Choose to be a Blessing

A few weeks ago at my mom's group the speaker spoke about Blessings. This message really spoke to me. She talked about speaking blessing over your children. And praying for what you what them to be, not what they are.

Each night we say our prayers with Kennedy. And now after that I pray blessings over her. I pray that she will be blessing to others. I remember my mom doing this with my sister and I. In fact I have a card that she made me for Valentine's one year and it is full of blessings. She religiously prayed for my husband, even when I was so little that it seemed like miles off. But I am so thankful she did.

There is a song called the Blessing by John Waller. It is an amazing song. On his website he talks about the story behind the song.

"The lyric is a compelling challenge to other believers to speak positively into the lives of those around them. It encourages us all to choose to be a blessing to those in our lives. "

So many people are a blessing to me. I have the greatest family and friends. My friends and family are so willing to do anything for me. Whether it's just hanging out or going with me to get the girls pictures taken. I cannot tell you how amazingly blessed I feel to have these people in my life.

Thank you to everyone who is such a blessing to me!

Let it be said of us
While we walked among the living
Let it be said of us
By the ones we leave behind
Let it be said of us
That we lived to be a blessing for life

Let it be said of us
That we gave to reach the dying
Let it be said of us
By the fruit we leave behind
Let it be said of us
That our legacy is blessing for life

This day You set life,
you set death right before us,
This day Every blessing and curse is a choice now
And we will choose to be a blessing for life

Let it be said of us
That our hearts belonged to Jesus
Let it be said of us
That we spoke the words of life
Let it be said of us
That our heritage is blessing for life

For your Kingdom, for our Children
For the sake of every nation

Abilene

This weekend we went to Abilene to introduce Kylie to the Smiths and celebrate my mom's birthday!

It was so great to see everyone!

Here is Kylie and Aunt Jenni!

This is Momo meeting Kylie!
I have the cutest Grandma!


Myka was so facinated with holding Kylie! She kept begging to hold her. She looks like such a big girl holding her baby cousin!


Here is Kylie and me posing for a picture!


My mom and dad have four cats and Kennedy just loves them. Although the cats are not quite tame, you would never know. They didn't even scratch her, which would have been understandable considering they were upside down most of the time.


Here is Kennedy swinging with the kitty!

We also had a pumpkin carving contest.


Here is Brad carving our pumpkin!


Jenni is hard at work, but takes a photo break!

Nana is all business and of course she won her own contest! I guess it is okay since it was her party!


The next day we took the girls to a pumpkin patch! It was impossible to get all of them to look at the camera!


Here is the Lewis Family


Here is the Williams Family!


My parents! Aren't they cute!

Happy Birthday Nana!

This Sunday is my mom's birthday! It is a special number but you would never know. In fact when we were at the hospital before we had Kylie, the nurse asked if my mom was my sister. My mom looks so great! I am so thankful that I have her genes and hopefully I will age as well as she does.

My mom is such an inspiration.

She inspires me to be a better mom. I have always had an very close relationship with my mom. I pray everyday that my girls are as close to me as I am with my mom. My mom is my best friend. She is my confidant. Not a day goes by that I don't talk to my mom on the phone. She gives me advice and tells me the truth even when I don't want to hear it. I was talking to a friend the other day about our house growing up. I never remember our house being messy. My mom is such a good housekeeper. I know this comes from her servant's heart. This is true even when she comes to visit me. My houseguest will be in my kitchen cleaning or doing laundry. And all the while she has a huge smile on her face.

She inspires me to be a better wife. My mom and my dad are best friends. It is so clear when you are around them. In fact, when I am with both of them and one of them is trying to tell a story it is a battle. I have to stop them and say, "only one person tell me the story," because they finish each other's sentences. My mom challenges me to be patient and compromise.

Happy Birthday Mom!

What a big girl!

We went to the doctor today and Kylie weighs 7lbs 12oz. She might have started out small but she is bound and determined to grow fast.

She is so strong. She already holds her head up.

She has been sleeping so great! The last four nights she has slept six hours at one time! Mommy is so thankful. Daddy would be thankful too assuming that he even hears her when she wakes up. Brad is such a sound sleeper. He never hears anything.

Kennedy Lillis

So for awhile now we have been trying to teach Kennedy what her last name is. When she says Lewis is sounds more like Lillis. It is so darn cute.



Yesterday Kennedy, Kylie and I were sitting on her bed and I asked her what her name was and she said Kennedy Lillis. I pointed at Kylie and said who is this. She said, "Kylie Lillis."' I pointed at myself and said who is this and she said, "Mommy Lillis." She then pointed at a flower on her comforter and said, "Flower Lillis."

Daddy say no.....

Kennedy has earned the nickname little turkey. She is too funny.


She can be quite dramatic. She is extremely strong-willed and stubborn (I know payback is no fun). In fact my mom recently told my sister that when she had me she thought there would never be such a strong willed child, that is until I had Kennedy.

There are moments when I want to pull my hair out, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I have to work very hard to convince her it was her idea or that she is doing some special task.

For example, Kennedy has recently become scared of things. I am not sure if it is legitimate or make believe. Sometimes at bedtime she will cry that she is scared of the monkeys. What monkeys we do not know. Daydream believer Monkeys? Ten little monkeys? Not quite sure.

So in order to get Kennedy to sit in the cart when we go grocery shopping I told her she needed to protect Kylie from the monkeys. I know this is probably wrong and somewhere a child psychologist is crying, but I have to be creative.

Kennedy's newest thing is telling on mommy and daddy. Brad and I generally watch TV in different rooms because call me crazy but I don't enjoy watching the History Channel.

Kennedy has figured out how she can use this to her advantage.

For example, say that Kennedy wants a piece of gum and Brad says no. Kennedy will come to me and with her saddest puppy dog eyes cry, "Daddy says no gum!"

Or maybe, "Mommy says no outside!"

or "Daddy says no candy!"

It is hilarious!

First Blog

Okay so I am going to give it a try. So many friends and family members have blogs. I have always wanted one, but never had the time. Now that I am staying home with my girls, maybe I will have some free time, ha ha!

We have a new addition to our family. Kylie Layne was born on September 9th, 2008 at 1:48pm. She weighed 5lbs 15oz and was 17 1/2 inches long.


Kylie is such a great baby. She rarely cries, she is more of a grunter. She already sleeps great. Normally she will sleep anywhere from 4-6 hours at one time at night. I love the fact that both of my girls enjoy sleeping as much as I do.

It is absolutely crazy how much Kylie looks like Kennedy.

This is Kennedy when we brought her home from the hospital.

Kennedy Brooke weighed 6lbs 4 oz

She was 19 1/2 inches.









Here is Kylie on her way home from the hospital.


Kylie quickly earned the name little peanut.


It will be so interesting to watch Kylie grow and see if she continues to look like Kennedy.


Kennedy has my coloring with blonde hair and light skin. Kylie has Brad's coloring with darker hair, yes that's right she has hair, and a built in tan.






I am so impressed with Kennedy. She is such a good big sister. The only thing she is guilty of is not knowing when to stop helping. Her favorite activity is to give Kylie her pacifier. She doesn't understand that Kylie doesn't always want her paci. Especially when Kylie is sleeping.

As soon as she wakes up Kennedy asks, "where Kylie go?" I think she thinks she has a new baby doll to play with.

She says, "bless you Kylie," when she sneezes and constantly tells me how silly Kylie is.

Kennedy constantly begs us to hold her sister. I thought that if I let her hold her whenever that the new would wear off. Boy was I wrong.


When we found out that we were pregnant. I was excited but felt guilty. Everyone said it would be okay and that Kennedy would love it. I couldn't see it then, but now I know that Kylie is the perfect addition to our family and it just makes sense.