Leighton’s Birthday

Here are just some photos of the day of her birthday a MONTH ago!  We just had a simple, fun day.  TJ had to leave for a business trip, so we went to Toys’R Us and an early lunch.  The girls decided that Leighton would want to eat at Steak’N Shake.  :-)  Leighton got a balloon and crown at Toys ‘R Us, which she loved.  Then she even picked out part of her present.  She was very excited!

Child/Baby Dedication & Father’s Day

Our church does a child/baby dedication each year.  They now have it each Father’s Day, so we just barely missed it last year.  We were coming home from the hospital on Father’s Day, so no way that was happening then!  So, this year, we got a whole weekend of dedication, Father’s Day, and her first birthday party.  Oh, what fun!  :-)

The dedication day is very special to us because we do believe that God has given parents a special calling to train their children in the ways of the Lord. 

^“4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  Deut. 6:4-9

^“6 Train ^[a] a child in the way he should go,
       and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

So, that is basically what the dedication is. . . parents dedicating their children to the Lord and committing to teach them about God and what it means to have a personal relationship with Him.  It also involves the church. . . committing to pray and encourage the parents in this endeavor. 

When we dedicated Adley and Leighton, the church had changed the way they did their service a bit.  They allow you to provide a special scripture or prayer for them to share at the dedication.  We love that personal touch.  We were going to try to make Leighton’s a little different, but when we looked back over what we had written, we knew that we really liked that prayer and it is what we pray for each of them. 

“We pray that God will begin drawing her now and that one day she will come to the knowledge of His redemptive grace. That she will serve Him passionately wherever He leads, and as it says in Colossians 1:10-12, that she will ‘live in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father. . .’”

Afterward, we usually have lunch or cake or something to celebrate with whoever is around.  (of course!) 

So, just like with the first two girls, we look forward to watching Leighton grow to see the wonderful mercies of our Father in heaven.

Up front – Leighton just kept “talking” through a lot of it.  Actually, I think it sounded like she was singing for part of it too.

Receiving our packet from Pastor Jonathan.  They usually include a copy of the bulletin and our prayer and a certificate, etc.  It is very nice!

A look at the others dedicating that day.  I’m not sure how many were in the other service.  But, there is usually a good group each year.  Another exciting thing to note is how many adopted children were being dedicated that day.  Three out of the six were adopted children.  Praise the Lord!

Lunch at Breadeux

Yummy! 

Fun with Uncle Brett 

Jaylyn 

Some of the special Fathers who were able to join us for lunch. Back: My Dad, TJ’s Uncle Larry, TJ’s Uncle Ray, TJ’s Dad and TJ with Leighton. Front: TJ’s Grandpa Geist, Adley, TJ’s Grandpa Evans and Jaylyn

 TJ and Leighton

Leighton and Papa Geist - “I’m getting your glasses!!!” 

Check it out!

End of the year Carnival

We joined the Saint Clair County Christian Home Educators group this year.  They provide some extra support, resources and encouragement for us homeschoolers.  The Master’s Lyceum (Friday school classes) is also a part of this.   It has been great to be a part of this group.  They are a pretty large group and it is nice to see that you are not the only one homeschooling.  :-)  Actually, it was obvious this year that there is a growing number of homeschoolers in the area.  I don’t remember the numbers, but their membership grew by a good bit this year.  Anyway, their last meeting of the year is a carnival and it was a blast!  The girls loved it.  Their was a pulled pork dinner, sno cones, carnival games, horse carriage rides, a great clown that did unicycle riding, juggling and balloon animals, and more.  We didn’t even get to it all!  

 Mini Golf was our first stop

Adley getting ready!

Wet sponge toss

Orange sno cone

Grape!  Some how, they chose flavors that coordinated with their outfits.  :-)

Our horse carriage

Here we go!  We found out that the horse carriage owner/driver actually lives in our town and are a part of the homeschool group too.  There are only a few families that I know of from our little town that homeschool, so it was nice to meet one of them.   

This is fun!

Bounce!

Jaylyn was bouncing pretty high!

Some more summer days

Here are a few more random pictures from a few weeks back. . .

 The girls enjoying some of daddy’s BBQ’d hamburgers.  It was definitely a hot day.  (Notice the umbrella to protect them from the sun.  Princess???) 

Adley helping me cut and mash some yummy strawberries.  

Sisters are good for some fun ideas when it is too hot outside to play!  They kept taking turns pulling each other around the house on the parachute.

Sometimes Leighton would chase them and sometimes she would ride. 

Adley would even give Jaylyn a ride too, but I didn’t get a picture of that.  

Ten Year Anniversary

Ten years ago, on June 24, 2000, I said, “I do”. Every day since then, I have spent learning more and more what an amazing gift that day was. God really does know best and I could not thank Him more for such a husband.

Here is my “Ten Year Top Ten”. . .

(these are not necessarily in any order of importance)

1. Honeymoon – Yes, we went to the “Land of Love” (That was what the sign said as we drove up.) and it was cheesy and everything was heart-shaped and it rocked! We went to the Poconos to one of those resorts they always advertised in the bridal magazines. You know the ones with the champagne glass hot tubs???? Yes we did! But, we didn’t have one of those hot tubs. Although, we did take a tour of the room with the champagne glass hot tub. :-) Ours was pretty fun though. We had our own pool and sauna in our room and a heart-shaped whirlpool tub. We had amazing food, a horse-carriage ride, ice skated, played mini golf, tennis, basketball, pool, video games, broke golf clubs, went to a pretty pitiful zoo in the mountains, paddle-boat ride, and more. The bathrooms said things like “Goddess” and “Gladiator”. It was so fun! We even had a front row seat to see Howie Mandel. Then, we hung out in Philadelphia before heading home. I enjoyed every moment with my new husband.

2. Serving our Savior Together – I have started to always sign wedding cards with this advice, “Pray together, Worship God together, and Serve God together!” I always enjoyed seeing how God chose to use me, but nothing beats allowing God to work through both of us together. We have been able to serve at Super Summer, Family Mission Trips and of course lots of ministries at our church. It has been a blessing and a blast!

3. First Vacation – Besides our great honeymoon, a couple summers later, TJ took me to Florida for my first time. Now, I had been to the beaches of the Virgin Islands, which were fabulous, but other than that, I had not been to any other beach. So, this was fun to do with TJ. And, he also took me to Disney World for the first time. We definitely had a blast! This also included our first time-share presentation for discount tickets. Somehow we got a whopper of a salesman and I will never forget how he started to lecture us in the elevator at the end that we should be learning something from every experience or something crazy. I’m pretty sure we said we weren’t going to do those any more. And, I might add. . . we did it again in Branson.

4. First House – It is always exciting to buy your first house. God really blessed us with this one. There wasn’t a whole lot of good options in our price range. And we certainly got a bargain, but that also means we are still fixing it up. Lots of fun projects here! It has provided the space we needed so far and even though it is a pain to have to remodel and update, it certainly has character and has provided lots of good memories . . . scraping lots of wallpaper/paint covered walls and ceilings, putting in a kitchen that was non-existent when we moved in, adding a nursery and extending the bathroom, putting in air-conditioning! Oh, the fun! Wait, maybe it was fun for me because I didn’t do most of that. :-)

5. First Child – Wow! This is a big one. How can you even express what it feels like to hold that first baby in your arms and see how two lives are combined into this new baby! Certainly a miracle only God can give. Jaylyn Anaye Geist came into our lives and I got to see TJ as a Dad. What a great dad he is. I can still remember when Jaylyn started cooing and gurgling like she was telling these big stories. But, she would only do really long stories for TJ. He would lean up close to her and she would just gurgle away. So sweet.

6. Second Child – Is it possible to love another child as much as that first one? Yes it is! Adley Brielle came along as our second blessing and all of us fell in love with her. Once again, seeing TJ change into a dad of two girls was so fun! He is always a big part of taking care of these girls. I really loved seeing sweet Adley sleeping on TJ completely at peace in her daddy’s arms.

7. Third Child – Again? Yes, completely head over heels in love with Leighton Aubrey! I am so thankful that TJ and I are a team together raising these girls. He takes them on Daddy-daughter dates, helps get them ready, teaches them God’s Word, and gives them plenty of tickles and kisses. Is he bothered by living in a house full of girls???? Not at all. :-)

8. Quality Time Together – Yes, this is an important part of our ten years. Dates, trips, time together on the couch watching movies. . . these are moments I have loved too. You don’t have to go on big trips together. These are the times when he makes me laugh until I cry and the times we dream about what is coming up next in our lives together. Priceless moments for sure.

9. Weird, Unexpected and Sad – What would ten years together be like without those times that aren’t like the fairy-tales? God continues to mold us and change us and grow us together. He doesn’t always use the happy times to bring us together. Yes, we have experienced the loss of loved ones together, we’ve experienced the ER together, we’ve had weird conversations while the other one was still drugged up from anesthesia after having their wisdom teeth removed, we have experienced a miscarriage together, we have experienced some things we just didn’t expect,TJ has endured my hormonal and strange pregnancy moods and we’ve even had weird visitors knocking on our door at 2am. (That was just a weird night! ) I wouldn’t have wanted to experience those things with anyone else.

10. Lastly. . . Looking forward to the next ten years and many, many more after that! I am so thankful that we still get to dream together and look forward to so much more that God has in store. We definitely need to take some better pictures together by then. And also, maybe by then, you will all be able to endure another long post. :-)

TJ, I love you and wish you a Happy Ten Year Anniversary!(This photo courtesy of Jaylyn and her camera.)

Funny Comparison

Remember this picture of Adley from a while back?
Today, I came across this picture Jaylyn took of me with her camera. I instantly thought of Adley's picture.

More Summer Fun

We went to the sculpture park for the first time.  It was nice out there.  The area was much bigger than I thought it was.  Lots of space!  Next time I will know that it is a great place to bring your kite.  Off they go to see what is next.

Checking out the water.  Do you ever feel like you are being watched?

I told TJ to go stand on the concrete where it said “No Climbing on the Sculpture” and made Jaylyn go climb on him.  He gave me one of those looks.  :-)  But, Jaylyn appreciated my cheesy humor and jumped all over him.  Then we went to have ice cream for supper at Ted Drewes.  Can you believe it. . . they complained that ice cream wasn’t supper and demanded real food????  We also made a fun visit to Grandma and Papa Geist.

Here is another day of playing in the water.