Read...

No energy or brain focus to even begin to write my thoughts...but this kind of goes along with where my thoughts are...and if you read my comment the icing on the cake is there :)  (my icing, my cake;0)
Click here to read

Wordless Wednesday

Free

While I know I'm a struggler in this area, I am learning more and more that EVERYONE struggles with lack of 'freedom', so I had to share this...my comments at the end :)  Click here for some background tunes...a song that came to mind while reading :) 

FreeLynn Cowell

"I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts."

Psalm 119:45 (NIV)         

Devotion:Being busy, overwhelmed in fact, made me feel important. I loved nothing more than creating a to-do list, simply for the happiness of checking it off. Even better was recounting the day back to my husband; my life sounded so important! Running around had a purpose.

Busyness quieted the voices of insignificance that screamed inside my head. But it wore me down. The pay-off simply wasn't there.

Soon I sensed God asking me to take things off my plate. When I didn't, He started removing them...one by one. That is when I began to experience freedom and the peace that comes from simply being. I found my completion in being His girl. The more I embraced the Lord, the more His freedom became the thing I cherished.

Dictionary.com defines freedom as the state of being free or at liberty, rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.

Freedom is my word for 2011, a word I want to fully understand. A word I am defining for me as: unconfined by my human limitations; free to be an expression of my amazing God and His revolutionary love.

David must have been a bit like me; a man prone to have to preach to himself on occasion. He gave himself this command, "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts" (Psalm 119:45, NIV).

In the original language "freedom" here means spacious, broad, roomy. That's not exactly how most non-Christians would describe Christians. But spacious, broad and roomy is exactly what Jesus has for those who are His.

Since God is not a God of chaos or confinement, when I follow His ways He brings freedom. He causes the things He has not called me to do, or to be a part of, to fade in the background. That is where my purpose is peaceful.

Father, I need Your freedom - the ability to move about without being driven by compulsion or emotions. I seek Your direction to find Your freedom. I choose to allow my expectations to fade, enabling my family and friends to walk in a spacious and broad place. I choose to walk in Your ways, not cluttering life with me and my agenda, but having room to be led by Your Spirit. Thank You, Lord, for giving me what only You can give...true freedom. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Related Resources:

Stop by Lynn's blog today. She is hosting a special "freedom" give away!

Application Steps:  In what area of life do you struggle to experience freedom and peace? Take today's key verse and insert your struggle. For example: "I will walk about in freedom from controlling my family, for I have sought out Your precepts." Write this out. Memorize it. Make it your go-to place when you need God's freedom.

Maybe like Lynn was, you are addicted to frenzy and you don't want to exchange crazy for calm. Ask the Lord to give you a desire to experience His peace.

Reflections:  Why do I struggle to have freedom in certain areas of my life? (Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the root cause of the struggle.)

With the root revealed, what actions do I need to take toward freedom? (For example: pray for faith, choose forgiveness, focus on my completion in Christ, etc.)

Power Verses: Galatians 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (NIV)  

I'm back!

Well, howdy!  How's it going out there?! :)

Not so 'wordless' today ;0....Things have been a little...mmm...shall I say 'much'?...for the past few weeks here.  I feel like I've been trying to survive Tyler's last 1 week trip for the past THREE.  I keep trying to be a 'big girl' and suck things up and just go with it.  But that lead to my having a lovely break down last Thursday.  That was 1 week after I started to feel like I was walking through my days in slow motion, with my world spinning around me in fast or normal speed.  I just wanted a break.  Some sleep.  A time out.  But no such luck.  After sharing what was going on/what I was feeling with a few people, I began to realize that being Emma's 24/7 provider wipes me out, and that's normal.  See, usually, once Tyler comes home from work, he plays with Emma and we tag team the bath/feeding/putting to bed stuff.  And by tag team I mean, I prep, Tyler does, and I guess I get to zone out or something so it's my refueling time.  My mom was staying with me while Tyler was gone, but she got shingles so she wasn't able to hold Emma and therefore no break time for moi.

Anyhow, I spoke up and asked for prayer and talked some people's ears off about this new 'feeling' I was going through, and I can definitely feel it's helped.  Saturday I shut my computer down and I didn't open it back up until TODAY.  Ahh...refreshing :)  SERIOUSLY.  For someone who relied on her computer to do 99.9% of her work for 13 years, with Outlook automatically checking for new emails every 5 minutes, being on the computer is not only a habit, but it's a way of life!  I find myself checking emails quite often sometimes.  Funny part now is that I only get maybe 2 emails a day, vs 5 emails every 5-10 minutes :)  So...I had a detox time.  And I see I've missed some posts on blogs that I'm anxious to catch up on!!  BUT, that will all have to wait until tomorrow.

Emma changed her schedule today, the little darling;)  So she's down early tonight and I am going to crawl in to bed and read.  I'm super excited.  It's a Lucy Swindoll book that has you write your thoughts and asks you questions at the end of each chapter.  I think it's called living your best life - I'll have to check and let you know for sure.

ANYWAY, a couple of links for you tonight...
I'm doing the Beth Moore verse memorization thing this year, so I logged on her blog today to submit my verse, and her post spoke to my heart with all that's been going on lately...so it's a must read!  Click here for that one.
...and I took her recommended verse for these next two weeks :)
“And my God will supply your every need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 The NET Bible

AND - since usually here on our blog you get to see a whole lot of Emma and learn way too much about what's on my mind :) I thought I'd shine the spotlight on my talented hubby that I'm missing much tonight.  Click here to see some of his latest projects (commercials)!  The week we left for Cabo he went down to San Diego and shot this footage, and he put it together for the events in Vegas where he's airing them throughout the weekends :)

Nighty-night!  Pics of Emma to come, sorry :)

Wordless Wednesday

My baby is SIX months

As much as I've been trying to enjoy every minute and stage that these past 6 months have brought about, I have to say that I still think it's gone by WAY TOO quickly!!  On Thursday, Ms Emma turned SIX months.  She's on the verge of crawling, currently backing it up quite well :)  She loves to babble...she's picked up a little scream that we're thinking she's learned by mimicking the neighbor's dog.  How sad is that?!  Her room is next to the side of the neighbor's house where the dogs hang out and over the weekend we were able to match the dog to Emma's scream :)  Still super cute.  

She's enjoying food very much, and salivates when she sees us eating food (which makes me feel bad!).  She's growing quite a bit, growing out of clothes left and right, mainly due to her length not so much her belly size (more on that below). 


Her feet and toes have become her new fave toys.  She loves being on the changing table and just hanging on to her feet, or once she rolls over on the ground, pulling them up to her hands.  When she's wearing loose fitting pants, she's always hiking them up and kicking her legs about.  


Emma's really good about playing by herself, which is a big blessing for me :)  Gives me time to do a little something like a post, wash dishes, or whatever needs to get done.


We had her 6 month check-up on Friday and her current stats are: 

weight: 13.2 lbs

height:  26 1/4 in

head circ.:  16 1/4 in

Doc was not satisfied with her weight gain over the past 2 months...made me feel like a bad mommy :(  I feel like she's eating so much!  She's actually increased the amount we feed her int eh bottle just over the past 2 weeks, which I thought was a plus..showing signs of growth.  So we're supposed to increase her cereal and veggies quite a bit... which is leading to LOTS of spitting up.  I feel like her tummy is just doing what it can but it's just small!  I mean, it's not like she didn't gain ANY weight...she seems healthy.  it's a little frustrating, but I'm trying to just do what I can and go with what she gives ques for.  Figure that's all I can do.  

AND NOW...on to the pics!  Of course, we took some pictures on Thursday.  here are some of our favorites.

Had to get one of her playing with her feet for Nani! :)

she really wasn't in to smiling all that much - she was making sounds, and here she is doing that

...it was such a nice day we decided to go outside for some...

My beauty ;0...sigh...

Here are the rest of the photos, if you have an hour or so to browse :) 

Family Pics

How dare I forget about the family pics we took a couple of months ago ;)  ...My mom and I had talked about doing a family pic for some time, but we coudn't get everyone to say yes to move forward with coordinating it SO, with Christmas photo card time approaching, I had decided that whether the whole fam took pics or not, at least Tyler, Emma and I would :)  

So, we were able to get everyone there and for the most part, smile for the camera ;0...it wasn't the best day weather wise (it was raining and a wee bit chilly), but all in all the experience was fun!!

You had a fam intro (for Aguirres) earlier this year, but I'll guide you through everyone again, just in case!

Mi Madre, Teresa

My mom, aka TEREMA and grandma, aka LITA

my sis' and I: ANN (far let), DIANA (far right)

Ann's fam: grandbaby JAYCE, PAIGE, JESSICA, JOHN

Diana's fam (from left to right): ALEX, SHIRLEY, CHICO, CRYSTAL, CHRIS

the cousins!! + terema

...SO, when the 'cousins' wanted to take a picture, it was just all the big kids that can stand on their own.  With Jayce & Isaiah being Emma's age, we group the babies together, and rarely thinking about the jump in generation between the three.  For so long, I've been the only one without kids.  So, I was watching and thinking, "How sad, there isn't any purple in the picture." (each family had a color, if you look closely).  Then I thought, "Wait, I have Emma..." and said outloud, "Hey, Emma's not in the picture!"  It was kinda funny when it happened, not so much now, but now you know;)

...back to pics...

My generation pic

some of you got this picture from us as a Christmas card - our first official family portrait!!

and others of you got this from the whole fam as a Christmas card

...not previously introduced: far right, Isaiah & Blair

The pictures look great - lighting and all the fun technical stuff ;0  They were taken by Kevin Layton of F7 Studios.  We've known Kevin for some time now as he's done pics for JAMZ events for years (via RT)...and Tyler's known him  from before the JAMZ/RT days.  He does great work, is quick, very professional AND runs lots of specials!  Check out his site for more info, if you're interested.  

To see all 32 pics, click here. 

Kevin: thanks again for the great pics!  Sorry it took me so long to share them and tell people about your great work!

February ALREADY!!

WOW.  Although I'm saying 'where did January go?' for once it felt like, as nutty as it was, it kind of went by a little slower than what seems to be the norm.  That's a little refreshing!  I caught myself self several times, as a matter of fact, thinking, "Wow, still xx (time) before we're at the end of the month."  So on I went with my business of that day.


Being in the moment has definitely been one of my lovely lessons over the past several months here.  Something I have not been very good at being, but am trying so hard to remember each step of the way!  This past month, we enjoyed just time at home.  As much as we were on the go, I try to balance out time for Emma at home without car seat days :)  I feel like she just gets fed up being in there when it's too much on the go.


What feels like it's been 'extended' time has really allowed for me to work on my scripture memorization, focus on prayer in certain areas and working on home projects.  Even the days themselves have felt like Emma's sleeping for extended periods of time (1-3 hours, mainly 2 hour naps!!) allows for recouping if we had an early AM feeding time, time in the Word, opportunities for reaching out to people I haven't been in touch with in months, organization in life and trying to create a new 'schedule'.


It's crazy to realize how much God has changed in me since last January.  I'm not so 'gotta have a plan' and 'gotta STICK to the plan'.  I have to admit that sometimes I feel like, "OK lets get some kind of structure here" and it's working, but it's been fun to learn to be OK with things being a little fluid and me just going with the flow.


Seriously.  that is for those of you that know me for the last 31 years of my life and haven't been around me much this 32 year;0  I'm totally serious!


Ahhh...breathing.


Now that I've been posting some-what regularly, and just about always including photos, I have used up all my automatic free space, SO I'm in the process of getting and learning a new route to post photos.  I look forward to sharing recent ones soon!  Have a terrific day!

Wordless Wednesday

organization treat ;0

This summer, during my 'nesting' phase before Emma was born, I shared about a photo/invite holder/organizer that I had been wanting.  

I did good at making do with what I had :)  I felt very creative finding a way to utilize the large quantity of magnets we had, while displaying our photos :)  

Well, after Emma was born, and Christmas was approaching, I realized that last year after Christmas, we ordered stockings that were on sale :)  And we now needed one for Emma!  So, I logged on to the website to order it for her, and thought...'hmm, wonder if they're going to be selling the 'card organizer' again this season...' so i peeked around, and there it was!  

Tyler convinced me to just get it.  It's apparently something they'll sell each year and won't put on sale, so just had to go for it....AND I DID! 

Super excited.  Here it is when it was full of Christmas cards!

So now my fridge gets to be completely clutter free - and we have a way cute wall hanging with our pics, cards and anything else we want to display :)


Just had to share since I had shared my desire to have this. 

Verse #3

Psalm 51:10


"Create pure thoughts in me and make me faithful again." Contemporary English Version


"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." KJV