taming the tongue.

"And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, set on fire by hell." James 3:6

I don't know about you, but whoa. Uh, reality check aisle 5.

How often do I forget about taming my tongue. Probably daily. Too lightly do I take the words that escape my mouth, too often do I speak before thinking. I know I should be considering my words. Thinking before speaking, listening instead of talking so much.

Later James says, "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing." (vs.10) I don't really think of this often... that one minute I may be pouring out love from my mouth and the next spewing nasty, hurtful words. The tongue reveals what is in our heart.

I know I must work on controlling my tongue. My tongue criticizes, I use it to have control and to destroy. It is dangerous..."staining the whole body."

"The true believer is known by his speech. A true believer speaks with a tongue that is under control. Peter says, the true believer will love life, 1 Peter 3:10, see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no deceit. On the one hand, we will. On the other hand, we must.
And so does James warn us about two things. One, that we are revealed by our mouth. Two, that our mouth has tremendous potential for disaster. And so he calls for us to have a tamed tongue. And if we do, it's evidence that we're a Christian. And if we do, it's evidence that we're walking in obedience."- John MacArthur

18, almost 19...I mean almost 20 months!

Evan,

This morning after I got you out of bed your promptly went to the bathroom to "brush" your teeth. You get out your toothbrush and toothpaste and eat the toothpaste. Don't worry it is the kind that is safe to swallow. You are so addicted. When you were done with that you scurried into your bedroom and into Maxwell's closet and soon appeared wearing his shoes. You have a thing for shoes. I have never seen a kid love shoes so much. In fact we have been up for two hours and you still have them on. Even after I got you dressed and took them off, you put them back on. You are so weird.

The differences between you and Max amazes me. Maxwell is more like your Daddy, and you more so resemble my personality. Crazy. Good crazy though. :) You are willing to try about anything, and have no fear. At Uncle Chad and Aunt Mel's one evening you literally dove off the back of their couch crashing into the hardwood floor. You bawled, but 10 minutes later you were ready to give it another go.

When you play you are all boy. Although the other day you were pushing a stroller around at the Valentines...you are into anything with wheels. You love finding anything that resembles a stick- including my spatulas, and hitting things with it. Hockey perhaps? Golf?

Maxwell and you play so well together, most of the time. At least once a day, sometimes many more there is screaming and then you two are death gripping one another shoulders and wrestling to the ground. You know what buttons to push on Maxwell, and you do. You love to approach him while he is deep in play concentration and grab one of the toys and take off. You live for the chase, and you giggle the whole way until you usually trip over your own feet and crash to the ground, and Maxwell prys it from your hands and you lay there, no doubt plotting your next move.

You recently became VERY attached to the blanket Ashleigh made for you. You take it everywhere and won't sleep without it. You cover yourself up with it, from head to toe. You have started to sleep with the blanket over you head, something I also do, and I could not be more pleased. I think it is adorable that you love that puppy blanket, and it is just the perfect size to carry. You love it.

Your dance skills still continue to improve, and recently you have added a new shoulder neck move that looks like you have had professional training. When the music plays you are ready to go.

You also "talk" on the cell phone like you are running some large corporation. Cracks me up.

One of my most favorite things about you, and something I always treasure, is cuddling. You are a cuddly, when you are tired, or worn out. You will climb up by me and cuddle, covering up with your blankie, and a lot of times will lay your head on my shoulder. And then my heart melts. I know I should cherish this time as it will soon pass, and I do.

You are so kind to strangers, always saying hello and goodbye to people. You carry on conversations with people with such excitement it almost seems like they understand you. You are a leader and very independent. A few weeks ago at a playground with Maxwell's friend Camryn you were running all over, doing your own thing. Camryn and Maxwell played together and with the other kids but you were not about to follow a bunch of older kids around, they would have to follow you! You were fearless on that playground!

I have never seen a kid eat with such excitement! You gobble food up faster than I have ever seen a child do because you have activities to get back to. It is so opposite of Maxwell who could sit at dinner for hours if we didn't remind him to keep eating so we could get on with our lives.

You also have recently been obsessed with sunglasses, and you look like one cool cat when you wear them. You so want to be older. You want to ride a bike, wear big boy shoes, drive the car, climb a mountain, and it makes me appreciate your toddler years all the more.

I love you sweet boy, and even though a lot of days I feel as if I am in survival mode rather than relishing each sweet moment we have, know this; that you have won my heart a million times over, and you know that you have your Daddy and I wrapped around your little chubby finger.

Apparently he IS 4 popped collars cool.

He has risen! Happy Easter!

It was a gorgeous day, and we spent the late afternoon/evening with Chad, Mel, and Juliana. A good time as always. Of course I didn't take any pictures of that!! But I did get a few shots of the boys before church this morning. It was snowing when we left their house though! Not good. We hope you all had a blessed Easter as we celebrated Jesus' resurrection! Hallelujah for a Savior whom has given us new life and hope!

uh, hello, I'm a moron, nice to meet you.

image:www.sciencetech.com

So here I am transfering the laundry from the washer to the dryer and I begin noticing these clear/white thingys on our clothes. What in the world???
The next thing I pull out of the washer is a pull-up the size of Montana...seriously people, I washed a diaper!! Max wears a pull-up to bed, just in case, and the thing is when he gets himself dressed in the morning, he doesn't take his pull-up out of his pajamas, and being that I have "momnesia" half the time I forgot to take it out, threw the pj's in with the wash and hence the problem at hand.
I wondered first, am I the only person dumb enough to do this? Two, will this ruin my washing machine? Three, now what?
I dispose of the diaper, and re-wash the load with diaper bits, twice...
and the thing is, uh...
I have done this 2 more times since the first incident!

When will I learn?...
Oh,when will I learn?

for my husband.

new specs.

what do you think?

this morning.

and I'm related to these people...

Uncle Don and the Dorks.

My Mom just e-mailed this pic.circa- 1991(?) Somewhere in the early 90's...in the pink room at Nana's.

From left to right. My cousin Ken, Uncle Don, cousin Josh, brother Carl, cousin Jeff, and brother Alec.

What is that thing?

Today the boys and I went to the mall to meet a friend and her daughter for lunch.
As we were leaving Evan got a glimpse of none other than...
The Easter Bunny...
and he was big.
Evan stops dead in his tracks. Staring with the widest eyes I have ever seen. I wasn't sure if he was going to run up to that rabbit giggling with his arms wide open or take off the other way in fear.
Instead he found the nearest large freestanding item and hid. All the while he kept his eyes on that thing. There was no way that thing was getting to close! He had some inspectin' to do before that thing was getting near him. It was hillarious. I picked him up and put him in the stroller and he just stared, not sure what to think.
I love this kid...he thinks just like me. Max hadthis look on his face like seeing the Easter Bunny was an everyday occurance, just Justin would.
We snuck past that rabbit while he was being distracted by two year old yanking on his tail as he was trying to hand out paper bunny headbands. Max walked by no problem, and I think Evan was relieved he didn't have to have any contact with that thing, as was I.

Work in progress.

Alright, I'm the first to admit, that I'm not an artist. I can hardly color within the lines. Anyway, being that I don't have extra money just laying around (if you find any be sure to let me know) I am doing art in the boys room on a budget. I got the idea from PB Kids (where else?) and here it is the early stages. The boys painted the concert poster and I am going to fix the lines, fill in the colors better, and do some other touch ups. ( Justin actually drew the drum out in pencil...which took him hours, so thanks babe!) I am going to add Evan to the bottom of the drums, and I still have one more to do, a guitar for Max.

are you serious?

Monday we were out in light jackets, today we are staying in.

now this is more like it.

Yesterday, it hit 70 and we spent most of the day outside. Aren't Evan's boots the cutest?

kentucky. one year later.

It is hard to believe we have only been here just over a year. This morning I sit in our kitchen nook, home from church as Evan has been sick the last few days. He is back to his old self, but I don't want to risk getting anyone at church sick. It has been a long weekend, I could go for a glass of red wine. Is 9am too early? I kid, I will settle for my daily dose of coffee which is healing my headache as I type.

As I think about where I was a year ago it amazes me how much can change in one short year. At this time last year, I remember feeling very apprehensive and unsure how I felt about our new home. I was starting to freak out a bit...not that I don't do that occasionally anyway...but that is beside the point.

We had visitors nearly every month, which definitely made us feel loved, missed, and cared for. We truly are so blessed to have such awesome families.

We also had the incredible opportunity to go to the Kentucky Derby. Justin's Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace (who treated us to the amazing event) flew down with Justin's parents and sister Joelle (who babysat) and we had a blast. Who knew horse racing could be so much fun. All the women decked out with fun hats, we had amazing seats, saw Michael Jordan, and our horse even won! We even sipped on a couple mint juleps!

We were getting extremely frustrated in our search for a church home, but in August we finally found the place for us. A place where Gods word is preached and where we have been able to get involved. We have made some awesome lifelong friends. A little shout out to Chad and Mel! We love those two, and their baby girl Juliana. God has blessed us with some awesome friends that we just got along with so well right away. Alright, I gotta share this story.

So, after we had been coming to church for a couple of weeks, Chad and Mel invited us over for dinner.
We had heard that they were amazing cooks. More than one person had ranted and raved about the amazing dinner we would be treated to. We were excited.
The night of our amazingly wonderful, highly anticipated dinner arrives, and as we stepped in the door I took a big whiff expecting to smell some delicious aromas filling their home.
Nothing. Maybe my nose was broken?
I noticed some ridiculous smirks on their faces. It was then that they informed us they had ordered pizza.
PIZZA!!
After all the hype and now we get a lousy delivered pizza.
Alright so Mel was just about to pop out a baby, and they just were tired. I didn't blame them one bit. I probably would have had them make their own pb&j if we had invited them over when I was nine months pregnant.
Now we are known as the couple who got pizza instead of a "real" meal from Chad and Mel. They have treated us to many amazing meals since. They are good to us and we thank God for bringing them into our lives. We rang in the New Year with them playing Nintendo Wii until 2 a.m. when finally Mel and I made the boys shut it off so we could all function in 2008.
Anyway, we became fast friends, and love spending time with them.

Justin has enjoyed his job, they definately keep him busy. He works so hard, and he gets stressed so easily but overall he is liking it. I think both of us are appreciative of the experience he is getting in the field, and he has some hillarious co-workers.

I have really learned a lot about myself, both good and bad. I have been able to stand back and look at how I can be a better wife, friend, daughter, mother. God has really shown me my dire need for him, and although I know I can grow so much more, the things he has taught me this past year have left me in awe of him.

My boys. I can't imagine life with out those two. Different in every way I love them both for who they are. It has been so much fun to watch them grow. It is hard to believe Maxwell will be four this year. This fall we are planning on sending him to pre-school. I never really gave it much thought but have been doing some research and he is eager to go. One of the Pastor's has four children and they send 3 of their 4 (the youngest isn't even a year) children to school once a week and are homeschooled the rest of the time. Anyway, they love going and talk about it every Sunday as they go on Mondays. Max has heard all the hype and is interested. So, we are going to give a go. I think he is really going to love it. He will go on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. He talks about it all the time, but doesn't realize how far away fall really is. Evan is out of control. That kid. He sure has given me a run for the money, but it is hard to believe he was still a little infant just a year ago. He is now a full-fledged toddler...and has some killer dance moves.

Although both Justin and I were a bit unsure about the whole move, God has been and is good. He has blessed us and drawn us closer to him in unimaginable ways. The move was good for us as a couple, a family, but most of all as children of God.