"God has no problems," Corrie ten Boom says, "only plans."

Good things to ponder as a mother on the verge of birthing another sweet, innocent, beautiful life with God's purpose in mind...

...an excerpt from Elisabeth Elliot's daily devotions...

"I am getting married in June. My question is this: What responsibility do you feel a Christain couple has in regard to having children? . . . I know the Lord is totally in charge of the future, but it frightens me to think of my part in bringing a child into an unhappy and unstable world."

Music, balloons, cream pies. Brain tumors, barbed wire, death. This is the world we live in. Ever since the Garden of Eden was sullied by evil it has been an unhappy and an unstable world. Has it ever been right to bring a child into such a world? For the Christian it is right--a thousand times right. For it is the will of God that married people accept the responsibility of children. It is the will of God that we live in the world--this world of light and darkness, of gladness and suffering--for it is this world that Jesus Christ came to redeem. Christianity, alone among the religions of the world, looks steadfastly at the facts, whatever they may be, and says there is an ultimate explanation, an ultimate purpose, a glorious answer.

"Everything belongs to you!" Paul said. "The world, life, death, the present, or the future everything is yours, for you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God."

We cannot protect the child we bring into the world. ("This, this is the victory of the grave; here is death's sting, that it is not strong enough, our strongest wing," wrote the poet Charlotte Mew. "But what of His who like a Father pitieth? His Son was also, once, a little thing....") But we can bring him to the Cross, where all longings, all hopes and failures, all sin and sadness and pain and fear are gathered up in everlasting love and transformed for us forever into glory and beauty and Joy.

little chef

Our sweet friends just gave us this adorable wooden kitchen
with tons of play food and dishes as well!
Bella loved playingwith it all afternoon during Landry's naptime.
She proudly donned her chef attire and prepared a beautiful meal for daddy, mommy and her two dolls to share.



We had just recently checked out at the FC Library a set of plastic vegetables and fruit made for kids to 'cut' and piece back together with velcro. B & L both enjoyed playing with that so much, I wished we could buy a set for them to play with all the time. And here we are a week later, with not only a wonderful set of 'velcro' food, but also dishes,
utensils, a new kitchen and all kinds of rubber food for the kids to cook & prepare!
We are so blessed by the special ways God provides for our family.

something new everyday

We love the Family Connections Library! Bella has been creating something new everyday with these geometric shaped blocks to match the different pattern on each card.
This was the little girl she made while I was putting Landry down for his nap one day.

just being cute

love my daddy

"buht-ball"
this is Landry's new mini-leather football from Grandma & Grandpa

2nd place!

So fun! Bella and I won second place in the Apron Power contest :) Thanks to everyone who voted!

brrrr.....

Wow, it looked cold, felt cold, and was cold for 3 straight days, very cold. So exciting to see big snowflakes one day too!
It took us about 30 minutes just to get the right clothing put together for the four of us to venture out in the cold. The fashion crisis we experienced every 5 minutes with Bella and her 'frumpy issues' didn't help either. All those layers just didn't 'feel' right to our little princess and she was getting frustrated and emotional about each additional layer required for our walk to Nanna & Poppa's house. We finally bribed her with the idea that she would most definitely find candy at Poppa's house to make it all worthwhile!


We couldn't find our box of hats, scarves and mittens anywhere... we had a random small pair of mittens for Landry and Bella wore pink socks on her hands... good thing it was a short walk! The kids loved to hear the crunch of ice under their boots.

family holiday photos

cute cousins

family of four, soon to be five!

group shot attempt of 8 Chrastina grandkids... hmmm... hope somebody got a better photo than me!

post template

Apron Power!

I have entered the photo below in an "Apron Power" contest on mommylife.net
Check it out and let me know if you decide to participate too!

My sister made Bella and I these sweet matching aprons
as a Christmas gift. She knows how much Bella loves to help me in the
kitchen. Anytime she sees me working at the counter she runs to get
her stool and asks to help.

In this photo she is showing off
the tiny cookies she made in her new "Easy Bake oven".
I have such fond memories of baking goodies with my sisters when I was a child
using our old "Easy bake oven", so I bought this one for my 'little helper'
this year for Christmas.

TaDa! I made my very own bite size cookie!

Later that afternoon she decides to make more cookies and also some spaghetti with her playdough. Yum!
My sister made this apron big for her so she can use it for a long time...
so I love the way the bow ties in the back with a long sash.
The very next morning after she opened her apron,
it was the first thing she wanted to put on when she was getting dressed.