My New Nephew :: Baby James

My Brother and His wife, Diana, welcomed Baby James Neal Gaddis II (named after my dad) into the world September 29. He and mama are doing great and boy, my brother is going to be a good dad! The boys and I got word that she was in the hospital and we packed up and headed North. It is crazy awesome that we live close enough now that we got to see him THE DAY he was born...how awesome is that?!!!

Anyway, I had high hopes of getting some super great newborn shots, but the room was SO cold I was not about to take him out of his nice and cozy swaddle...and not to mention, Justus was not so sure about the hospital room so taking pictures was not on his agenda! ha!

Here are a few I snagged::





Love Love Love this little man!

"Isn't That Just Like God"

Every time I think of all the details of life that God ordains to fall into place at just the right time, (never to early never to late) I hear my sweet friend/mentor, Mrs. Thomas, saying, "Now, Isn't that just like God!" That phrase keeps ringing in my head this week as I look back on all that has taken place.

Saturday we got a phone call from Sudan asking Vernon if he could be in country by the following Saturday. All for AMAZING, EXCITING reasons, which will be for another post. (or just check our His Voice Blog in the next couple days). We knew we would have a team from our partnering church, The Village Church, in Sudan at the that time and had already decided our Fall schedule was too packed for Vernon to join this team. Little did we know that he would end up being there to minister with them!!

All that said, Vernon is in Sudan. He will fly in on Friday to Minneapolis, where I will have already dropped the boys off with my Mom and driven to this beautiful northern city. I will pick him up, we will attend the Desiring God National Conference (we do this each year as a gift to each other instead of getting other stuff). We will drive to pick up the boys on Sunday following the conference, sleep at my moms, get up early and drive Vernon to the Ozarks for Staff Retreat. The boys and I will go home for the week, drive back and pick up Vernon from the Ozarks and head to Bolivar to do some ministry there. We will head back to STL, Vernon will be home for a day and then fly to Midland for some His Voice meetings. That said, the boys and I will be home 7 days between now and Oct 15 of which Vernon will be home 1.

Crazy.

But here is the cool part. As you may or may not know, we decided to homeschool Titus this year. It has been the biggest blessing EVER. Taking that step of obedience (for us, not that homeschooling is obeying in general,it just was for us in this time) has been SOO freeing to us! At the time of deciding this, I was a bit panicked. I also work for His Voice Global from home and I had no idea how I would be able to accomplish getting Titus schooled while being an effective staff member of HVG, not to mention a decent mom and keeping up with Bible study, prayer, outside reading, house work, cooking and ministering outside the home!
What I have found is that I am ALOT more disciplined with my time because I HAVE TO BE. I have found that not being strung out going here and there with school pick ups and events, we have so much more family time and time to get things done! So here is my, "Isnt that just like God" moment this week:: We are finished with 1st quarter in all Titus' subjects! History, Math, Geography, Science, Reading/Language Arts. (we even started a unit on Sign Language) Isn't that just like God to give us some time to pace our selves in the middle of our crazy season! This means, I can school Titus the days we are home and not have worry about getting behind while we are out ministering together as a family. How cool is that!

So that's my little, "Isn't that just like God" moment this week...Do you have one?!

Just Take It (pt2)

So...as I mentioned in my last post, I was challenged to start bringing my camera along instead of always wishing I had it. Here are pics from Day 2 of taking my camera...just in case you needed a little extra encouragement to lug yours around. We went to the park to play and decided to explore. We found a great trail around a pond and lots of rocks to play on. Titus, just this week, learned to ride his bike with no training wheels...so the trail was a perfect spot for him to showcase his new talent!

Titus on the trail::



and take 2 of Justus fitting as we leave, poor little buddy loves outside::

Just Take It

So yesterday I was reading the girltalk blog and was encouraged by one of my fav photographers/moms. She wrote about how much it helps just to ALWAYS have your camera. She talked about how instead of always saying "I wish I had my camera" actually HAVE IT.

As I have said in other recent posts, since I got my iphone, I pretty much STINK at taking my camera anywhere. The last 8 months are the least photographed months of my families life!

So I decided today would be a good day to start and I am so encouraged! As we played outside I got some quick fun shots, not even forcing them, just honest shots! So hopefully this will give me the encouragement I need to remember! I just love photography that is honest, real to life and unedited. So this time I packed my 50mm and let it do its magic. I had little to no editing to do!

Here are some I got at one of the parks we went to today::

The boys are at a fun age. Both are old enough to play alone but are finally able to play together!



Here are some of Titus (6) loving being outside in the fall!




Here is Justus (2) he is mr. crazy.

Titus is sooo into camping/hiking/survival gear. Today he got a monocular and he was trying it out at the park.

It was a fun evening that ended like most all fun evenings these days:: Justus saw that we were leaving and tried to let me know it was not time to leave yet.

I won. We left.

So dont be shy, pack your camera tomorrow and see what you get!! You will not regret it!