Wordless Wednesday

My favorite from the photo shoot

Our pictures are up!

Head over to Jackson artwork photography to see some of our pictures! They did such a wonderful job and were so fun to work with! I hope we can do it again for Mia's 1st birthday!

The heaviness of this day

This day has a two-fold significance for me. Not only did 9/11 happen on this day, but on this day 19 years ago my Sister, Courtney Danielle was born and taken straight to heaven.

On 09/11/2001, I was sitting in Mrs. Gorman's 4th year Spanish class when the phone rang instructing her not to turn on the t.v. Of course she immediately turned on the t.v. The rest of the day was a blur. No one was allowed to leave school and we watched the news in every class. So on this day I pray:

A Prayer for USA by David Cohen

I pray for the survivors of the attack on September 11, 2001.
I pray for the families who have lost loved ones.
I pray for the rescue workers and police on the scene.
I pray for the doctors and nurses caring for the hurting.
I pray for the reporters who work through intense emotion to bring us the pictures and news of the day.
I pray for the President and other elected leaders who so desperately need wisdom from beyond themselves.
I pray for the pastors in Washington and New York who care first-hand for the spiritual needs of those who have experienced this great tragedy.
I pray for the military and intelligence agencies who seek to find out who would do this so they might be brought to justice.
I pray for our nation -- that this event will bring us together and turn our thoughts toward helping each other to fight and VANISH the terrorism out of the world.
I pray for all those who might be tempted to think that violence accomplishes anything of lasting value. We've seen too much of it in the recent years.
Lastly, I pray for every peace lover in this world.
May God break the cycle of violence to make a difference for His Peace and Grace in this sinful world.
GOD BLESS AMERICA.

In addition, I also reflect on God and his Sovereign mercy and his ultimate plan for us. I reflect on how different my life would be if I had a 19 y/o sister. I received a card from my grandmom today. Inside was this poem that she wrote 19 years ago:

Courtney Danielle

A special gift from GOD given to us

for a brief moment in time

To love and remember all of our lives

and to challenge our faith

The dream of a life given for it's own

special purpose~hidden for this moment

To be revealed fully in eternity

A precious deposit in heaven~now perfect and complete

Safe in the Arms of Jesus

Reflections of Grandmom 09/12/91

So in Love

I am so in love with this cute baby!!!

Mia's 4 month update

I can't believe that my sweet baby is already FOUR months old! She had her four month Dr's appt on Wednesday and here are her stats:

• weight:15# 5oz (75 percentile)
• height: 24 1/2 inches (50 percentile)

A few highlights from the Dr:

• she is very proportionate and will grow into her little chunky rolls
• she is holding her head up and she kept smiling at the Dr. She had no idea what was coming
• she received her 4 month shots and it breaks my heart every time :(
• Dr says she is should start putting herself to sleep so we should start letting her cry it out

So this weekend we are going to try and just let her cry herself to sleep. the Dr said it will be harder on us then her but it should only 3 days so we will start on Friday and go from there. Hopefully we will have quick success! Mia is doing really well, she is such a happy baby and loves to look around at everything and everyone. She is afraid she will miss something :) She is enjoying her exersucer more and is able to sit up for 1-2 seconds before falling over. She is bringing her hands to midline and loves to put her hands in her mouth. She a elephant on her play mat that she has staring contests with and when she loses (she always does) she eats his trunk. Too cute! She also is more vocal, sometime she will just yell (not crying) but yell to remind you that she is here. I will try to post some videos this weekend of her.

In conclusion, we are so in love of our little girl and are so grateful to GOD for giving us such a sweet and miraculous gift!

Meal Plan Monday

Sunday: Chicken Enchiladas

Monday: Pancakes, eggs, and sausage

Tuesday: Round Steak Supreme

Wednesday: Sloppy joes and French fries

Thursday: grilled chicken and veggies on the grill

Friday: Tacos (Shawn, Tyson, and Pierce are coming to visit this weekend so our plans for the weekend are tentative!)

Saturday: BBQ with hamburgers, hot dogs, and ice cream sundaes!

Sunday: Baked Ziti

God's Blessings!

So we have decided to become debt-free and are in the process of following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. We are taking baby steps and the first is saving up for an emergency fund. We went to home Depot tonight because Patrick got some gift cards for his birthday and we were going to look into buying a storm door for the front door so that when it cools down we can open the door and turn off the air to save money. The door I really wanted was too much money for us so we were planning on getting a generic on using the gift cards. Well...I think that GOD is all for us getting out of debt because there on the end cap was the storm door I wanted on Clearance! So we were able to get a screen door for the front and one for the garage using our gift cards! God is Good! and to make things better I am making a dessert that I found online to cheer up my co-workers at work and it smells delicious!