But where does Jesus live?

Since the first of the year, Kaitlyn has been doing 3 chores a day and earning an allowance at the end of the week. Her chores are 1) help mommy with Jackson 2) set the table 3) pick up her toys.
Chris gives her $3 at the end of the week if she has done all her chores. It is so cute to watch them sit at the table and divide her allowance into spending, saving, and giving from the Financial Peace Jr we got for Christmas. 

This morning daddy and Kaitlyn got her money our of the "GIVE" envelope for her tithe at church. He explained to her that we were giving our money back to Jesus. This is our second week to take her tithe money to church and 0ur church has the most fun way for kids to tithe.

 They put their coins in the slot and round and round it goes....so fun!!!

So this morning before we left the house and Chris was explaining to her we were going to give our money back to Jesus, 

she says, "but where does Jesus live?" 

And Chris says, "well Jesus is in our hearts and He lives in heaven." 

And Kailtyn say...he doesn't live in the hole?"  

As in the hole at the bottom of the fun tithe tunnel! HA!! Bless my heart. 

So thankful for opportunities to teach our little one to tithe and know that it all belongs to Him!

Praying God's Word

My sweet friend Allison challenged me to dig into God's word this year and commit His truths to memory. I had already decided to pray a scripture over our family each week and then I saw this post from a blog I found from a friend Praying God's Word one week at a time.

(be sure and check out this blog-she has amazing ideas for your kiddos!!)

So, I am doing a combination of both of their ideas for 2011 and each Sunday night I pick a scripture to pray over our family and write it on a dry-erase memo board I have in our kitchen.

I can not begin to tell you what an impact praying 1 scripture everyday for our family has made. And I love that it is written out in the heart of our home..the kitchen...for us to see several times a day.

God has been working in our lives already this year and I feel like He is taking our family on a little adventure.  These scriptures have been such a source of strength and comfort. Right now all we see are pieces to the puzzle, but I can't wait to share with you what He has been doing when He reveals His plan to us. 

Week 1:

Ps 90:17 "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands"

Week 2: 

Prov 19:21 "Many are the plans in a person's heart but it the Lord's purpose that previals"

Week 3: 

Ps 20:4 "May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed"

Week 4:

Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God"

So keep me accountable Alli and thank you for showing me how to be a woman after God's heart.

Happy Weekend!!

Boo-hoo

Going to be honest, I woke up feeling pretty sorry for myself today. I go back to work tomorrow and ....well...I'm loving being at home with my kiddos. It's so nice to wake up (in no real hurry) and drink coffee and do my devo and then play with Jackson for a bit, then hop in the shower, do a craft with KK, run errands, have dinner ready when Chris gets home. I've really embraced being a full-time mom and starting yesterday I let anxiety and worry get the best of me. I started questioning how I am going to manage it all, thinking of how stressed out I am going to be trying to keep up the image I have in my mind of what a good mom and wife is. I basically worried the day away yesterday and hardly enjoyed any of it! Then I opened my devo book and it says:

"Come to me, and rest in My loving presence. You know that this day will bring difficulties, and you are trying to work your way through those trials. As you anticipate what is ahead, you forget that I am with you-now and always. Rehearsing your troubles results in experiencing them many tines, whereas you are meant to go through them only when they actually occur. Do not multiply your suffering in this way. Instead, come to me, and relax in my peace. I will strengthen you for this day, transforming your fear into confident trust. "

I'm so glad He cares about the little things. It may seem small to you. And no, I am not suffering, but I am emptying today-draining the joy I could experience right now-in anticipation of what I fear is going to be a rough day tomorrow.

Instead, I am going to be thankful that I have a job to go to. That, for right now, this is where I am supposed to be. I am going to anticipate the blessings He has in store for me with a cheerful and grateful heart!! Can you tell I am talking myself into this. :) This is the day the Lord has made...and tomorrow....well...it's going to be a  good day! 

Love Day Verses

Here are the verses I am going to use for Kaitlyn's
Valentine Love Chain. Original post on our love chain idea here

A joyful heart is good medicine... Proverbs 17:22		God is love. 1 John 4:8		We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
God loves us, so we should love each other 1 John 4:11		A friend  loves at all times Prov 17:17		For God so loved that he gave you His son John 3:16
By this you know love,  because Jesus Christ laid down His life for you 1 John 3:16		If you love God, you will obey Him John 13:15		Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul and mind Matt 22:37
Love is patient and kind… 1 Corinthians 13:4		The fruit of the spirit is LOVE 1 Corinthians 13:5		Love never fails 1 Corinthias 13:8
His love lasts forever 1 Chronicles 16:4		…He will quiet you with His love and rejoice over you with singing! Zeph. 3:17

A Princess & A Cowgirl

Our little one has quite the imagination and her costume box keeps us laughing! Kailtyn and daddy went on a date Saturday night to the rodeo in Odessa. As we were trying to explain to her that afternoon what a rodeo was, she said "just err second mom" (I love the err). And came out in daddy's cowboy boots! Silly girl!

This week after Mother's Day Out,  Kaitlyn came out of her room in her princess costume and wanted to know if her little friend Jeremiah could come over...to be her prince! Watch out dad, our little princess might be boy crazy!

Love Day Ideas

In one month it will be Valentines Day!!

Last year we made crafts for dad  here and I made a prayer door for Chris here .

Here are a few Valentines ideas I am going to do with Kaitlyn this year.

Love Chain: Make a paper chain and inside each link put a bible verse about love to discuss at dinner starting February 1st. Go here and see the full idea and to print out the bible verses (I will probably modify mine a bit to make them easier for KK to understand)

Heart Hunt :: Cut out hearts from various colored papers and tape around the house. The kids will love the excitement of spotting and collection all of the hearts throughout the house! Once they reach a certain number of hearts, they win a prize! There could be a special heart (like a golden egg at Easter) that wins them a special treat if he/she finds it!

Praying you are overwhelmed this year with His Love for you!

"I have called you by name: you are mine....I will be with you.... Because you are precious in my eyes and glorious, and because I love you."
Is. 43:1, 2, 4

Dr Kaitlyn to the Rescue

Papa Harper had 1 of 2 knee replacements last week. Kaitlyn has been very concerned about her Papa. How appropriate that they learned about doctors at school this week. 

As soon as I picked KK up from school she wanted to go out to Papa's to check him out. Dr Kaitlyn to the rescue!

Little Mister

I can't believe how much bigger our little man is getting!
I put him in a 3 month outfit yesterday and he will only be 6 weeks tomorrow!

We got a new wall hanging for his room.

 He is studying it hard :) I love when he goes cross-eyed. Shoot...I love every minute with our my baby boy!

Menu Plan....I did it!!

One of my goals while having some time off on maternity leave was to come up with some sort of system to menu plan. My friend Mandy has been doing this for some time now. She also posts recipes so you should check her out here. 

I read a post on another blog I stalk (hee..hee) here almost a year ago and got the idea to make meal planning magnets. I made a list of all my recipes and tried to come up with some sort of menu plan, but just kept thinking how unpredictable our lives are and how easily my menus could change. 

I changed her idea up quite a bit, but it's the same concept. I made a document in word (that I will e-mail you if you leave me a comment with your address) and printed all my meals on cardstock. 

Then I used these magnets I found at Hobby Lobby that were the perfect size for my template. 

I cut out all of my meals and put them on the magnets. 

Then I printed out a monthly calendar. You can find these lots of place online or even as a template in Word. I found some pretty cute ones here. They are the perfect size for my magnets.

Now, I can menu plan, but also have the freedom to change it up with the simple switch of a magnet. I also made a couple of magnets that says leftover, take out, night out, and even cereal on those days I just don't want to cook :) 

I would love to hear if you have come up with any great ideas to menu plan and I'll let you know if my system works!

Funny!

This weekend we went to see Baby Berkley, our best friends Jeff & Cori's new baby girl. Isn't she precious!!

She is precious and so tiny! Jackson and Berkley are a month and a few days apart and Jackson seems so big next to this precious thing. It's amazing how fast they grow and seeing Berkley really reminded me to slow down and enjoy every moment with my two little ones. I am on my last week of maternity leave :( and go back to work next week. It's going to be so hard to leave Baby Jackson, but Grandma Harper will be keeping him, so I know he will be spoiled everyday and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I found this on a blog I read here and I was literally peeing my pants reading some of these comments about having kids. I put some of my favorite comments below. Read the entire post here. Hope you enjoy!!

A really good way to know you are ready to have kids:
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look? 

So you are ready to drive around children??
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

So you are ready to grocery shop?
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.  

Top 5 Must Have's!

There have been a couple of "must-have" items I wanted to share that have made life with Jackson much easier!! 

1. Wubbanub Pacifier-these are pretty darn cute and trust me...they make losing a pacifier very difficult. Plus, Jackson loves to hold onto it. Thank you Allison!!!

2. Bundle Me-I don't know why I didn't have one of these before!! It totally eliminates the need for a blanket getting in and out of the car seat and is so soft and snugly!

3. Socks from the store Noteable in Midland. I don't know what it is about these $10 socks, but they are the only ones I can get to stay on Jackson's little feet. We got them as a gift (thanks again Allison!!) and I have literally washed them 100 times already. I need to go get more pairs!!

4. Zipper Sleepers. Why oh why didn't they think of this before!! I found some footed sleep pajamas at Target that zip instead of button!! You can only imagine that changing 3-4 diapers in the middle of the night is exhausting...add to that fastening 10-12 buttons each time....whew!! I will forever be on the look-out for more sleeper pj's that have zippers! Brilliant!!!

5. Close & Secure Sleeper-This thing has been a dream! It can fit in his bassinet and then eventually go to his crib with him. It even has a little night light for those late night diaper changes & feedings.

And just for fun! I am loving the new Scentys Buddy's. Jackson got one for Christmas and it definilty makes that diaper pail smell go away :) They are pretty darn cute too!

One Month Old!!

Jackson is 1 month old today!! Whew!! Where did the time go?

And just for fun, here is a picture of Kailtyn when she was 1 month old

And she is such a big girl now!!!I love these pictures Wynne Elder took of my little princess!

2010!!

What a blessing 2010 has been to My Precious Family.

We truly have so much to be thankful for and we are standing on God's promises for an even greater 2011!

"You crown the year with Your good blessings, and You leave abundance in Your wake." psalm 65:11

 Praying blessings over all of my faithful blog friends and followers :)

Found this verse over at 

Living Proof Ministries Blog 

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Just a few pics from Kaitlyn's first sleepover party with her cousins.

They danced and ate popcorn, giggled and made smores, and even tagged all my pantry food with bar-codes to use on the super cool cash register KK got for Christmas.
What fun!