Our New Pastor

Our church has been without a pastor since May of this year.  Finally after 6 months of anxiously waiting and praying, God has sent us a man and his family to lead our church.  The funny thing is he was a youth minister here 16 years ago, and now has come back to serve once again.  Bro. Will Sherman and his family are here and are doing an excellent job.  He loves the church, the community, and has just fit right in.

To welcome him the church had a "Get to Know the Pastor" get together the Saturday night before he came in view of a call.  It was a nice fellowship and a wonderful time of just being together as a church family.

Little man hanging on Mama

Food table!

Sorry about the poor quality of pictures, I have misplaced the card to my SLR and so my small point and shoot was all I had at the time. . . Let's just say there is a reason I don't use it that often.

Mr. Man has been growing steadily and is now 14 months old!  I cannot believe that.  If I think about it too long it makes me sad.  He is getting smarter and more aware of his surroundings every single day.  We are still hanging on to two naps a day at times, but just by the skin of our teeth.  We have also learned how to throw fits, like screaming bloody murder fits, so if anyone knows how to combat those please leave me some love lol.  

I am enjoying being a stay at home mommy all the more now.  It really has been such a sweet time for myself as a woman, wife, mom, and daughter of the King.  I have learned so much and grown even more in my walk with the Lord, something I attribute to the time I do have to pursue the things I love.  

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I'm Going to Miss This

So it has been a pretty big gap in between posts lately.  I guess I just haven't been feeling the bloggin' vibe.  That and for the most part it seems as if our days kind of are all the same, so why would that be any fun for anyone to read.  However, I ALWAYS enjoy going back and reading old posts and seeing how God has worked everything out for good.  This made me realize that even if I don't feel like blogging or my life seems monotonous I am one day going to look back and miss this.  I want to remember this special time in our lives when Reid is so little and the only one, when we are trusting God with everything we have, when I am enjoying the youth kids, I am going to look back and say "These were some of the best years and I didn't even know it."

I haven't really been up to a lot besides just chasing around a toddler who is getting faster by the day!  It really is true, how once the babes learn how to walk, they just take off!  It is seriously like someone flips a switch and they decide "Hey this is a better way to get around!"  We have also been reading A LOT of books!  He actually has a clear favorite, I believe it is called "Where's Spot"  (I should know, I read it about 50 times a day!) and it is a classic "lift the flap" book!  He loves it and will thrust it in mine or Mark's face time and time again to read it to him.  He is also having tons of fun with all of his toys from his birthday, especially the ball pit ;).

Here are a few of the things I don't want to forget about Reid at 13 months

• His infectious giggle!  I have never been around a happier baby, one who laughs so easily.  
• All the words he can say!  Mama, Dada, Bite-bite, MMMmm, Ball, Yea, Please (sign language), Night night, car noises.  His vocabulary is slowly but surely getting bigger.
• The way he holds his hands out right above his waste to balance himself as he toddles back and forth from one room to the next
• How he licks (yes licks, don't ask why, I am not sure) every ball he plays with
• He loves to go on a walk with Mom or a run with Dad, we enjoy talking to him on these special outings,
• He is now forward facing and has 6 teeth, the front four and bottom two!  So cute!  I think he is cutting more as I type, he has been slightly cranky.  
• His precious squeal when you chase him.  It is his favorite game at the moment and he will play with ANYONE who is willing.
• He loves climbing up stairs!
• He eats a banana and eggs for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, and then whatever we are all having for dinner.  The boy loves goldfish crackers, mini club crackers, and anything sweet for a snack.
• I think we are now totally on whole milk, no more putting formula in there with it!  
• I love how he makes noises with his finger and his lip when we are changing him, daddy taught him that!  
• We are practicing blanket time and are up to three minutes! Woohoo.

These are just a few of the many things I do not want to ever forget about this precious guy.  He is so sweet, and SO MUCH FUN.  I know he was meant to be ours, and am so thankful for him every day!  I pray for him and for us that he will grow up to be a Godly man who loves and follows the Lord.  

Lastly I leave you with a few pictures my aunt took of my giant family!  She is great!  If you need a photographer in the East Texas area she is the one to get.  She recently opened her own studio as well! Check her out at www.loriiveyphotography.blogspot.com

No Cut Chicken Spaghetti! Yummy!

Hello friends!  Today I thought I would share with you one of my family's favorite meals.  If any of you know my mother, you know she doesn't like to cook.  Consequently I never quite learned how to "love" being in the kitchen.  Since I have started staying at home this is beginning to change.  I digress.  Anyway, one meal my mother can make and makes WELL is chicken spaghetti!  Her recipe is extra cheesy and delicious, and the best part of it all is that you don't have to cut up anything!  Here is what you will need. . . (Caution, this is probably not on the healthiest side of things lol)

2-3 lbs chicken

8 oz velveeta cheese

8 oz cream cheese

1 can cream of mushroom 

1 can cream of celery 

1 can cream of chicken

16 oz of spaghetti noodles

To begin you need a large pot filled with water so that it will cover all the chicken.  Start heating your water to boiling so you can stick your chicken in there to boil it. 

If you don't have one of these you need one!  It is a stone that doesn't let your water  boil over!  I found one at Bed Bath and Beyond!  Best $4 ever!

Once you have your water at a boil stick you chicken in the pot and let it begin to cook.  Stir occassionally.

While your chicken is buys boiling start cutting the velveeta into little squares  so it melts easier.  

A block of velveeta is usually 16 oz, just cut it in half and use the rest at a later date.

After you have done this, take out the chicken, but DON'T DRAIN THE POT!!  You are going to use the water you boiled the chicken in to boil the noodles (for flavor).  Start those on low heat.  

Take your chicken and begin tearing it off into bite size pieces.  Beware it is VERY HOT.  Have either some kitchen gloves or give it a few minutes to cool.  Set chicken aside and continue on.  

Begin heating all your soups, rotel, and cheeses.  Put the soups in first so your cheese doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.  

Add all 3 soups

Your cream cheese

And velveeta.  You need to watch this and stir a lot so it doesn't burn.

Keep this on a low heat and stir occasionally until everything is melted into a thick creamy mixture.

Once you have done this, take the big pot that you have your noodles in and drain those out and leave the noodles in the collandar.  

Then put your melted cheese and chicken into the big pot (so everything will fit).  

 And then mix it all together.  First the chicken and cheeses, then add the noodles.

This makes a TON of food!  It is great and super easy if you are having to feed a large crowd.  It makes a 9X13 and another slightly smaller container.  It also freezes EXTREMELY WELL.  

So hopefully this hasn't been too confusing for yall.  Here is a picture of the picture of the recipe card if you would prefer to follow that.  

Reid's 1st Birthday Party: Having a Ball!

As you know, my little guy turned one last week!  The day after his actual birthday I wanted to schedule a party to celebrate with family and friends who have helped me and a my little family make it through.  The toy of choice around our home is and has been for a while balls.  Balls of any size, color, texture, you name it, our guy likes it!  So after searching on Pinterest for a while I found a party that I could kind of build off of.  You can find the link to that awesome looking party here.  *I made similar invitations to this gals party, and sent them out through e-mail*

I am glad I did this particular theme because it was SO EASY.  Balls are basically 3 dimensional circles, so we (we mostly being my mother and me, along with the occasional input from my aunt and grandmother) just cut out a bunch of circles and decorated from there.  We made a "Happy Birthday Reid" banner, a "1st Birthday" high chair banner, and a monthly banner (from pictures I had taken each month with Reid up against a certain stuffed animal).  I really think it turned out pretty good.  Sadly I don't think we got just plain pictures of all the decorations but here are a few to give you an idea. . . 

This is the high chair banner

Behind my in-laws you can see the "Happy Birthday Reid" banner.  The mantel

was decorated with his name, pictures, and balloons.

I have NO PICTURE of the monthly banner, but I am hanging it up in his room so I will take a picture of it there once it is up.  

Instead of having the traditional cake and to keep with our round theme, I decided to do cupcakes.  This was such a fun, incredibly easy, hassle free idea, that was also very cheap.  I went to Sam's and bought 2 packages of 30 cupcakes (good sized ones) for $13 a piece.  You cannot beat 60 cupcakes for under $30!  My cousin had just gotten married 2 weekends before and had cupcakes at her wedding.  My grandfather built a cupcake stand to house them all.  We borrowed the stand and my mom taped paper along the outsides of the three layers we used.  It worked out perfectly!

Didn't Mom do a great job decorating?

Big shout out to my MIL for the napkins that fit just perfectly!

I wanted Reid to have his own little cake so we went to Walmart and got one of those mini cakes and they decorated it for us on the spot!  It was great and also cheap!   We had chips and dips, icecream, drinks, I mean it was just wonderful.  I remember saying to my mom later how much it really did get pulled off, that it was actually perfect.  Here are few more pics from a very fun day.

Mr. Big 1 Year Old! 

Some of the guests

Yea for being 1!

My great great grandmother!  She is such a blessing!

This would be a ball pit my cousin got him.  It came with only 20 balls .

So she got him 250 more. . .

Can't wait until she has a kid.  It is payback ;)

Opening gifts with mommy and daddy!

Singing happy birthday!

Can you tell he is just a little loved?  And this is only 1 half of the room!

All in all, a great day!

Thank you to all who came, brought food, presents, and have been there with us through this past year. We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Lovely

I saw this on Pinterest and just thought I would share. . .