Come ONE... Come ALL!

Tomorrow is the big day!

I hope everyone can make it out tomorrow morning to Shady Grove Church.

My dad will be leading worship (and doing the famous "Irish" song might I add). Then he is going to be preaching about why believers should give a rat's behind about Israel and the Jewish people --I'm not sure that's the exact title of the message though, but it should be. Maybe I'll sneak in and change the power point ;-) -- and he is sharing the vision for their upcoming move to Israel next month.

I really hope we pack the house tomorrow and everyone comes out to show their support to my parents. They are just amazing and I know they've touched so many lives and I would love to have all of you partner with them in this crazy next season.

And yes, it is crazy! They are literally selling everything they own and following the Lord's calling into a totally new place and land.
They still need SO much more provision, but I know that God has things under control. I just get to be a worry wart because I'm their daughter and want to make sure they don't lack anything. Anyways, tomorrow isn't all about raising money (though they will be doing that), it's mainly about sharing on why Israel is so important to the every day believer. It is literally God's stop watch for his second coming and there is a MAJOR part that gentile believers (the majority of us) need to play. It's such an important truth that every believer needs to know and firmly be planted in.

Anyways, so excited for tomorrow. My dad has been working really hard on this media presentation that is set to an instrumental piece that my 16 year old brother Preston wrote that has like 5 movements or something like that (Preston is so talented!).
I can't wait for you all to see it.

SO please come out tomorrow! Even if you aren't members at Shady Grove, your church can miss you for one Sunday! Come to Shady Grove and have an awesome God encounter in worship, hear an incredible word from my dad about a "Call to the Wall" and learn about the vision the Lord has given them which involves the global prayer movement, Israel, Europe and more.

I'm so excited about tomorrow and hope to see you all there!!

Weekend Wrap Up

Wow! This has been a CRAZY weekend!

The birth of Hadassah and the
The Estate Sale
Has pretty much taken it all out of me. Oh and don't forget that I am a mother to an 8 week old and a 2 year old! So it's not like I go home at night and can get a good 9 hours sleep. Oh no. It's middle of the night feedings and changing poopy diapers at 4am. Then getting the 2 year old BACK to sleep after the 8 week old woke her up screaming his head off at getting said diaper changed AT 4 IN THE MORNING!

Then let's talk about how intense and emotional it is to see things as silly as dishes your mom always made cornbread in being sold to some stranger for $1.50. I wanted to grab 1/2 the things people were buying and be like:
"Um no, never mind. That's not for sale. You see my mom used to mix brownie batter in that bowl every single time she made brownies for us when we were growing up and we would lick the bowl and stick our tiny, grimy little fingers all over it to get out every last smidgen of brownie batter. You can't have the bowl. PUT THE BOWL DOWN!"
My mom let us go through everything on Thursday and get out everything we wanted to keep. But still, it's the memories associated with some of these stupid bowls and dishes that are so hard to part with.

Then to top it all off, the lady who is buying the house came by the estate sale and we all got to meet her, and it depressed me. She is SO nice. She is a nurse/midwife and owns a birthing center in Grand Prairie (not the one on Dalworth, it's on Church St.). They also take in foster kids and that's why they want the property. Her husband is a brilliant guy with his pHD and is blind and is apparently a really great guy (I didn't meet him so can't give my exact take on him). Why did this make me sad? Well it didn't because of her as a person, but the thing is I got to meet the lady who is moving into MY house! MY HOUSE! Her kids will be the one swimming in the pool this summer not my kids. Her kids will be the ones running around the backyard and swinging on the tree swing, not my kids. She will be the one cooking dinner in the kitchen and sipping wine on the patio...
It just is so overwhelming and emotional and I just want to crawl into a ball and not deal with any of the raging feelings that are bouncing around inside me because if I let them out, they'll come out in a sobbing flood!
So I just smiled and shook her hand and learned a little bit about the lady who will now be living in my house.

The whole day yesterday was pretty emotional. I think the hardest thing for my dad was seeing his big screen get hauled away. He had ALWAYS wanted a big screen TV and even though we had it for 6 years, it still signified the end of that era. The era where we all huddle in the TV room around the big screen watching Cowboy games or the Oscars...

For my mom I think it was the green recliner. You see that was HER recliner. My dad's was the big leather one, but hers was the dainty green one. That was sad seeing it hauled off...

The Sale was a great success and they sold so much. The TV room is practicly bare. We still haven't even begun to deal with the bedrooms, attic or the barn so there will still be a lot of stuff to go through next week at the Estate Sale Part 2...

I just don't know how I'm going to do it. How I'm going to put my parents, my kids grandparents, essentially my best friends on an airplane and know it will be months upon months until we'll see each other again...

I know that this is what they are supposed to do. This is what is going to make them happy and fulfilled. They can't stay here if the Lord is calling them forward.
I just wish them leaving didn't have to hurt so bad.

Picture Blog

Ok, here are some pictures from the last week. Since I went to bed at 1am and then was woken up at 5:30am to a phone call telling me Holly was in labor, the four hours of sleep and the previous blog posts today have sucked all the energy to write out of me.
So enjoy a blog with minimal words.

Courtney was in a play 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. She was the lead and was AMAZING!



If you have a Facebook, you can see a video of her singing HERE and HERE.
I was so proud of her!

Cute daddy/son picture:

Random pic of Lyric right when she woke up:

Picnic at the park:






We got tickets from Faith Collins to see the ballet at Bass Hall, so Court and I took Ash and Maddy. They loved it!


Ok, that's all the pics I have for now.
Off to Shabbat!!

Two Months Old

* This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I got busy and forgot!*

Shiloh is 2 months old today.

Having Haddy be born yesterday has really caused all the memories to come rushing back. Although it hasn't been very long, it seems like he has been a part of our family since the beginning. So on one hand it feels like just yesterday and on the other hand I feel like it was a hundred years ago.

Shiloh is finally basically sleeping through the night. He always eats around midnight, but then normally sleeps till around 6am. I've moved him into his baby nursery, which by the way I finished decorating to the extent I will decorate while here in this house. See below for the pictures. He has done so good being in his room. That's actually when he started sleeping 6-7 hours at a time was when he went into his room. I guess Jon and I are loud sleepers! :)

Speaking of Jon, he and Shiloh have really bonded in the last week. It's gotten to where if Shi is upset, Jon can hold him for a little bit and he calms right down and falls asleep. He loves his daddy.

He smiles all the time and I swear I ALMOST got him to laugh yesterday!

He has gotten better at holding his head up, but he's still not fantastic at it. He finally in the last week started pushing himself up and holding his head up when he lays on his stomach (like the cobra yoga pose ). I think he may be taking longer to do that than Lyric did because he has SO much more weight to hold up! I mean, have you seen his chin! It has to weigh a few pounds! :)

He also has started coo'ing at you when you talk to him. Oh my goodness, it's so sweet. When he starts "talking" to me, I get so filled with love for him that I just want to squeeze him! He's such a doll!

His feeding schedule is now 3-4 hours. He went through a growth spurt last week I think because one day he wanted to eat every 2 hours all day long! I was SO tired of nursing that day!! But obviously, he's a good eater :)

So here is my dearest son:



Not so tiny is he! :)


Here he is with his cousin Haddy:


My Chubster!


His shirt says, FBI- Fat, Bald, Innocent :)




And here is his nursery:










So I wonder if the next few months will pass just as quickly as these last few... who knows, but I sure am enjoying watching him grow!

Hadassah Jayden is here!

Isn't she beautiful?!

Here she is! My newest niece and the first official "Benjamin" baby, Hadassah Jaden. I really hope that is how Holly is spelling Jaden because that is how I am putting it everywhere! (EDIT- Ok, I fixed the title, but it's actually spelt Hadassah Jayden)

Anyways, Holly and baby are doing wonderful.

Holly has been in early labor for the last 48 hours. She finally went into the hospital around 5am when her contractions finally got really consistent and were hurting her too much. At her last appointment she was 95% effaced and 2cm.

When she went in this morning she was 3cm and 100% effaced.

By 8am she was 5cm and wanted her epidural so she got that and then they broke her water. Unfortunately there was meconium in the water. That's no bueno and they always call the NICU nurses in to clear out her throat before they let her breathe so she doesn't inhale the meconium into her lungs (that's what happened with Lyric).

Well by 9:45am she was around a 7-8cm.

By 10:45a she was at 9cm and feeling a lot of pressure when she would get a contraction.

By 12p she was a complete 10cm and and 15 minutes later was pushing! She pushed for about 50 minutes and Hadassah was born around 1pm (I don't know the exact time).

My mom was in there with her and said she was amazing! The nurses of course immediately worked on Haddy to make sure that she didn't inhale any meconium, and thank the Lord she didn't so she was all good to go!
Everyone was balling their eyes out when she was born and Landon had to sit down because he was so overwhelmed by it all!
I can't believe my little brother is a daddy now! How crazy is that? Are we really old enough to be grown ups? It feels like we are all playing house like we did when we were younger. But nope, we are all growing up. Landon is married and has a baby, Austin has a serious girlfriend that we all ADORE, Court's kids are practically grown (ok not really, but Ash is SO big), Preston is moving to a new country and I have 2 kids! All of this and I still feel like we should all still be in high school. Does everyone with siblings feel this way?

Anyways, here are some pictures of the day!

Waiting for her to make her arrival:

Lyric is so excited about her new cousin "dassah"


Shiloh got a little jealous that he is no longer the baby of the family, so Coco had to assure him he was her favorite nephew :)
Which put him at ease so he fell asleep :)
Anthony and Tracee couldn't miss out on all the waiting room fun!
And neither could Pres, Danny or Hunter
Since Shiloh is now no longer the baby of the family, he decided he wanted to be the biggest baby of the family. Here he is putting back a few more calories to ensure his reign as Chubster King

Landon coming out to tell us the good news!
So excited for him!
All the family so excited to see Hadassah for the 1st time!
She was a little upset at being out of her warm home inside Holly, but I promised her she would be much more happy and have much more room!

Landon, the new daddy!
And here I am, Aunt Dee for the 5th time!


Here is a video of the first prayer over her:


So there she is! I'm going to go see her again tonight so I'll post more pictures soon.

Shabbat Shalom!

You were WRONG Mr. Einstein

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." (Albert Einstein)

For some reason I feel like Albert Einstein was wrong for once. I mean, thanks for the Theory of Relativity sir, but it seriously feels like everything is happening at once right now!

Case in point, I am sitting in a hospital waiting room, anxiously anticipating the birth of my newest niece Hadassah Jaden Benjamin (Landon and Holly's little girl).

This is coming right smack in the middle of a ridiculously busy weekend.

Yesterday, Courtney and I spent the day/evening at my parent's house packing, pricing, listing things on Craig's List, selling things off of Craig's List, putting things that we wanted to save aside and getting everything ready for the Estate Sale on Saturday. We've decided that there is no way we are going to be able to get everything ready to go by Saturday, so we are going to have a 2 part sale. One this Saturday and then everything else next Saturday.
So the house is a GIANT wreck. Currently, as I type, Olivia and Rachel Baker are at our house pricing items. They are overwhelmed by all the mess/stuff. And I'm like... WELCOME TO OUR DAY YESTERDAY! There is so much stuff! It's crazy how many things you accumulate and how overwhelming it is to try and decide what you are going to sell and what you are going to keep. They aren't putting anything into storage, so they are picking from a lifetime of memories to put in a few boxes that will go into my grandparents attic. It's kind of overwhelming. They are going to be taking a few boxes of things like books, cookware, and the essentials, but everything else is either being sold or given away.

Sigh... yesterday was really emotional for me. The reality that they are moving has set in. It's not so much the fact that they are moving, because we are too. it's the fact that them moving signifies that my life will never be the same. It has now irrevocably changed... ok, I don't want to get into it now. That will be another time.

OK so in the middle of the packing and getting ready for the Estate Sale/Move, we have a Lifewalk Reunion Shabbat at my parent's house tonight! There are like 24 former Lifewalkers going to be there. Now that we have been at the hospital all day, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what my mom is going to do or how she is going to get ready. At least they were just planning on just grilling out hamburgers, but I bet there will be no challah.

BUT all of that craziness is completely overshadowed and joyfully so! I can't wait to meet little Haddy!

I'll post pictures and details once she's born (she's actually pushing right now as I type this!)

Stay Tuned!

The Sale is beginning!!!

I just posted some items on Craig's List from my parents soon to be estate sale!

Here are the items I posted on Craig's List:

Armoire: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081653686.html

Bed: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081656011.html

Big screen: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ele/1081656927.html

Duvet: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/hsh/1081658824.html

Sharp TV: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ele/1081660028.html

Flat screen TV: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ele/1081662716.html

Victorian Buffet Table: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081664519.html

Lamps: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081664519.html

Mission Buffet Table: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081666609.html

Leather Chair/Ottoman: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/fuo/1081667697.html

Obviously there is a lot more where that came from! Don't be cheap and go top dollar as they are needing to be able to buy more furniture and stuff when they get there. (ok, you can haggle a little bit, but not too much!) :) :)

The estate sale is going to be this Saturday (3/21). My mom is putting a sign out so get there early if you want to get the good stuff! She has a lot of kitchen items!

522 Hill Street
Grand Prairie, Texas 75050

How?

So with the goal set that we are going to be moving to Belgium by the end of the year, that leaves a whole lot of things that need to come into place.

The largest of which is our house.
We bought our house at the height of the market, and within 9 months, the property market bubble burst and we were essentially upside down on our mortgage.

Currently, we are pretty even on the house, so it's just going to be selling it for enough that would cover our closing costs.

We bartered a computer for a bathroom facelift with my younger brother Landon so he hopefully will be coming over soon to give our guest bathroom a face lift. Then Aaron Smith is going to come over and get Jon started on repainting the kitchen cabinets.
Then I am in charge of pulling ALL the weeds from the back and front flower beds and planting new flowers.
Then we need to clean out the garage and take a whole lot of stuff to the dump.
I need to repaint my closet and then put up another hanging rod.
Finish Shiloh's room so it doesn't look cluttered and then, BANG, the house goes on the market.

I just want to blink and have this "transition" phase over with. I woke up today so overwhelmed with everything. Jon and I decided that since we are going to move, there is no use getting a new job so we are going to just try and make it work with him just picking up a few more IT contracts. Although some of them have panned out, not all of them have and it is SO overwhelming for me. I am trying to just stay positive and know the Lord always provides, but right now, nothing is really working out.

Couple that with this being the first time since I was 16 that I do not have a job and that I can't really go out and get something right now to help out because of the kids.

It just sucks when things don't work out the way you were hoping they would, but what's that saying? "Men make plans. God laughs." I sort of feel like that right now, but I'm definitely not laughing along with Him today.

I just keep telling myself, "Trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord."

I'm just having a bad day and feeling overwhelmed by life so sorry for my negativity.

I was crying earlier and Lyric came up to me with a tissue and said, "it's ok mom."

So I just wish I could blink and we would be on to the next thing. Although the next thing is just as stressful as Jon doesn't know exactly how he is going to support the family once we move over there... so strike that, I want to blink and have all the "transition" over with.

So if anyone knows how to skip a few steps let me know.

Want to See Courtney Sing and Dance?

Well then you will need to come see her this weekend as she is the lead (Millie) in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers!

The shows are at Stonegate Academy and are tonight at 7:30pm and tomorrow (Saturday) at 2:00 and 7:30p.

The cost is $7 for house seats & $10 for reserved seats (if you call and buy them) otherwise it's $10 for house seats & $12 for reserved, if you wait and buy them at the door.

So if you want to call ahead and reserve your tickets to save a few bucks, call 972-790-0070.

The location is:
2833 W. Shady Grove Rd
Irving, TX 75060

Hope you can make it!

Gotta Love Her

So tonight, Lyric was being a little slow eating her dinner. She just didn't want to eat her veggies so we left her sitting at the table with the instructions to eat more. Danny was over so him and Jon were sitting in the living room and I was doing the dishes.
When I walked over to check on Lyric this is what I found:



She had it all over her hair. But her highchair was clean. There wasn't ketchup all over the tray. Her shirt didn't have ketchup all over it. She had literally just scooped the ketchup off of her plate and put it all over her hair.

Yes she did get in big trouble, but it was still pretty hilarious. Makes for a great picture!

The Chunker!

I know, hard to believe that this baby over here that you see is a huge baby. ;-)

I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Shiloh is HUGE!

I took him to his 6 week check up today and he weighed a whopping 14 pounds 3 ounces (6.5 kilos) and 25 inches long (63.5 cm).
He is in the 97th percentile for his weight and based on the USA median weight and height ranges, he is the size of an average 4 month old baby boy. Isn't that hilarious!

I love my little chunker!

Well we also had another big decision and that was we decided that we are going to give him all his vaccinations. I was really hesitant about this because I've heard of so many horror stories and I am not discounting them, but after praying about it, Jonathan and I felt that since we will be traveling so much to different countries, it is important for both the kids to get all their vaccinations. We are going to trust the Lord to keep our kids safe and that's the bottom line. NO judgment whatsoever on those of you who don't vaccinate (my sister doesn't), we just decided that we were going to do it. We are also going to get Lyric caught up on hers. She needs her 12 and 18 month shots.

Anyways, so with the joy of shots, we now have a super fussy baby on our hands. Poor kid, I hate it. I gave him some tylenol before the shots, so I am hoping he feels better soon.

After the doctor this morning, I took the kids over to Old Navy and Target to get some summer clothes and sandals for Lyric. Lyric is now the same size as Kadyn, so no more hand-me-downs from her cousins.
I just got a few things, a few pairs of shorts, a few short sleeved shirts, and a pair of capris and 2 pairs of shoes. Except Lyric was wearing the cheap sandals I got her (just running around/play sandals) and she started complaining about them and I realized they are too small, so looks like we'll be taking those back! We've been really blessed and I've never really had to spend money on Lyric's clothes before. I spent about $100 today and that is the most I've ever spent by far. It's the joy of having 3 nieces, it's just too bad my nieces are so tiny and my kids aren't!
Looks like I'll be doing that with Shiloh too because he will be wearing Judah's size clothes before I know it!

Dang, I'm really tired. Shiloh was up every few hours wanting to eat last night. He must have known he was getting weighed today and wanted to bulk up! :)

We are going to eat spaghetti tonight and are going to use ground dear meat! It has 20% ground beef in it and then the rest is dear meat. We got it from Rhonda and Corey Woods. I'm really interested to see how it tastes! I'll let you all know!

Chef Destiny!

So I've never thought of myself as a cook, but I've recently gotten a kick out of finding recipes online and cooking them up!
One of my favorite places to go for yum recipes is The Pioneer Woman which is a hilarious blog, but she also has a cooking section (and a photography section).
So this past week I made from scratch:
chicken quesadillas
Angel hair pasta with lemon, garlic and shrimp (which is the picture you see)
Tomato-Basil pizza with pesto and homemade crust

Everything has been delicious!

Basically everything has been a success, which makes me want to keep cooking!
I've been looking at recipes tonight and I think this next week I'm going to make Brisket (because I've never done it before) and this pesto pasta with chicken and other things I have yet to discover.

This past weekend was fun.
Friday Jon was working, but the Watkins and my parents and I (plus kids of course) went out to lunch and we ended up having the world's longest lunch at Jason's Deli. I swear we were there for at least 2 hours just talking about different things. Plans for the future, fears, hurts, loves, thrills, stresses it all just came out and we were really able to encourage each other. I love my fam and I had a great time (even though Lyric pooped in her pants while we were there).
We've been having once a week family date nights and since we didn't have Shabbat on Friday night, we decided to do it then.
We went to eat at my new fave Mexican place, Mi Chulos in Southlake then walked around the Southlake Town Center, got some italian ice cream and let Lyric play by the fountain, then we went to Barnes and Noble, browsed and Lyric got a new book. It was delightful and the a lot of fun. Now if only Jon and I could go on mommy/daddy date night every week! One of these days, one of these days when the kids are bigger and I can get Ashlyn to watch them :) Although I'm going to be losing my most accessible babysitter in the next few months... gulp. :( but let's not think about that now.

Saturday morning I woke up to the news that my dear friend Joy had herself a BEAUTIFUL baby girl! She was almost 2 weeks overdue so we were all anticipating little Zoe's arrival. Joy had her at a birthing center with no drugs, so I was very impressed :)
That morning we had brunch with the Lowries and the Watkins at the Watkins house. It was a whole lot of fun! Fresh fruit smoothies, pancakes, scrambled eggs and turkey bacon... YUM! Then my dad and mom called us and told us they were going to the Irish festival in Dallas and wanted us to come with them. Well I mean, who doesn't want to go to an Irish festival!? So we all packed up and went. The whole family except for Landon and Holly, but they TOTALLY have a free pass because Holly is 37 weeks pregnant and would have been miserable walking around. (PS. I'm so excited to meet my new niece in a few weeks!) Ryan and Tiff and her dad met us up there for a few hours since Tiff is going out of town for a few weeks and wanted to see us before she left.

Today after church and lunch with the Watkins/Vandeputs/Briscoes/Ransoms plus Jon N. and Jessie H., we came home and chilled the rest of the day. It's been a relaxing weekend, but I wish we had one more day for Jon to hang out with us. But then tomorrow I would be saying the same thing. I wish we were independently wealthy and then neither of us had to work and we could just hang out all day! That would be fun, but alas, not realistic!

So that was my weekend! Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure:

Look at that chubby faced smile! It makes you just want to squeeze him!


He's getting so long!


This one is just too funny to me!

Lyric at the Irish festival posing with some sheep


My adorable nephew Judah

Ok, well I better get to bed. This daylight savings thing is going to get the best of me if I don't watch it. Speaking of watching, I'm currently watching Jaws 3. Gotta love the special effects, but I just don't know how this scared me when I was little. It looks so fake!

Shiloh has a doctor's appointment in the morning so I'll let you know how much the little goober weighs and how long he is now.

Ok, later people!