Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Personal Challenge :: Worship

"If you would see God at this moment, you would so utterly understand how worthy He is of worship that you would instictively fall on your face and worship Him."  --Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, pp87

"Whenever you focus on the infinte worth of God, you will respond in worship as surely as the moon reflects the sun."  --Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, pp89

My personal challenge for today: preoccupation with God, thus resulting in continual worship.

Micah Photo Shoot

So. In. Love.


Check out these AMAZING pictures my sister took of Micah & I.


Click here.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Play Dough Fun

In the mornings I've been walking with my friend Melissa for an hour while Jason gets the kids up. They watch a little movie, drink milk & chill while he gets ready for his day. When I get back from my walk I grab some coffee & a bagel and head to a quiet place for a quiet time. Jason gets the kids fed & dressed while I'm doing that. Yes, I know, you can be jealous, my husband is truly AMAZING. While I *love* the adult conversation, exercise, and then quiet time, my daughter does NOT like this new schedule. She is very distressed that Mommy is not at the house when she wakes up and that she comes home only to leave a few minutes later for a quiet time. We're working on a plan for how to make this a little easier on her. For now, as soon as I get home I postpone the shower and try to give her and Micah my undivided attention. In a short time Micah lays down for a nap and then Ivory and I spend some girl time then shower & do chores until Micah wakes up and we eat lunch. Ivory thrives when I spend special time with her. After reading this post I could totally relate. And I love how she's handling it. I think that this will always be vital for a good, pleasant relationship with my daughter.
While Ivory is a bit young for most crafts there are a few we do together and she *loves* pressing the buttons on Grandma's fancy sewing machine I've been using lately for my sewing projects. She also adores play dough.
Thanks to Nana for all these fun play dough accessories. We're having lots of fun with them!
Micah enjoys "playing" with play dough, too.
His reach is incredibly long ... as in he can get himself into all sorts of stuff now!
I can no longer walk far from him when he's in the bumbo seat as he can practically climb out of it.
Apparently play dough is quite delicious.
My sweet girl.
She was generous enough to share her play dough with me. Look` at what a big piece I got to play with!
...until she took it back after less then a minute. We're stilll working on sharing...
I love him.
How can you not love this face?

Sunday, November 28, 2010

After Thanksgiving Fun

Friday we headed from my parents place to Jason's parents. Where the kids had a great time loving on his parents and being loved on by them. Nana & Grandaddy are always lots of fun. This visit didn't fail to delight them.


Matthew home from college for the holidays. Changing the oil in his car.
Thanking grandaddy for the ride.




Signs of fall.


Enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving Visit - Debra's Take

My sister's take on our Thanksgiving week visit.


Exploring (Aunt Debi takes Ivory & Carty on a lion hunt)
Family Photo Shoot (Debi's)
Yeah, I Know (raw mom moments)
The Canterbury Family (photo shoot)
Let's Rodeo (our trip to the Rodeo)
Leavin' on a Jet Plane (my sister's trip home to Canada)


If you love looking at my sister's pics as much as me check out her website.

Thanksgiving Day

We had *such* a great Thanksgiving day! We had over 20 people at my Mom & Dad's--our biggest Thanksgiving day yet. It went so smoothly and everyone was so extremely helpful that the day went off with less stress then we could ever have imagined. My sister Debi & I were in charge of coordinating and planning, but we had such incredible assistance that our job really didn't seem that hard. Thanks to all who cooked, cleaned, and ate up our yummy food! We have such a sweet, thoughtful, generous, and talented family members. While our communication isn't always clear, our tempers not always in check, and our kids at times rather wild, we find a way to love each other through it all and for this I'm so very grateful. I praise God for sweet times of fellowship like this past week.





We transformed one of the bedrooms into a playroom for the big day and it worked as a perfect chill spot for the kiddos. The kiddos also enjoyed a morning at the park with the dads, Ally & Pa so us girls could do some cooking. Thanks to our guys + Ally!





My beautiful mother preparing the green bean casserole.


Some of the crowd.


My cousin, Michael, enjoying some appetizers before the big meal. Micahel's mom is my mom's friend since elementary school so we call her Aunt Nancy. Therefore, I consider her son to be my cousin. We're so glad that their family always joins us for Thanksgiving.


We're always so glad my Aunt Nancy's mom joins us for the festivities, as well.


My dad & Uncle Monte (Aunt Nancy's husband) enjoying the appetizers table.



Rachel (Aunt Nancy's gorgeous daughter) hanging with the kiddos in the play room.


Bella & Ivory became fast friends with Rachel.


My beautiful sister, Debra.


We even got the boys in the kitchen some! My handsome husband.


My sister's husband, Ben, our carving expert.


One word: football.


My Dad's Uncle Ray & Aunt Sandie.


Stealing away from the kitchen to grab some Rissa snuggles.


Sweet tea, lemonade, coke, and sparkling grape juice. I think I've finally lived in the deep South long enough to perfect my sweet tea making skills as I received multiple compliments. Since cooking's not really my thing I'm always a little surprised & extremely flattered to get more then the obligatory, "oh, this is good."


My sister, being the amazing photographer that she is took family pictures for my Mom & Dad and put them in this frame for their Christmas gift (we do a Christmas gift exchange around Thanksgiving with our family because we don't all see each other at Christmas). Check out some more of my sister's work at her website.


The spread:



Sweet potato casserole. Recipe courtesy of my mother-in-law. Cooked by my sister, Debra.


Delicious Pineapple casserole. Made by my beautiful Aunt Nancy M (My dad's sister).


Cornbread dressing. Recipe: my mother-in-law. Cooked by me. Another great success! Thanks Momma B for making me look good! =) Green bean casserole: French's recipe online. Cooked by my Mom + me.


Sliced turkey. Turkey breasts: smoked by my Uncle Monte. Whole turkey: roasted by my amazing sister, Sherri.



My niece Bella and Sherri's husband, Robert.


My gorgeous sister, Sherri.


Her beautiful daughter, Alexandra. The crazy from her Aunt Debi has rubbed off on her by this point...


My beautiful sisters together. The best sisters evah.


The crew.


My dad holding Rissa-Roo.


Post-feast.


My great Aunt Betty & Sandie were such a great help! They made some delicious pies & desserts and did some great dish washing.


My dad's Aunt Sandie. She's had a really rough year but is still one of the sweetest people I know. The character of Christ is so evident in her. Love that she came this year with her friend, Betty.


More of the clean-up crew.


My Uncle Monte & I. This man has loved me in some of my most unloveable moments and I know he always will! Now if only he lived a little closer to love on my little clone (i.e. Ivory) more often.


My sister's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year and my thoughtful Aunt Nancy brought this delicious, throwback of a cookie cake to celebrate her birthday.


A crowd of family singing and ceelbrating my sister's life.


My sister and her beautiful family, Ben, Carter, and Larissa.


Beautiful girls.


Love him.


Stealing kisses with the one I love.


Father-son pic. Good looking men.


Larissa, Sherri, Rachel, Micah. Micah scored with this shot of 3 beautiful girls!




Ivory talking to Aunt Nancy about her tinkerbell dress up dress from cousin Bella.


Ivory & Grandma.


Micah, Rachel, and Aunt Nancy.
Praise God for the beautiful gift of fun, friends, and family all together for Thanksgiving!