So far...

So far this week...


My favorite hair product, Argan oil, was spilled all over the floor and left there for me to find.  (Might I add it was fairly expensive and a Christmas gift?)


Oliver would rather be naked than wear clothing.


We left Target with Anna screaming crying, allowing for every person in our proximity to stop and look at a mom staring straight ahead, trying to remain calm, eyes on the door.  When we got to the car she proceeded to tell me that 'I ruined her life and killed her heart!!!'  What five year old says this?


I got pelted this morning in the neck by a rolled up dirty diaper.  The thrower shall remain nameless but claims he wasn't trying to hit me but be funny.  Hilarious.


Oliver dove all over my couch with newly washed slipcovers with fruit shake, containing berries, all over his mouth.


Oliver bit Anna's side while they were playing on our bed and it needed a bandaid.  She proceeded to stay in her room until he apologized while yelling, 'You will never be my brother ever again!!!'


Finger painting ended with Oliver's entire face being blue.

Lots of timeouts, apologies, hugs and forgiveness.

How is your week going? :)

Our Story

In honor of Valentine's Day tomorrow, I thought I would share our love story.  I will let Philip share his take on things, too. :)

First time I saw you and first impression: 


Carrie:  It was sometime in 6th grade, at church.  Philip was a pastor's son, sang lots of solos in church and was the boy everyone thought was hilarious.  I am sure I laughed right along with everyone else in the youth group when he was silly.  No fireworks in 6th grade, though.


Philip: I remember being in a youth home group together and always thinking she was super cute.  Unfortunately, I was super chubby.  I also remember a youth retreat where I let her have an Out Of Eden cd of mine (I was pretty hood back then).


When I started looking at you differently:


Carrie:  It was the spring of my junior year of high school (yes, we had known each other for 6 years by now), and cuddly, huggable, silly Philip turned into quite the little hottie.  It was like all of a sudden I looked at him as a possible boyfriend. :)


Philip:  I was always attracted to Carrie, but when she invited me to her homecoming that made me really start to think about possibly dating her.  I think that I also heard from some of her friends that she had a crush on me.  


Who asked out who?


Carrie: (ahem) Yes, it was I who called Philip first.  Not only did I call him first and ask him to come to my Prom with me, I was shot down.  I repeat, he said no.  I was first, in shock and then it turned to tears.  (No, I didn't let him know how upset I was...never.)


Philip:  Let me clarify.  I was dating someone else when she asked me to the dance.  So out of respect I said no.  A couple months later I was the one who called her up and apologized and asked her on our first official date.  


First Date:


Carrie: He came and picked me up at my house in his Dad's blue Skylark.  Then, he asked me to drive. :)  He says it's because he was too nervous...but I think the Skylark was too much for him to handle.  I drove us to Border's bookstore where we talked for hours over steamers and magazines.  As I sat there sharing things with him that I had never shared with my friends, I knew that this was going to be something different.


Philip:  When I pulled up to her house I was so nervous that getting out of the car I lost all control of my body and accidentally beeped the horn.  I quickly ran to the front door so that she didn't think I was a jerk.  I remember thinking to myself that I would marry her without a doubt in my mind.


Proposal:


Carrie:  I went with his mom to drop him off at the airport because he said he was going to Florida to visit his dad.  So I said my goodbyes and his mom took me back to my house.  As I was going up to my room, Philip met me in the hallway.  I was in shock and I think I only said, 'What are you doing here?', like a million times.  My room was covered in my favorite flower, daisies, and he proposed.


Philip:  I remember planning for months to propose to her.  I wanted it to be perfect.  When I arrived to Carrie's house to set her room up with flowers I remember walking in the front door and seeing her dad with my arms filled with more flowers than I could carry.  I think he just shook his head and laughed.  I planned adventures for the next couple of days.  We went to expensive restaurants and to New York to see a musical.  


Funnest memory during the first years of marriage:


Carrie: Maybe it's because our Christmases (is that the plural form of Christmas??) look so different now with kids, and because we are smarter with money, but I loved our first couple Christmases because he would buy me tons of presents. :)  For example...diamond earrings, a down featherbed, and my favorite DVDs, all in ONE Christmas!  Or another year...designer jeans, Tivo, and makeup.  I like presents :).


Philip:  I used to love our trips to King Of Prussia.  We always had such good memories shopping and eating together.  We would always eat at our favorite restaurant Maggiano's.  For some reason in the early years of marriage we thought our money would never run out (we were sadly mistaken). 


How have kids changed our marriage?


Carrie:  Well, even when we were dating we talked about having a family.  We always knew that we wanted children.  I knew that he was going to be a really great dad and I was thrilled to start a family with him.  Kids have brought so much joy and love into our lives...and also exhaustion, not as many date nights, and t.v. choices limited to Nick Jr. and Sprout.  It has been so much fun and I am thankful we have each other to go through it together.


Philip:  We were so excited to be parents.  It has been an honor watching Carrie be a mom (she's amazing).  I miss our dates and alone time and some nights I can't wait until 9pm when both kids are finally asleep.  But I love being a dad more than anything and think Carrie and I make a pretty good team.  


What do you anticipate for the future?


Carrie: I expect lots of laughter, fun times and more kids.  Our life hasn't been dull yet and I don't think it will be in the future either! :)


Philip:  I think we'll probably be millionaires in a couple years :)

My Husband

This is my husband.

If I had to pick a few words to describe him they would be {ahem}:

passionate, hilarious, devoted, gifted, loving, sensitive, talented,

creative, supportive, encouraging, relatable...

a husband who runs and gets M&Ms and creamer for his wife late at night and 

a dad who builds forts, cuddles and sings songs to our kids.

He has been a musician ever since I have known him.  

My first Christmas gift when we were dating 

was a recorded song written by him for me...at 16.

He has been in bands since his teens, throughout college and today.

I have stood in awe as I have seen God revealing His plan for Philip...for us.

I have watched as he went from working in sales to being in ministry full time.

I have seen God's hand when He healed Philip from throat nodules...being told he would probably never sing again to being told the surgery was a success.

I have stood in awe as he leads me, and our church,

into powerful, God glorifying times of worship...right into His presence.

And now, I have seen God putting something new on Philip's heart...

to write and record a solo album filled with songs worshiping our Creator.

I ask you to please pray with us as we step out in faith.

You can hear Philip's heart in this video. :)

Untitled from Philip Herndon on Vimeo.

If you feel led to partner with us...check it out at The Philip Herndon Worship Project! 
Thank you. :)

Field Trip

One of the many fun things about homeschooling is the field trips.  Anna is studying Cows and the letter 'c' this week so we took a field trip to the Apple Valley Creamery.  The Stoners, one of the sweetest families ever, gave us a little tour of their dairy farm.

We learned about their cows, saw calves that were born the night before, felt the rough wool of a baby lamb, learned about what the cows ate, saw the cow that produces the most milk, fed the sheep some rolls, learned that about 80% of their cows were pregnant, saw the 'maternity pen', and I got my jeans bit by a calf.  It was pretty cute.

Anna named most of the cows and the baby lamb.  She called him Curly. :)

Then we went to their farm house and Oliver played with toy tractors, Anna did a puzzle with Miss Sharon, we listened to Philip and Rachel play worship songs, drank milk from their creamery and ate homemade waffles for lunch.  

A field trip that ends with homemade waffles is my kind of field trip. :)

A Drink

We went to the youth retreat this weekend that Philip was leading.  Me and the kids.  
I knew that Philip was going to be busy but we wanted to be with him and the teens.
Philip and I used to go to this retreat center when we were teens, before we started dating.
We were in the same youth group. :)
I have so many fun memories there with my friends and life changing, tear-filled weekends.


I went as a youth and then as a youth leader and now as the youth pastor's wife.
And my first retreat with my kids.
I stayed in the director's cabin instead of with the youth.  
We had our own room and our own bathroom. :)


We went to the evening session.  Both the kids were exhausted but were troopers.
We watched the cabin skits and laughed hard.
Anna thought Daddy was so funny acting up there with the guys.  He was.


Worship time started.  Anna stood beside teenage girls and was singing her heart out.  
I held Oliver and was worshiping, too.
Philip started leading one of my favorite songs.  
There is something about singing love songs to my God.  It's one of my favorite things.
The song had barely started and Anna turned and told me she needed a drink.  Now.  She was dying of thirst.  
My attempts to have her wait made her eyes well up with quiet tears.  


Couldn't she see I was singing to the Lord?
Should I demand patience of her? To wait until my favorite song is at least over?
Isn't this what the Lord wants me to be doing? Singing to Him?


And then I looked down at her again.  Her eyes were full of tears.  She was thirsty.
And I heard Him whispering to my heart.


Give her a drink.
Tell her you love her.
Teach them about Me.
You are serving Me when you serve your kids.

We walked out of the room and they drank their hearts out. 
And it hit me.  Again.  I am where He wants me to be.  I am worshiping Him in the small moments of being a mommy to my kids.  


We went back into the session until the message.  It was time for bed.
The three of us left all of the youth, said goodnight to Daddy and walked back to our cabin in the dark, in the snow.
We talked about how funny Daddy was.
We got pajamas on, prayed together and, exhausted, they were asleep within minutes.

'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'   

Matthew 25: 35-40

Time

How do you go from this

and this

to this

and this

in two short years?

And how do I make it stop? :)

Our Week

Stayed home New Year's and watched the Coldplay concert on PBS.  Amazing.

We celebrated a little boy turning 2!  

 Birthday lunch...chosen by the birthday boy.

The last picture of our very dead tree.  Taken by Anna.

A trip to the park on a warmer day

Smiles from our sweet girl