Saturday, July 31, 2010

one knee...one hand...almost!

Kiva is 9 months old!!! And she is just so close to crawling...today she crawled once...meaning one knee and one hand and then flopped onto her belly and did the good arch stretch. Crawling is just around the corner for this household! And we have had an enjoyable last week being home...I love Brian being home from work for the summer! It is such a gift! So, here are some fun pics of some of the fun we've been having!
at the children's museum
painting the car at the museum
Jada and Piper at the children's museum playing dress up

Kiva is really good at looking at the camera and smiling...which has been fun!
Daddy took this one...I like it.My mom reconnected with our neighbor when I was 18 months old until 4th grade...Gayla. It has been fun to catch up with her...thanks to facebook :)
Right now the Hollands are here visiting...we love them...proof, when they were almost here Jada went and got one of her chairs and looked out the window saying "Faith, Jacob...Faith, Jacob..." over and over in a sing-song style. She was giddy when they arrived.
And a little movie before bed time last night. Tonight, the three oldest are having a 'sleepover' in Jada's room...and are sleeping soundly. Precious.








Thursday, July 29, 2010

Some Jada Quotes over the past 24 hours...

You are such a gift to me daddy.”

“You are the best daddy in the whole wide world.”

“I love you the most as you love me.”
“You are so fun to me daddy.”

“You’re the greatest.”

“How did God make you so hansom?”

When asked, “why are you saying all these sweet things to me?” She replied
“Because I love you.”& “Because I am a nice girl”

"Mommy, You are a gift to me."
"You are a great great mommy in the whole world."

Really precious thoughts from our sweet sweet 3 1/2 year old...and we agree, she is a nice girl! We love her a lot too :)

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Answered prayer!

As we were having dinner with some friends, we realized that we really needed to document the ways the Lord has been answering our prayers in regards to Jada...so here goes!

Last spring, Jada was really sick all of the sudden. She was throwing up and screaming in pain. It was scary. We took her to one of the smaller emergency rooms in the area since our regular family doc was out of town. When we arrived, it was so so sad. She was really hurting and about every two minutes she would scream out in pain and had some bouts of vomiting. The docs could not identify the cause and told us that it would probably keep going and spread to Kiva for days before it was all over. All of this happened to be on a Wednesday night (our regular small group meeting night) so they met at another place and really spent time praying, and really asking the Lord to relieve her from pain and heal her. They texted us when they were praying and no kidding, 10 minutes later she was pain free, laughing and wanting a happy meal :) WHAT? Seriously, it was done. And Kiva never got it. Our small group was so encouraged and so were we! Jada totally knows that God healed her.

Last week when we were on vacation with my family, we switched condos in the middle and I accidentally left Jada's special night light that is a moon and sun. By the way, this is one of the coolest things ever to train your children to stay in bed until the "sun" comes up. It is called the "Good Nite Lite" if you want to know about it :). ANYWAY...so the next day in our new condo we were trying to figure out how we could get this special night light back. We knocked on the door to the old condo in hopes that the new guests would just hand over the night light...however, no answer three different times. Jada cried, really grieved her night light, not like throwing a fit, but really sad and asked Brian to please pray that God would give the night light back to her. Precious prayer. SO of course we really wanted that for her....and Brian was fully prepared to get online and order another one soon. The next morning on our way to the pool, Brian knocked on the old condo door and the new guests handed over...you guessed it...Jada's night light!!! Jada was so thrilled and squealed and said God answered our prayers! She then was giddy with delight holding her sun/moon. About a minute later I asked "Are you so happy that God answered our prayers?" and she said "YES, and I think God is happy too." Amen.

And two nights ago Jada had this huge fever blister on her top lip. It looked like it really hurt, and anyone who knows Jada knows that she was letting us know with crying and being a bit overdramatic. She couldn't eat or drink easily and was truly in pain. That evening we were able to pray and Jada asked the Lord to heal her lip. The next morning Jada had her bowl of cereal in front of her morning sprout show while Brian, Kiva and I were in the kitchen. A couple of minutes later we hear Jada shout "My lip is healed!" "What did she say?"...we asked eachother. I said "I think she said that her lip pealed." So we asked again..."MY LIP IS HEALED!" She was right, it was gone.

She has seen God answer prayer in beautiful ways and so have we. Thank you Lord for building our faith through our children!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

what day is it again?

I really thought today was Monday...all day. I love that! I have taken off of work for two weeks now and we just returned from a family vacation with no phones and computers! Sigh...deep breath...and I am definitely on the computer in the moment trying to organize all of our pictures over the past few weeks. There are a whole lot of photos...prepare yourself!...
two sunsets...seriously beautiful view from our condo!

moody gardens...jada was inside a caterpillar cocoon!
penguins at moody gardens
jada loves mimi loves jada loves mimi...you get the point
some chill time at the condo
kiva bear with daddy getting ready for our moody gardens adventure
the following photos are from some of my favorite times during our trip. One morning Jada wanted to play dress up and dance...so we did. Jada and I danced while Kiva wore a tutu and watched with joy! Daddy had some fun too :)







Kiva is so close to crawling!
our jenga games got serious!

jada resting in our "cozy bed"
Jada is really becoming a good little swimmer
Kiva's first time in the sand and ocean was a success!
how precious is this!...little polka dot outfits...
too fun!
Uncle Jason and Aunt Shannon!
Kiva's room was our closet...and here is Jada feeding her teddy bear in the closet about to put her to bed :)fun times
family pic.kiva's first cupcake...we had a little celebration for Jada's friend Ella before we left for vacation..Kiva LOVED the rainbow cupcakes :)
Brian's cousin Sarah came and visited...Jada had a blast!
Brian's Aunt Jennifer also came in...it was fun
4th of July...Jada watching her first fireworks!
Can you just sense the delight from Kiva in the "fun basket"?...they both did great in HEB together!

Monday, July 5, 2010

God, You are Faithfulness!

Tonight we began teaching Jada how to pray in a super intentional way. Over the last year, Jada has requested for us to pray for many things; her mosquito bites, for Kiva to grow big and strong, for orphans, for Daddy, etc. We saw that she valued prayer, but she always wants us to be the ones praying. She has said some prayers that have been precious...but most of the time she asks us to pray. I recently asked her why and she said that she doesn't know how. Hmmm....ok...so I found a little poster at an educational store here and I thought this would help Jada understand a little better. So, tonight, we started with her thumb :) ....which was "PRAISE GOD."
Brian, Jada and I talked about what it means to praise God; basically saying "God, you are..." We then applied it. Brian went first "God you are so big." Then I went "God you are so strong" Then Jada went "God you are faithfulness."....precious. Brian went again "God you are kind." My turn, "God you are loving." Jada ended with "God you are so nice to us." AMEN. I praise God for that! She kept holding up her thumb saying "PRAISE GOD."
So...we will go from there...a good place to start. The next is confess your sins...the pointer finger...weird. Anyway, I am glad for this tool to help us teach Jada how to pray. She is just entering into a totally new world of bigger kid that we need SO much help on. Praise God that He knows how to draw her to himself...we just need to ask for Him to help us lead her there. Thanks to you all for being a part of this process of parenting with us!!!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

while you were out, jada's friend & our pretty kiva...

This week Brian finished working at summer school!!! And Jada has really been enjoying play dates with her sweet friend Ella...they really play super well together. From about 10:30-after 5:00 they played together with ZERO meltodowns or moments when I had to step in...it was so easy and peaceful. So here's to a sweet little friendship! And of course some amazing princess crowns from craft time!
Brian took Jada to New Braunfels for a couple of nights while I stayed here, did some photo shoots and editing, took care of Kiva and surprised him with some new paint in our room :) (thanks ashley!!)

Jada and Brian had a blast...basketball for Brian and a sleepover with Aunt Dawn and Madyson, the chicken dance and much more. I am so glad they were able to make the trip. Hopefully I can get some pics from Aunt Dawn from their adventures! And I had some one on one time with Kiva that I totally enjoyed! She is just so cute and so so fun! That's it for now. Enjoy!