Bennett's 3rd Birthday Party!

This year for Bennett's birthday we wanted to do something extra special. February is a hard month for a child's birthday...you can't be outside, so we've traditionally had his parties inside a church fellowship hall or gym. Imagine our excitement when they opened a really neat place here in Paris called Jump Zone! It is kind of like an old warehouse that they have decorated and filled with inflatables, a Wii, a dollhouse and lots of room for kids to run and play! Well the party and the fun exceeded our expectations! It was wonderful for Bennett to get to celebrate with friends and family!

Bennett's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Bennett's 3rd birthday Thursday. It is totally amazing and hard to believe that my baby is 3!!! We had a really fun day. We asked Bennett where he wanted to eat lunch, and he said El Vallarta. He likes it, but if he has to choose, he's always going to say McDonalds. So we wondered why...this is the reason. He has seen them put a "pie" in the faces of several friends on their birthdays and apparently couldn't wait for his turn. It was so funny...he didn't smile the whole time they were singing to him, but he couldn't stop talking about it afterward. He thanked them several times for doing it! They also got Caleb (after he asked), and the Shackelfords joined us, so they got Jack too. Jack did NOT like it!After lunch, we headed to Helping Hand since it was Maplewood's day. It was so sweet...one of the senior adult ladies classes at our church wanted to make the day special for him, so they bought him a cake and balloons for everyone to celebrate together! Bennett ate several pieces...and especially enjoyed the blue icing (see picture below!). The boys missed their naps, so when we headed out to eat dinner, Bennett fell asleep before we even got there. Bless his heart..it was a fun, wonderful day! We are so grateful that God has blessed us with this precious little boy!

Filthy...Follow-Up!

The day after the boys got so dirty playing in the mud, I dressed them up in their camo overhauls and sent them out to do some clean up work! Here are some pics of them "cleaning" their truck and having a little fun in the mud afterward. After looking at these pictures, I realized that they got dirtier in their good clothes than when they had permission to get muddy in their camo...hmmm?!?

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year we had fun celebrating Valentine's Day both at school, StoryHour and at home...here are a few pictures of the fun! And yes, we did buy the boys camo jackets for Valentine's Day...did you see the post about the mud?!?

Sunday Night Video

Hey everyone, this is a video that I used during my Sunday night sermon. I thought some of you might like to see it, it is quite revealing and challenging. I found this on Ed Stetzer's blog. You can find it by going to edstetzer.com.

Filthy!

This evening I am having a group of ministers' wives over at our home...so I have several things to do to get my house ready. The boys wanted to play outside, so I told them they could with one simple instruction..."DON'T GET DIRTY!" The last thing I needed was two muddy boys to bathe and another load of laundry before this evening. I was working in the kitchen and peeked out several times to check on them (they were in eyesight)...everything was fine. Until I turned around and looked out the last time and saw them smearing mud all over their truck! I thought my eyes were deceiving me, so I walked out to be certain. Two boys looked up at me with smiles of excitement on their faces, "Look mom! We made our truck muddy!" I immediately told them to get inside, leave their boots outside, strip their clothes right inside the door...(I knew I'd blog about this because in the midst of this God gave me a calm and taught me a lesson about myself, too! I wanted so badly to take a picture of them but also knew that would give them the idea that I thought it was cute. So I snapped a few of their clothes and truck while they were napping...it's hard to tell from the pictures exactly how dirty they really were!) I asked them what they had been told before they went outside, and they both knew. Then I talked to them about why they were in trouble and ahem... "administered discipline." Straight from the door to the bathtub they went where I cleaned them up, redressed them and laid them down for an early nap.What God showed me through this was that we, His children, are the same way! He has given us rules to live by for specific reasons. We however get distracted by all the "mud" around us, and it seems like it would be okay to "play in the mud" just a little as long as we don't get dirty. Before long, we're so comfortable in the mud that we forget what our Father told us. And what we don't realize is that it is impossible to play in mud or sin and come out clean! Our Father cares about us and lovingly watches all that we do, and when He finds us filthy in sin, He will discipline us. We pout and whine and try to reason why it was okay. We can't understand why "God is mad at us." We don't realize that His discipline is not because He's mad at us, but because that's what loving parents do. Have you ever been around an undisciplined child? It's not a pretty sight! So He disciplines us, sometime as gently as a word from Bible that convicts our hearts and sometimes it requires stronger discipline, like trials and difficult circumstances in our lives. But our Father doesn't leave us dirty and disciplined, He mercifully cleans us up and restores us when we allow Him to. Yes, I was upset with my children's actions today, but I don't love them any less...can you imagine how much greater is the perfect love of God, our Heavenly Father? I pray that today, wherever you find yourself, in perfect obedience to your Father or filthy in the mud of sin, that you will thank Him for His matchless love and if need be, allow Him to get you cleaned up!

Our Anniversary Continued ;)

I've had a little trouble logging in to update our blog lately...I'm sorry this is catch up info! Our sweet friends, the Cooks, kept our boys on our actual anniversary for us to enjoy a dinner out alone. It was so nice and we really appreciated it! We had a great dinner at the Olive Pit here in Paris...yummy! That Friday night, my parents kept the boys and Corey surprised me with a trip to Memphis! As we took the exit ramp, I asked, "Are you taking me to Nashville?"...those of you who know how directionally challenged I am will understand my confusion! He had planned a wonderful afternoon of shopping and dinner at Texas de Brazil with MY SISTER and brother-in-law!!! It was so thoughtful! They have 5 children and with our two boys, it isn't often we have a night out together! Dinner was amazing, and the time together was even better!