Praying for our kids

We always pray for our kids but sometimes we do not have Bible verses to go along with all the things we pray for them. This past month at the mom's group my church does they gave us a card (from Pray!Magazine) that had 31 Biblical Virtues to pray for your kids. It is wonderful as it has 31 virtues and Bible verses to go along with them. So we can pray these scriptures over, with and for our children. Jeremy and I have decided to concentrate on a few each month and pray for them daily over, with and for our kids.

Here's the ones we are focusing on for May:

• Salvation: "Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory" (Is 45:8, 2 Tim 2:10)
• Honesty & integrity: "May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection" (Ps 25:21)
• Self-control: "Father, help my children not be like many others around them, but let them be alert and self-controlled in all they do." (1 Thess 5:6)
• Love for God's Word: "May my children grow to find Your Word more precious than much pure gold and sweeter than honey from the comb." (Ps. 19:10)
• Respect (for self, others, authority): "Father grant that my children may show proper respect to everyone as your word commands" (1 Peter 2:17)

There are 31 virtues total and the prayers are to the point and have a verse to go along with them. The others are: Growth in Grace, Love, Justice, Mercy, Biblical self-esteem, Faithfulness, Courage, Purity, Kindness, Generosity, Peace Loving, Joy, Perseverance, Humility, Compassion, Responsibility, Contentment, Faith, A servants Heart, Hope, Willingness and ability to work, Passion for God, Self- Discipline, Prayerfulness, Gratitude, and A heart for missions. (let me know if you want the verse and prayer for one of the ones above)

Of course, we are also teaching these virtues to our kids through actions and correction but prayer for our children is the most powerful weapon we have. We are also teaching both boys the verses that go along with the prayers we pray with them, for them and over them. This is just a useful tool that I plan to get a lot of use out of! Hope in some way it helps you as well.

Ryan's Son?

Ryan and Pace are hoots! Spend any length of time around them and they will have you in stitches. Yesterday, Ryan and Pace were playing and all of a sudden Ryan started getting on to Pace about something he was doing. I asked Ryan why he was getting on to him b/c he was doing nothing wrong. Ryan said so frankly .... "Mommy he is my son and I have to teach him to obey me for later in his life and so he will obey God." After laughing for a moment I let Ryan know they were brothers and were mine and Daddy's sons and that we would provide the necessary correction for each of them and he need not worry about it. He tried to correct me but finally I think he understands that they are brothers.

I'm off to the DR today for my OB appointment. Just a regular appointment. No fun things like ultrasounds today. However, next month I get to drink the gross yummy sugary drink and do my 1 hour glucose screening and I get another ultrasound to see if she is measuring big or not. Both of my boys were bigger babies so they are keeping an eye on her.

Weekend re-cap

Well, we had a busy weekend. We decided to not work on potty training but Pace had something different in mind :) We just knew that we could not devote the whole weekend to it so we decided to wait until we could. However, Pace kept telling us he had to "wee-wee". So we kept putting him on the potty and just let him go without a diaper all of Saturday morning. He did make 2 deposits ... one of each kind and I think the 2nd kind scared him b/c as soon as he saw it he started crying. We were both so excited for him but he was scared. Maybe our excitement sacred him ... who knows? The rest of the weekend was just plain busy so we didn't really get to work on it more. Hopefully, memorial day weekend we can work on it and be able to put him in big boy pants for good. He was so excited to wear Elmo this weekend - he didn't want to take them off :)

If you haven't seen the picture of Ryan from this weekend scroll down to Saturday's post ... it was too good to not post!

Hope your weekend was great ... so what did you do?

And the winner is ....

Christy according to random.org. Send me an e-mail with your address and I'll ship it out to you. Thanks everyone for playing along!

Listening

Today I caught Ryan trying to listen to Kennedy ... Just on the wrong belly :)

Bedtime Update & Weekend plans

Bedtime is getting tons better! I'm so proud of these boys as they try so hard to do the right thing ... the sillies just overtake them :) Last night was the best night we have had by far! And we didn't even stay in the room at the beginning! So they are making the adjustment! Their relationship is so cute and I hope they remain great friends as they grow older!

This weekend we have plans to work on potty training Pacer. He has been showing tons of signs lately. I don't know how it will go as I'm not as sure as he is that he is ready but wouldn't it be great if it worked? I'll fill you in on Monday!

If you haven't commented on the post below go ahead and do so ... you could win a neat gift book for your mom, a mom friend or yourself! It's a really cute book and I have to give it away so why not to you?

A Mothers Heart Knows & a CONTEST!

I was given another chance to review a book AND I have one to GIVE AWAY!!! So read on ...




ABOUT THE BOOK: What better way to tell Mom how much you appreciate her on Mother's Day than with this lovely reminder of thoughts about the loving, selfless attitudes that fill a mother's heart? The text and original four-color illustrations will be a beautiful and touching reminder to Mom that her love is never forgotten. The text is a reminder of those things that only a mother's heart knows, with some special emphasis on a Christian mother. Appropriate Scripture verses will be incorporated into the design element. All royalty proceeds from this book go to WINGS (Women In Need Growing Stronger) and a student missionary scholarship fund. WINGS is a non-profit organization that provides a domestic violence shelter for women and their children in addition to transitional housing and programs.


I really enjoyed looking through this little book. It's a great gift idea for mom and you get to help a great cause as well.


A few of my things from A Mothers Heart knows ....

• A Mothers Heart knows to accept and forgive.
• A Mothers Heart knows when to step to the side.

Want to know more ... go get the book. And if you would like to WIN one then leave me a comment below. If you do not have a blog that's fine just comment then send me an e-mail with a way to contact you should you win. (you can find a link to my e-mail on my profile) You must be a US resident though ... sorry all of you who live outside the US. I'll close the contest on Sunday the 27th at 12pm. I'll contact you via e-mail plus leave a post here on the blog letting you all know who won. Good luck! (this means all you lurkers will need to de-lurk in order to win -WHITNEY :) )

UPDTATED: Christy you are the winner according to random.org. Send me an e-mail with your address and I'll ship it out to you. Thanks everyone for playing along!

Hide-n-Seek

My boys and Jeremy were playing hide and seek - they LOVE to do this. Ryan decided he wanted to hide and have Jeremy seek. However, Ryan always hides in the SAME place so it makes it pretty easy. No matter how much we try to encourage him he will not look for another hiding spot and he knows all of Jeremy's spots as well. It is so cute to see them playing together. I love it!

Right now they are having guy time up stairs and Ryan is singing ... "I just can't wait to be king." I think we read the Lion King and the Jungle Book stories about 100 times this past weekend. He can tell if we skip a word! The boy is smart!

Our dog had her teeth cleaned today and had to have 2 teeth pulled. She's still kind of groggy and it's making me sad to see her lay around the boys keep trying to get her to play and she's just lying there ... sad.

Oh and if you don't mind pray for Ryan ... he has had a problem with stys and last year had to have surgery to drain 3 that we could not get to go away. He's getting another - his first in a year thankfully, but it is not going away as quickly as we would like. He has allergies (this time of year is hard on him) and tends to rub his eyes a lot ... I'm guessing that's how he gets them.

Facebook

I'm finally getting with the times and getting Facebook. If you have it and want to add me just send me an invite!

CONGRATS!

Congratulations to my brother Benjamin and his now fiance' Theresa! Benjamin and Theresa got engaged this weekend! I couldn't be more excited for my brother!

Congrats Benjamin and Theresa. We are so excited for you guys and look forward to celebrating with you on your special day. Enjoy this time of planning and preparing to become one!

Welcome to the family Theresa! We love you~!

If you are reading and married please leave a comment with a piece of advice to the newly engaged couple.

MUST LISTEN! Laminin???

This is a MUST LISTEN to snippet from a message from Louie Giglio. PS you will need to pause the music on my sidebar in order to hear it.

Happy Birthday Jojo!

Happy Birthday Jojo! We hope your day is great and that you have a wonderful birthday!! We wish we could be there to celebrate with you but know that we are there in spirit!

Hilarious!

Saw this on Tamara's blog today .... Cracks me up. Jeremy and I watched it 3 times and had tears in our eyes! Enjoy :)

Missed opportunity

It is such a beautiful day here today that the boys and I took advantage of the warm weather. We went to see daddy at work. The boys always ask where daddy is in the morning since he leaves before they get up and so we stopped by his office. Then we headed for the park. The boys were PRICELESS together. Pace followed Ryan around and had to do everything he did. At one point Ryan was holding his hand and telling him he would take care of him. It was precious! So sad I missed the opportunity to have a picture! I didn't have my camera with me.

Better Night

Last night we tried the Super Nanny technique of sitting in the room and not saying a word until they settled down. I sat there for about 20 minutes after putting them in bed and for the most part didn't have to say a word. Ryan asked me to leave once and why I was sitting there once but I didn't answer. He kept looking to see if I was there so he could cut up but finally just rolled over. It still took them a while to go to sleep but at least no one got out of bed and there was no throwing of lovies at the other.

This is a hard battle to fight. Our boys have (thankfully) never been hard to go to bed. They always would roll over and say night night and be off to la la land. So this is not a battle we are used to fighting. We have been so blessed to have kids who do not mind going down for a nap or for the night. Putting them in the same room after a 4 month hiatus has brought out the sillies in my boys! :)

It normally takes about a week when we make a change for things to settle down. So here is hoping that we are at the end of this battle!

Preparation

We are preparing for there to be a new baby in this house. Crazy to think about the fact that I will have 3 kids under 4 years old to guide come August! We have her bedding! I wasn't so thrilled with it to begin with but it is growing on me. It was my second choice so you know when something is your second choice it is hard to have it beat out your first choice in your mind. It is getting there. I think it will be better once it gets in the room and the room gets painted. It is also hard to steer away from blues and greens to pinks, yellows, and greens. Here is her bedding. Her room will be painted the same green that is in the bumper and quilt.
We have also begun preparing the boys for her arrival which means having them sleep in the same room at night. They were in the same room when we first moved here and did fine until Ryan began climbing out of his crib and into Pace's crib. Jeremy's parents bought bunk beds for them and so we set them up in a different room and the boys were separated. We got Pace to give up the Paci first and then we moved him into the same room as Ryan. Y'all it has been a hard few nights!! Ryan is constantly getting into Pace's bed or just getting down and throwing things into Pace's bed. It is taking us over an hour each night to get them settled down. I am hoping that this little phase will wear off as the newness of them being together in the same room goes away. We are using every deterrent we know of but if it's not immediate it wont work! I think we are making headway but it still took over an hour last night to get them settled down! If you have any tricks please feel free to leave me a comment below!

The BUSY Mom's Devotional

I was given the chance to review this book by Lisa T. Bergren and am so thankful for the opportunity. How many of you as moms feel that you simply cannot find the time to put one more thing in your day, week? You may or may not feel guilty for the time you spend or don't spend in the Word with the Lord. You must give this book a try. It's not meant to put a guilt trip on you nor does it place stress on you to begin and finish in a certain order. This book was written to give us as moms a few minutes to be alone with God. You can spend 10 minutes a day or a week. That's the beauty - it is on your pace and it's you with God!

There are a couple sections to each devotion that I REALLY liked. The first is at the very beginning of the devotion called Things on my mind. This allows me to get all my concerns and things weighing on my mind out before I begin my time. I was able to write down all the things flowing through my mind - grocery list, ideas, things to do , etc. - Before beginning my time with the Lord. This kept my mind from wandering during my time with God.

The second part was a chance to make the devotion personal through What is God saying to me. This gave me an opportunity to sit (un-cluttered) before my maker and take the scripture deeper by asking Him to reveal How I can make application - just He and I - no one else's thoughts telling me how to apply this scripture other than my maker Himself.

I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed this devotional. There are 52 devotions and you can either do one a week or you can do them daily. They literally take 10 to 15 minutes to do.

Here is a bit about the Author: LISA T. BERGREN is the author of twenty-eight books that have sold many more than she ever believed. She writes a lot from the heart and in whatever category that currently interests her–from gift and children’s books to medieval fiction and Bible studies. She is a wife to Tim, an artist, and mother to three phenomenal children–Olivia, Emma and Jack. The Bergrens live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and worship at Trinity Lutheran Church in Monument. For more specifics on Lisa, see her Web site Here.

YOU CAN WIN a copy of this book. All you have to do is sign-up for Lisa's newsletter HERE And then send Lisa a quick email with "I just enrolled" in the subject line. You can send the email right from the contact page. Lisa will draw names from those who sign up. She'll be giving away three books. Good luck and let me know if you win one!

We have a name!

I'm excited to report that we have a name! We are both very excited to announce that our baby girl will be named .... Kennedy Nicole.

Kennedy is a name we have liked since 2004 when we were preggers with Ryan. Once we found out she was a girl we had a hard time, for some reason deciding to actually use it. Part of it had to do with a meaning I found and part of it had to do with wanting to see what other names we could find that we might like better. We spent an afternoon in a bookstore pouring through baby name books and one of the books had other forms for Kennedy and one of those was Kenneth. The deal was sealed for me right then and there. You see, I have this fantastic uncle Kenny. He was the one that we all were excited to see b/c he was a big kid at heart. He loved us and he showed it to us. My grandparents always went camping during the summer when I was a kid and Kenny and my aunt Susan would always come down at some point during our time there. He would bring all his toys ... boat, skis, etc. As you can imagine we had a ball. He was always going out of his way to make sure we all had a great time.

In 2004 he was diagnosed with cancer. He battled bravely for over 2 years with this ugly disease and went home to be with the Lord in December of 2006. I look forward to telling Kennedy all about her great Uncle Kenny and what a great guy he was. He was always looking out for everyone else ahead of himself.

I can't wait to be able to show you all pictures of our little one come August when she makes her arrival. For now she is causing pain already as my sciatica is already acting up. I had problems with it during my pregnancy with Pace as well. Here's hoping it will subside some so that I can enjoy this time with my family and not be in constant pain.

So there you have it ... her name is chosen!

Coming home!

My boys are coming home today!!! I cannot wait. We are on our way out the door in just a little while to meet up with my parents and pick them up. I cannot wait to wrap my arms around those precious boys. Having some "me time" was great but I'm ready to have my sweet boys back! They have sooooo been missed!

They got it right!

AI sang it again last night and this time they sang "My Jesus"! Gotta love it when the world hears all about our God - two nights in a row from a show that has no clue that they just praised the name of the Creator of the heavens and earth! They have no clue that they are part of spreading his name so that all may hear! WOW!

Shout to the Lord ...

They didn't use the name Jesus but WOW! His name was still praised y'all~!

Missing Mickey!

I was just looking through my Disney pictures and I want to go back! We had a ball, the kids had a ball and well it would be too much fun to return. Maybe the year of a million dreams will come my way and give our family a trip to Disney just because! I'd love for Ryan to be able to meet Tow Mater and McQueen up close and personal. Oh, wouldn't that be fun!

Oh and I miss my boys as well! Like crazy!

A hard day!

Yesterday was a hard day! If it could go wrong it did. I started out by working on Ryan's baby album. I had worked up until his church dedication already. So I started working on the next pages and ran out of photo slits. So I went to 3 different places before I found what I was looking for and I still don't like what I bought. UGH!

Next I went looking for Ryan's pictures ... can't find them! The pictures I find are very few of Ryan's first year. I have from Pace's birth forward but before that nothing much. I was so sick to my stomach. All these pictures just gone. I had pictures with my grandparents who are now in heaven ... gone. Pictures with Jeremy's grandmother who we see seldom ... gone. Pictures that I loved ... gone. Oh well, at least I have backed them up ... somewhere! Moving did a number on me!

So I began working on Pace's album until I ran out of pages in my album. I was able to do a good bit in his book but alas I have no pages. I think I'll take some out of Ryan's book until my mom can replenish me :)

And then her bedding came. I'm not sure I like it. I agonized over bedding for this little girl and found something that was a good price and I thought I would like it. Pictures on line definitely tell a different story. (yes, she does have a name and I'll tell it soon I promise!)

So all in all it was a hard day and was I ever emotional or horomonal. I don't think there is a difference :) Here's to hoping today is a better day!

Monday Accomplishments

I got SOOO much done yesterday! However, it was so weird to not change Pace's diapers or play cars with my boys.

Here's what I did ...

• Ryan's monthly album - I took pictures of him monthly from birth until 12 months then I took 15 and 18 month before moving to yearly shots on his birthday. So yesterday I took all the 5x7's and put them in an album my mom gave me over a year ago.
• Pace's monthly album - same as Ryan's only with pictures of Pace :)
• Our wedding album - yes we were married almost 5 years ago and I just got around to putting our pictures in an album. My mom does creative memories and in order to save money and get more pictures, I opted to just buy prints from my photographer and not get the fancy album. My mom gave me a black album with black pages and I figured I would just do it myself. Here we are almost 5 years later and they were still in the envelope and I had done nothing with them. So yesterday I pulled out the prints I bought plus the proof book and went to town. I showed the finish product to my husband last night. It was fun to relive the memories!
• We picked a name - but that's a whole other post that I'll save for another day. But she does have a name! YEAH!

So today my plan is to work on Ryan & Pace's baby album. I have only done Ryan's album up until he was 5 months old. So I have some work ahead of me. I think I have over 1000 pictures combined of both boys. Poor Pace's book has not even been started. My goal by the end of the week is to have made a huge dent in both boys books and maybe even start a book of them together! Hopefully, by the time this little girl is born I'll have the boys finished so I can begin to get behind from that point forward and not have all the past pictures looming over my head as well :) Wish me luck!

It's quiet

It is quiet around here! No pitter, patter of feet. No laughing from little voices. No screaming or fighting between two little ones. It's odd! However, I know all these things are happening from the time I spent on the phone with them yesterday.

Ryan is pushing my mom's buttons thinking she fell off the cabbage truck yesterday. My how early they learn ... "When mom's away the Mice will play". Mom has told me some of the things he has told her and I just shake my head and laugh! He's a funny kid!

Jeremy and I had a wonderful day yesterday. We got up late *7 AM* .. late for us anyway. We went to breakfast and then were able to casually stroll through target. Looking and dreaming of the little girl that is to come in August. It was fun. We also went to the mall and took a stroll through a few baby stores. We sat in a book store and looked through baby name books ... we are still no closer to a name than we were before we walked in the room.

I have plans this week to work on my scrap booking. I have lots to do as I am so far behind on both boys books. Hopefully this week I will be able to accomplish some of what I have been longing to do for a while but find hard to do with little hands around :)

I miss them ...

They have only been away less than 24 hours but I missed them the minute I looked in the back seat and they were not there! However, we are enjoying some time away from them. They are having a blast with my parents and for that I'm grateful! I just can't wait to give them a kiss and a squeeze!

On their way out ...

My boys are on their way out the door for a week! We are driving to meet my parents at a halfway point to drop off the boys. Ryan is on spring break next week and doesn't have school so it's the perfect time for them to be gone. I've never been gone this long from both of them at the same time and Pace has never been away from me this long. I hope mommy makes it through the week. I know they will have a ball and my parents are on the top of the clouds to have them.

Back in the running

Yesterday I got the following e-mail from a friend. Acutally, her husband was the music minister at our church when I was in Jr. High and High School. They moved on and so did I but we still keep in touch. Her e-mail said the following ...

Actually what the meaning of Kennedy is referring to is a helmeted head--like a soldier. If you think of it like wearing the helmet of salvation, it isn't bad at all. The other names are pretty, too, but you don't have to rule out Kennedy. Her verse can be Ephesians 6:17: "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

I'm back in love with it again ... Thanks Jada! But I've also fallen for a few other ones as well ... oh it's so hard to pick a name!

Diaper Bag Help!

I'm on the hunt for a GREAT diaper bag. One that will meet the needs of a newborn and the few things the other 2 will have as well. I have a vera bradly bag and I liked it ok but I'm not loving it anymore. It's big and bulky when all the stuff is in it and it doesn't fit anywhere well when it's full.

So does anyone have one that you just love, love, love?

Awaited pics

Here are the ultrasound pics from Monday ... Hopefully at my next ultrasound we will get a better shot of her face ...

The best profile we could get ...

My OB/GYN does 3-D here .. I hope next time we can see her face better

Her first footprint! :)

Girl Clothes!

I took advantage of Ryan being in school yesterday and Pace and I headed to the mall. I wanted to see if I could even "think pink". After 3 1/2 years of thinking boy it is definitely a different feeling to venture to the pink aisle!

I think I did OK! I had a 20% off coupon for Carters and they were having a sale as well! It is definitely harder to shop for a girl. There is so much more to choose from for girls! With boys I could always just buy polo's, jeans, and khaki's! I could make so many outfits from just a few things. With girls ... not so. Everything comes in a set or will only go with certain things. And you need tights, socks, shoes and it must all coordinate. Oh, the world I have ahead of me :)

I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite find from yesterday. I only bought a few things b/c well, I'm waiting on the clearance sale that will happen when fall clothes come out and I'm looking for a good consignment store :) We still need help with names so if you have any suggestions please go to the post labeled Baby names and help us out!

Baby Names

Well, once we found out the baby was a girl the whole name issue came up. I found out that the meaning of Kennedy is ugly head. Not too sure I want to give my child a name with that meaning. However, we both still really like the name. So we are throwing around other names and well, nothing has really hit us like it did with Ryan & Pace.

So here are a few of our choices ... Keep in mind the middle name will either be Carol or Nicole. Let us know your thoughts ...

Ashlyn
Autumn
Brook
Brooklyn
Caitlin, Kaitlyn
Eden
Kennedy - name means ugly head though?
Lily
Mackenzie
Mikayla
Skylar, Skyler