My baby

We're staying the night at my mom's house. She's moving in a week:( She so kindly has allowed me to select from her many pictures to make an album for my dear husband, who has been patiently waiting for his Father's Day gift from me... I saw this picture and LOVED it and had to share. My mom took it many months ago. I cannot put into words the love I feel for my children. God has blessed me immeasurably.

Dearest Abby

Guess what! My niece Abby (Grace's daughter) is now joining the ranks of the "wonderful 2s." She's the most darling little girl you'll ever see. She's doing WAY better than her older cousin Mikayla in the potty training dept. And for that I say, way to go, Abby!! Happy birthday, beautiful girl. We love you sooooooo much! If you don't know Abby, well, Abby's just Abby. If you knew her, you'd know what I mean:)

ps. we have a contract on a house very near ours. it's a 3 bedroom/2 bath brick home. we think it's quite nice. Lord willing, it will be ours soon! We'll see what the Lord has in store for us.

Lovely!

The Seguin Dodsons' photo session

What a pair they make!

And the best attitude award goes to....

Hannah! Go, Hannah:) She won a fan that lit up. Pretty cool.

Is it just me or does Sarah look a bit disappointed??

Mikayla on the 4th

She was definitely the dirtiest one there. Oh well. She had lots of fun:)

It's almost here!

What? you might ask. Our first ever 4th of July celebration at our house. We are expecting about 40 people. Crazy!, eh? I agree. You're invited to come, too. Just let me know and we'll pick up a few extra hot dogs. :) We're going to have an art show/contest and the winner receives $5. And a cookie contest and the winner will receive the same amount. I'm really looking forward to this! I'm busy trying to get my house in order, get all the last minute things planned, etc. And my husband if OFF tomorrow. That's sooooo neat! I love when he has a day off. Speaking of my husband, I'd better go bring him some water- he's mowing!

Happy 4th of July! (almost)

Mine and Mikayla's memory verse:
"Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:7
*I THINK that's right...

Isn't She Lovely?

He came, he saw, he conquered, and she's loving it!

Shots- who like 'em?

Not me. Not one bit. But, I guess that's the best (?) route for my children. I know so little about it, so I can't make much of a judgment call on it.

Speaking of my son, he's crying. Probably a bit cranky from his shots today:( He did not like them, and it made me so sad when they held his little leg down, he started giggling. Then he got the shot and it quickly stopped and turned into a huge cry.

Oh, I'd better go rescue that boy.

We got an offer on our home and now we're looking for a place to live. It's CraZy around here. I feel almost homeless. I'm interested to see what the Lord provides for our family.

Hope you all have a good day. I'm thankful for good friends, aren't you? :).

ps. yes, avocado enchiladas do NOT qualify as raw;)

Raw

I know this post seems a little ironic as it follows one about no- bake cookies. Oh well. My brothers Paul and Dan (and about half the time my sister Grace) are huge advocates of raw food.

What veggies do YOU enjoy eating raw??? Please share. I'm trying (sorta) to eat more healthy.

Here are some that we enjoy:

1. carrots
2. red/green/yellow peppers
3. tomatoes
4. avocados!!


ps. and you DON'T need ranch dip. But sometimes it's good, right? :)

No bake cookies

Remember those?? Aren't they so yummy? Well, my dear husband and I made these late tonight for tomorrow's lunch at church. I've been making these for about 20+ years now. gasp! If you've never made them and like the ingredients, give them a try!

No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter

Melt first 4 ingredients together and boil for 1 minuute (while stirring).
Remove from heat and add:

1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
3 cups quick cooking oats

Stir together and quickly drop by spoonfuls on wax papered cookie sheet OR pour it into a 9x13 pan and cool, cut, and ENJOY. Great with milk or water.

I'll leave you this fine Saturday evening with a quote-

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
~Corrie Ten Boom (what a name!)

This is not sour cream...

I think I'm easily amused. My daughter makes me laugh a lot. Since last week we've been without a second vehicle which means I stay at HOME during the day and get much more accomplished. For instance- potty training. (No, Misty, she's not yet potty trained, but we're getting there) I have a little sticker chart system worked out that when she uses the "big girl potty," she can pick her sticker of choice (there are 800+ to choose from that have very encouraging messages on them) on her decorated sticker chart. So far, so good. Boy, am I getting off the subject here. sorry.

So, I had given Mikayla a bath and all the water was pretty much drained out, and as far as I knew, she was playing with her ducks. I was cleaning the bathroom when I heard her say, "this is not sour cream, this is not sour cream." When I looked into the tub, I saw that Mikayla had gotten a bar of soap (you know the kind that get really soggy and weird from being in the water) and was rubbing it all over herself. It was quite amusing to me. I told her not to do that ever again b/c that's what a mom's supposed to say, right? But, it was funny.

I blog about these things not to try to impress people with my comedic daughter, but I want to remember her little, funny sayings. That's all. Someday I want to print out my blog into a book/journal/something like that.

Have a good one!

ps. Little Joseph has been EXTREMELY fussy these past few days. Maybe I need to lay off the pepsi and broccoli. hmmm...

Baby Fever

While looking at all those pictures of adorable newborn babies, I asked my husband, "what if I get baby fever?"

"Then go look in the corner of our living room (where our 4 month old boy sleeps)."

Ha ha!! I loved that, for some odd reason;)

My 219th post!

It's about time to get something new typed in this white box. This is my 219th post, which reminds me of our anniversary 2-19. Cool, eh? Speaking of my husband, he celebrated his 35th birthday this week. He took some time off work to spend with the family. We sure enjoyed getting lots of time with him.

We spent 2 nights/3 days at Lake Brownwood State Park in a cabin. A wonderful time was had by all. Most of the days were spent walking around, throwing rocks in the water, and just being together. Might not sound like tons of fun, but it WAS. Sometimes it's just nice to do very little.

Then last night, I made my hubby a cherry pie- his dessert of choice- and some cupcakes for the kiddos to decorate. We'd planned to let the kids play in the sprinkler and it turned into crazy fun with some of the ADULTS doing the slip in slide (tarp+water+baby oil). Good times!!! :)

This evening Mikayla made her daddy laugh. She was standing in her room (well after her bedtime) and she pointed to the basket we keep her p$$nties in and she said, "Dora chonies." That's what my mom calls them, so Mikayla's picked up on that. Jody loved it;) And I put the $$'s instead of the **'s because they are SO expensive.

I have an almost 4 month old boy, and boy, is he ever special. I feel like he came at the perfect! time for our family (of course he did). He's such a neat addition. We enjoy that boy immensely.

Hope you're all doing well, my faithful readers. Sorry for the lack of posting. I get a bit discouraged when I can't post pictures, but you know, life is more than pictures, right? Sure.

Good night!

God himself

Last night as I was rocking my Joseph to sleep, I was singing to him. For some reason he likes it. Go figure. Anyway, I was singing this song over and over again. You may be familiar with it:

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. ~Revelation 21:3,4

And around the third time singing it, it hit me. "God HIMSELF shall be with them." The great and mighty and holy God HIMSELF. WOW! The One who chose me and loves me and forgave me of all my sins. I guess I think of the word "himself" like this: The President himself is going to be there! But how much more- God himself. I love it!

God is so faithful throughout my (busy!) days to give such precious tokens of his grace and love. I don't always share them, obviously, but I'll try to be more faithful in sharing b/c I think they're wonderful!!!!

ps. It's almost Mother's day! I've nominated my mom for mother of the year, but they (KTAB) haven't called yet to tell me she got it. Yikes, it's probably b/c I'm online. I'd better go. Bye!

Last Pic First, of Course!

One More After This!

Dodson Family Photo!