5 Years Old!

5 years ago today we were exceedingly abundantly blessed as we had our first baby boy Jake Ryan. I cannot believe how fast time flys! I cannot believe I have a 5 year old! Jake is such a joy to be around and has such a good heart. He is so very special and precious to us and we are so thankful to the Lord for giving him to us and the privelege it is to be his parents and raise him unto the Lord. Happy Birthday Jake! Dadda & Mama love you so much!!

Our Christmas

Our Christmas was definitely a different one this year for us. We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family. My parents were down south visiting my mom's family because we recently found out that my Grandma (Nana) has cancer and is going through treatment right now. My parents wanted to be down there for her this Christmas. So that left just us girls. It was definitely weird without our parents there, but we know that is what the Lord had for this year and my parents needed to be there for my Nana. So we still had a blessed time getting together and playing games. Then Christmas morning Ben woke up with a fever:( We had a blessed time just with the boys remembering Jesus and opening gifts with them. I don't think anything beats being a kid on Christmas morning, but now being a parent and watching your kid's excitment opening all their presents is so much fun too. Then we headed to the Shrewsberry's in the afternoon for Christmas dinner. We had another blessed time with them as we spent time together. So now it's time to pack Christmas away and look forward to what this next year is going to bring...ahhhh!

Here are just a few pictures of Christmas day. I'm so disappointed in myself...I forgot our camera on Christmas Eve so was not able to get any pictures of our time with my sisters, oh well... "It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet!" Don't ask me what they see in these except that they are very soft and cuddly, but this was one of the things they both had to havePapa, Grammy & boysOur nephew Ethan with JakeThis was us by the end of the night. Poor Ben just wasn't feeling that great for ChristmasHope you all had a very blessed Christmas!

Special Delivery

This is something that we mailed to our family a couple weeks ago and I wanted to share it with you all...

Special Delivery

We send this special delivery to you
To show our God is Faithful and True

This good news we want to share
So our loved ones can bathe us in prayer

I’m sure you’ve already guessed a baby
Due in August or July maybe

So may this Christmas season be merry
As we celebrate our Jesus and new baby Shrewsberry


Yes...I am 8 weeks pregnant! We are very excited and praying for a healthy safe baby this time. We didn't let anyone know but family last time because I was afraid of what did happen...a miscarriage. But this time we covet everyone's prayers and want to celebrate this life that the Lord has blessed us with. God is so good to us and faithful in our lives! So please pray for our new baby and the Lord's perfect will for our baby's life! God bless you and may you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

"For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of
peace and not of evil, to give you a
future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Catch Up

Here I am again having to catch up on my blog. As I have gone through my pictures on my camera, they go back all the way to Halloween time that I never blogged. So the following is an overview of our lives in the last couple of months...

First I have to introduce our new addition to the Shrewsberry family, our new kitten PumpkinOur visit to the pumpkin patchHalloween...Jake as Buzz Lightyear (again) and Ben as an elephantMy niece and nephews...The NatelborgsCousinsChurch boys being silly at our Harvest CelebrationThanksgiving Day...Here are some pics of the familyBenjamin turned 3 years old on Friday, December 3rd. We had a birthday party for him last weekend...A Lightning McQueen birthday, of course:)
I can't leave without mentioning that two weeks ago, Nov. 20th & 21st, we remembered a year ago our precious baby boy Seth Taylor that went home to be with the Lord. I thank the Lord for carrying us through this past very difficult year of our lives. It seems like yesterday that it happened so I can't believe it has been a year already. As we looked back at what the Lord has done in our lives this last year we can't help but praise Him and give Him all glory and honor. He is so faithful and loves us so much! This past year we also experienced a loss of another baby as in June I had a miscarriage. Our hearts long for heaven and being able to be with our other two babies. On top of that some events that have taken place in our lives that at the time were heartbreaking, but now we can see that it was for the best and God is doing an amazing work now. So what a year we've had, but I can only tell you that this life here on earth is all about Jesus and living for Him. I just want to be in His perfect plan for me because no matter what happens, I know that He will carry me through and His ways are only good for me! Thank you again for all those who have kept us in your prayers this past year...we love you all and appreciate those prayers more than you'll ever know!

Disneyland Vacation

A few months ago Matthew and I decided that we needed to have some fun and have something to look forward to, so we splurged and planned a Disneyland vacation. We went a couple weeks ago now, but of course, it's taken this long for me to post it on my blog:) Matthew worked very hard and spoiled us with being able to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland.It was very nice and so convienent for us to come and go to the parks as we wanted. We were there 5 days and nights and had a blast!! Here are the views we had of California Adventure Park from our room...Benjamin wanted to hug every character we saw, but as you can see, Jake took one picture with Winnie the Pooh and that was it for him...Jake's Favorite Things...Rock climbing at California AdventureAnd of course the Train (Jake loves trains!) We were so proud of Jake as he conquered some of his fears and went on Splash Mountain with Daddy and Big Thunder Mountain with Mommy, but that was the last of the big rides all week for him:)Ben's Favorite Things...McQueen & MaterPouting because he had to wait in line to see Lightning McQueenHe loved the Carousel and Circus Train too. Our fearless one wanted to go on everything, but was so frustrated when he was too short to. We will have to go back in a couple years so he can go on everything:)We didn't get to see many friends or family on this trip as we were busy at Disneyland, but we did get some precious time with our good friends, the Vogels. I like to call them our "kindred spirits". We love them and miss them so much and so thankful we were able to spend some time with them. Crystal also took our family pictures while we were down there. You can see that I've put a few of them on my blog design...she is amazing!:)www.crystalvogelphotography.comIt was so hot that day we had to take a break and cool off in It's a Small WorldSomething cool that happened was while we were waiting on the Steamboat, the Captain came to us and asked if the boys wanted to steer the boat. So both of them took turns steering the big steamboat around Tom Sawyer's Island and pulling the horn and bell. The boys loved it!We had a great time as a family creating special memories and so thankful to the Lord for allowing us to get away and have some fun together!