I know it's been forever since I've posted any pictures.  I'm just so behind at this point that it'll take hours when I finally update everything.  So, for tonight, pictures will have to wait!

This was just too cute and I had to make sure I got it written down so that I'll remember it:

Tonight as we were praying, Hannah asked God to help her with a couple of things that were personal - her mouth was hurting (new teeth coming in) and her head was hurting (not sure what that's about, sometimes she pretends that she hit it and will pretend to put ice on it like they do at school, so it could've not been true...)  The great thing about this was that she actually asked God to help those things.  Normally she just thanks God for random objects and people and then she's done.  We've been talking a lot lately about different stories where Jesus healed people of their sickness or made the lame to walk again, etc., and I think she's really getting it!  

It just made my heart smile that she understood it and transferred it over to herself.  Her mouth was hurting her and her first thought was "I'll ask Jesus, 'cause He can make it all better!"

LOVE. IT.

Last night we had a meeting with a leadership team at our church and talked about what we can do to reach people with the Gospel, We talked about what we can do to reach out to the people in our neighborhoods. In the time of discussion we mentioned so many great characteristics about our church and our staff. All of which I hope are true. But, there seems to be a disconnect between our efforts and results. Results is a dangerous word in the world of church because people have so many different ideas in their heads when they hear the word results. But, there seemed to be a consenus last night that we are not seeing the kingdom results that we are praying for. Sitting at my desk this morning and replaying last nights conversation I am finding a phrase that is missing.

In all of our conversation and effort in my 3 years at FBC Jackson, I cannot remember us saying "God has told us to do _________" I sat in a room full of some of the most earnest and sincere Christians I have ever met. These are men and women who have a hunger in their gut to see Christ exalted in our fellowship and in our city. So, maybe it is time that we ask God this question: "Lord, what do you want us to do?" I understand that it may take some time for us to hear and comprehend His answer for our church. So, to steal some advice a friend of mine recently received and shared... "What was the last thing God told us to do?" I think that it is time that we earnestly seek the face of God, and in line with the sermon our interim pastor preached this past Sunday, we need to learn to "knock" and persevere in our prayer as well as our faith. I believe that God will answer our request, I believe that God enjoys the conversation with us as well. So, we need to remember what the last thing God told our church to do and do it, while we pray for God to give us fresh direction and vision as to what we should do next. This has direct application even to the individuals in our fellowship. If each of us asked the Lord what He wants us to do in every aspect of our lives, and then did it, we would be in line with the picture of following Christ that is seen throughout the scriptures. I am confident that Christ will finish His work in my life, my family, in other people's lives, and in His church! Because of that I am asking Him what is it that He wants me to do?

I must warn those reading this that asking this question may radically alter the landscape of your life. If you choose to obey and follow Christ as Lord, then what you do with your stuff is no longer your decision. Which house you live in, what car you drive, what you spend your money on, etc. Asking God what he wants us to do applies to every aspect of our being, and thus transfers to the fellowship of believers. It is an awesome place to be when we are trusting on His will and plan for our every move, and it is often a worldly difficult place to be as well. He may want us to look very different than we do now. He may have plans to showcase His glory in ways that we cannot fathom, but when He is magnified we are not. It is in our weakness that He is strong. So, go ahead and ask God what He wants for you to do. Ask knowing that in being obedient to Him you will find the greatest satisfaction of your soul and He will receive the greatest glory through your life!

Blogging from camp

Well, we're here at Student Life Camp with Hannah for the 3rd year (yep, that's right, I'm a crazy woman and took my 2 month old to camp!)  We are at Shocco Springs in Talladega, AL, and despite the 97 degrees and 100% humidity, we are having a great time!  We're sweaty, but havin' fun!!

The great thing about camp is that Hannah is able to do almost everything that the kids are doing (not participate, but she can be present without messing anything up.)  For example, the band is loud and fun, so she can dance and clap along with the students and nobody is concerned about a 2 year old being in the room.  And our students are doing rec tracks this year, so we get to walk around and see all of them, which Hannah loves!  Basically the only thing we miss out on is worship at night and first thing in the morning.  But, they have a playground here, so we do that in the morning, and then we head back to the room for a bath and bedtime after supper.  It's really working out well, and I'm really glad that we are able to do this as a family.  I really appreciate that Student Life is so accommodating to people who want to bring their children.

I've taken some pictures, but Rob has the camera with him tonight in worship, so I'll have to load those later!

Summer has officially arrived!!

We got back from Gulf Shores late Sunday night, so we took some time to regroup and get ourselves settled back into life on Monday.  This included 'fun' things like going to the bank and getting groceries and doing laundry.  So, to reward ourselves, and just to have some relaxing time at home, we decided to grill out Monday night.  It was sooo good to be home and just rest some!  We pulled out Hannah's pool and let her play in it too.  She was so excited about swimming!

Filling up her "aldergator" pool all by herself.

Please ignore the crazy bumpy hair in this pic and just focus on the cute grin on the sweet girl!

Sliding down...

splash!!

Oooooh! That's kinda cold!!

Getting braver and laying on her stomach in the water.

Deep Sea Fishing 2

Deep Sea Fishing

Last day at Gulf Shores

Dancing with Daddy

Gulf Shores beach

At the beach for the first time...

And she loved it!!

Riding the boat in Perdido Beach

We headed to Gulf Shores this weekend for a wedding (congrats Josh and Molly!!) and stayed with my Aunt Becky and Uncle Chuck at their beach house in Perdido Beach.  We had such a great time seeing family and relaxing!

We rode their boat over to a place called Pirate's Cove for lunch on Friday.  This is how Hannah rode the whole way - standing up at the very front!  Even when the boat was going really fast, she would just stand up there looking at everything!

At Pirate's Cove, playing in the water and sand with Daddy

Sitting by Barrett in the driver's seat of the boat.  She actually helped Harrison drive later on the way back to their house.

Sitting on the front of the boat with Uncle Chuck, looking at some really big birds.

Mother's Day 2009

It's crazy that two years ago on Mother's Day, she was just 4 weeks old and just starting to smile a few smiles here and there. Things sure have changed a lot in 2 years!!

Sick kid

There's nothing like your kid puking all over your hair, shoulder, into your purse, and all over the floor of Don Pancho's to make you change your plans really quickly.

Yep, Hannah's sick - we're hoping it's just something she ate, and not an actual stomach virus.  I guess only time will tell, huh?  

Ugh, this is no fun when they're not old enough to warn you so you can get them to the bathroom in time!  

I know, I know, this too shall pass!

spring-time fun!

Nelson came over the other day to play, and he and Hannah had lots of fun with all of her toys outside!

Playdoh fun

birthday card from Mammaw

She loved the music that this card played!

Easter 2009

Birthday pics

Just catching up on pics from the past few weeks!  Here are some from Hannah's Elmo birthday party.

"Jesus, come back soon?!?"

The other night, Hannah and Rob were playing with the Resurrection Eggs that we got her the other day.  I saw them advertised in a Lifeway mailout, and thought they would be really neat to help teach her about Easter.  Each one has a little reminder in it about the story of Jesus' death and resurrection (ex: a small cross, a piece of white cloth, a crown of thorns, etc) to help you tell the story of Easter.  Not that we need help telling the story of Easter - it's really more that Hannah needs help paying attention to the story of Easter.  So, we got them.  And she loves them...

So, Rob and Hannah were playing with them the other night, and they got to the one that was empty (signifying the empty grave) and Rob went on and on about how Jesus isn't in there any more because He's alive and how great that is, etc.  Hannah kept asking "Where'd Jesus go?" and looking around in the box, like she was missing a piece to her new toy.  Rob kept telling her, "He's not in there, just like He wasn't in the grave any more because He was alive."  She kept asking "where'd Jesus go?" so finally he just answered with, "He went to heaven and He's there with God."

Her answer...with a worried look on her face - "Jesus come back soon?"

Rob: "I sure hope so, Hannah."

She then looked inside her egg again, to be sure He wasn't there, and looked at the front door and said really loudly, "JESUS, COME BACK SOON!"

I'm really glad that we got these eggs - they're kinda cheesy, but they are helping make Jesus real to her, even though I know she doesn't really understand yet.

On a side note, "be back soon?" is something that she says all the time. Everyday that Rob is at work and we are at home, she asks all day long, "Daddy back soon?"  When we have friends over and they have to leave to go home, she asks, "be back soon?"  She's such a social little person, she constantly wants lots of people at our house.  Maybe some of that is our fault, since we constantly have people at our house...

"Horsey, I'm scared..."

Family time tonight was fun, but just so memorable, we had to write it down so we wouldn't forget.

We were reading through one of her books called "The Story of Jesus" (it walks through many stories of Jesus, including His birth, miracles He did, His death, and resurrection.)  Hannah, for some reason, loves the story of when Jesus and His disciples were on a boat during a storm, and they were all scared except Jesus (who was sleeping).  We talk to Hannah about how when she is scared she can talk to Jesus and He isn't ever scared and He's in control and can help us.  She loves it and always wants to go back to it over and over again. 

(To give a little background, months ago we took Hannah to see the eagles and falcons at a park here in Jackson.  Remember those pictures?  Well, she talks about it all the time... "I saw a brown eagle! I saw a brown eagle!"  And on and on she goes every day.)

So, tonight as we read that story, we told her again, "you can talk to Jesus when you are scared about things."  

She responded " I scared of the brown eagle!"

We said, "Well, tell Jesus about it!"

She sat there for a while, then said, "I tell horsey I scared!"  and promptly ran across the room, leaned down in front of her rocking horse, stared him right in the face and told him "I scared of the brown eagle."

We then (after we regained our composure) talked to her about how she can tell Jesus when she's scared (again).

So she leans over the book, looks at the picture of Jesus in the boat, and leans in real close and says, "I scared of the brown eagle."

She proceeded to tell the horsey about 4 more times too.  

We just thought it was so precious.  We are loving the chances that we have to teach her about Jesus, even though most of it is hard for her to grasp still.  

Cool Kid!!

Cypress Grove

We discovered a park in Jackson on another semi-warm day recently - Cypress Grove.  It has lots of boardwalks over a kinda swampy area, and lots of cypress trees.  It was great to get outside and let Hannah run around.   

"C'mon Mommy!"

Running full speed ahead

So fun

We discovered that they also have a raptor exhibit there, complete with a bald eagle, golden eagle, etc.  Several of them, if not all, were injured in some type of way - missing a wing, part of a wing, etc.  It was really neat to find out that we had this type of thing right here in Jackson.  Hannah loved looking at the birds.

First Hair Cut

She picked out the lion to sit on.  And kept roaring the whole time.  Her other options were an airplane or a boat.  I think she wasn't sure what noise they made, so she picked the lion!

She was SOOO good the whole time!! I really expected her to scream her head off, but she was loving it, as you can clearly see!  I had told her all day long that we were gonna go see Ms. Becky and that she was going to make her hair look cute.  She went around saying "cute" all day long!

The result - shorter, but finally all one length, yay! No more crazy layers!

 

Waiting to get her balloon as a prize for being so good!

Silly willy

Hannah was particularly silly one day after her nap. She was wide awake and insisted on me being in her room, but she did NOT want to get out of her bed yet.  

WILD bed head!!

This is her new SILLY FACE that "Uncle Neil" and "Aunt Kim" taught Hannah one day. We see this alot now!!

Snow Day!!

I have other cute pics of all of us in the snow, but they're on Robbie's phone, so I'll have to get those from him. 

She has seen snow before, but didn't really get to play in it last winter. She definitely loved it!  Except for the mittens or gloves.  And she got mad that the snow made the gloves get wet.  So, being the smart little girl that she is, she pulled out her sand shovel and went to work!  

Warm day at the park

We try to take advantage of any semi-warm day that we get during the winter months. This day was beautiful and in the 60's so we headed to the park.  Robbie was behind the camera this time, so that's why there's a lot of Jill!

Christmas present from Mammaw Barrett

Doesn't she look like such a big girl in this shirt?

She wore her hair down this day, without a bow or pony tail holder.  It's usually pretty wild, but this day it stayed put - and made her look so grown-up.

New Years Eve

Who needs fireworks when this is in the sky??

For those of you who knew me in college, you know that I was often seen running full speed across campus with a camera in my hand to try to catch a sunset on film.  I didn't have to run anywhere for this one!  Just standing in my back yard!!  Oh what a good and perfect Father we have!!

the rest of Christmas pics

These didn't come out in the order I expected, so just bear with me... they're not in chronological order at all.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Riding in the wagon, feeding the baby her bottle of milk

Everyone was amazed by the Tickle Me Elmo

Eating around the table

Playing with the duck from Uncle Russ - she loved this thing!  And as usual, Russ succeeded in finding a toy that's loud and somewhat obnoxious! :)  She still plays with this toy over and over again!

Riding in the wagon on Christmas day

Opening presents Christmas morning - wearing the backpack she just opened and not letting go of Elmo while opening something else

Opening presents Christmas morning

visiting family at Christmas

Here are a few pics from visiting family at Christmas. I'm really trying to get caught up on the blog, but don't want to just skip over stuff!!

Hangin' with Grandpa

I don't know if you can see this or not, but I am practicing my flute in the background (for our church's Christmas Eve service) and Hannah picked up this and kept acting like she was playing the flute too!

Playing with Gran, and Pappaw Peoples

Playing with new toys - or watching Grandpa figure them out!

Opening gifts with Mammaw Peoples

Reading a book with Mammaw

Playing with Mammaw

All dressed up for church!

All things loss...

This hit me square in the forehead tonight:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him..."           Phil. 3:7-9a

I so often get caught up in the comparison game, my life versus others.  So unhealthy, so not right.  The "what if's" and "if only's".  All that is loss in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.  

This hit me smack in the forehead tonight and forced me back into the right perspective on life.  None of that matters - what size my house is, how cute my clothes are, what SIZE my clothes are, what kind of car I drive, if I have to work and other people can stay at home full-time.  These may be things that matter, in general.  I may have to make decisions that influence or are influenced by these things.  I may have to think on these things.  But, in comparison to the value of knowing Christ? Nothing compares.  I have immeasurable value in my relationship with Christ, and that's all that matters.  

All things loss.

Just had to share.

Christmas card picture 2008

St. Jude Marathon weekend

Three little girls waiting to see their daddies running.  In the FREEZING cold!

Hannah decided we were gonna have to wait a while, so she made herself comfortable.

Here they come!!

Running into Autozone Park for the finish

The finish line!! Yay!!

First pony tail

Hannah's hair has finally gotten long enough for a real pony tail!  I think it makes her look like such a big girl.

Christmas parade

It was FREEZING cold that day = not the best pictures ever!  But it was fun! Our college students are the greatest ever and met us downtown to watch the 17 santas roll by!

Thanksgiving at Mammaw Barrett's house

Aunt Heather's dress

Robbie's mom went through some of Heather's baby clothes and we took a few things for Hannah to wear.  This little jumper was one of them.  The shirt and tights are new, but I thought it looked cute!  Here's Hannah showing off for Aunt Heather!

The Memphis Zoo

We had  a rare warm Saturday in November and took Hannah to the Memphis Zoo. She loved it!  I got lots of pics of the animals, but I know that you all know what a tiger looks like, so I'll just post a few of Han. 

Looking at the monkeys - her favorite!!

Riding the carousel with Mommy - not really liking it very much!

Amazed at the elephants! She tried to climb through to get to them.

Playing in the boat. (I don't know... it was some kind of Native American display, complete with canoes, and Hannah loved it.  She threw a fit when we decided it was time to move on to something else.)

Walking with Daddy.  She sure does love him!

We saw a LOT of this (pointing) that day!

Trip to Little Rock

We took a trip to Little Rock right before Thanksgiving to see Mimi and Jay, Lauren, James, and Eliza.  It was a great time!

Aunt Lauren and Hannah

The big girls on the swing

All the cousins!

Jay and Robbie

Hugging Mimi

Everyone in Mimi's room (yep, Jay, I stole these from you!  Thanks!)

Catching up

I know that it's been forever, so I am attempting to catch up on the blog.  I am on call today, so I thought I'd put the unexpected free time to some good use.  Hopefully if I get caught up, I'll do a better job of posting on a regular basis!

Out of the mouths of babes...

We've started saying prayers at night with Hannah.  You never know what she's gonna come up with!  This is usually about how it goes:

Me: "Thank you God for Jesus"

Hannah: " and da doggie!"

Rob: "And Mommy"

Hannah: " 'n my paci!"

Me: "And Daddy"

Hannah: "and da rah-rah" (this means the rocking horse - we call it the rock-rock)

Han: "and my milk..... and da dogs.... and my shoe....  and my toe....  and my paci!"

(pause)

Han: "nigh' nigh' "

Rob and me together, kinda grinning: "Amen!"

It's really special to see her picking up on the concept of praying and thanking God for the things in her life.  Each night she says something different, depending on what is fresh on her mind from the day.  The paci usually gets mentioned more than once though, so I'm thinking that is really meaning a lot to her lately!  :)