Ephesians 3:16-21

¹⁶ May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, ¹⁸ be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; ¹⁹ and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:16-21 (AMP)

 

This. This. This. I want this so badly in my life. Before bed last night I was reading and came across this verse in the Amplified version. I am a wordy person so I LOVE all the extra words in this version of scripture. What really grabbed my heart was verse 19... to know God practically, through personal experience which far surpasses mere knowledge (without experience). Oh my goodness. This is going to be my prayer for the coming weeks. I am going to memorize, live, and breathe this verse. Because knowledge without experience is not good enough for me. I want to experience Christ's love in a new and deep way. This is my heart's cry and I cannot wait to dig into this deeper with the Lord.

 

Abba,

 

You know every crevice of my heart. The good, the bad and the ugly. And you know that I am so ready to cast away all distractions and get to the heart of what our relationship looks like. It is unique and cannot be compared to anyone else's. I love you Abba and I want to know you more. Please give me eyes to see and ears to hear you speaking to me. Help me to experience your love and your shalom peace! I am so excited to move forward on my journey with you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for your goodness! Thank you that all of your promises are yes and amen!!!!!

 

Amen and Amen!

Crib, Friends and Church!!

So I have to start by saying I am so HAPPY! I FINALLY sat down and moved all of my pictures of Sarah (including pregnancy) onto my external hard drive so I can get them off my phone! Shout out to Adam and Ches for surprising me with a hard drive last week! I feel so relieved to know that are now backed up and safe! So I was able to delete them from my phone, which has been full for weeks. So I haven't been able to take pictures or videos on my phone. But I am back now!!! :-) It is so awesome to have that accomplished.

So Miss Sarah has been doing great! We moved her to her crib 1 week ago and she has been doing well with the transition. I was a little nervous because she has been restless the last few weeks and needing me to replace her pacifier all. night. long. And the thought of having to get up and walk into her room to give it to her over and over did not sound appealing to me... it is so much easier to roll over and give it to her! LOL! But last Sunday I just decided it was time. The first night she did AWESOME. Self soothed like a champ and only needed her paci once. The next few nights were a little rough but not bad considering. And now she is pretty much only needing me to go in once or twice (not counting all the times I just go peek on her to make sure she is ok.) :-) And when I do go in I just give her the paci and she goes right back to sleep. I am just so proud of her making this transition! And I am a little proud of myself for doing it too. I was not looking forward to not having her next to me but we knew it was time. Poor thing has pretty much out grown her bassinet. Here is a picture of the first night Sarah slept in her bassinet next to a more recent picture. As you can tell she has done a lot of growing!

Another big moment this week is that we almost have a sitter on our hands! I am so ready for her to be able to sit on her own. She will be so much happier to play sitting up instead of laying down! Sister is over laying on the floor. LOL. She will play for a little bit but then starts doing her little crunch which is code for pick me up please!!

Yesterday we went to Lubbock and met my sweet friend Kayla Foshee for lunch! This was the first time she got to meet Sarah. :-) We went to the Plaza, a new restaurant in Lubbock and it was delish! Sarah had so much fun and was definitely showing off for Kayla. She was talking and squealing up a storm. Kayla brought Sarah a sweet outfit and a fun toy! Sarah loves it! Here she is holding it while fighting to stay awake right before bed time last night.

And lastly I have to show how adorable she looked for church this morning. Today was also her first Sunday in the nursery! I have to note that I worked the nursery lol... I am not ready for her to be in there without me yet. Ha Ha! But she had a blast and loved watching all the other kids!

 

 

I can't believe we almost have a 6 month old on our hands!!! :-( Time needs to slow down!

 

A New Beginning

I want to remember this moment.

I have really been struggling lately. Fear and worry have been literally dragging me down. These are things that in my flesh I have always been susceptible to.

It is exhausting... it makes you rude, selfish and just not fun to be around. I struggle because I go to God and I feel like nothing changes.

However, I continue to call out to the One I know can set me free and give me His Shalom peace.

Today, I have been set free. In Jesus' mighty name I am a new creation, the old is gone the new IS HERE! I have His Shalom peace inside of me. It flows through my veins.

Today I choose to trust Him fully and completely!

It is a new beginning. Praise you Jesus for you are faithful always!!

You will keep in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you because he trusts in You! Amen and Amen!!

Vacay 2016

We got back from our Ruidoso trip last night. We had a wonderful time!

We headed out early Friday morning. Micheal, Sarah and I rode in our van and Mom, Dad, Ches and Adam rode in the Mirano. We met up in Portales for breakfast. We went to a little diner. The food was alright but their version of hashbrowns was not up to par. LOL. :-) After breakfast we made it to Roswell and stopped to take a bathroom break and feed Sarah. Once that was done we finished the trip. First we met up with Nanny and Pappy in Cloudcroft for a late lunch and then headed back into Ruidoso to check into our cabin. We had a good time with Nanny and Pappy! Audra and Ben were there too and that was an awesome surprise! :-) Nanny and Pappy recently adopted a dog and they named it Foxy. It is the funniest thing! It's teeny tiny and has the biggest ears ever. They love it so much! We ate porkchops and fried potatoes. It was yummy! We didn't stay very long because Sarah was a little fussy and we were just ready to be at our cabin and get settled in for the evening. We said our goodbyes and headed out.

We arrived at our cabin about 45 minutes later and got unloaded. The first thing I did was unpack and get our room organized. Living out of a suitcase with a baby was just not an option for me. :-) Since Sarah had been in and out of the car all day long I decided that we were done with outings for the day so we just hung out at the cabin for the rest of the evening. Mom, Ches, Micheal and I played cards while Adam and Dad played golf. And sweet Sarah hung out on the balcony with us. :-)

The next morning we woke up and had a lazy morning. Dad cooked everyone breakfast and we played cards and hung out. We got ready and headed out to lunch later that afternoon. We went to K-Bob's. It was so yummy! Then it was back to the cabin to chill some more. We played some more games (that is our favorite thing to do in Ruidoso, if you can't tell!) LOL! The guys played golf some more and I took a nap! :-) That was so nice! We lounged around and ordered pizza for dinner. To write about it sounds really boring LOL but it was so wonderful to just be together with no agenda!

The next day we decided to head out to Cloudcroft to go explore. It took like forever and a day to get there but it was a nice trip. When we got there we went to eat, I think the place was called Jakes. It was so yummy! They had delicious burgers! Yum!! After we ate I let Sarah taste the lemon from my water. She made a hilarious face and then smiled real big. I think she is going to like sour stuff like her mama! After we ate we shopped around for a bit and then went to the Old Apple Barn. It's a neat shop full of all kinds of souvenirs and cute signs. And they sell homemade Apple Pie and old fashioned floats and all kinds of yummy treats! We hung out there for a while and then made the long trip back to Ruidoso. When we got back we played some more cards and ate some yummy pie from the Apple Barn. :-)

The next day was the last full day of our trip. We went to lunch at Casablanca, it was delish! Then we all loaded up and went to Alamogordo for the day. We dropped Adam and Dad off at the Space Museum while Micheal, Mom, Ches, Sarah and I went to the zoo. It was a small little zoo but we still had a good time. Afterwards we picked up Dad and Adam and headed out to White Sands. It was so much fun. My back was hurting so I didn't play much. I managed to get up the hill and slide down once and after that I decided it was better to just hang out with Sarah. :-) After White Sands we drove back into Alamogordo and and had dinner at Long John Silvers. We had not been there in so long and it was yum! We got back to the cabin and put Sarah to bed and then we stayed up and played cards some more and just soaked up our last night.

The next morning we all got up and around. We had to be out of the cabin by 11:00. We got everything packed up and situated and then headed downtown for some shopping and lunch. We ate at our favorite Italian Place, Michealangelos. But it was under new ownership so everything was different. I enjoyed the food but it wasn't as good as the original place so we probably won't be going back. After lunch we walked down to the ice cream parlor and had some yummy dessert. Then it was time to hit the road back home. After a quick stop for gas we were on our way.

We had a wonderful trip and we are so grateful for the chance to get away for a bit and have some fun!


**I didn't take many pics on my phone. But here a few!