Christmas Letter 2012

Counting Our Blessings in 2012

AnnabelleWe are thrilled to be expecting baby #3 (Annabelle Margaret) around the end of January. Evangeline can’t wait until her baby sister is here, and talks to her every night through Mommy’s belly button. Trey is pretty much clueless that he’s going to be a big brother soon; what a surprise he has in store! He has enjoyed being the baby!
Trey- Three words to describe one-and-a-half year old Trey are Daredevil, Entertainer, and Mama’s Boy. He can and will climb anything and loves being swung around in the air upside down by his Daddy. He makes us laugh all the time by trying to balance various objects on his head. He’s funny and he knows it! Trey has an advanced vocabulary for his age, and is even putting together several sentences, most of which involve food, such as, “I need ketchup,” and, “I want candy.” Trey is never too far from his monkey blanket and pacifier, “papi,” and is completely obsessed with fruit snacks. Emily is enjoying the opportunity to be home with him every day.
Evangeline- Almost three year old Evangeline has quite a personality! She is super outgoing, very good with names, and will hug a complete stranger if allowed. She recently adopted her first security objects: a doll named Baby Moses and a stuffed cat she calls Baby Jaguar. She began taking ballet and tap this year and loves practicing her “p.a.’s.” We have “school” at home three days a week, and she enjoys learning her letters and is starting to learn to write her name. She is so excited for Christmas and has asked Santa Claus for three things: a baby doll, a diaper for her baby, and a candy cane. We are having so much fun watching our sweet little girl grow up!
Blue Bell and Edy- Our dog and cat who are so good with the kids (the cat has come a long way!).
Family- Our parents, Drew’s sister’s family, and Drew’s grandparents all live close by. We are thankful to be able to raise our children so close to our family.
Church Family and Ministry Opportunities- What a wonderful church family the Lord has blessed us with! We have been so excited to see the Lord working at First Baptist Marion this past year and a half. Emily is active in the children’s ministry and recently led the children’s choir in a musical called The Tale of Three Trees. Drew, as pastor, is of course always busy with the many opportunities to serve in our church and community.
Fellowship with Friends- Emily attends a weekly Bible Study at a church close by that offers free childcare. What a blessing! She also serves on the steering team for our local Mother’s of Preschoolers (MOPS). Drew enjoys weekly fellowship with local pastors and also plays ping pong once a week with a group of Christian men.
Travel opportunities- We took a family vacation this August to Jackson and Memphis. The Memphis Zoo was a hit, along with Mud Island, Yogi Bear Park, and the Mississippi Braves baseball game. Emily and the kids spent a week in Ft. Myers, Florida with her family in June. In July, Emily and Trey took a trip to Great Falls, Montana for a few days to spend time with close friends.

We are very fortunate, and our blessings endless, but the most important blessing of all

is a personal relationship with our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), whose birthday we celebrate this time of year.

Lucky Little Kitty

One of our traditions when we go walking in our neighborhood for the past month and a half is to visit two little kittens who live next door to our nursery worker, Mrs. Mary, and around the block from us.  Their owner has been trying to find them a home, with still no takers.  She always teases me asking when I want them.

Today Mrs. Mary watched Evangeline and Trey while Drew and I worked on the Space Party.  I went over to the house to check on things and noticed a strange (as in not Edy) cat under her car parked in my driveway. As I got closer the kitten walked towards me and started purring as I picked her up.  She looked a lot like my little kitty friends from around the block.  I wondered if their owner had finally brought me one!

I then began to wonder if that kitty had traveled in Mrs. Mary's car up to my house.  It sure looked like the same kitten.  And, I've never seen any other cats hanging around my house.  Blue Bell seemed to recognize this kitty too, which was odd. 

I drove the kitten up to it's "home" and counted and there was only one kitten there!  The other kitten came up to us and started meowing something that sounded a whole lot like, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?  I TOLD YOU YOU WERE GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE" to the lost kitty.  I returned the kitty and she happily ran over to her food and water bowl and then laid down in her usual spot. 

How lucky is that cat?  The day she decides to "car surf" the vehicle happens to be traveling to someone's house who knows her and knows where she lives!  I think this is the same kitten that got hit by a car last week and is showing absolutely no signs of injury today.  She is one lucky little kitty!

Mistaken Identities

Evangeline is really good with names.  Like, really really good.  I'm pretty sure that there are adults at our church who could identify fewer people by name than Evangeline can and she's two.  Not knocking FBC Marion in any way.  It's a super sweet congregation with tons of fellowship and love for one another.  And, Evangeline knows almost everyone.

So, it was only a matter of time before she started calling Drew, "Brother Drew."  I think it's hilarious.  Drew hates it.  She also calls him just plain ole "Drew" but in a condescending kinda voice that sounds a lot like me.  Not sure where she picked up on that. :)

In slightly related news, I was brushing Evangeline's teeth earlier and she started to have a total meltdown.  As in screaming and trying to bite me.  I looked down and was using Trey's toothbrush.  Ooops!  Now she knows how it feels as I've chased her around the house with my toothbrush in her mouth on more than one occasion. 

Trey just said, "Edy" very clearly.  I'm thrilled.  Drew, not as much.  He could definitely do without that cat and isn't crazy about how big of cat lovers his two children are turning into.  They have Snowden in there blood, after all. 

Outsmarted

Happy Mother's Day!  Today we ate lunch at McAlister's for the third week in a row.  Since learning that both ministers and children eat free on Sundays, we have been going there a lot!  And today mothers got a free dessert!  So our family (us plus Drew's parents and sister's family) ended up getting two free adult meals, three free kids meals, and three free desserts.  We (or Drew's dad) paid for four adult meals.  Pretty good deal!

All was well with Evangeline until she saw my mom's free cheesecake.  Without doubt, Ev's favorite food is cake.  She's never had cheesecake before, but it looked an awful lot like cake, and had the word cake in it, so she wanted some.  But, she wasn't done with her mac and cheese.  Unlike cousin Elizabeth, Evangeline rarely eats all her food. 

We told Evangeline that she could have a bite of cake when she ate some more of her mac and cheese.  And then the power struggle began.  For a good ten minutes the four of us (me, my mom, Drew's mom, and Kelly) held firm: no cake until a bite of mac and cheese. Ev cried.  Whined.  Pouted. Pushed away her bowl.

Then Drew came back to the table with a piece of cheesecake and immediately gave her a bite.  I was horrified!  Drew is more stubborn than Evangeline (and anyone else I know!) and he always wins the "finish eating this before that" battle at suppertime.  WHAT was he thinking?

After her first bite, Ev immediately wanted, "more, please."  Drew said, "take one bite of macaroni."  She quickly shoved some in her mouth.  Another bite of cheesecake.  Now, two bites of macaroni.  Before we knew it, half her mac and cheese was gone! 

So, who outsmarted whom?

Cuddle-Free Zone

     Every day I am amazed at the differences in my two children.  Evangeline was walking at one year almost as well as she does now.  While Trey took his first steps two months ago, he still won't take more than about six steps at a time before he decides he'd rather just crawl.  I'm pretty sure that Trey says more words at almost one than Evangeline did when she was his age.  He can clearly say Mama, Dada, Blue Bell, ball, Edy, and his favorite, "Uh oh."  I've also heard him say "Hey" and "Thank you" a few times.  Who knows when he'll catch on to "Evangeline."

     Their sleep behaviors are what make me laugh the most.  Trey is a snuggler.  He loves his monkey blanket more than anything.  We just set up his "Scout" that he technically got for Christmas today, so I placed it in bed with him tonight (the first time he's ever had a stuffed animal in bed with him other than the monkey blanket).  He snuggled right up to it, with his arm curled around his monkey blanket.  So sweet.

      Evangeline, in contrast, does NOT like stuffed animals in bed with her.  Earlier tonight she was playing and put a few baby dolls in her bed and covered them up.  When Daddy tucked her in he left the baby dolls in bed.  A few minutes later we heard her crying.  I sneaked up to her door to listen and heard her say, "Get out, baby!" followed by a loud THUD.  Her bed is a cuddle-free zone for sure!

      Drew just asked what I was blogging about.  I told him "the differences in our children."  He pointed out that one's a boy and one's a girl.  Thanks, honey!  I'm sure that the gender difference will become a factor in the years to come as well!

Don't Eat My Cheesepuffs!

We had an eventful lunch today.  As the kids were eating and I was cooking green beans, suddenly giant flames began to shoot from underneath the pan.  At least 10 inches.  I panicked.  I know exactly where our fire extinguisher was in Henleyfield, but in the short 2 seconds I considered trying to put the fire out myself, I couldn't recall where ours was.  My only thought was to get my babies out of that house ASAP.

So, I gathered up the kids and the dog, thought briefly about the cat and remembered she was already outside, and hurried out the back door.  Drew was over at the church hanging out with Mr. Ray Cantrell who just so happens to be a firefighter.  Pretty lucky, I thought.  He is even driving his Marion Fire and Rescue Truck today.

After what seemed like FOREVER, Drew picked up the phone and I instructed him to "come home right now."  One good thing about having Drew work so close by is that he IS so close.  I've called him home on numerous occasions to inspect injuries, unstick my van, etc, but I think this is the first fire I called him to put out.  I was also thinking about Ray. 

Drew ran home fast, followed close behind by Ray.  As they flew by, Evangeline shouted to Mr. Ray, "Don't eat my cheespuffs!!!!"  Someone needs to straighten out her priorities. :)

The flames had died down by the time they got to the house and I was thankful that there was at  least a tiny bit of smoke so they didn't think I was totally crazy.  Turns out I just need to clean my grease trap.  And I will, cause other than the cheespuff comment, that was no fun! 

P.S. Evangeline ended up feeding her cheespuffs to Blue Bell anyway.  Guess she was saving them for her?

God is working in Marion

I love Marion.  To be honest, for a long time I've been scared to say that.  Scared of hurting all of my Henleyfield friends who I also love very much.  I definitely left a piece of my heart in Henleyfield.  But, I know know know that Marion is where we are suppose to be.  And I've fallen in love with this little neighborhood. 

Nearly every day I go walking up and down my streets with my double stroller and dog.  I have gotten to know my neighborhood very well.  I walk around and pray and search for people to invite to church.  Nothing excites me more than being able to invite someone to church and we have been praying since we got here for opportunities. 

The week before Easter Drew and I passed out a bunch of flyers and met many people in our community.  And several came to our Easter activities, which was thrilling.  I see God at work and am just so excited and encouraged by it! 

There have been several families with children that we have met and been praying for.  One family joined our church Palm Sunday and their oldest daughter was baptized Easter Sunday! 

There's another family that lives close by whose kids are always playing outside.  Evangeline loves them.  She prays for them every night and is always asking us where they are.  In fact, when I told her they were at school, she said she wanted to go to school, too.  The little girl has been to church a few times.

A few days ago we met a mother and two young children who had recently moved in.  The mother mentioned that the little kids use to ride a van to another church at their old house.  Today I stopped by and asked if they wanted to come to TeamKid tonight and I could just walk over and get them.  The mother said okay, and I prayed all afternoon that they would actually be there to come to church when I went back and got them.

At 6:40 Evangeline and I walked over to pick them up.  I realized half way there that it was a mistake bringing her b/c she wanted me to hold her the whole time and she is a heavy chick!  Anyway, a lady I hadn't met answered the door and told me that the woman and children had left to go to her mother's because their washing machine had broken.  I was disappointed, but at least encouraged that she had specifically left a message for me. 

Evangeline and I walked back over to the church and were met with a crowd of children.  After averaging four kids at TeamKid for the first several months we were here, you can see why we were so excited to have had 16 kids there tonight!  And, four of our "regulars" weren't there.  If you add the two other kids who were doing laundry, that's 22 kids.  Wow!  God is blessing us for sure!

We decided a few weeks back to do an Easter lesson tonight since church Wednesday was cancelled due to our Maundy Thursday service.  Tammy did Resurrection cookies, we did an Easter craft, and I did the Resurrection eggs (a preschool and grade school version).  The awesome thing about the resurrection eggs are that they present the plan of salvation really well. 

By the end of our lesson I was blessed with the chance to pray with two girls to accept Christ.  And they both poured out their heart to me, confessing sins to me and telling me about some really deep hurts in their families.

In my ladies' Bible Study we talked about how sometimes you pray for something but what you're praying for isn't what really what needs to happen.  It struck me tonight that had those two other children come, I would've had to immediately take them home and not have been able to pray with the other girls.  God knows what He's doing.  And, I'm excited to be in the middle of it here.  If you're reading this, please say a prayer for Marion.  Pray for the many unchurch families in this area.  And, pray for these two sweet new believers.