I love the I Heart Faces photography blog, and they sometimes have contests for photographers, both novice and otherwise. There's a new contest called Eyes... so here's my sweet A1 one day out at the farm during harvest...

An interesting process it is to watch kids gain a sense of humor!

Exhibit 1:
The knock-knock joke

Within moments of each other,

C: Knock-knock
Who's there?
C: Juicy.
Juicy who?
C: Jui-cy that car drive by just now?

...laughs....

A1: Knock-knock
Who's there?
A1: Daddy
Daddy who?
A1: Daddy the juicy

Pause....lots of gracious laughs, synthetic ones

A2: Mama! Mo-mock.
Who's there?
A2: Daddy
Daddy who?
A2: uh...Mama...doocy...hahaha

...raucous silly laughter...

Sank
Eepo
Fant
Daff... all things A2could find at the zoo


Allday - as in "My toe hurts allDay!" Or "I'm hungry allDay!"
Nowilenevur- (now eye ull neh vuhr), as in "aww! Nowilenevur get to play that game again." OR (pout) "NowileNEVur get my toy back from A2."


"I only take showers on Saturday or when something important is about to happen."
"It would be nice to have a pocket hyperbolic quantum accelerator right now."


Never a dull moment...

I just found the site I Heart Faces on their Facebook page, and I'm excited about their tutorials!  I couldn't resist this week's competition theme of Motherhood though!  Credit to my sneaky husband Scott for snapping the pic of me and newborn S2 w/ my camera!

Let me try to recap a little of the first few months of 2011 for you (if you're still reading... tap,tap,tap... you in there?)

January:

Exciting news! We may have been expecting a child of our own, but there's another birth that's happening...

For some time, Scott has been sensing a call to be a senior pastor. Over time, we've prayed and the Lord has confirmed a calling to start a church. A new church. A Church "Plant", as in planting the seed and growing a new church body.

We prayed through where we were supposed to do this, and we began to realize that all the roads we'd traveled with their interesting experiences and trials, along with many ministry opportunities that never panned out, had been part of God's plan to get us to our current town. We might or might not have chosen our location were it left to ourselves, but it became evident that God wanted to plant a church using us, right here where we already live.  We began meeting with a small "core" group in January, and a very generous couple who owns a small local restaurant let us meet there on Sundays (restaurant closed) for free!  Very exciting times, to be sure!  You can check us out here or on Facebook here.

February:

Our little church is growing, and we've been blessed with several large families with young kids.  That means we're out of space for our church meetings!  We are very grateful, as a local public school has allowed us to meet there on the weekends.  It's a super location.  Be praying for us as we determine how long the Lord would have us there, as well as that we would be a blessing to the teachers and staff there.

Our family is about to officially grow, because my pregnant belly is almost at it's growth limit!!!  For whatever reason, I tend to carry babies large.  By 36 wks, I was measuring full term  (as the tape lies... w/ the doctor's measuring tape, a belly-height, top to bottom, in inches should equal the number of weeks near the end)  Baby S would be arriving soon!  Nesting was in full swing, but with the church things happening, nesting couldn't accomplish enough quickly!

At the same time, Spring Soccer began.  Both C & A1 were playing again, with Scott coaching C's team.  It may have been crazy, but that's such a good thing for the kids and a great way for us to get to know families in our town.



C got some dental work done.  Check him out!

March:

Aaaah!  The weeks are short, and baby S is coming soon! Planting on the farm is in full-swing, and planting as in the church is going well.  We're so grateful for the families who are a part of CC Community Church.

My wonderful doctor (I love her!  I'd recommend her highly!) has measured my belly again, and at 40 wks gestation, I measure 46 weeks... like I would if I was 6 weeks past the due date.  Good grief! We are a little concerned that S will be huge, and since I want to avoid a c-section if possible, we set an appointment to be induced in case I don't go into labor early.

Seth Josiah is born on a Wednesday evening after we start the induction that morning.  He's precious, and we feel so blessed.  Check the next post for pics and info.

The end of March brought challenges and blessings... challenges as we tried to balance Scott's work on the farm with work for the church plant, balancing life as we know it with a new little one and an 18 month old, and many others.

April:

April started with a bang!  We all took turns battling a nasty cold.  Me first, then a mild version for A1, a yucky version for A2 and Scott, and it appears that C and S2 avoided it altogether (Praise the Lord!). 

The rest of the month was consumed by farm, church, soccer, and planning for Easter.  We had a great group at church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the risen Lord!  New faces and familiar faces were all celebrating together!

The month would end with Scott, S2, and I taking a few days to go on a pastor's retreat made possible by Central Baptist Church in Bryan/College Station, where we went when we were at A&M.  (was that just 6 "w" words in a row?  wow!)


So, for the most part, you're caught up!  Be watching for more posts focusing on S2 and a couple of other things I wanted to highlight on their own.  Thanks for your patience, knowing that I WANT to post, but will post-pone :) it if we're just super busy.