Trip to St. Louis

I like to call May and June birthday season around the Frantz household.  Between May 9 to June 18th all 5 of us have a birthday!  This year was kind of a milestone for me and to celebrate the big 30 Mike surprised me by taking us on a little family vacation to St. Louis.  We had a blast, and actually hope to make this a semi frequent short vacation for us as a family because there are so many fun, family friendly and FREE things to do there!  Here are some of the highlights.  

The kids the first morning by the famous arch.

 The first day we went out to Grants Farm.  They had all kinds of animals and fun little activities to do.  Here are the biggest two feeding goats.

 First snow cone... I think she enjoyed it!

 Sweet littlest one enjoying the beautiful day

 Rivers Loved the baby goats so we had to make one more stop to feed them before we left.

 One of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales

 Mike and Rivers in front of Busch Stadium

 One night after dinner we walked down to the arch and this was the night view of the pretty city.

 Arch at night

It was such a great birthday celebration. Thanks to my sweet hubby it was definitely a memorable one too!

She's One!

I can't believe it's been a year since our sweet baby girl was born.  It's an understatement to say the time has flown.  I don't know if with every child you add the time just goes faster, but that's how it seems!  

What a complete joy Gloria has been since arriving a year ago!  We could not have asked for a more content and happy baby.  She ate good, slept good, rarely cried, smiled and laughed all the time, and folded in quite well with our other two munchkins.  To be honest, I was a little nervous about a third child and expected it to be really hard for a while, and while days are definitely busy, being a mom of three became "normal" pretty quickly.

These past few months, our sweet "Gigi's" personality has quickly blossomed.  She might have had us fooled about being a completely laid back child.  She is definitely opinionated and has found ways to make her voice heard and can be quite sassy. She also can completely hold her own around the two bigger ones.  She remains a very smiley joyful little girl, as you can see in the pictures below. She LOVE music, and as soon as she hears a song she does this cute little dance with her head moving back and forth.  

She is more mobile than either of the other two kiddos were at this age, and I attribute it to trying to keep up with them.  She's a curious one, and though she's not walking on her own yet, there have been a few independent steps.  I expect her to take off any day now. I know this will be hard to believe, but she's also more verbal, even than Maddie was at this age. She babbles and looks at you like you should understand exactly what she is saying. She says momma, daddy, sissy, something similar to Rivers, and will repeat many simple words like bird, dog, etc. I have a feeling we've got another little chatter box on our hands. Whenever she is excited she squeals with this high pitched squeal of delight, claps her hands, and gets this huge smile across her face.  She also squeals when she's angry, but it sounds more like a little piglet :)

Our little lady is quite the momma's girl these days, with the exception of when daddy gets home from his long shifts, she only wants him to hold her.  Also whenever my phone rings, she starts squealing, "Da Da"! It's adorable!

Little Gloria is quite social like big sis too.  I worry that in Bible study or church nursery when she hasn't had a good nap or its late that she's going to be fussy.  Almost always she is just so happy and content to be around other children.  A few times friends who have kept her in the nursery have told us that she tries to console other children who are upset by bringing them a toy.  

- Sweet girl, I love you more than words could express.  You are a delight and gift from God, and I praise him for your life and letting me be your mommy. It has been so fun to get to watch you grow so much this year, and I pray I get to continue to watch you grow into a lady who loves Jesus!  Happy ONE year my sweet Gigi girl!

"But he was wounded for our transgressions;

 he was crushed for our iniquities; 

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed. 

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned- every one- to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him 

the iniquity of us all."

Isaiah 53:5-6

We just got back from a really sweet time of worship at our church.  Before we left for the Good Friday service, we had our little family devotion time during dinner.  Mike has been leading the kids through the Passion week. Since he was gone, I was in charge tonight.  I wanted to go ahead and set my mind on the cross and talk to the kids about what we would be celebrating tonight at church.  I read the passage above and made my modest simple explanation to our kids.  Then I read to them out of The Jesus Storybook Bible (FYI this is probably my favorite children's Bible I've ever read!).  I've realized God uses these times just as much for me as hopefully he is using for our kids sake. Tonight reading the words about Christ's death, I found tears rolling down my cheeks thinking about the wrath of God he took that I deserve:

"The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down. On his own Son. Instead of his people.  It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy his children whose hearts were filled with sin. 

Then Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, "It is finished!" 

And it was. He had done it. Jesus had rescued the whole world."

Madeline's little sensitive heart was quick to remind me after reading and talking about Jesus' death, "Mommy, Jesus didn't stay dead.  He ROSE on Easter... He's alive now!" River's is chiming in, "He alive, He alive momma."  Yes he is sweet kids, and if you trust in him your sick heart will be made well and his death will count for yours. Praise God for such a Rescuer!

What she wants to be...

We go to a weekly women's Bible study every Wednesday morning. While I'm discussing the week's passage and listening to a lecture on it, my kids are downstairs being taught a similar lesson to the one I am studying. It's a really wonderful set up, and the kids and I look forward to it every week. This past week we studied Ephesians 2 and 3, and today my kids were learning a lesson based around Ephesians 2:10,

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Their story was about Dr. Luke from Acts and how God had saved him for a specific work, accompanying Paul in his missionary journeys. At some point during the day, one of Madeline's teachers asked her, "If God saves you, what do you think is the job he has for you to do?" Essentially... what do you want to be when you grow up? As Maddie's teacher told me her reply, my eyes kind of teared up. "Mrs. Thompson," Maddie said, "I think God wants me to be a mommy." Now she could have said a lot of things, many I would actually expect her to say above the answer she gave; a doctor, a teacher, a nurse, a princess :), and all those things would be just fine. But she said "a mommy." And that blessed this momma's heart!

Actually God used it to remind me of the "work" he has called me to. See, this week as I came across Eph. 2:10 the question was asked, "What are some good works that you believe God has prepared for you to do at this time?" My immediate answer was that my primary "good work" is as a wife and mother. It got me to thinking how different my response is to this question today than it even was about 6 years ago when I was studying Ephesians with another group of girls. Then I was a seminary student studying to be a missionary. I believed the "work" God was preparing me to do then was to go overseas and share the gospel with an unreached people group.

Well, God intervened, and here I am 6 years later, a stay at home mom to three kids three and under. Honestly, in the day to day grind of changing yet another diaper, picking up another toy that's been left in the hall for me to trip over, and reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" for the fifteenth time, I wonder, "God is this all that you have for me to do today?" Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a stay at home mom and wouldn't' trade it for the world! But sometimes compared to the grandeur (in my mind) of people living as missionaries, writing books, speaking to a conference hall packed with college kids about the gospel, my life seems very small. I was sharing this with my Bible study group today, and one of the girls said, "you know, even Spurgeon had a mother."

Not that my children are going to be Spurgeon or one of the "great" leaders of their time, honestly, I don't know what God will call them to do. What I do know is that God has given me the "work" to nurture them and train my children up to know and love him. Day in and day out I have the opportunity to teach them about a Father who so mercifully loved them that he sent a Savior, his Son, to pay for their sins so that he might use them for a "good work" to praise and glorify him. And as I try to live out that gospel in front of them faithfully I pray that he will use my "good work" to bring them to a saving faith in Jesus. . What amazing job to be called to, and what an honor it is to be entrusted with these three little, precious lives! Hopefully Madeline will be a mommy one day who will do the same with her children.

-I know I have a lot of blogging to "catch up" on, but I didn't want to forget this one, and I didn't want Madeline to either.

(This was taken a while ago, but here's the little mommy in training.)

They've got rhythm....

Our kids LOVE to sing and dance... a dance party or "concert" breaks out at least once a day around here and has become one of the funnest parts of my day! Here are a few videos from this past week of them performing. Yes, Rivers has on high heels in one of them, and yes they are using wisks as microphones.

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Christmas 2011

We had a busy but extremely joyful Christmas! There are a lot of pictures... and yes, I know it is mid/late January but I just didn't want to forget all of the special times we had celebrating Christ's birth this year!

Madeline wanted to host a Christmas party for her friends. So we had some of her good friends from our church and neighborhood over for a mommy and daughter cookie exchange and tea. It was such a fun time!

Christmas Eve we celebrated with the Frantz side of the family and had a blast as always!

Gloria really excited about her first Christmas

One of the most fun things we did this year with Mike's family is play a Christmas cookie game. The object is to see who could get the Christmas cookie into their mouth from their forehead without using their hands in less than a minute. We did several rounds of this, laughing hysterically all the way through, and Mamaw ended up winning with the amazing time of 4 seconds! Here are some highlights of the game :)

All the cousins minus Lacey and Stella who were in Japan...we missed you guys!

Christmas Eve night

Our big girl had a princess Christmas this year!

Little man only liked opening one gift and then didn't want to open anymore. Finally he opened the rest of his gifts with sissy's help. It was quite funny though.

I loved that Christmas was on Sunday morning. We had a beautiful, sweet time of worship with our beloved church family! And then we spent the afternoon packing up for Mississippi and having dinner with family.

We got to celebrate lots in Mississippi for a week with lots of family. Talented Aunt SuSu made the kids some cowboy and Indian dress up clothes!

Christmas morning "replay" at Papa and Marmie's house

Trying to get a shot with Mamps and Granne and all the great grands... pretty impossible

Papa and Marmie with all of the grands. We were laughing how in 5 years Papa and Marmie have grown from a family of 4 to a family of 10!

She's 8 months old!

Well I'm going to try to do a marathon of blog posts to catch up on the happening through Christmas and the past few weeks.... and to start our baby girl is 8 months old! I totally missed blogging about 7 months so I'll just combine it all in one.

7 months old

At 7 months old our sweetie was army crawling all over the place and sitting for longer periods of time by herself. She loves to play and be involved in the action of our oldest 2 whenever possible. She continues to be a happy little girly and eats solids once or twice a day. She has yet to reject anything I've given her :) She's dropped down to two naps most days and is by far our most flexible child yet, which I'm attributing to her being the third child.

8 months old

This past month there were many milestones. Gloria is crawling everywhere and getting into lots of things! We definitely have a mobile little one on our hands who is curious about the world around her. She babbles all the time words including "mama" "dada" "nanna" "baba" and does this cute little rolling of your tongue like a car motor when she is frustrated. Her two bottom teeth also came in this past month. She has started some finger foods and cheerios is a new found love that combined with drinking out of her sippy cup can keep her entertained for about an hour. She is reaching for people, especially her mama and daddy, whenever she gets upset or hungry. She continues to grow; last week I put her in some 12 month pjs thinking they would be a little big and they fit! It will be interesting to see how much she has grown next month! She continues to be such a big joy to our family! We love you so much baby girl!