We are gearing up for another softball season. Last Saturday we went to the pancake breakfast to find out which team Kayley will be playing on. Sadly all of her friends are on different teams. She will be playing for LSU this year. She didn't know any of the other girls on her team but we are praying for some good friendships to form.

Saturday afternoon we headed out to the field with our neighbors to get some practice. It was so much fun. I discovered that Kyle is actually really good at throwing and catching, he might sign up for baseball. Josh really thinks he is a big boy, he was all about participating in our game of catch. He's pretty good at throwing and catching too ;-) He ran all over that field with Kyle and Morgan.

Kayley and Dominique got whipped into shape with John and Ruby. They were hitting some tough pot flies and grounders. I'm so excited to watch this season. Even thinking about helping out on the team...we'll see.

I didn't get any pics of the kids playing ball but here are a few others...

Thursday night turned out to be a tough night of sleep with Josh. I decided it was time to say goodbye to the bottle forever. I've known for awhile now that it was holding me back from a full night of sleep but I have wrestled with it in my heart because I know how much Josh loves his bottle. He depends on it to put him back to sleep.
Sooo...Friday night, with a heavy heart and much prayer, I said good night to my little boy, laid him down and walked out. I heard him start crying so I went into my bedroom, closed the door and started washing my face so that I couldn't hear the cries. They made me so sad. I asked God to help me know this was the right thing and to make Josh sleep. By the time I walked back out of my room, which wasn't more than 10 minutes later, he was asleep! I couldn't believe it. I thought it would be a good hour. Then, he only woke up one time during the night and I went in, rubbed his head for a few minutes and he was back to sleep for the rest of the night. Thank you God!!
Saturday afternoon I layed Josh down for his nap and he didn't even cry, he fell right asleep and slept almost 3 hours.
Saturday night Josh cried for about 10 minutes and fell asleep. However, he woke up around 2:30 and was up till about 4:30. Then slept till 8am.
Todays nap he cried for about 20 minutes and has been sleeping for 3 hours. He is still sleeping as I write this. Hoping and praying for a good night tonight. I know it can only get better.

Woke up to a beautiful snow covered morning today. School was cancelled for our 1" of snow ;-) And my hubby is working from home today. What a great day!!

The kids were all excited so they dressed up warm with their jackets, gloves and beanies and headed out for some snow ball fights and fun in the snow. Of course they came back in like 10 minutes later freezing to death. Here in warm, southern california, we aren't so equipped for long periods of time in the snow...but it sure is fun to look at it through the windows ;-)

This is one of my favorite songs, any time I listen to it, I get chills and tears well up in my eyes. It's called "The Word is Alive" by Casting Crowns and the truth of it comes on so many levels just like God's Word, which I totally believe is alive!! I'm praying for a passion for His Word. I'm constantly amazed at all that is contained in its contents. God is so much more than I could ever imagine.

Here are the lyrics:

Looking out from His throne, the Father of light and of men
Chose to make Himself known and show us the way back to Him
Speaking wisdom and truth into the hearts of peasants and kings
He began to unveil the Word that would change the course of all things

With eyes wide open, all would see

The Word is alive
And it cuts like a sword through the darkness
With a message of life to the hopeless and afraid
Breathing life into all who believe
The Word is alive

And the world and its glories will fade
But His truth, it will not pass away
It remains yesterday and forever the same
The Word is alive

Simple strokes on a page
Eternity's secrets revealed, carried on from age to age
It speaks Truth to us even still
And as the rain falls from Heaven, feeds the earth before it returns
Lord, let your Word fall on us and bring forth the fruit You deserve
With eyes wide open, let us see
The Word is alive
His Word is alive

In the middle of the song they talk about how the bible was inscribed over a period of 2000 years, in times of war and days of peace, by kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers, fishermen, singers and shepherds. The marvel is that a library so perfectly cohesive could've been produced by such a diverse crowd over a period of time which staggers the imagination. Jesus is it's grand subject. Our good is designed as the glory of God at its end.

So amazing!!

Josh got to spend some time with Uncle Scott and Aunt Karla on Suday while Mike and I got to spend some "us" time. We went out to eat and hung out in Redlands for a couple hours. It was so much fun.
Josh of course had a great time too as you can see in these pictures Aunt Karla sent to me. They were playing with this dart gun Josh brought along with him. He would load up all the darts and have uncle Scott shoot them up on the ceiling. Slowly they would fall down after the suction wore off and Josh thought this was hilarious. And the ones that remained stuck Josh got to pull off himself as Uncle Scott hoisted him into the air.
Josh also loves the fact that they have a dog. Josh loves dogs. However the dogs don't seem to love him as much, but that doesn't keep Josh from following them around. The only thing Josh didn't like about Rex was that he wouldn't share his tennis ball. So Josh would get mad and start yelling at him. It's funny...I have to try to get it on video sometime.

Ok so the next few nights of sleep still did not go well. For whatever reason, Josh was still waking up quite often. The night before last left me feeling so tired all day yesterday. I just started a new bible study called Believing God by Beth Moore. It's all about believing God, taking Him at His Word. I have been asking God to increase my faith because I really want to grow in this area. Well last night I asked God to make Josh sleep through the night and believed He was more than able to make it happen. To my delight, I woke up at 6:30 this morning and had slept straight through the night.
Hebrews 11:6 says "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him." I want to please God, I want faith at least as small as a mustart seed, and I want to diligently seek Him. I am so thankful for my answered prayer. To Him be the glory!!

Back to sleep training last night. I have a dream that entails a full night of sleep with no interruptions. Can you imagine something so wonderful? I used to be able to, but those days have been gone for almost two years now. I accepted it when it was just once a night but we have moved back into 2-3 times a night and I just can't go on like this!
It's time for some tough love...lets hope it works ;-) Luckily Josh always wakes up smiling in the morning, thank goodness he doesn't remember me letting him cry himself to sleep. It's kind of like groundhog day ;-)

Christmas eve we had the McGuire gang over to our house to celebrate Christmas. I got to spend some time with my newest little niece, Chloe, who I hadn't seen since she was born. I can't believe how fast she is growing...getting more beautiful each day. Uncle David hanging out with Josh. I know he secretly loves his nieces and nephew even if he is not a big fan of kids ;-)

I love this picure because I actually have all three kids looking at me at the same time.

I had to take this picture of Matthew and David because they were sporting the Christmas colors with their bold tee shirts and the didn't even plan it.

This year we spent halloween up at Silent Valley. It was so much fun, everyone sits outside their rv's and fifth wheels and hands out candy to all of the kiddies. There were so many people, so many costumes and so much candy!

Joshy didn't quite make it to through the day, actually he fell asleep after hitting up the 10th trailer or so. Poor little guy even fell asleep with a lolly pop in his mouth.

My adorable niece Kaitlyn was dressed up as a lily fairy or something like that. Everyone thought she was so cute...we couldn't walk by a single person without someone mentioning how cute she looked ;-)

Grandma Nancy got to spend the day with two of her favorite people in this world.