The kiddos

I'm long overdue on an update post... particularly for Jake, so his portion might be a bit lengthy.  Since he's my oldest, I'll start with him first:

I can't believe my baby boy is already 19 months old!  At his 18 month check-up last month he was 35 1/4 inches tall and 30 1/2 pounds... both of which are in the 98th percentile!  I think we have a future linebacker on our hands!  He's well into 2T clothes and is almost out of size 7 shoes.  The little man passes his "hand-me-ups" to his cousin, Adam, who is 2 months older than he is!  Must be his corn-fed Illinois roots!

I think at every stage I make the comment that "this is my favorite age," but I really mean it this time!  The kid amazes me because he learns something new EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  And I'm with him all the time, so I'm not even sure where he picks some things up!  I could not possibly list all of the words that he says, but some of his favorite phrases include "Oh wow!", "Oh no", and we just started saying "Uh-oh."  The other day he was looking at a Halloween greeting card and saying "oh wow" over and over again and then handed it to Josh.  Josh said "thanks, buddy" and Jake looked back at him and said, "Say oh wow."  He cracks me up.  Honestly, he pretty much talks non-stop all day long.  It's endless chatter and I will pick up a word here and there, but the rest is just gibberish.  He has a Buzz and Woody doll and my favorite thing is when he holds them close to his mouth and talks quietly to them as if it's a secret.  Buzz and Woody probably have blackmail information on us by now, but we wouldn't know it!  Like I said, his vocabulary is huge, but the word "Anyo" can mean airplane, thank-you, Angie, or I love you at any given time, so you have to pay attention to the context!  He's also obsessed with the moon, which I love since I've always been a bit enamored with it, too.  He's such an observant fellow and will point it out even if he sees it in the daytime.  He'll also point out airplanes that he hears fly over our house when we're inside, which always impresses me.  And if we're in the car, he generally points out tractors (or other construction equipment), animals, and other obscure things before we even see them.  He once woke up out of a dead sleep in his carseat because he heard a siren and had to see where it came from.  It blows my mind.  There are also certain words that he always whispers, which is kind of strange, but I like it.  "Bye bye" is one of them and he usually says it over and over when we're leaving some place.  On the flip side, he always growls the word "Spiderman" (which sounds more like Mah-mah... maybe he thinks I'm a superhero?  Sweet!) because Josh said it in a strange voice the first time he ever pointed him out to Jake.  What a smartie.

Sorry... I don't think I meant to go on that long about vocabulary and that's only the tip of the iceberg!  Physically, Jake is one of the most coordinated little guys I've ever seen!  He can throw a ball clear across a room and runs EVERYWHERE.  Well, sometimes he gallops which is hilarious, too!  We have a pretty substantial hill in our backyard and he loves to walk to the top and then run down it at full speed.  I keep waiting for him to face-plant, but he always makes it down in one piece.  He also hasn't met a piece of furniture that he can't climb and I've even found him on the kitchen counter on more than one occasion.  He walks up and down the stairs now like a grown-up would, but prefers to slide down on his belly since it gets him there a whole lot faster.  Again, it's all about speed.  His jumping skills (on the bed, the couch, his crib, you name it!) have only improved since our last post about it.

Other things that Jake loves include cars, trucks, trains, etc... anything that has wheels it seems!  He also loves airplanes and was in awe of a firetruck that we saw the other day.  I learned today that he can put his puzzle pieces in their proper places and can point out all of the animals in his animal book.  If you ask him where the giraffe, zebra, bear, etc. is he will point right to it!  He still has a slight obsession with Barney and if he gets ahold of Josh's iPhone, he can literally unlock it with his finger, find the YouTube icon, and load a Barney video on his own!  But sometimes he's more in the mood to play his Cars game or play with his Toy Story 3 app and can load those up, too!  It's scary how good he is with that thing!  He is also very into dressing himself or, if I pick out his outfit, he will later come to me with something different (that he most likely found in the hamper) and start trying to pull off his shirt.  His choice is almost always red, but the other day his choice was something that Mommy loved!:

At mealtime the kid eats almost everything, but we're finding that he does go through phases of what he likes and dislikes.  He once loved grapes and now he won't touch them.  He still loves almost every other fruit though and asks for a "bapple" at least once a day.  We have to hide watermelon if we have it in the house because he would literally eat it all in one sitting.  Unlike his mama he likes most veggies as well and seems to prefer carrots and broccoli... I'm glad he doesn't take after me on that!  It's actually more difficult to get him to eat meat than anything else, but we find that he'll try just about anything as long as there's a healthy amount of Ranch dressing on the side, which is totally something he gets from his daddy.  We're starting to give him a cup of water without a lid at mealtimes, which goes well most of the time.  He loves to play in water though, so every now and again he'll splash his hands in it or dump it on his tray and swirl it around.... it just depends on his mood I guess.

Josh and I see a lot of our traits in him, which is good and bad.  He gets easily frustrated if he can't do something or figure something out right away, which is totally me.  He's also a natural leader almost to a fault and will physically grab your foot and move it in the direction he wants you to go.  Or he'll grab you around the leg and "steer" you there.  If you're carrying him, he will point to where he wants you to take him, so he's getting quite bossy these days!  If I'm holding Lilly he'll often point to her chair or carseat and say "Baby" until I put her down!  He still pretty much leaves her alone unless she's laying on the floor, in the bed, or on the couch (basically not in any of her baby gear) and then he's all over her!  He thinks it's hilarious to pull out her pacifier and shove it back in her mouth, so I have to watch him closely.  He also comes dangerously close to stepping on, laying on, or putting all of his weight on her, so I stick by to make sure she's safe.  I'm glad he seems to love her though.

Like I said, I could go on and on and on about him at this age, so I'll just mention one more thing and then move on.  I am particularly proud of the little man when it comes to learning his letters.  He has always loved books and has had a baby laptop that teaches letters since he was 9 months old.  Apparently that stuff has sunk in because he can now recognize several letters... see for yourself (and please ignore the crying baby in the background!):

Oh how I love him!

As for Lil, there is not too much to report since she did not have a 1-month check-up.  We went at two weeks and she was 21 and 3/4 inches tall (90%) and 8 pounds, 13 ounces (60%)... tall and skinny!  We go back at 2 months and I am interested to see how much she's grown, since I can definitely tell that she's gotten much bigger since then!  She's out of her newborn clothes (sniff!) but still swims a bit in 3-month clothes, particularly in the waist.  She still has all of her hair and I'm pretty sure she's going to keep it (unlike Jake did) because she has much thicker hair than he ever had and dark eyebrows and lashes.  Her eyes are still a dark gray-blue, so it might be awhile before we know what color they will be in the long run.  She's now six weeks old and giving us lots of smiles, particularly in the mornings.  She snoozes during the early afternoon and is a bit of a night owl, staying awake for hours at a time in the evenings.  The good news is that she sleeps for 5-6 hour stretches during the night so I'm getting more rest than I expected to at this point!  She still seems to have a pretty calm disposition and only fusses if I don't feed her when she wants to eat, particularly in the evening.  She doesn't mind tummy time at all and actually seems to prefer it.  And although I know it was a fluke, she has already rolled over from her tummy to her back!  Granted, it was one of her "angry" moments and she was wailing, so in her anger she accidentally rocked herself over!  We were impressed that Jake did it at 7 weeks, but she must have our competitive spirit and had to beat him to it!  What a big girl!

Here's our sweet Lilly at one month:

Love that cute little double chin!

Like I said, Jake pretty much leaves her alone until she's not in one of her designated baby seats, swing, etc.  When she's on the couch or in this chair for example, it's fair game.  These would probably be a whole lot cuter if he was actually wearing more than just a diaper!  But it goes to show their difference in size!

Ohhhh life with two... it sure does keep things interesting!  There's never a dull moment in Mauneyland these days!

October Wrap-Up

Here we are a week into November and I'm still stuck in October apparently.  But seriously, where did the month go?  It seems that life with two kids makes time go by so much more quickly than it used to and the holidays will be here before we know it!  We're already less than three weeks to Thanksgiving... what is that about???  Crazy.

So here's quick recap of the rest of our month:

One of my favorite outings of the year is the pumpkin patch.  Most of the photos from the day ended up on Josh's iPhone, so I don't have too many.  I spent most of the outing sitting on a bench feeding Lilly, but Jake and Daddy had a blast running around.  The giant slide was a huge hit, but he probably liked the hay ride the most.  He is very much into tractors right now, so being pulled by one was the highlight of his year.  We have a country boy on our hands, folks!

We've had the pleasure of seeing Mindy, Michael, and Adam just about every weekend, too.  The weekend before Halloween we decided to put them both in their cute costumes and snap some photos.  Adam loved running around in his frog costume, but my son had to be bribed distracted with videos on the iPhone.  As you can see, we got him in the costume, got him outside, snapped one decent photo of the two of them), and then a meltdown ensued.  Yep, as you can see in the pictures, dinosaurs (or "crock's as Jake says) throw pretty impressive temper tantrums, too... complete with the classic falling to the ground and rolling around.  And my son can manage that with a tail!

After this, we were a little nervous that Halloween night would not go so well, but he surprisingly cooperated nicely!  The iPhone trick still worked to get him in his crocko suit and then we quickly rushed him outside.  What really saved the night was my old pumpkin bucket, which I have passed down for him to use.  He loved carrying the bucket around and ran around our yard and driveway with it.  He was a bit leery when we walked him across the street to the neighbor's house, but caught on pretty quickly.  They held out a bowl of candy and after realizing he could take one, he reached back in and ended up with about four more pieces!  After the second house, however, he had it down pat.  He walked pretty much the whole time as Lilly Minnie Mouse snoozed in the stroller.  He was really thrown off by the families who would sit at the end of their driveway or front walk.  He'd march right past them and insist on going to the front door!  He even tried to go into one of the houses, which was cute.  Once we got home we gave him a tootsie roll pop, fully expecting him to only eat a little bit.  Apparently it was a hit because he pounded that thing!  If you want to know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop, Jake would know the answer!

As for Lil, she spent the rest of the month being sweet and getting cuter by the day.  We are seriously blessed... she is still such a great sleeper and has a mellow, smiley disposition and I fall more and more in love with her every day.  She's gotten lots of love from everyone in the family, too, and she doesn't seem to mind too much.  Being cuddled is her favorite past time!

So another month has come and gone... time just needs to slow down!  I have one more catch-up post to do  and then it's onto November, complete with yummy food, colder weather, and Black Friday- my favorite!  It's definitely beginning to feel like the most wonderful time of the year!

Newborn Photos

When we lived in Illinois, a great friend of ours was a fabulous photographer (you can check her out here) and took gorgeous photos of Jake as a newborn.  She did them in our home and I thought, hmmm, maybe I could do that someday.  Since we've moved and she was not available to drive all the way here to photography Lilly (c'mon Jan, it's only a 9-hour drive!) I set up a little area in our house and did what I could.  The first batch were taken on day 13, and Jan suggests that newborn photos are done before the baby is two weeks old.  Honestly, I cut it a little bit close.  She was pretty much mad the entire time, but I did manage to get one or two:

I was hoping she'd sleep so I could really position her the way I wanted to, but she wasn't having it.  This girl loves to sleep, but she does not like to be messed with while she's snoozing!

A week later I couldn't resist and tried again.  She was still wide awake, but in a much better mood.  Here are some of my favorites:

This one makes me smile!

My "money shot" of the day came out a teensy bit blurry, but it will end up in a frame somewhere anyway:

I am still learning a lot... I'm finally pretty good with the functions of my "fancy" camera and have lighting pretty much figured out, which is half the battle I think, but there is plenty of room for improvement.  I can't wait until Jake is older and will actually cooperate and follow instructions so that I can use him as my guinea pig.  And if I could just learn how to edit in Photoshop I'd really be in good shape!  *sigh*  Guess I'll add that to the list of "things to do when I have some free time."  So basically I'll get around to it in about 18 years!  In the meantime, I need to get back to playtime with the little ones!

Prayers for a Friend...

I am a blog stalker.  I love to click on blog titles on the sidebar of my friends' blogs and see what their friends and acquaintances are up to and I feel like I'm not the only one.  So if any of you have ever stalked my blogs, you might have wondered why there are no posts on m + j = love after her last pregnancy update.  Surely you would have been expecting baby pictures and a birth story by now.  So in an effort to update you, I will let you know that her sweet baby boy, Tyson, was born on August 17th, but had breathing and heart problems shortly after.  For the past two months he has already undergone two heart surgeries and has been hooked to machines, one of which actually circulated his blood for him for awhile!  Meg and Justin have been spending as much time with him as possible at Vanderbilt's pediatric ICU and have been very close to losing him on more than one occasion.  The little sweet pea needs our prayers.

Motherhood really messes us women up, mostly in good ways, but in so many other ways, too.  Before having children, I probably would have read Meg's story and been very sad and concerned about it, but I doubt I would have checked Facebook multiple times everyday to see how he's doing (which, if you are interested, can be found at Help Tyson Fight on Facebook).  I probably would have said a prayer or two every once in awhile, but would not have found myself in tears when I pray for their little family, as well as the other families that are going through similar situations.  Before having children of my own, I would have been worried about Tyson's progress, but would have given little thought to how difficult this must be for Meg and her husband, Justin.  Meg has only held her son on a few occasions, and that thought alone makes my heart ache in big ways.  I honestly feel like their presence with him probably does just as much, if not more, than all of those doctors, machines, and procedures combined.

As for Meg and Justin, they are handling this with grace and courage, taking it one day at a time.  Their posts and updates remain as optimistic as possible, even though I know that this has to be the hardest thing they've ever experienced, and it's not like it was by choice.  I know that as parents, we'd all do the same, handling it the best way that we know how.  I know that when Jake just has a head cold, I feel absolutely helpless, so I cannot imagine how much harder their days must be, which is why I pray.  When a situation seems helpless, that is the time when prayer is needed the most, and I decided to share their story in order to have more people praying for them.  I want nothing more than to see them finally take Tyson home, and he has sure put up a fight thus far!  So please join me in praying, whether it be just once or everyday, for Meg, Justin, and baby Tyson.  And if you're reading this and have little ones (or big ones) of your own, make sure you thank your Heavenly Father for those precious gifts.  And hopefully one day soon you will click on my blog and notice that m + j = love has jumped to the top of my blog roll, filled with happy pictures and updates of a healthy baby Tyson.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  If you ask me, that's a prayer worth saying!

Thanks for reading... as a blogger I can get caught up with updates about my own life and family, but I am glad I can use it today to help a friend instead.

Full Sentences

We are now talking in full sentences, which basically means a noun and a verb.  Here's the proof:


Josh: You stink.  Did you poop?
Jake: I pooped.


[ Pregnant Pause ]


Jake: Ohhhh nooooooo.


Love that kid.  Wish I had this conversation recorded!  Mind you, this does not mean that we are anywhere near ready for potty training.  This kid has absolutely NO interest!

Progress on the Plant

To say I've been consumed with Lillian over the past couple of weeks would be an understatement.  To be honest, I think I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession over this little girl.  I was quite possessive of Jake, too, when he was a newborn, and I think it's due to the fact that I could literally just sit, hold, and stare at my little ones all day long.  And Lilly is such a cuddlebug and such an easy-going baby that it makes it even easier.  So between caring for the both of them and spending my "free time" completely captivated by my new daughter, not much else has gotten done.  And then I realized that she has also taken over the blog, too... not that anyone minds I'm sure.

So today I am sitting down and finally updating you all on what we really moved here for... our church plant!  I know many folks are wondering how it's going, what's happening, etc. so hopefully I can find a way to put it all into words without writing a novel... hitting the big points if you will.  And the scary part is  that our story starts back in March...

Well, to be technical about it, our story starts so very long before that as Josh told me when we first met that he wanted to be a church planter, but as you know, our journey first took us to Small Town, Illinois. But last winter/spring, we felt like the time was drawing near and Lexington continued to pop up on our radar.  Every time we came to Lexington to visit my sister and her family, we just felt something special, like it was home.  We took a couple of trips just to explore the area and stumbled upon the area that we felt had the greatest need, and therefore offered the biggest opportunity to make an impact and lead folks to Jesus.  Essentially, it's a neighborhood that has thousands of homes, most of which are owned or rented by young families.  Between there and the town north of it, there are 100,000 people and only five churches.  Yes... five!  And they aren't five large churches either, so needless to say, there are thousands of families in this area without a church home.  And perhaps they just stopped looking for one if they ever were in the first place.  Something had to be done.  It was during these trips and our conversations at home that the vision and details for TurningPoint Church, our future church plant, began to really take shape.

On that same trip we also drove by those five churches, just to get a feel for what was in the area.  The closest one to the neighborhood was a little bit off of the main road leading in and the building was in a very industrial area.  Josh was actually able to go in and meet the receptionist even though it was after office hours.  The receptionist took him for a quick tour of the building, assuming that he was interested in coming to church there, and I stayed in the car with Jake.  He was very impressed with the building, especially considering that it looks pretty small from the outside, and was disappointed that the pastor was not there.  Little did we know that we had really stumbled upon our future that day.

During subsequent visits, we again visited area churches.  Our friend, Zach (whose family will be joining us here eventually), came with us on one trip and we decided to drive by this same church again to show him what was in the area.  Again, we didn't go in, and in fact if I remember correctly, Jake got sick in the car... on me.  And in my purse.  Oh the joys of motherhood!  But despite that, there was something about the place that kept drawing us in.  I can't explain it, but there was a strange level of curiosity about the place, even though we had never been to a service or met the pastor.  We were still moving forward with our plans to plant our church based on the vision and big picture that we felt God had given us.  So as you know, in August, we moved to Kentucky full-time.

Being a church planter has its busy and slow seasons, just like any other job.  While my job ramped up (mainly because I was working extra hours to make sure my office was set up and prepared for my maternity leave), Josh's days slowed down a bit.  He went about the business of setting up appointments with local organizations and trying to meet as many people as he possibly could, but it's tough when you don't know many people in the area.  He made sure to meet with local pastors as well, making sure that they understood that we were coming here to join them in serving the kingdom, reaching people who did not already have a church home.  One of these meetings was with Alex, the pastor of the church right down the road, and to say it went well would be an understatement.  I don't think either one of them expected to hit it off the way that they did, but Josh came home that day and told me that he felt that they would be friends for a long time.  It was a little weird, but I could tell that he was excited.  Josh gets along with everyone, but there was certainly something different going on.  He also told me that he wanted to start going to church there until we were up and running, and that we should do what we can to help serve his church and help them grow in the meantime.  Apparently the church was about seven years old, but had stayed pretty small since its doors opened.  After going to my first Sunday service there, I told Josh that it certainly wasn't small because of Alex's preaching, which was awesome by the way, and I could kind of see what Josh meant about us being able to help.  With our experience and training with the Association of Related Churches, the changes they needed to make to grow were pretty minor, but would make a big difference.

About a week after their first meeting, they met again, and this time Alex asked Josh what he thought about maybe doing this church plant together... as in, we would take our vision for TurningPoint Church and launch it with Alex's help, in his building, utilizing his congregation as our launch team.  Now let me just go on a tangent here and say that this just does not happen to church planters!  Church planting is generally a pretty lone-wolf endeavor, and finding a launch team is one of the biggest challenges.  The launch team is essentially a group of people who learn about the vision and become invested to the point that they volunteer wherever necessary to make the vision come to life.  They plug in everywhere, being greeters, working in kids ministry, and doing a lot of the behind the scenes and administrative stuff to make the machine go, as there is really no paid staff at a church plant.  Josh and I always said that if we could put together a launch team of thirty people (or preferably families) then we'd be in good shape, so imagine our surprise when Alex proposed this to us!  He was basically talking about us having a team of at least one hundred folks if not more and a building on top of that!  We had planned on meeting in an elementary school or gym, or anywhere that would take us really!  It was a lot to think about.

In the weeks that followed, Josh and I talked a lot about the possibility.  He sought council from other church planters and pastor friends, most of which told him that co-pastorship really just doesn't happen.  We met Alex's family for dinner one night, still uncertain about what the future held for our churches, and everything continued to click.  We all got along famously, and the possibility continued to get more and more realistic everyday.  It wasn't long before both families went with intuition and we decided that we were meant to do this ministry together.  As Josh and Alex continued to meet and plan, we continued to attend on Sundays, getting to know the families in their congregation, and joined their small group to continue to grow our relationship with their family.  Small group by the way is now the highlight of my week... God has really put some wonderful people around us during this time of transition and He continues to confirm our decision to move here over and over again.  As you can see from all that I've written already, this entire process has been perfectly orchestrated by Him and it gets more and more exciting everyday as His plans come to fruition.  I am in awe.

Three weekends ago, Josh preached as a "guest" at Alex's church.  His message was about whether we were servicing the kingdom or servicing the machine, or more simply put, our church home.  Are we making decisions to keep the people that are already in the church happy or are we doing things to find those who are lost and bring them in?  Jesus' entire message was to seek and save those who are lost, but churches can so easily become inwardly focused that they make newcomers feel unwelcome sometimes. He did a great job and I think a lot of people left thinking about things in a new way.  The following week Alex preached a message on taking ownership for actually living out that mission that Jesus put before us.  What are we doing as individuals to make this happen?  He then talked about what they were doing as a church to make this happen.  He did not reveal too much, but he did announce that Josh and I would be coming on-board and some changes would be taking place.  There would be a follow-up meeting on the next Wednesday night and he encouraged everyone to attend.

The Wednesday night meeting would be what I would consider our very first "launch team" meeting for TurningPoint Church.  Josh and I had been thinking about this day for months, and once again, God blew our socks off.  We had about 60 adults attend and Alex and Josh did a phenomenal job of laying out the vision of what could be if we made some changes to really reach out to those families who are not in church.  They reminded us all that it is not about getting more people in the seats, but about teaching those "more people" about God's love and helping them find their purpose.  It's about restoring relationships, seeing families grow stronger, spouses growing closer, parents teaching their children how to love better, and serving those around us.  Jesus simply told us to love one another and to share the good news with others... it's that simple.  And I think we forget that as we sit in our pews week after week.  It was nice to be reminded.  This past Sunday Josh preached the message again, but not as a guest, and it was very well received.  We also had our first "Next Steps" class, which is essentially a series of membership classes, and we had about forty people in attendance, several of which signed their membership agreement for TurningPoint.  What was once just a vision and a dream is now becoming a reality, and I am humbled and amazed to be even a small part of it.  I've said it before, but God is so very good and we are so incredibly blessed.

Phew... I knew I wouldn't get away with a short post on this!  But with all this being said, we are still planning our official launch of TurningPoint Church in February 2012.  It's a work in progress, but you can check out our website here.  You can also like us on Facebook.  We still have a lot of work to do (and that only picks up after we launch) but seeing the momentum build and putting some of our plans in place gets more and more exciting everyday.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us since this whole thing started.  We've had our ups and downs, but it has been such a great journey thus far.  The way everything is unfolding is definitely making this the most unconventional way to plant a church, but it just reminds me that it truly is God's plan and not ours that takes precedent.  If we just get out of our own way, He can do wondrous works all around us.  We will keep you all posted on what is to come in these next few months, but in the meantime, I have to get back to cuddling that sweet baby girl of mine.

We're sending all our love from Mauneyland.

xoxo

Celebrating Lilly

Have I mentioned recently that I LOVE living near my family?  My sisters and mom missed the baby shower for Jake, so they wanted to do something special for Lilly.  They threw a party ten days after she was born, invited a few friends and family, and we had a very low-key welcome party for my sweet girl.  In a word, it was perfect.  The only thing missing was a few of you that couldn't make it, but I look forward to your visits soon!  Welcome, Baby Lilly!

The Guest of Honor... my pretty girl!

The food table... yummy!

Beautiful Decor

One of my residents from my UT days (and now one of my very best friends)... love you, Laura!

The award for farthest distance traveled goes to my Aunt Karen and cousin, Hillary!

The kiddos with their Great Grandaddy and Mawmaw.

Did I also mention how much my family and friends rock?  We had guests from Cincinnati, Atlanta, and even Cleveland come for the day!  Lilly sure is loved... and we sure are blessed.  Thanks to everyone for making our day so very very special.