Tattoos

On November 1st, Nate and I went and got inked together. Here's the story... :)

In May of this year, some friends and I wanted to be praying diligently for our friend, Cara, who was facing a hard situation. We ordered small beaded bracelets to wear to remind us to pray throughout our days. Wearing that bracelet really served it's purpose for me. I prayed for Cara, but I was also reminded over and over throughout my day to seek the Lord moment by moment. And after a couple of weeks of wearing my bracelet, it broke. I craved the constant reminder to seek the Lord moment by moment, and decided it might be fun to have a tattoo on my wrist. I wasn't sure what I wanted the tattoo to be - just a reminder thta I belong to the Lord and that I need His help to make moment by moment decisions. When I'm left to make my own decisions, it isn't pretty. I decided at that point that I would wait for one year to decide for sure if I wanted to make such a permanent change to my body.

The Fall brought some real struggles for our family. I experienced a trial that brought me closer to the Lord than I had ever been before. I really was relying on Him for my moment-by-moment provision. I count it joy that the Lord allowed me to face such a difficult time, but just as with all trials, my reliance on the Lord started to fade as the struggle subsided. And that's when I knew I wanted a tattoo. I don't want to forget.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

God knew that we would need to be constantly reminded of Him. We are forgetful people!! Over Christmas, Tom (Nate's dad) led a devotion from Eph 1. Verse 13b says, "When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit." We talked about how it's kind of like when cows get branded with a Farmer's brand. That cow belongs to that farmer. I have been branded for Christ.

Nate and I decided to go together to get matching tattoos to not only to show that we are sealed with Christ (the tattoo is "Jesus" in Hebrew characters), but also to show our committment to one another.

So far, no regrets.

The Things They Say

These are comments from FB that I want to have documented on our blog, too.

Miles Prayer at Breakfast on 12/30
Thank you God for this great day. Thank you that we could take mom to work and that she can do work there and not be grumpy. And, thank you that mommy can eat breakfast and get good food in her tummy so that she will feel better and be all warm and cozy when she gets home. Amen.

From 9/24
I told Cooper that he needs to be careful about turning on the TV because sometimes there are really bad things on TV. Cooper: Like what? Me: Just some grown up stuff that isn't good for you to see. Cooper: Oh, like people squirting water into other people's eyes?

From 9/23
Miles prayed for his daddy to have a good trip to Dancouga. (Vancouver.)

From 8/26
Cooper was complaining about picking up toys he didn't get out. I reminded him about how Jesus died on the cross for sin he didn't commit. His response to me was, "But Mom, I'm not Jesus." So true.

From 8/20
Nate: Miles, should we turn on the radio while we build Legos?
Miles: No, but how about some Bennie and the Jets

From 8/11
Me: Cooper, why did you just hit your brother? Cooper: I don't know. I just need to rethink my life a little bit.

From 7/5
Cooper wants to dig in the garden so he can dig, "mound after mound of rich, fresh soil.". Where does he get this stuff?

Camping

Nate took the boys camping near the end of October. They had a great time! A highlight for them was seeing 4 deer, 3 armadillos and a ground hog. Nate made some awesome memories with his boys!

Race Day

Sarita and I ran the KC Half-Marathon this October for the third time. This was our fifth half-marathon, with three in KC, one in Springfield, and one in Bolivar. My dad trained and ran the race again this year, beating his time from last year. My friends Ashley and Rachel raced, as well as Ashley's husband Chris. Sarita's husband, Tony, also ran. As a really special gift to me, Nate trained and ran in the race, too. He is normally the photographer for events like this, so we don't have many photos from the big day. I was able to capture these with my iPhone.

Before:

After:

I am so thankful for Sarita Vernon. I think we started running together around 2004 - that's eight years that girl has put up with me! I used to think we were really compatible running parters...until I found out she had broken race records when she was in high school. Now I know that she is just really kind to run with me. But I'll take it! She is an amazing woman! I would run 13.1 miles with her any day. :)

Cooper is 5!

If there were any remaining "baby" in this little guy, it disappeared when he turned 5. Did I type that right? Is he really 5? It is impossible for me to grasp that 5 years have passed since I brought this little guy home from the hospital for the first time. Much has changed in our lives over five years, but God has been faithful. Here are a few pictures from Coop's birthday:

Here is his "I'm-getting-ready-to-open-my-presents" face. (Those of you who know him well know he would NEVER smile for a camera if there weren't presents involved.)

Here is his favorite present - LEGOS!

We had a small (okay - not so small) gathering of friends to celebrate the big day. It was SUPER fun to have our house full of friends! Here are the boys (minus Cale):

And here are the girls (minus Mya):

Blowing out the candles on this LEGO cake!

California

In August, our family went to Laguna Beach, California with Nate's family. We stayed in Nate's Granparent's house for the last time - the house has now been sold.

It was such a neat time to be able to introduce the boys to California. California has been such a big and important part of Nate's life.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The Family on The Point

Here is our family at Sea World.

Cooper and Miles, enjoying the beach.

Grandma Bethell taught all of her Grandkids how to catch sand crabs.

St. Louis

Last weekend, we visited St. Louis with our friends, the Dinwiddies. What a trip! On Saturday, we "toured" the City Museum. I'm not really sure what to say about the experience except WHAT FUN! Here is our family before we went inside - Miles is already giddy with anticipation.

Look at all this stuff to climb on! All the men in my family climbed up into that airplane. I took pictures from below. :)

This is a gigantic slide we all went down. (The boys were SO brave!)

This is another picture of the gigantic metal jungle gym outside.

They LOVED this ball pit. The first time in, they played pretty hard. The second time in, near the end of the day, they just lounged on the balls.

The boys are climbing through this metal tunnel.

Here is another view of the airplane.

Here is the 10 story slide we went down. (It's actually a garbage chute from an old shoe factory...I'm pretty sure they cleaned it up a little bit...)

And here is the REAL reason we went to St. Louis...Nate and Chris got to go to a U2 concert on Sunday night. I wasn't there, but Nate said it was amazing!!

Grandpa's Birthday

My Grandpa Holtwick turned 80 this last week, and our family gathered on Sunday to surprise him with a birthday party. It was very fun to see family that we don't see very often, and it was even better to be gathering to celebrate my grandpa.

We took some family pictures, and believe it or not, I think all 4 little people are looking at the camera in this one!

Miles' Birthday

Miles turned three this past weekend. I can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore! Here are a few highlights from his day:

Cooper helped Nate pick out a cattle truck and some horses.


Miles decided he wanted to have a Thomas birthday party. I borrowed a Thomas pan from a friend and spent 3 or 4 hours creating this:

I asked Miles several times what friends he would like to have at his birthday party. Each time (over a series of several weeks) he would answer, "Nora. Just Nora." So here, sharing a stool with him while he blew out his candles, was the guest of honor:

Oklahoma!

Our family traveled to Enid, OK, in late May to spend time with our family. Here are a few highlights:

• Spending time with our new nieces/cousins - Claire and Katie. (I didn't get a good picture of Katie...)



• Seeing a snake trying to eat a fish - YIKES!


• Fourwheeling and fourwheeling and more fourwheeling.



• Learning the depths of my mother-in-law's love for me as she dug through the trash can looking for my lost keys. (She found them, too!)

• Fishing




• Celebrating the Pence family as Katie and Claire become legal members of their family. The Lord put this family together - it is evident. What a blessing to share in the celebration!