Cow Poo Poo

This past Sunday afternoon, in an attempt to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather, we spent the afternoon "helping" daddy and Uncle Josh check and reload their pig feeder. Wild or feral hogs are apparently taking over the US, destroying farm land and costing landowners lots of money. So, Bubba and Josh have an agreement with this landowner that they are allowed to hunt his land for all kinds of game as long as they shoot as many hogs as they can.

Faith was excited at the venture, so she dawned her camo pants, her rain boots, and her pink camo hat (not pictured) with enthusiasm at the potential to see cows and "drive" the four wheeler.

Faith "drove" us to a place where we had to park, then "hoof it." She quickly lagged behind the rest of us as she began collecting what she called rocks. I laughed...the rocks were old cow poop. I told her that was cow poo poo, and she dropped it on spot "Eww, Cow Poo Poo!" Faith then proceeded to point out each time she found more.

We made it to the pig feeder, which needed more corn. The guys filled it up and tested it to make sure corn was dispersed appropriately. Faith promptly made it her mission to attempt to collect each piece of corn that had fallen on the ground...



We distracted her from the corn and began to make our way out of the woods. There was a problem though. Little sticker bushes stressed her out. She demanded to be carried by dad as she proclaimed "I'm stuck!" Dad told her she was going to have to learn to step on it or go around. She made it apparent that today was not the day to begin.

After the pigs were taken care of, so to speak, we ventured down to the big pond for some splish splash time and of course, to through rocks in the water. All three of us adults immediately tried to skip rocks on the water and hurt our arms/shoulders quickly. We decided to find rocks for Faith to chunk, and Faith and dad ventured into the water to try out their rain boots.

What a great day all around! It made me miss those days of playing all day long outside. I remember leaving the house in the morning and not returning until dark or unless I heard mom's calling (no cell phones then!). I wanted to stop and build a fort, but we were without the needed tools.

Faith found a baby cow that she adored. She ran towards the herd of cows in an attempt to convince the baby to let her ride him. It didn't go over so well. They spooked to her dismay. By the end of the afternoon, we had one tired little girl!

That's all I can write for now. I just noticed that Faith is playing in the fireplace ashes! Better pay more attention!

[Pey-shuh ns] Is A Virtue

Faith is now two years, two months old, and she is doing and saying some remarkable things! But there are trials that we as parents would rather do without. Watching Faith grow up has made it painstakingly clear to me that while a child is a beautiful, wonderful being...a child has the innate sin in him/her that dates back to the fall of Man. The root of it seems to be selfishness. Anything she sees and likes becomes "Mine!" Last week she was put in timeout in school because she had claimed all the toys in the classroom and was guarding them from the other kids.

But watching Faith, I also can see my own selfish desires. I'm often so full of myself that I can't see beyond my own wants, needs, and dreams. This is why we all need a Savior. To save us from ourselves. I'll keep working on Faith, Lord keep working on me!

~God Don't Make Junk~

Thanks Paster Steve for reminding me that in fact, God don't make junk. He doesn't make mistakes! There is not one living being on this earth who was not fearfully and wonderfully made by our Father. This is hard to grasp at first. You mean to tell me that the weirdos of the world, the annoying people, and the heartless people of the world are just as important to God as I am? Well yes, and maybe even more important. The fact is that we are called to love as Jesus loves. So how, exactly, does He love?

1) He accepts people. "The Father gives me my people. Every one of them will come to me, and I will accept them." John 6:37

2) He Values people. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advanced for us to do." Eph. 2:10

3)He forgives people. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37

4) He believes in people. "The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because i am going to be with the Father." John 14:17

I'm beginning to learn that the Lord just needs someone who is willing, not someone who is perfect. In everyday relationships, if I can love others like Jesus loves me, then His love shines through me. If I can value the cleaning lady. If I can believe in the new person who looks overwhelmed. If I can accept the weird one. If I can forgive those who do something against me. If I do this, each day Jesus' love is made visible.

Lord, help me to open my eyes for opportunities to show your love! As Brandon Heath sings, give me your eyes!

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond me reach

Give me your eyes for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Changes

Some changes are coming to this blog. It's been on my heart for quite some time to write about much more than our precious child, Faith. Yes, she's the reason the blog was started, and time after time, I've held back my opinions in an effort to keep the tone's blog consistent. Inspired by my sisters-in-law, Jill and Lisa, I've decided to write about subjects with more depth. As Lisa states here, the blog should be a place to help document for your kids and grandkids to know just who you are and know more about your thoughts and your identity as God's child. Jill uses her blog as a combination of ministry and self-therapy as she writes about dealing with grief after my beautiful niece Hannah entered heaven at age 17. Worry not Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandparents, I'm probably going to do a better more consistent documentation of sweet Faith's developments as well. I know you all don't get to see her nearly enough! I've reached a place where I think blogging can help me in my spiritual growth to apply concepts from the Bible, church, family, and everyday life.

Goldie Locks

I love Faith's hair! She has the beautiful curls that I had as a little one and that her older Sullivan nieces have, and she has the beautiful almost white hair that her daddy had as a little boy. I cannot tell you how many times people have asked, "did you curl her hair?" Sure people, I had the toddler sit on the sink and said be real still while I put this burning hot iron on your precious little hair!

I do feel for her in that I have inherited my mother's tolerance for patience and empathy when it comes to brushing, washing, and fixing her hair. Might as well grin and bear it, Faith! I did. If a tangle doesn't come out immediately, just tug harder. Now you get the picture?

I love the way she loves having bows in her hair and using head bands. She loves to admire herself in the mirror, sweet lil thing.

10 things I love about Faith at 23 months

Faith has kept her mommy so busy lately that I haven't been able to update in a while. Wow, how time flies. Faith is turning two years old this month! In the past couple of weeks, she has really developed her speech so that she is sounding less and less like she's speaking Chinese.

Here are my top 10 favorite things that she's doing at this time:

1. Saying "please" with a cheesy little smile that gets her almost anything she wants.

2. Following Gracie (the chihuahua) around the house with her arms wide open saying "hugs?"

3. Pressing the glowworm in the middle of the night several times in a row just to listen to the music.

4. Insisting on wearing her rain boots (which are two sizes too big) to school several days in a row and on more than one occasion.

5. The way she lights up when she sees her Papaws, and the way any older man in any store also qualifies as a papaw.

6. That one of her first intelligible longer sentences at school was "No Jackson! My toy! Get back!"

7. The way Faith loves on her mommy and daddy at night time and gives the best long hugs a parent could ever ask for.

8. Extremely wet and messy kisses (on the mouth of course!)

9. How she cannot sit on the potty without saying "My teeth!" She brushes her teeth no less than 4 times a day (that's a week day, many more times on the weekend!).

10. The way she mothers her little babies and keeps them in her arms (all five) in the morning while i'm trying to change her diaper and get her dressed. "Babies! Babies! My Babies!" Faith, you should not have so many babies, you can't even take care of them! LOL

Little Girl Growing Up, A Summer Recap

This is bound to be a long post! The last was in the middle of May and there is so much that has happened in our little family! I cannot believe how much Faith has changed in these short months, you will notice on the pictures.
So, at the end of May, Mommy left her job at Baylor and ventured out to practice speech-language pathology. Daddy has been making great strides in leadership in his job, though he works some early and loooong hours.
Our summer start with a visit from Nana and Papaw Sartor. She was spoiled rotten when they left! She loves her papaw! (nothing against Nana, it's just that she likes the men better, she does the same thing with Grandma Nina)
Faith has once again moved up a classroom at her school and is she really enjoying all the fun activities at school. Here she is ready for school at the end of May...

With summer comes swimming, and this is something Faith has become somewhat proficient in. Notice the contraption she is wearing below. It is designed to keep the kid afloat, but does not keep your head above water automatically. It requires balance. Faith found out the hard way, and now can balance herself and move about independently around the pool (she wouldn't have it any other way). We've been blessed to have friends with the perfect size and type of pool for
Faith to learn her way about the water in. Here she is taking a break from the pool and sitting up like a big girl in the lawn chair.


Something else that she has explored for the first time this summer is the indoor playgrounds at different neighborhood eating joints. And, of course, she knows that the slide is the most fun when walked up backwards...

I've known for some time that Faith needed to be getting off the bottle all together. For several months she had been only having a night time bottle. She weaned herself in July. She got to where she would just chew on the bottle at night, and not really drink it. I just quit offering it, and she didn't ask. This is one of her last bottles :( Sniff, Sniff

July 4th was a neat experience for us. We had a family wide G and G camp together at a retreat/ranch outside of Fort Worth. It was the perfect little get away for us, and Faith really started warming up to her cousins. I don't have any pics from this...need to get them emailed to me. It was here that Faith led her Grandpa Sullivan all over the property several times a day. He would let her explore and just follow her. They were so cute!

Pigtails have been a staple for Faith this summer. She is hot natured and needs all the help she can get. I try to dress her in as little clothing as possible, while keeping her hair up off her neck. The pigtails also happen to be pretty darn cute! I snapped this in the hallway one morning as she was walking to her classroom.
Mom and dad brought Faith my old rocking chair earlier this Spring. That thing is over 25 years old! Faith enjoys it now, and likes to try my patience inventing different ways to sit or stand in the chair. It's cool to see her using this though!

A nighttime ritual at our household is a family prayer before bed. Yes, this is sunshine you see...it was daylight at 8pm for quiet some time, but it was still bedtime! Faith gets in her daddy's lap and puts her hands together and we all recite the prayer together. Her favorite part is the "Amen," which she says with quiet some fervor.


The beginning of August rolled around and Grandpa Sullivan's birthday. Faith decided to go and surprise her Grandpa for his birthday. He knew not a word about it and the whole trip was super quick but super special. Here she is with her cousin Hayley and cousin Emily riding around the family farm in Briggsville.


Below is a pic of Faith watching Grandma Nina fix a good ole breakfast. I remember many mornings in this very kitchen watching Grandma Anna and Aunt Anna Jewel prepare breakfast. It's cool to see her continuing the experience.

And here is why that trip was worth it. Faith adores her Grandpa.

We had visitors the next weekend. It is rare that we see each other this often, but Uncle Wes, Hayley and Caitlin came and stayed with us for several days. Faith loved the attention and the excuse to stay up "late" with her cousins.

Faith and Uncle Wes

This summer also marked Faith's first real hair cut. She was none too excited about this, but with some help from You Tube and daddy's Iphone, she survived. We only trimmed it, and didn't really have the usual curls that you keep in a baby book. Maybe next time. It's too cute to cut much right now!

Faith was introduced to the deer woods this month too. We had a family day trip to the deer woods, were we checked daddy's game camera and filled up his feeder. Faith favorite part was getting to "drive" through the pasture and of course, not having to sit in the car seat for a while.

And the very next afternoon she took her first boat ride in daddy's boat. She was enamored at the sights around her and liked the experience....as long as we weren't going over 10 mph. That got old quickly and this turned out to be a brief ride, though a successful one none the less.

So there you have it. You are caught up with the events of our summer. No big destination trips or anything. Just everyday life. We cherish our time with Faith each evening and every weekend. She is such a joy in our life :)