"God 'less Daddy"

Gracie missed church last night because she has an ear infection and is running a high fever. She loves people so this was pure torture for her.

Last night, daddy preached so Gabriel and I stayed home with her. As we played, read books, and listened to messages - she kept asking "where daddy is?" I told her, daddy was preaching and asked if she would like to pray for him.

She said "Yes, pway for daddy." So, we prayed that God would be with him as he preached. When I stopped, she said "Amen. God 'less Daddy."

About thirty minutes, she asked to pray for daddy again. We prayed again and at the end, she said "Amen. God 'less Daddy."

She has asked to pray for different people today and every time she says "Amen. God 'less ______."

So if your ears are twitching or your nose is itching, there might be a sick little girl praying for you.

Starting Again

I have been asked by so many to start writing here again and so I have begun again. This is more of a journal for me. There are no set schedules, no set themes - just me, sharing my heart and my family with those that love and care about my family.

I also write for EmpoweringMommy.com and you are always welcome to read what I have to say over there. That site is more about deals, coupons, and products that I review. My family's journal will have none of those things.

Welcome back to our family's journal. Feel free to subscribe by email and then you'll get our updates right in your email account. This is delivered once a day on the days I post so you'll know when I have posted. You won't even have to come back here unless you want to leave a comment or look at it online. You'll get every picture and post in your email instead.

Spring Has Arrived

I know I am way behind on updating but the Lord just replaced my camera so I can update with more pictures. Gracie is quite the little person now but I'll update more on that later.

She got new rainboots and below you will see her discovery of puddles and her great enjoyment of Spring!

First puddle ever!





Love our rainboots! On from the time she gets up till she goes to bed at night!

Announcing our new little man

We were able to see the new little person that is in the process of being handmade by God right now. We were excited to see that we will be shopping for little boy clothes. He is not a modest little boy so it will be the first thing we will be teaching when he is born. :-) The tech told us today that it is a 100 percent chance that this wee one is a boy.

"

Gracie And Her First "Sledding" Trip

We bundled Gracie up in her snowsuit today and took outside to play in the snow for the first time. It has been too cold previously for us to do this. If it does warm up, the wind blows much too strong still to take her out in it. Today for a short period, we had warm weather and very little wind. We knew it would pick up around noon so we dressed her quickly and took her outside for her fun in the snow. To be honest, neither one of us had "time" but we have learned there always things to do. We try to put God first, our family second, and everything else follows that. This is one of those days where we snatched thirty minutes and just enjoyed playing as a family. You can see what a great time Gracie had! She loves to be outside so this was great for her.

"Mom, I hope this good because I can't move!" :-)


"Outside finally! Loving it!"

"Daddy removing snow from my car so that I can drive it!"

Making snow angels

"My sledding hill!"

At the bottom of my "hill"!
Want to join my snow adventure? It's tons of fun!

Our Special Gift

At 32 weeks of my pregnancy with Gracie, I went into early labor. During that time of uncertainity, not knowing if she would be born early or with problems, Dylan and I really had to trust God with everything we had. We spent many nights wondering what she would look like, what kind of personality she would have, and began to truly treasure this little gift that could become ours at anytime. At 35 weeks, she was born. We were told that she was the healthiest baby born that day. We had expected that she would have to stay in the hospital in the NICU for quite sometime. God had different plans! She went home with us two days after she was born. What a miracle God had given us.

Two days later, we were back in the hospital. She had jaundice - it was quite severe - and the doctor said we would be in the hospital for at least a week. But again, God had different plans. Two days later, we drove our precious wee one home - again because God had performed a miracle on our little Gracie's behalf.

She has become the joy of our lives and we wouldn't change a thing about her. She is our precious gift from God. These events truly made us value her more than I can say and every event in her life has been special to us.

Here is a video that we made for her. We hope to one day share with her how special she is to God. He proved it before she was ever born.

There are two very special songs on here - one I came across the day I found out she might be born early and the second the day she went back to the hospital. These songs are near and dear to my heart and truly describe my daughter.

Enjoy our special video:

Gracie and Her Grandma

Gracie has a very special person in her life and that is her Grandma. She loves Grandma very much and gets very excited whenever she sees her. We put together this special video to show just how special Grandma is to Gracie.

99 Balloons

This video has really spoken to my heart about much we need to value life. Each precious day I have with my children, Gracie and our new little one on the way, has been very special. I know that every day we have firsts when our children are first born but very quickly we also have lasts...the last time they fall asleep in your arms, the last time they need you to help them walk, the last time they have baby teeth...there are many firsts and many lasts and this video really made me think and reevaluate whether I am being careful to cherish my children. I never know when my last day with them will be.

Grab a tissue box and enjoy "99 Balloons". May we never forget the joy our children bring no matter how many days we have with them.

A Fun Family Event

I requested that we do something fun this week and so today, we spent the whole afternoon making cookies for our neighbors. We live in an apartment and have one neighbor connected to us. We then have a neighbor behind us and seven neighbors across the street in my dad's 8plex. We have more neighbors but those are the ones we know the most and who we decided to make cookies for. Our neighbors tend to be without alot of family because they are military or some other job has brought them to our neighbor. It really is a blessing to have so many neighbors.

Here are the pictures from our fun day. We made about 12 dozen cookies and one giant mess! Dylan and I worked as a team, I gathered and measured all the ingredients and he mixed it all together. We then split the job of putting the cookies on the cookie sheets. We even got Gracie involved rolling out cookie dough! After all of the pictures, you will find the recipes for all the yummy cookies we made.

Working hard

Gracie loved making cookies!

The end result. Our neighbors enjoyed the quick visit and enjoyed getting the cookies. We had a lot of fun making them and sharing them with others. It was a great opportunity to show them that we care. There were even a few that we hadn't met yet so it was fun to meet new neighbors and see their surprise when they received cookies. We had a lot of smiles and of course, Gracie was well thanked for her hard work. :-)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup Butter Shortening
• 1/2 cup Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Sugar
• 48 foil-wrapped milk chocolate pieces, unwrapped

Directions:
1. HEAT oven to 375°F.
2. CREAM together shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar and 1/2 cup sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat well.
3. STIR together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Beat on low speed until stiff dough forms.
4. SHAPE into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
5. BAKE 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
6. TOP each cookie immediately with an unwrapped chocolate piece, pressing down firmly so that cookie cracks around edge. Remove from cookie sheets to cool.

Yield: 4 Dozen Cookies

Sour Cream Cutouts
From Taste of Home

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cans (16 ounces each) vanilla frosting
Gel food coloring of your choice

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Tint some of the frosting with food coloring; decorate cookies as desired.

Yield: about 6-1/2 dozen.

Gracie's 1st Birthday - Cake Time

Here is the first video from Gracie's 1st Birthday. This video is all about the cake. :-) Please ignore commentaries in the background as I could not cut that part. Gracie sure did love her cake...we made it is sugar free as possible but I forgot all about the fact that a ladybug cake would have tons of food coloring! It kind of defeated the purpose of "light" cake but she loved it and since it's not something that she gets normally, I guess she'll live.

I will have more video and pictures soon but here is what I have for now.

"Daddy, this is good cake. You should try some. Here have a bite!"

Throwing the dirty baby away. This was the best way to clean her actually.