Our Little Parrot

It's amazing and a little scary (actually it's really scary) just how much Elise mimics us.  She tries to say the things we say, she loves getting the broom and sweeping the floor like we do, holding the cell phone to her ear and talking,  picking up my flat iron and putting it up to her hair (luckily not while it's on), and she loves to laugh when we laugh.  It really makes me stop and think when she does something that I know she has seen me do, or mimics the tone of my voice.  It makes me think about the awesome responsibility God has given us as her parents! It makes me want to be a better person and say and do things that I want Elise to say and do.   I pray that God gives us the wisdom to act in a way that will point Elise to Him.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

What a year!! On August 9, 2010 our precious baby Kathryn Elise came into this world...our lives were instantly changed!

And now, here we are...one year later!  I remember bringing her home, we were so nervous about every peep she made.  I can't believe that was a whole year ago! Since when does a year go by so quickly?
Each day has been better than the last!  We have loved every new stage and each new accomplishment.  Elise has brought us so much joy and laughter!  I can hardly remember life before she came along.  Now her personality is showing more each day!  She, like her parents, loves to make everyone laugh and she loves to smile!  She loves sweet potatoes and her lovie!  She laughs every time she hears the theme song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves to take every book off of her bookshelf one by one.  She hates to be still! And although the thought of her growing up makes me cry (and a little scared), I look forward to watching her grow into the person that God has designed her to be.  I hold on to the verse from Jeremiah that is painted in Elise's room, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born I set you apart."  What a comfort to know that the Lord knows my baby girl and He has a plan for her!  I pray that she will always follow His plan. 

The Things that Matter

It's amazing just how quickly we can start to feel sorry for ourselves! Today while Elise was napping I decided I was going to get out the ole' sewing machine and play around. (I really know NOTHING about sewing but I was given a machine so I would like to learn a little.)  I was doing good for a while but then something went wrong on the machine (I don't even know enough to explain the problem) and it was SO frustrating! I tried and tried to fix it to no avail so I decided I would just put the machine up! Then I looked around and started to get mad about how messy the house was and how badly the dishwasher needed to be unloaded (and reloaded with the dishes that have now piled up in the sink waiting for me to unload it), how dirty my floors are, etc.  But instead of getting some things done around the house, I decided (in my frustration) that I would just sit down and watch the Food Network (my favorite channel).  Just a few short minutes later I heard Elise waking up from her nap.  I walked into her room and I was greeted with this sweet face...

And somehow I managed to put it all into perspective! I realized that I don't have to learn how to sew today, that the dishes aren't going anywhere, and that my floors don't have to be spotless!! I remembered  that I am extremely blessed!  I have a house to clean and more importantly an incredible husband and a precious healthy baby! It's so easy to feel sorry for ourselves because of all we "have" to do but it's a whole lot more enjoyable when we remember and are thankful for the things that matter!  May God help us to see what is important and  praise Him for the things that matter!

"Savor Every Moment"

“Savor every moment.”  I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have heard this phrase since my baby was born!  In the beginning I thought it was just something older folks were supposed to say to new parents.  Recently, however, friends of ours had a baby and I was amazed at just how “grown up” Elise seemed beside the 8 day old!  She is only 8 and ½ months old but she seemed so big compared to the tiny newborn.  As we drove away, Joseph and I discussed how we have already forgotten so many little things about those first few days and weeks of Elise’s life.  It makes me want to cry to think about how fast these first 8 months of her life have gone by.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to stay in this moment forever, I look forward to all the exciting things we have to come.  It simply made me want to “savor every moment”.  It made me want to enjoy even more every time I put Elise to bed or hear her talking in the morning.  Some days it is so easy to get caught up the frustrations of being a parent (like the fact that I don’t think I will EVER make it through an entire worship service again) or the things I “have” to accomplish that I forget to enjoy every sweet sound, every silly face, and even every diaper I get to change!  How wonderful our life would be if we really could “savor every moment”.

Teamwork

I have been on quite a few teams in my day, some pretty successful teams at that!  But the very best team I have ever been a part of is the one that was formed on June 9, 2007.  The husband and wife team! I am so thankful to God for the institution of marriage. I have known that Joseph and I make a great team, but this week he is in Memphis taking a graduate class and it makes me even more aware of what a great team we are.  Being a parent is hard without your teammate...I have great respect for all the single parents out there! I am so thankful for being a part of this team.  When Joseph and I work together things just work better! (Don't get me wrong, my parents and in-laws are helping me out with Elise this week and they are all a WONDERFUL help.) However God knew what he was doing when he designed the husband and wife team! Just having the support of Joseph makes my life a million times easier!  I am so thankful to have a teammate to share my life with and I am so thankful that God saw fit to make Joseph my teammate!

My (not so) Little Brother

Recently my little brother asked his girlfriend Hilary to marry him!  We are very excited.  We love Hilary and we are thrilled that she will “officially” be a part of our family.  But really it’s hard to believe that my little brother is engaged!  It seems like only yesterday when I was making him play with Barbie’s ,  be a part of “my classroom”, convincing him to drink an entire jar of pickle juice, or making him believe that he could fly with a little “pixie dust”, (which was actually salt).  My younger brother Cory is 4 years younger than I am and 7 years younger than my older brother, Derek.  Cory is the typical youngest child; just ask my older brother or me! He got EVERYTHING he wanted, got to do ANYTHING he wanted to do, and got away with IT ALL!  On the other hand, he had to deal with all the things the youngest child has to deal with.  He has often said that he had 4 parents because Derek and I have given him lots of parental advice!  He had to attend countless softball and basketball games watching his older brother and sister and had to live in the shadow of his two older siblings. (And considering how cool his older siblings are, he had pretty big shoes to fill!) I believe that Cory always took it in stride.  He may have been Derek and Lauren’s little brother but he made his own path and became his own person.  Honestly, I think he is the coolest one of the three of us! (Sorry Derek!)  I always think of Cory when I hear the line “God smiles on my little brother, inside and out he’s better than I am”, from the Taylor Swift song, “The Best Day”.   He is a good guy, inside and out.  I have come to admire him for so many reasons.  I admire Cory because he is his own person.  He is probably the only 22 year old guy that I know who wears thermal pants under his pants on a regular basis!  He has his own sense of humor, his own style, and his own opinions.  I admire Cory for standing up for what he believes in.  He is a deep thinker and once he thinks through something and makes a decision he sticks to it and doesn’t worry about what others think.   I admire Cory for his leadership abilities.  He is the kind of guy people want to follow.  I admire Cory for his loyalty.  He has lots of good friends because he is a good friend.  I admire Cory for his love of family.  He makes a point to get together with his family and loves his niece and nephews.

It’s still hard for me to realize that Cory is a senior in college and now has a fiancé, maybe I will always see him as my baby brother, but I know that he is not so little anymore and I am proud of the man he has become! 

A Fairly Functional Family

It seems today that there are more dysfunctional families than functional ones.  So many families are broken, causing countless people to search for belonging, often in unhealthy ways.  Family has always been important to Joseph and me.  Now that we have started our own, it has become even more important! We don’t expect our family to be perfect; we know that’s impossible because we aren’t perfect.  We just want our family to be, as Angela Thomas Guffey puts it in her book Prayers for New Mothers, “fairly functional.”  We want our family to be a tight knit group that serves as a haven for each member to grow and flourish.  Guffey writes a prayer in which she shares her family’s mission statement and it made us think about what our family mission statement should be.   So…here is The Horton Family Mission Statement:

First and foremost, we believe that our family is created by the Lord. Therefore, we will seek the Lord and His will above all else.

We will love Jesus and one another.

We will pray together, play together, and laugh together.

We will rejoice with one another in good times and support one another in bad.

We will stick together because we know that two are better than one.

We will be honest with one another.

   

We will encourage one another in each endeavor. 

We will give God the glory in all things.

Joseph and I pray that we will always remember this mission put before us and teach our children these things!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  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.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7