Just a little shout out...

on my man's sermon last weekend at big church...

http://oursfc.org/Sermon/

Click on "Pastor Will Irwin-Storms", the audio icon, and listen away!

God totally blessed and encouraged me through him and pray it does you too!

Fave Song Repeat for Christmas '08...

I sure listen to this with new eyes and ears now...

I was reminded even more this year of the precious gift Mary must have known she had when receiving her baby Jesus into her arms, the Creator and Lord of birth and life itself. Wow! Am I worshipping this gift of Jesus as she did? Or wanting more stuff under my tree which could never compare and will never last. Hmmm, just a little out-loud thinking to myself. Let's worship this gift and the Giver of it all together this year!
And a thought from a friend on one of Anna's Christmas shots (the one above in the blog header, with the 2 hands and clasped in friendship)...
"what a perfect picture to accompany the Word, who was made flesh, and dwelt among us... in this same, soft, chubby-sweet-baby form... so perfectly beautiful!"
Just a couple thoughts on this season's true celebration!

Been an awful good girl, Santa Baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight...

(click on the pic below to view Anna's Christmas album)

12.11.08 christmas photo shoot

Thanks Auntie Kellie for my special Christmas photo shoot!

I just love getting all dolled-up, Santa-style!

Over the month...

we've done lots of fun things and had lots of fun changes! Click on the album below to view them...

Fair thee well, Bunting Ct...

So, I just realized that there has been some lackage in my postage lately and most of you don't know that yep, we said goodbye to our first built home on little Bunting Ct a couple of weeks ago. It's a total miracle that it even sold in this market and we have already been moving forward on building our next home in Sutherlin, to be closer to our life ministry. So, we know and trust that God is doing this move for us, otherwise I'd be completely and totally freaked out, doing all of this with a 3 month old!

I gave Will my vows (from the book of Ruth) on our wedding day and God has faithfully been reminding me of them as He is leading me through Will, on this next crazy adventure..."Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."

A pretty clear piece of guidance that I've asked for over and over and over and over and over...as we've packed, cleaned, moved and mourned over the house that much blood, sweat and tears were spilt over, the house that God built more honestly putting it.

2 major career changes for both of us
self-building our 1st home
carrying & birthing our first child
selling our 1st home
moving back in with parents during transition with a brand new babe
purchasing property and building our next home
and a partridge in a pear tree
Think that's enough for the 1st 3 years of marriage?! I do! I'm praying it's the last major transition for a LONGGGGG time! As many of you know, should we say, I don't do very well with change (that's lightly putting it!)

Relying daily and desperately on His grace,
KI

Anyone else...

get lost in these eyes?

We do.

Our Baby Bee, take 2!

Audrey's mama, Anna's Auntie Em, did a little photo shoot of our little baby bee...

Our Baby Bee!

Love this little honey bee of ours!

We put on a harvest party each year at SFC and Anna so enjoyed herself, or maybe we enjoyed dressing her up more! ha! She wasn't so into the 100 degree roasting tank of a costume, so it didn't last for long, but was stinkin' cute for as long as it did. Thanks Grammy June for dressing me this Halloween, Anna

Happy Harvest Time to You!!!

Anna & I spent a few moments at the pumpkin patch in Winston yesterday with Auntie Em and Audrey!! What fun we had, they were such good girls with their posing!!!

The Many Faces o' Anna

"the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat." -Exodus 25:20

More than just silly and smiley and sweet,

I pray that the face of my little angel will always be towards God's mercy seat.

More of Anna's 1st photo shoot...

Just a little taste of the Captivating photo shoot our dear Auntie Kellie did for us! Seriously, hire her, ask me for her digits!!!

My photographing phriend...

has so blessed us with an amazingly creative and beautiful family photo shoot time. And then so blessed us with a baby announcement. Here it be...(p.s. HIRE HER! She's starting her Captivating Photography business, ask me for more info on how to contact her!)

My prayer for my girl...

is that she would know my Great I AM God as this (spoken as only Nichole Nordeman could)...

Pencil marks on a wall
I wasn't always this tall,
You scattered some monsters from beneath my bed,
You watched my team win,
You watched my team lose,
You watched when my bicycle went down again,

And When I was weak unable to speak,
still I could call You by name,
and I said “Elbow healer, Superhero,
come if You can,” and You said “I am”

Only 16, life is so mean, what kind of curfew is at ten PM
You saw my mistakes, You watched my heart break
Heard when I swore I’d never love again

When I was weak, unable to speak,
still I could call You by name,
and I said “Heart-ache Healer, Secret-keeper,
be my Best Friend” and You said “I am”

You saw me wear white, by pale candlelight,
I said forever to what lies ahead
two kids and a dream, with kids that can scream
too much it might seem when it’s two AM

when I am weak, unable to speak,
still I will call You by name.
“Oh Shepherd, Savior, Pasture-maker,
hold on to my hand,” and You say “I am.”

The winds of change,
And circumstance blow in and all around
us so we find a foothold that’s familiar,
And bless the moments that we feel You nearer
Life had begun, I was woven and spun,
You let the angels dance around the throne, who can say when,
But they’ll dance again, when I am free and finally headed home

I will be weak, unable to speak,
still I will call You by name
“Creator, Maker, Life-sustainer,
Comforter, Healer, My Redeemer,
Lord and King, Beginning and
the End, I am, yes, I am.”

This is how He has been meeting me day by day, as my all-in-all I AM YOUR EVERYTHING GOD. And I so pray that my Anna girl comes to know Him at an early wee age also.

Anna wanted...

us to make sure that everyone saw her "I'm here" announcement on Mercy's website and that they all got to sign her baby book on it (daddy picked out her outfit and added the bow to her hair)...

http://www.newbabynews.net/hospitals/mmc1/public/mmc1birthannouncement.pl?babyID=h1-7608

We are in love...all over again...

So, until I can get cognitive thoughts out that mean something significant, please just enjoy our little principesa thisaway...

What happens when...

you get put on bed rest (I like to call it nest-rest) to wait for your little chick to hatch b/c of some late-onset prego complications?!

You get really bored and search blogs for entertainment to perk up your day...

Here's me in all my 1954 glory! ha!

P.S. thanks Kia for the inspiration, you've always been able to bring good laughs to my spirit!

Almost here!!!!

Some good stuff on all our feets, especially the babes'...

I mentioned in my last post that at my Baby Blessing this last weekend, I had a girlfriend share a devo on feet, and she ended up posting it on her blog. Check this good stuff out, God gives her good and deep words, that she speaks often to me (Sorry Kell, couldn't pass up the chance to shout out about the next Beth Moore!)...
http://trenkletoes.blogspot.com/2008/08/feet.html

A Day full o' Love, Prayer & Blessings...

Man, I tell ya, I got the best o' friends!

My friend Amy, Mae as I like to call her had a prayer blessing for Anna and I on Saturday and what a precious time it was.

The sang me happy birthday over the yummiest of chocolate birthday cakes...

I got the most relaxing of prego-foot rubs from my pro-foot-massaging friend Mem...

Amy made a rad magnet board for decor in Anna's room...

My sweet Kellie shared a devotion straight from God's heart to mine. She didn't even know what a specific mouthpiece she would be used for that day, things God has been speaking to my heart just this week!
And then they circled around Anna and I and prayed their hearts out for us...The little miss inside usually runs away from hands trying to touch her (wonder if she's gonna be a shy girl like I used to be?) but she just danced around like crazy with the hands laid on her.

I read a quote the other day in a book that spoke about having my child dwell in the same place the Holy Spirit is! What a rad thought, I pray she comes to know Him so early since she's been able to spend so much up close and personal time with Him in there! What a humbling privilege it is to be a walking vessel of such a miracle!

Thanks ladies for the precious gift of your hearts, love and prayers! It was just what the doctor (or midwife) ordered!!!

Turnin' 30, Celebrating the Grand-Rents, and gettin' ready to be a Mama!

The big day came...and went. Don't really feel older, but did realize this only puts me a couple weeks out now, from meeting my wee one. WOW! Just a couple of big milestones in a couple of short weeks! Funny how quickly life can change, isn't it? (and now I am officially 6 weeks older than Will, and in my 30's, while he is still in his 20's...think I've heard about that a few times? ya, just a few) My mom and dad created a tropical oasis on their back deck with tiki torches and all, knowing that my dream was to be celebrating this bday on the Hawaiian islands. I think it was the gardenia in my hair that definitely topped it all off and helped me to enter into the tropical atmosphere with it's intoxicating scent. Mmmm, love that tropical flora!

So, as my parents were thinking they were having a birthday night for me, all along, I was planning a celebrate-the-grandparents night for them! We invited a slew of their friends over to shower them with love, grandparently wisdom and a new digital camera! There's never enough reasons to party down, ya know?!

They were each given crowns to waer wtih Proverbs 17:6 on it, reminding them that their little Anna that is about to arrive, is their CROWNING GLORY!

We are SO grateful for all the love AND baby goods that Grampa and Gramma have showered down on us, so it was time to return a little of the love. We love you guys!

Mothers and Daughters...

Thanks to one of the bloggers I enjoy (http://femina.reformedblogs.com/), I thought I'd post this little word she wrote on Mothers and Daughters... (seemed fitting for this season of my life)
"In all things related to our lives and duties, we are either building up or tearing down. None of us builds perfectly, even on our good days, but we want to be making visible progress, not always cleaning up after our mistakes. So I’m going to start posting a few suggestions on how mothers can build up their daughters. Today, part one.
Our daughters want to know who they are and what they are supposed to be doing as women, even when they are little. God has obviously designed us with a purpose, and He has kindly laid that out for us in His Word. And His Word reinforces what is built into our feminine natures by design. He created us. It makes sense that when we live in harmony with Him, we find joy and peace in who we are in Christ. We don’t have to flounder around guessing.
But the “worldly wise” refuse to acknowledge that our Creator, the One who made heaven and earth, knows what He is doing in creating us. They feel called upon to correct Him and to rectify His “errors” in creation. Plenty of voices compete for the microphone, insistent that we line up and follow them, living our lives their way. It’s truly comical to see bossy feminist women (for one example) shouting at Christian women, telling us what to do. “Don’t obey your husband, you idiot! Obey me!” Some throw complete tantrums over this, just like the two-year old in the candy aisle of the grocery store. Don’t they see how foolish they appear to the watching public? And they wonder why we don’t want to be like them?
So my point here is that mothers need to raise their daughters to unashamedly know who they are. This gives them a tremendous sense of security. What a blessing and a relief it is to know everything is not up for grabs. When my youngest was a little squirt, we had gone to the doctor for an ear infection or something. We saw one of the physicians we didn’t normally see, and we commented about some of the little drawings that were hanging in the room. The girl drawings were of little houses with smoke coming out the chimneys and flowers in the front yard; the boy drawings were of ships and airplanes, mostly with things shooting out from them. We had laughed at how easy it was to tell the difference. But the physician bristled a little and said something about how the poor kids had been “programmed” to do what was expected of them. How funny! Of course they had been programmed. By a wise and good God! After we got in the car, my daughter said, “She needs to have some kids.” This was not only funny, but very insightful!
Psalm 144:12 has a lovely metaphor for this: “…that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” A cornerstone is, among other things, a significant part of the structure. It bears much weight and has stature and standing. It is foundational. And this cornerstone is in a palace; it is fine polished marble. Women have much significance in the family, in the church, and in the culture. They have a profound role to play. So mothers, give your daughters a good job description. God certainly has."

Could I get a little more pink in my world?! I was just wondering.

Here's a few more of the pink beautifying action going on in the nursery.
I told my mom the other day we need to expand our horizons to a few more shades in the rainbow!
I've never been a pinky girl myself, so have therefore have NEVER been surrounded by so much in my life.
The raspberry and lime are definitely balancing it all out for me!
It's amazing how much stuff these wee ones come with, it's a whole package deal isn't it?!

My mama found the clothesline bedding set--LOVE IT! It has all different fibers for the embellishments on the set. And it's all one of our first agreements on decor style, I am for sure becoming my mother, ha!!

Gramma June also found this potting bench at a little boutique and then had the idea of converting it into the changing table and we then customized it a little more with some vinyl letters. Gramma's definitely been the mastermind behind the majority of this nursery. She even created that little circular scrap album for me to fill up (as she knows I'll never start one of my own. I'm all about the pre-made ones.) Thanks mama for all your hard work!!!

Garage sale find for the glider rocker and then my HANDY-man Will made me the ottoman, according to very picky specifications. Oh what patience he has with me! The pad on top was one of my first upholstery creations--thanks to my friend Vi, giving me refresher sewing courses and my new machine from my mom & Will for the big 3-0 bday!!!! What a blast it's been to be creating for my wee one. I'm lovin' these labors-o-love! (And...do you see that adorable pillow on the chair with Anna's name stitched onto it? That would be from my dear Amy, who labored over this pillow for our loved little Anna too.)

And the most labored and loved over project in the nursery, Gramma June's first gramma-sewing project for Anna. This little chenile, very detailed jacket was made for Anna's 1st winter (she even created and sewed the flower on the pocket!) Yes, my mama is amazing and deserves many props!!!

A little love for the Nursery...

It's not completely done yet, when it is I'll post more, but here's just a few for a taste of wee Anna's nursery...

Contented to be...

Parents, Stewards, Lovers, Caretakers, Nurturers, Guides, Holders, Guardians, Father, Mother, Mama, Daddy, Trainers of this Child. Thank you Lord for the privilege, honor and gift you have already bestowed upon us.

For the Sake of Special Requests...

I have been asked enough times for pics of "the belly".
So here she be, in all her glory!

Sister Kate & I!

Mama (Gramma) Kuitert!!

Just love this wee onesie! Will thinks she'll wear the "I Love Daddy" one more often though! We'll just have to see about that.

Only 7 more short weeks to meet this wee one (give or take a few, I've heard! ha!)