Spending the Night at Grammy's House

Last weekend while I was at retreat Johnny spent Friday night at Grammy and Grandpa's house.

Yummy! Pancakes and strawberries and whipped cream. Mommy never makes this at home. :)

Grammy let's me brush my own teeth.

Painting

Playing Dressup

My boys love to play dress up:

Mommy's socks make great gloves!

Jacob fits into Johnny's old monkey costume.


This old teething ring makes a perfect mask.


I'm wearing Mommy's shirt.


Yeah, well I've got on Mommy's shirt and shorts.

Retreat 2008 - Abiding in the Vine

Wow. I don't think that I've totally "absorbed" this weekend yet, but I wanted to blog while everything is still fresh in my mind. :)

To be perfectly honest, here is what I was looking forward to at retreat:

-Not running around after toddlers where every other word out of my mouth is "no"
-Someone would cook for me instead of me grabbing a few bites while I made sure that everyone else was fed
-Only myself to get dressed and ready in the morning
-Not having to share my bed with John and Johnny and sometimes Jacob (and we have a queen-size bed)

I guess I was just really looking forward to a "me" weekend with lots of rest. Did I want to learn from the teachings, worship God, pray, and fellowship? Of course, but those things were like icing on the cake.

Isn't it neat/funny how God will take our expectations and deliver the exact opposite, but we still, come away feeling great? I do not feel any more "physically" rested than when I left on Friday, but I definitely feel more "spiritually" rested. Last year at retreat I received the word "Faith". I did the exercise and sharing up at retreat, but I never spent any time dwelling on my word throughout the year. This year I received the word "Bear Fruit" at retreat. Because of the teaching topic, there was no way I could leave retreat without knowing what God wanted me to do with my word. If it weren't for the teaching, I probably would have come to the conclusion that God wanted me to "do" more. As it is I am stepping back from ministry due to my pregnancy so I would have felt inadequate and want to push myself. I feel that instead of doing God wants me to just spend time with him. Of course my life is super busy right now, with 2 toddlers and another baby on the way in March, but I do have free time on my hands. Right now, I waste this free time by playing games on the computer, reading fluff, and watching TV. I could easily spend this time in prayer and study and worship, which is what I want to do, not what I feel I have to do. I feel excited and refreshed in my walk with God.

Another thing that I loved about this weekend was worship. I love our worship team at church. It is so neat to have a group of talented people lead worship in a way that does not focus on themselves. At church, or luncheons, or retreat I never feel as if I am watching a show. I can just lose myself in the music and sing along to our God. I love it!

And of course the fellowship. I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with my carpool buddy/roomate. :) I feel like I can talk to her about anything, she is a true friend. I also, got to meet several wonderful new women this year and talk with others I already knew, but never seem to have the time to talk to.

It was an absolutely awesome weekend and I cannot wait until next year!

It's A Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pink and purple and ponytails and dance lessons and gymnastics and frilly dresses and painting nails and curling hair and shopping for a prom dress and oh I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have decided on the name Myanna Glynn. Are you ready for the explanation? Johnny is named after his daddy (John Taylor) and Jacob's middle name is Thomas so they both have their daddy's initials. I decided that if we have a girl she should have my initials (my middle name is Gail). Then John's mom, my mom, and John's sister all have the middle name Ann(e) and my sister and my bridesmaid's middle names are Lynn so I wanted to incorporate Ann(e) and Lynn into the name somehow. So that's how we came up with Myanna Glynn.

Now here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

Little Feet

Head Shots


3D Pictures

Bountiful Baskets

A couple weeks ago I tried Bountiful Baskets. It's a co-op where you pay $16.50 ($18.50 for first-timers) for a basket of fruit and veggies that you go and pick-up at Surprise Park (they also have other pick-up locations throughout the valley). They also go in together to purchase other items like organic fruit and veggie baskets, bread, cheese, cooking packs, beef, and more. I'm not sure how much money I saved (I'm not good and tracking what I spend on groceries), but here is what came in my basket:

1 bunch of asparagus
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bunch of spinach
1 container of strawberries
2 red peppers
1 cauliflower
10 tomatoes
7 bananas
6 peaches
5 pluots
7 pears
9 apples

All of the produce was fresh and we ate all of it except for the apples within a week. My boys and I are not picky about fruits and veggies. I didn't think we'd like the cauliflower, but I steamed it for dinner one night and we all ate it and had leftovers for lunch the next day. I haven't decided if we'll buy this again. They deliver every two weeks and the next pick-up day is the Saturday of retreat. It's just that we tend to eat more fruit than veggies and it only lasted us one week. I could buy 2 baskets, but I think it would spoil by the second week.

Sleepy Time

This is where Johnny decided to fall asleep on Saturday night: