Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Learning...

I know most of my posts usually consist of what my sweet Logan is up to, but God has been teaching me so much lately I thought I would share. I debated on whether or not to start a new blog for my thoughts, but it would just be easier to post here. So, if you came for Logan you can just skip to the bottom!

Where to begin...The thing that jumps out the most at me is what God has been teaching me about friendships. When we first moved to the area, I was super excited to meet anyone and everyone. Well, the newness is wearing off. Being the "new" person after five months doesn't seem so new anymore. I think being away from familiar faces and close friends at Christmas time triggered some homesickness. We just recently decided to jump in and become a member at the church we've been attending, Sovereign Grace. We had a "new member interview" a couple of weeks ago with one of the pastors there. He actually just came over to our house and talked for a couple of hours. Towards the end of our time, he mentioned talking to a couple of other families that had recently been through similar situations as us. Then he said something that really spoke to my heart. He said that God is a kind God. He will preserve the friendships that He intends for us to keep, and let go of the ones he doesn't. In time we will build new friendships here that are strong just like some that we've had for years already. I am extremely thankful for those friendships that have already stood the test of time and I can say confidently that they will forever have a place in my heart. I've also learned a lot about being a friend through this process. I am much more likely to go up to someone I've never met regardless of the circumstances and invite them to be a part of my life, and hopefully become part of theirs. Growing up as a "shy" child and never talking to anyone I didn't know (and sometimes people I did) it's amazing to see how much God has grown me. Even still, I know that I have much much more to learn about loving others as Christ first loved us. I really do desire to be someone who warmly and lovingly opens my home as well as my arms to others. I know some of those people have really made the last few months an easier transition for me. So feel free to call me out on being selfish with my time as is my tendency (I still desire to put God and my family first). That is the other thing God is doing in my life - breaking my pride. Logan is the main tool he is using for that! That's a whole different post!

In light of the whole friendship blurb, I did want to mention one way that God kindly surprised me in a friendship. About a month ago, I was super excited to find an old friend on facebook. A really old friend...my neighbor from the time I was probably two until I was about 13 and my best friend growing up! God took us in different directions through the end of high school and college so we had lost touch. I sent her a message, and didn't get a reply (or so I thought). It turns out that I just didn't receive an email notification of her message. She sent me her phone number, and as soon as I saw it I ran downstairs (quietly so as not to wake up Logan) and called her. It was a very sweet time to catch up on the last few years. Our moms had bumped into each other here and there so we knew a little about what was going on in each other's lives, but it was very heart warming to reconnect with such a good friend. It's fun to look back on almost our whole lives and see the girls who sat on the monkey bars together and fought over who would be the teacher - the "Elizabeth sisters" and talk about our families now and who God has made us today.

And on one more friend note, the slide show at the bottom is from Christmas with some amazing friends who have been there for our family through thick and thin...the Johnstons. OK most of the pics are of Logan and Sadie, but I pray that God would give them special friendships as well.

*Let me know what you think of the smilebox program.  I'm thinking of signing up so the pages will appear bigger on the screen.

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Merry Merry!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We enjoyed staying at home for the holidays this year.  All of our family came to our house.  The Ellis fam was here Christmas day and the Radez fam was here the day after.  We had a great time together!  

I've been trying to figure out how to spice up our blog a little bit.  Radez actually copied a background from a friend's blog that I really liked until I can find another one.  I must say I was a little sad when I spent almost an hour trying to read up on how to change the background myself, and then my techy husband came home and did it in about 10 minutes.  

I've been mulling around some other ideas for blog postings in my head, and hope to actually write them out soon.  In the meantime, enjoy the Christmas Day pics!  There are Christmas pics to come!  If you like the little slideshow, you can go to smilebox.com to create one.  They have lots of options.


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Monday, December 15, 2008

My Favorite Things...

In fitting with the holiday season, I thought I would make a list of a few of Logan's favorite things!

CLOCKS!!!!! Otherwise known as "tock tick". (there have been some days in which Logan must have said this and pointed to clocks 100 times in a day!!)
Balls (or ornaments in the shape of balls)
Lights
Hats (All snowmen wear hats!)
Elmo (or "Melmo")
Eating!
Shoes (trying on anyone's shoes)
Stuffed Animals (Hugging and feeding them especially)
Books (Cuddling up and reading to Logan is one of Mommy's favs!)
Going "Bye bye" (story time, music time, and museums are some of his favorites. Also pretending to go bye bye in his car!)
Talking on the phone
Being tickled! (He even asks for more! This is Daddy's favorite too!)
Making silly faces/making people laugh
Hiding and playing peek-a-boo
Playing with friends and family
Blowing kisses
Making noises (animal, car, train, etc.)
Being chased by or chasing Mommy and Daddy
Babies
Rolling Trucks around

OK, so here's the top 20. I'm sure I could go on and on! The things that made the list were very easy to think of. Logan goes through phases of things that he is VERY interested in. He can point out some of the things mentioned above from a mile away! Sometimes I feel like I am living out a hidden picture puzzle!! Right now his favorite phrase is "want more".

The second slide show is of our playgroup's cookie making party (and by cookie making I mean cookie dough and candy eating!).  For those of you who know about my awesome baking skills - let's just say I am very thankful that someone else wanted to organize this event so Logan could experience Christmas baking!  We've been very blessed to be able to get together with this group of very sweet kids and moms!  We met some of them at the music time we go to, and they welcomed us into their group soon after moving to Apex.  Logan is the baby of the group, and it does show in some of the last pics.  After the group photo, I looked at the clock only to see that it was way past Logan's lunch time.  My poor little guy must have been starving.  

We've had a great time explaining the meaning behind Christmas to Logan this year too!  He absolutely loves his Christmas story book.  It helps that it has a clock on the first page!  We do actually get past the first page most of the time, and it does a great job illustrating the story of the birth of Jesus.