November News

Nanny's visit came to a close on the second day of November. She found a cheap flight out of New Orleans and therefore gave us an excuse to go exploring since none of us had been there.  We started off the day at Cafe Du Monde for beignets. 

A little anxious for "doughnuts" to arrive= not so cooperative for pictures.

In front of the St Louis Cathedral. When I backed away to take this picture (in an attempt to capture the whole building), two guys passed by me "hitting on me". That is an overly nice description for the not so nice things they were saying.  Needless to say we headed back to the main street. Eww.

We were about finished walking around and then we happened upon the French Market. This is probably the best selection of little shops but it was still a small selection. The French Market did offer some amazing food though!

Cajun Cafe at the Market
This place was amazing! The gumbo was by far the best I've ever had AND the prices were great!!

We had a good time walking around and experiencing New Orleans. We were not overly impressed but we were glad to add it to our list of places we've been.

The next two weeks were focused on gearing up for Miss Addison's Pinkalicious Party.  I try to make the girls' birthdays as special as possible on their actual birth day. When I asked Addison what she wanted for her special breakfast, she exclaimed "cupcakes!!" Apparently last year's breakfast was a hit ;)  The cupcake was only the beginning of a fun, all about Addison day.

Cupcakes she wanted, so a cupcake she had!

Addison decided she wanted her party at the park so that's where we had it! She and her friends had a great time but I did a horrible job of capturing the party :/

Play time! Park parties are so easy ;)

Present time! Thank you everyone :)

 Late afternoon on the day of Addison's party, Grammy came! Yay!! The girls were super excited AND Grammy even brought presents! (surprise, surprise- hehe)

Birthday present time!

Although Thanksgiving week comes with plenty of distractions, we managed to still find a fun outing :) It was our first time at the botanical gardens and we had a great time looking around at all the flowers and trees. 

Addison and her BFF, Briana

Grammy and her girls

This water fountain was probably their favorite part ;)

Handprint Turkeys for Thanksgiving!! Too bad we never really finished them, we just have cute hand prints.

They sure had fun though!

Playing a game with Grammy

We had so much fun with Grammy but her trip came and went entirely too quickly! 

It was a fun month but it sure was busy!

October in Review

I don't want to just skip over all the time I've missed so I'm going to try to do a quick series and just give you the highlights.

We drove home for another wedding! We sure have done that quite a few times in our 5.5 years of marriage and Coast Guard life! This time it was for Geoff and Avery Smith's happy day :) I took maybe two pictures of the whole day :/ Gordon was in the wedding and I was just grateful the girls stayed mostly quiet.  They were exhausted by the time we made it to the reception so I had my arms quite full. It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding though and we were thrilled to be able to be there!!

The morning after the wedding, we drove back to Alabama and brought my mom with us!

We had so much fun for over two full weeks! It was the longest my mom has ever gotten to stay and we took full advantage. Here are just a sprinkling of the 945 pictures we took. You only think I'm kidding about the number. I'm not.

We HAD to go back to the "Train Place" as Addison calls it. She loved it again and Kaitlyn loved it this time too!

We also ventured over to Pensacola to watch the Blue Angels and it was SO worth it!! We loved it and the girls did too. Much to my surprise, they had a blast at the museum too and cried when we had to leave!

They loved playing in all the different airplanes!

And using the big guns ;)

I think this might be my favorite picture of Nanny and Kaitlyn to date!

This and the picture of mom and Kaitlyn were both from our night at the fair :)

We love this picture!! This is from our night at Bellingrath Gardens :)

GREAT picture of Mom and the girls at Bellingrath

Our two beautiful trick or treaters :)) We were so happy to have Nanny go with us this year!

Don't be fooled, we went many more places and did plenty more fun things but I had to narrow it down to the best pictures.  I'll be posting more on Facebook soon...

Kaitlyn's New Teeth

Just a quick little note written for myself when I someday go back and attempt to scrapbook ;) A couple weeks ago, Kaitlyn opened her little mouth and I noticed that she "suddenly" had one two year molar all the way in! Oops!! If she hadn't bit me all of those times when I used to check for teeth, I might have been a little more aware of these recent happenings in her life ;)

I imagine her new little tooth broke the gum when she was about 23 months. That was her bottom right molar. Her bottom left followed quickly after and broke through right at 24 months. We're still watching for those top two, no sign of them yet... no visible sign anyway. I'm still a little scared to go feeling around in there- she has the jaw strength of an alligator! ;p

Road Trip Tips

If you haven't noticed, we drive to Texas OFTEN. I feel like I have the packing and road trip itself down to a science so I thought I'd share some of our strategy.
When I pack, I still fit all of our clothes (all four of us) in one suitcase. I usually pack about 7 days worth of "normal" clothes and then a dress/ nicer outfit for each Sunday. I don't usually roll the clothes (although you can fit a little more in the suitcase if you do).  We have built up almost a full supply of bathroom products at my parents' house so I only pack a few things here and there as far as toiletries go. And that's it. The van winds up full of stuff to bring home that's not sold here and vice versa on the return but that's the only luggage we take.
As far as the time in the car goes, we have started leaving super early. We get completely ready the night before and pack the van then just transfer the girls to their seats and drive while they are still sleeping :) Actually, they always wake up but go back to sleep quickly.
I pack a lunchbox full of drinks for the girls (I should include drinks for us but for some reason I forget to plan ahead for that part). I also pack a bag of snacks. I joke that it becomes an all you can eat cruise line buffet for them. They really don't mind the drive and pretty much never complain about it. I think at least some of that is due to the fact that they pig out on Fig Newtons, Teddy Grahams, Nilla Wafers, and any other snacks I include all in the same day with little restriction. That never happens on a normal day so it's just fun.  Before Kaitlyn could manage a ziploc on her own, I used those handy little snack trap cups (Munchkin sells a version now too) that way if she dropped it, it didn't spill all over the place. I even put veggies in there once when Addison was a baby, hehe.  While the snacking is virtually unlimited, the drinks are rationed quite conservatively until we are approaching a planned stop. One handy little gadget we have discovered is the Sprout Spout.

They come in a package of 3 main rings with a couple adapters so that you can covert pretty much any juice or water bottle into a sippy cup. I usually pack our own drinks but just bring these for backup. I imagine they would be especially great for air travel where you are so much more limited on the amount of stuff you can bring with you! The best time to let your kids have a drink is approximately 20-30 minutes before you plan to stop for lunch. That gives it just enough time to make it to their bladder before you take them potty ;)
Speaking of stops, we only stop twice on our 11 hour trip. If we leave around 3 or 4, we plan to stop for breakfast and lunch. This last trip, Gordon had us leave at 1am!!! Insane ;) I will admit, though, that it was nice getting here (to "Texas") at lunch time! We almost always plan our stops around Chick-fil-A's.

Not only do we like Chick-fil-A... who doesn't??... but you can depend on the fact that they are in a nice, safe area. This is especially important in Louisiana. Before I learned the Chick-fil-A trick, I accidentally stopped at some very questionable spots by myself- not good! Also, when I do happen to be traveling without Gordon, I can depend on excellent customer service at Chick-fil-A. Having someone come offer to take my tray to the table or bring me an extra napkin or a refill makes a HUGE difference on such a long day! The clientele is also much nicer... nothing like sitting next to a creepy looking guy when you KNOW that it is obvious you are traveling alone with two small girls.
Other than that, the girls get to watch a movie or two depending on how much car time they are awake for and I bring a bag of toys and books. I try to pick out some books that they haven't looked at as much lately and that have good pictures. I bring 5-10 of those and our road trip toys. For the toys, I highly recommend the travel version of the Aqua Doodle.

We have one for each of the girls and they love them. I love that it is a quiet activity that doesn't involve me and that it uses their imagination.  We also have a Leap Frog abc toy that they never play with except on road trips. It's just not interesting enough when we are home but it breaks up the monotony a little for them on a road trip. I also bring a toy phone and set of keys for each of them.  They are allowed to each bring their special animal and their "special blanket that Nanny made" and that's IT.
Well folks, I think that's about it :) Did I miss anything?

**Oh, edited to add, I only bring water for myself since I get Dr Pepper when we eat but Gordon appreciates it when I pack an energy drink, sunflower seeds, and gum for him ;)

Welcome October!

I don't know about you but we are loving this wonderful October weather! It's so nice to be able to open the windows or at least let the girls play outside (and them stay for longer than 30 seconds). 

Addison has been picking out her own clothes and she and I have both been enjoying the opportunity to wear our sweatshirts again.

And it's way more fun to play outside now!

Not so natural smile...

Much more natural expression ;)

Playing with the "buttons" on her "spaceship"

Oh, that hair ;)

They both love to swing!

Such sweet sisters...most of the time.

Adding some "extra buttons" for her "spaceship"

The first week or so of October was great and I know the rest of it will be even better! I hope yours has been the same :)

New Friendships

We adore our church and it has allowed us new opportunities to reach out to people we never would have otherwise met. I have made friends with a couple different Iraqi ladies who are both so different but both so precious. I'm praying that the Lord will use me to bring His light to them and their families. Pray with me that I would be faithful to these wonderful ladies and to His work He has for me :)
I'll leave you with this picture since no post is complete without one... isn't he the cutest little thing?!?

Picture taken by Addison, I was actually pretty excited she wanted to use my camera that morning because I knew she would take some of this little guy :) 

Ponderings

*warning: full of rambling* ;)

All this time I've been trying to catch up on my blog, I've been pondering many things. It has been a difficult month and yet such a joyous one at the same time.  I have fallen in love with our new church family at All Nations. I LOVE being back in a church that truly is family. I think churches like this one are hard to come by and are just so very valuable to the soul. This is what church is supposed to be.  I love that we can dive in with everything we have and no one thinks twice, we are just completely welcomed to come alongside them in everything they we are doing. LOVE.

Back in July... man how time flies!!!... I had the privilege of bringing my now friend, Maysam, and her three kids to our kids' camp at church one Thursday. Maysam and her family are Muslim and are refugees  from Iraq. Their story is quite incredible and I have every bit of faith that God is going to use it for His glory! I can not wait for the day when they come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!  I am learning soo much about people like them and it has really overwhelmed my heart, mind, and soul.  How badly they need the grace and love of Jesus Christ!! 

Just a few weeks later, Gordon called me out of the blue to tell me that a critical fill position was open in Corpus Christi. For those of you who might not know, CC is home for us and is where most of our family lives.  What an opportunity, and yet, I felt so incredibly torn. How could we leave here when it seems like we are just getting started in the amazing opportunities at All Nations?? I felt so sad to leave our friends here 9 months early.  It was a very long two weeks of uncertainty (it didn't pan out this time but we will still be moving this coming June).  

Then, two weeks ago, my generous friends here graciously met up with me for a blanket making party to help send blankets to Ethiopia with Apryl at Not Quite Done who happens to be my friend Danica's sister :)  We are seriously blessed with some great friends here who jump at the opportunity to help out. Proud and thankful doesn't begin to describe my love for them.

The following Monday, I had the opportunity to take another now friend to the doctor. I really had no idea what I was in for. I just thought I was playing taxi cab for the morning, but boy did God have more in mind!!  Suffice it to say God has put the mission field in our backyard here in Mobile! 

I know those all seem a little random but God has used these things to really pound out some things in my heart these past few weeks.  The needs of the people in this world are simply overwhelming, as is the prosperity in America.  We have so much and yet most of the world has nearly nothing. Why are we ok with that? Because they're not American?!? That is absurd. Where is that in the Bible?  It is frightening just how much Satan has infiltrated the American church. Seriously.  With the world wide orphan crisis, the insane number of refugees across the world, the tragic famine/drought in Africa, the seemingly back to back natural disasters, where is the church? Sure, there are some truly reaching out but they are few. Where is the church?  

As the church, what can we do? How on earth can we possibly make a difference in such a time as this? How can I spend $2 on a package of cookies that we certainly don't need when that $2 could feed a family for a week in some third world country? How does that not even occur to me when I'm at the store? 

Where is the balance ...or should we even strive for balance? There are so many things that I want to do and so many organizations that I want to help support but when have we done "enough"?  Sure, there is only so much we can do, but how is it ok that we spend even just $8 a month for Netflix when people are dying because they can't afford food or clean water? How can we justify such luxuries when we could be spending that money to save someone's life and have the opportunity to share Christ with them?

Now, please know that I'm not really looking for answers from you, I'm just trying to work it out in my heart and before the throne of God, blogging is just a good way to organize my thoughts. I truly believe this is something we should all struggle with. The struggle should never go away.  I know that God does not call us to solve these problems by ourselves but how can we claim to follow Him and strive after a heart like His if we don't even want to solve these problems? I mean the true kind of want, not the casual "yeah, yeah I'll drop a 20 in the plate if I don't have to listen to your rant anymore" kind.

Scriptures to Ponder:

Mark 14:7 "The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me."  Jesus still comes first!

Matthew 25:31-46 Which side will you be on in eternity?? Really read and ponder this! v40"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

As I've been mulling over all of this, I've really been crying out to God in frustration and in my feelings of inadequacy (to effect real change).  The other day when I was returning to this same place in my thoughts before God, He brought the parable of the lost sheep to mind. Here it is in case you need a refresher: 

Matthew 18:12-14

¹² “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

What he told me that day was to not be overwhelmed by the big picture but to do everything I possibly can for the one that He's put in front of me. I still think, though, that we need to pray that He will give us humility, discernment, and a soft heart to recognize the ones we should reach and what we can do to help. Where are we indulging too much on ourselves?  If the sacrifices that God accepts are "a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" (Ps 51:17) shouldn't we be a little more torn about all this?