Mothers with daughters..

http://www.deeprootsathome.com/why-have-we-stopped-protecting-our-daughters/

Hi everyone I just wanted to share this article with you. Mothers and fathers with daughters or sisters this is a must read in our "fast paced- making our kids grow up so fast society"

In Christ's love
    Mattie

Walking with my friend

Here we are approaching our two year wedding anniversary.  Looking back I am so humbled by what God has done. We are two broken people, pieced back together by Gods gentle hands. He has made us uniquely different and its perfect. Not us, but his plan. We still struggle, and grovel, and fight, we still have our own way if doing things and we probably won't every be on par with eachother. But we make it work, we brake down barriers and build up walls of protection in prayer. We seek God together and we try to look beyond ourselves. We are growing a family, much, much harder than a garden. We see eachother completely and look beyond the blemishes. We are still learning, and some days just trying to fight the tide. We still marval at how this all happened and still can't believe what Gods goodness has done. We smile, and laugh, we dream and we sing. (We really do sing.) We are smitten as can be by our babies, and with each passing day our love grows bigger and bigger, than we can even contain. We are two imperfect people, two sinners, we say, we come together, we kneel, we pray, we sit at the cross, knowing someday, we will all sit with the King at his throne and praise.
Walking with my friend,  my very best friend, is not something I take for granted. After all I wasn't the one who brought him here.

In Christ's love
       Mattie

Having a Jesus heart.

Oh to be like you oh God! To know, understand and have the compassion that you do! I feel so heart broken when I look at the world around me. I don't like where its headed, I don't like the world me children will be growing up in. I honestly just want to cling to Jesus and let God hold us all. Because these days are evil, the world is corrupt, wrong has become acceptable even to the point of punishment to those who aren't tolerent of it. People kill their babies and government takes away our rights. How do we get through this? How do we stay strong. Maybe I'm the only one who sees it? Maybe I'm the only one who feels how God's heart breaks for his children. When they choose to walk along the path that seems right but will only lead to distruction.
All I can say is I just want more of Jesus!  I want my heart, my life, my husband, and my children all to be so filled with God and his love that they will cling to him through out their whole lives. I want to know God more and seek his face. I want to pray more and grow closer with him. I don't want to waver in the face of fear. But stand upon the unshakable rock, who is my Lord and my redeemer! My ever present help in time of need. He has always been there and always will be. He is the beginning and the end. The first and the last. He is the one my soul longs for, and he hears me when I call. He leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul. He will never leave me nor forsake me. Under his wing I can take refuge. I can be strong and courageous,  because the Lord my God is with me! He has plans for my life and the lives of my family, they are good plans, plans to prosper us and not of harm. Plans to give us hope and a bright future. I can come to him and pray and he hears me.
I want to have a Jesus heart, I want to know him more. I want to have a Jesus heart, I want to know him more.

In Christ's love

-Mattie

Making your home a haven.

Who doesn't want peace. So often I find myself running in circles and forgetting what matters most. I came across this beautifully simple idea to remind ourselves that our families need us to pray for peace.  This is such a wonderful article you just need to read it for yourself!  ♡

womenlivingwell.org/2012/11/making-your-home-a-haven-week-1/

In Christ's unending love, Mattie

Lilly is 3 months old!

Oh my sweet baby girl. How you have grown so much since you were born, the last 3 months have just flown by! You are on a pretty good schedule for being only 3 months. Your day starts around 9-10am, you don't cry to wake me up you babble in your crib. When I come to your crib you always have a HUGE smile on your face for me! You melt my heart! I then proceed to change you, which you do not like right after I pick you up out of your crib. After you have a fresh diaper on mama feeds you, you are such a good eater! My little chunky cheek baby :) We will find out tomorrow how much you weigh and how long you are. Daddy and I always have a little contest before you get weighed and measured to see who guesses the closest. I think you will be 13 1/2+ lbs.  and around 26 inches. Daddy says 13 1/2- lbs and around 27 inches. We will see...   You were 11lbs 10oz at your 2 month apt. and 23 inches, you have grown so much from your 7 lbs 8oz and 19 1/2 in when you were born. Back to your daily schedule, after your breakfast you you like to play, this is the time of day along with early evening around 6-7 o''clock when you like to learn. You usually play on your play mat and pull on your musical bug that hangs above you.You look around at things like you are thinking and learning about them. You are so smart! I love watching you, and playing with you, and showing you new things. We are currently teaching you how to put your hands together when we pray. You have done it a few times, and when you do you look at us like you understand, You amaze me. I'm still trying to get that big belly laugh out of you, you almost did it the other day, but you got the hiccups instead. Around 1-1:30 you like to take your afternoon nap, you are already a great napper. You sleep from about 1-1:30 to about 5-6 in the evening. You usually nap in your swing, which works great for me, I like when you are close by while you sleep. When you wake up I change you and feed you, then we play again. You go from play mat to bouncy seat to crib to mommy's lap looking around and playing, cooing all the while. You really are quite the talker! you say "ah-goo", "bah", and when you do you move your little lips so much, like you are trying very hard to get your words out. You can almost roll over, you go about half way then change you mind and go back. You are so good at tummy time and you are so strong. I love watching you grow! At about 745 you like to take another little nap, just aroung a half hour, then you eat and play some more and eat again and go to sleep between 945-11. You wake up twice still, and thats ok. Around 3am and 6am then you sleep until 9-10am. Then we start our day again.

Everyday with you is a blessing! Watching you grow is a miracle! and being your mommy is my joy!
I'll love you forever and always, and you'll always be my little one!

Happy 3 months old my Lilly love!

Love Mommy

Look who found her hands.

The last few days Lilly has been observing her hands, opening them and interweaving her fingers together. What a smart girl! She will be 3 months old in 5 days and already she is working on those motor skills. Yesterday I brought out some smaller toys and two small musical animals to place just within her reach so that she could touch them and bat at them. She had so much fun! I love watching how she grows and it seems like everyday is  a new adventure for her, she wakes up ready to learn and explore, well, as much as she can within a few feet of her. She is a very observant baby, she acts like she wants to eat my food while I am eating, even if I just fed her. She opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out, its so cute to watch.

OH the faces she makes

Every morning I wake up and walk over to Lilly's crib to find the biggest good morning mommy smiles on her face! She is such a joyful little girl, and sometimes its not just a smile that we get to see!

Ever since she was just a few days old, she has been a girl of many, many faces.

She has her curious faces.

Sad faces.

SUPER happy faces.

Chubby faces.

and they ALL melt mama's heart!

This Mama needs a hobby!

So...  I've been HORRIBLE about blogging and I really like doing it! This blog was originally made so my husband and I (well he was my boyfriend at the time) could keep up on the fun memories we had and our lives growing together. Now its been more me blogging about odds and ends in life. But I think its time for a change!  My life has been full of change, especially the last few years, moving to WI getting engaged, getting married, and having a baby. Now I am a stay at home wife and mama to the most beautiful little girl in the WORLD! Our Lilly Claire was born almost 3 months ago on March 4th. My life at home is defiantly full of ups and downs while I'm learning this new season of life. I'm hoping that with blogging I can have something that is just mine, where I can get my thoughts out of my head and reflect. Because life is sweet and memories reflected on are a joy! This will be my hot tea, sit back and relax while Lilly takes a nap hobby. :)

Sweetness and Joy come from the Lord.

Something to strive for, as a wife and soon to be mother.

To be sweet, kind, and gentle, to be as the bible says in James 1:19

"Know this my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to LISTEN,

slow to SPEAK, and slow to ANGER." But human nature makes that

very, very hard doesn't it? Selfishness and pride tell us to get angry first,

be overrun by emotions, yell and make sure everyone in a 10 foot span

knows how we feel, then and only then after you blow off all our frustration

do we calm down and listen to the ones we love the most. Our nature is

wicked in itself and unfortunately we end up hurting the ones closest to us

by allowing our emotions to control us.

So, there is our problem, but whats the solution? What can turn a selfish

heart into a heart that is full of joy and love for others? The only thing, the only

person able and willing to do such a miraculous thing is God himself. Through the

power of his spirit in our hearts changing us from selfish and bitter to selfless and

sweet. We must allow him to do so in order to love the ones around us, even the

unlovely people in our lives, remember sometimes we can be unlovely too. To be

more we must become less. Confused? Don't be, God has made it so simple, although

challenging because change is never easy, especially when our entire normality is at

hand. Luke 10:27 says, "And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your hear and with all your soul and with

all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Quite a challenge, we must love God and seek him

more than anything else, allowing him to fill us more and more with his word and his love for us, so that we can love him back and

love others with that very love that he first pours into our hearts. By us continually being in his presence we can grow to be more

like him. A mirror image of God, the one who is himself LOVE. 1 John 4:8 says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because

God is love." Without God we can not even KNOW what love is let alone share love with others. To be sweet, kind, and loving takes

knowing God and knowing Love. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us."

I want to know God more, know love more so my family and all those around me can experience his love too.

Sweetness and Joy truly do come from the Lord.

You keep making my heart new.

Ah, change. How I so often reject the workings of change! My plans, My ideas, MY heart.. and God continually takes them all, redirecting them day by day from what I thought was the perfect plan, to His Exceedingly Perfect Will. How I wish change was easy.. how I wish life sometimes was easy, ok all the time! But His grace is greater still.

* But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul goes on to say "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am STRONG. -2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I so badly wish I had his attitude, knowing that on my own I can do nothing, and humbling myself, losing myself in fact and allowing God to change my heart. Proverbs 3:34 says that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Honestly this shouldn't be new to me, and well it isn't in the sense of 'hearing it for the first time'. But this is more of an old lesson i'm still learning.. STILL! Just allowing my thoughts to become more like His, and my plans to become not mine at all but His and being used as a vessel, not at tank. Vessel meaning to allow a 'flow' rather than being a tank whose contents just remain still and unusable ( one not being hooked up to anything).

I've kind of been moping lately, maybe more than I would like to admit. And in no way is being pregnant an excuse to mop. Though my life my number one goal has always been to know God more, to read His word and understand it more, then to put into practice what I've learned to bring Him glory.. above all else. Great goal right! .. Yes of course and my heart was in the right place, but I was trying to obtain this goal by MY plans, MY dreams, and by MY strength. Unfortunately my heart was also just MINE. I hadn't humbled myself to Him to change that too. In not doing so I have allowed my own ambitions to govern my steps, stepping first then asking for God to make my ways like His.

Zechariah 4:6 says, "Then he said to me, "Thus is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel; Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."

Hard to swallow isn't it. On my own, no matter how good my intentions, no matter how strong I may think I can be I'm simply running in circles on my own.

I am by admission SELFISH! I fail at life on my own..

BUT WAIT!... that is not the end. Thank you Lord!

Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. And Romans 8:30-32 says, "And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

So, enough. Enough trying to figure it all out on my own and then running in circles trying to go after the vision I thought was God's plan. I'm going to let Him in, more, far more!

By dying to myself I can walk out His plan from the beginning of time. The truly spectacular thing is that He knew, He knew I would struggle with letting go of all MY stuff.

He keeps making my heart new.

Allowing me to live and love like He does.

And although i'm not there yet, its not being perfect right away. But rather about the process, the journey, running into the arms of perfection knowing we are never enough, and remembering He loves us anyway.

He is unending.

Lessons from the davenport

One on my very favorite childhood memories is sleeping over at my grandma's house. I always had fun playing outside making mud pies with eggs from the chicken house (but grandma didn't like me using the good chicken eggs for mud pies.) the days would fly by so quickly, I loved playing in the small playhouse my grandpa had built for me, and inside were tons of small tin pots and pans and tea pots. I guess that is where my love for cooking started. My grandpa would always lay out on his patio chair, the kind you can rest your feet up on and lay back on, like a small bed. It would always make me giggle to see him sleep outside. I tried falling asleep outside myself a few times but just never could, maybe life was too exciting too sleep. Well, after a long day of fun and play I would get ready for bed and brush my teeth as my grandma would clear off the davenport and lay blankets down. First a sheet, second the pillow, third and fourth were usually two thinner blankets folded once the long way. They would usually fall off by morning but decided not to say anything about it, it was nice to have a bed made for you, even if it did fall apart by morning. :)

As I would get all snuggled into my bed on the davenport grandma would always read to me a story, maybe two if it wasn't too late. She always had the most wonderful books, with pictures that still make me smile. She would tell be of Moses, and how his mother put him into a basket and sent him down a river, the book showed pictures of crocodiles chasing after him, but just in time a small wave would lift his basket higher, just out of danger's reach. She told me about Sarah, Abraham, and Issac. About Joseph and Mary and what Christmas is really about. She read me stories of how God wants us to share, and love one another. She read so many stories, I just can't name them all. Then, when she was done she would pray with me, this was my favorite lesson from the davenport, you see, she taught me how to pray. With her sweet peaceful voice, her voice I don't think that I could ever forget, she would pray over me, my mom, my dad, and my sister and brother. She would say the Lord's prayer straight from her heart, and she would always take time to thank Him for all he had done that day.

She may not have known what she was doing then, but those lessons from the davenport showed me how to become God's friend. If it weren't for her, I truly believe I would not be the same person that I am today. Because when even I'm sad and a little short on my words, when I try to talk to God and nothing seems to come out, I just think of my grandma and how she would pray, the sound of her voice and the words she would say. I hope that my children have a grandmother like that. I love you with all my Heart Grandma!

To my wonderful Grandma, Bonnie Claire Guza, you have always been there for me, I thank you so so much for all your prayers! You are the sweetest lady I know! I love you!

Remarkable Mercy

I wanted to share some lyrics, not to any song on the radio, but one that God's been playing in my heart. I guess the beat is similar to the beginning of "Can't get away" by Rush of fools (btw AMAZING BAND!) So anyway, just a little something <3

I love the fact that no matter what we do, say, or think God is always loving us!

On days even when we don't feel like loving back.

Remarkable Mercy Our Father has shown,

Remarkable Mercy unto His own,

Grace and Love pouring down, from His thrown,

Can't escape it, don't even try,

He wants you to know Him, love Him, surrender your life,

Remarkable Mercy Our Father has shown,

Remarkable Mercy unto His own,

Don't think your past is to big,

To be covered by His incredible Mercy, He'll give you new life,

He made a way, don't turn aside,

He wants to be near you, catch every tear from your eye,

As Grace flows down, lift up your hands, let Him break down your walls, so that you will be free,

Remarkable Mercy Our Father has shown,

Remarkable Mercy unto His own,

Never ending, never ceasing,

His love will not fail you

"For I know the Plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11-12

Our little sweet baby girl!

21 Weeks!

It's a GIRL !!!!!!!

18-23 weeks!

18, 19, 22, and 23 weeks! My oh my how SHE has grown!

6 Weeks

Today is the start of week 6! Our baby is about the size of a sweet pea! (Our little sweet pea!)

5 weeks

Last week was 5 weeks yay!! And this was ABOUT the size of our baby :) (an orange seed is the better estimate), but we used an orange tic tac instead :D
All Andrew's Idea!

4 weeks

BABY BEAN WALTER!

Happy Fathers Day!







Today when we got home from our fathers day outing with we decided I should take another pregnancy test, I had taken one a few days before it was positive, but it was very light due to it being super early. So I took the test then left the bathroom before I could see any results. Andrew in the meantime went in to pee and he also watched and waited for the three long minutes to pass. Then he said Honey :) In a very happy sounding way! I flew into the bathroom and there it was! TWO BEAUTIFUL PINK LINES!!!! aka Happy Fathers day to my Hubby!! God is so wonderful! I can't wait to share more about our beautiful blessing!
God bless!

You are my best friend..

I have found the one that my heart loves. Song of Solomon 3:4





My Beloved speaks and says to me: Arise, my love, my beautiful one and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Song of Solomon 2:11-13