you all are in our lives... whether we see you daily or once a year, your friendship has truly blessed us. God has been teaching us a lot about perspective this season. We pray that God's perspective is ours, and that we remember we are a part of a much larger story. May God's unfailing love and perfect plan weigh heavy on your heart this Christmas as it is ours...









Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmas 2008


We have a wonderful tradition of getting to go see Santa at the Poston house every year...
this year was so cold but the kids did great!!! Not only did we see Santa but ALL 9 grandkids were together!!! That is huge for our family... what a blessing to have so many cousins and the kids love being together. It just makes me so thankful to see them al together.
So they all got pics with Santa with Cici and Pipa.
Front row: Bella, Merritt, Santa :), Emma
Back row: Cooper, Cici, Luke,Pipa, Andrew, John Allen,Jared and Jake
Align Center

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and pray that Jesus Christ is what you are celebrating this year.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Christmas Past to Present

I have had so much fun looking at Christmases past... how time flies!!
The picture above is when I was 4 months pregnant with Bella...
Bella's First Christmas 2004
Our First Christmas as a family
Christmas 2005
Look at those legs!!!
Christmas 2006
Andrew is 4 months old...
Bella is 2 & 1/2
Andrew still gives that look!!!

Christmas 2007
Andrew 1 & 1/2 and Bella is 3 & 1/2

Christmas 2008 to come... HO HO HO!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Stepping Stone

It been been a much better week this past week...I think.:) Bella is still sick but hopefully on the mend! She did not make it to school at all this past week. We headed back to the dr yesterday (3rd time in 2 weeks) and she is wheezing, so on the oral steriod we go! Hopefully this is the last of it and I a praying for my little guy not to get all of this... :)

I am involved in a Bible study right now called "Truth". It is awesome and put out by Focus on the Family. It has been truly AMAZING!!!! I have been overwhelmed by the truths that God is revealing to me and all the lies in the world I am exposed to daily. This past week was about Gods whole picture and story. If we only looked at our history truly as Biblical history we would see that we are a part of a greater story. It is not all about us but about HIS story and planned fulfilled through us. The truth is our purpose on this earth is to glorify God (Duet. 8:10-20), to take every thought captive to Him (2 Cor. 10:5), and to acknowledge that God is sovereign and in control (Acts 4:27-28) no matter our circumstance or ability to believe... The video said and reminded us that our problem is that we remember what we should forget- we must remember Gods unfailing love and faithfulness towards us in spite of who we are!!! What an incredible blessing this is to me!!!!

So all this to say I will will never be a stepping stone used by God unless I am caught up in the whole story... it is not about me!!! :) I hope this encourages you as much as it has me this week...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Settling down...sort of.

It has been a while since I have blogged. We have been out of the cyberworld over the last couple of weeks. It has been a true whirlwind! As as I posted before about 6 weeks ago we started looking out for a house to move in. Well, we ran into these beautiful new town homes and were asked if we would like to sell our house to the company that built the town homes. A far fetched possibility to us came true! When Cooper and I weighed all the pros and cons the pros came through!!! So we started packing... I never imagined that moving with two small children would be so hard. You realize everything settled is not just for you but for them as well... we were set to close, and long story short we were delayed a week because of some paperwork. So for a week we lived in boxes. For anyone whose has ever done that you know how miserable it is... The whole time I felt God just testing my reliance and trust that His plan is perfect. Finally we got the word the paper work went thru and our closing was set! So closed Thursday, November 20th and moved the next day. We were so excited!!! Little did I realize that even when change is good it is still hard.

So we made the move and I was looking forward to a sweet first morning in our new home. Cooper was still asleep and I got up with the kids and preheated the oven to make cinnamon rolls. All of the sudden smoke started billowing out of the oven and I screamed for cooper. I am throwing open all the windows and Andrew is yelling out of the window "FIRE!!!!" We turned on the oven light to discover that the paperwork for our new oven was inside burnt to a crisp!!! It smelt like a camp fire for two days in our house.

So Monday we have our first day of no school and I am driving the kids to the dr only to find out Andrew has a double ear infection and Bella has a terrible sinus infection behind her eyes. The beginning of the week was filled with unpacking as many boxes as possible while trying to entertain my two fussy children. Wednesday rolls around and I fix me some lunch rather than lay down with Bella... Andrew is down for a nap. All of the sudden I hear "drip, drip, drip." I look up and our ceiling is leaking!!!! Into our den! Our laundry room is on the 3rd floor... very cool I thought in the beginning b/c all the bedrooms are upstairs, but now not so cool! SO I run upstairs to find the laundry room flooded. Then all of the sudden the smoke alarm starts to go off. They are all connected in the house so every single one of then is going off LOUD! Bella is screaming, Andrew is screaming and I am completely frazzled!!!! I called Cooper and so sweetly asked him to rush home as fast as he could...turns out water got into the walls and went all the way down into the garage and was flowing through the actual smoke alarm. Well, I had had it... that was it, I could take no more. :)

Finally, Tuesday after Thanksgiving, life is resuming back to normal... NOT! School called today and Bella has pink eye and still a sinus infection. I head BACK to the dr and got our second round of antibiotics and eye drops and I am praying that Andrew will not get it!!!

SO I ask myself, what is God trying to teach me through all of this. I am resolved to the fact that God allows me to experience what I do to show my love and devotion to Him. It is not about my circumstances but my devotion and my heart towards Him. Our circumstances change but God never will... that is what keeps me hanging on by my thread most days. Bella out of the blue started singing the other day, "nothing can separate us from God's love" and it was such a sweet true reminder for me. It still does not quite fill like home yet, but I know in time it will.