Thursday, June 30, 2011

1% Change: Prayers for Our Children



I've been feeling challenged lately to pray more for my son. And not just a simple prayer of "God, please keep him safe today," but prayer about the deep things we tend to gloss over and ignore, such as discipline, his future decisions, his future wife, his salvation.

** I need to pray that God guide Dave and me to the correct parenting methods and forms of discipline that are appropriate for our unique child and situations.  One single way of raising a child isn't going to work for every family.  We need God's guidance in finding the discipline that will help our particular child grow to be a godly man.  And we need wisdom for each individual situation, because clearly the parenting approach should depend on the moment at hand.  Just as there is no blanket parenting approach appropriate for every child, there is no blanket parenting approach appropriate for every situation experienced with a particular child.  Raising a child is a blessing and an impossible responsibility all in one.  And I need to pray that God fills in where Dave and I fall short.

** I need to pray for Krewson's salvation.  I have begun adding this into my prayer at various times of the day, especially when I'm putting Krew to bed and when Dave and I are praying at night.  This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most important things in my life.  My son's salvation.  I know my husband is saved, and I know I am saved.  Next comes Krew.  God has given Dave and me the responsibility of raising this child, and we will do all we can to direct him towards Jesus, but ultimately the decision will be between Krew and God.  I know God listens to and answers prayer, so I will pray daily that Krewson will ultimately choose a path that leads to Jesus.  All the rest in Krew's life is moot in comparison.  Jesus is all that matters.

** Pray for Krew's future wife.  I've heard of many parents doing this. It may seem like a weird thing to do, but really, wouldn't you like to pray for the person who will eventually become your child's other half, their most important person on this earth?  Wouldn't you like to send up prayers for blessings on a person that you are going to love very dearly in the future?  Wouldn't you like your child's future with his spouse to be unmarked by damaging past life events?  Prayers make a difference! Start making that difference now!

** Prayers for Krew's future decisions.  I cannot control every aspect of my child's life.  I can set boundaries and consequences, I can teach him by example, but I cannot make his decisions for him.  He is an imperfect and sinful human being.  He is going to make mistakes.  But if my prayers to heaven can lessen the number or graveness of those mistakes, then I'm gonna keep on praying.

There are many many many more things to pray for in my child's life, but these are the items that are standing out the most to me at this time.  I want to challenge all you moms and dads out there to pray for your children.  Perhaps you want to pray for one of the things above, perhaps you have your own prayer concerns.  Either way, your child could use your prayers, and God would love to have more conversation with you.   So send 'em up.

Linking up with 1% Changes over at Naptime Diaries. Head on over to encourage Jessi and the others who are trying to implement 1% Changes in their own lives.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Follow Me!

I finally broke down and added "Followers" to my blog. I really think the whole "Followers" thing is silly, but seeing as how others will base whether or not they'll choose you to do a giveaway, a review, etc. on the number of followers you have, I figured I better add it in. Of course now it looks ridiculously low because I've never provided it as an option before. Awesome. :)

Sooo...if you really love me...and feel like you'd like to be a follower...just head on over there --> to my sidebar and start a followin'...

God bless!

*** Conveniently, just after this post went live, I looked at my blog and the followers gadget doesn't seem to be working. AWESOME timing. So if it's not working when you look over there, maybe check again next time you visit the blog. :) ***

Music Recommendation: Awake

Thought today would be a good day for another quick music recommendation.

I bought this CD a couple days ago, and I really really really like it.


{via}


If you like Christian rock praise (is that correct terminology?) then I really want to recommend this CD. I could be slightly biased because my church sings a lot of these songs on a regular basis, but even so, I still think you should get it if it's in your genre.

Give the following video a minute of your time, and if you like the music you hear in the background, you can head on over to Amazon and make a purchase. :)



(And no, I am not affiliated with North Point Community Church, nor have I ever attended there. And I am not getting paid in any way, shape, or form for this post. I just really like this music. :) )

(Oh, and props to my church for pulling off this music so well. Our band sounds almost exactly the same!! Go Crosspointe!)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Married Women - Read This

I ran across this post today, and decided I must mention it on my own blog.

It's a must-read for every married woman.

I'm not going to say any more.  Just read it.

Go here:  http://www.pixelperfectblog.com/2011/06/pillow-talk-part-3.html.

D-O-Gs!!

(pronounced "dee OH gees!!")

I know that I tend to focus on Krewson in my blog most of the time, and so I thought it was about time I give our dogs Maggie and Rogan (our D-O-Gs, as Dave and I like to affectionately call them - see pronunciation guide above) a little blog love and attention.  After all, they were our babies for a long time until Krew came along.

And really, they are pretty much the cutest and sweetest dogs in the whole wide world.

(I know every dog owner says that about their own dogs, but just humor me and agree.)

I mean, check out those sweet faces.



Oh yes, they are the sweetest things ever.



They let Krew do whatever he wants to them. Smack them, scream at them, poke them, pull their tails, pull their fur, grab their mouths, do full body dives onto them unsuspectingly (resulting in multiple scary moments for a not-quite-quick-enough mother)...



...and of course love on them with cuddles and give them ridiculous amounts of food. :)



I really couldn't have asked for better dogs.

I love my Maggie and Rogan!!



Sweet Shot Day
Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday and Little Somethings!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Randomness for Your Monday

For your Monday, just a few things in my life that I thought I would remark on:

* On Saturday we (my Bible study girls) had a baby shower (more in the form of a very small late afternoon get-together) for Emily and her husband Sion.  They are expecting their second child, due July 24th, who will be a little sister to their 19-month-old daughter, Ellie.  So excited for them. :)



* Krew has developed a new affinity for squealing.  In the most shrill voice he can attain.  And he uses it for everything.  When he's mad, when he's frustrated, when he's excited, when he's hurt.  Everything deserves a squeal or two.  Which of course sends me into panic mode about 50 times per day because I never know if his arm is being cut off or if he just absolutely loved that last sip of juice.


My little squealer. In a very messy shirt.


* Dave had his first tournament for his club travel ultimate team this weekend in Charleston.  And they took first place.  Go Ring!

* I had a weird rash of red bumps develop on my neck this week.  It was barely visible, yet made my neck feel dry and itchy.  Over a couple days it spread up to the bottom of my chin and almost to my ears.  I did a bunch of reading online, talked to people on Facebook, and called my aunt (who used to be a nurse) and there was no definitive answer.  My aunt did say, however, that she experienced something very similar once, and a doctor had suggested it was poison sumac, which can apparently in some cases be spread through the air somehow (?).  Who knows.  In any case, after Claritin (I don't feel safe taking Benedryl while I'm the only one home with Crouton) and a lot of hydrocortisone cream spread all over my neck, it seems to be getting better.

* We appear to have a fire ant colony in our backyard.  (Mom, if you're reading this, just skip this bullet point  and pretend you never read that last sentence.)  I have no idea when it developed or how I never noticed it before since I'm in our backyard a ton, but all of a sudden yesterday, there it was.  There were several times during the day yesterday that the ants got mad at went into attack mode, as they appear to have holes to their little dungeon everywhere (who needs 50 front doors???), but fortunately the only bites were one on my toe and on poor Rogan's feet (poor dog had no idea what was going on and was trying to lick them off, so I jumped in to the rescue and did a brush-down of her legs).  I've gone through half a can of Raid and have ant baits placed in strategically-selected locations, so hopefully the colony will be dying down soon.  However, while I was squatted down in one of my ant-killing frenzies, I looked up at the side of the house and also found a bunch of spider eggs.  I smooshed them to smithereens, but I'm thinking we may need to do some serious exterminating around our house, beyond a can of Raid and some ant baits.  I am not a fan of any little crawly things, I don't want to find them in my house, and I certainly don't want them biting my child. (Or my dogs or me or my husband or visitors, for that matter.)

* Dave and I have been somewhat throwing around the topic of paying someone to come clean our house once or twice a month.  At first I was completely against it, but as I talk to people and discover that many others do this, I'm starting to back down a little.  I have a hard enough time keeping stuff picked up around the house and doing the laundry, much less giving the house the cleaning it needs.  With working four days per week, Bible study, small group, church, traveling a ton, and a little tornado living in our midst, I'm wearing down.  Way way down.  To the point where I *may* have had an emotional breakdown in our closet last week.  Maybe.  It may not have been me.  But it may have.  Ahem.

* And last but not least, I discovered this weekend that some of Krew's shoes that were supposed to fit no longer do so.  Then I put a pair of size 5s on him yesterday and they fit perfectly.  (They may have been purple girls' shoes that belonged to Ellie (hehe), but I'm assuming little boys shoes fit the same.)  This means that he now wears size 5 instead of size 4.  Which means this will be the third time he's changed shoe sizes in four months.  Is that not crazy??  He went up two shoe sizes in the first year of his life and then three shoe sizes in the next four months.  Parenting is so ridiculously unpredictable.

One last picture to share that I just thought was so adorable. Especially since both Emily and I play the piano.

Krew and Ellie.  Hopefully future piano players, following in their mommas' footsteps. :)

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Book Review: Chazown


I went through a period of time over this past year where I really began wondering what God wanted me to do with my life.  More specifically, what He wanted me to do with my skills and passions.  Although I have a very good job, I was feeling an itch to use my abilities in a way that allowed me to more directly benefit God's kingdom.

It was around this time that I read the book "Chazown" by Craig Groeschel.  Chazown is the Hebrew word meaning vision.  In this book, Craig walks you step-by-step through a process meant to help you center in on God's vision for your life, and then he encourages you to pursue it.  He pushes you to think about your talents and skills, your past, and your passions.  He provides you with activities to guide you along the way, and his website provides a platform for participating in these activities.

One of my favorite quotes from the book was the following:

"When you begin to understand what you’re supposed to do, you can better discren what you’re not supposed to do. And this is important, because other people also have plans for your life. I can’t count the number of good opportunities and invitations I receive from people. But good opportunities shouldn’t distract from the better and the great. And because of the focus of my vision, I say respectfully over and over again, 'I’m sorry. I just don’t do that because that’s not in line with the vision that God has given me.'"

This quote is so pertinent in my life, because I do feel that I am constantly bombarded with opportunities to get "more involved".  Whether it's with work, with church, with a group of friends, or with a service organization, there is always someone else asking for my time and attention.  This book helped me to realize that it's ok to say no to those requests if they are not in line with God's vision for my life.

Through it all, Craig also encourages you to seek God's will in all situations and really lean on Him.  I found that this book really pushed me to examine how often I was seeking God's guidance in daily situations, not just in the big issues.  I also enjoyed the step-by-step process, homework, and online resources and activities that Craig provided to help me along my way.

If I had any negative comments about the book, my primary one would be that I would have organized the book differently.  I felt that some items discussed toward the middle of the book would have been more appropriate at the beginning, and vice a versa.  This made it hard for me to read at times, due to the way my logic works.  There were moments where I thought, "Well, if I had known that this is what you meant back at the beginning, I would have thought about it all a little differently."

Overall, though, it was a good book that made me think.  I would recommend it to friends who are feeling overwhelmed with life and yet like they're doing little of eternal worth.  Chazown will help you figure it out, even if in a slightly-illogically-organized way. :) 

Note: I received this book for free, in exchange for writing a review, from the program "Blogging For Books" located at http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Edit Me: Week 6

My Reflection of Something


It's Week 6 of the Edit Me Challenges, and week #2 for my participation. :)

Once again, check out all the other lovely edits at My Reflection of Something!

Here's the SOOC (straight out of camera) shot:



And here's my edit:



This week I did all my edits in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) except for the watermark.  First I cropped to remove the blurry leaves in the foreground and to really focus on the...uh...weird flower thingamajig?  Then I increased the exposure, contrast, and clarity, removed a little noise, and slid the luminance slider for yellow quite a bit to the right to lighten up the yellows.  Then I did a small pop using curves.  Opened the photo in photoshop and added my watermark.  Hope you like. :)

Be sure to go visit all the other edits!

Forever Love

Just a quicky post today...wanted to share a song I've been listening to in the car a bit lately.

Sometimes songs touch me with their lyrics, but more often than not I'm moved by a song's musical composition over everything else.  The song below is one of those songs.  I just love the melody and the string instruments in the background. The music warms something inside of me, and I can't explain why.

So if you're one of those weird awesome people like me who is deeply moved by certain musical compositions, check out the song below.  Or if you just like pretty music, it might be good for you too. :)

Oh, and please disregard the incredibly boring accompaniment video. :)

Forever Love by Francesca Battistelli

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Boo on Sickness, but Yay for Awesome Brother-in-Laws

Yesterday I got sick.  On our anniversary.  :(  My throat hurt and my body felt heavy and draggy.  It just kept getting worse throughout the day, despite my regular consumption of this:





I felt icky to the point where I didn't even have the energy to make a big night out of going to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Which kinda honestly made me want to cry.  I was so excited to celebrate us.

Luckily I have an awesome brother-in-law (Dan!) who came to our place to watch Krew instead of making us take Krew to his house, that way Dave and I could just go out for a really short while. (It's about a 25 minute drive between our places, so Dan saved me and Dave a ton of time, considering we'd have to pack up Krew's stuff, drive 25 minutes, drop Krew off, drive to dinner, drive back to get Krew, drive 25 minutes back home...having a kid sure adds a lot of time to date night!)

We ate a casual dinner at Abbey Road Grill (a local place down the street) and got dessert at Kilwin's, and we were only gone a little over an hour.  I love Kilwin's. I always get the rice krispie treat covered in dark chocolate and sprinkles. Mmmmmmmmm.  It's actually the only thing I've ever ordered from there.  I see no need to fix what isn't broken. :)

Thanks so much to everyone who sent us happy anniversary wishes!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

3 Years

Today is our 3-year wedding anniversary!

And two days ago was Father's Day. Two great reasons to celebrate with a dinner date (sans child!) tonight. :)

Thank you to my wonderful husband for being so supportive and loving.  And for being such a great daddy to our little boy.

I love you so much Dave!!

Three years ago:






And today:


Monday, June 20, 2011

I WON!!!!!!

Oh my goodness gracious, the impossible has proven itself possible.

You know how you will see giveaways online, and they always have like 300 entries of people trying to win, and you're like, what's the point? No way I'm going to win.  So you just move on and don't bother to enter?

Well, that's usually me.  Then this past week I decided to go ahead and enter a giveaway that had a ton of awesome photography prizes.

And guess what.

I WON!!!

That's right! I was one of three winners out of 280 entries.  Absolutely crazy, right???  I am so so so stoked.  And this wasn't just some little giveaway for a small prize or giftcard.  I won a TON of stuff.

You can see all my prizes here:  http://ilafrancephoto.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-is-here-giveaway.html
I won the first pack. 

I just cannot believe it.  I can't wait to receive all my goodies.  A lot of them are props for newborn photo shoots...I'll be anxious to start using them on my friends' babies. :)

Woo hoo!!!

Does any other mother's house look like this?

Yesterday morning, my living room looked like this:



Believe it or not, this room had been cleaned up the day before. You would have never guessed, right?

Now, I tend to get down on myself when any part of my house looks this way. (And unfortunately, I feel like about 90% of my house looks like this about 90% of the time. I'm sure that's an exaggeration due to my frustration and strong dislike for clutter and mess, but still...it's not entirely off.)

But then, if you do a breakdown of the mess causes, you end up with this:

Krewson:



Me:



Which makes me realize that I'm really not THAT messy of a person. I just have a very very very very messy child. (And he got it honestly. I used to be pretty messy myself.)

Please tell me I'm not the only one. Does any other mother's house look like this?

Saturday, June 18, 2011

15 months!

My oh my, my little boy is growing up fast. He turned 15 months on June 5th - he's a fourth of a way through his second year already! Crazy!

I figure it's about time I provide a detailed update on all he's learning and doing these days.  I want to remember these things someday down the road!

First off, here are the stats on his growth:

15-month checkup stats:
22 lbs 15.5 oz (~26th percentile)
31 1/8 inches long (~41st percentile)
head was 18.75 inches around (~60th percentile)

12-month checkup stats:
21 lbs 3 oz (~22nd percentile)
30 inches long (~51st percentile)
head was 18.5 inches around (~64th percentile).  

As you can see, my son seems to be getting smaller and smaller compared to his peers.  It's weird to me, since he was in such high percentiles for the first six months of his life.  I think what happened over the past three months is that all his energy went into growing his feet.  I'm not kidding.  The kid went up almost two shoe sizes in around two months.  Before his one-year birthday, he was just growing out of 2s. (He had itty bitty feet.)  Within two months, he was on the larger-side of 4s.  He's still in 4s, but Dave and I are looking for replacements for some of his 4s, especially the shoes he wears to daycare, because it looks like he's going to be out of them soon.  It's rather bizarre how quickly his feet grew.  He's also gotten a bunch more teeth.  He now has his eight front teeth and three molars.  In terms of clothes, he wears 12-month shirts, 9-12 month shorts, and size 3 diapers.  I keep expecting him to grow out of the size 3 diapers, but it appears that he'll still be in them for a while.  I put a size 4 on him the other day and he was swimming in it.

In terms of intellectual development, he has an incredible desire to learn right now.  He mimics nearly EVERYTHING he sees.  Which means that Dave and I really have to watch our behavior. :)  One time I yelled at one of our dogs, pointing my finger and her and saying, "NO!"  Next thing I knew, Krew was marching after her, adamantly jutting his finger at her exclaiming "Dogh!" (He says "dog" with a German accent. :) )  If Dave or I push a button on one of his toys with our foot, then Krew tries to poke it with his toe, too.  When he was with his cousin Brady (who is a year and a month older) this past weekend, he copied everything Brady did.  If Brady started marching, Krew got behind him and started marching (in his wobbly baby way).  If Brady held a ball on top of his head, Krew found a ball and held it on top of his head.  If Brady tried to put on his Uncle Hal's shoes, Krew tried to put on his Uncle Hal's shoes.  If Brady ran and yelled, Krew "ran" (aka walked as fast as his little legs could carry him) and yelled.  I find it pretty entertaining to watch. :)

His vocabulary is increasing, also. His most recent word is water ("wawa"), and he's nearly perfected the word bubble, which truly sounds like "bubble".  He shakes his head "no" and in the past week began nodding his head "yes", which is oh-so-helpful.  Previously I either received a head shake "no" or a blank stare when I asked him a question.  He can now point to his nose (by sticking his finger up his right nostril), his mouth, his belly button, his feet, and his shoes.

His preferences between sippy cups versus cups with straws seems to vary day by day.  One day he'll only drink out of cups with straws, the next he'll only drink out of sippy cups.  I have no idea what pushes him one way or the other.  So we just keep a nice stash of both and learn case by case using trial and error. :)  He does really well feeding himself by (baby) spoon or fork now, so a lot of times we will just lay his meal on his tray and let him go at it.  That tends to result in a very long dinner and a very messy child, however, so if we're in a rush or headed somewhere later, Dave or I will still feed him the foods requiring a utensil.  When we do this, however, he still demands to have his own spoon or fork and put a few bites in himself.  Otherwise he gets mad and refuses to eat.  Slightly annoying, but hey, I'm glad he's developing independence.

He is now climbing on EVERYTHING.  He can now get on one of our couches, and I have found him trying to climb onto the arms and even over the back.  We really have to keep our eyes on him.  He likes to climb on coffee tables, his kids table and chairs, even his rocking chair in his room.  He also has a slide that he likes to climb to the top of and stand up, no hands.  (I had to move the slide into his super-cushioned play area and remove all surrounding toys.  Thank goodness I did, because about 5 minutes later he fell off backwards.)

Along with all this climbing has come the ability to get down from high places, which I really really like.  He can get off couches, his rocking chair, and even our bed.  He just flips himself around onto his belly and slides right off.

I remember six months ago, I was so exhausted and amazed at Krew's ability to create messes everywhere he went.  I felt like I couldn't keep up.  Well, you know how they say the only thing certain is change.  I can attest to that.  Things are now much, much worse.  Haha.  And I'm not kidding.  My house is a disaster zone.  I get it cleaned up, and give the child one hour and it looks like I haven't touched the place in weeks.   It is ridiculous.  And so frustrating.  I look back at the days before Krew and I wonder how I ever didn't have a clean house.  I mean, seriously, what did I do with my time back then??

He has a great relationship with our dogs, and I'm so so thankful for it.  Maggie and Rogan let him do whatever he wants...stick his hand in their food bowl while they're eating, pull their fur, climb on them, slap them, fall on them, hit them with objects (all performed during the millisecond in which I turn the other way, of course)...and they just sit there and accept it.  Rogan even wags her tail most of the time.  Of course they get him back by licking his face 24/7 and knocking him down about 20 times per day.  It seems to be an abusive but positive relationship. :)  He also enjoys giving them treats, and he's recently discovered how to open the china cabinet and give free handouts of rawhides.

His favorite toys by far are balls and bubbles.  He loves to blow (well, kinda more spit) through the bubble wand, and he's developing quite the throwing arm.  If I were the only parent, I probably wouldn't allow throwing in the house, but I know that athleticism is really important to Dave and so I don't argue when he actually encourages Krew to fling objects across the room.  It's paying off, because he can chuck a ball quite far.  I probably won't think it's so great anymore when his balls start knocking my plants and decor off the shelves and walls.

He also loves to draw on his chalkboard and go up and the down the stairs (preferably unassisted, but he needs to work on his stability before I'll be ok with that).  He loves to wear the dogs' collars around his neck (he actually brings them to us, requesting that we hook them around him like a necklace), and gets incredibly excited whenever he sees a floating balloon.  He will play with a balloon for hours, which is super impressive given his short attention span.

To finish up, here are a few recent pictures that I haven't shared yet. :)







Wednesday, June 15, 2011

My First Edit Me Challenge

My Reflection of Something


This will be my first time participating in an Edit Me challenge from the blog My Reflection of Something. It seemed like a fun thing to do.  She gives a photo to edit and then the participants change it to their liking.  It's an opportunity to play around with someone else's photo and try different editing techniques.  And of course you learn a lot by seeing what others do.

So here's the photo SOOC (straight out of camera):





And here is my edit:





First I straightened the horizon, then cropped the pic a bit. I used the My Four Hens action Just Love, added a bit of a cooler tone, then resized and sharpened a bit. I wanted to lighten the picture and cool down some of the browns from the sand, sea weed, and water.

Head on over and check out what others did. :)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

We're Back! And 1% Change.

Krew and I got home from our trip up north last night, tired but in good moods.  I had a great time visiting with family and friends.  But honestly, as with after any long trip like that, I'm glad to be home.  I missed my hubby, and I got tired of living out of a suitcase.  Plus traveling with a toddler is just exhausting.  It's so much calmer to be in our own home.  Still, I sure do miss those northern loved ones while I'm down here living the NC life.


Jaclyn's baby Lorraine - she was precious


Lorraine makes my child seem giant


With two of my best friends from college, Jaclyn and Ashley. So sad we forgot to take a picture while Michelle was still with us. She had to leave earlier in the day.


On another note, it's 1% Change time, and this week I'm going to focus on dealing with anger. Tonight in Bible study we focused on how to deal with anger in marriages. We discussed how it's important to be open and honest with one another. It's ok to feel anger, but we are not to respond to it sinfully. We should neither blow up at our spouse nor clam up and suppress it. Dave and I don't do a ton of arguing, but I still think it's a good topic to focus on once in a while. It's important to handle anger in a constructive way, and especially important to pray to Christ for guidance through the emotions and difficulties. Just as with all things in life, He has a way that he wants us to deal with our anger toward one another.



Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry — but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
- Ephesians 4:26-27, The Message


There are multiple verses in Proverbs that speak to how a quick temper only leads to problems. Check out the following: Proverbs 14:17, 14:29, 19:11, 29:11, 29:20, and 29:22.  (Notice I just made the work easy for you by providing links. :) )

My friends in my study also shared with us some advice that they'd heard along the way:
* The only time you should yell at another person is if that person is getting hit by a bus.
* If one spouse is angry, the other needs to be calm for the situation to resolve well.
* Don't try to win.

So my 1% Change is to focus on handling my anger in a constructive, Christian manner.  How about you? Any anger issues you need to work through?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Off We Go!

Krew and I are headed to the airport in the morning to fly up to Indiana. We'll be spending some time with my family and also traveling to visit my girlfriends from college (Jaclyn, Michelle, Ashley) and meet Lorraine, Jaclyn's baby daughter. I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to hold Lorraine, and I haven't seen Ashley in over a year! It should be a good trip. :)

I apologize in advance for the sparsity of upcoming blog posts, although I may try to do a post or two while we're on our trip.

Have a great week!

A Few of My Favorite Things


As part of a giveaway going on at Love that Shot, I'm supposed to post a picture of "A Few of My Favorite Things". So here it is:



Yup, that's right.  My husband and son.  Two of my favorites.  Seeing them in daddy-son bonding warms my heart.

Also linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesdays and Project Life Tuesdays. :)

Sweet Shot Day