Marvelous Monday

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23 -24

Tired of cleaning toilets, changing diapers, doing laundry? Me too, but how amazing is it that we know we can work for the reward of our Father? So with everything we do, even the small things, do it with a joyful heart for God. Serving him is the only reward we need.   

Random Brady Updates

It has been awhile since I have shared with you about how awesome Brady is. So here are a few random Brady updates:
1. He talks constantly. He repeats everything, and tells us everything he wants, and is everything he is thinking. He must know at least 500 words, and is talking in complete sentences. It is really nice to communicate and have an actual conversation with him now.

2. He does not talk much around other people. He is very shy around people he does not know very well. He does not talk, and he is really well behaved. I have a group of friends who think Brady is always calm and quiet, Ha, sure. He really is a good kid most of the time, but they all have their moments. It is just so strange that he becomes a different kid around others. Not family though! He definitely knows who his family is, and how he can act crazy around them. His daddy is shy when he first meets others also. So maybe he got that personality trait. I like it, it is kind of mysterious.

3. Brady is super smart. At least we think so. He can count to 10, and he sometimes counts as high as 15, but is not consistent. For some reason he sometimes messes up at 4 but he always gets1-3 and 6-11. He knows every body part, most animals, lots of letters, and most colors. I got him some flash cards, so I will do something crafty with them, and we will be working with them soon. Next we need to start on shapes. I hope that we will be writing letters and numbers by the time he is 3. He should also be in preschool next year so then he will be even smarter!

4. Brady is a Houdini. He can open all doors now. Even though he can get out of his room, he would still wait and call for me to get him. Not anymore. So we got him some door knob child lock things.

He figured those out in 10 seconds. What a smart boy. Here is what I found when I checked to see how he got out of his room.

He knows that he gets in trouble if he comes out of his room now, so he stays in for the most part. (see number 8)

5. Brady does not play independently. I blame myself for this one. I think I entertained him too much as a baby. Now he will not play with toys by himself. I hear of my friends children who play in their rooms for 30+ minutes at a time by themselves and I am astounded. We are crazy happy if Brady plays for 5 minutes by himself! We made him a play room, he has fun toys, and still no playing. I have tested it. I have gone the entire day without encouraging him to play with his toys, and sure enough he toys will go untouched.

So what does he do all day? He helps me with everything, cleaning, laundry, vacuuming. He does it all. He will also play outside, so I am dreading winter!

6. He gets bored easily. Even if I do play with Brady and his toys, he gets easily bored. I keep him active with various activities, but sometimes he asks to go bye-bye. I was always a homebody, but now we go somewhere at least once a day. Either the library, park, gym, church, friends house, errands, etc. Brady needs the activity, and now that I am used to it so do I.

7. He loves babies. He lights up when he sees babies. It is so sweet. He loves to help me in the nursery at church, and take care of the babies. He will be such a good brother, and we hope it will be really soon.  

8. He is sneaky. Last night after we put him to bed, he snuck out of his room, and into ours. When we were getting ready to go to bed, this is what we found. A sleeping Brady, snuggled up with his mouse. So cute!  

9. He is a crazy climber. Anything at the park, he scales in no time. He can climb super fast, and is scared of nothing it seems!

10. He loves to read. He has some books memorized. His favorite book at the moment is "If you give a mouse a cookie." My good friend Michelle gave this to him before he was born, and he is really into it lately. He has the matching stuffed animal mouse, and he likes to read the book to the mouse.

11. He has to close the garage door. He has to push the button, but he calls it a butt, every time we leave or come home. Sometimes we forget, and he gets very upset. Everything it seems these days Brady has to do himself.  

12. He has a crazy sunburn. We went to the pool today, and I guess somehow I did not put on his sunscreen properly, so now Brady has a super weird sunburn. Oops! Bad mom!

13. Lastly Brady still sleeps on the floor. He has ever since this  bedtime drama. Even though Brady can easily can get in and out of his bed, he continues to sleep on the floor by his door. I put down a blanket, but we are trying to not make it too comfortable, so that he will sleep in his bed. We figure that at some point in his life he has to sleep in his bed. It is his choice but it just makes us sad. No wonder he sneaks in our bed!

That is what Brady has been up too. He is so crazy but completely wonderful, and the best blessing we could have ever received.

Changes

Changes to the craft blog are in the works! The blog address has changed, and therefore the previous link will not work. I have changed the link on the side bar on this blog, but everything else will not work.

Here is the new link.

Super excited about the changes!

Marvelous Monday

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:19-20

This came to mind recently while on facebook. You know those things, "Like this if your dog is awesome." Well I recently read one that several people liked, "Going to church doesn't make you a christian anymore than standing in the garage makes you a car." At one time I would have completely agreed with this. I still agree that just because you go to church does not make you a christian.

BUT, I also believe that as a christian you should be involved in some way with other christians. In my case it is church, life groups, small groups, working in the church, etc. Other people may do one of those things, or something completely different. I just believe that someone needs to be rooted in something with other believers.

As a teenager, I was offended by my church, and it sadly took me a long time to be free from that offense. Once we moved to Colorado, the church we attended was convenient for me. Go when I want, get in and out, not too much, but I was still a christian. Only now do I realize how much I was prohibiting my spiritual growth.

After changing churches, and becoming involved in our amazing church now, I see what I was missing. Was there anything wrong with those other churches? No. It was me. I like what my pastor talks about, to paraphrase, "it is not what the church does for you, it is what you do for the church." Jesus came to this earth to be serve, not to be served. Are we excepting our churches today to feed us spiritually, and and make us feel good, but we do nothing for the kingdom?

Things I have found after I became planted in the church are irreplaceable. I don't want to elaborate too much, but are you planted in a church? If not, is there someone who is in agreement with you? Are you involved in something that two or three are coming together, and praising God, and he is there with you? Are you planted and bearing fruit? Are you serving, and using your God given gifts to further his kingdom?

I was not, and this is something I will always be working on. I say this not to be boastful, or to lecture. I just know that this mindset changed my life. You can never have too many people praying for you. You can never have too many blessings. And you can certainly never be too close to God.

Bugs deer and snakes, Oh MY!

Several weeks ago, we went on one of our family hikes.

We tried a new place, a park that is kind of in the middle of town. It was nice, but not very far away. Brady relaxed in the hiking pack and also walked some.

We saw a mama and baby deer, some bugs, and...

A RATTLE SNAKE! He was huge! Look closely in the picture and you can see him. We were walking and Jeremy mentioned seeing a sign that there are rattlesnakes around. He teases me often, so I thought he was joking. All the sudden he says "stop, look at that snake!" Sure enough there was a snake crossing the trail right in front of us. We don't think he saw us, he did not rattle or stop. I am so glad Jeremy was there. I don't think I would have seen him, and I was not getting close enough to take a picture.

Sure enough there was a warning sign at the end of our hike.

Run Brady! Just kidding, he was safe in the hiking pack for the snake incident.

Love Colorado, snakes and all!

last day of summer

Yesterday was the last day of summer for my niece and nephew so we decided to celebrate and head to the zoo. It was a beautiful day out, and a great way to end the summer. Lucky for Brady and I our summer fun is still going!

Lily the skunk, we fed her crickets

Feeding the new baby Giraffe



Ready to ride a pony

First pony ride all by himself

What a great way to end the summer.

I think some of us may be happy school is back in session :)

Marvelous Mondays

So Mondays are not always marvelous, sometimes they are down right yucky. But they don't have to be. They can be a great starting point to the rest of your week.

For that reason I have decided to start sharing things that have brought revelation and light to my life, on Monday's. Hopefully they can speak to you as they have spoken to me. Most will be scripture.

I may or may not elaborate on these depending how I am feeling. I hope nothing I say offends anyone. This is my blog, and just my opinion, but if you have a problem with the word of God, take it up with God. I will be praying each week, and I hope that God will speak to others through the blog.

Bear with me, and hopefully I will get to posting each Monday. Tonight it is late, so I will be starting off light, but there are few greater words.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength Mark 12:30

Have a blessed week!