A Very Cowboy Birthday

My birthday party was so much fun! Who me? It's my birthday?I love my puppy!

Our baby boy is 1!



Uncle Ryan and Aunt JillGrammy and Grandpa
Thanks for the wagon! I love it!

Nana and Papa

The whole gang

Nice moustache, Papa!

Cousin Melissa

Auntie Amy, I don't recognize you with that thing on your face! :)

Uncle Tim looks like Luigi

GG!

I love my new toys!

Opening presents with mama.

He was so sweet! He was so happy to open gifts and touch and play with his new things. He sat so nicely to read the cards and take it all in. :)

Elmo is so fun!My handsome cowboy

I'm not so sure about this cake thing...

He didn't play with it or eat his cupcake at all. He was very confused!

Thank you to Alex for drawing such fun props for the party! This sheriff is mighty impressive, as were the cutouts and the cowboy town. Yee-haw!

Let's face it, we probably had more fun than the kiddos!

Me and Randy

Grandpa and Grammy Zach and Jen

Their little guy, Keanan

Brian

Our wonderful neighbors, Ed and AlmaMore wonderful neighbors, Ronnie and LynnUncle Danny

Uncle Tim and Aunt Amy

Cousin Katin
Cousin Mason
Melissa

Aunt Debbie and Uncle DougMarley the Moozle

Deepa and Jam Sarah and Tim

Cowpuppy Marley

Shanny

Megan and Steven

Me and Alex

Eli and Sarah
(Sorry my hat was attacking you, Sarah!)

Great Grandma and Aunt Becky

Grandpa and Grammy

Lily

Lily and Tim

Alex and Kelli

Baby Mac and Travis

The birthday boy

Eli and Lily

Levi and Nana

Lynn and AlmaMarley needed a moustache, too!
Eli, Alex, Megan and StevenThe backyard all set up for the party

I'm a cowboy!
Help! I'm in jail!

Check out my new wagon from Grammy and Grandpa!

The cowboy city, complete with a saloon, school house, jail and church of the wild west!Have I told you that I love my puppy? :)

The "Watering Hole"

My very own cupcake! Too bad I didn't eat any of it.

Can you believe this cake? My mom has some very talented friends. Thank you so much for designing and decorating this cake, Megan! You are the best!

Howdy, partners!

Thank you for helping me celebrate my first birthday! Thank you for the wonderful cards, gifts and for your love. I had so much fun!

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

1 Year

Levi, you are 1! You are a whole year old! Your birthday brought back memories of our newborn baby boy. You have grown so much since the day you were born! Here is what you are up to at a year old:

You are walking everywhere! All of a sudden, the week before your birthday, you started taking many steps all at once! You were walking 3 or 4 steps at a time, then one day- BAM! You were a full fledged walking boy! You are very pleased with your new ability, and often cry or get mad when you fall. You don't like that very much! You are starting to talk even more and say "that" as clear as day. I think I say, "What's that?" to you a lot. You day "da" for dog and "ruh" for a barking sound. You say "mama" and "dada" super clearly. You are understanding us more,too. You stop doing something when we tell you no (for the most part), and when we say dog or Marley, you look around for her. You are still dancing away to any music that comes on. You seem to especially enjoy reggae. You are drinking formula mostly, except for when I nurse you at night, until we go to your doctor appointment this Friday. I need to ask the Dr. about giving you milk. Your tummy seems to have a bad reaction to it so we will see what he says. I can't wait to see how much you weigh and how long you are. I will update this after your appointment. You are wearing size 12-18 month clothes and a size 4 diaper. You are sleeping better than ever! You still take 2 naps and sleep through the night. You have been sleeping longer and longer. For the last week, you have been going to bed at 8pm and getting up around 7:30am. Wow! We have come a long way! You have 4 teeth on the top and 2 on the bottom. The ones on the top are taking a long time to fully come in. I think you are getting more teeth on the top, too. Ouch! You LOVED your cowboy birthday party and all of the wonderful toys you received. You are having a blast discovering all of your new things. You are a joy to be around. Everyone mentions what a happy baby you are. Despite short seasons of discontentment due to teething or crankiness when you wake up, you are so happy! You don't enjoy it when I tell you no, but you are getting better about that. Your bath time is still a favorite. You have graduated to the big tub. You love scooting all around it and playing with your bath toys. You love to take breaks now and then to rest and snuggle with me in your new upholstered rocking chair. It is my favorite piece of furniture in the house and you absolutely love it too. You love to be rocked and held before bed and during these sweet moments during the day. I sing to you many times throughout the day. I always sing when I put you down for a nap or for bedtime. You have a great bedtime routine: we give you a bath, change you into your jammies, give you kisses, I nurse you and sing to you, and since we got the chair, you fall asleep as I nurse and rock you, then I put you down for bed. I read to you but I have to keep the book far from you so you don't shred it. :) You love to shred things. We recently went camping and you loved the walks, change of scenery, fire and all the time with your daddy. You love him so much! Levi, you are our greatest joy, our biggest blessing, our precious responsibility, our beloved son. We love you with the kind of love that feels like it will burst out of our chests! We thank God for this past year and all He has taught us and given us since you have come into our lives. We look forward to the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Our prayer for you is that you would come to know your Savior, Jesus Christ, and start a personal relationship with Him. We love you so much!
Love, Mommy and Daddy

He is Good

I am having a difficult time navigating this season of my life. My little precious baby boy turns one today. What an amazing year this has been! God is so good to us! Levi has brought us more joy than we ever thought we would experience. He is walking and learning and growing every day. We are excited to spend tomorrow celebrating his birthday with family and friends who love him so much!

But my heart is also heavy with deep sadness for my friend Cristin. Her sweet baby girl Ruby Jean, won't be able to celebrate her first birthday. Cristin is pregnant with Ruby, but her little girl won't make it. She has Trisomy 18 and her heart rate is declining every day. They are preparing (as much as you ever could prepare for something like this) to lose her anyday. How can I celebrate life when my dear friend is preparing for death? When I think of how blessed I feel being Levi's mom, I have to remember that I serve and love the same God who created Ruby Jean. I have to remember that He is not only good to us because we have our son, but he is good to John and Cristin who will be losing a daughter.

Here is a glimpse at what they are processing through... (written by John)
"And because we live in a broken world it makes sense that Ruby's body would be broken. This world is full of sin, brokenness, and sorrow BUT "RUBY JEAN" is perfect! God did not make any mistakes with "RUBY JEAN". So this body may fail her. She may never get the chance to use it to explore this broken world, but the Lord who makes no mistakes will take His RUBY JEAN back to PERFECTION. And that sounds better to me by far!"

HE IS GOOD NO MATTER WHAT

Would you please pray for this family? Please visit their blog and send them the love and encouragement they desperately need right now. Thanks, friends.

Marley

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner!

We LOVE our puppy Marley. She is a 4 1/2 year old Golden Retriever and we have had her since we have been married. Actually, we picked her out before we were married and the day we got home from our honeymoon, we picked her up! She is a gentle, smart and loving dog. She communicates her needs and wants well, including shaking her collar in the morning when she wants to get up, or hanging around the garage door when she's ready to eat. (We keep her food in there) She is super patient with Levi and we couldn't be more thankful for a great dog.

Revolution in World Missions

When K.P. Yohannan first spoke at Cornerstone about Gospel for Asia, Randy and I were instantly convicted to sponsor native missionaries. On our recent camping trip, I was able to finish his book Revolution in World Missions. I love the heart and ministry of this man. God has used him in amazing ways. In reading his book, I was able to understand more and more how DESPERATELY billions (yes, billions) of people need the Lord! K.P. explains that with every beat of our hearts, there is one person dying and going to hell and being separated from God for all of eternity. Billions of these people are in Asia. Many of them are from unreached people groups who have never heard of Jesus. Westerners would never be able to minister to these people due to cultural issues and the fact that many countries ban western missionaries altogether. How can we help, then? We can sponsor NATIVE MISSIONARIES from Asia who will bring the saving message of Jesus Christ to their own people. I could never explain it as well as K.P., so please click on this LINK for your free copy of this book. Then visit the GOSPEL FOR ASIA website to sign up to sponsor a native missionary because as they say on their website, Partnering with a National Missionary is one of the most efficient and effective ways of reaching the lost world with Christ. 100% of our sponsorship money goes to the mission field. K.P. painted an amazing picture of going to heaven and having many families thank you and praise God for your support of a native missionary who brought them the gospel. Imagine meeting these people in heaven. Imagine knowing that they would not be there if it weren't for your obedience to make disciples of all nations! This brings so much joy to my heart. Please pray about how you could sacrifice in order to give.