My sweet boy. I pray you become a man of God.

Days go by but then I am quickly reminded that he will continue to grow. That he won't always be 3. I am loving this stage. I am loving him. He surprises me every day with new ideas, new words that I have never heard of, new ways of reasoning, new expressions. Ways in which he needs to protect his sister. He was being disciplined for hitting his sister and I told him that his hands were made for protecting his sister. Well, he said. I need a gun if I am going to be able to protect her. That's pretty easy to figure out. Then tonight we had a guest over and he had poked him in the eye, everything is in tact no worries. He was disciplined for it. Tim told him that we are not to poke peoples eyes. He said, I obeyed, I didn't poke him in the eyes. I poked him in the eye. Really? Wow. I am so glad that it was Tim and not me. I sometimes have a hard time holding my composure. Tim is much better at it then I am. Other than his reasoning skills he has mad skills in tying his rope to everything. He ties everything. Or he hooks it to his rescue helicopter. And rescues it. There really is never a dull moment in our house. I love it. And he will continue to grow and change. Eventually he will not be 3 anymore. He'll be using ropes for different things. I don't have the capacity to exactly know what the future holds for him. What I know is this, that what I do now and how we go about that will definitely have an impact on the man he is to become.

Lord equip my hands. Help me. This is about glorifying you. It's not about me being great and a glorified momma. It's about you.

I am your vessel.

Dddadadadaaaaaaaaaa.

9 months goes by stinking quick. Gratia is now nine months old. She is a doll. She is growing by leaps and bounds. Trying to keep up with her brother and sister as always. She does this rather excited kick when she sees them. She gets so excited. She loves it when Elijah comes into her room in the mornings to greet her. I hear can her loud and clear and she is so thrilled. He sits so patiently waiting until his sisters wake up. Oh I hear Gratia mom, can I go get her? He loves being a big brother to them. But the latest for Gratia is talking. She has been saying mumm mum mumma and nighnighhnigh they may mean what they sound like, but the newest today was daddadadaa. She finally started repeating it over and over again right before bed, to her dad of course. Precious. Just precious. Her eyes radiate as though sometimes they are all you see when looking at her. She has the sweetest facial expressions. My favorite is when Tim goes in for a kiss and she sticks out her tongue over her upper lip. She often just puts her hand up in the air like she is praising Jesus or maybe just saying hi. She is really good at crinkling her nose up too. She is just a ball.

Other than the latest facial expressions and words, she goes and is everywhere. Crawling definitely for the past couple months now but pulling herself up on everything and walking around. Stairs are a breeze, going up that is. We are still working on going down the correct way, but I have this great gate. His name is Elijah. He loves being a gate for his sis. Ok mom. I've got her. As I turn around I see him grabbing her by the ankles pulling her away. She is in stitches. Or he'll pick her up and carry her to his room. Either way it's adorable. And then I realize that God not only blesses us as parents with wonderful children but he blesses them with each other. I think the best gift I could give my kids would be more siblings. I am not opposed to it at all. It melts my heart to see them love each other. Thank you Jesus for our babes.

i love this girl, my baby girl.

Fiamma. Shiamma. Baby girl. Precious. Silly goose.

I love you.

You call your sister Grati and your brother Eliji.

You never leave the house with out a coat on.

You love riding on your daddy's shoulders.

Your favorite song is "nothing but the blood of Jesus".

You love wearing jeans, preferably to bed.

You always say sorry, even when Elijah is trying to apologize to you and he can't get a word in because you keep saying "sorry elijah...sorry elijah"

You are so loved.

Fiamma's birthday bash.

Yes, she is 2. Although, she has been 2 for almost a month now. Her actual birthday is August 17th. But August shortly became a very busy month so we postponed an actual BASH til now. So yes, it happened. She is now 2 with a party. A great party. A great dancin' party. It was great fun. Lots o kids, I believe 12ish...we had a bloody nose, some curious george, a little ABBA, superb cakes and cookies, and an excellent disco ball to bring it all together. The lights that we strung are still up. Most of everything is back in its original place. Thank you all who could come and make it such a special time for Fiamma as well as the rest of us Zion's.

Gratia has taken the plunge.

This is her first real meal. Or probably the first one that she REAlly enjoyed. It consisted of an avacado, sweet potato, bannana, and apple sauce. MMMmmmmm good. We kinda skipped pureed foods and went straight to "let me feed myself" mode. It's lovely. She loves it.

Budding artists

I wanted to brag a little. Elijah and Fiamma painted these 3 canvases for our bedroom. They are lovely. Most of what you see are railroad tracks. A lake, some rivers....I see a man. Whatever you may see here, it was done with their hands and I am so proud.

"nothing but the blood of Jesus..."

my children, yes Gratia included, love this song. They love to sing this song. Over and over again. I love this song. If they need to sing, this is usually the song they prefer. When riding their bikes and humming a tune you can bet "oh precious is the flow" will be heard loudly through out our neighborhood. When riding in the car, "oh daddy, please play 'noting but de blood of Jesus' ". It is such a huge testimony to how faithful God is.

Thank you Lord.