Our family(school) name........

We finally have come up with a name for our family. I would say our school but our whole lives are a ministry so I thought it fitting to call us.......

HEART FOCUSED MINISTRY

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The scripture to go along with this is:

Proverbs 9:10

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

Jacob helped me choose and we really like it. Hope you all do too!

Have a great night!

I have AMAZING news!!!!!!

I wanted to share with you all that my little Amber prayed tonight and asked Jesus into her heart!!!
Today she got upset because she couldn't hear God talking to her. She was talking to Him but couldn't hear Him talking back. And she said that she guessed that she didn't have Jesus living in her heart anymore. I didn't really know how to talk about this. She had never asked Jesus to live in her heart. So when I put her to bed we talked all about it and I prayed the sinners prayer with her and she was so excited! She even had to tell God she was sorry for breaking one of Nathan's toys when she was 3! How precious!!!!! She is only 4 now. But I think she is such a big girl now.
I had to tell you all, I am so proud of her!
Hope you all have a great night!!!!

I got an award!!!!

I got this award from JoAnna. She is my wonderful little crafty neighbor friend! If you have never checked her blog out you have GOT to!!! She is so talented and makes some of the cutest things! She has made lots of things for my family for gifts. We just LOVE her!!!! Thank you JoAnna for nominating me!

Now to the award instructions:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/ her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

I am nominating:

1. Lee at PrayerGifts.

2. April at Clay In The Hands Of The Potter.

3. Misty at A Day In The Life Of A Ministers Wife.

4. Terri at Hearts In Service.

5. Tina at Red Willies, Rainbows and Cinnamon Whirls.

6. Dianne at Majestic Mountains, Rolling Hills, Gentle Streams.

7. Leah at Courtney Family Happenings.

I made a HUGE boo-boo!!!!!!

OK in March I posted a recipe for Banana Muffins, go here, and it has been brought to my attention that I left out the sugar on the recipe!!!!! I am SO embarrassed!!!
I have fixed the recipe on my post. If you tried to make them and they were NASTY, I am sorry.
Add 1 cup of sugar!!!!
I am so embarrassed...........

Balance!!!!!!

1 Peter 5:8

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

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Good Tuesday morning all! As you can see, God has been speaking to me a little about self-control. So I thought it only fair to share it with you too! LOL

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Seriously, we are coming up on the start of our school year and I am having trouble doing the little things I know that I am supposed to do. Like getting up early, cleaning up my pantry(school area), DUSTING!!! It shouldn't be that hard! BUT.....I have spent the summer being...... well .....LAZY!!!!

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I have this list of things that have got to get done before we start school and I have started on it but there is no motivation! Then I pick up my devotion book from Joyce Meyer and yesterday's entry was talking about making time with God a priority.

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To quote my friend Joyce-"If the devil can't convince you to be idle and passive, he will drive you to do too much. As soon as you are out of balance he can devour you.(see 1 Peter 5:8 above) The word disciple comes from the word discipline. To be a disciple of Jesus, you must discipline yourself to follow his ways."

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I never realized that the word "balance" was in the word of God! Interesting......

I will have to study more on that!

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I don't think the devil is trying to get me to be too idle or give me too much to do. I think that I allowed myself to get out of balance and that is my current problem! I may be the only Jesus that someone else may ever see and I do NOT want them to see an unbalanced, frustrated, tired, unfocused Jesus. Well, that would be impossible because those traits do not flow when you talk about Jesus. He is the opposite of those things!

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So now I know my mistake and I am in the beginning stages of fixing it. Or allowing God to fix it! Because without Him I can't do a thing to fix it!!!!

Please be praying for me.

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Have a great Tuesday! God is GOOD!

Sleepover pictures..........

I wanted to share a few pictures from the night of Jacob's party. We went skating and then all the boys came here and stayed the night. They were all really good! It went very good. If I sound suprised it is because I am!LOL Don't get me wrong, these boys are good boys but when I got all 6 of them together at one time without their parents I was a little concerned. I had no reason to be though! It was such a fun time.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Me, Jacob and George.

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George, Jacob & Jonathan(my nephew) getting ready

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Christian and Jacob

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Noelle(April's daughter)

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On the left is my niece Kassie and nephew Jonathan and on the right is my friend Misty's daughter Destinee and Jacob.

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Amber playing a game

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My nephew Joey-AWESOME smile!

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Jordan(April's son)

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My nephew Joshua

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Me and George skating-we are thinking of going here one night on a date without our kids, it was SO fun!

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OK these next few pictures are from the sleepover part. The boys were feeling a little crazy and their faces show it! LOL

Jacob

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Christian

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Joey

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Joshua

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Jonathan

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Jordan

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Happy BIrthday Jacob!!!!

Ok, this is the last post from the life of Jacob! LOL


If you are just now joining us, go and look at the first post in this series titled "BLAST from the Past" and catch up with us. Lots of pictures and fun!


First I want to post a couple of pictures of me and my Jacob. My life was forever altered the day he was born. I had such a fear that I wouldn't be able to have children and the day the doctor told me I was pregnant I thought I was dreaming! I didn't believe it until I saw the ultrasound. I know that I became a parent the day I became pregnant but on the day he was born I became a MOMMY! There is no name that I could think of that I love being called.

This first picture is a couple of days after he was born. (I wouldn't dare post any from the actual day, it was a LONG labor and TERRIBLE delivery!!! I needed a couple of days to look normal again, even though this is a rough picture of me, I have great memories from it.) I had such a feeling of love come over me in the moments right before this picture was taken. I guess that was the time I had bonded with him. We had been alone for a while and it was the most awesome thing to lay there and hold MY baby!

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This next picture is just a random picture that I found that is one of my favorites of us. It was a fun day, we had family over and grilled out. He was such a CUTIE!

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These next pictures are just Jacob through the years. Some are from babyhood and some are from birthdays. Hope you enjoy my Jacob!

Sweet Baby boy!

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Looking like his uncle Gary! LOL

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Before his first haircut.(For all of you who wonder if his hair was like Nathan's)

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His picture from when he was in preschool. When I quit work and pulled him out they wanted to keep him and give a scholarship because they loved him so much.

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Him and Daddy on his 3rd birthday. He LOVED this bike!

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4th birthday,beginning of Sponge Bob phase, it is still going! LOL

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5th birthday, looking too cool!

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6th birthday, this year we got him a basketball goal. He opened the basketball first and then we told him to go look in the garage, he was SO excited!!

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7th birthday, such a handsome young man!

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8th birthday, Mrs. Tobey, Jacob and Mr. Lem

There is a great story to this birthday. We had the idea to raise money for missionaries instead of getting gifts and he was so excited to do this! So he picked Mr. Lem's parents who are missionaries to Africa and he raised $280.00 for them! I think he is a pretty awesome little guy! He has a heart bigger than his little body!

I can't believe that my baby is going to be 9 years old tomorrow. It has gone by too fast.

Jacob, I love you with all my heart and soul. I wish the best for you in your amazing life God has given you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

A Father's Love

(If you are just now joining us we are going through memories for Jacob's birthday, go to the post titled "BLAST from the Past" to see the beginning of this)

Well, Jacob's birthday is tomorrow and we have a lot to do in the morning so I am going to be posting 2 times tonight. I know it is a lot to take in but I probably will not be posting for most of the weekend so you will get a break from me. LOL!

This post is dedicated to Jacob and his Daddy. I usually post a lot of pictures of me and the kids so you won't be seeing many of me with Jacob in these posts. I don't get to post many of George with him so I thought this was fitting. And the fact that Jacob thinks his daddy hung the moon!

Here are some pictures through the years of the two of them.

ENJOY!

Such a good Daddy! Helping the little man ride the cow, how CUTE!

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Hunting Easter eggs, Jacob has always loved to do this and his daddy and Paw-Paw were usually the ones to help him!

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Jacob's very first fish he ever caught! He was casting that little rod and reel in my house from the time he could stand up! LOL

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Cooling off on a hot summer day.

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Jacob and Daddy at a fishing rodeo.

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After a tournament.

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At Christmas, George and his shadow!

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All about Paw-Paw

(If you are just joining us, please scroll down to the previous post that began this journey of Jacob's life. It is titled "BLAST from the Past".)

Paw-Paw and Jacob.

(bad crop of this picture but I couldn't resist putting it on here!)

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Today we will talk about Paw-Paw in this post. As I said before, he passed away in September of last year and that was the first real loss Jacob has had to endure. He was so small when Nanny passed away so I don't think he really understood much. But when his Paw-Paw passed he was 8 years old and it was as if he had lost his best friend. I think my pain was deeper from seeing Jacob hurt than feeling my own loss.

His Paw-Paw took him hunting and fishing and they just understood one another. From the time Jacob was born Kenny(Paw-Paw's real name) would talk about taking him hunting and fishing. He always played with him as a baby. And through Jacob's 8 years Kenny gave him little treasures like a pocket watch, a cool little flash light with different shape tips, cool fishing and hunting books, you know, guy stuff. Jacob still has all of his little treasures and I am sure he will forever.

Jacob had a realtionship with Paw-Paw that none of the other grandchildren had. He loved them all the same I am sure, he just could tolerate Jacob better. It was like they were buddies. So today I will share pictures of Jacob and his Paw-Paw with you through the years.

Jacob and Paw-Paw at Jacob's first easter. Fun day!

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Jacob with his 2 favorite people, his daddy and Paw-Paw, hunting easter eggs.

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Cooling off under the shade tree.

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Playing.

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Fun times at Paw-Paw's house.

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My favorite picture of them. Jacob loved to go and sit on this swing. It was in my mom and Kenny's back yard and there was a train track right to the left. Sometimes Jacob would fall asleep sitting here.

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Just sitting one winter day.

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The day Jacob caught his very first fish. It was a day to remember!!!

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Jacob and dad went this day to help Paw-Paw get his deer out of the woods. Jacob thought this was too cool!

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Jacob, Paw-Paw & Amber

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Jacob with Paw-Paw the last time they went fishing together. He caught some huge catfish that day!

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We miss you Paw-Paw!

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BLAST from the past!!!

For all of you that do not like to look at pictures you may not want to check my blog out for the next few days.


My Jacob will be turning 9 on Thursday the 24th and with 9 years of life behind you it takes a while to cover it all! I have been scanning pictures like crazy!


I may get it all posted today but it may take me a couple of days. Not sure.


For his birthday we are going skating and then we are having a sleep over. I have a lot to do in the next few days. So I am gonna try and get all these pictures posted.

I am warning you, there will be A LOT of pictures. I wanted to go down memory lane for Jacob, he really likes to look at my posts sometimes so I figure he would really like this.


This first post is going to be pictures of some of the people that mean a lot to us and were around when he was born. If you are someone that means a lot to Jacob and we don't post a picture of you here it is because 1. we didn't have any or 2. we couldn't find them. There are lots of people that Jacob loves and that love him but we just don't have pictures of them all.


Hope you enjoy our memories!!

This first one is my good friend April, who most of you will know from her blog, and her hubby Mitch. She is like my sister. This was before she had her kiddos.

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This is my sister in law. At the time she only had 2 children and she now has 5! It is always a blast when our families get together. She and Jacob have a pretty cool relationship. And he loves my brother, her husband, a whole lot too. I couldn't seem to find pictures of him with Jacob?

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This is my step mom. She and my dad have been married since before George and I got married so my kids have always known her.

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This is my dad. Jacob thinks he is so cool! He is always asking to go and see his dogs. He raises American Bulldogs.

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This is my mom. She has always loved to read to my children. They always ask her to read to them when they see her.

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This is my step dad, Paw-Paw as the kids call him. He passed away last September and I will be posting a seperate post about Paw-Paw and pictures of him with Jacob.

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Last but not least, this is Nanny, my grandmother. She passed away in November of 2002 and we miss her so much. She ADORED Jacob. She lit up when she saw him. And he loved her too. He doesn't remember a lot about her but he does know who she is and how much she loved him. She raised me for most of my life and was the most important person in my life until I met my husband and had my children.

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And this is just a better picture of my step dad and Nanny. I love this picture of them and wanted to share it.

Stay tuned...............