2010...It Can't be ERASED...it can be REDEEMED!

I have never wanted to hit the erase button as bad as I do now as I write my last post of the year. I have been missing for quite some time on this blog but have been missing as "Jaime" for too long also. I am not proud of my year and who I had become. It has been a season I wish I could eliminate from NOT ONLY my memory but everyone elses it has effected and will continue to effect.

So much of me wants to cry out to "2011" to bring US ALL a much better year. But, I am not as ignorant as to think that "2010" is at fault. It was MY choices, MY sin, and MY back that turned from the Lord that made "2010" a destructive year...not only to me but to many. And it was MY pride and lack of realization of the depravity of my own heart that made it so easy to fall. "2011," you are just a number and nothing more. My cry is out to my GOD, MY SAVIOR, and MY REDEEMER to hold me close, teach me, walk me through the hard stuff, allow me to suffer, show me the lies I have believed and give me the strength to rebuke and overcome, restore, and rebuild! Jesus don't let me "get by" or run when things aren't easy. Help me to STAND in the midst of pain. I want full healing! I will accept nothing less and will not allow myself to skirt around areas that are difficult. Mold me, make me, place me in uncomfortable situations, reshape me however you desire! I am here. I surrender.

Is there anything to be thankful for this year?

ABSOLUTELY!!! Thank you my sweet and sovereign Lord for your forgiveness. I repent of my wickedness and my selfish desires. Oh God thank you for your unexplainable GRACE and MERCY! Grace and Mercy like I have NEVER EVER KNOWN. I am in awe of what you have given back to me. I am humbled that you would even redeem a sinner like me. I do NOT deserve your goodness. It seems so unfair! I have seen the destruction I have caused and the effect it has had on others and yet you continue to blanket me with your unconditional love. God I choose not to discredit your grace. I choose to accept it and walk REDEEMED in FULL WORSHIP and ADORATION of who you are!

Thank you Jesus for my precious family. Thank you for an INCREDIBLE husband who shows me the love of Jesus. Thank you for giving me such a man of absolute integrity and commitment. Oh how I love that AMAZING MAN! Jesus thank you for my little princesses. My girls are such a joy and their sweet spirits put a smile on my face. I am so blessed with the family you have granted me with.

And what does this year hold for me and for my family?

A year of growing. NO MATTER what comes our way, God you have a purpose. Bring it! Help us not to walk in FEAR but in FAITH!

And this year I want SOMETHING MORE! Please read this blog post below written by my Pastor this past month. This is exactly my desire...

Something More
From my morning readings - Isaiah 29:13-24

And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men... (vs 13)

Lord, You desire relationship. You've always desired it. That's not something new. It wasn't even something that was ushered in with sending of Your Son. It's always been about relationship.

Lord, I want to give You something more than my voice singing nice worship songs...
Lord, I want to give You something more than a blog...
Lord, I want to give You something more than time reading Your Word...
Lord, I want to give You something more than my prayer requests.
Lord, I want to give You something more than the motions of Sunday worship...
Lord, I want to give You something more than my attempt to do right...

Lord, I want to give You my heart.
I want my life to totally revolve around You.
I want You to be my security and my hope.
I want You to be the reason for my joy and my grieving.
I want You to be my peace and when appropriate my reason for unrest. Lord, I want You to be my love, my passion, and my desire.
Lord, I don't ever want to be described as "this people".
I want to be part of "Your people".

I desire something more than a name, identity, or religion.
I desire a relationship.
I want something more than commandments, principles, and truth.
I desire a relationship.
I want something more than exciting worship services, challenging messages, and a great church.
I desire a relationship.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
(Psalm 146:1-2)


Jesus, I WANT SOMETHING MORE!!! I am humbled and excited to see what you have in store for me and my family!

All I can say is....

"2011" WATCH OUT!!!

The Tough Life of a 3 year Old!

This is how we walked in and found our sweet little angel about an hour after she went to bed...

When laying her down for the night, she said she wanted to wear her new sleep mask that Aunt Ami gave her for Christmas, along with her new Princess p.j.'s! She said it would help her sleep better! Well, I guess it did! SNORING (so cute to hear her snore...just like her mommy and daddy...wish we had a video)!!! She had her Tinkerbell pillow all propped up, Belle Bear, and her Ariel doll surrounding her! Oh, and her arm was delicately raised up behind her head :) I don't think she meant to fall asleep this way. I kind of think she just wanted to "live the life" of a princess...but...the mask did it's MAGIC and that little princess was asleep in record speed tonight!

Christmas in Pictures 2011

Every Christmas that we spend in Georgia, after reading the Christmas story, our family participates communion together.

Next: GIFTS!!!

Annalise on her new bike!

The living room at Mimi and Papa's is always filled with LOADS of gifts. I think my girls get EVERYTHING they circle in the toy ads that Mimi hands them.

Our girls were NOT disappointed :)

A new fun game with Daddy and Papa!

After finishing up the presents at Mimi and Papa's, we headed to Macon to visit Granny and Gramps!

Me and my Dad!

Annalise was SO excited about all the cool gifts that her Granny picked out this year:

A cool watch, Justin Beiber calendar (oh my) and other J.B. stuff, Hannah Montana, and etc!

Allison was loaded with more Disney Princess gifts than you can imagine this year!
And the Princess Popcorn...YUMMY!

We had such a great Christmas this year! We are SO blessed with an incredible family!

Thank you to our Savior who has given us more than we could have ever imagined!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve Traditions!

Of course the start of our day has to include some last minute shopping, right?!?! It happens every year...I forget something!

After Annalise and I returned home from the stores, we start our preparations for Christmas Eve dinner and pre-dinner snacks!

Annalise LOVES to cook!

And Allison is learning a lot and loves to help too!

After everything was ready and cooking, we headed to church for a Christmas Eve service. It was a fun and vibrant service with a great message. Our girls loved the snow that was at the front entrance of the church! See...we can have a White Christmas in Georgia :)

(Btw...there is rumor to have some "wintry mix" on Christmas day/night)!

After the service we headed back to Mimi and Papa's house for Christmas Eve dinner:

Ham, Mac & Cheese, Green Bean Casserole (and plain green beans for our non-casserole fans)!

Annalise had to have a wine glass to drink from also :) Makes the water taste better!

And to end the night...Christmas Lights!

Even The Grinch passed out candy canes to spectators!

One of the best yards (or tackiest) in Central Georgia. The ENTIRE yard is COVERED! Wish you could see it better!

Now we wait for SANTA!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Pop Guns, Yogi, and Peppermint Pizza!

One of the deals every time we come to Georgia is that Annalise and Allison get to spend some good quality time with their "cousins," Evan and Talon! Typically, Monkey Joe's is on the agenda. But this year, because of the Christmas Holiday schedule, we had to pick just one fun event to do with the boys. But first...and most important to those kids...

Gift Exchange!

Here is Allie Rae with her gift from Aunt Linda and Uncle Randy. This girl LOVES to color! And princesses are the best thing to bring life to! (And they were SO KIND to give quiet gifts to my girls! Let's just say they haven't always been so nice at the "non-noisy" gifts)!

Thank You Aunt Linda!!!

So LET THE REVENGE BEGIN!!!

POP Toy Guns!!! You are VERY WELCOME Aunt Linda and Uncle Randy! (They were happy to see these Noisy Toy Guns end up at their own home. Sorry Chris and Kelly!)

Here I am being attacked by Talon! Kind of scary how good he was at aiming that thing!

After our gift exchange, we headed to Stevie B's for lunch! This is definitely one of Annalise's FAVORITE places to eat...Pizza Buffet...Always a winner!

And for the Holiday season they had CANDY CANE PIZZA!!!

The Grand Finale to our day was going to the movies to see

YOGI BEAR!

(kids loved it...adults slighty disappointed)

We had so much fun with those Boys!!!

Counting down the days to Christmas!

Lunar Eclipse 2010

So my sister reminded me to set my alarm to go out at 2:41 to see the eclipse...

Instead, Jarrett and I decided to stay awake since we knew there was NO WAY we would have gotten out of bed after falling asleep. We typically are up till about 1am every night anyways. We are quite the night owls! So tonight we just stayed up and talked, laughed, and ate snacks until time to go outside and begin observing the changes.

Lucky for us, the night sky was clear! My pics aren't great, but here they are:

My camera did an okay job on the first 2 shots but the color accuracy is a little off. The moon was definitely a lot more red than what you see pictured.

Wow, did the moon get dark! This is when I began texting my sister to see if her alarm went off. She actually stayed awake too! So it was fun to talk and laugh with her in the middle of the night also! I am excited to talk to my girls about the eclipse and share the pictures. I will probably have to refresh my knowledge and also gather some better shots off the Internet so she can see what it really looked like:)

Jacksonville Day 3

A Day at the Beach!

It was a cold one at the beach today...

But the girls had so much fun chasing the seagulls,

And then drawing them in to feed them! Anna couldn't get enough. She would throw bread and duck for cover. And then do it over and over again!

After walking off the beach and finishing our lunch in the car (away from the hungry seagulls), we stopped at Starbucks to warm up over some hot chocolate and Caramel Apple Spice!

This was a really neat Starbucks! Outside order window and outside seating!

The girls also enjoyed their Chocolate Turnover Treat from Arby's!

Yummy!

Jacksonville Day 2

Our second day of our Jacksonville vacation we spent the morning relaxing at the hotel and then did some shopping. By the way, if I forgot to mention, this is another one of Jarrett's business trips we tagged along with him on. Today was MUCH colder than yesterday so we bundled up and headed out to the stores. It's kind of funny to say we "shopped" because we haven't really bought anything yet. However, we did enjoy some very yummy cinnamon pretzels...courtesy of our gift cards :)

Since we skipped out on church this morning (really not liking being away from our church family for 2 weeks!), I wanted to find a Christmas Program we could attend this evening. I was so excited to find that First Baptist Jacksonville was doing their Christmas Presentation tonight (and every Sunday night in December)! This place was MASSIVE! I know I parked in Parking Garage #4 in Downtown! I'm not sure exactly how many garages they own.

The music was INCREDIBLE! The Orchestra, Choirs, Actors, Children....ALL OF IT...was Beautiful! As soon as the choir belted out their first notes, I had tears streaming down my face. I was definitely having a moment! Annalise laughed at me (little stinker!)

After the Call to Worship and Welcome, the Baptistery lit up and an adorable little girl about Annalise's age was going to be baptized. Annalise and I were just talking about the baptismal and how pretty it was. It was a sweet moment to talk with Annalise and answer questions she had about what it meant to be baptized. Several members were being baptized that night. Such a great intimate moment.

The girls were captured by the instruments and voices!

Picture I took from the screens. We were sitting in the balcony (front and center)!

Annalise was impressed that Baby Jesus was not a plastic doll!

(Another screen shot)

It was a great presentation and the girls actually sat through the whole service without complaining! Love that!

Afterwards (since we were only a few streets over from Jarrett's office) we picked up Daddy and headed to Applebee's for dinner! We would've had a picture of Daddy and Allison at the table but she wouldn't cooperate!

Another great day!