HOPE

remember sweet kevin? i blogged about him a few weeks ago here. isn't he precious? well we have been praying for HOPE for kevin. for his heart, and for his lungs, for the drs to find something new, for the lord to work a MIRACLE somehow in kevin's life. guess what you guys? well, how about you just read below, which is a note directly from kevin's moms blog.

from laine: "You're our neighbor, our best friend, our sister or brother in Christ...you're our village. And you prayed. And He answered. OH! How He answered! At 5:00 today our cardiologist called us. He didn't want us to have to wait through another weekend of wondering.

He said, and I quote:"There is definitely HOPE."

HOPE!

In a few weeks they will place a shunt connecting Kevin's aorta and pulmonary artery, hopefully reducing his lung pressures and his lung resistance. In six or so months they will do another heart cath, and if his pressures and resistance are low, then they will do the "Glenn" surgery to redirect his blood flow! HOPE! A shunt has never before been mentioned to us. We had prayed that the Lord would bring something "new" to the doctors in their meeting. New insight, new procedures, new SOMETHING. A shunt is new to us."

from me: thank you for praying. please don't stop now! kevin and his family, as well as the drs, still need our prayers. but i know god is faithful! look how he has already shown HOPE where there wasn't any.

Revelation 21:5 "Behold, I make all things new." Praise you, Jesus!

cousins

it's always fun trying to get a picture of 6 lil ones 3 and under! that would be three 3 year olds, one 2 year old, and 2 one year olds! W-O-W! now do you see why these were the best we could get? :o) i find them VERY comical. though my intentions were not to get funny pics, but to get 1 sweet pic that captured these precious children. instead we got a ton of hilarious pictures that captured, well, these hilarious children! :)
so then we tried just the 4 "phillips" kids. again, our goal was to get one where they were all smiling, or at least, looking at or close to the camera! uhhh. turns out it wasn't any easier with 4 after all. ha. poor lucas. he has HAD IT!

well as you can see, we tried hard!!

look at lucas

testy trace :)

looks like an angel laura grace

cracks me up caden

kute (but very shy!) kenley

and last but not least... mason the miracle man!

and this one has got to be a fav... look at these boys! they are BFF!

although when you get these 6 monkeys together, it's always wild. very loud. high energy. bound to be whining. mess making. tattle taling.

there's always a

whole lotta love!
and we wouldn't have it any other way!!!

(almost) wordless wednesday

i think this first picture DOES need a few words... is this not the cutest hiney you've ever seen? :o) trace had just gotten up from his nap and was going to the potty! he will probably TRY and kill me over this pic in about 10 years! haha. not sure what kinda face lucas is making, but look at those crystal blue eyes!
sweet, and silly trace car!

happy boy!

adorableness!

i could just eat these boys up with a spoon! love em!!

winterjam in birmingham...

nate and i had been planning on going to winterjam for a while. before we knew it, the concert was here! we had also had planned on having VIP passes. come to find out, when there's 15,000+ people in line at the BJCC, it's kinda hard to find the VIP line. so we actually told everyone we were not getting to the front of the general admission line, but that we had VIP passes. ummmmm. or not. once we got to the front of the line, there were no VIP signs anywhere, and they had already opened the doors (early) for general admission. nate and i ended up paying our money and going in. we tried to find VIP, ends up our names were not on the list. so we were wandering around trying to find 2 good seats, and we lucked up! we found some that were right behind the folks from WDJC. so even though lines got crossed and we didn't get our VIP, we still got great seats. and we had a fun night away from the boys, alone. well, alone as you can be with all those thousands of people around you! HA! :o) we splurged and bought dinner there: cheeseburgers, fries, and a drink. then we had dippin' dots towards the end! (i say splurged b/c nate and i normally try and keep our dates nites cheap. ha. not so much this date. tix weren't too bad, but by time you add $ for parking, dinner, and a babysitter. well you know....) but we had a great time.

the music was great. all the bands were incredible, and even though i didn't think i knew all of them, there was at least 1 song that i knew from each one! we saw revive, sidewalk prophets, fireflight, (nate loved them!) 10th avenue north, and of course the bigger bands- newsong, newsboys, and third day. michael tate from newsboys ROCKED the house! he was incredible. such the entertainer. i loved SHINE, and JESUS FREAKS! they brought back some old school stuff! i really enjoyed their performance! and 10th avenue north sang my fav song "by your side." when lucas was itty bitty and would cry during the nite, i'd always rock him and i'd end up singing that song. the chorus says "and i'll be by your side, wherever you fall, in the dead of night, whenever you call, and please don't fight, these hands that are holding you, my hands are holding you." awwwwwww. brings back memories! anyways. and last but not least... was THIRD DAY! they will always hold a special place in our hearts for several reasons. the first being that nate re-dedicated his life at their concert way back when we first started dating! that's a nite we'll never forget! and the second reason is b/c we got ENGAGED at another one of their concerts, and nate got to get onstage and SING with THIRD DAY! it was awesome! :) this time we just sat in the crowd and enjoyed the show. but it was still great. always is! wow. sorry this turned out to be so long. didn't know i could write so much when it didn't even involve the kids. ha! below are a few picture collages... it was pretty dark, and smoky. so they aren't great. but oh well! MICHAEL TATE with NEWSBOYS!
10th Avenue North

and.... THIRD DAY!

MAC was ROCKIN'!

love them!

so did anyone else get to enjoy the winterjam tour? it's always worth the money, that's for sure!!

please pray for sweet KEVIN!

hey guys... i have a major prayer request. you see this sweet sweet boy? his name is kevin. he is a very adorable, active, talkative 2 1/2 year old little boy. some local friends of mine just adopted him from china last week. they have 4 biological children, and kevin makes thier 4th adopted child from china. he has some serious heart issues. they knew this when they adopted him, but they thought when they brought him home, the drs here could help him. he had his first appointment with the cardiologist on tuesday, and the dr did not give much hope... in fact the dr was anxious. kevin has a lot of lung damage, and numerous heart complications. kevin will see the same dr again on tuesday for a follow up appt and a heart cath. the dr specifically said to pray that he will see something "new" in the heart cath.

so friends, that's what i'm praying for, and i'm asking you to do the same. we know that philipians 4:6 says "be ANXIOUS for nothing, but in ALL things, by PRAYER and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to god." please please please join me in prayer for sweet kevin. the lord has brought him home to his forever family. and we are SO thankful for that! we know that kevin is in god's hands. i will be praying zeph 3:17 over kevin these next few days and nites. i will make it personal and say "the lord KEVIN'S god is with KEVIN, he is mighty to save KEVIN. he will take great delight in KEVIN, he will quiet KEVIN with his love. he will rejoice over KEVIN with singing!"

will you please pray for kevin? and pray for his precious parents, who are so obedient to the lord. they know kevin is in god's hands, but ya'll, i just can't imagine what they are feeling right now. i have followed their journey to china and back, and i feel like i know this sweet boy. (i do know the family, but have not yet met kevin.) please also pray for his siblings. below is a picture of all 8 adorable children. kevin is in the middle in blue.

my heart is so heavy for kevin right now, i guess because i have fallen in love with this sweet boy. i mean, look at him, how could you not? having 2 boys of my own, one being very close to kevin's age, i just can't imagine. again, please join me in lifting kevin up in prayer. he needs a miracle, and i know for a fact that god still does miracles, and he has awesome plans for kevin's life. please do me a favor. if you read this, and will commit to praying for kevin, please leave me a comment and let me know. it is so encouraging to see the body of christ praying for one another. even if you don't know kevin, please say a prayer for him. i will keep you updated on his appt next week as i hear something!

jeremiah 29:11
"for i know the plans i have for you, declares the lord. plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. to give you a future and a hope."

trace = tres

the BiRtHdAy boy! (sporting his awesome shirt from neverlands cove. check it out... they have cute shirts and things at GREAT prices! tell lindsey i sent you!)trace turned 3 on monday, march 8. i had been away at tres dias over the weekend (where i had a wonderful time!) so i took off work to hang out with my boys for a while on monday! it was a beautiful day. we played at the house for a while, then i took trace to fox's pizza for lunch! we won lots of tickets, but not enough to get the cool car he wanted. but when he told the girl at the counter that it was his bday, she let him have the car anyway! :o) i'm telling you, this boy knows how to get what he wants! :)

it's our tradition to have birthday pancakes for breakfast! with candles and all. trace only ate about 3 bites, and lucas finished them off! what are brothers for, right? ha.

i tell trace over and over what a good big brother he is. he truly is thes best. and he's at that "it's fun to help mommy" age, so he will run and find passies, blankies, diapers, etc. when i ask him to help! when lucas gets up in the morning, trace will talk in his sweet little baby voice and say "did you sweep good bubba? you have a good nap?" it's precious! love these boys! lucas looks up to trace and always wants to be doing what trace is doing. including playing with the EXACT.SAME.TOY. i'm sure you know how that turns out! :)

of course i had the camera out all morning! i got a few cute shots of the boys.

i can't believe my sweet trace is 3. it seems like just yesterday he was born and we started calling him trace car! i remember his first birthday, it snowed! what a difference from this year, when it was 65 degrees outside! you never know what you'll get on a day in march in alabama! anywho. i remember his second birthday... lucas was only 6 weeks old, so we had a quick and easy party at chick-fil-a! and this year, he is going to have a small joint party with caden at chuck-e-cheese. there. i said it. the dreaded place where a kid can be a kid. oh my. what are we thinking? :) the party isn't until april, but you know i'll be snapping pics like crazy then blogging all about it!

trace is my little helper. he aims to please! he loves to be near me. sometimes he will sit in my lap and cuddle. he loves for me to lay down and watch "tb" with him. he has such an imagination. he loves to sing. and play the guitar. and dance! he can chug some chocolate milk, but HATES white milk. unless it's in cereal. he loves yogurt, cheese, pizza, chicken fingers and french fries. and anything sweet. he is a lot like me! sometimes he will eat all day long, sometimes he will barely eat 1 meal in a day. he loves bathtime and stays in there til the water turns cold. he is tall and skinny (we'll see just how big he is at his dr appt today.) he goes to bed b/w 7:30-8 most nites. and on a good day, will sleep til 6:20 the next morning. (where'd those sleeping til 9 am days go??) he still takes an afternoon nap, anywhere from 1-3 hours. he has a huge vocabulary and rarely is he quiet, unless he's asleep! he knows all his colors, can count to fiveteen, sometimes sebenteen on a good day! ha! he loves god, and learning about him at sunday school, childrens choir, and puggles, and bible study. he is a little charmer. he is potty trained completely, wearing big boy undies almost all day most days, and a diaper still at nite (but 4/5 days it is dry in the morning!) he likes to go with "no pants" while at home, to show off his cool underwear! he has the prettiest, biggest smile, that lights up a room. he has beautiful eyes, a sweet little button nose, and of course 2 cute ears that i'm constantly telling him to open up and listen to me! he loves to play with stickers, read books, color, play with playdoh, and blow bubbles. he is all boy. he is kinda clumsy, and has a tendency to run smack into things b/c he's in his own little world. he loves to play outside. he is very loving, and extremely sensitive. did i mention he is a little like me? :) he is my baby. he is one of my greatest blessings from god. i love him and i am so proud of him. and i wouldn't change a thing!

all together now. awwwwwww.

happy 3rd birthday big boy. i love you to the moon. and back!

new kicks

guess who got new kicks???yep. lucas! actually, we've had them for a while now... chuck taylors, brand spanking new, size 4, in the box, which is rare for the 2nd kid. :) i think a friend actually gave them to one of my sister's kids, but they had never been worn! so we've had them for a while, but his foot is just now almost big enough for them. they may still be a tad bit too big, but they are so cute i had to let lucas show them off!

he wore them to church sunday... along with his guitar shirt. he is definitely a mini nate!

quite the model! playing with his bubba's motorcycle... and showing off his new converse! :)

and trace can't be left out of the new kicks fun!

he got some new crocs, well, they were new to him, from caden! :) they have 2 little jibbitz, and he loves them! he makes sure they are turned strait. he is a little ocd, kinda like his mom. poor thing! :) i can't believe one of the jibbitz is mater, off of the cars movie. it could not be more perfect for trace. i am def gonna have to buy him a few more!

my happy boys with their new shoes!

and picture not shown: happy mama thankful to be blessed with cool hand-me-downs!