drawing a picture

Anna Kate recently learned how to draw pictures! She loves playing with crayons, pencils, pens, and markers if she can get her hands on them. 

Today, I walked into the kitchen and found her sitting at the table like a big girl - she can climb up on the bench and it makes me a nervous wreck! 

Another thing she likes to do is chew up pencil erasers - odd habit! She will bite the eraser off of every pencil she sees if we will let her. She won't eat it - just bites it off and spits it out...some kids!

 I know there are a lot of pictures of such a simple task, but look at how cute she is!!!!

Anna Kate 18 Months

Anna Kate is just a little past 18 months old now! She's growing into a mostly sweet toddler. She tries so hard to tell us what she wants/needs, and sometimes there's a clear word in the mix of gibberish!

She says ice cream in this video along with a few animal sounds.

Here are some pics from the past few months:

watching for Gracie and Caroline to get home from school

making a silly face when she noticed I was taking her picture

I love this grin! 

favorite owl hat!!! She wore this hat for an hour in the house because she loves it!

watching The Lion King, eating a cinnamon roll, sitting in her baby doll's stroller...

Our favorite movies are the Lion King and The Little Mermaid right now. She has developed her own form of sign language to let us know which one she wants to watch!

Anna Kate truly keeps us laughing all of the time! 

Praise His Name [song]

Praise His Name 

by Jeff and Sherri Easter

When you're up against a wall 

And your mountain seems so tall 

And you realize that life's not always fair 

You can run away and hide 

Let the old man decide 

Or you can change your circumstances with a prayer 

When everything falls apart 

Praise his name 

When you have a broken heart 

Raise your hands and say 

Lord, you're all I need 

You're everything to me 

And he'll take the pain away 

When it seem your all alone 

Praise his name 

When you feel you can't go on 

Just Raise your hands and say 

Greater is he that is within me 

And you can praise the hurt away 

If you'll just praise his name 

Ohhh, 

You can overcome 

By the blood of the lamb 

And by the word of your testimony 

You'll see the darkness go 

As your faith begins to grow 

You're not alone, so how can you be lonely

I couldn't find a link to the actual song, but this song is on my mind this morning.  Our choir at church sings it and I love it! I have some friends and family who are going through some hard times now, and I know what that's like because I've been through my own share of hard times {and I know there will be more}. The words to this song are exactly true though! Praise Him and He WILL take the hurt away! You're not alone, so how can you be lonely?!?! 

I love all of my friends and family. Sometimes it seems like no one cares about you or your circumstance, but most times that's just in your head and not true at all. If you want to feel God's love, just ask Him to show it to you. He can carry the hurt/pain for you and give you relief, but you have to give it to him! 

Thankful

I have been reading my friends' thankful posts on Facebook for a couple weeks now. I started to join the fun, but I know myself and my current circumstances would simply not allow me to be successful... I am extremely thankful this year though! I'm a list person so here goes:

This year I am thankful for:

1. God - continuous mercy, healing, grace, and salvation! Provider of all of my needs (see list below). AMAZING to know Him and to know His true Hebrew name, YHWH YHWSH. 

2. Josh - I will be thankful for Josh and the time we had together for all of my life. Great husband, great example, great father. 

3. Jon - my sweet husband. I'm so thankful that God allowed me to find a second wonderful husband! He's a great dad too! 

4. Gracie - daughter 1. She's an "old soul" - easy to talk to, fun to be around, entering the teenage years OH MY! Loves basketball. Smart and Silly. 

5. Caroline - daughter 2. I think she may always be a kid at heart. Loves art and crafty things. Great babysitter to Anna Kate. Funny and Kind. 

6. Anna Kate - daughter 3. Whew! Sweet baby girl. Loves animals, movies, and food. Wears shoes ALL the time (possibly changing them 3-4 times per day). Makes me smile and laugh daily. Sassy and Sweet. 

7. Family - lots of you fit here! I'm thankful for each one and the ties that bind us together.

8. Home - Not necessarily the actual 4 walls that surround me (although that's important), but the happiness and peace that is found within.  

9. My job - "stay at home mom"- so much falls in this category - time to focus on being a wife and mom, opportunity to cook and clean for my family, a chance to help others by volunteering to work, etc.  

10. Health - This has been a big part of my prayer list this year. I'm so thankful to be healthy and have a healthy husband and kids.  

11. Dayspring Academy - an above average safe learning environment for my children. Teachers who care about them and their well-being. A parent group who cares as well. 

12. Friends - people I can enjoy being with, count on in my time of need, help in their time of need, have honest relationships with.

I'm sure as soon as I click "publish" there will be so many more things that pop in my mind to add to this list - maybe I'll start another one...

I want to be clear about something though - I have not earned all the wonderful blessings I have been given.  YHWH has blessed me beyond measure with these things. I don't want to ever take them for granted. I am thankful to HIM for these wonderful blessings in my life. I'm so humbled when I think of how good God has been to me.