Katie & Elizabeth!

Katie and Elizabeth played and posed outside for me yesterday modeling new Spring accessories for Mimi's Babies.  I think they had a pretty good time...what do you think? 

Don't you just love best friends at this age???

Of course, we had to snap a few while they were being silly...and I love them!

Best girl friends...definitely two peas in a pod! 

66 Love Letters - A Review

I recently received Dr. Larry Crabb’s newest book 66 Love Letters to review for Thomas Nelson Publishing. This book is described as “a dialogue between one man and God,” exploring “each book of the Bible as a letter from the Creator to you.” I was very excited upon reading the short synopsis for this book, and hopeful that it would help to give me the encouragement that I needed to want to dig even deeper into God’s word when reading. I find that all too often I am reading through the Bible, but not taking time to hear what God would like to teach me through a passage, or not grasping the “big picture” of a certain book of the Bible. My challenge was now to see if those things could be changed by reading through Dr. Crabb’s book.


After reading the introduction of the book, I was uncertain that this was something I would enjoy. I got the impression that it was one person’s extreme summary of each book of the Bible, put into a conversation held between God and the reader. I was not sure I liked the idea of this, as it certainly did not need to replace God’s word in any way for any reader. However, I did decide to give it a fair chance, and began reading the first chapter, about Genesis.

The first chapter helped me to see the true purpose of this book. It did summarize the book of Genesis, but not in a way that portrayed any part of the Bible as unnecessary to read, but more as a companion to the Bible reader. If read alongside the Bible, Dr. Crabb’s book can bring to light many personal application questions to challenge and encourage you to dig deeper into God’s word to find all of the treasures that it holds. It did take a little time to get used to the layout of the book, as it is written as if God is personally writing a letter to you (the reader), but having it written in such a personal manner makes it hard to (intentionally or unintentionally) overlook important pieces of God’s word without first evaluating yourself.

Overall, I would recommend this book for you as a companion to your current Bible study, as I believe it does help to give you a better perspective of the truths in God’s word that can be applied to daily living. However, if you are looking for a “read through” type of devotional book, I do not think this would be the one for you. It is definitely a different way to look at the word of God, but if used in the right manner, could definitely help you to deepen your love for God’s word and your relationship with Him.

Wordless Wednesday

Okay, so this should be called "Wordy Wednesday"...but I had to share my great clothing finds for the kids and myself at the  Spring/Summer Wee-Exchange last night!  I was excited about all of the great clothes I found and even more excited about how little I paid for it all!! 

My NY&Co Blue jean skirt, Candies bermuda shorts, Aeropostale bermuda shorts, and Old Navy top & flip flops...

Austin racked up on more clothes than any of us!  Below you see pictured his collection of 8+ nice t-shirts & polos, 4 pairs of waist-adjustable shorts, & swim trunks...

One of my favorite outfits for Austin - Carters long sleeve dress shirt (with a monkey hehe), and Old Navy khaki pants...

Set of 3 sports onesies, one polo romper, 2 sleeveless play rompers, 1 short sleeve play romper, a great seer-sucker romper, and a nice pair of brown sandals...

My favorite deal for Austin...a brand new pair of Pipsqueak shoes (retail $29...I paid $8!)  Aren't they adorable???  He loves them, too!

Katie didn't need near as many clothes for the spring/summer, thanks to our dear friend who sends her clothes to us after her little Hannah outgrows them.  Here are 3 great Gymboree & Children's Place dresses I found for her...

And her cute linen pants/tank set, shorts, 2 comfortable shirts, one dressy shirt/leggings, and her Airwalk pink crocs (Katie's personal favorite)!

I also managed to find several great phonics books, blending cards/books, and level one readers for Katie's homeschooling.  YAH!  I think I did a pretty good job!  We all have a great start for the Spring/Summer without paying an arm or a leg! :-)

Family Fun Day!

Last Saturday we decided to have a "family fun day" together, so we packed our bags and headed downtown for a morning/afternoon of fun!  Our first stop was at the Exploreum to see their new "Dinosaurs Downtown" exhibit, along with the always fun "Wharf of Wonder".  Here are a few pictures from the Exploreum...

Don't let Austin's face fool you...

He loved the dinosaur, and did NOT want to get off of his back!

At the Wharf...

Austin caught fish with is bare hands (you'd be proud, Uncle Myles)

Katie spied all sorts of new things through the telescope...

And we even had time for a little extra love for Daddy :-)

After the Exploreum

(and lunch - where Austin demolished an entire double cheeseburger and fries!)

we took a walk in the downtown park areas,

where the kids immediately found all of the Mardi Gras beads left in the trees...

of course, they had to have some!

Daddy and Austin also had to have a little fun in the water...

I just loved Austin's expression in this picture! :-)

And, amazingly enough, the photographer made it into a picture!

"Our" Mardi Gras Day

After our not-so-great weeks of sickness and Mark travelling for work, our whole family was greatly looking forward to last Monday and Tuesday!  (Mark was off work for the holiday/Mardi Gras).  Our family was completely on the mend physically and were all ready to get OUT of the house, and that's just what we did! 

We started with a picnic Chick-Fil-A lunch and nice walk at the Mobile Botanical Gardens.  It was great to see "color" starting to appear on the bushes and plants...SPRING IS NEAR!  The kids had so much fun just being out...it was nice, and relaxing for us all.

Austin and his newly found pinecone

Austin wanted to hold Daddy's hand to go find the fish

(which were hiding under the bridge because of the cool weather).

Katie sporting her sunglasses because it was "too bright" for her eyes to see :-)

My Sweet Ones...

After a little time at the gardens, we decided to drive

across the street to Langhan Park for a little playtime before nap!

We finished our fun morning/early afternoon venture by

watching the geese in the water at the park.

A much-needed break and great family time for all!

Snow Day!

It's hard to believe that I'm saying this, but it did snow in Mobile last week, and it was absolutely beautiful!!  {And I'm just getting to blog about it due to my rough week...SORRY!}  The ground was much too wet for any accumulation, but the kids and I enjoyed seeing it anyway.  We watched mostly from inside, since we were battling sicknesses within our family.  I did, however, let the kids go out for a few minutes to see the snow falling...but when they saw that there wasn't enough to make any snowballs to throw, they were willing to return to the warmth of our home!  Here are a few "snow day" pictures...

It was hard to believe it didn't accumulate more, as large as the snowflakes were...

we saw more than only "flurries"!

Watching the snow fall, and begging to go outside!

Playing with the {small amount of} snow on the ground

Austin thought it was funny to see the snow stick to his gloves!

It was much to short of a snow day, but we all enjoyed the beauty of it while it lasted...

Weak Week...

This week has been rough, to say the very least.  Last Thursday night, Austin began getting quite sick.  He had been suffering through a yucky cold/cough, but took a turn for the worst on Thursday night when his coughs made him gag and vomit very consistently, leaving us concerned of dehydration, etc.  So, when Friday came around, off we went to the doctor to find out that Austin had the "croup".  We were given 3 days worth of steriods and a strong cough medicine. 

In the meantime, Mark had to leave (early Sunday morning) for training with work to Georgia...8 hours drive away, not to return until Friday afternoon/evening.  Unfortunately, over the weekend, we saw no improvement in Austin, and by Monday, he seemed worse.  He was up almost all day and night, giving neither of us more than 2 hours of rest during a 24-hour period.  To say the least, I was exhausted!  So, Tuesday morning, Katie and I again took Austin to the doctor, where I was told that his illness is now in his chest, giving him pneumonia.  But his oxygen levels were okay, so he did not have to be admitted into the hospital (Praise the Lord, especially since I didn't have the slightest notion of that even being a possibility!)  I honestly thought I was going back to the doctor to get nothing more than a different cough medicine.  Austin was given a strong antibiotic to take, which should help me have my sweet little boy back within a couple of days, max.  Wonderful!!

Austin started feeling much better even by Tuesday evening.  Katie still had a little runny nose, but nothing of major concern.  The week was starting to look up!  Now, the rest of the week gets a little blurry...

By early evening, I started feeling nauseous.  I put Austin in bed early, and was barely able to get Katie in bed due to how sick I felt.  I was up all night very sick {I'll leave the details to that}.  By midnight, I was so sick, I started blacking out, which terrified me {thinking of the kids}, so I called my mother-in-law.  She quickly came over to help, but before she even made it here, Katie was screaming because she had thrown up in her sleep.  I had absolutely no energy left, but my adreneline kicked in and somehow helped me make it to her bathroom, where I laid on the floor and did my best to comfort her while we waited patiently for Nana's arrival.  She was only about 7 minutes away, but it seemed like an eternity!  Praise the Lord, Austin slept completely through the night {for the first time in days}, because I was sick all night/morning, and Nana was up all night/morning with sick Katie bug.  Wednesday was rough, but managable thanks to Nana's help!  I started feeling better, only weak, and thankfully was able to get a good amount of sleep Wednesday night {minus both kids getting up once each vomiting...}  Thursday seemed better for all of us, thankfully, until Thursday late afternoon when Austin began vomiting. 

Honestly, I don't think I've ever had such a rough week!  I was emotionally and physically drained especially by Tuesday, but for things to keep getting worse, Wow!!  Literally, all I could do all week was to pray telling God that I couldn't do this...I need Him to carry me through the week.  And, you know, though it has been terrible, He has not failed to carry me through.  Now, I'm praying that Mark makes it home safely tomorrow (through the forcasted snow) to be reunited with his {hopefully} no longer sick family! 

There wasn't much time for reading, etc. this week, though I'm sure I could have used the encouragement, but an old song kept coming to mind that helped me keep my mind off of our current situations and on God, who truly has been my strength this week.  Here it is...

His Strength Is Perfect by Steven Curtis Chapman

I can do all things

Through Christ who gives me strength,His strength is perfect when our strength is gone; 

But sometimes I wonder what He can do through me;

No great success to show, No glory on my own,

Yet in my weakness He is there to let me know . . .

His strength is perfect when our strength is gone;

He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on.

Raised in His power, the weak become strong;

His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.

We can only know

The power that He holds

When we truly see how deep our weakness goes;

His strength in us begins

Where ours comes to an end.

He hears our humble cry and proves again . . .

He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on.

Raised in His power, the weak become strong;

His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.