The New Year

Don't faint!! I'm writing a second blog update in the same number of days. I know! Shocking! But, I actually have a lot I want to share so there might be another one tomorrow! Who know?!

I'm not usually a big resolution maker because the way I see it, I'll have already broken it by the end of January so why bother! I do try to set goals for myself though (probably the same thing as a resolution, but it's not as daunting sounding). :) I thought I would share a few of them with you. I'd love to hear what your goals for this year are.

1. Fall in love with my house. I know, it sounds somewhat strange. When we moved into our house, I was not real excited about it. I was happy to be out of the condo and not be attached to neighbors who yelled at their kids to get up every morning, but the house itself was not what I was hoping for. We bought at the peak of the market so houses were selling as soon as they came on the market so we had to move fast. That being said, we closed at the end of August and moved in mid-September '05.

God has been showing me a lot lately how much I complain! Dan even told me yesterday, "You're never happy with the temperature!" I said, "I am. Just only when I'm not complaing about it." So, God has been pretty much smacking me around about it. So, I want to stop and first on my list is my house. God blessed us with our home and I want to see it as such. We have been able to pay our mortgage, keep it heated and cooled, buy furniture, etc. It's not perfect, but so what! I want to spend more energy loving it and being thankful for it than complaining about it. I've actually started working on my kitchen to spruce it up a little bit. We have one coat of paint on the walls so far and I'm making curtains for the window in this really great fabric I found! I even bought a new light for the room as well (all for less than $60). :) So, I'm going to take more pride in my home and fall in love with it!

2. I want to be more careful with my spending. I know I just said I spent money on the kitchen but it's all Christmas gift money so that doesn't count! :) I am an impulse buyer. I walk into a store, see something and buy it. Now, I never spend a lot, but I spend nonetheless. Ten dollars here and ten dollars there can really add up. I do what I can to save when grocery shopping so this is one more way I can "add" to the family budget.

3. I want to fall in love with Scripture again. My greatest struggle in the Christian walk has always been having a consistent time with the Lord. I can look back and see the times I was most content and happiest were the times I was spending time with God each day. So, I want to get back there. Right now, I am doing a workbook entitled 30 Days in the Psalms. There's no commentary, just some questions to get me thinking about what the writer was saying and how I can apply it to my life. So far, God has been faithful to meet me right where I'm at. I am surprised at how many of the Psalms deal with contentment in Christ alone. God is showing me that He is all I need and when times get tough, He is faithful! How cool!

So, those are a few of my thoughts. What are some things you're going to work on this year?

Happy New Year

It's a new year so I decided the blog needed a face lift, along with a little more content. I started this blog really as a way for me to remember life as it happened. I wanted to be able to look back and see what REALLY went on. As you can tell by scrolling down the blog, I have not been very good at it. Hopefully, this will change this year.

Since I am so far behind, let me hit the high notes of the past 7 months.

-Camp Atlanta was awesome! Stayed at FBC Woodstock in the corner crypt with the lovely Sherri Parmer. My girls were awwwwwesome! Got to minister at a women's shelter called My Sister's House. We had much fun playing at Whitewater, Six Flag's water park. Sorry to the many ladies who rafts got flipped, etc. It was all in good fun! The best part tough was getting to lead one of my sweet girls, Courtney, to the Lord! Our SS class had been praying for her for a couple of years so it was a hug answer to prayer and how awesome was it that God used me?! Totally blessed!

-In Auguest we went on the 3rd annual Elkins family vacation. This year we went up to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. It was so much fun! We stayed in a beautiful cabin with Dan's parents and his brother and his family. The highlights were Dollywood (can I say their waterpark is AWESOME!!), Ripley's Aquarium, and just hanging out with the family. We had some really great ice cream one night too!

-Katelyn turned 4 on August 19th. We had a ballet party with 6 of her friends. We decorated picture frames, jumped in Papa's bouncy house, ate awesome cupcakes, decorated by moi, and just had fun! I love seeing Katelyn with her friends! They are sweet group of girls!

-Katelyn started school this year. She is in Pre-K at FBCJA. She LOVES going to school. She looks so grown up in her little uniforms! She has great teachers and administrators and we are so blessed that she can be in school there. She and Daddy share special Daddy/Daughter times in the car on the way to school and then Mommy and Sissy pick her up. It works out great!

-Halloween was fun! Katelyn was Angelina Ballerina and Caroline was a lady bug. They were adorable! We went to a fall festival with the Nocks (Katelyn's best friend's family) and the Harmons and had so much!

-Thanksgiving was a blast! ALL of Dan's family (all 4 generations) gathered at his parents house for Thanksgiving/Christmas. The kids had their own little table and did pretty well overall. The kids (and us) got spoiled rotten with all the presents. We had a great time but by the end of the week, I think everyone was ready to be back to normal routines and homes.

-Christmas was spent with the Spurlin clan this year. My brother and his family were able to come down for 4 days so that was great! It had been over a year sonce the siblings had seen each other. We actually had an opportunity to have an all adult dinner (thanks Sarah and Emily!) It was nice to spend time with my parents and my brother at J. Alexanders. Katelyn and Caroline got a trampoline from Nana and Grandpa so that was a HUGE hit. All the cousins came over and jumped around one morning and loved it. There are going to be lots of fun times on that trampoline. I can already tell. :)

-Dan had his annual New Years Discipleship trip this year. He took 105 middle schoolers and adults to Miami to work with 3 different churches. They put on block parties, handed out invite cards, put door knockers on doors and pretty much worked ALL day long telling people about Jesus and living out their faith. From what I've heard, it was a GREAT trip that the kids won't soon forget. Me and the girls stayed behind at Hotel de Spurlin. Elias and Brannon had a sleepover on New Years Eve and then we had our traditional lunch of jowl, black eyed peas, rice, and greens. I didn't partake of the greens or peas but it was good nonetheless.

So, I guess that brings us to the present. God has been teaching me and showing me some things that I will share in a later post but I'm excited for this year holds. I hope your 2011 is even more blessed than your 2010!

Mother's Day and Katelynisms

So, it's been a little while. Life is crazy when you have two kids under the age of 4. It's chaotic, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Those girl are my heart.

Mother's day was yesterday. We had a great morning in church then a sweet afternoon at home with the family. Dan made one of my favorite lunches, chicken stir-fry and gave me some coupons for things such as a movie date and cleaning the kitchen for me. Let me tell you, I will be putting those to good use. We went to the Town Center to shop a little then have dinner at PF Changs. It was just a great day overall!

It's been really interesting have a daughter that is starting to have a mind of her own. She is saying some of the funniest things. In honor of Sarah Morgan, I will call them "Katelynisms."

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-I am trying to get Katelyn to stop sucking her fingers. We had the following conversation in the car on the way to dinner last night.

Katelyn: "You almost caught me with my finger in my mouth! (with a big smile on her face)

Me: "Why do you put your fingers in your mouth if you know mommy doesn't want you to?"

Katelyn: (with a totally straight face) "My blanket told me to!"

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-We went to the splash park today at the zoo and Katelyn sits down next to me. "Why aren't you playing, Baby?" Katelyn says, "My bathing suit needs a rest!"

Katelyn: "Mom, who made bathrooms?"

Me: "I don't know, Katelyn. Who made bathrooms?"

Katelyn: Moooommm, Jesus made bathrooms! You're so silly!"

Duh! I guess I am silly. :)

A few pictures

WOW! It's been a long time!

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted anything.Well, actually I can to be totally honest. it's hard to find time during the day to sit for 10 minutes and I'm usually exhausted, sitting on the couch after the girls go to bed. It's hard to get your creative juices flowing after you've been running around with to little people all day.

Anyway, Katelyn is doing great. She is a little ball of energy! I really wish she would give me just a little bit of it. I would be able to get so much done! We've been (slowly) working on her nummbers and alphabet. She can pretty much count to 20 and recognize 1-5. She can say her alphabet and can recognize a,b,c,o, and sometimes d. I'm not super structured with it since I figure she'll be in school for the next 18 years or so so why rush it. I'm enjoying watching her play and use her imagination! Some of the things she comes up with are amazing!

Right now she is into everything princess! She plays in "castle" much of the day and loves to dress up in her Sleeping Beauty dress she wore for Halloween. She loves to be read to. Right now, Berenstein Bears books are her favorite. She does have a couple of Barbie books she likes as well. She enjoys watching Dragon Tales, Caillou, Curious George, and Berenstein Bears (On Demand is our best friend some days).

Caroline is 10 months old!! Can you believe it? Times flies when you're having fun! She just cut two teeth this past wek and is working on another one. When that comes in, she'll have a total of 6 teeth. 4 on top and 2 on bottom. She is all about big people food now. She'll still eat somebaby food, but mainly she wants the real stuff. She loves carrots, peas, turkey, Chik-fil-a chicken, and green beans. She really likes to feed herself too. She does pretty well! A lot gets in her mouth, but some ends up on the floor as well. Oh well! You gotta learn somehow.

She is turning into an independent player. We can go into Katelyn's room to play "castle" and Caroline is just content sitting by herself chewing on Katelyn's dolls or her My Little Ponys. She is fascinated by Katelyn's shoes too. I am constantly taking K's Crocs from her. Dirty shoe + baby's mouth = NASTY!!

Caroline is such a sweet baby. She enjoys being around people and loves to "talk" to you. She smiles all the time and really only cries when she's hurting or hungry. Though I love K to death, it's been much easier this time around. She is crawling all over the place! For a long time she only did the army crawl. It is so adorable! She has only just recently started crawling on her knees, though more often than not she just gives up and goes back to the commando crawl. I don't know if it's easier, faster, both, or whatever. All I know is it makes me smile.

As for Dana and I, things are going well. Dan is trying to finish up this semester in school. He is doing online classes towards his MDiv. This semester he's taking Family Ministry and Ethics. His ethics class has been the basis for some interesting conversations. It's one thing to have opinions on conterversial topics, but it's another to base those opinions on what scripture says. It's changed my thoughts on some topics.

He's also getting things ready for our annual Christmas Ministry Night with the middle schoolers. We take our students all over the city into homeless shelters, crisis centers, and homes of shut-ins to share the love of Christ and throw a Christmas party. It's always such a neat time. Most of the kids talk about it the rest of the year. The middle schoolers are also headed to Miami for their New Years Discipleship trip. They will be helping some neighborhood churches reach out and minister to their communities. I knwo it's going to be an awesome trip!

As for me, last week we wrapped up our fall semester of Mom 2 Mom. I must say I have the best group. We're all very different, but we all mesh really well. We have had some wonderful times of encouragement, shared some laughter and some tears, and just loved on each other. I can't wait until we start meeting again in the spring. I miss my ladies!

I'm also busy co-teaching a 7-8th grade Sunday school class. I have such sweet girls and I'm loving it. We're actually putting on a block party for a lower income apartment complex this weekend. It's been alot of work, but I know God is going to do some awesome things. I'm also gearing up for the holidays. I love Thanksgiving nd Christmas! I love decorating (though I dont do a great job) and cooking and seeing family and friends. I also love buying gifts. There is nothing like seeing the face of someone opening a gift that you really thought about and seeing them smile. I enjoying getting gifts too, but there's nothing like giving a part of yourself away. I can't do as much as I'd like with the economy and all, but I know it's the thought that counts.

Well, I hope that catches you all up on our lives. Hopefully it won't be another 3 months before I post again!

Katelyn is 3!

Katelyn turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. She actually got to have 2 parties this year. He actual birthday was while we were on vacation with Dan's family, so we had a celebration then.

When we got home, we had another party for my family and Katelyn's friends. They had a ball! My parents bought a bouncy house and slide combo and we put up a little kiddie pool and the kids went to town. I must admit that the game Elefun was by far the hit of the party.