One Proud Mama

So lately I have had a few proud mama/wife moments. As far as Harrison goes.. he got on the B honor roll and has been adjusting really well to his new school this year. He is also really enjoying reading and read a whole book in one day. In the picture above, he is reading the book he couldn't put down. Noah decided to join him and when I came in the family room to tell them dinner was ready this is how I found them on the couch. He has also been a huge help with the children's ministry. He helps tell the bible stories and this week he helped me put together a craft for the kids to make noah's ark. He is such a blessing to our family.

Noah has learned to count to 10 all by himself. He knows all the basic colors. He knows a few shapes and can even draw circles. For some reason the letter Q is the only one that has stuck with him. He is talking up a storm and his vocab increases everyday. He continues to entertain us with his long stories that you can only catch a couple words of but they have lots of sound effects and physical movements with them. He continues to help out around the house too. Yesterday, I asked him to get the laundry basket out of my room. After it had been a while, I went to go check on him; however, he wasn't in there and but the basket was. I went downstairs to see if he went down there and sure enough he was in the utility room. He grabbed a basket down there and had opened the dryer and was putting the clothes in there. Today, I was getting dinner ready and I walked past his room and heard him sing the clean up song and he was putting away his toys without me even telling him too. Enough said.

The baby in the belly is doing well. I am at 15 weeks now and last week we got to hear the heartbeat and it was normal. Way to go..baby. I did fail my first sugar test and go back on Tues for the 3 hour test to see if I am gestational diabetic again. We will find out sometime at the end of Nov. what the sex is.


Paul went away for a week to Arkansas to take 5 condensed classes for his master's degree. He was in class everyday from 8-6 from Monday to Sat. I am so proud of him for pursuing this degree and learning this information so he can share it with me and the community. He also, along with his brother Tom, won the 30 and over soccer championship for their division. It was so much fun watching them play together and score tons of goals. Since they won, their team was moved up to a higher division. The games are way more rough and the competition is much stronger but I still enjoy watching Paul play esp. if he is wearing his game winner shorts. Noah loves watching him play too and his interest in soccer has definitely gone up. He either plays outside, in the basement or in the hallway everyday. You can see some action footage in the videos.

Susan photo shoot

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of my sister in law susan for my first maternity photo shoot. You can click on the link to see my top favorites on my photography blog http://captivatingheartsphotography.blogspot.com/

or if you want to view the whole album you can follow the link to my picasa ablums at

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurenblakephotography/SusanMaternity#

Grandmas with good taste

Noah got super cute outfits from his grandmas this month. Thanks for making my little man look so cute. Noah is so blessed to have grandmas like you and so am I.

Mema (Paul's mom) got this really nice Chaps sweater vest and shirt for Noah. It is so fun to have new fall clothes.

Oma (Art's mom) got Noah this customized sweater with his "N" on it. Noah thought that was super cool. He loved his matching hat too.

Meme (my mom) got Noah this adorable polo sweater and shirt. Does he look happy or what?

Raising up an army

So last friday and saturday, I went to a two day seminar on giving your imagination back to the Lord for the purpose of encountering God. The seminar was really powerful and I encountered God in a profound way. The instructor is a mentor of mine who I have known for five years and was apart of her prayer group for three years. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. During the seminar, we had a time where we gave our imaginations back to the Lord, we asked Him to cleanses them, and to forgive us of using them in ways that He never intended. Then we asked God to encounter us in our imagination. She asked us to close our eyes and pick a place that is peaceful to you and then ask God to come to that place.

When I closed my eyes I saw myself sitting at a bench in the middle of a rose garden alone. The next thing I knew God the Father came over and asked if He could join me. I said, "If you want to?" He sat down and asked me "How I was?" I told Him that "It has been really hard". He said, "I know" and then put His arm around me. I then said "I don't understand" and He said, "I am raising up warriors for my army some need to be trained in heaven and some on earth. There is a bigger battle. Zeke is a special warrior." We sat there for a while. The He hugged me and said "There is so much pain and so deep inside of you. Why do you carry this?" I said "I didn't know what to do." He said "You have to cut it and pull the roots out." The He pulled the roots out. He said, "I am planting seeds of joy and peace and in the same way that you watered the plant of sorrow with tears you will water these with my refreshing rain." I asked Him "What He thought of me". He said, "It is hard for me to watch you like this because I love you so much. You are very delicate and fragile right now, do you trust Me to hold you? I said "yes".

So this is where I am right now in my Father's hands. I went to the House of Prayer this morning and was able to stand raise my hands and sing freely to my Father who is worthy of praise. Thank you so much for all who have been journeying with me and praying for me. May the Lord encounter you in a powerful way. He is so real.

Also, I ended up sharing with the people at the seminar what the Lord had done. At one of the breaks an older lady came up to me and said she had heard a minister share how after he had lost one of his young men who did ministry with him and then in the same month heard of two other young people dying. He asked the Lord "Why was He taking these young ones?" Then he had a vision and heaven opened up and he saw all these warriors on white horses in heaven and the Lord said something like, "I am raising up warriors in heaven for the great battle". She said when you shared what you heard that only confirmed to her what this man had seen.