IOU

I understand that I am due for a practical, logical update of what is going on around here: but that's not really why I logged on.

Yes, I'm in week 17 of pregnancy with baby #2 and am SO looking forward to seeing this little one for the first time on September 12th!
Yes, Aaron is still doing great, talking up a storm, amazing me every day with his gift for leadership, compassion, prayer and boldness. I am so in love with that little boy. And he really is turning into a little boy!

I owe pictures and updates from North Carolina and maybe I'll get to those, but the real reason I wanted to blog today is out of pure love!

I just have to talk about the love of my life! I can't get over how Jesus has the uncanny ability to stir my heart and make me feel so overwhelmingly thankful that He is my God. There is no one like Him. There is no other God. I know it can sound offensive, but I guess that's the nature of truth: it offends our false notions. Truth cannot compromise, it is what it is.

I am so thankful for my God!
There is a song I have been meditating on lately. It is Cory Asbury's He is Yahweh. It's like a 30 minute song (you can listen for free on Grooveshark.com). When you get toward the end it is just raw worship. The lyrics become "My soul sings! My soul sings! My soul sings, how I love You!" over and over and over and I just can't describe how it makes my heart feel.
I feel so overwhelmed with the amazing grace that I have been given. Jesus is the lover of my soul.

Thank you Lord for showing me who You are. I know so many people don't get to see it, or aren't ready to see it, but I am so thankful that You have given me eyes to see! You are gracious and so loving! You GOOD.

Joey and I had the opportunity to go to Chicago a few weeks ago for the Jesus Culture Confrence. We visited the Lincoln Park Zoo while we were in the city. It was a fun trip, but we were really eager to get home to Aaron! Four days is just too long.

There were about 16,000 people there! It was overwhelming! Hillsong was incredible (the band who played) and the speakers were awesome. Bill Johnson was my favorite.

The North Carolina Trip pictures will just have to wait, I need to spend some time with my son before I leave for more ISR training. Only two weeks to go!

Blessings!

Thankful

I am so thankful for the Lord. I am so glad that I know Him. I have been seeing more and more how different my life is because of the grace God has given shown to me. I'm not anything out of the ordinary, but because of Christ in me I am significant and the little things the Lord invites me to do with Him on a daily basis have the potential to change lives and alter things eternally. I am thankful for the relationships that the Lord has invited me to part take in. I may not see 1,000 people (or even 10) radically come to know the Lord through me, but that's not the point. The Lord is good all the time and he is moving! He is wooing and loving and pursuing His beloved and I am invited to join Him in loving people! I don't have to work hard to love people, I have a relationship with the creator of the universe and He is more than capable of using and refining me into what He needs. I am so blessed to be a part of it all!

My prayer today is: Lord make my heart like yours. Make me energized by what energizes you. Give me a pure heart full of love for those you love (everyone) and grace and forgiveness that flows from the overflow of the love that you have for me. Fill me today with your spirit Lord. I want to walk with you in righteousness. Glory to God! :0)

Here we go again...

SURPRISE! No, you don't have vertigo Jen, you're just dizzy and nauseous because you're pregnant... not what I was expecting, but very excited at what the Lord obviously had planned! And since I still didn't believe it...

Guess it's pretty certain! I can't believe we are going to have two kids... ready or not, here it comes!

Sometimes you just have to live a little and no one teaches you that like a child! One day it was raining cats and dogs. Aaron and I were getting a little stir crazy in the house so went out onto the carport to watch the rain. Aaron wanted to run into it so badly, and it's just water! So why not? He LOVED it! Laughed and giggled.

He was totally soaked, but it was worth it to see him so joyful and excited!

We also took our first trip to IKEA. That place is amazing, but also really overwhelming! It's huge and they have SO much stuff!

Aaron really enjoyed trying out all the kid beds, so we decided to look on craigslist for one when we got home.

And we found one right away. He already spent a night in it and did great, but we're not ready for that, so we haven't done it again since.
Here is some more kid time fun! Aaron with his friends and mooching his friend Claire Bear. And his first all-by-himself-ice-cream-cone! Love this boy! Love being his mama! Thank you Jesus!

Touch A Truck and Other Times

So it's official, our son is a monkey. He climbs everything, even if it's a flat surface. He must have sticky feet or something, it's really impressive. He likes to sit in baskets and tired to find the highest, scariest place to stand so Mommy has to watch him like a hawk!

He is also still our sweet little baby in many many ways. Here he is asleep on the changing table. We keep using the sleep sack to prevent him from climbing out of the crib (and to keep him warm without covers that slip off- he moves a lot in his sleep!).

Moli sent these funky moon shoes/house slippers and Aaron loves them. He brings them to me and says "shoes" and I wrestle them onto his feet.

This is Aaron and Daddy in a military vehicle of some sort at the free Touch A Truck event in town. It was a fun, again FREE, way to spend a morning. They even gave away free bike helmets and other goodies. There were bounce houses and other entertaining things for the kids as well as food and what not for sale.

Aaron decided to take this one for a spin. He is such a cutie pie I love it!

This is my favorite picture because the fire helmet is too big and slipped over his eyes. So precious!

This is not a great picture, but it's Aaron standing at the open doorway to the Shands rescue helicopter. It's really neat to see in person, and can probably be captured to that affect with some better photography!

The Miami Zoo

The Pictures from the zoo are nothing to write home about. But the videos are fun! Aaron got to meet Diego, who he doesn't know from Adam, but he at least didn't cry. He gave him a high five and then we moved on.

Maybe one day he will look back and be excited to know he once shook hands with Diego himself... maybe not though.

This is some huge fish that was bigger than Aaron. He felt safe enough knowing that Daddy, however, was bigger still.

This is Video one of two... notice Mommy not paying attention toward the end where Aaron gets a good arm-wipe-down and isn't too happy about it.



Then he got really into the whole idea.



This is the cool vehicle I talked about in the other post.



We had such a nice time! I wish we'd taken more pictures! When I print my blog this year videos aren't going to do much good. Next time we'll have to take pool pics too!

Well, blessings until next time!

Our Trip to South Florida

My mother and stepdad got a new couch... that means we got a "new" couch too! Their hand-me-down is our new comfy spot! Very exciting! We had to plan an impromptu trip to South Florida in order to retrieve it, so we made a little vacation out of it!

We left Thursday night and stayed through Sunday and drove a Uhaul back! On Thursday and Friday we spent time with the Myers in Palm Beach Gardens and had a BLAST! The beach trip on Friday was a definite highlight! Here are some tips for a fun and safe time courtesy of the Myer Fam!

First things first: you MUST wear sunscreen at the beach in Florida.

Mommies must keep an eye on their babies, and their hubbies too to make sure no sharks come (okay, so that's a little ridiculous, but common, you never know!).

You must convince little ones that the waves are your friends when mommy and daddy are with you.

You should always check out your surroundings.

You should have a Papa John with you to show you some fun games: like putting shells and other beach goodies into a bucket!

You should bring a skim board to catch some waves.

Snuggle up for a family photo while the little one is little (that will change when you blink your eyes after the shudder snaps!)

Teach your baby how to spell their name in the sand, look how well Aaron did!

Tell your baby that you "heart" them... better yet, show them!

Allow them to walk away when their done being "hearted."

Find some beach treasure.

Then find some more.

Write your initials in shells.

AJ stand for Aaron Joseph!

On Friday after a nap and a yummy family lunch we went to the mall with Nana and Papa John and Aaron rode his first carousel! First with Mommy and then with Nana!

Nana is so much fun!

We had a WONDERFUL time in Miami too, but I have to wait till Joey sends me the pictures to post them. We went to the zoo and Aaron got a kiss from a little girl in the splash park, saw all kinds of animals, got hooted and hollered at by monkeys, rode in a bike-carriage thing, and fed a giraffe all by himself!

After the zoo we went in MeeMee and Poppy's pool and that was lots of fun too! Aaron practices his newly acquired breath control skills from his ISR lessons. Gotta love that boy. After dunking him under water he comes up smiling and laughing! What a hoot!

These are the couches in their new home and the rearranged furniture that really opens up our living room!

Before (well... long before, we'd changed it since then):

After:

Before (same deal, this is a little while ago):

After:

Here is some footage of Aaron's first swim lesson! I am so proud of the progress he is making, he is such a big boy! He cried a lot at first, but always stopped crying to give a high five when it was requested of him! :0)

*Plug: if you are interested in infant swim resource (ISR) this is a link to them: ISR SWIM

There is not yet one case of a child who graduated from ISR drowning. It's pricey, but I think it's worth the money personally.

Blessings!

Egg Hunt, Passover and Resurrection Sunday!

First lets start with a few shots of Aaron's favorite Spring/Summer pastime; the Splash Pad! Lori was brilliant and brought the shade and chairs! Thank you Lord for Lori! She brings so much joy to our lives (and shade too).

Can you even find Aaron in this picture bellow?

Aaron got his first Easter card this year from Papa Steve, so he decided he would read it himself.

What a smart little guy. He was very interested in what Papa Steve had to say.

We went shopping for Passover at Publix with Aunt Rachel and Ari. There is a lot to get to prepare for a feast!

Just had to share a little picture of our new backyard haven from heat. We may not have a lot of grass, but we do have space and we're gonna use it!

Aaron's first Easter egg hunt was the Alachua Egg Drop. The plan was that eggs would be dropped from a hot air balloon, but it was too windy! We were a little disappointed, but we had a great time and Aaron didn't know any different!

Ms. Danielle and Mr. Dave brought their new bob stroller to the event and since Finley is still in the womb, Aaron hitched a ride with Cori.

Joe, a good friend of Joey's from work, has been joining us on Wednesday nights for dinner and Survivor. He brings along the most ADORABLE pup named Tombo. Aaron is smitten!

Celebrating Passover was a lot of fun! I re-read Exodus in preparation and we even had a mini-passover meal with our Microchurch (but sorry, I did not take pictures at that one). Here is Joey sporting a yamaka.

And Heather and Stephanie with their beautiful smiling faces!

Jim, Mr. Bernice, and Troy boy at our table.

And Megan and Jade (Troy's little sis) too.

Ari Paul wore his little yamaka and was fascinated with all the commotion.

Rachel's sisters, Hannah and Rebecca, made it there too!

And more friends enjoying the anticipation for the Passover celebration to begin.

Eric wore his tallit and yamaka and lead the Passover.

Aaron borrowed Daddy's yamaka for a photo, we will have to get him one fore next year!

Aaron prepared to partake of the cup

His was grapejuice and not Manischewitz of course!

After the feast Aaron was tuckered out. Troy carried our sleeping boy to the car and Aaron loves him enough to sleep on his shoulder!

On Resurrection Sunday we went to the Graves family farm to celebrate. Aaron got to see all kinds of baby animals in a little "petting zoo" but those pictures are on Daddy's phone, so we'll have to wait to post.

I love these boys so much!

We had a wonderful, blessed, joy-filled Easter weekend and we hope that you did as well. I am so thankful for family and friends that make seasons like this all the more enjoyable.

More than anything else though, I can't thank the Lord enough for the love He poured out for all mankind on the cross. I am so glad that You (Lord) came to die for my sin. That without You I would be a sinner unfit to stand in Your presence, but because You shed Your blameless blood for me I am washed clean and can stand blameless before Your throne and spend eternity with you. Hallelujah!!!