Fall Pictures

I have been meaning to post these pictures for a while and just keep getting sidetracked. We let the girls stuff some pumpkin bags with leaves two or three weekends ago. An easy way to get help raking leaves without anyone actually thinking that they were working. The little girls really just wanted to jump in the leaves over and over again. The weather has just turned cold here in the past week or so. We have been really lucky to have great outside weather to play in on the weekends when Daddy is at home.




We also made the drive over to Selmer on that same weekend to find Sophie's "until you head off to college bed". We went to the same store where we bought her big girl furniture when we moved her out of her crib. When the painters were here a couple of weeks ago, we had to move Ella out of her room for a night. It was the perfect time to move her into her new BIG GIRL room. She has been sleeping in her crib without the side rail since she turned two, but this was a whole new adventure. Ella loves routine and loves things to be just so. Well, it seemed at first that she was having none of this new room stuff.

She kept telling me that she was in Sophie's room, in Sophie's bed, with Sophie's rocking chair, all the while looking at me like I was the biggest moron on the planet for not knowing where to put her to bed. It took us about half an hour to get her to sleep, but once she did we were down for the night. While she was at school the next day, I was running around like a mad woman - putting Ella's rocking chair in that room, Ella's clothes in that closet, Ella's toys in the cubbies. When she came home, I took her up there and you could tell that it just "clicked" with her. NOW it was her room. She has not looked back since. She is so proud of herself and loves to tell people that she is now sleeping in a big girl's room. I will post pictures soon of her in her new big girl room.

Sophie's furniture will be delivered in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, she is already in her new room, but she is sleeping on the couch bed. She, of course, thinks this is the coolest thing ever and really could care less if she ever gets her new furniture because what is in there right now suits her just fine.

It is a sweet, sweet sound...

...when our five-year-old asks me, "Mama, when's the next time that you get to pray over me?"

Oh, praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!!

The 7x7 Box

You might notice a couple of new boxes on the side of our blog. I (Whitney) am a follower of a lady named Angie who has a blog that she started when she found out that her unborn daughter had something called Trisomy 18 and that there was no chance that the child would survive. Her blog is so sweet, so real, so raw at times, so brutally honest, so encouraging, so uplifting, and so inspirational all at the same time. She has a way with words. Once you start reading, you just will not be able to stop.

There have been many times that I have been moved to tears by her blog. A lot of times it reminds me of the loss of my sister, Erin. Now, in no way can I compare my loss to that of carrying a child for nine months and knowing half way into it that the child was not going to survive. Her pain is much deeper than mine. However, she and I are alike in that we both chose to believe that our God was sovereign. That what He did was right and was good in accordance with His will for the lives of the people we loved. We chose to continue loving Him, serving Him, TRUSTING Him with our lives.

Angie is encouraging all of the moms who read her blog to participate in something very special, and I for one am all over this one. For the next seven days, I am going to pray out loud over each of my girls seven times, depending upon what they are doing at a particular time of the day. You can click the 7x7 button to go right to Angie's post on her blog. It will show you exactly what I am praying. I am not sure that anyone even reads this blog. However, if you do and if you are a mommy, I encourage you to do the same.

Finding a way to pray for my girls so that they know how important it is has been something that has been on my heart for a while now. I pray for them daily, but they do not know (1) that I am praying for them, and (2) what I am praying for them. I pray daily for lots of things - for their character, their attitudes, their salvation, their protection, their friends, their peers, their future husbands - you name it, I am thinking about it and praying for it. I was so encouraged to find this posting from Angie the other day. It made the hairs on my arms stand straight up on end.

By the way, you can get to Angie's blog and read her whole story if you would like to by clicking on the "Bring the Rain" button on the side of my blog. Leave me a comment if you want to let me know that you are participating in the 7x7 as well. I would love to know what you get out of it, what your kids get out of it, etc.

Coming out of the Chaos....

Ah, the week of painting. What a blast......

I have uploaded a couple of photos for you. This is what our house looked like all week last week. They finished on Friday afternoon. The finished product is beautiful, but we are still coming out of the chaos that was our house last week!

We are doing a good deep cleaning while the house is turned upside down. Things are slowly but surely falling back into their places. Will post "updated" pictures as soon as all of that is done! But for now, I know you wish this was your house last week.......