Small photo frame - $10What a great lesson this weeks was from our ladies bible study, "Becoming a JOY filled mother"! Jen Smith led the large group lesson and it was GREAT! So Kuddos to Jen! You can read a little excerpt from her blog about her lesson at http://www.jlcsmith.blogspot.com/.
Sorry that I blog so much lately on bible study's, etc....it's just that God is showing me SO much lately & growing me more and more into the kind of woman, wife, & mother that HE wants me to be!
For those of you who have asked me who the author is of this workbook, I have finally found out! We have just been using photocopies since it hasn't arrived from the publisher on time. The name of the actual workbook is "Raising Responsive Children: A Bible Study for Moms" by: Judy Rossi. It is GREAT!!!
Today McKenna was playing dress up in one of her dress-up outfits, her "bride dress" as she calls it. She also has a pretend veil to go with it but Parker broke the headband part of it. So she asked where my "bride dress" was and if I had a veil. 
Consider what message your marriage is sending to your children....
I have written before about the bible study that I am currently going through this semester at the West Campus.... I just LOVE it! This weeks lesson was on marriage, and it struck a cord with me on several different levels on just how God intend for me to treat my marriage. God has blessed me with this amazing man and He is showing me daily how I must love with an unconditional love and an attitude of that of Jesus Christ! Those things are so hard to do...but God made us for eachother! What we have is special and unique and needs to shows my children even more of who Christ is, simply by how Brian and I love & RESPECT eachother. Here are just some points from our large group time today led by Leanne. She did a fabulous job!
"If you want to be the best moms you can be, work to become the best WIFE you can be!"
- this should be our #1 priority, even over our children.
In order to do this we must do 4 things:
#1. Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
#2. Get rid of unrealistic expectations of your husband.
#3. Realize your role in shaping your marital relationship. Proverbs 14:1
- The gift of authority was given by God to our Husbands, but we have the gift of Influence as their wife.
#4. Meet his needs. (A man's deepest need is honor and respect!)
5 Things you need to say to your husband:
1. "I respect you!" (Ephesians 5:33)
- Submission is what you do for the Lord, Respect is what you do for your husband!
2. "I believe in you!" (Ephesians 4:29, Hebrews 3:13)
- It's abouse sending the man you love into the world every day - alive w/ the belief that he can conquer anything in his path!
3. "I am Thankful for you!" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
- "Be joyful always!" Start a "Gratitude Journal" of all the reasons you are grateful for and why you love your husband (and your kids, your friends, your life, etc etc). There will be moments when you will need to refer back to those things as a reminder of all the many reasons why you love that person!
4. "I enjoy you!" (Genesis 2:18, Eccl. 4:9-10)
- Women bond by sharing emotions...men bond through activities. Get involved in his life... then he will be more inclined to want to listen to all our our "emotional talk" later b/c he knows we care and are interested in his interests.
5. "I want you!" (Song of Songs 4:16, 1 Corinthians 7:4-5)
- When you make intimacy a priority, it is one of the loudest and clearest ways that you can tell your husband that he is the most important earthly relationship for you.
Some points from this weeks lesson from the author.... (sorry so long, this is just GOOD stuff that I wanted to share.)
*"Our husbands ability is affected by his perception of our belief in them. This powerful & precious responsibility should be tenderly guarded!"
*"They do make GREAT men...and they need to KNOW they're good at it! Remember God endowed them with egos unlike a woman's. We long to know if we're beautiful and often solicit our husbands' validation; they need to know if they're powerful, but they won't ask for our validation."
*"God calls us to build up our husbands (Romans 14:19), to value them for who they are as they are, just as Jesus values us. Only then does Christ in us become real to them."
*"Men thrive on encouragement, and we're to be their main source of it."
***Final thought:
"When you choose to respect your husband as a man, you will see him differently as your leader, protector, and provider. When you choose to respect him as your leader, protector, and provider, you will see him idfferently as your children's father. When you choose to respect him as your children's father, your children will see him differently."
Well, tonight my 18 month old, Parker, discovered how to climb out of his crib. So we're taking shifts to "man the door" to make sure he doesn't do it again... it's already happened twice since we put him down 45 minutes ago! Oh my word!!!! My son... I love him dearly, but he has been a little pistol lately!
I took his bumper pads out which is what I thought he was using for "leverage" but I caught him "in the act" on the second escape attempt and he's just pulling himself up and over at the corner! Anybody have any advice on keeping your kid in their crib???
What a HAPPY Valentines Day!! 
What a great day! Dr. Young's message this morning was phenomenal, out of James 2:14-26 about Faith and Works. It was the 3rd week of his series out of the book of James.
"Sibling love..."
So then we got dressed and went outside to play, it is a GORGEOUS day!
McKenna getting ready to create a "masterpiece" w/ her sidewalk chalk!
So now we are getting ready to head to our Woodway campus for a youth event they are having there tonight! :)
Have a great weekend!
Okay, I haven't updated my blog in a while about my own kiddos.... and I promise Mom I'll get some new pictures soon! :)
McKenna brought home her first "report card" from preschool on Monday and she had all "+" signs (which is good since it's either a + or a - for each thing). She is meeting all expectations for her class and her teachers had nothing but great comments for her. She apparently is little Miss Personality and it outgoing and friendly to all in her class.
However, a couple of weeks ago when I went to pick her up, Mrs. Heather pulled me aside and shared with me that they caught McKenna giving lots of kisses to a little boy in her class on the playground that day. Needless to say her Daddy & I have had LOTS of talks about how we only save our kisses for Mommy, Daddy & Parker for now. She said, "Okay Mommy!" haha...
Parker Lee is finally growing into his size... he is still huge, but it finally fits his age when compared to other kids his age. He is talking up a storm and loves to talk on the phone. His new sayings are, "love you", "C-ya later", oh and "tractor"! The kid loves trucks and tractors! He is such a sweetheart! But unfortunately those horrible fits have gotten a lot worse at 18 months!
It's suppose to be a gorgeous weekend here in Katy, so I'll try to get some new pictures of the kiddos then! This picture was them watching Dora the other morning!
I just thought I'd post an update on Dusty & Kenzie... it's been a tough week for them, obviously as it's already been a week since Maddox was here and so quickly left this world to be with Jesus. She posted a 2 minute video on her blog tonight that was shown at his celebration service! So, be prepared as it is so precious and it so beautifully tells their story of that short amount of time they had with Maddox. Please keep them in your prayers as they are still healing and trying to move forward....http://thestanfieldjourney.blogspot.com/
Matthew & Lizi are some friends of ours who live here in Katy. They lead worship for different venues around as well as their church in Houston. Matthew and Brian went to college together at Ouachita. Matthew and Lizi are SO incredibly talented... check out their promo video for their new album!! It's SO good... Lizi's voice is AMAZING!! Click on their names at the top of this blog for their myspace site.
