Thursday, April 30, 2015

ALL the Easter Pics!

I obviously have a little catching up to do. Here are our pics from Easter!




My sweet Littles in their Spring pajamas.


Momma wanted a picture of the boys with EB :)


Palm Sunday morning.


Jax's super cute Palm Sunday craft.






Spring pictures! We had fun taking these. The rabbit in Jax's lap jumped out of his lap & hopped around & John screamed like a girl. The rabbit wasn't near him & was even hopping away from him, but I guess it surprised him. Hilarious!


John & I had a baking night - just the two of us (while Jeb was napping & Daddy & Jax were at baseball practice). 


Jax has been playing lots of sports recently & John is too young to participate. With D taking Jax to all of his practices & games & Jeb taking a lot of my attention, I decided John needed some special time.

D has also been making a special point to take John on errands with him so they can have alone time too.




Some of our Spring decor. Love me a holiday!





We played a game, "Where da Hare?" the week before Easter. D hid a small chocolate bunny every day & the boys & I had to find it. It was really fun!


On Good Friday, we had a Bunny Breakfast!


We had eggs, sausage, & pancakes assembled to look like bunnies with whipped cream for their cottontail.


Saturday we had a Easter Egg Hunt for the children at church. Here are some of the young kids ready to hunt!


Before the hunt. I was such a distraction. :)


After the hunt. They did great!



They wasted no time to find what was in their eggs.

I stumbled upon this prayer this year & liked it. My favorite part says, "Let every morning be an Easter morn, & Christ each day within our hearts be born. Let each brief day be filled with holy deed, & glad hearts cry, 'The Christ is risen indeed.'"




Easter Sunday! 


My 3 handsome gentlemen!


Lil Jeb in his bow tie & "loafers".


EB brought fun goodies!


Jeb's basket was my favorite. Diapers, bottles, wipes, etc. 


After lunch we had our own egg hunt. Both boys are pretty competitive, so it was fun!


It was an EGGcellent Easter!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Praying for Your Children / Jeb's Baby Dedication

"The Brothers Grimm tell the story of Sleeping Beauty, which opens with all of the fairies in the kingdom bringing baptismal gifts to an infant princess. One fairy gives beauty, another offers virtue, a third bestows kindness, and so on until the little girl has everything she needs to grow into a wise and lovely young woman.
Reading this story to my own young daughters, I used to wish that such blessings were so easy to come by. Just throw a christening party, invite all the fairies, and - presto! - your child would be covered.
But God gives us another - better - way to provide these gifts (& so many more) for our children. He invites us to pray." Praying the Scriptures for Your Children - Jodie Berndt


Each time I'm pregnant, my mind covers every thought & worry possible. I'm sure this is the norm for most mothers who are expecting. At some point in the pregnancy, the Holy Spirit catches hold of me & convicts me about my worrying, & I have to give the child over to God. This "giving over" is something that has to continually happen in my heart to keep me in-check. I do it while I'm pregnant, & maybe even more so after the baby is born when I'm tempted to stay up 24/7 just to watch him breathe.

I talked about this more in depth on this blog a couple of years ago after John was born. Here's a link to that post, if you haven't read it.

As we prepared for Jeb's Baby Dedication, I thought about the spiritual responsibility I have as a parent. Now that my first baby is almost 6 years old, I'm learning more & more about what this "giving them over" means. I've mentioned on several occasions how I learn so much about God through my children. Talk about accountability partners! My tiny creatures who love our life of routine & habit keep me on my toes. We have many times throughout the day that we pray. We like to start our day with prayer-asking for God's hand in all of our activities, asking Him to remind us of Him all day, & to let Him know that we want to make Him happy with the things we do that day. We pray before each meal, acknowledging that what we have is because of His provision and blessings. Then, we praise and pray at the end of the day. These are all great, & hopefully through this, we are instilling a life of prayer within our kids, but as my children grow & their needs change, I am realizing the weight of my responsibility to pray for every aspect of my kids' lives.

We, as Christians, are in a battle for the souls of our children. The older my children get, the more I realize just how "loud" the World is. I have a favorite friend who is in a very different season in her life. She is a Mother & a Grandmother as well. She has mentioned to me how her role has changed as her children have grown into adults and now have children of their own. She explained that while they were young, she prayed for them & was able to guide them with rules and discipline. But now that they're adults, it's very different, but the Holy Spirit showed her that her role is to be their prayer warrior. She says how important it is for her to pray for her children because God gave them to her. No one knows them or loves them like she does, therefore, no one can pray for them the way that she can.

When I was at the store getting a Bible for Jeb's Baby Dedication, I found the book I quoted at the beginning of this post about praying the scriptures for your children. I bought it & am in the process of devouring it. She had me at the Sleeping Beauty reference. It reads further, "Sleeping Beauty may have had a bevy of fairies in her nursery, but we have access to the throne room of the King of Kings. And given a choice between the two, I know which one I'd pick."

Nothing is more powerful & effective than praying God's Word! (Heb. 4:12)



Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Jeb's Baby Dedication day.


In PreacherHub's office before the service.


This is the picture we chose for them to share. haha


My sweet men before church.


Our Sunday morning pics before church. 
I felt like I needed to add a little pink into the mix! ;)

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Dr. Daddy!!!

We have had a great, eventful weekend! There are a couple of events/moments I want to record on our blog. I'll start with the most recent & most anticipated moment...PreacherHubs has finished all of his doctorate work!!


I couldn't be prouder of my man. Not only has he been busy working on his doctorate, but he has managed to lead & guide our family, loved me & nurtured our marriage, be a wonderful Daddy to the boys (being super hands-on, coaching basketball, taking time to teach & play with them, attending & helping at all school events), he's been ever present during my pregnancy & the birth of our third child, pastored & led a church body...I could go on, but I won't. :) The thing that really gets me is how he has juggled all of this & made it look easy!

D had his exit interview this past Friday. It was his final step to complete in order to graduate. 

He knows how stir-crazy I've been, so Super Daddy let us tag along to New Orleans & make a fun little family trip out of it.


That morning, we loaded up the car for one night (yes...this is minimal packing). As D was washing out John's potty to pack (we're in full potty training mode right now), he was laughing. I told him he may be getting his doctorate, but around the house, he's best known as "Daddy". The boys & I will always be here to keep him humble! ;)

Before we left on our trip to N.O., we had to take Jeb to the doctor to get his first round of vaccinations. D & the boys dropped me & Jeb off for that while they filled the tank with gas & got some breakfast.


JohnJohn watching Super Mickey.


Sometimes you need to wear your sunglasses.


Jax in the way-back. 

We got to N.O., D checked us into our hotel, & then he went to his interview. The boys & I played in the room. (They love hotels.)


John snacking & checking himself out. Haha


The boys playing cars so sweetly together.


That didn't last too long. I just love this picture! Haha, keeping it real... Jax was bothering John somehow. Look at Jax's little smirk. What a stinker... 

 
Pouting John



Then, the next minute, they were playing & jumping on the bed. Oh, the drama!

Not too long after this fun, D called & told me he passed!! Woohoo!!!


Dr. Dustie Dunn!!! Or, as some have been saying, Triple D!
My friend asked if he was going to make me call him "Dr." I told her that he probably thinks he is, but he tried with his Master's & that sure didn't work!! :)


We went to dinner to celebrate. We went to one of our family's favorite places. (We took this pic to send to my family & rub it in.)


John's napkin airplane kept him entertained.

We went back to the room & watched movies & just had fun as a family.


Jeb was so good. He slept most of the weekend after his shots.


My handsome boy the next morning/ready for another day of celebrating!


We went to Cafe du Monde for a late breakfast & then we just took our time coming home.

Next month will be D's graduation, so I'm sure the celebrating will continue at least until then!

Thank You, Lord for Your hand in every step of this process. May You use all of this for Your glory!