Where are you going?

I was asked this past week to confess with my mouth Jesus as my Lord... as I pondered that question, Brent and I came upon these verses and thought them too important not to share. Because I do not know exactly who continues to read this blog, and because we are living in the age of God's grace (there is still time to decide!), I want to make sure that my bloggy sphere of influence hears truth... truth found only in the Bible. Please read on.

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you- unless indeed you fail the test?" 2 Corinthians 13:5


I. EVIDENCES THAT NEITHER PROVE NOT DISPROVE ONE'S FAITH
A. Visible Morality (Matt. 19:16-21; 23:27)
B. Intellectual Knowledge (Romans 1:21, 2:17)
C. Religious Involvement (Matt. 25:1-10)
D. Active Ministry (Matt. 7:21-24)
E. Conviction of Sin (Acts 24:25)
F. Assurance (Matt. 23)
G. Time of Decision (Luke 8:13-14)

II. THE FRUIT/PROOFS OF AUTHENTIC TRUE CHRISTIANITY
A. Love for God (Psalm 42:1, 77:25; Luke 10:27; Romans 8:7)
B. Repentance from Sin (Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13; Romans 7:14; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 1 John 1:8-10)
C. Genuine Humility (Psalm 51:17; Matt. 5:1-2; James 4:6,9
D. Devotion to God's Glory (Psalm 105:3, 115:1; Isiah 43:7, 48:10; Jeremiah 9:23-24; 1 Corinthians 10:31
E. Continual Prayer (Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; James 5:16-18
F. Selfless Love (1 John 2:9, 3:14, 4:7)
G. Separation from the World (1 Corinthians 2:12; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17, 5:5
H. Spiritual Growth (Luke 8:15; John 15:14; Romans 16:26; 1 Peter 1:2,22; 1 John 2:3-5
J. Hunger for God's Word (1 Peter 2:1-3)
K. Transformation of Life (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If List I is true of a person and List II is false, there is cause to question the validity of one's profession of faith. Yet, if List II is true, then the top list will be also.

III. THE CONDUCT OF THE GOSPEL
A. Proclaim it (Matt. 4:23)
B. Defend it (Jude 3)
C. Demonstrate it (Philippians 1:27)
D. Share it (Philippians 1:5)
E. Suffer for it (2 Timothy 1:8)
F. Don't hinder it (1 Corinthians 9:12)
G. Be not ashamed (Romans 1:16)
H. Preach it (1 Corinthians 9:16)
I. Be empowered 1 Thessalonians 1:5)
J. Guard it (Galatians 1:6-8)

If you are still reading, this article goes into great detail and discussion.

It is our prayer that you know and love God and that your lives glorify Him. If you are unsure or want to talk more please, please call or email us. Until we meet again, or (hopefully) see each other in Heaven, we love you.

New Luke Things

The "new" things have slowed down, but there are a few things that have happened recently that are must remembers!

1. Luke now puckers when he kisses... no more limp kisses, really good solid, sweet kisses! I make him "pay the toll" to get out of the car seat, get out of the high chair... anything that gets me a kiss! He laughs and thinks it is so funny!
2. The other night, I was bathing Luke and mid-bath he announced he would like to pee pee in the potty. We had just sat there to no avail before bath time, but he announced, so I celebrated, pulled him out of the tub slopping water all over the place and then he sat there to no avail :) Then, I told him, "You know, you can poo poo in the potty too" and he looked at me like I was out of my mind. I try, I try :)
3. After we do the whole bedtime routine, I tuck Luke in "snug as a bug" and as I am almost to the door, he says, "Purple, Momma" so sweetly and purposefully. I don't know what he is saying (daycare doesn't either), but it is such a meaningful deal to my boy, I just whisper it back as I close the door.

We are blessed beyond measure.

Need Some Cash?

Your name may be on this list! I looked several of you up and you just need to claim it! Texas Unclaimed Property. I charge no finder's fee :)

Valentines 2011

Valentines is not a very big deal at our house, but I realized I missed the opportunity to celebrate when I rounded the corner at church on Sunday and saw a sea of red on every child in the nursery... the most red worn would have to go to the Carpenter Family however! Monday was Luke's Valentine's party at day care, so we had a second shot to get it right :) He wore this cute little shirt from Honey, traded valentines with his buddies, and we went on a "date" to the duck pond when I picked him up.

I think Luke ate more than he threw (this kind of grosses me out because this would be our STALE bread from the last 3 weeks...) but you can't tell boys not to eat when they want to ;) Luke would say "old bred" and take another bite. You pick your battles ;)

Luke got Madagascar and Curious George DVDs and a few items from the dollar spot at Target... I am such a sucker for the dollar spot!

Granna sent her Valentine a pop up play tent and a battery powered lantern... OH MY what fun this will be! We haven't given it to him yet because we don't want him to become rotten from all this LOVE ;) and I may need a new toy in my back pocket for the next ice storm! Ha! Hope not! Stay tuned.

Hope you had a Happy Valentines Day too!

Our Cutest Cousin!

Caleb turned one this weekend and we had a ball celebrating with him! I love this picute of him in the little blazer "owning" the room! Ha! I see so much of Lindsay's face in him there!

His cake was ADORABLE! Lindsay made it!

Luke shut the bounce house down!

Happy birthday Caleb!

Snow won't keep us down!

Would you believe this is the FIRST time we have taken Luke to a playland inside a fast food restaurant?!! Luke went with me to work and we met Daddy for lunch... it was a really fun day!

Stir Crazy

I am sure all two year olds are busy, but this one WORE ME OUT! This kind of boy energy needs to be run out with outdoor time! Well, we couldn't get out in the icy weather for FOUR strait days, so we had to stay busy at home... every time I would see Luke about to loose it, I'd ask if he wanted to do a project. Most always, I got a "yes" response. I know, some of these projects are lame, but I had to think on my toes with items that we had in the house:

Playing in Daddy's shaving cream... we pretended Luke was driving the cars in the snow:

We baked cookies:

Yes, that is red chap stick all over my child's face, I don't know why, but he carried it basically everywhere and slathered up at all times.

We mixed oil with colored water:

We glued pantry items on a rooster- Luke loved this one!

We did obstacle courses

Pick up the bowling pin and run down the hall

Jump from the step stool into pillows

Over the chair

This concentration face cracks me up, ya'll!

Make a basket and run to the wall!

And of course we played in the snow until our fingers froze (about 5 minutes worth!)

Our favorite thing was having Luke's BFF over to play when the snow started to melt... he was MISSING his buddies for sure!

It was a week to remember!

Snowed in!

There is about a 3 inch layer of ice all over our town... after getting out in it yesterday and getting stuck in it, I decided to stay home with the boys! We had breakfast, played memory, played trains, watched Thomas the Train, made Joseph's coat of many colors, read books, then looked at each other like what now? All of this before 10:00! Hopefully the ice will melt soon-- these Brewers are a little stir crazy!

Rodeo Fun

We took Luke to the livestock show and rodeo last weekend... he had a ball with his friend, Savannah!

Cattle drive:

The kids ran around in the grass:

Luke fed this goat who was pregnant... he would say "Here 'go" in such a sweet little humanitarian voice like he was responsible to sustain the goat!

Slobbery!

Rub A Dub Dub

Two By Two

Luke had a little bug last week, so we stayed home for 2 days until his temperature broke... after breakfast on the second day, I could tell he was needing his classroom structure, so we learned about Noah. We "built" an ark:

We put the animals in the ark. Luke would say "Save 'em, Save 'em" when he put them in the boat:

And we talked about when God makes a promise, he keeps his promises:

I don't know if any of it registered, but it was fun to remember and sing "Who built the ark, Noah, Noah... Who built the ark, Brother Noah built the ark"!

Bloggy Buddy

I would like to call everyone's attention to my "friend's blogs" on the right... my sister in law Jaime has just joined the blogging world. Check her out!

January Happenings

1. Luke singing-

2. Car problems- my car (Sarah wanted me to name it, so I am trying out ZoomZoom right now) has had major issues this month... we figured out if we were still paying car payments, it would take us 8 months to pay off the work. ZoomZoom better pull through this rough patch!

3. Wrestling- Luke is having a hard time not tackling his buddies at school. We have been trying everything with his teachers to get through this stage-- last Friday, Ms. Jett made flash cards of football players so that when Luke starts tackling his buddies like a football player, she pulls out the flash cards! I am hoping this works!

4. I had a Girls Night Out with my work buddies this weekend and we built ourselves on Wii... here we are ;)

(me, Jenny, Kathy)

(Jenny making us Rigatoni Carbonara and Kathy's red glasses are on her head ;)

5. Daddies are for making up games-

Chase the Sea Turtle on a Rope:

Going through tunnels made of blankets:

Momma's are for outings because they aren't as creative ;)

They really tried this???

Luke's Sunday School teachers decided to paint with pudding last week! I thought this was brave in a class full of 2 year olds! We picked up a happy Luke with a ring of vanilla pudding in around his mouth... I guess he ate his artwork :) Brent snapped a picture with his phone:

My Little Snow Man

Tangled

We took Luke to his first movie theater experience for New Years and he did great! We saw Tangled (Rapunzel story line)... it was very cute!

Ordering popcorn:

Strategic product placement- thanks AMC!:

Our seats!

We brought Horsey for reinforcement :) She enjoyed the movie too.

And the rest is history!

Brent found this email chain from after one of our first dates... seems like another life, but fun to remember back to our beginning :)

Brent,

I just wanted to drop you a quick note (well, actually it is an email... a note would have a stamp on it, or at least be hand written!) and say thank you again for a fun night. I had a nice time with you and look forward to more. Have a great week crunching numbers and I will talk to you later tater!

Abbey

Abbey,

Thanks for the email. I was having a really crappy morning until I read your email, it made my day. Hope your weekend with the fam was fun. I'll give you a call tonight and you can tell me all about it. Have a great day.

Brent

Brent,

Crappy Monday?!! What are those?! I just got a project in which I have to go smell fragrances named gasoline, burning rubber, excrement, flatulence, rotten eggs, and my personal favorite... SMELLY FEET! Talk about a crappy Monday. I would trade you in a second. I'm going to lunch dadgumit. I hope your day is going better than before.

Bye!

Abbey

This look: Lovestruck! Ha!

Christmas 2010 In Reverse

There are so many pictures in this post that I feel sure my 2 loyal blog followers (the Grandmas) will be the only ones reading by the end of it! The way I downloaded the pictures, they go in reverse order, so we will all have to stretch our brains to see Christmas in rewind!

Luke LOVES his Buz PJs! Back at home, winding down from a very fun visit.

One more story time before we say goodbye:

Santa brought Luke the coolest train set!

Daddy... get in on this before Momma steals all my Christmas sugar!

Aunt Jamie makes the best french toast in the world!

Debbie lost her wedding ring years ago... Dwight secretly replaced it this Christmas with a beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) set! It was fun to watch it all unfold!

Giving $$ is still fun!

Dwight and Debbie are in housing limbo... Debbie made do and Santa still knew where to drop our goodies!!!

Luke got his very own Woody!!!

A Santa Sack with socks?!!! That silly Santa! The soccer ball and books were a much bigger hit.

Aunt Jamie makes sugar cookies every year... Luke helped. She tires at icing them, so I have stepped in, in year's past.

Christy got 6 bowls dirty to keep all of the icing colors separate! Ha! Her cookies turned out prettier than my brownish purple iced cookies... you are hired!

When we arrived to Chris and Christy's house, we saw a fire truck! Granddaddy took Luke up real close to get a look inside!

When they left, they turned on their lights for Luke!

The Christmas Eve service was beautiful... we got to hear the preacher who married us deliver the sermon and Luke did great all the way until the lights went out for the candles. The music was so pretty- a night to remember for sure!

The best full length picture I got of Luke... he had a train applique vest over a red plaid shirt. Cutie pie!

It works out nicely that both of our family's go to the same church, so we got to do this together (as in almost every year we have known each other). Here is the group at Papasitos afterwards!

At the Allison household, Granna dressed Luke so Santa would not miss us! These are his Santa shoes!

Christmas kiss!

Making cookies with Granna:

Santa filled our stockings early! He somehow always finds us!

Army guys:

Opening presents was really fun! Luke was a great helper running from person to person to open every EVERY last one!

Riding his big boy tricycle from Granna and Pops:

Opening cars from Honey:

A quick hug and then he was OFF to play!

Breakfast with Honey:

On our way to Houston, we stopped in College Station to see our Buddies, Ben and Tiffany... we took a run through the Holiday in the Park too! Luke and I twirled around under the big Christmas tree:

Daddy recalled in his younger years jumping up and touching the rim of this basketball goal... he thought he would try again, so he stretched out real good

AND.... (got close!) Ha!

We had a great Christmas... I will certainly miss the age of two!