Slowing Down...

Well life is officially slowing down again....and slow is good! We have relinquished alot of responsibilities in the past month as we are preparing for Abigail's arrival. We are no longer teaching the sophmores boys and girls Sunday School class on Sunday mornings. We have been doing this for two years now and although it has been a huge commitment it has also been such a huge blessing being able to pour our lives into thiers week after week and see them grow in the Lord. We know that God has definately given us a peace about stepping down but at the same time we feel like we were just getting to connect with our new class and were beginning to see God really working. We are once again in our own age group Sunday School class, which seems a little odd after being with the youth for so long. I have also relinquished alot of the responsibilities for the Girls of Grace Ministry for teen girls at our church that we started in September. I always knew that this was not something that God was going to have me in charge of long term....in fact I knew that He mainly just had called me to get it going...and so I did. It makes me a little sad to see it transition into this new phase...I feel like a mommy watching her little baby grow wings and fly without my direction and supervision. I am so thankful for what God has taught me through this ministry and the relationships that I have been able to build with these precious girls. I have been so blessed to see so much fruit blossom from them in the past few months....to see them truly grasp the love that the Lord has for them and to see them boldly live for Christ has been so incredible! I am so proud of these girls. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for this ministry as I step back and let the Lord transition them with a new leader. Business transition. This past weekend Dustin, the boys, and I went to Dallas to change showrooms. Since January I have been really praying the Lord's will for this business and what He would have us to do. It has been a pretty demanding year working markets in Dallas and shows in Tulsa and OKC. I knew that I had no desire to continue this work away from my family especially when Abigail was getting closer to arriving. God began to really give me a sense of peace about slowing down with the business and just letting Him provide. We decided to close our showroom in the Kids Studio at the Dallas Market Center and have signed a contract with a rep showroom. The awesome part is that they are going to do all of our orders and representation in OK, LA, TX, and AR. We no longer will have to travel to Dallas to work markets.....which is a huge blessing! Dustin and I both had a wonderful visit with the new showroom owner that will be repping our product now, Kids at Home Showroom, and were very confident that this is what the Lord really wanted us to do in regards to the business. I left Dallas feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.....God has worked so many things out in his perfect timing over the past couple of weeks. He is so faithful! The only thing left we have to take care of is selling the rental house. It has been almost 6 weeks now since it has been on the market and our realtor called the other day to see if we thought we needed to lower the price or change the listing information to make it more appealing, (It has 20 piers and that has been scarring off most buyers that are seriously interested in making an offer) but we both feel like God has just been confirming to us over and over that He has the right people to buy this home....we just need to wait on Him and his perfect timing. Here is the verse he gave me the next morning in my quiet time"Wait and hope for and expect the Lord, be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and eduring." Psalm 27:14...We will wait and hope in Him and expect him to make good what Satan inteded for evil with the purchase of this home because He is so faithful! I am truly enjoying the slowing down period of transition that we are in...Dustin's schedule has been so easy this month also which is truly wonderful....slow is good. We have approximately 5 weeks or so until Abigail comes....so exciting. One of my favorite things these days is going into her closet and looking at her clothes. It is still a little unreal for me to really imagine her here, I don't think that will soak in until she is born and home. I love it when people ask these days how much longer I have because I love to say really only the Lord knows....Carson was 2 weeks early and Andrew was a day late so.....?? I had an ultrasound done around 29 weeks and they predicted April 10th according to all of her measurements....I am holding onto that. It sounds good to me! I did go ahead and order he a coordinating Easter outfit to match her brothers if she is here by Easter (it is orange and I keep thinking...if she has red hair like in my dream she probobly won't like the orange so much :) ) ....but I realize that her official due date is not until April 21...whatever day she comes I am content and know that He is in control and that it will truly be His perfect timing...I am really going to enjoy the slow days ahead until then.... Praising Him!

A Day at the Zoo..

Monday the boys and I ventured out to the zoo. We heard that the weather was going to get cold again later this week and decided to enjoy a nice 70 degree day with the animals. The boys has a great time. Our most favorite thing was seeing a mommy monkey play with her baby monkey. She would sling him over her back and chase him down and tickle him....the boys really thought it was cool! The turtles were also a favorite this time....they are sooo huge! What wonderful and amazing creatures that God has created and what a beautiful day to enjoy it all. The most dissapointing thing was the Choo Choo was still closed for winter and the boys were soooo sad not to get to ride it....they are absolutely enthralled with trains. I wonder if that will ever pass. Andrew walked the whole time and by the end of our 2 hour trip he was really getting tired (so was I :) and glad to head home. I love being able to see thier excitement about every new animal...they are growing up so quickly.

Just a few Circus Pics

We went to the Circus after Andrew's birthday and it was a fun time. Andrew and Carson were adamant that Mimi ride in the very back seat of Mr. Mervyn with them on the way. Too cute! Andrew ended up falling asleep and so did Daddy. It was a super long day for all of us. Carson said that he liked everything but especially the motorcycles and Andrew said that his favorite part was the elephants...they pretended to sleep and then woke up...he thought that was pretty cool!

Carson's First Tee-Ball Practice

It is first of all so hard for me to believe that Carson is old enough to play Tee-Ball! He had his first tee-ball practice last night and what a fun time he had. We were so proud of him...he did a wonderful job of listening and doing what his coaches told him to do...and he loved it! Daddy bought him a new green bat which he loves! He is so proud to show it to anyone who comes to visit. Andrew...I was a little worried about how Andrew would do..knowing that he wants to do everything that Carson does...he wanted to know where his glove was? where his bat was? where his team was?....he threw a little fit at first wanting to be on the field with Daddy and Carsy but after that he did okay as I tried to entertain him...finally we found a pile of dirt that made him happy. I loved watching Carson, every once in a while he would turn around and find me and wave...he was having a super grand time! At the end of the practice Carson got into the car and told me, "Mommy I did really good, he said I could come back on Saturday." (meaning his coach wanted him to come back and play again...really practice on Saturday) Yeah! And so tee-ball begins......

Happy Orange Power Birthday Party

On Saturday, February 28, we celebrated Andrew Maddox Cupp's 3rd Birthday bash in Orange Power Style. He was so very excited! We had orange balloons, orange choo-choo cake, orange peeps, orange doritos chips, orange cheetos chips, orange m&ms, orange lollipops, orange clappers, orange playdoh, orange Hi-C, orange sunkist pop, orange carrots, oranges and clementines too. Wow! That is alot of orange!! Andrew had a wonderful time eating all the snacks, cake, opening his presents and playing with his friends! At the end of the night when I put him to bed he told me "Mom, thanks for my orange party. It was really fun.".....so sweet. We are so thankful for this little monkey...what would the Cupp Crew be with out our little Andrew "Maggots" (as Carson renamed him) :)

Praise...Mr. Mervyn

Well since October we have been looking at and praying about purchasing a new vehicle to replace our Saturn Vue. Only because with the expansion of our family we determined that the back seat would not hold three car seats very well...I have absolutely loved this vehicle and the cargo space that it had. When we first started looking we were unsure if a minivan or a suburban would best suit our needs. It has been pretty amazing to see God's timing in all of this...a couple of weeks ago (in the midst of selling our rent house) I really felt like the Lord was telling us that it was time to try to sell our car. We had been into the dealerships and they told us that they would only give us about 3500.00 trade for the Vue, which we were very dissapointed with. We knew that in order to purchase something and pay cash for it we were going to have to sell it ourselves. When I first told Dustin that I felt like we should put the Vue up for sale...I was surprised that He didn't flat out tell me that I was crazy. He was working nights last month and so if we did sell it I knew that only having one car for a little while would be okay...I could drive his during the day while he was sleeping. So we resolved to trust in the Lord's timing and detail the Vue and put it up for sale. We sold the Vue within the week! I was a little sad to see it go...it had been such a wonderful vehicle that we bought right after Carson was born. I had been doing some research that week on minivans thinking it would save us so much on gas especially if gas prices went up again. On thursday we went and drove a 2002 Honda Odyssey that was super nice. My only concern was watching Carson try to take his booster to the back seat...it seemed quite small and with me pregnant it was difficult for me to help him put his seat belt on also...thier didn't seem to be much room. The owner of the minivan was super nice and we both really enjoyed talking with him...the van had 96K miles on it. That night we came home, Dustin was especially not easy with the minivan for some reasone, we did a little more research on the 2002 model Honda Odyssey and found out that the majority of them ended up with some sort of transmission problem around 100K miles. Not good. In the back of my mind I kept thinking about how small the interior seemed and how we would need this new vehicle to last us at least 5 years. I didn't want to outgrow something yet again in that 5 years. The one thing that I loved about the Suburban was the cargo room in the trunk area and that some of them actually had the same interior layout as the minivans with the four captains seats and the back bench. I knew that the Suburban was also priced alot higher than we really wanted to or could afford to spend if we bought it from a dealer.....that night I searched for Suburbans and found one. It would be perfect for us! It was a 2003 with 80K miles and had the 4 captains seats and leather! I prayed about it and talked to Dustin about it. We met the couple at Victory Christian Church on Friday night and drove it. We both were so amazed at the shape of this vehicle and the price! After driving it we knew that this was the vehicle that God had intended for us all along! We drove a vehicle like it in October but it has 140K miles and was still $10,000. How amazing is our God that in his perfect timing....he sold our vehicle...and lined up this perfect vehicle for us in such a short time! We purchased the Suburban on Saturday...the family was a one owner that had driven it for the past 6 years and whose children were getting old enough to drive thier own vehicles...the were simply not needing such a large vehicle...the youngest little boy Andrew who was six came with the Dad to finalize the title and everything on Saturday...he was a little sad to see the Suburban go to us but he was soo cute showing Carson and Andrew all the buttons and fun things inside...He told us that the suburban had a name....Mr.Mervyn.....so cute....we are so overwelmed with gratefulness that God provided our family with Mr. Mervyn. It is just a car but such a blessing. Praising Him!

My Prince & I

Just a few pics from of us dressed up as we were on our way to celebrate Dr. Powell's 50th birthday! What Fun!