happy birthday!

Happy birthday to my dear husband!

Here are just a few of the reasons I love him, acrostic style!

Kind to everyone

Encourages and challenges me

Interested in learning and sharing

Takes time to listen

Honors God by striving to live into his image everyday

We celebrated with a date Friday night! We enjoyed relaxing conversation and a yummy dinner.

Carson was in good hands while we were away. He stayed with his first non-family babysitters, but really, the Cottrells are our local “family”, and we knew they were taking good care of him. He had lots of fun!

Speaking of Carson, watching Keith become a daddy this year has been amazing!

Here are a few of the reasons Carson loves Daddy!

Devoted

Always ready to play

Does so many different things to take care of him every day!

daddy loved you before he'd even met you:)

August 1, 2010

Carson,

After more than nine months, we’re in the last several hours of preparing for your arrival. It’s hard to believe the time has finally come. Your mom and I have enjoyed so much our time together as a couple, but now we are so excited for you to join us in the adventure of life.

When I think about your joining us soon, I think about how much I am anxious to share with you. I’m excited to be able to read to you. I’m excited to share my love of music with you. I’m excited to share my life’s work as a minister with you. I have so many wonderful memories of time I spent with my dad growing up, and I hope that when you are my age, you’ll have equally wonderful memories of the time you and I spend together.

I want you to know how thankful I am for your mom. You do not realize how wonderfully blessed you are to have her as your mom. She is unconditionally loving, faithfully supportive, infinitely caring, and incredibly kind. She has prayed for you since before you were even conceived and has done everything she can to take care of herself and take care of you while she’s been pregnant with you. I hope I will demonstrate for you clearly just how much I love her.

It’s often tempting for parents to dream dreams for their children, and I suppose there is a time and place for that. But rather than dream all kinds of dreams for you, I simply hope to teach you to dream for yourself and to equip you to pursue those dreams with all of your being. But there is one dream I dream for you, one which will serve as a paradigm for all your other dreams: I hope that you will choose to follow Jesus, that you will live your life in selfless service to others, that you will commit yourself wholeheartedly to what you will come to realize is the upside-down ethic of the kingdom of God, and that you will dedicate yourself to loving God and all of God’s children, both those like you and those different from you. I pray I will be a faithful example of such a commitment to you. I promise you I will do everything I can to equip and empower and support you, whether that means cheering you on or offering constructive criticism. I want you to know it doesn’t matter whether you feel like you’ve done great things or insignificant things, what matters is that you have been faithful.

As we welcome you into this world we call home, we do so with eyes wide open. We have seen both some of the best this world God called “good” has to offer and we have seen some of the worst this world has to offer. Sometimes it seems as though the evil outweighs the good. But we believe God is still at work seeking to make right all that has been gone wrong in the world, and we are convinced God desires us, including you, to participate, in whatever ways possible, in the pursuit of that mission. So we welcome you boldly. We long to model for you a way of living that is captive not to fear but to the hope with which this mission of God has filled us and we pray humbly, therefore, that you will imitate us as we imitate Christ.

Carson, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and give you peace. And may you live your life in gratitude to the God who has so graciously blessed our lives with your presence and company and called you to be a Son of God.

I love you so much and can’t wait to share life with you!

Dad

your first picture with daddy

It was very special to see the two of you together!

You looked so comfortable together from the very beginning!

You have the very best daddy in the world!

since daddy met you, he loves you even more:)

clarksville, population 3

There's so much to blog about, but so little time! I'm LOVING my new job as Carson's mommy!!! There are no words to describe the miracle of childbirth and the joy of becoming a parent! Wow! It's been an amazing three weeks. I'll backtrack and catch up on all things Carson in the coming days, but first, here's a link to my sweet husband's blog. He is such a wonderful husband to me and daddy to our baby boy!! Here's a sweet picture of my two favorite boys!!!

just the two of us

As we anticipate our sweet Carson's arrival, we've spent time reflecting on our life as a family of two. Keith and I met and became friends in March 2002, began dating in April 2002, were engaged in June 2003, and married in December 2003. So, we've been married for six and a half years and have been dating for over eight years! I am so thankful for our time as a family of two. We have had so much fun getting to know one another and growing as a couple. We've laughed and cried. We've traveled and stayed home. We've stayed up late and slept in. We've worked and played. We've talked and listened. We've taught and learned. We've gone on dates and done chores. We've waited and prayed. We've prayed and leaped. It's strange to realize that things will never again be the same. We will continue to love one another fully and spend time as a couple, but we will never again be a family of two. We are thrilled to meet our baby boy and could not be more thankful for the blessing and privilege of raising him, but we'll always remember fondly our time as a family of two! Here's a picture walk down memory lane:)

March 2002. ACU Spring Break Campaign. Eugene, Oregon. New friends.

2002. Dating. What fun we had getting to know one another and falling in love!

2003. We had a beautiful wedding ceremony and promised to God and our family and friends to always love one another! It was the most special day!!

2004. Newlyweds. Making our first house a home in Abilene, Texas. Keith was finishing his undergraduate degree in Christian Ministry at ACU and I was embarking on my first year of teaching at Bonham Elementary.

2005. We were hanging out with friends and enjoying life. Keith started graduate school at ACU, studying ministry and theology. I continued teaching first grade at Bonham.

2006. More grad school and first grade. Keith started preaching at Maryneal every Sunday. We had great time for conversation and reflection as we made the hour drive each week. What a blessing this little church family was to us!

2007. Abilene was still home. ACU, Bonham, and Maryneal filled our time. We had fun traveling to visit friends and family on spring, summer, and holiday breaks. We loved our similar school schedules.

2008. After hours and hours of learning through relationships, practice, reading, lectures, and conversation, Keith graduated with his Master of Divinity degree. We knew our time in Abilene was coming to an end. We began to pray about what was in store. We celebrated five years of marriage and took an amazingly relaxing and fun vacation to the beach!

2009. After much prayer and conversation, we said goodbye to our life in Abilene, Texas and moved to Hohenwald, Tennessee. Keith got a full-time ministry job and I began teaching sixth grade. We will always love Abilene, but Hohenwald has become our new home. Our church family has loved and welcomed us warmly.

2010. We've savored our remaining time as a family of two and anxiously prepared for and anticipated our baby boy's arrival. I have loved being pregnant. Carrying our baby has been an honor and privilege. What an exciting year this has been!

big news for clarksville!!!

We're moving!

Keith accepted a job as the preaching minister for Hohenwald Church of Christ in Hohenwald, Tennessee. We're planning on moving around the first of the year. We visited in early October. Keith preached, taught, and interviewed. We had a wonderful weekend. Hohenwald is a beautiful town in middle Tennessee, about an hour south of Nashville. The people were very sweet and welcoming. They made us feel right at home. After our visit we spent time praying, thinking, and talking to family, friends, and mentors about whether or not this was a good fit for us. Keith and I feel like it is a great opportunity and a really good fit for us. Everyone we talked to was very supportive and encouraging. We are really excited about opening a new chapter in our lives!

music builds

Several weeks ago Keith and I got to go to an amazing concert. In our early days of dating and marriage we went to concerts fairly often; we got lots of freebies and good deals because of Keith working with music at the campus store. Keith's love of music has rubbed off on me, made me appreciate it more, and changed my preferences. Over the past couple of years we haven't gone to as many concerts, so it was a fun throw back for us and it was extra fun because it was some of our very favorite bands coming together to support and raise money for habitat for humanity! We had seen all four of them on their own before, and we were excited because all four played better than ever. Anyone who thinks Christian music isn't quality should have been there...they were very talented and it was FUN! You couldn't help but have fun with Keith, especially during RRand the FB!

sportin' the matching concert tees:)

Jars of Clay

Robert Randolph and the Family Band

Switchfoot

Third Day

Hi Friends!

Hi internet friends!!! I've missed y'all:) I'm excited to be back to blogging! It's taken me a while to catch up on all of your blogs; but I had fun doing it! I just didn't feel right about blogging until I'd read the last couple months on your fabulous blogs! Sorry for the lack of comments!

The end of the summer was busy with a super fun vacation and some home renovations (two reasons I got behind), so I'll have to do some summer rewind posts to catch up, but for now I wanted to show you my new toy! Our desktop was on her last leg (the other reason I got behind), she lived a good life, and I had lots of fun blogging with her, but it was time to say good-bye, so instead of getting another desktop, we decided to get a laptop, and if we were going to get one, I decided it might as well be cute! So, now I'm blogging in style and having lots of fun! It's a pretty purplish-pinkish color with flowers! I can blog in bed, on the couch, at the table, and even in the floor, no more desk for me!

I told you it was cute!

In other news, Keith got a new job! In addition to his job in enrollment marketing at ACU, he is now working part time with spiritual formation and young adults at University Church of Christ. He's been official for a month now. Keith interned there for a couple of years, before preaching at Maryneal, so it's been fun to go back and feel at home. Everyone has been very welcoming, and we're really enjoying getting to know the young adults. We have class with them on Sunday mornings, dinner and fun on Sunday nights, and this week we'll begin visiting home bound members on Wednesday nights. It is a blessing and we are thankful for the opportunities at University.

Finally, I just started my sixth year teaching first grade! It's off to a great start so far! I have a smaller class than usual, only 17 kids, so I'm enjoying that. The kids are really sweet and I'm having fun getting to know them.

Happy Graduation Keith!!!!

My sweet husband graduated on Saturday and was awarded outstanding academic achievement in the Graduate School of Theology! It was a fun weekend celebrating with family and friends. He has worked so hard in grad school and has really loved it, but is very excited to be finished! Over the past three and half years he has:

completed 84 hours of class

written numerous 20+ page research papers

read lots and lots of very thick books

taken many extensive tests

engaged in lots of great conversation

spent countless hours in the library

even spent a night in the library

studied under and developed relationships with wonderful professors

been challenged spiritually, mentally, and physically

maintained a top notch GPA

made friends with fellow students

mentored freshmen and sophomores as a teaching assistant

ordered, sold, and organized music for the campus store

ministered to the sweet people at Maryneal Church of Christ

and all the while continued to be a loving husband

My heart is full! I could not be more thankful for and proud of him. This has been an amazing chapter of our lives. He's looking forward to having some time to rest over the next few weeks until we see what the future holds.

Celebrating with the fam!

Thanks to our friend and fellow blogger Lauren for taking this fun picture for us!

Maryneal

Today we said goodbye to our sweet church family in Maryneal. Maryneal is a small community about an hour from Abilene. Keith has had the opportunity to preach there for the past two and a half years. Keith preached his last sermon, we had a yummy potluck meal together, enjoyed a time of singing, and then Keith "handed the reins" to Ben, a new graduate student who is going to take over the preaching at Maryneal.

During our time at Maryneal we have been so blessed by these sweet people. They have loved us, welcomed us in their homes, encouraged us, been patient with us, laughed with us, and fed us lots of great meals. They've allowed Keith to practice and grow as a preacher and have helped us learn how to minister together. We've gotten to know them really well, since there are only about 25 members. After church, each Sunday afternoon, one of the families invites us into their home to have lunch and spend the afternoon together. We have thoroughly enjoyed this time with each of the families. They are wonderful cooks and have fed us well. They've shared lots of recipes and cooking tips with me! After lunch, we've enjoyed visiting, playing games, watching ballgames, doing crafts, grading papers, and taking naps. Then, we go back to church for the evening bible study and worship.

Today, we appreciated being able to have a time of transition as we're leaving and Ben is taking over. Everyone was really sweet and encouraging. We got lots of good hugs! We will miss them so much, but we're excited that someone else will have the opportunities that we've had. They let me have the quilt that I bundled up with every Sunday morning as a memento. They have a basket of quilts for cold-natured people to use during church--such a great idea in my opinion and something I will miss for sure!

We will always treasure the friendships that we've formed and the things that we've learned while we've been a part of this sweet church family.

Go Tigers Go!

We're getting excited about cheering on the Memphis Tigers basketball team this evening. The Tigers are 26-0 so far and are ranked number one. They are playing the Tennessee Vols (who are ranked number two) this evening. Keith LOVES basketball, especially the Tigers, and "strongly dislikes" the Vols. He is so excited he can hardly stand it, so I'm excited too! I know Joey, CDR, and Derrick almost as well as my girls, Lorelai and Rory! It should be a fun game. I think it's cool that you can enjoy things that you never thought you would when you love someone. Don't worry, Keith has spent some time in Stars Hollow with me over the years too:) Go Tigers Go!

Happy Birthday Keith!

My sweet husband turns 24 today, so in honor of his special day, I'm going to list 24 reasons I love him:

1. He loves God with all of his heart.

2. He is smart.

3. He is sensitive.

4. He is patient.

5. He is thoughtful.

6. He is friendly.

7. He encourages me.

8. He cuddles with me.

9. He listens to me.

10. He challenges me.

11. He tucks me in at night when he has to stay up late and study.

12. He likes to play games.

13. He always asks me about my day.

14. He is a good preacher and teacher.

15. He loves our church family.

16. He loves our parents.

17. He loves our sisters.

18. He knows my students by name.

19. He is really cute when he gets excited about something.

20. He loves to learn.

21. He is practical.

22. He works hard.

23. Sometimes he is silly with me, because he knows it makes me happy:)

24. He loves me as much as I love him!

Since I'm about to go enjoy it....this evening I'm thankful for my comfy bed and snuggly husband! I hope you all have a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is FRIDAY, and it will be even more fun than usual, because it's the 100th Day of School! We elementary people look for any reason to celebrate...speaking of....that's another thing to be thankful for:) I have a job where we can change up the routine every now and then, just for fun!