Happy New Year!

Wow, another year has passed..

And all I can think is what did I do in 2009 that lasted?

Did I love my husband by honoring, serving, submitting, and loving him the way God has called me to?
Did I strive to train, teach, love, discipline, and encourage my children with a heart of love or in frustration?
Did I allow the gospel to be center in all my daily routines?
Did I offer the same love that God has given me by pouring our His grace on me daily to my family, friends, church family, and strangers around me?

These are all questions I have pondered today as I dried my hair and got dressed. To some of the questions I can honestly answer a BIG yes, and to some of them I can answer an even BIGGER NO! Here I am again using too many I's. I did this or I did that. Even though I play a big part in what I do, I need to be focused on what God has called me to do and do it in His strength and not my own. I did not love my husband or children unselfishly, God did through me. I did not pour out grace to those around me, God did through me.
Thank you Lord for showing yourself to others through me, and thank you for forgiving me when I allowed my sin to cast a shadow on You. May 2010 be a year of shining Your light to all those around me in all I do, mundane and all.

Merry Christmas to All!

Our family decorated for Christmas before we left for Texas. It was a fun time, especially since the kids got to decorate their own tree.

We also enjoyed listening to Christmas music and decorating the BIG tree. We then tried to have a photo shoot with the camera timer, and Karis took the pictures of Justin and I. She did a pretty good job!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth and time with family. I will post more pictures from Christmas later and Noah's birthday pictures to come also.

Thanksgiving in Texas

Our family left for Texas the Monday before Thanksgiving to first spend four days with Justin's family in Orange. We celebrated Thanksgiving with them, and Noah a few early birthday gifts. As usual, Aunt Courtney had a lot of fun stuff planned for Karis to do, and I got to surprise my friend Laura for her 30th birthday and some of my other friends from Beaumont. We also got to see Justin's aunt Canda who is sick with brain cancer. It was good to see and visit with her and her husband Mike. Here are some pictures of our fun:

Noah and Grammy reading some new books!

Noah, mostly Karis, opening his early birthday gifts.

Karis helping Courtney decorate Mamou's Christmas tree at the nursing home

Noah wondering when all this decorating will be over so he can....

play with his trucks, wait, it looks like Karis is taking over, imagine that?

Mamou reading Noah a new book after Thanksgiving dinner.

Me and Noah on Thanksgiving

My precious little ones!

Again, reading books, but this time with Aunt Courtney!

God is good to give us family, and we so enjoy spending time with them. We miss you guys and love you!

Mexico Trip: My Handsome Husband!

Again, sorry about the crazy posting, but these are some of my favorite pics of Justin and I. I love you babe!

Mexico Trip Pictures

Here are some collages of our trip to Mexico. I am sorry that the posting is going to be so out of sink, but I had already typed the whole entry before I added the pictures, and I can't figure out how to add the text from an older post to this one, so hope you enjoy it anyways!

Mexico Trip Commentary

To start things off, it was strange for me to be flying on an airplane without my children, but oh what a relief to not have to make sure that they were quiet and content. ( My children usually do exceptionally well on airplanes, so I really have nothing to complain about, but just being with Justin and not having to take care of someone else for once was so nice.) We arrived at the resort on Sunday afternoon after a crazy van ride from the airport! We got settled into our rooms and headed to the Snack bar to have a snack before dinner. Our stay was all inclusive, so we got to eat all the time, as much as we wanted. The never ending chips and guacamole was my favorite, and the food was good. Our first night there, we decided to go to the Theatre to see the gladiator show, after five minutes, we left, not what we expected but a funny memory to say the least!
Monday brought much exercise, working out at the gym, some beach volleyball, and lots of walking, along with lying and reading on the beach.
Tuesday and Wednesday, we played tennis, rode bikes, I beat Justin at table tennis, lots of reading and walking and of course eating! We had a chance to eat at two of the nice restaurants, a French and Asian one, both served four course meals. They were very good, and by dessert I was stuffed!
Thursday before coming home, we kayaked in the waves, it was amazing. I know why people do that for a workout! The water was beautiful, and the time together was priceless. The Lord rejuvenated me in so many ways and grew our marriage so much. What a blessing to be with Justin on this trip and to be with Michelle. Oh how wonderful to just sit and talk with you and reminisce over the last few years. I love you my sweet, dear friend, you are a true blessing from the Lord.
Justin, thank you for this wonderful trip, I love you more everyday. You are a blessing I do not deserve and thank God for everyday. I love you my husband.
Rob, it was fun to be with you too, I don't want to leave you out man!
Mom and Dad, thank you for watching Karis and Noah. Thank you for loving me and them so much to take care of them for us. You guys are the best, and I couldn't ask for greater, more loving parents. God truly blessed me when he gave me to you. I love you.
Lord, I pray the next 10 years of our marriage will grow us in ways that we cannot even understand. I pray you would continue to mold me into the woman you desire me to be. May we face the next 10 years with joy, patience, endurance, and grow more in love with You and each other every passing day. May our children come to see their need for a Savior, and may you be the center of our lives. Rob and Michelle, I pray the same for you and the boys, and may the next trip we take (20th anniversary) be a celebration of 10 more faithful years with our Savior and our spouses.

Happy Birthday My Sweet Boy!

Today my little man turns 2 year old. Where does the time go? Noah's personality has changed so much in the last year. He is such a joy to be around, always happy and content just to be with someone, especially his sister. He loves to do whatever she is doing. Oh Noah, how I enjoy your sweet laugh, your hugs, your never ending energy, and your love. You brighten each day, and God has blessed me so much with you. I love you more than I can say. May God call you to be His own and may your father and I teach you of Him all the days of our lives.

Early Christmas Gift

My wonderful husband surprised me last Friday with a new front loader washing machine. My washing machine had been acting up a lot lately, I would have to manually turn it on the inside to get the spin cycle to start after every wash. It was a bit laborious, but I was getting used to it. Justin does enjoy having his laundry done, everything washed, folded, put up, and ironed. This is actually probably my favorite household chore to do. The first thing I did was wash our comforter, no more laundry mat for me!! (at least fora awhile).
I am so very blessed. What a gift from the Lord and my very sweet husband. I don't know how I will top this one! Any ideas?

Whirligig Festival

Saturday, Justin took us to the Whirligig Festival. It is our town of Wilson's attempt to have you spend money and eat a lot of greasy unhealthy food. It is also a time for the community to reach out to each other and let the town know where places are and what new shops and things have opened. I made the mistake of getting a blooming onion and paid for it the rest of the day. Justin tried to advise me against it, but I was my stubborn self as usual. I will not do that again, at least I hope I won't. After only eating about 1/4 of it and spending $7 on indigestion, maybe next time I will listen to my husband!

The kids had fun riding the kiddy rides, and I had fun with them. Noah didn't want to do anything but ride the helicopter, which we did.

Noah and his new haircut, what a BIG boy he is now. He wasn't too sure about all the people!

Me, Noah, and Karis riding the helicopter ride!

It was a fun day, but I was glad to get off the ride!

Pumpking Carving Time

Justin, the kids, and I had fun carving our pumpkin a week ago. The pumpkin is now in the trash, but the kids had fun making a face on it and scraping out all the gooh! Hope everyone is having a great fall.

Fall Is Here!

Our neighbors gave each one of the kids a pumpkin a few weeks ago. It was so nice of them to do that, and thanks to Aunt Courtney, they each had a face to put on the pumpkin. Karis got to make hello kitty, and Noah got to make pooh bear. It has been so funny to hear Noah say "Bye-bye pooh bear," every time we leave to go somewhere for the last two weeks. Thanks to Papa John and Amma, the kids have their cute fall shirts. Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather.

New Territory

I have officially stepped into new territory as a mother. My son has always loved his bed, sleeping and napping. He was sick a few weeks ago and his schedule got off some, then Justin was gone last week for a few days and his schedule continued to be off. Now the last few days, he has been crying when it is nap time or waking up crying after only sleeping an hour or so. Then the next day he would take a good nap. Now two days in a row, he has been crying. I have been listening to him yell for mommy to hold him now for about 45 minutes, it is very sad and my heart is hurting for him. I have gone in a few times to try and comfort him and all is does is start him over again, oh the joys of mothering. There is nothing wrong with him, all I can figure is he is testing the waters, seeing if he can win this battle. He is doing a great job right now of testing me.
I am thankful for God's grace since I am prone to just give in, but I must do what is best for him and let him see who God has put in charge and it isn't him. Oh Lord, strength and wisdom for today!

Anniversary Cont.

Justin and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Raleigh, eating at one of our favorite restaurants, On The Border, yes, I realize it is not a fancy place but it is good food! We were very thankful for The Scotts watching the kids for us, they live in Raleigh, so we dropped the kids off at their house and went on our date. After a long, uninterrupted dinner, we went to Lifeway bookstore and browsed and bought a few things of course. It was a great night reminiscing about the last 10 years and looking ahead to our future.

Happy 10 years Justin!

For my gift, along with our anniversary trip in November with the Tombrella's, Justin bought me a new wedding ring. We had talked about it for awhile back, and I knew I was getting one because he traded in my other one. For those of you who might not think I am sentimental, the wedding ring that I had was not my original one that Justin gave me. That one got lost in the mail ( a very long story). Anyways, I had told Justin what I like, and he outdid himself. I was pleasantly surprised especially when he gave me this ring just like he proposed to me 10 years ago, attached to the same Bible. Great job babe! I love you!

The Bible with my new ring.


Close up view.

Thanks Chris and Rebecca for watching the kids, they had a great time and so did we. You guys are a blessing to us.

Birthday Visit from my Parents

I was again blessed by my parents being here on my birthday and my Mom's birthday which are a day apart. I can only count two times in my life, all 31 years, where my mom and I have not been together on or around our birthdays. It is such a blessing to me, since in our family, birthdays are very special! Since my parents flew this time, they got to stay a week, Saturday to Saturday.
We had a lot of fun. Mom and I got to have a girl's shopping day, courtesy of Papa John and Justin watching the kids for us. We went to Raleigh and enjoyed lots of looking and eating at On The Border. We also took the kids to the Marble Museum in Raleigh, for the first time. They had a blast. There was so much to do that Karis was running around like a chicken with her head cut off to all the different places, and Noah just followed her wherever she went. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Click on the collage to enlarge

We did more shopping at the Smithfield outlet mall, where Noah and Karis got some clothes and of course I got to eat at Zaxby's. Friday we hung out most of the day since my parents were leaving on Saturday. We did get to have a date with just the grown ups, thanks to Nancy coming and babysitting. We went to eat at The Beefmaster, a place where you can only get steak, baked potato, and salad. It was very good and we had a wonderful birthday dinner thanks to Papa John footing the bill! Thanks Dad!

I am so thankful that my parents come and visit us. We always seem to pack a lot into a few days, but the time is always memorable. I love you guys and so do the kids. Noah still asks to kiss Amma and Pop John before bed!

Ten Years Ago....

Ten years ago today

A new chapter in my life began,

As I stood before family and friends

And married the most godly man.

Your passion and love for Christ

Is and was so contagious and pure,

It was the first thing I noticed

And what drew my heart to yours.

Here are ten pictures that represent 10 wonderful, exciting, adventurous, sometimes hard, and always fun years. May these memories of God's grace in our lives and marriage remind us from where our strength and love for each other come from, Him.

Mr. and Mrs. Justin Childers

Our wedding day, October 2, 1999

Hanging at my parents house with our first dog, Josiah.


Rangers baseball game when we were in seminary.


Celebrating a friend's wedding while still in seminary.

Graduation from seminary 2004

Thanksgiving 2005 at my parents house.

My handsome husband sporting his necklace from Karis.

Easter 2009 with the whole family. Justin is such an amazing, loving father, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Our journey in on this day in 1999 started with a kiss so my memories will end with a kiss. I pray God continues to give us many more years together, they have only grown more special and sweet.

I love you Justin more than words can say, and what I said at the beginning still rings true: I married the most godly man, who spurs me on daily and continues to love me in spite of my faults. It is an honor to be your wife, and I am so blessed to be first HIS then YOURS.

"Glorify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together."

Psalm 34:3

Forts and Fun!

About a month ago, we took a trip to the farm, that is to visit Gordon and Betsy Bailes, friends of the family. We have been to their house many times, (Calvin lived with them the first three months we were in Wilson), but we had never seen the whole farm. Gordon and Betsy drove us around in his supped up golf cart and showed us the farm, watermelons growing everywhere, bamboo trees, and old buildings. After the tour, we enjoyed visiting with them and eating pizza. Karis and Noah had a wonderful time, as did I.

A picture at the Bailes' house.

One Monday morning, because it was raining outside, I built a fort for the kids in the extra room. They had fun playing in it, but mostly Noah enjoyed knocking it down!

Noah and Karis throwing the beach ball over the fort.

Karis setting up her kitchen in the fort! Fun times!