Maddie's Party Is being moved to next weekend.

FYI:

Due to sickness and conflict of schedule we are moving Maddie's Party to next weekend.

Maddie's Camp Out Birthday Party!

Maddie is turning 4 November 28. 

So, her birthday is the day after Thanksgiving!

And we are thankful for her!

We will be celebrating her birthday on Nov 8

She wants nothing more than to have a Camp Out Birthday Party and yes, she plans on sleeping outside! 

We would love for anyone of you who might like to come out and enjoy some soup, s'mores,  a Bon Fire and more to please do so. 

Call me if you plan to attend or send me an email!

These kids light up my life! Thank you Lord!

I was trying to get a good picture of all the kids. I think I did OK. Maybe?! I thought these pictures were too cute, so I wanted to share. And thanks Nataly for taking a picture of your Nina.

Baptisim

We had a picnic after church that day. This is Madelyne

and Zachary.

Tone and I were Baptized on October 12, 2008.
We both really feel and know that God is working in a mighty way in us and our family. Over the past year our lives have changed in numerous ways. The best way to describe it is said in the song Amazing Grace "....was blind but, now I see..."

For the both of us this was an act of obedience to The Lord.
And how special it was to be Baptized together.
We had decided to be
Baptized but, we were not sure when to do it. We kept waiting for the right time and place to do it. Tone said to me on Friday that we should get Baptized that weekend and I said " OK, we'll see."
I then went into our bedroom and grabbed the Bible. I opened the Bible and turned straight to this:

"How can man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
Jesus answered, " I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

I took it to Tone and said, "read this". He looked at me and said, "let's do it this Sunday!"

We both just took it as God's way of saying that it was time.

We give Thanks and Glory to God, for everything that He has blessed us with. And for all the amazing things He has and is doing in our lives and the lives of our extended family.

Wow!

Long time no post....huh?!
I am going to try and post more often now that I actually have a computer to use. I am looking forward to blogging again and posting pictures of the kids to share with all of you.

Zach is now 13 months and absolutely full of life and expression. He loves people as long as Mommy is not too far away. He is walking and climbing everywhere. He is joyful and awesome!

Maddie is almost 4 and so sweet and loving. She still loves to read and she is so smart. She attends Mother's Day Out twice a week and she loves it.
She loves to say prayer before dinner and tells me everyday that God loves her.

Tone and I are great and we thank The Lord that we are so blessed.

None but Jesus

We sang this song at church today.

This song touched me!

There is none but Jesus!

Click on this link to see it on YouTube.

(this is not from our church by the way)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axqXMuW8x1U

These are the lyrics:

In the quiet, in the stillness

I know that You are God

In the secret of Your presence

I know there I am restored

When You call I won’t refuse

Each new day again I’ll choose

There is no one else for me

None but Jesus

Crucified to set me free

Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos, in confusion

I know You’re Sovereign still

In the moment of my weakness

You give me grace to do Your will

When You call I won’t delay

This my song through all my days

All my delight is in You Lord

All of my hope, all of my strength

All my delight is in You Lord Forevermore

Wow! This is my prayer!

Easter Egg Coloring and Hunting

We had a blast coloring Easter eggs this year! And the kids went on 5 or more Easter egg hunts. A few here at our house, one with Church and one at Emma's birthday party!

Sorry for all the pictures, I got a little carried away. They were all so cute. Hope you enjoyed. And we hope your Easter was filled with as much Hope and Joy as ours was!

Thank You Lord!

Dominica, 1996

I just want to share this picture with all of you. I have National Geographic Picture Of the Day on my Google homepage. This is Today's Picture.

Snow Day here in Tennessee!

This is our little hiker and her backpack that Daddy carries her in.

Well, you would know that we could not get our camera to work when Tone and Maddie were building their big snow woman. Maddie named her, NatalyMaddie. But, Tone and Maddie did go on a hike yesterday. It was Maddie's idea and as you can imagine Tone jumped at the chance to go for a hike. He is such a good daddy! Zach and I will join them on their adventures when it warms up.

Big Sister is teaching me to read!

Maddie truly is a great big sister. I am not just saying that, she loves this baby boy more than you can imagine. When she saw him for the first time her face just lit up. I will never forget that special moment. One thing Maddie loves to do is read. We call her the librarian. She is passing her love of books along to her baby brother!
I love when Maddie reads to Zach and he does too!

"God Stop"

When I woke up this morning I immediately opened my Bible and started reading. I prayed for the day ahead and thanked the Lord for all my blessings. Then I heard my sweet Madelyne calling for me. I got up and walked into her room and was so pleasantly greeted with her sweet sleepy face. She got up and went to the couch. I went into her room for something, I heard a beautiful song outside. I looked out the window and saw about 20 or so little birds sitting in the bushes singing and eating. It was like God was saying, "Good Morning".

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Psalm 143:8

Believing God

I am currently in a Bible Study by Beth Morre

Believing God

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant Whom I have chosen, so that you may know and belive me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me."

Isaiah 43:10

Based on Isaiah 43:10, Believing God: Experiencing a Fresh Explosion of Faith

explores what it means to believe God. Through studying the lives of Abraham, Moses, and others from Hebrews 11 as examples of persons who believed God.

I am throughly enjoying this study and I am amazed at how the Lord is working in my life and in my family. I know that it is His will for me to be a part of this study with these women. One of my favorite parts of this study is our homework, yes homework and I love it! At the end of each lesson we have a place to write called "God Stop". A God Stop is anyway God discloses Himself to you. It is meant for bedtime, based on Psalm 63:6: "On my bed I remember you." This has become one of my favorite things to do. It is helping me grow more aware of God in my everyday life. It has made me realize that there are no coincidences, it is God.

Nap Time ~ Shhh.....

Shhh....

the kiddos are sleeping. And Mommy gets a break.

I love to peek in and see them sleep. Maddie takes a nap in her tent that Santa brought her and Zach loves to sleep with this little soft blanket on his face. Yes, on his face. He loves it. We call it his snuggle.

My Future's So Bright

Poor Zach, your sister is already dressing you up.

By the way, he loved these glasses.

Too funny!

Lucy

We lost our cat Fergie about 2 months ago. Maddie was quite sad about this. We did what we could to find her but, we were not able to. We recieved a call one day from a family that lived on the other side of Spring Hill, who said they saw our add about our missing cat and they think they had found her. So, we loaded up the car and took about a 15 minute trip to there house. We honestly could not tell if the cat was Fergie or not. She looks a lot like Fergie. The family said that if it was not Fergie they did not want to keep her so we decided to take her home. Maddie was thrilled. Tasha our Pit Bull, who by the way is an angel, loved her too. As the night went on we realized that this cat was definetly not Fergie. The family we got her from had a little girl who named the cat Lucy. I looked at Tone and said "This is not Fergie! Do we keep her?!" We decided to keep her and call her Lucy. Lucy has turned out to be an awesome cat who climbs on everything and I mean everything! Maddie carries her everywhere and is so happy to have her as part of our family.

Working on sitting up alone!

Look at me guys!

I can alomst sit up all by myself!

YAY!

Maddie!

She was having a blast in Macon, GA! Oh, how I love my baby girl!

Zach!

What a face sweet boy. Oh, how I love my boy!

Crazy - Fun!

Schools in Maury County have been closed since Tuesday due to the Flu. Yuk!

So, I have had 4 kids for the past 2 days. We have had some crazy fun!

Nicholas is 8, Nataly is 5, Maddie is 3 and Bless his heart, little Zach is almost 6 months!

What sweet babies The Lord has blessed me with!

Stay Tuned

Stay Tuned



I will be posting some Pictures every chance I get, so we can keep all of our Family & Friends up to date with all the happenings of Southerland Living.