Our growing children

Our little cuties are growing like weeds! Today we got Samy a big girl bed. This week Isaac read a sentence. And they are becoming such good friends!
I've been going through "100 Easy Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read" with Isaac, and he's picking it up fast. This week he read his first sentence (which they call a story): "See me eat." He wanted to color the little picture they had in the book and then he drew his own. It was helpful being told by an older, wiser lady this week to not tell little boys to sit still, they just can't :) And he never does! Always looking around, fidgeting but he's learning while he does it.
Samy was so excited about her new bed! Tomorrow she and I are going on a date to find a comforter for her big girl bed--she already told me she wants purple :) And we've been working on potty training again, which is going really well. She certainly is aware of what she's doing because it only took a couple reminders and now she's telling me (most of the time) that she needs to go potty (except number 2). When she finally does go all the time, she gets to go to the toy store and pick something out--she's already decided it will be a princess, though it oscillates between Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

And those two are just adorable together! They've become such good friends, playing together all day with MUCH less fighting than there has been. Samy is the one asking Isaac to play in the basement now. They run around or play with her dollhouse together, which is pretty funny. I love overhearing their scenarios which go between reality like taking baths, going to bed, the kids saying "I'm hungry" over and over, and Papaw changing Samy's poopy diaper--oh wait that's not reality :) and of course complete fantasy, like the other day when a dragon landed on their house and Mommy fought him off :)
I love seeing God work in their little hearts and grow their friendship!

Isaac's surgery

We found Isaac's hernia on Thanksgiving day. He had been running around like he usually does but kept complaining his stomach hurt. When I noticed how low he was holding I looked and found a textbook hernia. Our pediatrician referred us to a surgeon who is just wonderful! He had both of our kids laughing hysterically within a minute of entering the room and he explained things so thoroughly yet simply to us. Our love for him only grew when Isaac was writhing in pain Christmas night and he called us back not once but twice!
His surgery is scheduled for January 26th and we'd love your prayers! Though it is a simple out-patient procedure, what parent wants to put their child "under"? I struggled a lot with fear the first weeks after we found out. Thinking we haven't had any major trials plus we were reading a book on suffering. I was assuming the worst would happen. While talking with some of the Pastors College wives at gym day, one was saying how all of her children had had serious illnesses when they were very young. She said something to the effect of "I had to come to a place of believing that even if God took them He is still good. I couldn't assume that because He had protected and healed my other children He would do the same this time." That was so helpful to my heart! Instead of pushing my fears of the worst aside, I needed to correct my thinking. God is faithful, good, kind, loving and sovereign! Our trust is in Him in every situation, from the everyday to the most difficult.

Though Satan should buffet
Though trial should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul!

Our Christmas travels

So I still have plenty more to share from after our snowy adventure on the way to Tennessee. We had a wonderful (though short) time with my family in Knoxville. Presents, food, games, lots of playful children, and a dress for every princess Samy could think of :) The kids had a great time with their cousins! We only got to stay a couple days then we were off to Georgia. Our first stop was in Woodstock to see our dear friends from Orlando who have relocated to Georgia. What a rich time, but way too short!!
Then we were on to Macon to see all of Keith's relatives--all of them! I love how we get to see all of his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins at one location! The kids had a blast with Grandan & Bubbe and Grandma! Dan and Linda had planned some little "treasure hunts" for the kids on their property ("Grandan's woods" as Isaac calls it), which was just a hoot for all of us. Samy was gung-ho on digging up her treasure until we got there. She held the little shovel for about 2 seconds and declared, "I can't" in that sweet little voice of hers :)
Isaac had way too much fun riding the four-wheeler. You could hear him laughing even though you couldn't see them. And apparently four-wheeling isn't so good for hernias (Isaac has one that is getting fixed this month) because Christmas night we had a good scare when he woke up in serious pain. We had him in the car ready to go to the emergency room when his surgeon called us back and said to put him in a warm bath and see if that helped. We certainly had our doubts that it would, but I guess the surgeon knows what he's talking about :) after about 10 minutes Isaac was calm and feeling better and asked, "Can I have something to eat?" Our little eating machine :)
We were off to Knoxville again, but stopped in Atlanta on the way up to hear my older brother preach! What a treat that we got to be there for his "debut" :) It's so encouraging to see God's work in Mark's life going from "Gaston" likeness in college (a very proud, vain guy in Beauty & the Beast) to such a humble man of God! We're so grateful for the example Mark and Kim and their children are to us!
So, then Keith was able to work remotely in Knoxville for a couple days and I got to have more time with my fam :) What a blessing!!!

And since then I've been trying to recoup and get our house back in order. Here's lots of pictures from our journey (though none from our motel b/c I wasn't willing to go dig it out from the back of the van).

I wasn't dreaming of a white Christmas

We left for our long Christmas vacation the Friday before Christmas. There was snow forecast up here in Maryland but it wasn't supposed to arrive until midnight so we figured we had plenty of time. We left around 3 and encountered a good deal of traffic as we got into Virginia. We had been in the car less than 3 hours when it started snowing. At first it seemed like we could make it, just a little snow, right? Within 10 minutes Keith could barely see the lines on the road. A few more minutes and he was feeling a little slip here and there. Time to find a place to sleep for the night :) So, we spent two nights in the Knights Inn in Verona, Virginia--if you're wondering if it's a good vacation spot, I assure you its not :) We kept hearing rumors the next morning that the interstate was clear, but the road to our motel was not and snow was STILL falling (for almost 24 hours). Numerous cars stuck in the snow assured us we should stay another night. We ended up with almost 2 feet of snow where we were! I had grabbed all of our snow gloves (and thankfully my snow pants were in the bag too!) on the way out but nothing else. Keith walked to the Wendy's and gas station at the end of the road the first night for dinner and a $5 box of raisin bran for the next morning. Day two he made the 1.5 mile trek through two feet of snow in tennis shoes to the Food Lion for some more food. He's my hero! For being stuck in a tiny (and nasty) motel room for 2 days, the kids did surprisingly well. We took them up to the lobby once to run around and they got covered in snow on the way back and totally soaked. We left early Sunday morning to brave 100 miles of ice and snow on the roads. We drove 6 hours straight without a single stop or complaint from our children! I think they were as glad as us to be going to Grammy & Papaw's house and not staying in that motel!
Not that I ever want to repeat it, but it certainly made some memories!

And we're back!

My new (old) computer is up and running! Another story of God's gracious provision--a dear man Keith works with, who just loves computers, offered to help us shop for him. Well, long story short, he gave us his brother's old computer (which is only about a year old) so we just had to get a monitor! God is so kind :)

Here are pictures from the last month :) yes, it's been a whole month. Keith's birthday, our afternoon at the Agricultural History Farm Park, a visit from Jerry Bridges to PC gym day, our early Thanksgiving with my parents and brother (including our trip to Annapolis, see previous post), Thanksgiving part 2 with the Purswells, the first snow of the season, and a fabulous surprise date to see Handel's Messiah at the National Cathedral and dinner on the top floor of The W Hotel!

That's the long and short of it :) Oh, one more wonderful surprise of the month was being asked to share at my dear friend Laura's MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. She asked me to share the gospel through sharing my testimony of God's grace in mothering. It's been a long time since I spoke in front of a group like that, but the Lord definitely used the preparation and the morning of to draw me nearer to Him! I was so blessed to share the good news of God's saving grace through Jesus Christ and how Christ's perfect righteousness affects my everyday!

Looking for Prince Charming

Well, my computer totally died two weeks ago, which explains the lack of blog posts. I didn't realize how much I relied on that silly machine! I've survived so far only because Keith brings his home from work so I can at least check email :) Hopefully we'll have our new one in the next week or two, but until then, no pictures for the blog.
A quick Samy story until I have my own computer back. My mom, dad and younger brother were up last weekend for an early Thanksgiving trip. While they were up we went to Annapolis. We came around the corner and saw the huge "State House" towering over us. It's a very large building built in the 1700s that actually served as the US capital for 9 months and is still in use as the Maryland capital building. So, we see this huge building with it's large steeple sort of thing on top and Samy gasps, "Cindyrella's castle! I want to go in my castle! Find prince." (She often tells us, "I AM Cindyrella.") So we walked to the front of the building and up the huge stairs to the entrance. Samy is all the while saying, "Go in my castle. Find prince." Oh it was so funny and adorable! Inside there is a very Cinderella-like marble staircase that goes up stairs, but it's roped off. Samy wants desperately to go up and find her prince. There's another staircase around the corner that goes down and isn't roped off so my mom took her down. Wasn't much to see down there so my mom is trying to get her to come back up, but Samy is insisting they "find prince." Suddenly my mom and Samy hear a man's voice coming from up the stairs and Samy gasps again, "Prince!!!" and takes off for the stairs :) It was hilarious! She didn't find her prince, but was content enough to twirl around in "the ball" (a very large, empty, ornate room where they must set up tables for meetings). If she didn't usually refer to Daddy as her prince, I would be a little more concerned for her obsession with "Prince" :)

Harvest Party

Covenant Life had their annual Harvest Party on Halloween. Isaac decided he wanted to be Mr. Incredible this year (which I must say is considerably easier to make than Lightning McQueen!) and Samy, of course, wanted to be Cinderella (which just means dress up like a princess). Keith and I debated dressing up as the Incredibles, but Samy wanted me to be Cinderella too and we knew we couldn't get her to be anything but a princess, so we just didn't dress up (I mean how was I going to dress up like Cinderella??). The Purswell family was actually dressed as the "Ultimates" (if you remember the humorous story from one of Jeff's messages here), they were too cute!

Isaac was very interested in getting candy, but he did enjoy the games. Samy on the other hand would hardly leave my side and usually refused to play the games. I think all the costumes were a little frightening to her, even if they weren't actually scary :)