Psalm 119

^{Psalm 119:9-16}

⁹ How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word.
¹⁰ I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.
¹³ With my lips I recount
    all the laws that come from your mouth.
¹⁴ I rejoice in following your statutes
    as one rejoices in great riches.
¹⁵ I meditate on your precepts
    and consider your ways.
¹⁶ I delight in your decrees;
    I will not neglect your word.

  

God's word is so good. I hate that I daily do it wrong but am thankful that His mercies are new everyday. Today don't forget to hide His word in your heart and remember to rejoice in the good times and the bad times. ג

Kynlee 9 Months

to our sweet kynlee jamison,

as of today you are nine months and two weeks old. it's hard to believe that you have not even lived a year and yet have managed to make our lives seem so rich and full in such a short amount of time. life has been far from perfect but full of purpose. your father and i have learned more about ourselves than we would care to share since you have come into the world but we are so thankful for the challenges, the deep love we've experienced and that God chose us to be your parents.

you are a beautiful baby- you really are. your eyes are as blue as the sky, with just a hint of gray with eyelashes people would pay money for. i think what tugs at my heart the most when i look at you is your smile. your lips are perfect and red at all times. your hair is starting to grow long, mostly in all the wrong places but it's still adorable. you never cease to amaze us with how smart you are- babies are not to be underestimated, especially you. if i show you something once you pick it up right away- you pay attention more than i know. i love the way you try to chew on our chins and noses, laugh when your daddy tickles your thighs, and wave hi and bye to everyone you see. you are a very happy and content baby- it's not unusual for you to play by yourself and i actually encourage it. to know yourself is an important thing. 

your vocabulary blows me away. you can now say dad, mom, hi, bye, dog, cat, deer (yes, seriously) and ball. i don't know if it's normal for a nine month old to talk that much but you have been very verbal since the day you were born. when i hear other babies cry i am always amazed at how subtle it is- you have some set of lungs on you child! you are full of energy and are into everything now- our little dora the explorer. you crawled later than i expected you to because you became obsessed with standing- it's all you wanted to do. you already stand on your own for small amounts of time and you have been walking with toys for weeks now. you sure do keep us on our toes. 

kynlee, if there's one thing i want you to know right now, it would be the unconditional love that jesus has for you. so cliche, but it's all that matters in life. at the end of the day, it's all we have. there's never been a time in our lives that we have realized it more than when we became parents. we could not do this on our own and because of jesus, we don't have to. I love praying over you when you fall asleep in my arms, i already pray for your future husband (i'm a sap!), who you will be, that God will give you health and longevity. i pray for challenges and that God will instill himself so deeply in you that you will know Him from a young age and never desire to stray. you were purposely thought about, designed by and known by the creator of the universe- it's a wonderful and sometimes scary thought but it's true. our one desire is not to be perfect parents but that you will know who God is- because then you will know grace, love, security, and purpose and that is way more important than having perfect parents =)

thank you for making us laugh everyday at the cute things you do, for hugging and kissing us and for just being you.

here are your nine month pics take by your awesome aunt kelly. she captured your personality so well- you are already such a ham!

with love,

mom and dad

Easter 2012

Easter is my favorite holiday of the year. It's a time to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to have some great outdoor family time. I woke up Easter morning feeling God's presence all around me. I jumped out of bed and couldn't wait to read the Easter story to Kynlee. We grabbed her little "baby" Bible my mom gave her, plopped her right on Dan and I's laps and she sat and listened as we told her the greatest story of all. It was such a precious moment and one I hope we carry on as our own little tradition over the years. Church service was great then it was time to go to my parent's, eat some good food and have our traditional adult easter egg hunt. To be fair, we did give Corbin a 45 second head start but it wasn't all about the kids yet! The men hide all the eggs and the women go hunt them and I always get SUPER competitive- I can't help it, it's my nature.

Having Kynlee made everything so much more fun- seeing her and her little cousins, Barrett and Corbin, play and interact and hunt easter eggs together was the best thing in the world. I also love that so many extended people come to our celebration. We have our immediate and extended family, a couple people from our church whom we have adopted into our family, Dan's parents & sister, Kelly's parents, my aunt's mom and aunt etc... it's a full house with lots of love! This was also our first holiday since the passing of my Grandma- there was a definite void without her there. I missed hearing her say my name, missed the overwhelming joy on her face when she would see Corbin & Kynlee- missed her hugs and kisses and joking around with her- she had the best sense of humor. Grandma- you are deeply missed!

So, here's to Easter- a time when we get to unashamedly break out our pasty legs, make fools of ourselves over plastic, pastel eggs and stuff ourselves with ham and starburst jelly beans.

 OK, so my sweet, precious daughter has unfortunately inherited Dan and I's super sensitive skin and has developed cradle cap (aka cradle crap) so, no she did not just get out of the bath. That would be her greasy hair from all the lotion I put on it...poor girl!

 

 

Happy Easter!

I will also post the pics on Facebook (plus a few more) for all you non-bloggers out there =)

weekend project: ottoman

I've been a little absent- what's new? Very recently some friends (who won't be named for their privacy) are going through some very tragic circumstances- the kind of thing that makes you parent differently, cherish life a little more, be thankful for all of your blessings. I'll tell ya- God is really putting my life in perspective lately and for that I am very humbled and thankful. Life is precious!

Although it seems like life should stop when you see loved ones hurting, it unfortunately doesn't. This always strikes me as something tough to swallow. If I were in their circumstance I feel like I would get so angry at someone complaining about something like a headache, something material breaking etc.. (these are just random things coming to my mind, this is not a passive aggressive comment!). But life just keeps going... and I have to realize that I can't stop living my life either. Even if it means spending a little time doing something that has no eternal value and that is where this post is actually heading.

You see, a few months ago (before Christmas) I mentioned in passing to Dan that I would love for him to make us an ottoman for our living room. We use the current one we have a lot- sometimes we eat on it, we play with Kynlee on it and we do a lot of feet propping on that puppy. But it didn't quite meet our needs. For one, it was not aesthetically pleasing (to me) and we had a bad habit of throwing magazines on it only to constantly toss them on the floor at the end of the day when we plopped on the couch. So Dan surprised me and made me one! I really wasn't expecting it but I was super excited. Then we all got sick, my Grandma got sick, and before we knew it months had gone by and we never got around to finishing until this past weekend. We decided we needed to just make time to do it or it would never get done. So here you have it! Props to Dan for designing it, building it and helping me stain and distress it. Props to my talented mom for helping us cover and tuft it! I LOVE it and it fits our needs perfectly!

Before (I took this pic with my phone, sorry for the low quality)

After staining and distressing and putting it all together. You can see Dan built a shelf underneath where we can permanently house our magazines/books. I would have loved to have done a pallet coffee table or something but it's just not practical with a baby. This is perfect because the edges are soft so we don't have to worry about Kynlee bumping her precious little head.

Next up on our to do list is a little bit of painting. We are finally moving all of our brown/tan neutrals to grays. I blogged about it before but since we are living life more simply now, it's not a real priority, just something on the radar for an eventual project. 

My little sweetie helping me decide on colors- she's the best!

I didn't give a tutorial or details on how I did anything because we aren't trying to re-invent the wheel. Feel free to ask me if you'd like but you can pretty much google or Pinterest anything you want these days and figure it out! But I am more than happy to let you know how we did anything =)

Hope everyone has a great week!

wishing it away

I have to say, I don't normally wish away time but we will be more than happy to see February go... this has been a rough month for us. Lots of sickness, a scare with Kynlee's dairy allergy that landed us in the emergency room, our furnace went out, I had to have some (not so fun) procedures done and then a couple days ago I got in a car accident with Kynlee in the car (we are fine, praise God). Of course, there are MUCH worse things people are coping with and we are grateful for all our blessings but it doesn't take away from this no-fun-february we have had. January and February have always been my least favorite months- typically due to weather-related miseries but this year the weather has actually been the best part of it all, go figure. Through it all I know God is always teaching me to trust Him and rely on Him more. I know He does His best work in me when I am my weakest.

Today, I woke up feeling better than I have in a while and I immediately said thank you Lord. The one thing about being sick a lot is you learn to appreciate those small healthy days that come and go with usually no second thought.

Today was one of those days. It was beautiful outside and I got to watch my precious nephie for a few hours in the afternoon while Kelly had a photo shoot. We stayed outside for two hours straight. It was so fun. I have to say, as much as I hated this month, today may have made up for it. So I say, thank you Lord for a healthy, beautiful day. 

I love watching them together- Corbin is so sweet with Kynlee. Corbin was obsessed with Kynlee's puffs, he would not put them down- the picture below basically summarizes our afternoon.

Corbin loves to toss ball and the faces he makes when he throws and "catches" crack me up.

I better hurry up and eat these puffs before Corbin gets them!

 He got 'em again

drink break

then we were right back at it

*baby models*

Can't wait to watch their relationship continue to grow!