Multitudes...a day early :)

Counting our blessings for yet another week...another week that God has left us here on Earth to glorify Him. 10 reasons to give Him thanks this week!

41- Thankful that we have an all knowing God who will heal the hearts of those affected by the Sandy Hooks School Massacre. This situation is the unthinkable.Heartbreaking & completely surreal. Makes our morning prayers for safety for the day not so "mundane"- but REAL! Safety in our small towns is just taken for granted. Maybe this will create a pathway for prayers to come back into public education. Pray without ceasing.

42- Happy to have had an wonderful evening of fellowhip as we filled 21 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child!Imagining how children will feel and react when they get a box full of goodies, when normally their Christmas is empty, is just something I can not even imagine!! So thankful that God enabled us and some friends to be able to help those in need. (And the postage to mail them all was not as brutal as I had thought :))

43-SHORT WEEK AT WORK/SCHOOL!! 3.5 days and then 2 weeks off! Not just 2 weeks off from my work and Harrison's school- but GCU is also on holiday break for 2 weeks during our break AND HUGE bonus- Matt had loads of vaca time to use before 2013- so he is officially off that time too!! Can.not.wait. 6 days until FLORIDA!

44- ABC family countdown to christmas family movies - some nights are total duds- but LOVE old christmas classics. Love this time of year.

45- Salvation for a homeless man at church!! He is now working on his resume with hopes of changing his life. Praise the Lord!

46- Baby boy Hebert kicks and flips and hiccups!(6 months..1 Week)

47- Hannah's sweet kisses on my tummy. Then she looks at her tummy and always tells me - "I have a baby boy too. Daddy too. Harrisy too." Can not wait for our family to hold our precious baby!

48- Harrison's awesome athlctic ability! He is so much fun to play with and to watch! Flag football begins in the New Year. So exciting!

49- Pei Wei for lunch today & leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Delish.

50- Salvation. Heaven is our home! Amidst this world that gets darker each day- help us all who are saved to be the LIGHT. Shine to others. Satan is out there as we saw in big picture Friday morning, but thankful God is bigger than our foes and will judge Adam - so I do not have to.

Hugs & Love
More pic of our Fall Photo Shoot in Chicago- October 2012- Photos courtesy of Corduan Compositions :)

Operation Christmas Child Party!!  The Assembly Line begins ...

 Photos courtesy of Enoch! (Guy on the right :))

Multitude Monday!

31- Thankful that Target saved 15 shoeboxes for our Operation Christmas Child Party!! Friday is the big day! Please pray for blessing.

32- Pumpkin pie Gold Canyon candle burning in a Christmassy festive house, warm, clean, blessed. So many are needy this Christmas and winter. Help us all to remember the small things like water, toilets, showers, lights, that we take for granted each day.

33- amazed at Harrison’s Sunday School teacher. Her patience is amazing. Her love for God and for the children she teaches is priceless. We are so thankful for Miss Rhema.

34- this sounds crazy-but after our  hospital stay with Hannah 2 summers ago, any time I have to help her, no matter if its 3 times in the same night from 1-4am, I am thankful she is home-alive & full of life ( even if I am ½ asleep!) hoping for a better night tonight J

35-week 6 of my 2nd class of Masters program has begun! 2 more weeks to go, then onto Statistics- yikes!!

36- thankful for good friends who give us adorable hand me downs!!! Hannah is perfectly dressed (when she wants to wear clothes that is, she is a nudist by nature J) and I have hardly bought ANY fall / winter clothes!!

37- love our neighbor friends who shared some delish chocolate cake this weekend. The small blessings in life… but are they small? These random acts of kindness are pure God moments when He is glorified! Christians helping each other and just wanting to share… beautiful!!

38- our car. Oh boy! What a fiasco! The oil filter for my dad’s BMW is a rare breed apparently- so 3 places didn’t have it – and wouldn’t do an oil change. I bought a filter, brought it back to walmart, only to wait 1 ½ and them to FINALLY look at the car and tell me the oil filter mount was busted and if they broke it they’d be liable- so they didn’t want to touch it. So – with 245,000 miles- AMAZING RIGHT!?!?! Our car needs an oil mount…among MANY other things J But it runs!! BEAUTIFULLY and FAST and it was my dad’s. So this car-so very sentimental to me- is still in 1 piece and I know it’s because God knows I cannot part with it yet. Every morning it actually starts- is a blessing that God has given us.

39- a work from home hubby! Love love love that he works at home and can watch Hannah at the same time & work on his Masters!! Multi-task much!? It is really special that when we get home from school, he is a hands- on dad, ready to wrestle Harrison or play football together and embrace family time head on. We love Daddy!!! His meatballs that he made Friday night will be our leftovers tonight and ohh soo delish!!! Xo

40- 2 more CLEAR signs from God on paths to take after our school year is done. Having Matt’s flexible work schedule, and my ability to (hopefully) teach online, opens up any location really! So we are praying praying praying for HIS location to be made known! Pray with us! J

 A few fam photo shots below :) The rest download as massive files...will work on it another night :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fam Fun

We love Arizona winters!

Football pro :)

 

We are SO happy to have dad home! Even if it cost $86 cab ride from Sky Harbor last night- ouch! :)

Lolli's!

Growing belly! Baby boy Hebert is 5 months 3 weeks

XO

 

Multitude Monday #3

21- Thankful that this is the last night sleeping solo!! Matt arrives tomorrow night. How did we do this for 6 months last year? 4 days gone seems WAY too long!!
22- Amazed that Hannah and Harrison played SO well and gave this single mama a dream weekend! So many laughs and piggy back rides.
23- LOVING the sparkle that white lights all over our yard brings
24- Enjoy hearing Harrison talk about what he wants for his birthday... which is in June.. already. He MUST be my son:) I start my bday wish list MONTHS in advance too :) Love this boy!!
25- Thankful that my 1st graders were awesome learners and workers today. Some times I didnt even know there were kids in my room. And there were 22.
26- Christmas cards were mailed out on Dec 1!! That is my new record and it feels amazing to look at my empty desk..
27- Thankful to have found a little memorial frame with a verse on it to put my Grandma's picture for my mom. This is my Grandma's 1st Christmas in Heaven, which is bliss for her, but sad for my mom especially.
28- CINNABON FOR SUPPER- yes, nothing else. Just extra frosting and their biggest cinnabon roll with milk. (My turkey sandwhich and clementine for lunch have to offset this enormous sugar rush right!?)
29-thankful to have read some powerful pages in our new fave book "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. Some examples are : "the greatest joy in God come from giving His gifts away", "if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself & take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23), The dying that Piper is talking about is " dying of comfort, security, reputation, health, family, friends,wealth & homeland". These powerful pages go hand in hand to answer specific prayers for our family and we are thankful. So thankful.

30- Blessed to have inlaws that sacrifice their time and ENERGY- ohh soo much energy for our precious Hannah! Who spent the whole day there today, overnight tonight and all day tomorrow. We miss our sassypants sweety, but thankful for awesome "daycare" while Dad is away, and for not making the 37 mile commute each way while he is gone :) AND so generous as they bought Harrion a replacement fish tank :) Who knew that fishies dont survive well in the tub...we lost a couple..

How was your week? I hope you also came up with 10 blessings to be thankful for :)
Pictures will come once Matt is home with our camera :) He went to the Baconary (sp?!) In NYC - DROOL- JEALOUS-YES :) Pic will come :)


Hugs!

"Jesus Calling" Encouragement

As my dear hubby left our family yesterday for a long weekend get away to be filled with scriptural teaching, good friendship time & yummy food of course, my mind instantly thinks of all that can go wrong as I am single with 2 kids. Why does my brain instantly turn to negatives and worrying? So thankful that the Lord brought Matt to New York safely yesterday, and He kept us safe last night, despite my intense fear of being alone at night J Today, the devotional book Jesus Calling had the PERFECT encouragement. “Remember that you are en route to Heaven…and let your problems fade in light of Eternity”. Beautiful. So True. Now to make those words real and live it will be my challenge today, especially tonight (but thankful for a slumber party for Harrison to maybe ease my worries?! A couple 7-9 yr boys can protect the house and me and Hannah right!? J Pray for us while Matt is away! Tuesday is the happy reunion day J

Multitude Monday part 2

So I really slacked off since my 1st Multitude Monday...but getting back on track a couple months later is better than never right?! If you have never read 1000 Gifts, by Ann Voskamp- DO! It's a must read, and I'm not even finished yet ... it will change your life and cause you to live a life of gratitude in ALL circumstances...so every Monday - 10 thankful "things"-

11. Thankful that Harrison stepped in water...  in his room today, and we were all home to see a big crack in his fish tank! It could have happened during our Christmas Break when we are going away. Oh what a stinky mess that would have been!! It was already stinky AND messy today- the day OF- can't imagine if left un touched for 2 weeks. EWW!!!

12. Thankful that we have an unused bath tub to dump all 15-20 fishies in while we fix his tank :) They have never swam so much :) Harrison and Hannah are in awe of our "massive fish tank" We are secretly wondering if Hannah will try to jump in there with them. We don't put it past her. She is obsessed with both water and fish and going potty "all by herself". Soooo we shall see.

13. Praising the Lord that we have an opportunity to show our kids how to share and give as we have an Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Filling Party at our home! Harrison is excited to get and give his presents away to needy kiddos. Pictures will come in mid Dec :)
14. Our baby boy is 22 weeks today... 18 weeks til arrival date! We can't wait to meet him!

15.Thankful for our sweet son who left us a love note and candy corn under our pillow last night

16. Yes another mushy praise for our Harrison :) But he did awesome in school today and got to "clip up" so he chose Orange Cinnamon Rolls and a Grinch Family movie date. ( We LOVE when he gets good behavior days, not only because he SHOULD excel as a teacher's kid- HELLO!!! but because we get yummy fun treats to eat too! :))

17. Thankful that the Lord is speaking to us in many ways- about our lives for Him and paths He wants us to go down.

18. Thankful for healthy Hannah- as this is her.. Friday morning post Turkey meal, woke up puking...then to a shower which is her FAVE activity- just to fall DEAD ASLEEP instantly for 2 hours...on the couch with us making our normal noise. but this is her AFTER her long strange nap- 

19. Dunkin Donut Christmas Ornaments are out! Yep- we bought them both :)

20. Christmas Break countdown is officially on... School is out on Dec 21- for 2 weeks. CAN NOT WAIT for FLORIDA and MIMI and SEAVIEW!

Christmas is coming!

Christmas Lights are on... we have a mantel to hang our stockings on this year :) Harrison's fish are feeling the spirit too with fun Grinch Fish rocks. XO