do i feel like a liar?

While reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan with Joel last night i actually snorted & laughed.

He made a suggestion to read aloud 1 Corinthians 13 and insert your name in the place of love to see if love accurately described your life, your personality and your response to people in general.
so for me it would be:

Elise is patient, Elise is kind. Elise does not envy, Elise does not boast, Elise is not proud. Elise is not rude, Elise is not self-seeking, Elise is not easily angered, Elise keeps no record of wrongs. Elise does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 Elise always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.


after reading that section i expected Francis to go on and say something to the effect of "That's a good way to check yourself" or "Striving to BE love in this way is a big job" but he said... " By the end don't you feel like a liar?"

i snorted because he was so straight forward, and he was right.

It might be easier for me to embody love like that with other people in public- but when it think about daily life with my kids and husband, days when i am just DONE--- Elise is not self seeking, Elise is not easily angered, Elise keeps no records of wrongs..... not so much.

In the times when i am hurt and discouraged, Elise always Trusts, always Hopes.... that might be a stretch.

"Following Christ isn't something that can be done halfheartedly or on the side. Its not a label we can display when its useful. It must be central to everything we do and are."

So today, i pray for strength to be less of a liar. To stop pretending that my daily circumstances are something that could change or be of more importance than the command to LOVE, and love well.

snips & snails & puppy dog tails....

we are having a BOY!

i was kind of hoping girl because we were 100% agreed on a name that i LOVE, and the bedroom arrangements would have been perfect and easy... not to mention that the clothes would have matched up PERFECTLY since baby's due date is on Emory's birthday! BUT. i knew that would be way too easy so i was pretty much expecting a boy:O)
Joel & Emory were both saying girl and Leland finally said he thought it was a boy, the day before our appointment, and was very adamant about it. Granny thought it was a boy too, but i don't think the rest had any big leanings...

but boy it is!!
Leland is so excited to have a 'little buddy' that he can play kung fu and super hero's with and Emory is walking around with her babies singing a "baby bubby" song. Joel is excited but i think he would love another girl so maybe i'll be able to get baby #4 too:O)

You never know with that man! he's been surprising the daylights out of me lately!
Joel has never been a reader- intelligent but not dedicated to studying or learning new ideas etc through reading.
I LOVE to read and have tried to convert him over the years.
Currently he's been reading Crazy Love and rereading through the Gospels with me, in addition to reading The War of Art on his own. He will have finished it in less than a week, which is unheard of! Then yesterday, he went to our bookshelf and picked 4 other books that he's planning on reading over the next month.
!!!!!!!!!
also, unprompted- he decided no fast food for 3 months. He is the KING of fast food and soda.
for 9 years, if i asked him if he wanted a banana (one of the kids & mines favorite snacks) he always, EVERY single time, said no. Yesterday morning i said do you want some grapes, blueberries or a banana?
He said YES to the banana. and ate the whole thing.
its pretty insane.

so i'm not giving up hope just yet for our little Georgia Wren Elinor Sprenger.
(sigh)

however, we are running into some hang ups on little bubby's name.
Joel and his veto powers.
i thought we had a pretty good option for a boy but he said its out.
and he's in no hurry so it may be a while before you get a name update:O)

We had a yummy little treat right before we left for our appointment....

snow ice cream! Leland insisted on making his blue... a foreshadowing, maybe?

if you are wondering where the snow for the ice cream came from, we had enough snow to make and freeze more ice cream than you could eat in 5 years.
we woke up to ten inches of snow with more fluffy flakes still coming down!!
as you can imagine leland was out of this world excited!!
we decided it was the perfect chance for Emory to have her first real snow day experience too.
Daddy was home all day and worked his booty off trying to get & keep the drive way clean and we had a great family day together.






as soon as i can get the pictures scanned in i will show you our little fella's profile, sweet little feet and hands. He's definitely his father's son- we couldn't get a great shot of his face but he was more than cooperative with his little nudey money shot.
(Joel answered the door naked until he was like 5. and he was so tall he looked 8. hahahaha)

we had a great day and i can't wait to give this little fella a name & meet him in June!

oh! also- i was measuring closer to 21 weeks so i will feel better about possibly inducing earlier in that week so we can make it to our family wedding and Emory still gets to have her own birthday:O) but we'll see!
healthy baby with a strong heartbeat and lots of energy- here comes another wild man!

AND-
some of our friends who are wonderful, inspiring people just had TWIN GIRLS yesterday as well!
Their names are Gretchen Claire & Grace Michelle and they are still in the NICU so do say some prayers for their family:
Joe & Michelle, Herrison (4), Kate (almost 2), Gretchen & Grace. They are also starting a church plant very soon and don't have family in this area so they will need those prayers!

homemade Christmas!

this year i tried veeeeeery hard to have an almost completely handmade Christmas.
and almost every member of the family received something i made.
My mother, my mother in law and sister in law Julie all got aprons.
they were lined and had pockets, both a first for me... there also wasn't a pattern, per-say, just a tutorial that said base it off of your measurements, etc. SO, i was a little nervous about how they would turn out, but they were pretty lovely :O)
here's mom in hers (crying because she had just opened the photo album of our family pictures)


For my sister Jillian, her hubby Owen and my nephew Cash i made cozy pillow cases for them to take on tour with them when they start out on the road soon. Also little zippered pouches for my sister Nicole, sister in law Becca, cousin Adrienne and one for jill with a fav Heather Ross fabric she really liked.





I also made some personalized notecards for my father and cousin that i didn't get a picture of, but were pretty simple.

one of the sweetest gifts received was from my youngest sister Nicole. She made both Jillian and I embroidery based on our blogs...


i looooooved mine and was super impressed:O)
we added little things here and there that were store bought to go along with the smaller handmade items.

my plan for next year is to get started much ahead of time so that things aren't rushed and hopefully my own kids will get something handmade too:O)
i'd love to make something like these for Emory, found At Second Street


did you sew away this Christmas or shop til you dropped in the crowds?

dearest, take note of this:

James 1:19-21
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.


Joel and i didn't have the best conversation or evening on Wednesday night. I have several scriptures written on notecards that i read through daily (that's the idea, anyway) and landed on this one. I could have easily been self righteous and applied it to Joel alone and thought- WELL! that verse sure showed him!- but i decided to worry about fixing my own fault in the situation and saw that this certainly also applied to me.

After reading these verses and the subsequent ones i took a look at James himself.
He is presumed to be James the oldest 'biological' brother of Christ not James the apostle. His book is characterized by concern that faith in Christ be expressed in action. You may remember that Christ's family thought he was crazy there for a while and wrote Him off- James had a big change of heart and with it became a new man- he intros the chapter not by drawing attention to his relationship with Jesus but by humbly introducing himself as a servant of God and Jesus Christ.

This passage shows us how and why to avoid anger, so that we won't sabotage ourselves and the gospel message.
This is how i broke it down while reading & meditating :

- Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry
-can you imagine what this would look like in our families, churches and the world?
It doesn't say everyone except for those with really good points in an argument, OR except for those who are very intelligent, OR except for those who are very passionate and outspoken, OR those who really deserve to be heard and have a right to be angry.


-for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
- pretty plainly stated. Usually our anger (even if we can justify it) brings about plenty of things that hinder our relationships and spiritual growth. i.e., Wednesday night we didn't read together, pray together, relax together or even sleep in the same room because of anger. Our anger literally did not bring about the righteous life God desires. What could have been a great night was completely shut down.

- Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
- Our world's moral code is all about what works best for you, what you deserve, what you feel and standing up for your wants. tell that person off! get in your one-liner! school them! .... we have to get rid of that mentality and be humble. when we accept the word (scripture AND Jesus) that is planted in us, we can be saved.
saved from self destructive words and actions that scar our families and friends, saved from the temptation to regard ourselves as most important.
Christ in us, can handle it.

the next few verses get pretty intense- i'd encourage you to read them on your own and think about the ramifications of listening to the Word and then going on like you never heard it.
verses 26 & 27 are a doozy.

this was something i really needed to hear, along with the chapter we read in Francis Chan's Crazy Love.
Lots of deep thinking and purposeful action is the result.
I've been feeling a stirring for a while to find more ways to actively witness and serve in the community.
There are some different directions our lives could move and i am totally okay with whatever God has planned.... I'm really excited that this time is turning into a growing, deepening stage for our family.

Instead of moping around yesterday because Joel and i weren't getting along great, i studied and prayed for him.
He had work and worship practice and didn't get home until 10 pm. Could have been a recipe for disaster but instead was a great night where we stayed up til midnight reading, thinking and talking about scripture and ministry.
One of the sweetest nights on record.

I hope this wasn't too heavy or dry for you- i'm not a scholar and usually i save this for my personal journaling and studying but felt like i should share today.
i'll add a picture of our family.... drawn in typical stick figure fashion (by me) as directed by Leland.
i love these people so much and can't wait to find out (next week) if we will have a little gigi or gusgus on our hands :O)

snooooooooow

i don't think i've meet a child more excited by snow than Leland. ever.
so imagine his delight when he woke up to this yesterday morning:



unfortunately for him, i'm not a cold weather person, we don't have a fence and we had 3 other kiddos not interested in snow-- so he waited ALL day for daddy to get home-- but daddy wasn't able to make his snow dreams come true yesterday either.

So today at nap time i'm putting on my big girl... snow panties, and taking him out for a while.

don't think i'm THAT mean, we *did make snow ice cream yesterday!
It was soooooooooo good.
like homemade vanilla ice cream- but tons faster and really smooth.
everybody approved-




i also pulled a lazy mom move and *ordered* my groceries today.
i decided the delivery fee was worth not trudging through the snow with 2 kids and limping around the store thanks to the 3rd.
We'll see how it turns out- hopefully a good experience- although i doubt it will happen very often.

Are you a snow lover? a winter wonderland loon?
i love the prettiness but hate the cold.
more later... hope you are enjoying your day- snow or not!

almost 18 weeks & portrait session

this was me the beginning of last week


i've had a baby bump pretty much from the get go but now it seems okay to have one, so i'll share:O)

i don't love maternity clothes(or their price tag) or trying to look nice while pregnant but this outfit shows its not impossible on a budget!
jeans- Old Navy maternity- $5 (clearance at the outlet)
top- Old Navy- $4 (normal but in a larger size)
boots- Target- $30 ish (Christmas!)

i could certainly use some jewelry and clean/styled hair, but wadda ya gonna do?

In december i mentioned that we were doing a family shoot for Kiddie Kandid's in STL.
We opted to get paid instead of getting free pictures, but i could tell the pictures were going to be pretty good by the smiles they were getting out of the kids (and Joel!) so i asked our friend Connie if we could get some digital copies of a few images.
the kids were hysterical- Leland was all business- smiling and posing and following directions. Emory was a harder sell but they did great working with her... check it out-




we aren't usually wowed by portrait photography but were really pleasantly surprised:O)
they even used our session for the Christmas sale promo/email they sent out:



it was a really fun experience!

next up, handmade gifts for Christmas...