Merry Christmas!!!

From our crazy home to yours!!!
Praying yours is filled with much peace, love and joy
straight from Jesus' heart to yours.

This is what happens...

when a mama is being trained into learning "forced flexibility"...

when a mama is learning to pick her battles, and this win just didn't really matter in her book...

when a mama is letting go of her controlling nature to have everything on the tree look juuuust right...

when a mama is letting go of her strong, perfectionistic, OCD nature...

when a mama is just sitting back to simply take in each moment of this Christmas season, not just race through it...

This tornado toddler is teaching this mama much.

There still aren't the every-single-moments of our home,

but the plethora of them are growing each day

as God changes this mama from inside out.

And as much as I hate to admit it sometimes...

it feels real good.

Can you believe our Immanuel came in this nature? A babe.

I'm so thankful for the new perspectives I am gleaning of Him as I watch this one grow.

And so thankful He came to dwell among us

so that we could each understand each other in our humanity better.

Praying that His humanity,

the fact that He became flesh and dwelt among us,

draws each us closer to Him to behold His glory

and draw near to His throne of grace this season.

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." -Heb. 4:15-16

and yes, i do believe Anna might just kill me someday, but it was SO worth the point to be made.

I Honor My Wife!

Today is the fourth anniversary of our marriage. In those four years we have not made life easy on ourselves.

We have spent:

-eleven months personally building a house

-ten months living with in-laws

-nine months pregnant (all months carried by Krystal)

-three months building a second home

We have had:

-four different zip codes

-three major job changes

-two cars break down in one day
-one difficult year at UVC

-two amazing years at SFC

-one car accident (not her fault)

-1461 days together

-ten and a half seasons of Survivor (seven on DVD)

...But in those four years we have grown deeper, closer and more in love. I love you Krystal.

Mother: You are the most amazing mother. You work tirelessly to see that our daughter is loved and cared for putting her needs above your own. You are patient and gentle. You see her needs and provide for them all. You discipline with proper restraint and see the need for grace always giving Anna the choice to obey. You are a wonderful example of motherhood.

Wife: You are my dearest friend. You make me better at every turn. There is not a sermon I've shared that has not run through your caring heart to help me weigh its merits and remove the drivel. You help me see where grace is needed and when a kind word is appropriate. I am a better man because you are in my life (Think of all the stupid stuff I use to say). There are a million tiny ways that make our friendship ours...a thousand connections no one else would understand, but you, you see where I am going and know what I am thinking. We are a fact.

November's Enjoyable Irwin Doings...

Enjoying the leaves!!!Enjoying the backyard neighbors!Enjoying self-feeding, evidence displayed....Enjoying baking...Enjoying lots of giggles!Enjoying daily morning reading time with daddy and bear and bottle and book (all words in the vocab now)! Enjoying the bluest eyes!
Enjoying tickling daddy's feet...Enjoying trying to be a big girl in mama's shoes...

Enjoying chase times...

Enjoying grammy and her new leopard snowsuit!Enjoying the power of the spoon...

Enjoying piano time with daddy...

Enjoying song and dance parties every time there's music on!

Enjoying tootsie pops!! Enjoying being cool like dad (stealing his hats mostly)...

Enjoying woof (dog), daddy and pop-pop watching out the window...

Enjoying her favorite big girl friends & learning to jump rope (or just dragging them around the house by the rope b/c she thinks she's the big girl boss)...

Enjoying decorating like mama (wonder what mama spends most of her time doing lately)...

Enjoying pigging out...

Enjoying grammy and celebrating her birthday!

Enjoying big girl boots...

Enjoying pig tails!

Enjoying and celebrating our Veterans...

Enjoying growing fine motor skills and video game time with daddy...

Enjoying Kuitert Family Thanksgiving time a little early and sibling love...

Enjoying Uncle Thys and all the love and ice cream he spoils her with...

Enjoying Aunty Kate and the new puzzle she brought...

Enjoying ANY time with pop-pop (even to the point of inquiring EVERYtime grammy arrives, "pop-pop??")! Enjoying playtime with Uncle Thys...

Enjoying baking with mama for their first Holiday meal!!!Enjoying (or not so much enjoying) her first Holiday meal...threw the plate down after the 2nd bite, wouldn't touch another bit...Enjoying father/daughter time...Enjoying just being us!Enjoying and celebrating and SO thankful for the 2 people that greatly helped make the last year of our little family o' three's last year and life possible. A big hand for Pop-pop and Grammy Kuitert...

And finally...WISHING we could have enjoyed the company of our Irwin family up north and over east, but looking forward to enjoying them at Christmastime!

We have many enjoyable things to be thankful for this month!

Spatchcocking and Praise!

If you notice an abundance of fire trucks heading out to our end of the county tomorrow...

DON'T worry, we'll be fine.
I have probably just attempted spatchcocking "preparing (a dressed chicken/turkey) for grilling by splitting open" my first turkey and have then probably placed too many dishes in the oven at once and have probably not refined my skills yet of timing each dish to be prepared at the correct time, RESULTING in a blaze of flames and smoke exiting our home stage left.

But like I said DON'T worry we'll be fine.
We'll still be nestled up warm around the table of Thanksgiving with something warm and toasty on our forks and in our bellies (even if it does have to come from the mini-mart down the street!) ;)

But hopefully we won't just be opening our lips to fill them up with the harvest time yumminess, hopefully we'll also be taking part in this...

"O Lord, OPEN my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise." -Psalm 51:15

It is our intent, as our lips open up this Thanksgiving day to speak forth all our hearts are grateful for, for all HE has done for us this year. This is the day that HE has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it together!!!

And it should not go without mentioning...Anna's greatest praise this year?! That mama has begun to release control of the spoon into her hands, as evidenced above!

Ji-zus...

That would be "Jesus" to you grown-up speakers in the world.
So I had this long post about all of the words that Anna is saying and all of the signs that she is perfecting, but she just decided to top it all today and pull out the big guns for Mama to be astounded over. Mentioning any of the other words in this post just seemed plain silly and irrelevant to anything of great value after today's events.
I was reading Anna her bible picture book earlier in the day and was saying multiple different names of animals and people throughout the book as I went, asking her to repeat as we went along...moo, roar, dog, baby and such. When all of a sudden we reached Jesus' big debut page and I pointed to Him in the manger and said "that's Jesus, Anna, can you say Jesus?" (while me and my little faith highly doubted I'd hear anything in return but the typical blank stare when I know she's thinking, but not going to produce anything out of her mouth.)
Anna looked right at me...and said "Ji-zus", pronounced with a short "i" sound and more of a "z" sound on the 2nd consonant.
Mama: WHAT?! What did you say honey? Can you say that again so mama can make sure she really heard you? Can you say Jesus?
Anna: "Ji-zus" she says...as she toddles off, back to her bookshelf, to get the next book. Because mama, what's the big deal? Why wouldn't you think I could say that?
I sat kind of astounded for the rest of the day.
Fast forward to tonight...as she was throwing her nightly tantrum through the whole bedtime process, I drew her over to my arms and told her we were going to say our nigh-nigh prayers. We don't usually do it this style, but tonight I got brave, after this afternoon's episode.
Mama: Repeat after me Anna..."Jesus"
Anna: "Ji-zus"
I had to just stop, while my mouth dropped open (because me-of-little-faith figured I had imagined things earlier and she wouldn't really say it again and because my heart and eyes were actually welling up at the simple and pure and profound sound of my 14 month old's voice speaking the name of God with such sweet sincerity) and then I repeated...
Mama: "Jesus"
Anna: "Ji-zus"
...and then I led us the rest of the way, to His throne of grace, to ask for His covering over our home this sacred eve. There wasn't much more this mama could even say. Because once we've proclaimed His name and acknowledged Him in our presence, isn't that just enough sometimes? I had a really hard time focusing on the rest of the bedtime routine and just swept her up into my mushy arms and heart and rocked her off to her sweet lullaby sleep.

Good night sweet girl, who is already taking precious baby steps into her life's walk of faith.

"Have you never read,

'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have perfected praise'? ""

-Matthew 21:16

Can you imagine what it does to God's heart (I can only catch a glimpse of it as my own heart melted today) when we simply just speak His name, in faith, believing He is who He says He is and He'll do what He always said He would do?

There is such power in that name.

Jesus.

"So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith.

Anyone who wants to come to Him

must believe that there is a God

and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him."

-Hebrews 11:6

It started out as...

a lovely, peaceful and educational trip through daddy's new and thriving freshly-planted grass out back...
Anna was definitely WOW'd by all of daddy's hard work, and that's all daddy needs is a little WOW'ing over his work!!! She's got him wrapped up tightly around her little pinky, can ya tell?
And then, it got a little crazy all of a sudden for a mama and her girl (here's proof that she started it)...

Man I tell ya, this girl is MORE fun than a barrel o' monkeys!! And who really even knows how fun a barrel o' monkeys can be anyways??? They've never had a little girl this crazy, I bet!

Truly, "a merry heart does good, like medicine," cuz we're all finally on the mend!!!