Miles's Dedication

This past weekend, we were able to dedicate our sweet baby Miles to the Lord in front of our church family. Our parents were able to come join us for this special service. What an honor and challenge to stand in front of the church family and our family and vow to raise our children in a Christian home and teach them to know and love the Lord! When I was searching for verses for this day, I found this prayer. I couldn't have said it better if I tried, so here you go - my prayer for Miles...

On a funny side note: My precious Carter was whispering in my ear "Wook, Mommy - Blue People!"
I love him.

Our Pastor - Dr. Mark McClelland

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this treasured child of mine. Although you have entrusted him to me, I know he belongs to you. Like Hannah offered Samuel, I dedicate my child to you, Lord. I recognize that he is always in your care.

Help me as a parent, Lord, with my weaknesses and imperfections. Give me strength and godly wisdom to raise this child after your Holy Word. Please supply what I lack. Keep my child walking on the path that leads to eternal life. Help him to overcome the temptations in this world and the sin that would so easily entangle him.

Dear God, send your Holy Spirit daily to lead and guide him. Ever assist him to grow in wisdom and stature, in grace and knowledge, in kindness, compassion and love. May he serve you faithfully with his whole heart devoted to you. May he discover the joy of your presence through daily relationship with your Son, Jesus.

Help me never to hold on too tightly to this child, nor neglect my responsibilities before you as a parent. Lord, let my committment to raise this child for the glory of your name cause his life to forever testify of your faithfulness.

In Jesus' name I pray,
Amen.

"Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, 

for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." 

Matthew 19:14 

When the Dust Settles

We had family visiting for about 3 weeks after Miles was born. What a huge help and blessing they were to us!!! I love having people here and celebrating new life, but eventually they all go home and the dust setttles...and this is the reason for the gap in my recent blogging :-) The dust settled around week 3.

Last week, I survived my first full week alone with the boys - YAY! My biggest lesson of the week? Well, I hate taking naps, BUT when you have a toddler and a newborn, naps make you a better mommy - period. I don't like stopping in the middle of my day to sleep - it just doesn't come naturally to me, and I still don't do it everyday. However, I did take a few good 1-2 hour naps last week, and I was such a better mommy/wife/person when I did. We had a few fun playdates at the pool and the park, and we made it through our first week just the 3 of us!

This week, I signed up to work crafts at VBS (another reason for my lack of blogging). Ha! I've decided I'm a crazy person :-) No, actually I'm not - I promise. Carter was able to go to the 2 year old class if I volunteered, so in the name of entertaining my toddler and serving at my church to help win kids to Jesus, I asked them to put me in a flexible position. I was able to take Miles with me and help with some wonderful ladies doing 4th grade crafts. It was perfect, and Carter had a BLAST! Every morning when we pulled into the parking lot, he would repeat "Church, At-sigh" (Church Outside) over and over again. He was recently promoted to a class that goes outside to play on the playground. This sealed the deal for Carter - he is now a BIG HUGE FAN of Church! I picked him up early one day to go meet his mother's day out teacher, and he crumbled into tears. He hated to leave! It was sad but adorable :-)

Kevin's been working long hours, so it's been nice to have playdates and VBS filling up our mornings. It makes the days go by a little faster; although tomorrow is Miles's 1 month birthday! I can't believe it - the days have gone by a little too fast. This month has FLOWN by!!!!! I've done a little less napping over the past 2 days and a little more snuggling with my baby during Carter's naps because I don't want him to grow up without me stopping to breathe him in during this newborn phase. Yes, that's right, he's still a "newborn" until tomorrow!!!!!

The evenings have been full of Family Time. One evening it was especially cool, so we decided to build a fire and roast marshmallows and eat Smores.

Somebody ate more marshmallows than a toddler probably should consume...

It's a rule that if there's a fire in front of you, you must stare into it :-)

Serious roasters.

A (Very Cute) Sticky Mess

Mommy's Snuggle Bug

YUMMY!!!

Naptime is over now for Carter (even though he never actually fell asleep today), and Miles is waking up to eat one out of his 8 meals a day. It's nice (and sometimes exhausting) to be needed :-) I'll be back with more later.