Monday, April 30, 2012

Saturday Night Fun

After Lila had so much fun moving little plastic chairs around at Finn's birthday party earlier that day, Josh decided to make a WalMart run while the girls were napping to find some similar chairs for Lila to play with at home. While he was there, he found some adorable baby adirondack chairs and couldn't resist getting the girls a pink porch swing also (he's such a sucker for his girls!).  Since our porch ceiling is so tall, he had to also pick up some extra chain at Home Depot, but he got the supplies and had it hung before the girls woke up from their nap.
sitting pretty in their new adirondack chairs
Lila LOVES to swing, and she was so excited to see what daddy had bought for her! She spent a good thirty minutes swinging, and then she spent another hour or so re-arranging her new chairs. She kept telling us which chair that we had to sit in and sometimes even reserved a spot for "baby" (Alli).  After I brought Alli inside, Josh and Lila brought their chairs up to the edge of the grass and pretended to sit like they were at the beach. They sat there talking for a long time, and I thought it was too cute not to video tape (it's like a 10 minute video, so I thought I'd spare you all). 
the girls loving the new swing
big girl playing on her chair and in her princess cozy coupe
I went back outside to video tape them, and Lila saw the moon and said "look at the star." I guess it does look like a big star, especially since the sun wasn't down yet. She then serenaded us with her own rendition to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." We are already enjoying our patio so much, but the last step is to bring out the baby pool (and to call MosquitoNix to come out and mosquito-proof the yard!). 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Girl Time

Josh was gone Monday-Wednesday of this week, and even though we miss him when he's not here, we always have fun girl time together! Here are some pictures of our time together while he was out on his boat:
a little tennis/teething
A little Winnie the Pooh watching
 A little bunny sharing
 A little laughing
 A little baby kissing
 A little sign language making
 A little crawling
 A little paci saving
 Some more Winnie the Pooh watching
 Some breakfast eating
 Some smiling
 Some giggling 
 And some chowing down

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Generosity

As I mentioned in my birthday weekend post, the sermon at University Baptist Church this past Sunday was on generosity. I don't normally love sermons on money and tithing, but I do need to hear about the importance of generosity, as it is a major part of the person who I strive to be.

I come from a long line of extremely generous people on both sides. My paternal grandfather worked his way up from basically nothing to earn a very good living for his family. He believed, as my father passed down to me, that with great privilege comes great responsibility, because what we have is not ours, but God's. God has entrusted us with this abundance to do what's right and good and to help those who are less fortunate. My paternal grandfather started many scholarships at Georgia Southern University, and my father and I started one at Auburn University. There are other ways to be generous, however. My maternal grandfather hasn't always had the means to be extremely generous monetarily, but has been exceptionally generous with his time and with his talents as a Minister of Music as well as meeting the needs of his family and community. With that said, I also strive to be a generous person as I know that's what God wants us to be. He has given us many blessings, and it is our job to share these blessings with those less fortunate.

Steve touched on three main points about generosity in his sermon:

I. Generosity is a by-product of believing that everything you have comes from God. 


James 1:16-17
   16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.


*if we believe that everything that we have comes from God, then we shouldn't have a problem giving back to God's purpose and mission. 


II. Generosity is a by-product of the compassion of Christ residing within you. 


*we want to give to others, because we want to strive to be like Christ. 


III. Generosity is a by-product of being Eternally minded. 


Matthew 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 


*when we leave this Earth, we cannot take anything with us. Why then, should we need to hold onto anything other that what we need to survive. Of course luxury items are fun to have (I will be the first to admit that it would be hard for me to give up some of these luxuries!), but we should also give to those who do not have the necessities to survive. 


I think Sunday's message was a great one, and I hope that it can change the way you think about generosity and giving a little!

Mommy's Little Helper

There comes a time in every babies life when they discover...the DISHWASHER. I used to be able to unload and load whenever I pleased. However, life with a 9-month old has changed that yet again. Luckily I keep the sharp objects towards the back anyways, but now I have to be especially careful about it because the silverware section is the first thing that Alli goes for. She loves to "help me" unload her plastic spoons and then immediately uses them as her chew toys...I guess better that than a fork or knife! I forgot just how curious 9-months old are! I'm finding myself having to baby-proof all over again!
Meanwhile...this is how Lila decided to eat her breakfast:
crazy girl!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

My Birthday Weekend

My actual birthday isn't until Tuesday (the 24th), but since Josh will be gone all this week, we celebrated this past weekend. We started it off by leaving the girls with a babysitter and heading to lunch downtown at Houston's.  It was so good, and I forgot just how delicious their spinach dip is! After lunch, we walked around the Galleria and spent some of the gift cards that I've gotten for Christmas and my birthday last year. I bought the cutest pink Valentino wedges and some really pretty dresses to wear to Kimberly's showers and Alli's birthday party this Summer.
After the girls' took their naps on Saturday, we ordered pizza and had some mimosas while we ate dinner outside on the patio.  Lila ate an entire apple by herself in between playing. It is always so much fun to watch the girls outside. Lila runs around and plays with everything (even the brooms), and Alli was trying to climb up the slide and made me really nervous by pulling up on everything that she could reach!
Today, we went to church at University Baptist Church, and I just loved the message of the sermon today. I don't usually like when preachers preach about money, but this pastor turned it into a sermon on generosity, which we all could practice more of. I'm going to make another blog post about the message, because I believe that it's an important one! After church, we went to lunch at Firehouse Subs where we sat outside to enjoy this beautiful weather that we've been having here in Houston. Lila actually ate most of her sandwich, and Alli slept the whole time...the church nursery really wore her out! We are making steaks for dinner, and I have really enjoyed my birthday weekend so far! I'm so thankful for good friends to be spending my actual birthday with this week!
Josh brought home some pink carnations and a sweet card for my birthday Sunday evening. We never spend much for birthdays (if anything),  because all I ever want is a sweet card. But, it's always nice to get even a little something to brighten up the house, and carnations are inexpensive and last forever! I wish Josh was here for my birthday, but I'm looking forward to dinner with a sweet friend!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Lila's First Batting Lesson

The last night that we were at my parent's house, my dad took Lila down to the batting cage (yes, there is a batting cage in their house, mainly because my brother played in high school and my dad still coaches baseball and softball) for some batting practice.  Dad was helping her hit off of the tee, and she was doing a really great job! She wanted to do it by herself after a few swings, so Dad backed off a bit and let her hit the balls on her own. She wanted to use the butt of the bat to hit the ball, but had surprisingly okay form and made contact every time. She also found some batting helmets, which she thought was funny to wear backwards.  I think it made my Dad's week to finally be able to play baseball with his granddaughter, and Lila had the most fun hitting the ball. She is a natural-born athlete for sure! It's definitely going to be hard to keep her out of the batting cage from now on!
silly girl, putting on the helmet backwards
trying out the catchers helmet

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