Happy New Year from the cutest baby ever!

I have a ton of NYE pics to post, but I just had to share this one. It's my favorite!
Happy 2009! Love, Carson

The Paul's come to visit

I am so behind on my blog-- forgive me (all 3 of you that read this).
Laura (Lovgren) Paul was a college roommate at Baylor and we cheered together. We also made many years of hilarious memories together; were bridesmaids in each wedding, we've traveled together, and the three days before Christmas, we shared time together with our kids. Laura brought the entire brood: Scott (husband), Kathryn (3 years old) and their son Alex (1 year old). It was funny having a boy and girl Alex...it caused all kinds of confusion.
We had a great visit together! It was total chaos most of the time though. When the number of kids equal or surpass the amount of adults, it's a lost cause, especially given that all of the kids were age 3 or younger. We had so much fun watching the girls together. My Alex was the bad influence (as usual- hehe) and would whisper "hey friend, let's go jump on my bed." She called Kathryn her "friend" until the last day. They played so well together and really did act like they were best friends. Alex (Laura's son) just turned one and was a great reminder of the work I have ahead of me still with Carson. He was all over the place. So curious and sweet and talked like crazy. Carson pretty much just sat quietly and watched. But when we had time to pay attention to Carson, he was so verbal and happy. Rachel and Elijah came up to visit on Saturday, which was wonderful. So that made 5 babies, 3 adults. HA! We did a gift exchange and just caught up on life together.
I'm still not sure that we ever completed a conversation; but nonetheless, we enjoyed our time together.
Here is an amazing sketch Laura composed of Alex as our Christmas gift. She is so incredibly talented:

I was blown away by her drawing. Thank you again Laura-- we will treasure this always. I only have one picture to show from the entire stay (that shows you how busy we were with kids). Here is a picture of my car loaded up, taking the Paul's to the airport. We had 4 kids and 3 adults! It was a LOUD car ride :)

The whole ride home all I heard was (in hysterical Alex voice)"I need my special plane friend to come back to me! Come back, come back!"

and now deep toughts....by Melissa Darby :)

I am having a rough week so I'd like to take a moment and vent:
I believe that God's desire and what the Bible teaches, is that joy is a real emotion. God com­mands us to feel happy, feel joy, feel good…I think one of the keys to expe­ri­enc­ing this [Joy as a real emo­tion] is staying focused on God as our source of joy. Our cir­cum­stances change from day to day. Life some­times (or almost always) is dif­fi­cult; events can even be tragic, but when we focus on God him­self and His love for us, it brings real joy...regardless of cir­cum­stances. We (aka "I") can become so wor­ried about the events of today and tomor­row and focus so closely on circum­stances that we miss the smile on God’s face and forget His remark­able salvation and provision.
Con­tent­ment flows from our atti­tude! This is a main key to living simply…it starts with the heart atti­tude. Rejoic­ing in the Lord will bring true and last­ing contentment!
Easier said than done...but I'm trying.