hidden in my heart.

how can a young man cleanse his way?

by taking heed according to Your word.

with my whole heart i have sought You;

oh, let me not wander from Your commandments.

Your word i have hidden in my heart, that i might not sin against You. - psalm 119:9-11 - we pray this for elijah and ourselves. i'm curious. how do you encourage a love for the Word of God with your little ones?

firsts for elijah.

more "firsts" for elijah at ten months old...

we took his first trip to the zoo. first time to help daddy in the yard.

first boat ride.

first time to play in a fountain.

oh, the things to discover are endless.

fun at ten months old.

it seems like elijah has been growing and developing so quickly lately.

here are some of his fun developments at ten months old.

still elijah's favorite toy is the stuffed balls made for him by a dear friend.

he pushes them and throws them all around the house.

pulling mommy's bowls and climbing onto the kitchen shelf was a favorite game at ten months old. thankfully he is over that one. now he puts his stuffed ball in the bowl and takes it out over and over again.

pulling himself to stand began at ten months old too. he is learning to land more gracefully now.

he is so cute first thing in the morning eating his cheerios and reading his book.

he has an affinity for the dishwasher. whenever the door is open, he quickly has to get his hands on anything he can find.

that's the face of a little boy who's been caught!

botanic gardens.

the end of our summer was full of lots of fun making memories

which also kept me from updating the blog.

we spent greg's birthday at the botanic gardens.

we loved walking, talking, and enjoying God's beautiful creation together. it was fun to watch elijah take it all in too.

so sweet to make memories together.

we are so thankful.

hope you get to take time to make memories.

me and coach.

elijah and i had a special day last week visiting our friends

at tyndale while they hosted a special visitor.

coach dungy was there signing copies of

his new book, The Mentor Leader.

we even caught this sweet memory on camera.

safe.

there can be no doubt that the possessive clinging to things is one

of the most harmful habits of life. because it is so natural it is

rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its results are tragic.

we are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord

out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those

treasures are loved relatives and friends. but we need have no

such fears. our Lord came not to destroy but to save.

everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really

safe which is not so committed. -A.W. Tozer

i, once again, commit him to You, Lord.

not easily provoked.

loved this story from one of my favorite little books, Royal Insignia.

pray it encourages you.

A man had provided a free meal for the down-and-outs who attended his mission in New York. He was about to leave, when, upon putting on his hat, scraps of bread and bacon rinds fell about his shoulders. This produced an outburst of laughter among the men as they watched the chagrin of their benefactor. Mounting a chair, the man roundly berated the men for their prank. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit spoke to the irate man, bringing to remembrance what Christ had said through His inspired words: "Love suffereth long and is kind...is not easily provoked...beareth all things." He had been a man sensitive to the promtings of the Holy Spirit, and so he humbly took the rebuke and told the men that he had grieved his Lord. He invited them back to another free meal the next night, and the response of the men was greater than he could have thought. Forty had been effected by his humble apology and opened their hearts to the Savior.

What might happen if we were willing to simply humble ourselves

with our friends, families, husband, and children?

Be encouraged today and allow Him to do a work in you.

photo shoot.

here's a peek at the wonderful pictures

my dear friend took of elijah.

what a blessing photography is the name of her business,

which is fitting not only of the pictures produced

by her but also describes the time spent with her.

true happiness.

true happiness is within the reach

of anyone willing to risk taking

God at His Word and refusing

to believe anything else,

even if she feels it deeply

or hears it repeatedly.

hayley dimarco, God girl

cuddling with mommy.

meandmommy, originally uploaded by gregandkateanderson.

and nothing like cuddling with mommy.

flying with daddy.

flyingwithdaddy, originally uploaded by gregandkateanderson.

nothing like flying with daddy.

many changes.

our little man is nine months old today and my how he has changed.

here's just a glance...

he just sprouted his first top-tooth. a total of three now.

his cold cleared up too. thinking there is definitely a connection.

it's a mystery.

he has gotten extremely active and is now crawling.

which makes life completely different from here on out.

it's an adventure.

beginning to teach 'stop, elijah.'

(when he is lifting up the rug and chewing on it, of course.)

which he responds by lifting his hand to mirror mine and then laughing.

he finds it to be more of a game than discipline.

it's a start.

greg couldn't be happier to have begun playing 'catch' with elijah.

at first i thought he was only being hopeful,

but it turns out they really do have a little game going.

it's priceless.

his hair was getting a bit long over the ears so i trimmed it ever so slightly and it seems like he looks less baby and more little boy.

it's flying by.

with elijah on the move, it's hard to get a good picture.

(this is what he does most of the day.)

however, my dear friend took some incredible pictures

for us and i will post some shortly.

childlike humility.

God continues to use little Elijah to teach me.

"But Jesus said, 'I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 18:3

"And Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14 "The human soul never is so great as when it humbles itself in childlike meekness to be a learner at the feet of divine wisdom." Hugh Macmillan We have much to learn from these precious children, don't we? Maybe that's why God entrusts them to us. Could it be that God uses these little ones to teach us what He desires of us? Only in childlike meekness are we are able to see who He truly is.

the simple things.

Thanks to our generous neighbors - who have peony bushes and also know I happen to love them, our home has been filled with peonies for the past couple of weeks.

It just makes me happy to have them scattered throughout my home.

It's a simple thing that really does brighten my day. This all led Greg and I to have a conversation about how much we enjoy the simple things of life.

Like peonies.

(my example, not necessarily Greg's)

What are some of the simple things you enjoy?

I'd love to know.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..." James 1:17

snapshot of may.

With nice weather and celebrations on the calendar, the month of May didn't leave much time for blogging. Here's a little snapshot of what took place in our lives.

We celebrated a very special Mother's Day with our families.

I praise God for the gift of being a mom.

What a precious gift.

Of course, we made sure there was still time to play this past month too...especially with daddy.

We got the patio furniture out and enjoyed our first family dinner outside.

I love summer nights on the patio!

Another first for Elijah - going to the Wheaton French Market.

One of mommy and daddy's favorite things to do on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, another first for him was coming down with a sinus infection.

We are feeling better now, thankfully.

We celebrated the marriage of two very special people at the end of the month. We all got dressed up and prayed Elijah would be on his best behavior for the wedding and sure enough, he was.

I also realize Greg and I have a hard time getting a picture taken together these days. I'm going to work on that over the summer.

God has been so good to us. Teaching us many things.

I just haven't been good lately at sitting down and posting them.

I will work on that too!

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:3-6