Heavy Reading

The other day Tonii walked into the bathroom and saw Dane reading "The Mortification of Sin" by the Puritan author John Owen. Nothing else really needs to be said. Enjoy the photo.

Sweet Toothe

There is a gourmet store in town called Pine Valley Market that has been using me to make most of the desserts for their catering events for the past couple of months. They asked me to come out last weekend and set up a display and sell cupcakes individually in front of their store so that their regular customers could get a taste of Sweet Toothe. They'd like to get people hooked so that they can start retailing my cupcakes in the store on a daily basis. We will see. My proud and sweet hubby took this photo and told me that it needed to be posted. Thanks Sal for pushing me to finally do some posts again = )

BIG girl

Beka has been above average in the height department since she was born (of course, look who her mother is = ) ). But when I took her in for her 18 month check up I was shocked when the doctor, her uncle Patrick (pretty cool) told me that she is off the charts for height! Yes, our Beka is in the 100th percentile for height. He said that she is actually the height of an average 2 1/2 year old. From these photos you can see that she loves her "bay beee" and her "da deee" too.

Moments

Beka

She loves to be outside and especially to swing. She will stand at the door and point "side, wee". She loves to play dress up already and is obsessed with shoes. She will find mine, Tonii's, Dane's or anyone else who may be visiting and try to parade around the house in them. She is also obsessed with the book "Goodnight Moon" which we must read every night and if she had her way every morning and afternoon too. Her favorite part of the book is the "baboon" which translated means the "red balloon".

Dane

He asked me the other day if I was married and I said yes. Then he said "Well who am I going to marry?". I said "Oh Dane, God will make that clear in His timing". Then he said "Maybe I can marry Meg (Terrell from LA). . . . or maybe Noah (Neri from LA). I got a good laugh from that and said "Well, Noah might actually be more submissive, but Meg would definitely be the more God honoring choice."

We were in the car on Friday and out of the blue Dane says "Mommy I don't want to go to college." You can imagine my surprise from not only the statement, but from the subject matter too. So I said "Well why don't you want to go to college?" to which he replied "Because I want to stay with you and daddy." Now come on how can you argue with such a sweet sentiment as that. However, I did assure him that if he truly felt that way that he could live at home while he went to college. I can't believe I am having these conversations already. He isn't even 4 yet!! Marriage and college, this is just too much for mommy to handle.

Waiting for Teta

My mom came to stay with us for 2 1/2 weeks while I was recovering from the complications from my oral surgery. Tonii had to travel for almost 2 strait weeks, so it was such a blessing to have her here. She just left last week and we already miss her. The night that she was arriving Dane asked if he could stay up and wait until Teta got here. I said yes, knowing how much he wanted to see her. So I set him up on our bed with a snack and drink and the movie "Lassie". I wanted him to be able to remember how special it is when he gets to see his grandparents. Well my mom didn't make it here until around 11pm and Dane was still up! In fact, as soon as she got here, he broke out the biggest smile I had seen in a long time and started jumping up and down. He asked her to take him to bed and then he was out!

Jenni and Brandon

My sister Jenni and her husband Brandon came to visit from Florida last week. I felt so bad that they had to be here while I was in so much pain, but God's timing was truly perfect. You see Jenni is in nursing school and already working part-time as a nurse in training. It was only because she was here that I went to the Emergency clinic when things got so bad and was able to get the more powerful antibiotic that I needed as well as the topical numbing liquid that finally allowed me to eat and drink. She was also the one to bravely apply the numbing liquid to my wound because I couldn't see it to apply it correctly. God's timing was perfect and I think that He drew us even closer together because this was one of the first times that my little sister was in a position to truly help her big sister in ways that were so needed. We still had a great time together and they had a blast with the kids too. Every night while they were here I would ask Dane at bed time what his favorite part of the day was and he would grin and say "seeing Auntie Jenni". That says it all. Above is a photo of Jenni and the kids coming in from the boat and the other is of Dane and Brandon on Bald Head Island.

Beka's Half Birthday

We celebrated Beka's half birthday on 8/6. It is so hard to believe that she is one and a half. As you can see she is very much a little girl and she LOVES her cupcakes! For those of you who don't know, we celebrate half birthdays in our family (for the kids only!) because life is too short not to celebrate every chance we get. Instead of a cake they get cupcakes and instead of receiving gifts they give a gift to someone in need. This half birthday Beka is giving 2 gifts. One to the International Rhett Syndrome Foundation and the other to a missionary family in Uganda. We want to help the kids to think about the needs of others at times other than Christmas. It'll be really exciting to see what needs they choose to give to once they are old enough to decide.