memory verses

Mariah and I are in the process of memorizing the book of Philippians. This has been a fun time for us as we recite to each other the verses we have learned. The other day as I stumbled through last weeks verses, it reminded me of one of my favorite episodes from The Andy Griffith Show.

Big Boy!

Well after months of waiting and trying to get Rivers to walk he finally is! He started taking a few steps at a time a little before Christmas and is steadily walking more every day. He just likes to do it his own way, on his own time... unless bribed, like you will witness in the video. The sun was streaming through the window so the video isn't great but you can tell that he is walking a good distance. We all like to cheer him on to encourage the walking, and at the end you will hear Maddie calling him a big boy. Listen carefully and you will hear him repeat "big boy". He is also using more words all the time. Our baby boy is growing up, which is good I guess. We're all making room for a new baby!

We are having another...

GIRL!!!! We found out on Tuesday that the Lord has graciously blessed us with another daughter! We had a really fun time finding out because the kids went with us. Madeline kept saying "I get to have a sister! I get to have a sister!" To Maddie's disappointment, though, the baby's name will not be "Jack-Jack" which has been her name of choice for the baby. Her name will be Gloria Michele Frantz. Gloria, meaning "glory to God", and Michele, after my sweet sister in law. We pray that she will grow to be a godly woman like her Aunt Shelly and her life will give glory to God. We are grateful that Gloria is healthy, and very active! Come May the Frantz house hold will be a busy place! Here are some pics of our sweet girl!

A Social Network Christmas

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We kicked off our holiday season with Thanksgiving celebrating with Mawmaw and our friends Chris and Lindsey. Remembering how much we have to be thankful for, most importantly, our salvation and life in Christ, was a great way to begin to prepare our hearts for thinking on what Christmas truly means.

Christmas time is definitely one of my most favorite times of the year. This year has been especially fun because Maddie and Rivers are definitely LOVING everything about Christmas. She and Rivers both love singing carols and hymns, she loves helping me bake Mike's favorite Christmas cookies. They love seeing lights, opening the advent calendar each day, and talking about the baby who was born to save us from our sins (as they play with the nativity scenes in our home). Kids have definitely made the season more joyful as well as helped me really focus on teaching them the "Story of Christmas". We pray and try to make Him the center of our home during this time of year as we do throughout the entire year. Some things that have really helped us do that is Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb" CD. Madeline can sing the chorus on several of the songs from this now. The past few nights we have really had extraordinary opportunities to worship the truth that God became man. Our church had a wonderful time of reading Scripture and singing about the incarnate Christ, and last night Michael and I went to the Keith and Kristyn Getty concert at Southern Seminary and had an amazing time of worship. We hope you're Christmas season is full of the Comfort, and Joy, and Peace that knowing Jesus brings and you have a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family!

Look how they've grown...

Dec 2010 Dec 2009

Christmas card "photo shoot" was semi successful.

First snow day!

Little man all bundled up

Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my Favorite Things...

One of my favorite parts of this season is getting Christmas cards in the mail! It’s so fun to see how my friends and family have changed, grown, experienced in the past year. Last year was our first year to make a family Christmas Card to send out, and I plan on doing it again this year thanks to Shutterfly. They are having a promotion where bloggers can get 50 Christmas Cards for free when they write a blog about their new Holiday/Christmas Card collection. I have used Shutterfly for various different personalized photography products and am really excited about the chance to order our Christmas cards from them this year! I love creating our own Christmas cards because it gives me a chance to highlight significant moments of our family throughout the year. It’s simple because I just download pictures straight from my computer into the card, and its fun to create something that is unique for our own family’s personality. You can see some of the many Shutterfly designs here Christmas photo cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards or holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards. You can add 3 or more pictures on the cards. They have selections of flat photo cards, folded cards, or stationary cards. The designs are adorable and their collection this year has so much to choose from though, it is going to be hard to pick which design to use.
They also have wall calendars (you can find them here poster calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars ). I design and give one to my mom every Christmas, and I think that she expects one now :)
So if you need Christmas cards this year or some great personalized gifts, check out the links above. And if you have your own blog and want to sign up for this great promotion to get some free Christmas cards go here http://bit.ly/sfly2010!

Hubby's a Preacher

I just wanted to share a link to Mike's first sermon with anyone interested. He preached from Mark 14 on "A Faith that Serves" yesterday at our church, and though I'm biased, I think he did an amazing job delivering God's word! As a proud wife, just wanted to give y'all an opportunity to hear. Praise God for his work in and through our lives!

Just copy and paste the link below and it should take you right to the sermon.

http://kenwoodbaptistchurch.com/podcast/media/2010-11-22_mike_frantz_mark_14_39.mp3