Sunny Days...

...sweepin the clouds away!

On Saturday, January 2nd, I took Maddy and Parker to see Sesame Street Live!  We were so excited that they finally came to Knoxville. Over the last several years we have had to travel to Chattanooga or Johnson City to see the Sesame Street Live shows.  Maddy's first word besides mama and dada was Elmo, and her love for Sesame Street grew again when Parker became interested in it and fell in love with Elmo.  Maddy is such a great big sister to Parker and I thought they would enjoy the show the most.  Here is Maddy showing Parker the big Elmo sign: 

The show was called, "Elmo's Green Thumb" and all of the Sesame Street friends joined together on an adventure to help ELMO find a new home for his sunflower friend, "Sunny." 

Parker was mesmerized when the show first started:

Then he wanted to stand up to see better and clap a little bit:

Parker wanted some "po-pern" (popcorn) so we snuck out during the first half to get some.  He insisted that Maddy share with him!

At the end they shot out streamers and confetti and the three of us jumped a mile! 

What a great show and it enabled me to teach them a good lesson on sowing seeds, taking care of God's creation, having patience and letting God grow plants in His own time.  Of course, the best part was spending time with Maddy and Parker! 

Then he (Jesus) told them many things in parables, saying:  "A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil.  It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  He who has ears, let him hear." Matthew 13:3-9

The Old Has Gone...

The new has come!
I have been out of touch with my blog for almost 2 weeks, but the Lord has been busy doing a lot of work in my life and I am so excited about 2010! 
I wanted to share with you how we spent the rest of our Christmas break, and hopefully I will get caught up over the next few days. 
I love Road Trips especially when they are spontaneous!  It was so hard not being with my mom and dad at Christmas and the kids were missing their grandparents terribly.  So when I realized that we had absolutely nothing scheduled the week of December 28th, I packed us up and headed 430 miles North to Stephens City, VA to spend the week with my mom and dad.  The four kids did wonderful for me on our long car ride.  We only had to stop twice and made it there safely in a little over 7 hours on Monday.  My mom and dad were thrilled that we wanted to make the trip again after just being there at Thanksgiving, so we got spoiled with lots of love and relaxation!  Parker made himself right at home in Grandpa's chair watching his favorite movies:

My Dad was extra excited that we would be ringing in the new year with them, so he got all kinds of party supplies for me and the kids.  He blew up a ton of balloons to throw over the balcony:

As you can see we started celebrating early.  The clock reads a little after 7:15! Parker and Maddy loved the noisemakers:

Katy's favorite was the cookies and ice cream (isn't that what grandparents are for?): 

The kids had fun dancing with each other:

Parker's 1 year molars decided to come through while we were away, so he was drooling all over the place! 

And then he became worn out from all of the partying!:

The kids made it till about 11:00 and then they were ready for bed (and so was their mommy!)

I can't begin to thank the Lord enough for all of His blessings, not just in 2009, but in my entire life.  I am so thankful for my family and the time that the Lord has allowed me to spend with them.  He has given me the best job in the world--being a Stay at Home Mommy to HIS princesses and prince:

I am praying that my children will continue to learn from Jonathan and I all they can about our Lord and Savior, and to Him be the glory!  Happy New Year to you and your family!  May God continue to bless you in 2010!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!

2Corinthians5:17

Christmas 2009

I pray that everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  For those of you that weren't able to be with us for Christmas this year, here is a video montage of pictures from Christmas morning created just for you.  We love and miss you so very much! 

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you:  You will find
a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. 
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with
the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men
on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:11-14

Santa...Please Stop Here!

After we got home from Jonathan's grandparents on Christmas Eve, the two older girls wanted to get our house all ready for Santa.  Poor Katybugs wanted to go straight to bed.  She's still trying to recover from strep and croup. Maddy made some special Reindeer food in her preschool class, and she was so proud of it! 

Even though it was raining, Maddy still wanted to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn so they would be sure and stop at our house!

And she was so sweet to share with Lily! 

Next was setting out the cookies and milk for Santa.  Santa asked for chocolate chip cookie bars this year! 

Lily and Maddy were so excited and didn't want to miss Santa coming so they were eager to go to bed! 

Such sweet smiles from my Christmas cuties! 

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. 

The Lord be with all of you.

2Thessalonians 3:16

Baking Beauties

Wednesday night was baking night for me and my girls!  They chose gingerbread for their cookies this year.  We love the book Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and Maddy of course made sure we didn't peek in the oven until the timer went off (If you haven't read the book it's a must-read!)

Katy was the most excited!  She wanted to show everyone what our cookie cutter looked like!:

Lily was so careful when pressing the gingerbread "girl" cutter into the dough:

Lily and Maddy decorating with "spicy" red hots:

And the best part of course was decorating with yummy frosting!

Katy went a little crazy with the Christmas sprinkles!:

And here are their gingerbread girls:

I love you my baking beauties!  You are such a blessing to me! 

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Matthew 16:28

Home Sweet Home

On Sunday, December 20, we attempted our first Gingerbread house by ourselves this year and it was quite an experience.  My mixer finally gave out on me after 8 1/2 years of use, so Jonathan had to mix up the icing by hand.  The girls waited so patiently. 

You can tell Katy is saying, "Gingerbread..."

Parker was serious about eating the candy! 

The icing was very runny, so the house was barely holding together while the kids put the candy on.  They didn't mind at all though because they were having lots of fun!

Katy loved licking all of the icing that was getting all over her fingers!

Jonathan had to hold the house together so they could decorate it!

I love the look on Parker's face in this picture...he's ready to climb on the island and dig in!:

My sweeties were so proud of their Gingerbread House!:

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. 

Joshua 24:15

God's Sovereignty

I wanted to update all of my prayer warriors on our sweet boy.  A lot has been going on with Parker, and for me it has been difficult trying to understand exactly what is going on and just wanting answers.  I struggle with this daily.  Why do we always feel the need to have control and have an answer for everything?  I am praying that one day I can truly be at peace with the fact that things are out of my control and there is only ONE that has complete control.  And I am praying that I can be at peace with the fact that there will be things that I never will fully understand, but that our sovereign Lord knows EVERYTHING and that should be sufficient!  I have grown closer to the LORD during this time and for that I am truly thankful!

I sent out a praise last month that all of Parker's blood work had come back normal.  Well, when I took him to the Allergy & Asthma specialist for his follow-up appt. on Dec. 2nd, I found out that I was given some misinformation.  The blood work done on his immune system on Oct. 14th actually did show some abnormal results.  Some of his immune system levels were low.  So they reordered blood work to be done at Children's Hospital to determine if this was because he was so sick at the time of his last lab work testing, or if he had immunoglobulin deficiency syndrome.  They also checked his antibody titers for the DTP vaccine and the pneumococcal vaccine.  All of this information was too overwhelming for me!  And those of you that know me know that I am a researcher, and I immediately went home and "googled" those things just trying to understand what all of this meant.  After almost 2 weeks, I finally got all of his results back on Dec. 15th.  Thankfully his immune system levels were in the normal range.  However, his antibody titer levels for diptheria and pnemococcal were abnormally low.  The nurse explained to me that at the time Parker received these 2 vaccines when he was a baby, his body failed to produce enough antibodies to maintain these vaccines and that he would need to be vaccinated again to boost up his levels.  She also told me that this might explain why he has had recurring infections because his body did not have a protective level against these diseases.  The diptheria vaccine protects against bacterial diseases that affects the throat.  The pneumococcal vaccine protects against bacteria that is responsible for respiratory infections in upper/lower airways, and is the leading cause of ear infections and can cause pnemonia.  Doesn't this sound like what Parker has been dealing with?  Amazing!  So, on Dec. 17th, Parker was revaccinated with these 2 vaccines, and we are praying that his body will fight to maintain them.  I will take him back to Children's in 6 weeks (Jan. 28) and have his blood drawn again.  Then I should have his results back on Feb. 12th when we have a follow up appt. at the Allergy & Asthma specialist.  Continue to pray for Parker and that God's healing hand will be upon him.  He is still struggling with trying to get well.  We are still keeping him home to give his body time to heal.  Thank you to all of you who are praying for us.  It means so much!

The LORD is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house

of the LORD forever.

Psalm 23