9 and 10 months

Since I'm a few months behind here are Madilynn's 9 month and 10 month pictures. She is getting to be so much fun! She is crawling everywhere and she loves to eat grilled cheese and pizza, eventhough she has no teeth yet. (we cut them in really really small bites). She is our sweet sweet girl and Eli is such a great big brother to her. My favorite thing is watching them together.

This was her at the end of the photo shoot with her hair all messed up because I couldn't keep her still. I made her little top out of a vintage pillow case.

Eli's First Day of School

Eli started Mothers Day Out two days a week and is doing great. I could tell he was a little nervous the first day and cried for just a few seconds. He picked out his material for his mat and picked out CARS and I made him a cover for it. He now says he really likes school and runs into the class. He even asked the teacher if he could sleep under the table for nap time and she said he could. I love my little big boy going to school! Here are a few pictures on the first day. He is standing on his mat and quickly told me his back pack was too heavy to carry.

Summer update

I have a lot to catch up on as summer is about to end, one being my sister got married. (another blog post for that) However, before heading to New Mexico for her wedding we went to Texas to spend time with  Landon's family. It is great to be in their home, I feel like it is a little vacation for us, a break from our normal routine and really good food. Plus Fort Worth has WAY more things to see and do then Jackson. Landon even took me to an AWESOME fabric store. We also went to the Lake with his family which was really fun. Eli loved swimming but didn't like it as much when the boat was moving. He wanted to be held tight and said he was scared of the fish. Here are some pictures from that trip...

Pops with London and Eli driving the boat.

Life Jacket was a little big on this little one.

She loved the boat ride!

Eli loved jumping in! He is a good little swimmer.

8 Months Old

Little Madilynn is getting big. Here is her 8 month picture and some pictures my friend Keely Hart took of her. So so sweet! She is finally sleeping through the night and has just started to wave. My mom made the smocked yellow dress she is wearing.

7 months old

Madilynn is 7 months old. She is sweet as can be, a little dramatic and has finally slept through the night a few times. We love having her in our family!

Eli goes to Texas

Eli with his bags packed. We HAD to take his baseball and tee. 

 
Eli is off to Texas to spend a week with Grammie and Pops and Aunt Laurel. Although Landon and I feel a little lost with out him here we are enjoying our quiet house and getting a lot of things done! We are so excited he gets to spend a week with Landon's parents. I'm not just saying this because my in-laws read this blog, but they are the best and it does make me sad we live so far away from them. I'm so glad Eli is getting to spend time with them and he is having SO much fun I don't think he has stopped to miss us yet!

Now I get to hang out with this sweet girl all week!

When Neighbors Take Marriage and The Home Seriously

I would like to welcome my husband Landon to our blog. Landon, thank you for your contributions to our family blog….

When Neighbors Take Marriage and The Home Seriously

We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood of midtown Jackson where we are literally surrounded by church members and close friends. We can step out on our back screened porch to see the porches of four different families from our church. In fact, one of our next door neighbors is a family of one of the pastors in our church. They are our family’s dearest friends, entertainers, counselors, babysitters, and playmates. They are just flat out great neighbors; all twelve of them.

While Ross and his wife Kathy have ten children (2 boys and 8 girls), they also counsel the majority of couples (including us) in our church before marriage. One of the reasons Ross is our church’s go-to guy for pre-marital counseling is because he clearly explains how marriage between man and woman reflects Christ’s love for his church (Eph. 5). And not only is this topic one that I have heard him talk about at church or in counseling sessions but again and again, I have heard the theological significance of marriage and children brought up at dinner as our family sat around the already crowded table in our pastor’s dining room. Each time, it’s a topic that garners rolled eyes and huffed breaths from the teenagers as they listen to the shtick that they have heard time and time again from their relentless dad. But they listened more than I thought.

A few weeks ago, their middle school daughter’s birthday was coming up and she was told she could have two friends over to spend the night. She attends public school in Jackson and had befriended two sisters whose parents were going through a divorce. So Ross and Kathy’s daughter, as winsome as she is funny and sometimes dramatic, asked if she could have the two girls over because she wanted them to see what a normal family looked like. As I stood in the backyard hitting a tennis ball back and forth while Eli ran back and forth like a ball boy at Wimbledon, I asked her about her birthday sleepover. As she began to talk, I listened to her desire to bring these two girls into a loving home that she had experienced her whole life. How precious it was to hear her describe how what she had seen and heard from her parents created in her a desire for others to experience the same. While she didn’t say it explicitly, what she had seen and experienced from her parents was a microcosm of the self-giving love that exists within God himself, a love that forever draws others deeper into its perfect communion.

                                 

Those few moments of conversation while playing backyard tennis reminded me the importance of teaching in our home. Deuteronomy 6 emphasizes constant teaching for a reason. Our children are listening and watching. What we believe and cherish most deeply will play out in our bodies, just as Jesus said. And they will likely play out in our children’s bodies too. And we desire what is played out will match what is described and proscribed in the Scriptures. I just hope Eli and Madi would experience God’s self-giving, inclusive love in our home that they too desire to bring others into it, just as our next door neighbors have demonstrated so well.