Day Eleven

40) The book I'm reading right now. It's written by a former Wycliffe missionary we met at a conference last year. I hadn't picked it up since last summer but it's been speaking volumes to me lately.

41) Meeting with these gals every Sunday night is such a blessing. They all have a wonderful way of pointing me to Jesus.

42) The kids at our church helped out the band this past Sunday morning. Such a blessing to see these little gals (the boys had a bit of stage fright) praising God.

43) Falling asleep on the sofa with my sweet little baby. Nic & I decided to trade in our computers for family time on Saturdays during the Lenten season. Sweet times like this are a result.

44) Saturday morning it rained hard. So hard that the 3.2 mile Run for Remembrance was canceled. When I looked out the door at BCM that morning I happened to notice a bunch of people running the race on their own. Pretty cool to see the Hokie community come together.

45) Speaking of BCM we had an in-house retreat with Longwood University & Hampden Sydney College. It was a great weekend of seeing people come together despite a few rearranged plans.

Day Ten

Okay so I failed. To be honest I either forgot about taking pictures or just let myself throw a pity party the past couple of days. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do between now and April 30!
35) It was nice again yesterday so the whole family enjoyed some time outside. Reading outside is one of my favorite pasttimes.

36) Smiley baby. Enough said.


37) Nic is demonstrating the Sadie Hug Hold. It's absolutely one of my favorite things when I pick her up and she grabs on to my shoulder. I realize she probably doesn't know what she's doing but I like to think she's hugging me :).

38) Tulips and flowers galore have started to bloom around our house. Nic & I don't exactly have green thumbs so we were so excited to see that the people who owned our house before did!

39) Normally I'm not such a fan of birds (note why I chose Finding Nemo seagulls instead of real ones here). But there's a bird chirping outside right now that reminds me of a seagull and that makes me think of consistently warmer days ahead and days at the beach!

Day Nine

31) Watched this episode of The Office with Nic last night. Precious. I almost cried and I can't say that about too many things Michael Scott does.

32) I think one of my favorite things about my computer is the camera. It helps me capture those chubby little cheeks (Sadie's not mine).

33) I love getting letters from our Compassion kiddo. It makes me squeal with delight every time I see one in the mailbox.

34) Again I'm a fan of The Brown Eyed Baker. This time I made no bake cookies except in my neck of the woods we call them preacher cookies. Delicious and easy to make.

Day Eight

Oops, I almost forgot to blog today. I have to admit that I wasn't so good with my camera this weekend. It's been a hard few days around here and I didn't always want to pull out my camera or sometimes I just plan forgot. But without further adieu here are some of my joys:

25) I painted my nails last week for the first time probably since I found out I was pregnant. It's not that I had some phobia that the toxins would soak into my skin and hurt my baby, I was just too tired to care. As it turns out I missed it, I kinda like the burst of color. Heavens knows the rest of my wardrobe doesn't have much color going on.

26) Some sweet sweet BCM students got together and collected money to send us out on a date. They're even providing the babysitting. This was such an unexpected surprise and blessing. I am so grateful for a fun date night out with my hubby but I'm even more grateful that they thought of us!

27) We busted out the grill this evening to celebrate the warmer weather. And we finally got to enjoy that bottle of Sparkling Grape Juice that's been sitting in our refrigerator since Valentine's Day. It's always a good day when the wedding day flutes come out!

28) I love it that my daughter gets to grow up and be loved by tons of college students. She's only 3 months old and I can already see why they say "It takes a village to raise a child."


29) Ok so this is sort of a cheat-this picture is from a few years ago (obviously Nic is a nerd but not that much of one). Anyways our friend Seth (and his wife Sarah) who we met in Philadelphia, randomly found themselves in Blacksburg as they made their half cross country drive to Texas yesterday afternoon. We got to hang out with them for just a little bit and it was SO encouraging to seem them!


30) Speaking of Texas. Breakaway Ministries is a student ministry at Texas A&M. We were first introduced to the director of this ministry, Ben Stuart, at Passion 09. I recently rediscovered their podcast and have been so encouraged by it lately.

Day Seven

20) I've only made these cookies twice but I seriously think they may be some of the best cookies I've EVER made. My friend Nicki originally linked to the recipe for these peanut butter, oat, chocolate chip wonders and as it turns out The Brown Eyed Baker is no joke when it comes to any kind of desserts.

21) To you this might just look like a sleeping baby but to me, this is a SLEEPING baby. I think poor Sadie is going through a bit of a growth spurt so she was a bit fussier yesterday than normal. Around 9 o'clock last night she passed out in her chair and I realized that was one of the first times all day my house had been quiet :).

22) The whole family went out to Pandapas Pond yesterday for an adventure in the sun. Nic & Sadie "read" while Mabel & I went for a run. I think we all may have learned a bit of a lesson when it comes to applying sunscreen, even when it's only April.

23) On our way back from Pandapas yesterday, Mabel was panting like a mad woman. I guess that's what running & chasing geese at the same time will get you.


24) Last night I started watching DC Cupcakes on Comcast OnDemand. I've heard about it before and even had one of their cupcakes (a friend brought it back for me) but I held out till now. Turns out it's actually pretty cute. The sisters who own the place are pretty ridiculous but they're really good at what they do. Somehow I always end up being a sucker for those bakery shows. First Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, and now this!

Day Six

As I've mentioned before, it's been so nice around Blacksburg the past couple of days and we've taken full advantage of it! Hence why a lot of my joys today are from the great outdoors.

16) Nic snapped this picture yesterday as he was bringing me my camera. I love walking around campus on a nice day. People are in such a pleasant mood and you get lots of fun looks pushing around a baby stroller :).

17) Speaking of campus. I absolutely love Virginia Tech (and no it's not just because I graduated from here). Once you've seen it, there is no denying it's beauty. I think a lot of times I take for granted the beautiful place we live in.

18) Sweet conversations. Not only do I love the campus we work on but I love the students we work with too! It's so rewarding to sit on a bench and talk about life and how God is working through it all with this lovely woman!

19) A little beauty indoors. My sweet husband brought flowers home for me last week (that's why the one in front is a bit droopy) and it totally brightened my day. They're sitting in front of me as I work this afternoon along with my back door open. Quite the inspiration I must say!

Day Five

Today's joys are a little bit different.


14) I'm a little late to the Youtube scene so you may have already seen this before. I haven't however and I think it's pretty stinking hilarious. As it turns out it won the People's Choice Award for Best Viral video this year!


15) The new Passion album is amazing. I love to play it & sing along while I'm doing chores around the house. I like to think I'm making a future David Crowder Band and Christy Nockels fan out of Sadie. Seriously though, every time I listen to this album I hear something that speaks to me.


16) While I was standing in line at Old Navy the other day, I happened to see this little beauty hanging on the clearance rack (along with 20 others of the exact same thing). I couldn't resist buying it after I saw the price tag was a whopping $2.97. Poor Bengals. At least I got a good deal out of their misery :).