One of my very good friends is having a baby as I speak. I can't go until later when Dane gets home, so he can stay with Hollis. This reminds me of the gift of life that God gives us.The gift of eternal life, and the gift of life through our children on this Earth. How blessed we are. Not only do we get to have eternal life in heaven with the Almighty, but before that we get to experience new life. There is truly no better day than when your children are born.When we hold our little infants in our arms for the first time, we feel like we can conquer the world. There's nothing that can stop us. Remember Jesus was once an infant too. I'm sure Mary (especially since she didn't have any drugs...if she did I'm sure they were not as good as ours;)) felt the same way. Especially since she knew he was going to be the Savior of the world. How difficult it must have been for her to look at him knowing that one day he was going to be sacrificed so that even she,  could have eternal life. How wonderful it is that he paid our debt, and we can look at our own children praising Jesus that we don't have to one day see them be sacrificed. Here's a few pictures of my little man's journey through life thus far. Thank you Lord for my wonderful undeserved blessings!!!

                            Hollis and his Daddy. This was the cover of Dane's first father's day card.

Hollis showing off his muscles.

Little clean angel baby.

Our first official family picture.

Ain't he soo cute.

He smiled and laughed so early. I think he was four weeks when he first smiled.

He got just a little chubby.

Mommy and me. First Thanksgiving

You me and baby makes three!!

Last night at our small group we talked about anger and the control of anger. I separate the two because that's what I need to start doing. The question," What's the difference in being angry and sinning because of your anger?" was asked. To be honest, I don't know. I've really been working on my anger management lately. But I'm starting to think that maybe I should start by learning to not jump to anger. Work on not getting angry and then when I get to where I can do that, then I can learn the right times to get angry and control it.
On another note, I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of our new friends. Dane and I haven't had friends in a long time. It's going to be very good for us. It already has been. We've really enjoyed our "real" talks we've had with everyone. I know this short, but this is all I have. Hollis is napping and I think I should be too.

On Sunday Ken talked about being a good steward, not just of your money but of your time and talents as well. I've been giving this a lot of thought. What about my talents? What talents? I know I'm good at hair, but it's not time for that in my life right now. It's time for me to raise my child[ren]. So what can I do? How can I be used, except for raising up soldiers for Him? I have a lot more time to give. When I was doing hair, it was my ministry. I have a lot praying to do. Wouldn't it be nice if the Lord would just drop everything in our laps? I know, if that was so, we wouldn't have to pursue a relationship with Him, and that would defeat the purpose of being here to glorify Him. There's a song that goes like this: "There are days, when I feel, the best of me is ready to begin. Then there are days when I feel I'm letting go and soaring on the wind." This describes perfectly how I'm feeling. I'm still trying to find my niche. This is a new era in my life. New everything. New "job", new house, new attitude. I must say, I'm enjoying this time of searching. Just a little. I know it will bring me closer to my God.

New experience. Hollis stayed the night with my mom and dad last night. I'm starting to wean him a little, so he has goat's milk a couple of times a day. As you can imagine this frees me up a little. We have only been apart for two hours or so at time. In eight months. I teared up a little when they drove off, but other than that I did pretty good. Dane and I went out to dinner and a movie. It was awesome! We haven't had that much time alone in long time. We had time to reconnect, with no stressers. We had a blast. The funny thing is that when we went to get him, he was initially glad to see me, then it was like he caught himself, like "oh wait, I'm mad at you mommy". It was so funny. He would hardly look at me for a couple of hours. It didn't bother me because I knew he would get over it. I've seen my nephew do the same thing. I've also heard about other little boys doing the same thing. He got over it and is back to being mommy's boy. I've always heard little boys loove their mommies. I know from experience now. I'm loving being a mommy!!! I'm so grateful to the Lord and my husband that I get to stay home with him, and love him every second of the day.

I'm watching Hollis play on the floor, dinner is cooking, I got most of the laundry done today, a lot has been accomplished. I was thinking today about the sermon on Sunday. He challenged us to build deeper relationships with our friends this year. He also challenged us to make sure that when we look back on 2010 that we can say we've grown spiritually. I must admit, I've kind of given up on friendships. I've always been the good friend and I got tired of being the one left behind. But, it's time for me to grow up, put myself back out there. Stop feeling sorry for myself and realize that people are human. There are areas in my life that I'm not good at. Friendship has now become one of them, because I made it so. {Wait! He just crawled!!!!!!! Hallelujah chorus!!!} So anyway, I'm going to work on building deeper friendships and getting to know my Savior more this year. Being a mother makes things like this just a little easier because we have to set the example. I want to be worthy of my children wanting to follow my example because I follow Christ. My desire to know my Savior is greater because of this. Having children changes your whole life doesn't it? It's the best.

I'm sitting here "watching" the Razorbacks at the Liberty Bowl. Two minutes left...tied ballgame. I'm biting my fingernails!!! If you haven't figured it out, I'm being sarcastic. I'm not exactly a sports fan, but I'm trying to become one. I think it comes from not having a competitive bone in my body. But, none-the-less I'm trying for my husband and my son. One of these days I know I'll do it. When Hollis starts playing sports I'll become a big fan. Anyway Hollis' first Christmas was this year, here are a few pictures of our little Santa.