My Blankie and My Grandma

So, this morning on the way to church I was listening to the Christian radio station. They were talking about God and creation, and quite honestly I don't really remember what specifically they were saying. But, Allyson was paying attention and piped up with, "Did God make my blankie?"

I went into the explanation about how God made many things but also he knows us and provides for us - things like her blankie, our home, food to eat, grandparents, etc... I was telling her that God knows what we need and what we like because he made us. To this she replied, "yep, God knew just what Grandma I would like and gave her to me!"

She says things like this on a daily basis and I really need to be writing them down. What a joy to have these sweet little girls!

The Move

I am so excited about our new place. God has really blessed us with this home. We are now in Glenwood Springs (same town as the church) and are enjoying the benefits of being "in town." Silt was a great place for us for the year we were there, but I am glad to be where we are now. We had lots of help from people at church with the move particularly all the moms and kids the girls and I spend time with each week. What a great church family! It took a week of bringing one load over at at time and putting it away and then one day of furniture moving and we were in and already unpacked. I much prefer across town moves to across the country ones, that is for sure.

We are still renting ... but there are some benefits to that. Now we have plenty of room and a great view from every window in the house. The picture with the mountain in the background was taken from our front porch so the house you see is across the street from us. The picture that is all house is where we live. We have a full basement and lots of room for the girls to play. There is also a deck and a full back yard. We've got more than enough room for company to come and visit (hint, hint) and are really just glad to be in closer to the church building.

In addition to the new place, while Justin's parents were here over spring break they bought us a dining room set - something I have wanted for quite some time now. Thanks again Papa and Grandma!! (Kind of an upgrade from the $25 garage sale find from our first year of marriage!) So not only do we have room for you to come and visit us, we also have room to feed you at our table!

I know we have been blessed in order to bless others. My prayer is that we use this new home to God's glory and for his ministry!

This is Mount Sopris which can be seen from our back yard:

Conviction

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QExF7qSfNgRJwOLcjt6i1_kYYK0ikaQY_rZrwZ-9aanG80EKp3Hl_01ndNRzfAe1fSuIo-_0h0vTDCp1r5mEHGNrpVcKHmzRzO9FzqtwNN1t4BGkOLpoBW_mv2gb7r-fs_ZqGbyg4Gi0/s1600-h/praying+for+our+children.jpg

Lately I have been thinking more and more about the responsibility that God places in our care when he gives us our precious little ones. We are given a small child to mold, sculpt and lead into a mature, God following adult. I don't know about you, but for me this is something that I am aware of more and more as my girls get older and begin to mimic the behaviour of those around them. I watch them as the live out their day and I want to help them become who God created them to be! As I was on Facebook yesterday (One of my newer addictions!) I came across my sister-in-laws updated status of a verse she was praying for her kids that day. She sent me a link to a calendar that has a month's worth of scriptures to pray through each day for your little ones. Prayer is so important. God gives us these children, but he is there with us. He is our greatest resource when we want to raise these precious little things into Godly adults!

I have posted the link above and am printing this for my fridge. Blessings on your prayer time.

Go-Gurts

I am sure all you smart moms out there already know this ... but as my girls sit at the kitchen table having their after nap snack I thought I'd share - just in case! At some point in my past someone told me to put Go-Gurts in the freezer and tah dah - frozen yogurt. My girls call them Popsicles ... they like them much better this way. Also, if you are ever doing weight watchers - they are one point each. A nice little treat.

All I do is pull them out of the freezer, run them under warm water for a minute (to loosen them from the wrapper), snip the top off, wrap a paper towel around them - for the girls because they are cold - and there you go.

So, like I said, I am sure many of you already do this and aren't overly impressed at this moment, but for those of you who haven't tried this yet - now you know!

Great Blog

Last Friday evening Justin and were invited over to some new friend's home for dinner. Justin participates in a monthly area wide minister's meeting. Last week he met a guy named Zac who works with an organization called Youth for Christ. He works with the teenagers in Rifle (the next town to the west of Silt). Anyway it was his family's home that we had dinner at. As I often do, I asked for a couple of the recipes from dinner. One of them came off of this blog and as I was exploring around it I decided it could be a good resource to share. So - check it out!
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/

Bad Blogger

One of these days I will be really consistent with this! In the mean time you will just have to be patient with this lady. Christmas was a wonderful blessing to our family. We drove to Idaho, and by "we" I mean Justin. He drove the whole way there and back. Secretly I think it is just his way of not having to deal with the children in the back seat! The girls actually did really well on both drives. Not much of a complaint out of either one of them. While we were there we did lots of festive things and the girls played and played with Papa, Grandma, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Michael. They had a blast.





















Also while we were there Allyson had her third birthday - I can't believe my little baby is a big girl. Where did the time go? Much to her pleasure it was a Tinkerbell birthday party. Tinkerbell is the big thing for her these days. We watch the movie basically every day.

Lauren loves Barney. Santa brought her a stuffed Barney for Christmas and she calls it "i love you" - I love you, you love me, we're a happy family ....













Our girls seemed to have hit a growth spurt over the past month or so. Not only are they bigger, they seem older. Those of you with the little ones know what I mean by that. Since being back we've kept pretty busy. Our last week's play date was to an indoor pool at a hotel in Glenwood. They only charge $5 per person and you can stay as long as you want. They have a great kiddie pool and a long, curvy slide for the bigger kids. I took Allyson down it a couple of times and she loved it. The water was a touch on the cool side, so both of the girls wanted to be in the spa part a lot of the time. They really enjoyed the water. Allyson cried when we left - so you know its good!

We are busy building great relationships here. I feel that God is really blessing me with some of the mommies here. Friendships are such a precious thing to not take for granted and such an important part of this Christian life we are all living.

Justin started back up with Grad School this semester, so that will keep him busy along with everything else. He's taking two online courses and just got started last week.

I am on Facebook too much these past few days, but I really do love all the connections I am making on it - every week I think I've got to have come across everyone I know only to find more and more people.

God is blessing us. I am often reminded how great my life is! I'm posting some Christmas and Birthday pictures on my facebook page today. Blessings until the next update!!!

Snow much fun!

It's official! We are covered in a layer of snow and it is sticking around ... and snowing each night and some days. So, even if it warms up and melts off in the day, it comes back in the night and we wake up to a good covering of the white fluffy stuff. It finally feels like it is really winter around here. The girls LOVE the snow. If the snow is melting away when we are heading out, Allyson will find any little patch of it and eat it. So cute. It is quite an adjustment planning enough time in the morning before we go anywhere to warm up the car, and get hats, gloves, boots, and coats on. Coats don't go on easy when the little ones have thick long sleeves on. It's hard to keep the shirt sleeves from bunching up in the coat sleeves. Ah, the problems of the snow! We have snow tires with studs and snow scrapers in the car. This is such a contrast to Houston. I do believe we have gone from one extreme to the other.