Compact

Everybody likes things that are compact :).....Compact cars, make-ups compacts.....Well our sweet little Maggie is just that. Very compact- a whole lot of sweet fluffy goodness in a short little package. We went to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month check up. She is 4 months 1 week and she weighs 15lbs 9 oz and is 23 1/4 inches long. That puts her around the 80th percentile for weight and 20th percentile for height. Haha! It's why we have so many cute little baby rolls to love and squeeze on, because she hasn't quite stretched out yet. The doctor still thinks she's going to be relatively tall- around 5'7"-5'8", at least a good 1-2 inches taller than me which is pretty tall. But we'll see. Whatever she is is just perfect :)

Our God is a God who saves

This isn't a Maggie post. I just thought in addition to writing about Maggie I would also start to share things that the Lord is doing in our lives or anything he has put on my heart. We learn so much in church and small group, so I figure this will give me a good place to write those things down so I don't forget.

My favorite song right now is by Chris Tomlin. They sing it at church sometimes and it makes me so happy. It's called Let God Arise. Here is a link to a youtube video of Chris Tomlin singing it live.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaLckqfvZHQ
I don't know if the link will work, but you can go to www.youtube.com and type in Chris Tomlin- Let God Arise (live) and the video should come up. (still trying to figure out how to work things on the blog :)

The chorus just repeats "Our God is a God who saves" over and over and then "Let God Arise, Let God arise. Our God reigns now and forever. He reigns now and forever." Maggie and I sing this song a lot throughout the day and it makes her smile really big. She gets excited anytime we sing praise and worship music and that just makes my heart happy.

With Easter being this week I just can't help but be so joyous that our God really is a God who saves. He sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins, but really it is so much more than that. Pastor Chris elaborated on it so beautifully today. God sent his son to save us and to give us eternal life- a life that He wants us to live to the fullest and to enjoy all of the blessing he has for us.

I have been reading from the one year Bible calendar they gave out from church and I have really been enjoying it. It has some Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs for every day. In reading through the Old Testament I can't help but be thankful that the Lord chose to place me in the time frame on earth that he did. I just can't imagine what it would have been like to have lived during the Old Testament where the fear of God was a scared fear and not a reverential fear. They obeyed the laws and commandments because they feared the consequences of being stoned to death or not getting into heaven. The had to make what seemed like 8 trillion sacrifices for any sin they committed, and sometimes for something that they could not even control- like when women had to sacrifice pigeons every single month when it was their time. I just can't imagine having to work all day to try to make a little bit of money to provide for your family just to turn around and work some more so you could buy new sacrifices- because we are all human and no one is perfect so there was pretty much not any getting around having to make tons of sacrifices. I just can't imagine what it would be like to live in a time when grace and mercy were not freely given. I praise God every day for the grace and the mercy he has shown me in my life and for giving up his most precious gift so that we could have eternal life and the burden of our sins could be lifted. We are so lucky because all we have to do now is ask and our sins are forgiven. No offering goats, or bulls, or pigeons.

Our God is a God who saves. And that is why he sent his son. So let God arise because he does reign now and forever. And that is exciting!

I thank the Lord for dying on the cross for us to give us life, to give us healing, to give us hope, to save us from our sins, and to give us eternal life with him in heaven.

Psalms 68:19-20
Praise the Lord. Praise God our Savior. For each day he carries us into his arms.
Our God is a God who saves. The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death.

Hoppy Easter!

Lots of pictures from the past few weeks

Well, Maggie and I had a great day today. We had a girls' day full of shopping. We went to Target and TJMax and then met Allison and Susan at Steinmart. Maggie was so good. She is learning her shopping skills early:) haha! She was talking up a storm in Steinmart. They were having a huge sale so there were probably 20-30 people waiting in different lines to check out and Maggie entertained them all while we were there. She talked really loud and squealed and had her self a good time! They should have hired her for the day to keep the folks happy while they wait in line :)

Maggie tried rice cereal for the very first time last night and did so good. She was a pro and was a super clean eater. YEA! Maybe she will be like her mama and be a really clean baby. I found some really great organic brown rice cereal at Whole Foods for her to start off with. The only problem with going to Whole Foods is that I love that place and want to buy everything in the entire store, except you can't because it's so dang expensive. I had to force myself to have tunnel vision just for the cereal (and maybe some really good cheese and an organic black cherry drink they have there that is amazing!) Lord help me when I have to go back to get more....

The week before last my mom, Bryan, Austin and Bryan's girlfriend Kate all came to visit for spring break. We had a lot of fun hanging out and visiting. The weather was beautiful and we went to Yogurt Mountain and took a long walk in Jemison Park one day. Maggie loves to be outside so much that she took 3 stroller rides that day. She definitely didn't get that from me. I mean, I love to be outside on beautiful days, but I am certainly not an outside person.

Maggie hasn't rolled over since she did it the first time. She did it twice in a row and that's been all she wrote. She just hates tummy time. I think she did it just to prove to me she could and is now like, "Ok mom, you know I CAN do it, so let's just be happy with that and move on to something else." She would much rather sit up or try to stand. So getting her to crawl may be interesting.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures from the last couple weeks. I posted a lot of them on facebook, but here they are again for everyone who reads, but doesn't have facebook.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Palm Sunday tomorrow!

That little face just makes my heart melt.

Daddy, can I please have the big teddy bear? I promise I'll be real good!

This little bubble outfit is my favorite :) Her Gammie bought it for her as well as the precious bunny dress. I just love seeing those little chubby legs!

I just think this is funny because Brett was sneaking up on her.

Really, more pictures.....oh man...

Maggie looked so sweet in her shamrocks for her Daddy's birthday on St. Patty's.

4 Months

Maggie turned 4 months old on Sunday. We had so much fun with all of our company that came last week during spring break. I will do another post with lots of pics from last week when I get a few minutes, but in the mean time here is a picture of Maggie I took today. The top pic is Maggie at 4 months and the bottom pic is me at 6 months. The dress is still a little big on her, but I wanted to take a picture of her in it to compare photos. I don't think we can say she looks just like her daddy anymore :) I can't get over the similarities. Especially because up until about now she has looked a lot like Brett's baby pictures.

Rolling!

This sweet girl rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time today and she did it 2 times in a row!

TGIF

Yeah for Fridays!

We're seeing a lot of this little face lately. Maggie has discovered her tongue and is always sticking it out and doing a funny little puppy dog pant. She thinks it's really funny when you copy her and do a puppy pant back at her.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!