Praise God for His mercy!

"Have mercy upon me, O God." - Psalm 51:1

When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, "If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?" He replied, "Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone: -

WILLIAM CAREY, BORN AUGUST 17th, 1761:

DIED - -

"A wretched, poor, and helpless worm

On Thy kind arms I fall."

Only on the footing of free grace can the most experienced and most honoured of the saints approach their God. The best of men are conscious above all others that they are men at best. Empty boats float high, but heavily laden vessels are low in the water; mere professors can boast, but true children of God cry for mercy upon their unprofitableness. We have need that the Lord should have mercy upon our good works, our prayers, our preachings, our alms-givings, and our holiest things. The blood was not only sprinkled upon the doorposts of Israel's dwelling houses, but upon the sanctuary, the mercy-seat, and the altar, because as sin intrudes into our holiest things, the blood of Jesus is needed to purify them from defilement. If mercy be needed to be excersized towards our duties, what shall be said of our sins? How sweet the remembrance that inexhaustible mercy is waiting to be gracious to us, to restore our backslidings, amd make our broken bones rejoice!

Charles H. Spurgeon

I'm learnin'!

Keaton's new words:

Pu-pu (puppy)
Da-da (daddy)
Ma-ma (mama) :)
Uh-huh (uh-oh)
Ah -dah (all done)
bu-bu (bye-bye)
Mmmm (in answer to "what does a cow say?" Moooo)

You should hear him. It's more than adorable!

Our little boy is not so little anymore... Our sweetie is growing fast and is turning out to be a smart boy. Thank you, God, for your grace on his life!

We love you, Keats!

Not so lonely...

Yea! My sister is coming this weekend after all! I am so excited for when she comes. She will be staying through the middle of next week, so that will make my time away from Aaron that much easier! God is gracious and good. Even though I thought it was hopeless to see my family this month, He provided a cheap ticket for her to come! I am so grateful. You can bet we will make the time special!

cUtE kID QuOte

We went to McDonald's drive-thru for lunch. Alex chose to have fries. We sat down to eat. She took a fry.

Alex: Cough, cough.

Mom: "What's the matter, Alex? Why are you coughing?"

Alex: "I have salt on my sound effector."

Family Worship

We are learning Romans 8:1 for our family memorization. Brianna's almost got it (with a little help). "Romans 8:1. There is therefore number one condemnations for those who have animals." We're so proud of her and the things she's learning!

Can't believe it's almost here!!!

Just opened another box of school books...

I can't believe it's almost school time again! I am getting kind of excited, though. We are trying a lot of new curriculum this year for Alex and Taylor. It looks really good! The girls are going to love it. I think I will really love the Science I chose this year. We will be studying Astronomy more in depth all year - I am so excited! I love that stuff. I told Aaron a nice "going-back-to-school" gift would be a telescope. :) That would be sweet! We'll see what happens...

I'm trying to find some cool stuff to keep Brianna (and Keats, for that matter) busy during school hours. I got some great ideas from a friend (thanks, Shannon!) that I am going to try. I also have a little preschool fun book for her to try, too. She loves it!

I pray I can stay this excited about the year. God's grace will have to be in huge supply (I know He will supply all that I need!) to keep my selfishness at bay and to keep the focus of teaching and raising my kids up for Him! Please do that, Lord!

A few weeks left of summer... I am so very thankful for that, too!

Praise God He is Sovereign!

"The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice." - Psalm 97:1

Causes for disquietude there are none so long as this blessed sentence is true. On earth the Lord's power as readily controls the rage of the wicked as the rage of the sea; His love as easily refreshes the poor with mercy as the earth with showers. Majesty gleams in flashes of fire amid the tempest's horrors, and the glory of the Lord is seen in its granduer in the fall of empires, and the crash of thrones. In all our conflicts and tribulations, we may behold the hand of the divine King.

"God is God; He sees and hears

All our troubles, all our tears.

Soul, forget not, 'mid thy pains,

God o'er all for ever reigns."

In hell, evil spirits own, with misery, His undoubted supremacy. When permitted to roam abroad, it is with a chain at their heel; the bit is in the mouth of behemoth, and the hook in the jaws of leviathan. Death's darts are under the Lord's lock, and the grave's prisons have divine power as their warder. The terrible vengeance of the Judge of all the earth makes fiends cower down and tremble, even as dogs in the kennel fear the hunter's whip.

"Fear not death, nor Satan's thrusts,

God defends who in Him trusts;

Soul, remember, in thy pains,

God o'er all for ever reigns."

In heaven none doubt the sovereignty of the King Eternal, but all fall on thier faces to do Him homage. Angels are His courtiers, the redeemed His favourites, and all delight to serve Him day and night. May we soon reach the city of the great King!

"For this life's long night of sadness

He will give us peace and gladness.

Soul, remember, in thy pains,

God o'er all for ever reigns."

Spurgeon

Day to day catching up...

Just thought since it's been so long since I've blogged, I would post some day-to-day snapshots for ya.

Keaton and Graycen playing together on one of our date night babysitting times. Can't believe they are getting so big already!!

BFF Nan and Emmi. They can't be more adorable together. This was after a peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie. :)
Just TOO CUTE!!!

A day at the beach... Alex and Keaton playing in the water. We have 4 fish for kids!

Our kiddos love to race down the stairs. Even Keaton gets in on the fun!
It is so cute to hear them all giggling on the way down!

Keaton took a tumble... The red mark on his forehead was the result. :(

We are definitely keeping busy! Summer has been so much fun. We only hope it slows down...

Tay turns 6! (Already!)

Happy Birthday, Taylor! For her actual birthday, we had a family night. We had dinner and dessert and opened some presents.

Grandma and Grandpa in the Mountains sent her this shirt and horse. Thanks, guys!

We don't have a picture, but Grandma and Grandpa in the country gave her a backpack with school supplies in it. Thanks!

Keats is ready for some cake!

Taylor was surprised to get such a pretty cake!

Cinderella!

Make a wish...
Gifts from the family. She got lots of crafts, a jumprope, and some clothes.

For Tay's 6th birthday party, she got to choose 2 girls to come over for a party and sleepover. She chose Aliyah and Jessi. She couldn't wait for the day to come! And it turned out to be just as fun as she imagined it to be! But first, mommy took her out on a special date, just the two of them. Of course, it was a big surprise!

We went to Libby Lu in the Mall of America to get a makeover! Taylor was so surprised! She got to sit down at a beauty parlor and get her hair done and some makeup on. She even got a new sparkly tank top and a boa and bracelets and a sash.
It turned out just gorgeous!
Party time!!!

Just some snapshots of the table
We chose the brown and pink theme this year.

Time to eat!! Taylor chose Mac n Cheese for her party dinner.

All full! Save any room for dessert?
Then it was time to dress up with makeup and new hairdos.
What artists!

After gettin' all pretty, we did a photo shoot to capture all the beauty!

Tay got a poster from Libby Lu, so I hung it up for a backdrop.

Gorgeous, Taylor!

Oh, Nan, so pretty!
How beautiful, Alex!
Stunning, Aliyah!
Amazing, Jessi!

Yum, Yum! Instead of cake this year, we decided to do sundaes with as many toppings as they wished!

They got pretty creative with their spoons, too...
Everyone enjoyed the treats!

Craft time!

They all worked so hard to make the butterflies just perfect!
Beautiful, girls!
Time for opening presents...


She got a horse stable and horse from Aliyah.
Jessi got her some earrings, makeup and nail polish Alex made her a pretty picture frame
Thanks, girls, for all the neat gifts!

Time to settle down... They watched Annie together before bedtime (good thing to distract them from the storm that was happening, too!) and then they went to bed and talked and giggled for awhile. Mommy only had to tell them to be quiet a couple times and then they were all fast asleep. What a fun party! We had so much fun!

Happy Birthday, Taylor! We love you and are so thankful to God for you! Thank you for all you add to our family. We pray that God will continue to teach you many things and that His grace will be even more evident in your life!

Our get-away

It was so fun to get away last week and visit a few new places. Yes, we got to be in 3 places all in one day, actually! Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. We were on our way to Worship God 'o8 in Maryland, but took an extra day at the beginning to stop and see Washington D.C. It was so neat to see. It almost seemed surreal to be there. We've learned about it our whole lives, but have never actually gotten to see it with our eyes. Here are a few pics for ya.

This is Aaron and I in Maryland for the WG conference. It was incredible! I am so glad we got to go this year together.

This is the auditorium of Covenant Life Church (or the "Mother Ship") where we met 2 times a day for the main sessions. The things that took place in there were awesome!!
This is some of our group that went with us. We even hooked up with a couple guys that came from Nebraska. God was definitely at work in them!
Hilarious Mark Altrogge came up during the sessions to give the "announcements". He did a great job of making us laugh!
We are so grateful to God for what He showed us and taught us while we were there. We felt loved and cared for by Him in so many ways. Thank you, God, for meeting us!
This is what we did that Tuesday before the conference. We took the Metro over to Washington and then walked. All DAY! We were so tired and dripping with sweat by the time we came back. But it was worth it! Here is what we saw:

The Washington Memorial.

This thing is huge. I was amazed!

Aaron and I
This was the WWII memorial. I got a bit emotional at this one.

This wall was dedicated to the women of the war.
Isn't it beautiful?!
All this made me cry. I am so thankful!

The Lincoln Memorial

This was a cool one for me.
This statue is huge!
The reflection pond on the way to the Memorial
We assumed that most critters are used to people being there. We saw a guy that threw this squirrel a cracker and it stayed there, sat down and started eating. Right next to us!

The Korean War Memorial.

There were life-sized statues looking like they were on their way to a battle.

We saw a wall with actual faces engraved in them.


Neat!

This is the White House!! George wasn't home when we were there, so we decided not to knock. :) I thought it might be fun to try to climb the fence just to see what would happen, but Aaron wouldn't let me...

This is the Veitnam memorial. I couldn't believe all the names on these walls of the people who died to keep our freedom alive. I am so grateful to them!

All these walls here have tiny names written all over them. Amazing.
Aaron really was glad he got to see this one. It was special to him.

We visited an art gallery while we were there. There were some really neat pictures.

This one was a two sided picture (the only one in the U.S.).

It was pretty neat.
Da Vinci was the artist.

Depicting Jesus washing the disciples' feet.
Jesus' crucifixion.

It was cool to see so many pictures about the life of Christ, although some of them were somewhat different than the ideas we have about Him.

God was good to us this whole trip. He was faithful to show us His love for us everyday! We definitely have fallen more in love with Christ through this experience. God, help us to use the things we recieved from you this past week to grow us in our sanctification and to glorify your Name above all names! We love you!