I just finished talking to my sister Grace and we were giving each other a hard time about not updating our blogs so I'll be the better sister and update :)
It just show happens that this blog has a title of GRACE for 2 reasons. One being that it shall be dedicated to Grace my sister...2nd reason being that God has shown his Grace to Haley and I over the past few days.
Alex left for Mexico last Saturday for a week long mission trip with To Every Tribe. Last year we (the kids and I) got used to him being gone for a few weeks here and there but this year when he went to PNG, things changed. Haley and Graham had a very hard time being away from him. Graham woke up every night crying for Alex and Haley would cry at the drop of a hat. When he came home I told him that we needed to wait a good long time before he ever left like that for a while.
Well I don't think that we even thought twice about Alex going on this trip till the morning of. Haley started crying, not just a little but major crying early in the morning and it only got worse as the day went on. After Alex left it continued on through the night and then continued on throughout church. At this point my pregnant hormones must have kicked in b/c I could no longer keep it together either! We both sat through church crying and then came home and cried. It was miserable. I finally called Alex and told him something had to give. Either he came home or we were going to come to him. Again, I think that my pg hormones were going CRAZY.
Alex talked (I just listened b/c I was still crying) about how this could be a great opportunity to teach Haley more about Gods Grace, Gods Comfort, truly leaning on Christ, not leaning on dad or mom or things of this world. After his "talk" he told me that he thought that it would be best to stay at home, work with her and talk to her in depth about what it means to suffer, I agreed.
After getting of the phone and praying LONG and HARD, God truly showed Grace on me and changed my hard heart to one that wanted to suffer for Him. The neat part-He did the same with Haley! I sat her down, told her that dad was not going to be coming home early and that we were going to stay here and how we have to lean on Christ in times of being scared and afraid and she just looked at me, stopped crying and said, "yep, that's right mom". From Sunday till today there have been no tears in our home. We have prayed for Alex without crying. We have had several talks about what Grace and Mercy are. The Lord is opening up her heart more and more everyday to be filled with Him.
For those that prayed for Haley, thank you. This will truly be a time when we look back and see Gods hand at work in our lives.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
funny stories
It seems like a day does not go by when Graham does something that makes me question if he has any of my DNA or if he is ALL Alex.
I've been meaning to post a few funny Graham stories but keep forgetting. Enjoy!
Story 1.
The other day I was in the restroom when Graham opened the door (no knock, or "mom may I come in) and ran right up to my face holding something. When I asked him to step back so I could see he said, "look Mom, its a frog!"!!! For anyone who knows me knows I HATE FROGS. All I could do was scream, then yell at him to get out, and then panic that he would just drop the bull frog in the house. I should have known that he would never drop it b/c when he holds these nasty frogs he holds them so tight their eyes bulge from their heads. BTW, I should have also known that Alex was sitting outside and knew what was going on the entire time :)
Story 2.
I took Graham to Target with me yesterday and I wanted to try on a few skirts so we both went into the dressing room. While I was trying on skirts he said look mom what I found. Like the good mom that I am I just said, "I see Buddy", only problem was I really did not look. Well should know better with Graham b/c when I did look he had a HUGE frog again. Now this time the frog was dead, and someone had stepped on it so all its insides were coming out of its mouth and Graham is just holding this "thing" like its no big deal. What was I to do? I'll tell you what I did, I screamed, told him to put the frog down now and just stood there totally grossed out. After using a half a bottle of hand sanitizer and listing to other people giggle in the dressing room, we left, told the manager and went about our business.
Boys really are so so so different from girls.
Story 3.
This story really proves that kids say the darndest things.
About 2 months ago Haley informed me that her bottom could fit in the hole of the potty seat and that mine could not. She "reminded" me that mine goes over the potty seat. Thanks Haley. Today, we were putting away laundry and my undies were in the basket and Graham asked if they were Haley's. I said "no buddy, they are moms" he said "ohhh, yours big big?". Thanks Graham.
I've been meaning to post a few funny Graham stories but keep forgetting. Enjoy!
Story 1.
The other day I was in the restroom when Graham opened the door (no knock, or "mom may I come in) and ran right up to my face holding something. When I asked him to step back so I could see he said, "look Mom, its a frog!"!!! For anyone who knows me knows I HATE FROGS. All I could do was scream, then yell at him to get out, and then panic that he would just drop the bull frog in the house. I should have known that he would never drop it b/c when he holds these nasty frogs he holds them so tight their eyes bulge from their heads. BTW, I should have also known that Alex was sitting outside and knew what was going on the entire time :)
Story 2.
I took Graham to Target with me yesterday and I wanted to try on a few skirts so we both went into the dressing room. While I was trying on skirts he said look mom what I found. Like the good mom that I am I just said, "I see Buddy", only problem was I really did not look. Well should know better with Graham b/c when I did look he had a HUGE frog again. Now this time the frog was dead, and someone had stepped on it so all its insides were coming out of its mouth and Graham is just holding this "thing" like its no big deal. What was I to do? I'll tell you what I did, I screamed, told him to put the frog down now and just stood there totally grossed out. After using a half a bottle of hand sanitizer and listing to other people giggle in the dressing room, we left, told the manager and went about our business.
Boys really are so so so different from girls.
Story 3.
This story really proves that kids say the darndest things.
About 2 months ago Haley informed me that her bottom could fit in the hole of the potty seat and that mine could not. She "reminded" me that mine goes over the potty seat. Thanks Haley. Today, we were putting away laundry and my undies were in the basket and Graham asked if they were Haley's. I said "no buddy, they are moms" he said "ohhh, yours big big?". Thanks Graham.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
pics with friends
Here are a few pictures that my friend Rachel took of the kids. The first one is from a trip to the zoo. Clearly I'm not too impressed with Graham here. He truly is a character from the Little Rascals.
We also had a play date at her house and the kids just played in the sprinkler.
Graham had a blast with Hayden and Haley had a great time with her bf Ashlyn.
Graham had a blast with Hayden and Haley had a great time with her bf Ashlyn.
The kids loved being back in our home church (Philadelphia Baptist). The kids went with my mom since we were in Louisville but from what I heard, Graham gave "big" hugs and this is how it turned out. No shock there...
Alex also got the chance to play basket ball with some guys from church. The kids played in the gym and had a great time. They even worked on running relay races. 
We ate dinner with Josh and Rachel and Haley made banana pudding for us! The boys loved licking the bowl.
Haley, Graham & Hayden playing a little ball. Trying to get 3 kids to look and smile at the same time is not too easy. 
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Gulf Shores 2009
We ate with Tommy (Grace's man) and his parents at the Hangout the first night. The atmosphere was great for the kids. Thanks Stantons for dinner!
Sisters (Grace)
Sisters (Abbie)
Graham and Grace share a Twizzler!
Graham loves his Aunt Abbie. I love this pic!
Abbie had the idea to put this on his head and it worked great to keep his shaved head from burning and he just looked way too cute!
Haley O and E!
Haley playing in the sand. She loved the "white" sand vs "brown" sand at South Padre.
Tommy took some great family pics for us! I can't tell you the last time we took family pictures like these! Thanks for your awesome picture taking skills Tommy.
Friday, June 19, 2009
On the road again...
Well after less than a week of free time we hit the road again. My dad left on Saturday the 6th and we hit the road for a LONG road trip on the 10th. We left on Wednesday morning and headed to Gulf Shores to meet my mom, Grace, Abbie and Andy for a short vacation. We made the trip in two days with an overnight stay in Lafayette, LA. We stayed in a hotel and Alex took us to a fun restaurant called the Blue Dog Cafe. The idea was great-we love Cajun food, but the food was just not all that. We (Alex and I) were so excited to eat gumbo and etouffee but when the gumbo tasted like peanut butter and the crawfish etouffee had canned Rotel tomatoes we were not too impressed, not to mention a pricey bill. Anywho, enough complaining.
Day 2 was going to be a shorter day till we decided that the Garmin did not find the fastest way and we thought we could "beat the system". We did not understand why the GPS had us going through Mobile, AL and not just down to Dolphin Island and driving over "the bridge" into Gulf Shores. Wanna know why? THERE IS NO BRIDGE. We thought that we would be able to cut off about an hour of our trip by going this way so we headed south to Dolphin Island. Once we got there, we found no bridge(because there was no bridge) and ended up waiting 45 min to catch a ferry that ended up costing over $20, took 45 min and ended up being an hour and half late and wasted about 30 bucks. Go Team!
We spent the next few days in Gulf Shores and had a blast! We stayed in a small condo, I say this b/c there were 8 of us, and just played on the beach and pool. We also had the chance to go to our favorite restaurant (formerly Zekes, now Wolf Bay)! A big THANK YOU goes to my Uncle Jimmy for the meal!!! It was way yummy.
The next stop on our trip was home to Birmingham for a few days. We spent time with friends and family and then left the kids with our parents and left for Louisville, KY on Thursday the 18th. We are still here now and its been a great trip. We have the privilege of speaking at Auburndale Baptist Church (Alex is struggling with the name) and To Every Tribe also had a booth at the Rebelution Conference. I'll post more about the events of this weekend in a later blog.
We go back to Birmingham tomorrow, we are ready to see the kids, and then we are on the road back to Texas Thursday the 25th. We will be stopping by Hattiesburg, MS to visit and spend the night with Alex's brother and sis-in law, Travis and Michelle, and then we are driving to San Antonio to speak at a church for the weekend. WOW, we have lots to do over the next week and we will be ready for some much needed down time!
Day 2 was going to be a shorter day till we decided that the Garmin did not find the fastest way and we thought we could "beat the system". We did not understand why the GPS had us going through Mobile, AL and not just down to Dolphin Island and driving over "the bridge" into Gulf Shores. Wanna know why? THERE IS NO BRIDGE. We thought that we would be able to cut off about an hour of our trip by going this way so we headed south to Dolphin Island. Once we got there, we found no bridge(because there was no bridge) and ended up waiting 45 min to catch a ferry that ended up costing over $20, took 45 min and ended up being an hour and half late and wasted about 30 bucks. Go Team!
We spent the next few days in Gulf Shores and had a blast! We stayed in a small condo, I say this b/c there were 8 of us, and just played on the beach and pool. We also had the chance to go to our favorite restaurant (formerly Zekes, now Wolf Bay)! A big THANK YOU goes to my Uncle Jimmy for the meal!!! It was way yummy.
The next stop on our trip was home to Birmingham for a few days. We spent time with friends and family and then left the kids with our parents and left for Louisville, KY on Thursday the 18th. We are still here now and its been a great trip. We have the privilege of speaking at Auburndale Baptist Church (Alex is struggling with the name) and To Every Tribe also had a booth at the Rebelution Conference. I'll post more about the events of this weekend in a later blog.
We go back to Birmingham tomorrow, we are ready to see the kids, and then we are on the road back to Texas Thursday the 25th. We will be stopping by Hattiesburg, MS to visit and spend the night with Alex's brother and sis-in law, Travis and Michelle, and then we are driving to San Antonio to speak at a church for the weekend. WOW, we have lots to do over the next week and we will be ready for some much needed down time!
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