Happy 4th Of July

We had a good 4th of July spending time with church family and...you guessed it..packing! Just thought we'd take a quick packing break to post our pictures!

Teen Campout

Jonas went on his first Teen Campout last weekend. Esther camped for the first time at 9 months at the encouragement of the Hines'. (That time I only got Stephen to come along because of a golf course at the site.) This trip was just one night and was located at the property of one of our church members. It is a beautiful 50 acre site and is 30 minutes from our church equipped with a shower, restroom, and mini-kitchen. Not roughing it too bad! The wonderful part about it is that it is 5 miles behind the local Wal-mart so whatever we forgot, we could run to the store and get. The teens enjoyed paintball, beading for the girls, campfire, Chronicles of Narnia on the big screen, and fishing. Here's some pictures from our fun weekend!

St Vincent Missions Trip

In past posts, I have alluded to the fact that our family has the opportunity to take our teens on a missions trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Well time has been flying by, and now we are less than two weeks away from our departure date. Lots of prayers and planning have gone into this trip. We are confident that God has led us also to bring Jonas and Esther, but with that will bring some additional planning. Would you pray with us these final weeks of preparation that we will rely on God's grace and strength? Much wisdom is needed in knowing what to take and leave behind. We will be sleeping at the church and preparing our own food for the most part, so for any that were wondering we will be roughing it in the Caribbean...not in a posh hotel on the beach front! We have a wonderful team God has graciously brought together that has been working hard on their part of the trip. We have 19 teens, 6 leaders, and Jonas and Esther. Many of the teens have never flown or been out of the country. The trip is from July 10-22. So it also will be a good length of time away from their families. Stay up to date on our daily activities while we're there at this site. I will include some additional information Stephen has listed on our facebook page.

From July 11-22, the Timberlake Youth Mission Team will be serving the Lord in the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our trip will include a Children’s VBS, street witnessing to the community, and ministering in the local church with Pastor James Jackson. We are going on this trip in order to bring God glory by fulfilling the Great Commission and aiding Pastor Jackson in fulfilling the leadership God has given to him for his ministry. Our aim is to be a blessing to the ministry in their endeavor to spread the good news of Christ and encourage the local body in St. Vincent. Praise the Lord for this incredible opportunity!

PRAYER REQUESTS FOR THE TEAM

1. For our consistent time in Scripture and prayer to continue to impact their lives as they prepare for this trip.
2. For all of us who will be teaching, leading activities, playing music, and serving in VBS to be properly prepared for their tasks.
3. For a boldness to share the gospel and a heart to be others-minded.
4. For a life that is willing to “deny self” and live as Jesus did.
5. For necessary funds to come in and for their faith to be stretched and strengthened in the process.
6. That we would be a genuine blessing and encouragement to our co-laborers at Community Baptist Church in St. Vincent.

Atlanta!

NJ Trip

Busy Summer days

You know it's time to organize your pictures when you have Baby Jonas #457! I feel like I have blinked and there went May, and now we're halfway through June. You won't see us a sitting on our front porch sipping lemonade this summer...wait a minute we don't have a front porch.

These past weeks we were blessed to take quick trips to see Stephen's family in Atlanta and the kids and I went and saw my family in NJ last week. It was an adventure travelling with the kids by myself, but that would be a VVVVery long post if I told the whole adventure. I got home and came down with the flu/stomach virus Saturday and Sunday and am just starting to feel back to normal. Happy Father's Day Stephen! He got to spend the weekend helping me with the kids, and getting me jell-o, chicken soup, and sprite. I was reading all these wonderful blog posts about Father's Day and felt awful that he couldn't spend the day enjoying himself! So we are having a 'postponed' Father's Day on Thursday. I'm making his favorite meal, spare ribs.

We have several busy weeks ahead of us and especially gearing up for our St Vincent Missions Trip. I'll post more on that later. With a newborn, and lots of plans to be made, I have to keep reminding myself, "When my heart is overhwelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

Date Night!

Yes- we manage to have a night without the kiddos even if it's for a school function!

My God is So Big!

Mom made it in the picture...

Can you feel the love? He looks so much like Esther's baby pictures in this one! (see below)

Week in Pictures

In the old days, I would've posted each set of pictures with posts about each one, but no time for that these days! We enjoyed a visit from Clive, Annalisa, and David Wilson last Saturday. They drove 8 hours to spend 5 hours with us. We felt honored they would make such a sacrifice for us to meet Jonas. We know how those car trips can be with kiddos. Clive and Esther had fun together. He has got to be the cutest blondie ever!

Our pastor graduated with his D. Min from Masters Seminary on Sunday. Congratulations Dr. Bryan Ferrell! He has four children. The whole family went except for the youngest to see the graduation in California. Jared is three and came over for some playtime with Esther to help the time pass without his brothers and sisters. They had fun playing together at the park. So there's a picture of them together on the swings.

Here's some more pics of Jonas and the Esther for the fam (as requested). Jonas has started smiling more frequently and is still a happy baby. God provided a swing (ours didn't make it from Esther-another long story) for $10 at a yard sale and in great shape. So, Jonas loooves his swing and takes naps in it sometimes. He has to sit upright after feedings so it works perfect. Esther hated the swing and never could be in it for longer than 10 minutes. We've already got our moneys worth out of it.

The Monkey Made Me Do It

Well I thought we were far away from the stage of 'imaginary friends', but today Esther's showed up in the form of 'monkey'. The past week she has been full of funny expressions that were mixed with disobedience, so I have had to just turn my head and smile and try to not let on how hysterical she can be at times. And for those of you who know me, know how HARD that is for me. :) It's hard to hold back laughter, especially when you're so sleep deprived and stressed at times you would love to just have a good laugh! So back to my story. Today, after she woke up from her nap, we were getting ready for church, getting supper together, etc. She kept telling me that we needed to hide, because monkey was going to get us, and that monkey was disobeying by not taking his nap, staying in bed, getting in cabinets, and all sorts of things that coincidentally another someone in our house has a hard time doing. Oh, and monkey needed a sticky Dora too (band-aid for those of you who haven't heard this Esther'ism'). This I was playing along and saying the things to 'monkey' that I would say to Esther. Keep in mind, she has no monkey stuffed animals or anything of the sort. We were just talking to the air. So we go to the kitchen to finish supper prep and she gets in the cabinet to help herself to a pre-supper snack, which she's not supposed to do. I corrected her and she proceeds to tell me that 'monkey' got in the cabinet. Okay now the monkey business needs to stop! Stephen had to break it to her it wasn't monkey getting in the cabinet, but Esther. Then on the way to the store later on, (I discovered we were out of pasta in the midst of supper prep- great planning Shannon!) she told me "Monkey was getting into the yogurt, Cheerios, bananas, her hat, her juice..." We have one bad monkey in the house, I'm telling you! I hope he goes back to the jungle soon!

Mother's Day thoughts...

Just wanted to take a minute to express the gratitude that's in our hearts for our moms today on Mother's Day! We got to tell them both on the phone today and sent them cards that hopefully they'll get tomorrow (I'm still trying to get my act together and am using the newborn excuse. :) We are so thankful for their life and for their Godly example and consistent love. Since becoming a mom, I realize more and more how much sacrifice they really made for us. I appreciate that and realize not everyone has that.

Stephen spoiled me by giving me the day off cooking and helped take care of the kids (well he already does that, but he gave me extra help today). He also took Esther to a "No Mom's Allowed Craft Party" our church had yesterday which accomplished several things: mom got time alone, she got a craft, and daddy got to spend time with the kids. What a great idea! Thanks Pastor Tim! Esther made a craft at Bible Study Tuesday also. She gave me both of her gifts and then wanted them back. :) Stephen gave me a gift certificate for a manicure/pedicure and haircut at a really nice place. I feel so spoiled and am thankful to be a mom and don't feel like I deserve any of that! . This adjustment to two has been more than I realized and especially this week as Esther has been acting out for attention. The expectations of being involved as a youth pastor's wife have been a little more than I had when I was adjusting to Esther, so maybe that's been a factor too of feeling stressed, but I know God hasn't given me more than I can handle. Nothing more than motherhood has made me more aware of my need of God's grace, humbled me, and shown me my desperation for Him. I praise God for it even on the tough days. I realize the time is going to go by all too quickly and want to be faithful to invest in my children the Word and be loving and patience in my care for them. I pray I will be faithful! I am so blessed to have Stephen, Esther, and Jonas. Love you guys!

p.s. Sorry no pics. My first Mother's Day I sewed an outfit for Esther so we could have coordinating dresses. Yesterday we were all lucky to be at church in one piece with no stains. We'll have to do another family pic soon though!

Birth Announcement...finally

This is how it turned out. Now just to get them mailed out. I'm almost caught up with thank-you notes...in between feedings, diaper changing, and making sure big sister is being a 'sweet' helper. :)

Follow-up

Thanks for all the recommendations for the carrier. I found a lady locally who makes slings for $20 and does it a lot more reasonably than the $40 ones at Target. She also does one free alteration in case I need it smaller once I've completely lost all my baby weight (8 more lbs to go!). The doctor described him as 'pudgy' as he is in the 25% for height and 75% for weight. With Esther the percents were reversed. She was tall and skinny. It's still really early to make any assumptions that way, but we're just happy he's gaining!

We went to the doctor on Thursday and found Jonas is 11lb 2 oz. which is 3 more pounds than he was at birth. We were thrilled about that with all his spitting and vomiting, that was a shock. And, I discussed with the doctor about the milk allergy, and he doesn't seem to think he has one. He doesn't have all the classic signs. Plus, I was avoiding milk, and we were still having the projectile, either way. So things are going better. We are using a supplement that we used with Esther and that really seems to be helping also. Thanks for all those recipes though. I am looking forward to trying them anyway!

Here's some recent pictures of Jonas...as you can see big sister kept trying to sneak in, so we're going to have to do a separate photo shoot with her soon. She had her little ballerina outfit on, ifi you're wondering what in the world she's wearing.