security

there are times in my life when God makes it so plain to me that i need Him. not just his grace or mercy or gifts...things that are easy to take for granted, but times that in my soul, i crave my Savior. there are times when things get so hard and so frustrating that all i want is for Him to save me from it all. yes, i wish that trials would just go away, who doesn't? but i'm talking about when you know you need rescuing and there is only One who can do it. who in the midst of all the chaos and confusion can settle the waves and put peace back into my heart. i LOVE that i have a SAVIOR - i love that he knows me in the most intimate ways, can sympathize with my weaknesses and failures, and more importantly - will stand on my behalf to intercede for me. these are the times that i long to know Christ more, when it seems like everything in me is yearning to just be in His presence. i hate these times, but i cherish them endlessly. i am so thankful for my salvation. so grateful that i have the savior of the world as my confidant and husband. and in all my thankfulness for having that relationship with Him, almost instantly i feel this ache for the lost. for people who have yet to know Him or have turned in outright rebellion from Him. Lord, my heart is torn when people haven't found your hope. thank you for being my savior - for taking my awful, wayward, rebellious heart and promising to transform it into your likeness. jesus - thank you for never being overwhelmed by my needing you.

introducing...mowgli

this is a video of levi "playing" with his pet mowgli - the beta fish. thank you grandma and grandpa edwards for this wonderful christmas gift - levi absolutely adores him! he fell in love with "bish" after nemo became a regular at our house, so having a fish to feed and watch at the house anytime has been a blast!

this weekend was a looooong one! clayton got sick with some sort of bug saturday night, and finallt felt good enough to go to work today. so we didn't leave the house from saturday afternoon until tonight - can ya say cabin fever!?!? we needed to leave so bad that we decided to take a family trip to target, only to find that the patty wagon ( our affectionate name for the pathfinder) wouldn't start. so we put the car seat in claytons monster truck (NEVER an easy task) and took off for a 45 minute outing. other than that, things around here have been pleasantly normal. oh, and just so you know, mowgli was not hurt in ANY way - well, not that we know of ;)

and by the way, is it just me, or do fish have personalities?!?! i swear our fish loves my company. or maybe being in the house all weekend is just catching up to me - mentally. what do you think?

boys make noise

apparently i'm banned from uploading videos right now and i'm ticked off - i have the greatest video ever and it wont let me upload it!!! argh! so i'm writing this in an embittered attitude. so if i can't upload the video i want, then i wanted to share with you a video of how i feel....this is older-right after levi started walking-old, but still, it represents my frustration well ;0

we have been great this week - levi has a little cold and had to stay home from parents day out, but is feeling better. instead we went to sonic to get some smoothies and hung out by the fire while watching veggie tales! coolest mom ever?!?!?! i think so. ;)

yes, yes. i know.

"choo-choo"
on the polar express in durango

ok, i have to explain, i was trying to make a sorority face, and this is what happened. clearly i was never in a sorority, but i laugh everytime i see this. so go ahead, laugh at my expense ;)

my new decor...thousands of army men.


its been awhile. but lets move on from that. no one likes to live in the past, right? uh, yea right. it has been such an amazing couple of weeks - christmas was an absolute blast this year. my sister and her fiance came to stay with us for a week and we baked the ENTIRE week....ya know, the stuff memories are made of. levi had a blast opening presents and got so many great toys  - we are defin cleaning out the house and putting younger toys in the attic - whew! can't wait for that saturday project. clayton and i went skiing with our college ministry last week, and clayton fell directly on his right hip and had a muscle contusion as a result. the poor guy was unable to walk, sleep, move, anything. he was miserable - but over the last couple of days he has started to feel much better - THANK GOODNESS! another update - we have decided to buy the house that we have been renting over the last 2 years!!!! we are so excited and can't wait to make it our own - which means lots of do-it-yourself projects, but it will be so great to know that we did it together as a family. i will acutally post pics of before and after bc i love junk like that. anyways, just a quick update, and now, here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks, er uh, maybe months. ;)

like mother, like....son?

i got these pictures from my mom today and couldn't resist putting them up! i have a million pictures of levi with everyone else in our family, but not many with just us two...so i had to share them! i loved looking at them to see how similar our mannerisms are, and i wanted to put them up so i could look at them often....can you tell we hang out a lot?? ;)

TAG I'M IT!

yay! i was tagged to list some of clayton's favorite things..so here we go!!

                                                       good food

taking levi to PDO

snowboarding

his little boy

apple products

a couple more: dr. pepper, outback cheese fries, and shoes!!

i tag jen colley, emilie, and amy cooper!!

Manly Men

So levi's little buddy carter came over for some bonding time this weekend, so i thought you might enjoy watching them work on the workbench together! these two spent nearly an hour playing only on the workbench...just gruntin away! thank you g-daddy for the most amazing workbench in the world!