A Blog About Our Newest Arrival That Came . . .

When thinking about that song, I came across a wonderful sermon by Spurgeon on the same topic... as much as feel like we love our Lord - it is, and never will be, anything compared to His love for us. Praise God!

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3228.htm

It is late, and I am tired - but I must share this with you... Ben is working late tonight, and I came to check my email and look at a few blogs after putting Campbell down. I first went to Katie McDowell Isaak's blog (she discipled me in high school) and found a YouTube video she posted. It is the video of a praise song called "Oh, how He loves us". Katie titled the post - "The strength of His pursuit is tireless"... how true.

For those of you who know me (Katie), you know I love to worship through music and can, at times, become emotional. :) Lately, I haven't really been feeling "good enough" in many areas - not a good enough mom to campbell, not good at keeping my house clean enough or organized enough, not being a good enough wife or even child of God... Satan has really been getting to me.

Then I listened to this song tonight, and something hit me... something I already knew, but had easily forgotten. God doesn't love me because I AM good enough - He loves me becuase I'm NOT - and I need Him. Oh, how I need Him! So as I listened over and over again, and tears fell - the Lord sweetly reminded me that He doesn't care if my house is perfectly cleaned or perfectly organized. He loves me. Anyway.

The chorus to this song is simple, but the few verses are really neat...please take the time to listen. I hope you are encouraged as I was. You can find a link to Katie's blog on ours under Links - Jerry and Katie.

Oh, How He loves us

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy

When all of a sudden
I am aware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful you are
And how great your affections are for me

And Oh, how He loves us!
Oh, how He loves us!

We are His portion
He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean
We're all sinking...

So Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss
and my heart turns violently inside my chest
I don't have time for regrets when I think about

How He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us
He loves us!

Campbell is now talking - saying dada and momma (as of October) and crawling (as of 2 weeks ago, has two bottom teeth (as of December) and will be ONE YEAR OLD in less than a month... scary. I can't believe my little girl is getting so big. I am including some random pictures from the last few months - enjoy!

I think thats it - you are all up to date! Now, if I can just stick to my resolution and keep you posted AS things happen... then maybe this will be the last time I post 100 things in one day! :)

Every year my best friends from high school (Joy, Jessica & Kimmie) and I try to take a trip together - even if its a small one. This year, we decided to go visit Kimmie in Bradenton, Florida. Unfortunately because of her pending wedding and work schedule, Joy couldn't come... we missed you Joy! The trip was great - the 7 hour drive was totally worth it. We went to eat at some of Kimmie's favorite places (including the hole-in-the-wall BBQ place in the picture - we were the only ones in there under the age of 80!), shopped at the outlets, and went to Busch Gardens! I love roller coasters - but got the ride of my life on the Skeikra... it has a 90 degree drop - seriously - and it holds you over the edge for 5 seconds before dropping you. Of course, Kimmie made us ride on the front row! Because the park is owned by the Busch family, there is free beer! Which might be nice if I liked it, but I don't... we took pictures anyway. :) I don't have all the pictures from the park - so I will include more later...

PS - I did the slideshow in movie style as a tribute to Kimmie the theater teacher! Good luch with the play Kimmie!

On December 27th, Ben and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary! I can't believe he has put up with me for that long... My sweet mom and dad got us a room at the amazing Intercontinental Hotal in Atlanta and kept Campbell for us. We went up Wednesday afternoon and went straight to Ikea - and bought our Anniversary gifts to each other... kitchen curtains, a storage unit for our bedroom, shelves for the bedroom, etc. I love that place - I could spend DAYS (and millions)there! We then went to dinner at an upscale mexican restaurant named Rosa Mexicana. (thanks for the suggestion Brian!) They have amazing margaritas and prepare guacamole tableside. Yum! The fist picture is the view from our room - it was beautiful (and much better than the Ritz) The second picture is from our first anniversary in NYC - time flies!

Please bare with me... since it has been a while, I have lost some of my blogging skills and forgot to put the slideshow on the Christmas post. Plus, most of my pictures are turning the wrong way, I can't figure out how to add captions to pictures, help!

Christmas came and went in a blur - lots of traveling, and lots of toys! It was so fun to see Campbell open presents and experience Christmas for the first time. We went to a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at my parents church on Christmas Eve and Campbelled loved it - but not as much as Daddy, Papa and Uncle Brian! :) As commercialized as Christmas is getting, I hope Campbell will always know Christmas as the birthday of our savior... plus, we are still trying to figure out this santa thing. I had santa growing up, Ben did not. Neither one of us want to lie to our daughter, or make Christmas about a man in a red suit and not Jesus birth - so what do we do? I would love any ideas or suggestions from you veteran parents as Ben and I start to establish our own Christmas traditions for our family.

One of my best friends, Joy Ogle, is getting married in March! We had a Christmas shower for her the second weekend in December, and she got tons of great stuff... I was very jealous! Congrats Joy!

*Side note: I failed to explain the random cake picture in the last post... I tried a new recipe (Pumpkin Spice Cake with homemade icing) for Thanksgiving and was really proud that it turned out okay - or maybe Ben was lying...

Ben had to work on Thanksgiving, which was sad... but, I did get to spend the day with someone very special. My very dear friend Katie McDowell Isaak (who discipled me in high school and who has had a HUGE impact on my spiritual life) was in town from Canada and I got to eat Thanksgiving lunch with her and several other friends. I haven't seen Katie in a really long time, so this was a real treat. She got to meet Campbell, and we got to catch up for several hours before taking Ben a plate of leftovers up to the hospital! I was (an am) thankful for many things this Thanksgiving - my wonderful, loving husband and healthy baby girl, the most amazing family and friends - and most importantly, the saving grace of Jesus... the giver of all these blessings.

Campbell got to experience her first Auburn tailgate and her first Auburn football game this Fall. (not on the same day...) We took her to tailgate - and several games later while Honey & Papa were babysitting, they took her to her first game!

We are not big Halloween people, so we'll just say these pictures are from us celebrating Reformation Day (an important day in the history of the church - celebrated the same day as Halloween) instead! :) Campbell was the cutest Sweet Pea I have ever seen - and she even got to try some candy... Daddy gave her a lick of his Dum Dum - but in the picture it looks a little like she is smoking... whoops! We took her to a few of our friends houses in Birmingham and she had a blast!

We finally made a trip down to Mobile to see our good friends new baby - Taylor Villacampa. Campbell loved meeting her newest friend... It was so good to spend time with people we love and miss so much - Nick and Robyn, Annie and Scott (and Paige and Annalee!), JD and Danielle, Demetrius and Amy (and baby Jayden!) - and all of our friends from Grace Community Church. (Campbell's middle name came from this special place!) The Lord really blessed us with the most amazing body of believers while we were in Mobile - it made it so hard to move! They still are and always will be a very special part of our lives. We miss you guys!

My mom was awarded Outstanding Professor at Auburn University for 2007 - congrats Honey! This is a huge honor, and we are so very proud of her... God has really given her a gift to teach. She was nominated for the award by several of her students. They had a ceremony at the Conference Center and many of her students came, as well as my moms elementry school teacher who inspired her to be a teacher - it was amazing.

This was not a recent trip - but the pictures were too cute not to post...
We finally got to Atlanta to see Nathan and Taylor's new house and let Campbell meet her good friends Owen Morrison (son of Matt and Ginny) and Dylan Brown (daughter of Nathan and Taylor). We had a blast and wish we could see them all more often... we miss you Morrisons and Browns! The kids were so cute together...

Happy 2008 everyone! I am not a big resolution person, but there are many things I would like to do better. One of those things is blogging. I could give you a million reasons (okay fine - excuses) as to why it has been since SEPTEMBER that I posted anything - but instead I will just beg your forgiveness. :) So, to make up for the last few months, I will try to capture all of our (mostly Campbell's) happenings... I will try to do better!