Snow Days of 2011

We've had snow since late Monday night! The temperatures have been ridiculously cold! The snow is absolutely beautiful. Thankfully, we weren't hit by an ice storm so we haven't had to worry about our power going out. Honestly, I have loved this week. We haven't been able to get out and do much, but that is what I have loved. We have spent our days together as a family with Byron being at home with us. He would get out and make the rounds, but would be back home by mid morning. We went out with him in the afternoons a couple of times. It was a fabulous week. I know that we can't live all secluded in our house all the time, but its definitely fun for a few days. The kids have loved getting out to play in the snow. We made our first family snowman ever. Jackson has eaten a lot of snow. Eating snow is Jackson's favorite part of the snow. Jaycee loves to look for animal tracks through the snow. We found some bird, dog, and cat tracks throughout our outings here at the house and on the rounds with Byron. The other first for the kids has been hot cholocate!!! ITS a HIT!!! They want it all the time now!!! The first week of February has been great!!!

Hodge Podge

As I type I am looking out my living room windows seeing the beautiful white snow covered ground! We got hit last night by a snow storm. The high today is 17 and they are saying Thursday morning's low will be 2! How is that for winter weather?!?! The weather played with us this past weekend that Saturday's high was 70!!! Oklahoma weather, you gotta love it!!! Only bummer is not being able to get out and play in it. The wind is blowing 40 miles an hour from the North making it feel like its well below zero! Maybe we can step out on the porch this afternoon for a few pics!

I have completed my jury duty summons! I ended up not having to return after I reported on Thursday. I called in every evening and each night they changed our return day and then finally telling us our time to serve had been completed! Woohoo! It wasn't too bad, not fun not being able to plan anything, but that is much better than driving up to the courthouse everyday and making arrangements for the kids.

In other news, we are night time potty training Jackson! We had started out working on his eating. We drastically cut back his milk intake. He was drinking so much milk that he wasn't eating his meals. At this point, he only gets one sippy cup of milk in the afternoon if he eats all of his breakfast and lunch. Once we started that he went for an entire week dry at night! Awesome!!! He hasn't kept on that pace, but I refuse to go back to diapers! (Pull-ups just do not hold well at night.) Currently, we are getting up around 2 in the morning and taking him potty. Its pretty miserable at this point because he is very stubborn. It takes a good 10 minutes to actually get him to go potty. Even with the battle of this we are having success so we will stick with it. Hopefully, each night of this will get easier with his body adjusting to the wake up and naturally causing him to do it on his own. Also, the few times he has had accidents he had too much liquid and food too close to bedtime. Cut off time is around 7:30 p.m. for all of that stuff now. He is eating much better too so all in all its been a successful adjustment!!!

There isn't too much else going on as of now. In the next month things are really going to pick up for us. We are looking forward to it all!!!

Sleepover Time!

Jaycee had her first friend to come stay the night at our house on Saturday. Chloe was our first guest of honor. We had a fabulous time. We had gone over to Lawton Saturday morning and picked Chloe up that afternoon. Jackson was quite funny for the first bit. Acting insanely crazy and showing off for Chloe and making the girls laugh. We asked Chloe if she would like to have Jackson as her brother and she said NO! (She has an older brother, Nathan, he is 8.) After a while at home things calmed down a bit between Jackson and the girls. The girls played babies, puppies, dress up, and barbie dolls. We had pizza for dinner and watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. We had chocolate chip ice creams sandwiches for our dessert. We also had a great game of Trouble and our guest of honor won. The girls decided they wanted to paint their nails. Things were going well for a moment. This was Jaycee's first time of attempting to paint her own. I had stepped out of the bathroom to grab some things out of the bedroom and the next thing I know Jaycee is crying with pink finger nail polish smeared all over her face! Poor little girl! She was just broken hearted. We got her cleaned up and the girls decided to be done with painting their nails and wanted a bubble bath. During this time Jackson got quite upset since he wasn't allowed in the bathroom with all the girls. He laid by the bathroom door sticking his hand under the door whining. Byron took him to our bed and he fell asleep. The girls finally got some uninterrupted time together. Around 10:00 pm I had them wrap up their coloring project and get ready for bed. Chloe "read" a few books to them in bed. It was the cutest thing ever. At 10:15 I went in the room tucked them both in and prayed with them. I stayed awake just a bit longer to make sure they had gone to sleep. Sure enough by 10:30 they were out. Both girls slept great. Sunday morning we had cinnamon rolls and the girls played Trouble again. We got ready for church and headed out. It was a great first sleepover! I see many many more in our future!

Still on call for jury duty!

The jury duty process isn't too bad, but its not super fun either. I reported Thursday morning. After they did roll call they selected 24 names out of a box. I was not selected. We all had to remain until the lawyers and the judge were pleased with the jury selection. I was out of the courtroom by Noon. I call in every evening to see when I am needed. As of right now I do not report until Wednesday. I hope that Wednesday will be my last day. I am thankful for the experience. As much as I would like to be done and I am also glad that I haven't actually been selected as a juror. I am thankful for the system we have that we as citizens can be a part of what is going on in our community. Its not easy by any means, but I think it gives you a better look at the world around you. For me I never read the local paper and we do not have a local news station so you don't hear all that is happening. Which in part this is all good, but I know for me it makes me think that things aren't too bad, but in reality they really are. I am probably going off from the whole jury thing with this stuff, but I am thankful for the past several weeks and what God has opened my eyes to see.

Reporting for duty....

Jury duty that is. Tuesday will be the big day. I have never been summoned before for jury duty. I am a bit nervous about it all. I actually went this past Friday to plead my case of why I shouldn't/can't do it, but after the judge finished his speech to all that were present to get out of jury duty I decided that I didn't have much of a case. I figured its better to just show up and do my part as a citizen of Stephens County instead of whining about my situation and that being what the judge remembered me by. I know it will be a good learning experience. Yes, its a bit of an inconvenience of trying to arrange sitters for the kids and then scheduling Jaycee's homeschooling at different times, but it won't last forever.

The judge shared that what they have on the calendar shouldn't take longer than 2 weeks to get through. They will divid us up into 3 groups so we won't have to report everyday for duty. Hopefully, I will get selected early, get on a case that settles out of court, and then I will be done.

So if any of you have done this I would love to hear your stories. My grandpa has shared a few of his with me. I am thankful that I won't be going through what he has gone through. He has been selected on 2 murder cases. From my knowledge we won't have any of those at this time. Which is a huge relief. Not sure how long we will wait around, but I am looking forward to maybe catching up on some reading and also memorizing scripture during this time. Like I said I have no idea what is in store, but praying that things will go well and looking forward to the experience.

Christmas Day!

I am behiind with posting, but what is new?! I have been wanting to "write" about this day, but I hadn't found time to sit down and put it into words. Yesterday, after uploading Christmas pictures to Facebook I realized I really needed to get the memories and thoughts down of this day.

Christmas Day this year was spent in Washington with Byron's family. After thinking this has been our first Christmas together in 4 years! Seriously! The last time we had Christmas with the family was December of 2006. Jaycee was 19 months old, Jackson was in my tummy, and Phil and Amanda only had Lukas and Evalin. Lots has changed in four years. We have moved to Oklahoma and the family has grown by adding Jackson, Kate, Isaac, and Gwendolyn. I am so thankful for the precious time that we were given to spend with our family. Truly only God's knows when we will be able to do this again. A part of me is deeply saddened by that and brings many tears to my eyes, but the other part rejoices because no matter the time length here on earth we do not see each other I know that we will have eternity together in heaven. Even better than that will be us rejoicing and worshipping Jesus together for His sacrifice, for His death, and for His resurrection to rescue us!!! What a beautiful picture that is!!!

We had Christmas dinner around Noon on Christmas Day. After eating and cleaning up the kitchen we all gathered together in the living room. Papa had all of the kids sit in the floor in front of him. He read to us the birth of Jesus out of Luke 2. Then he went on to share with the children why we celebrate during this time and also played the song "Redeeming Love". I have to say this is one of the most precious memories of that day and I will cherish it as long as I live. I have never witnessed anything like this. To see my father in law pour out his love for His Savior and for his family was beautiful. I really have no words to describe those moments we had together. I am so thankful God gave that time to us!

The rest of the day was filled with laughter, gifts, food, coffee, and conservation. God has been so faithful to our family even when we haven't been faithful to Him. He has continued His work in each one of us and as we gathered together multiple times during our visit to Washington He truly blessed us all with His love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and hope. I can not thank Him enough for that!

Christmas 2010 is one of the best I have ever had!!! Maybe next time we can get one picture of the entire family!!!

Amazing Love!

This morning I started back up on the bible study a friend and I are doing together. We are doing Beth Moore's "Breaking Free". We are starting Week 5. Its been so good!!! I just wanted to share with you a few things from today's study.

Week 5 is talking about binding up the brokenhearted and today was titled "Straight to the Heart". The part that spoke to me and once again reminded me of how great the love of my Savior is this:

It starts with reading Psalm 127:3-4 Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of a warrior.

Then in John 3:16, Jesus is called God's what? One and Only Son.

Now here is the section that went right to my heart!

"John 3:17 tells us God gave His Son for the salvation of people by sending Him into the world. You see, God only had one arrow in His quiver. The most perfect arrow ever to exist. This arrow was a masterpiece, priceless to Him. Cherished far above all the hosts of heaven. Nothing could compare. His only heritage. His only Son. But as God looked on a lost world-desperate, needy, and in the clutches of the enemy-His heart was overwhelmed. Though we sinned miserably against Him and few sought Him, God could not love us less.

Love reached sacrificially into the quiver and pulled out the solitary arrow. The quiver would now be empty, His cherished arrow in the hands of hateful men. Yes, God so loved the world, but God also loved His only begotten Son with inexpressible, divine affection. The divine dilemma: two loves. And one would demand sacrifice of the other. Only one weapon could defeat the enemy of the soul-God's arrow. He positioned the weapon, pulled back the bow, steadied His grip, aimed straight for the heart, 'And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manager'(Luke 2:7)."

Tears of joy stream down my face as I read this over and over again. The thankfulness in my heart no words can express. The God of the universe so passionately loves me inspite of my sins, my failures, my lack of trusting Him and my disobedience. Daily I need this reminder. His love for me is real! This is truly amazing love! Jesus, to give up all He had and be put through the heartbreak, the agony, the lonliness, the betrayal, the mocking, etc. to give me life when I so do not deserve it is unfathomable. Oh, how thankful I am that He did. I pray that I will never look upon the sacrifice He made for me lightly. I pray I will not take it for granted. I pray that anyone who has not been hit by God's arrow, Jesus, that you will drop the shield from your heart and allow the everlasting arrow of love to penetrate your heart and change you forever. Because nothing can bind up a broken heart except the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.