Steve and Jenny Valentine

I have had the thought, "this {raising support} would be easier if we didn't have three small littles underfoot"...but then I hear Karis from the other room singing, " Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust Him more ".  What a great reminder, yes 'tis so Sweet to trust in Jesus! Her sweet little voice just singing away, all Glory to God, and my heart once again is reminded to be thankful. To trust Jesus in this entire process of raising support. To lean on the only One who is capable to sustain us, provide for us and give us the grace to {continue} to trust Him more. If I didn't have Karis, Isaac and Olivia around, I might possibly miss out on some pretty good lessons the Lord is teaching me. We read them devotional stories from a great children's book, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing and just recently I read them the story about the mustard seed (as mentioned in the Bible in Luke 17). The words in the devotional pierced my heart.....

Karis and Isaac got to meet their baby sissy the evening she was born.  Since Olivia was born just after 4pm, my friend Cassi (who took care of them that day) brought them up to the hospital.  Funny story, when Cassi got the message that Olivia had arrived, she told Karis and Isaac and they told us that Karis ran around the room yelling something like, "MY BABY SISTER IS HERE!"  So cute! She was so excited to get up to the hospital. I don't have any real great pictures of that first sibling meeting and the one I do have of Karis, me and Olivia is a little blurry, but it works.  Isaac was very unsure of what was going on and stayed in daddy's arms, all while holding on to his baby doll.  He didn't want to get too close and I think was nervous as to why mommy was in a hospital gown and bed.  They didn't stay long since it was close to their bed time.  They went home for a good rest and came back the next morning to spend some time bonding with their new ...

10/29/13 - Fun time on the playground at daddy's work. I think this is the first time I've seen her do this monkey swinging action! 10/30/13 - Two things: Steve hates glitter, Karis LOVES glitter. 10/31/13 - Steve caught Isaac making this silly face on camera...too funny! 11/1/13 - Evening in Celebration with the Heinsch family, Karis enjoying her first hot cocoa by the lake 11/2/13 - Celebrating Steve's 30th - a few weeks past his actual birthday, but it was the first weekend he was in town and not traveling for work in a while! Steve hates attention on him and didn't want a party...Jenny told him since it was his 30th that we had to do something.  So we landed on a small gathering with close friends.  He had a blast hanging out in the "man cave" at a local restaurant with just a few of his closest guy friends, eating dinner, chatting and watching Texas Tech football. 11/3/13 - If you live in Florida, one staple item you n...

Be STILL and know that I am God... One of my favorite things to do is sit outside in the early morning {YES, even though I'm not a morning person} and just admire the beauty created around me by the one true God.  There's something calming and relaxing about taking in such splendor. It's even better with a hot cup of coffee in my hand! So it's no wonder that after a very frustrating morning, upon taking my kiddos outside {after major fits, melt down and voice raising} that they instantly calmed and starting giggling as they looked out over the pond and ducks behind our house.  And I had one of those "a ha" moments {one of those moments where I think to myself, why didn't I do this sooner? Maybe this could have avoided all the frustrations that occurred 10 minutes prior!}  It made me think of a few things: 1. God is amazing, he created us to worship him and find complete solace and satisfaction in Him alone. {Thankful for God's work in creation and...

We are blessed to have a beautiful pond behind our house and it's always fun to feed the ducks. However lately, we have not been able to feed the ducks, it's sad really because we go outside and shake our bag of snacks and they don't come, always leaving a disappointed two year old. So it was a bit of a surprise one morning last week when we were just finishing up breakfast and I see Isaac looking out the back window out at the pond, pointing and making quacking noises, and sure enough there were several ducks right on our back patio.  I took this opportunity to get the duck snacks out and Karis was very excited to feed them.  Isaac was confused as to why I was giving away "his" snacks to the ducks, but enjoyed seeing them out there none the less.  The fun lasted a while, and then a duck snatched a cracker right out of Karis' hand and that's when I snapped a picture that makes me laugh every time I see it {no she was not injured folks} but she was traumati...

We enjoyed a day by the pool while visiting with my sweet friend April. She and her son are in town on vacation with family {her husband joins her on the second leg of their vacation next week}. It was fun to see her and Dub and let our kiddos play together! Karis is truly our little Floridian and enjoyed the sand, sun and water. Today was Isaac's first real experience with getting to play in water park area and he loved it too. What a fun way to spend part of our day! Love this sweet friend! Karis can't wait to get wet Little Will {Dub} eating lunch Karis was eating her pear upside down and kept saying she was eating an ice cream cone Dub is one CUTE little man! Isaac enjoyed the splash part When I sat him down, he instantly stood up on his own and just wanted to stand there Karis and Dub playing in the sand Karis chillin in the hammock...let's just say watching her get into a hammock was VERY entertaining! ...