Evan Justus, 4-1/2 months

Next to our driveway, after several storms a few weeks ago. There was a beautiful spider's web that the sun light was reflecting, but the web wasn't visible by the time I returned with my camera. Pretty shot none-the-less.

More Pictures

Ready for the Slip "N' Slide on Titus' 2nd birthday today.
I don't know where my other pics landed - have to redo those another time!

Titus Turns 2!

Believe it or not, we have another 2 year old on our hands, and what a sweet guy he is. Trying to describe his personality can be challenging, but if you know any of our other kids we would say that Titus has Isaiah's curiosity coupled with Micah's fearless boldness. Yes, that makes for one busy boy and two busy parents! We love him and are enjoying his antics. He is very verbal and very non-stop!

 

Smoothies and popcorn for dinner and a yummy strawberry cake for dessert!

A Good Reminder

This is a recent post from the girltalk blog. Very, very good.

by Carolyn Mahaney

Do not sit at Jesus’ feet…


…as a way to earn God’s approval. It can’t be done. No string of quiet times in a row can meet the standard of a holy God. No amount of Scripture reading or prayer can earn His forgiveness.

Jesus Christ is the only person who ever met with God’s approval. He lived a perfect life and died in our place, receiving the wrath of God that we deserved. He rose again, and stands “before the throne of God above”—the perfect, spotless righteousness of those who trust in Him.

As believers we are justified—declared righteous, forgiven, and accepted by God—through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. We do not earn or forfeit our justification before God based on our performance.

Our good works, our faithfulness to sit and listen, our diligence to seek the Lord through prayer and Scripture do not add to Christ’s finished work.

Ephesians 2:8-9 sets the record straight: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We must keep this truth ever before us as we resolve to sit at the Savior’s feet. It is necessary and beneficial; but it is never, never, never a means to earn God’s forgiveness or acceptance.

B.B. Warfield empathically hammered home this point when he said:

“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live…It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest.”

Are you discouraged or condemned by your failure to sit and listen?

Then revel in this truth: We have a Savior who died for our sins. His blood and righteousness alone makes us acceptable to God.

Evan Justus Payton

Born Dec. 30th, 2009 (12:20am)
8 lbs. 12 oz, 21 inches long

Condensed birth story: I was induced at 11am on Dec. 29th. They broke my water at 5pm that evening and finally things started happening! The rest is just breathing and pushing (ah, if only it was really as simple as that just sounded!). Enjoy the pictures...




Born! He came out face up, as he had turned over right before he finished his journey (ouch!).



First bath. It was about 2:30am at this time. After bath time the nurse did his footprints. She was tired too as we discovered she did his left foot twice, when my post-partum nurse was reviewing paper work for our discharge!



Mommy, Titus and Evan. No wonder Evan seems so incredibly little. What was my littlest last week (who is a solid 30 lbs.) dwarfs his 8lb. little brother.



Daddy and Evan. I have to say that my hubby is a wonderful coach, who works just as hard emotionally as I do physically in the labor/delivery process. I am so thankful for him and couldn't have made it without him.


Eyes!


Micah and Evan.


Isaiah and Evan.


Hannah and Evan.


Our little red head!

Our Heart For Birmingham

Here is a link to a recent message that Travis preached, sharing his heart and vision for the church plant in Birmingham (after clicking the link, scroll down until you see his name). We continue to pray for God's timing to get back there!

Recent Family Pictures

Some recent pictures of the kids taken while we were down in the Bay Area last weekend. We had a great time going to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, visiting my Grandparents, and Travis preaching at an evening service in Hollister. It was a full and very fun weekend. I'll even add a picture of baby #5 and Mommy (Daddy too!) with only 8 weeks left until D-Day...

You want what?

After being gone all weekend to Alabama and getting back into routine (somewhat), I had a fun day with the kids - playing at the mall, with treats at See's, shopping for school crafts at Michael's, and then we headed for the drive-thru at McDonald's. As we pull up here is the short conversation between me and Micah:

Me: "We're just going to get something off of the $1 menu, alright?
Micah: "I want the chicken lugnuts..."
Me: "The what?"
Micah: "The chicken lugnuts"
Me: uncontrolled laughter followed by "you are so cute..." more laughter...

I love that kid!!!

Muddy Buddy

Titus is now walking and he loves his new found freedom! Saturday he was cruisin' around the yard while I watered the garden and the grapevines. He discovered the big mud puddle after I watered the grapes and he was so excited!

Mud is my friend.

Reaching for the next exploration which happens to be...

outdoor bath time! I think he enjoyed sitting in this little pool with the hose trickling as much as he did getting muddy. He sat in here for over a 1/2 hour, splashing, drinking out of the hose, discovering how to make the hose spray, etc... This was probably one of the happiest mornings of his little life!

All cleaned up. Gotta love those rolls!

Readin' and rockin'

Cooling off in 110 degrees

Isaiah getting a face full of water

Hannah's approach. She's not quite ready to dive!

Micah

Built in water fountain

Pink or Blue?

Yesterday our family of 6 (plus my parents) crowded into the tiny ultrasound room to see a very healthy little BOY (trust me, absolutely no doubts about this!) growing in my womb! It is always so amazing to see the brain hemispheres, little heart pumping right along, the vertebrae, tiny fingers and toes, etc... We praise the Lord for this new little guy who will be joining us, Lord willing, around the end of December!

Psalm 139:14 "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well."

More Milestones

June has been a busy month for our family. Actually it all started on May 18th with Titus turning 1! It always amazes me how quickly those first birthdays creep up. Just another reminder to enjoy each precious moment.
The following week, Travis and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. God's grace alone is our boast in our marriage. He has given us a beautiful relationship and I am so grateful for a godly husband who loves Christ more than me (I get the blessings from that!).
The week after that was my 32nd birthday. The next week was Travis' 35th birthday. The next week his parents flew in from Alabama, we attended a graduation banquet in Vallejo, the next day was Isaiah's 6th birthday, and the next day (Father's Day) was Travis' graduation from The Cornerstone Seminary!! Whew.... And to top it all off we stayed overnight in Vallejo (his parents and mine too) and we all went to Six Flags the next day (oh that was so much fun!!!!!).
Now our bathroom is torn apart and being remodeled in preparation to sell our home so we can move to Alabama in the Fall, Lord willing. So, here are some pictures of some of these blessed events the Lord has allowed in our lives.

May 18th - Titus is our waterbug. He loves to be in the pool. So he got to play in the pool at Grandpa and Nana's for his birthday.

Tradition in our family is to let each child at their first birthday have their own special little cake (which is always a homemade carrot cake) to eat however they want. It's so interesting to see how their personalities come out even in this little fun way. Titus was a hand to mouth eater and a very aggressive one at that (Isaiah wouldn't touch his first birthday cake with his hands - he used a fork! Micah went face first with no hands, over and over; Hannah daintily took small bites with her hands)!

June 5th - Isaiah planned and organized getting picked up by Grandpa and Nana for the day so that they could make me a surprise birthday cake! It was a delicious angel-food cake with coolwhip, fresh strawberries and homemade fudge drizzled on top. What sweet kiddos and wonderful grandparents!

June 13th - Travis enjoying cards made by his boys. We had his parents (in Alabama) on video Skype so they could be a part of the celebration.



June 20th - Isaiah turned 6! We praise the Lord for this special boy who is growing up so quickly. He, like the rest of his siblings, is a joy and treasure to our family.


He's blowing out the same #6 candle my brother and I blew out over 25 years ago!!

June 21st - Travis' graduating class. He also gave his testimony that night of what God did in his life while at TCS.

June 22nd - Fun at Six Flags! Where's Titus???.......



Playing is hard work.

Pictures and Thoughts on Mother's Day

Caught! Exiting our shower, one of Titus' favorite places to sneak into!

Our sweet Hannah on Easter Sunday

Four happy munchkins!

Helping Daddy prune the apple tree

Fun in a laundry basket! Titus and Micah

I love my family - God has blessed Travis and I richly! We are thrilled to be adding another little Payton to the family and look forward to #5's arrival toward the end of December. What will be different about this little one is that he or she will most likely be born in Birmingham, Alabama. After a long process of prayer, hours of phone conversations, and much wise counsel, we are excited to be committed to be a part of a team (Travis' good friend, Will Chenault, from college days in Alabama) to do a church plant in Birmingham. Lord willing, we would like to be moved there sometime this Fall. Pray for our dump truck, chipper and house to sell! You can click on the link on the right side (Church plant in Birmingham) to see a short video Will put together expressing the vision for the church plant there.
I know that's a lot of big news since my last post way back in November 2008 - isn't it amazing what the Lord does in a short amount of time? I could write pages of details of how it all came about, the burden placed on our hearts, etc... but I don't have that much time to put it in writing now! Hope all of you Mommy's had a great day - but isn't every day a joy and privilege to be a Mommy?!

The Innkeeper

This is a wonderful poem written and read by John Piper. Follow the link and listen to these moving words. Have a blessed Christmas.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Poems/ByDate/1353_The_Innkeeper/

Thankfulness

Thought it would be a good idea to get the Thanksgiving pictures posted before Christmas comes! Things are busy, God is always good, and we are so thankful for the many blessing He has given us, most of all forgiveness of sins through His Son, Jesus.

We spent Thanksgiving at Dad and Mom's...

with our friends the Simmons and Mr. Kelly...


The boys helped me make personalized napkin holders for everyone.



Shooting skeet was a lot of fun. Travis and Darren are blasting them here. I actually got a few this time around, though it seemed easier the last time I did this. (if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the smoke from the gun, then up toward the right you can see the wad and the shot string - pretty neat!!)

Isaiah and Micah got to pull the string to release the skeet for us to shoot. Isaiah's showing off his ear protection here.

After the shooting was over, Daddy and the boys hopped into the canoe to retrieve the costly, unbroken skeet (yes, we missed a lot). Would you believe they picked up 49?! We all definitely need to do some more practicing!