Her Mother's Daughter

Scott and I always kid around about how much Kilee looks like me, but how much she acts like him. I was downloading some pictures off of the camera and came across this one. I cannot believe how much it looks like one of my baby pictures. Am I right, Mom and Dad? Scary. :o)

A beautiful weekend

Hello all!

Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely spring weather. We had a great weekend together. Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent some time together around the house. Kilee got sick Friday night with a fever and kept the fever throughout the day Saturday, but when we went to the doctor's office, they said that it was viral and nothing to worry about. Now, she has dropped the fever, but has a head to toe rash! Oh well, it doesn't seem to bother her and the doctor says it's part of the virus running its course.

On Sunday, we had to stay home from church because Kilee was sick and because we had to finish up work on the house before our open house that afternoon. We had a couple of people drop by, and one of the families seemed to be seriously considering the house. Only time will tell! We're just going to trust the Lord with the timing. And if I start to be discouraged and frustrated, remind me of what I just said in the previous sentence! During the open house, the three of us went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and took a walk in the park. Kilee was definitely feeling better! We headed home after that and played out in the backyard while Scott cleaned out the cars and barbecued. After Kilee was in bed, Scott and I ate supper out on the patio. What a gorgeous day! Here are a few pictures of Kilee and Racer in the backyard.

Big Smiles

Smile big, Kilee!

Bigger!

Whoa!

Shots from the Last 3 weeks

Here are a few random pictures from the past few weeks. The first two are of Kilee hanging out with some of our friends, the Melber kids. Don't be fooled! They actually have 5 kids, but these are of K and Big J playing with Kilee. The last 3 are random shots from Easter weekend when Scott's mom and Eldon came to visit! Thought you might enjoy them.

Little Taryn

About 10 days ago, some friends of ours from Hardin, KY (where we used to live) were in some dire circumstances. Their 17-month-old daughter, Taryn, who is the newest addition to their family through the miracle of adoption, contracted Strep Pneumonia and became acutely ill. So ill, in fact, that she was not expected to live and was transported by helicopter with a team of 6 medical professionals to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. They desperately tried to save her life there. The prognosis was grim. The first night, her family was told that they needed to decide whether or not to put her on life support. As soon as their church family and friends heard, we all started to pray for little Taryn. The second night, they were told that Taryn had a 50/50 chance of making it. Prayers continued to go up before God. Well, our great, almighty and powerful God was at work in little Taryn's body and now 10 days later, her body is recovering so well that she is no longer on the critical care floor! The doctors are amazed and perplexed. That's just how our God works, isn't it? He's so merciful. Sometimes we don't understand His mercies, or why He chooses to heal some and take some home to Him. We are so incredibly thankful that He healed Taryn!!! She's doing great.

Through the journey that Dave and Traci have been on for the past 10 days, they've been able to share the gospel with other families on the critical care floor at the hospital. They've seen some families lose their little ones, and others have victories like Taryn. I'm sure it's been heartbreaking, but it's so cool that they've been available to share Christ with others during their time of deepest hurt and need.

Please continue to pray for Taryn's family, especially her parents Dave and Traci as they navigate the recovery period with her. Please pray also that Taryn's breathing would be less labored and that her low-grade fever would diminish such that she could be allowed to return home to her brother and sisters.

If you're interested on how to pray specifically each day, visit www.henrysky.blogspot.com for details on Taryn's recovery and specific needs and prayer requests.

Easter Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend. We had a great Resurrection Sunday! Scott and I played in the church praise band, which was really fun for us. Scott's mom (Kilee's mamaw) and Eldon came to visit and we all had a great time!

Our Girly Day

Last Sunday, Scott had a meeting after church, so Kilee and I went home and played. She looked so cute in her little pink dress that I thought I'd start taking some pictures of her. Well, then she started to do the girliest things! She picked up my purse and carried it around, pushed the stroller with the baby in it, rocked and kissed the baby doll and made some of the cutest girly faces! Here are some pictures from our day together.

Using a fork!

Ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, Kilee has mastered the FORK!

Thinking about it . . .

The Bite . . .

The chew . . .

Yea, Kilee!

Runnin' Free!

Ah, the total freedom of being a baby!

The BIG Snow

We have been blessed this weekend with an enormous snow! We've got about 10-12 inches on the ground and Kilee doesn't know quite what to think about it. I have had a fairly leisurely day as Scott has watched Kilee for a good part of it. They played in the living room, threw birdseed out to the birds, played with the dog and took a nap in the recliner. I was able to take a nice long shower and a big nap! So nice. I made a trip out to the grocery last night and made it home just in time! By the time I was heading home, the interstates looked like our front yard -- covered in snow.
We are doing well and have had a healthy month so far. Kilee is talking all the time. Most of it is unrecognizable babble, but she does have some new words under her belt! "Here you go," "Thank you," "This," "Whatisit?" and "Mum-Mum" for (yum-yum) are some of the newest ones.

Here are some pictures of Kilee out in the snow. We had such a great time!

Craftiness

Kilee is getting to the age where she can enjoy doing small, easy crafts with me. Here are a couple that we've tried.

Since she just recently passed the 1 year milestone, I really wanted to do her handprint in plaster. She did such a great job holding her hand still!

Here lately, we've been talking about how "God is Good" and "God made Everything". We decided to try to do a lesson craft with some foam stickers. Kilee really enjoys sticking them onto the paper, but she originally thought they were cookies and tried to eat them. I hope I found all the ones we dropped!

Uh-Oh . . .Cheerios!

Okay, so I tried to do a clever spin-off of the early 90s campaign "Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O's", but it may not have been as funny as I originally thought. Anyhow, we were coming in from the grocery the other day and I laid the diaper bag by the door as I was taking the groceries to the kitchen. Not long after I started unloading groceries, I realized that Kilee was being "a little too quiet" if you know what I mean. I turned the corner from the kitchen to see my daughter had opened the diaper bag, cleverly pried the top off of the Cheerios causing a Cheerio explosion, and was eating them off the floor. I just laughed because she was too cute to punish sitting there stuffing her face. Here's what I saw . . .

It's been a long time!

Hello everybody!

We hope you and your families are doing well! Sorry it's been so long since we've been on here. it's been a long and incredibly busy January/February! We've spent the last few weeks fixing up the house in order to put it on the market. We recently decided that we could be better stewards of our money if we were to sell this house and buy an older, less expensive house where we could build some equity. So, everything is completely fixed-up and ready to go! Now I just have to keep it spic and span at all times with a one-year old in the house! Ha.

We're gearing up for camp. I can't believe that camp 2008 will be in full swing in a little over 3 months! AHH! Oh well, it's a good thing we love it! It'll be awesome.

Kilee Anne continues to grow by leaps and bounds. She is saying many words now (mama being one of them -- YES!) and constantly makes us smile and laugh. She's even saying little phrases like, "here you go" and "thank you". She absolutely LOVES dogs in any shape or form and cannot eat enough bananas. It's so much fun to stay at home with her! I am blown away by the great responsibility and privilege of being a mother daily. It's definitely the hardest job in the world, but so wonderful.

Let me brag on Scott for a minute. He is such a wonderful husband and daddy. I am so blessed to be his wife! We had a great Valentine's Day date. Our friends Clint and Ashley kept Kilee with their little girl Ellie while we went out to Ruby Tuesday. It was so nice to get some time to ourselves! Scott is really really busy at work, but he likes it that way. Things are going well at work and the ministry is constantly growing! We are both working with the youth at church, which has been a blast so far! We are small group leaders for Wednesday night iGroups with the 6th graders. They are so much fun.

Well, I am going to wrap this up. I am currently quite ill! My allergies combined with staying up all hours of the night working on the house has totally destroyed my immune system. I have a horrible cold/ear infection/sinus infection/sore throat. It's awesome. But before I head to bed, here are some pictures that you might enjoy!

Wearing the Bibs like a champ

Go Cats!

Mommy the hunter and Kilee the giraffe for the 6th grade girls' costume party.

Helping Daddy Cook

All Glory to God!

Again and again, I am just so blown away by the mercies of God. This past Friday the 28th, I took Kilee Anne to her one-year well baby appointment expecting to hear a normal report and for them to give her a couple of shots. Everything was going well until the doctor was listening to her heart said, "Hmm, she's got a little heart murmur here." She reassured me that it was probably fine, that lots of children had "innocent" heart murmurs that were of little consequence as they grow up, but she referred us to a pediatric cardiologist for a follow-up. Well, if you know me well enough, this was a huge obstacle in my constant struggle with the sin of worry!!! I anxiously made an appointment with the cardiologist for January 7th and returned home. Scott was there when I got home and I gave him the report. We talked and prayed and then, in his husbandly wisdom said, let's see if we can schedule the appointment before the end of the year. To most people this would be no big deal, but since we have a high-deductible insurance plan, this was a great idea! We only had a few dollars left before our deductible was "blown" for 2007, so her doctor's appointment/tests would be free! We called every pediatric cardiologist's office in Louisville and finally found one that could get us in on the 31st! What a financial blessing God had provided. This also turned out to be a tremendous help for me because I believe God knew that I would have a hard time waiting a week to find out about Kilee's heart murmur -- so He graciously provided "a way out" so that I could "stand up under" the temptation to go crazy worrying!

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." 1 Corinthians 10:13

He certainly knows our frame. He bears in mind that we are dust.
Psalm 103:14

Not to say that I didn't worry over those 2.5 days, but He knows us better than we know ourselves, doesn't He?

So yesterday, Scott and I took our little girl to the cardiologist. I was constantly in a conversation with God that went something like this, "Lord, I know she's not mine -- she's yours and I trust you with her. But Lord, she's our baby! Pleeeease let her be okay! We love her so much. But Lord, we trust you. But pleeeeeeease . . .etc." You get the picture.

Over the course of about an hour, Kilee had her blood pressure taken, had an EKG done and then had an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart). The doctor did hear a murmur, but a soft one which is generally good news. After he examined the echocardiogram, he concluded that the murmur was an "innocent" one in that it has no bearing on the way her heart works, it's just an extra sound her heart makes while it works. We were so relieved!!! God had so specifically answered our prayers from how clearly the doctor explained everything, to the way Kilee behaved during the tests, to the diagnosis! Praise Him for his incredible mercy!

We are reminded over and over again that He is in control and that we are not. As my wise husband so reminded me, we should be glad that we have no control over this situation and that God is fully in control. It is far better for Him to be in the driver's seat in His infinite wisdom even if it means that we have limited understanding of things. After all, He created all things and He holds all things together. Thank you God for continually teaching us that You are in control!

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. . ."
1 Corinthians 3:18-19a

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9

"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
Colossians 1:17