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!

The Boys

Our Davey Tree Men at the Fall Festival. Daddy made them saddles (complete with their toy chainsaws attached to carabiners), rope bundles, and so on. They were beyond excited to be dressed up just like Daddy!

Isaiah is doing great in first grade and loves to read. Here he is reading a book at his brother's request. Micah has started reading lessons and is doing very well. He looks forward to his time with Mommy every day and loves to tell Daddy his new sound when he comes home from work.

Cheesy smiles (after they saw the camera come out)

Titus ~ 6 months old on November 18th

Our very happy baby boy who loves to laugh at funny books being read to him. Also, there are some nights when I'll put him down and he just wont settle. I'll go in to check on him (around 8pm) and Hannah will still be awake and inform me as I walk in, "Titus talking." I'll pick Titus up and he'll look longingly at Hannah. So we sit down on her bed and Titus will giggle and coo at her, kiss her and play with her for about 10 minutes, then he's ready for bed and goes right to sleep. It's amazing how young the bond forms between siblings. We love our little guy.

The Terrific Twos!

Hannah turned 2 on November 14th. Big Brother Micah was very eager to "help" Hannah with her presents, cake, and anything else heading her way!!!






















Getting ready to start the fun...













Cake time. I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "chocolate cake." My Mom was glad to know that the genes are being handed down in good order!








Our sweet blessing from the Lord. She is truly a joy to our entire family in so many ways.