Caleb?

I am thankful to be having a little boy join our nysewander-world in 15 weeks... wow that seems soon. I think JM and I have decided to name him Caleb (however I still like the name Aaron [exalted, strong]). We both have liked this name (Caleb) since before we ever dreamed of kiddos and now we may get to use it:) Caleb is Hebrew for faithful and I love that. One thing we are not yet sure of is what we want to give him for a middle name. I know we have 15 whole weeks to decide, so there is no rush, but I thought I would check with other bloggers out there to see what their thoughts and suggestions are. I like the names Matthew (Gift of God) and Daniel (God is my judge) but we just aren't sure yet.

I know this having two kids thing will be an adventure and I pray daily that I'm up for the challenge. I can't wait to meet this little guy and see what he's like and how he is going to change our little growing family. I worry about my little girl, who has been very clingy lately, and how she is going to handle sharing me. She's not too keen on sharing me with other kids for 2 minutes so I hope she's prepared to share me for a life time. I will definitely need grace and the eyes of God to see her needs and to know what behaviors are legitimate feelings of neglect or just new sibling jealousy. Actually, what would be 'ideal' is for her to embrace this new role as 'big sis' and become my little helper. ("I will call her, mini me.") But I'm trying to be realistic and think of all the scenarios possible and you know what, even once I think I've considered them all, I'm sure she will react in a way that I never would have thought of. That's life:)

News Flash: I'm already booking reservations at Casa de Nysewander for anyone who wants to come visit us after little guy is born to change diapers, cook, clean and to play with IGN for a few days... or a month. I mean, don't all rush out here at once! Heehee!

News Flash #2: Its supposed to crazy snow here tomorrow! Like 6-10 inches! (KTB, get your ticket ready!)

Happy December to everyone and I hope Nov. was a good one:) Let me know your thoughts on baby names and leave the dates of your spring visit to Minnesota for the baby arrival:) Blessings!

There are so many things I love about this girl!

Lately IGN's personality has been growing by leaps and bounds and everyday I find myself laughing, not just at her anymore, but with her! It really is so much fun. One thing that has made me laugh lately is that she wants to be creative with all of her 'accessories':




Yeah, she wears swim goggles like a head band. The cutest thing about it all is that every time she puts anything on she looks for John Mark and once she finds him she stops dead still and smiles real big waiting for him to tell her how beautiful she is. Its the sweetest thing ever... she loves that daddy of hers! Here are pics of how she likes to wear her sunglasses (around her neck!):





Today she wanted to wear JM's bandanna as well as her sunglasses necklace, precious again:



SO that is our trend setting daughter and I'm sure it is only a matter of time before everyone is wearing goggles around their head!

IG also is LOVING some books these days and will read them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It can be pretty tiring for me but I remind myself that this is a short period of time that she is a little peanut who wants to sit in my lap and read. Since we are now book reading machines, she is picking up on EVERYTHING, I mean sounds, words, facial expressions, everything! She tries to repeat everything we say and wants to communicate like we do. She even has her own 'curse words'. That sounds bad doesn't it? Well, when she gets frustrated she walks around muttering sounds and it reminds me of the dad in 'The Christmas Story' when he is trying to fix the furnace. We are trying to get these mutterings on camera because it is COMEDY! We laugh so hard!

Here is video if her telling us her animal sounds. Usually she is more passionate about them but this will do until you can see them in person.



I have one more thing to say:
I WILL BE HOME IN 3 WEEKS!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!

Guitar awesomeness

I love the sound of acoustic guitars. LOVE IT. Give me a good sounding acoustic, and a rich, unique, raspy voice and I can go all day with it. I remember in 9th grade, when a friend mastered "man in the mirror" by MJ on the acoustic, and I was in awe. This first video will show you what I mean. The second video is just as awesome, but a different kind of awesome... enjoy.





Free Comedy: After this song came out, Polaroid released an official statement saying that thier pictures weren't intended to be shaken, and they didn't recommend it. Hilarious.

Random thoughts from JM

I have the blogging duties for today, so I thought I would just write a bit about whats going on up here.

1. It is now officially Minnesota Cold. I'm not talking Georgia cold (low 40s-high 30s), its like 6. Thats right folks not a snowflake on the ground but the wind is like freeze-your-nose hairs-6-degrees-cold. I know many of you have no sympathy, and Im not fishing for it, cause we left the sunny south to come here, but dang...6 is just ridiculous. At least bring on the snow, so you can see something beautiful along with the cold (dang I love snow) but nope, just frozen nosehairs is all we get today.

2. Im going to start my beard growing for the winter. Now.

3. IGN had her first doctors appointment today. B told me that she didn't like the doctor, as she didn't compare to Dixon back home. Ill let her post that story on another blog. All I know is when I went to change IGNs diaper after they got home there were FOUR band-aids on her legs. Consider her vaccinated. Sad.

4. There was a funny story that happened in worship the other day. I was running the sound board and the person (to remain nameless) was working the computer next to me. The worship team was singing in their IHOP-esque fashion, singing that we are going to "we will fall down and worship" (they will sing a line like this maybe 50 times, over and over again) A lot of times I get focused on the board and don't see the band, or the overhead. I looked up and the screen said "we will pull down and worship". I leaned over and told her as politely as possible without laughing out loud that I thought they were singing "we will fall down and worship." She kind of chuckled and said she couldn't understand what they were saying, and quickly went to typing. I looked up after she had typed and she had written... "we will fall down on worship." Classic. I just let it be.

5. I know the Georgia bulldogs don't have a likely shot at the title game, but dang I'm gonna be rootin for Oklahoma, so we can have a shot at USC in the Rose Bowl. What a matchup that would be.

6. Someone please tell me why Auburn feels the need to have pit bulls on the sideline of the Iron Bowl game? To sick them on the fans that rush the field? I mean come on... check out what happened Saturday night.

"Who are any of us?"

That quote is from a great little piece in "A Mighty Wind", a Christopher Guest Classic. I love his movies and I love the people that laugh at the movies with me. Its just quality. "Corkey, you gotta live!" -Parker Posie in Waiting for Guffman

Anyway, just silliness. This morning I was sitting in my living room enjoying the sunny morning and our Christmas tree while my girl was sleeping and JM was handling family business and insurance stuff (UGH!). The night before I had experience some revelation about my life with God and how I'm willing to sacrifice obvious things to the Lord like, monetary things or luxuries or even comforts but when it comes down to it, I want to think whatever I want to think and go about my day doing whatever I want to do. I have not given over the 'mundane' to the Lord because I assumed He wasn't interested in my trips to the grocery store or the number of dirty diapers I've changed or how many meals I have made and cleaned up off the floor. I just figured if it was kind of boring to me then it must be boring to Him, right? I mean there are people out there doing AMAZING things to bring Him glory and preaching AMAZING messages that are drawing thousands to Him... so my diapers aren't much to get invested in (there not actually MY diapers). Well, i realize how sorely mistaken I am. God loves us to such a great degree that Jesus gave up all the riches and glory of heaven to visit this painful, sinful earth and die so that I could commune with God while I am living the mundane. Jesus didn't die so that only those who are doing HUGE things could commune with the Father. He died so that I, house wife and mother, could live a life of nearness with my King. I can worship and feel His presence as I am folding clothes, vacuuming, doing dishes, reading the same book to IGN for the 14th time in 30 minutes. My life is meant to bring Him glory, it is the constant focus of my heart on Him that brings Him pleasure. I don't need to be out conquering the world for His name as long as I am here and listening to beat of His heart and giving my self to him in thought and deed. I want to be found faithful to Him no matter what my circumstances may be. I want to be faithful to JM, IGN and little one by praying for them and living a life before them that reveals the One I love (even while making meals or going to the grocery store). God has blessed me beyond measure and it is up to me to decide to bless Him with my life, even what I perceive as boring.

This morning I read, "Let those that love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 97:10
I realized that I don't hate evil at all, actually, I enjoy it. i know this because of the things that I see on TV and I am not offended by it, much less angry at it. So today I have started making an effort (with the help and grace of God) to love what is good and at least be more aware of what is evil and not to take any pleasure in it. I really want to be completely His and I know I'll mess up a gazillion times more but I'm taking baby steps and I pray that one day I will be called by Him, 'faithful one'.

Oh Christmas Tree...

This weekend we began a Nysewander Christmas tradition of putting up our tree after Thanksgiving. Normally I would probably wait until Dec. to put up a tree but its cold here and we're leaving on Dec. 20th, so I wanted to get the most out of our tree. We went to homedepot for our tree and there were three tree types:cheap, not so cheap and unjustifiable for a tree. We opted for the cheap type. We found out why it was cheap once we touched it, it was like razor blades! Haha, no jk but it hurts to put ornaments on it. We did however manage to get our ornaments on it without much harm. It's a cute tree and we love having our apartment Christmas-ified. I LOVE this time of year!!!!

Football Saturdays no more....

Well we are done with the regular season, and because of some really stupid moves from the Kentucky QB, we wont be able to face LSU in the SEC title game. At least we are tied for SEC East champs, and took care of buisness against Tech. I did call my boss before the game, and he didn't answer, as was expected. Psssh. Techy.

As has been mentioned before by my fellow bloggers, this whole Nablopomo has taken its toll on me, and I am looking forward to not being required to write. I love to write, but not when Im forced to. I think I will take a break from this craziness well into 2008.

IGN had a crazy day today missing her morning nap, and taking a short afternoon nap. That made for a sassy girl this evening, to say the least.

We pretty much watched football all day today which was fun, and pretty hard to do when you have a 14mo old, but Bekah made it very easy for me to enjoy (thanks babe)! Probably goes without saying but I am sad to see the College football season end. Oh yeah we got a Christmas tree today. Pictures to come soon.