Life// A Baby Boy

Birth is always an amazing thing to witness... 
On November 4th, our Mom gave birth to a perfectly healthy little boy. Well, he wasn't that little... he weighed in at 10 pounds!

 Let me just put it out there, our Mom is amazing! She's a homebirther, meaning she gives birth to her children at home without drugs or being hooked up to an IV. She trusts wholly in the Lord that He will deliver, and He always does! Isaiah 66:9-"Will I bring a baby to the point of birth and not deliver it?", says the Lord, "or will I who deliver, close the womb?", says your God. This is one of many verses our Mom taped to her wall and meditated on for months. She just amazes me and I am still processing how incredible the whole experience was...

 Welcome to the world, little Liam!
With love,
Layla

Life// A Surprise Baby Shower

  We did it, we actually pulled it off. After months of careful and secretive planning, we were able to throw Mom a surprise baby shower. Man, was she surprised! With a lot of help from a friend, it was a success. Friends came from hours away to celebrate our Mom. She really had no idea! You can see from the pictures how happy/ surprised/ flabbergasted she was...

 I bet you want to know how we got her to the party, huh? It's a funny story...
After buying her a maternity dress for the party, we couldn't figure out how to give it to her and get her out of the house without spilling the beans. We decided to give her the dress and say,"We have something special for you at 2 'o clock today." The morning of the party she wasn't feeling too good, but we had to get her there on time! We gave her the dress and said our lines. She thought we were going to do a maternity shoot of her, so we took that idea and ran with it! She got dressed and ready, not too excited since she wasn't feeling that great. But we got her in the car, and drove to the building. When we pulled up, she questioned why we were there. We said we had set up a studio for her shoot and not to worry. Hagen ran in first to "make sure the lights were on" while I helped her out of the car. We walked up to the building, I opened the door for her, and you can see her reaction!

Here I am telling her how surprised and thankful I was that we pulled it off! We feasted and visited, talked and laughed. Then she opened her gifts. From blankets to quilts, diapers to clothes, she was every blessed!

 We are just so thankful that everything fell into place. We prayed hard that it would be a special day for her, that she would feel loved and appreciated, and she did! Our Mom is wonderful and she deserved a day to be honored. If you haven't figured it out from the pictures, she is having a boy! We can't wait to meet our little brother soon. Thank you to all our friends who helped make this possible, and special thanks to the Lord who answered our prayers!
Love from,
Layla & Hagen

The Big 4-0!

Last Saturday, the day after Valentines, our Dad turned 40! We always celebrate his birthday twice, with delicious num-nums on Valentines, and then birthday cake the next day. This year, Mom made chocolate peanut-butter cups as a Valentines treat, and then a delicious, flourless chocolate cake (which went so fast, that it didn't have time to be photographed) for his birthday!

 Eli explaining his drawings...

 Tiny keepsakes from the little ones...

& fresh ground coffee!

Want to hear something exciting? Our Dad was accepted into Liberty University Online! He transformed his closet into an office, so we bought him lots of things to help with organization. Want to hear about another blessing? Dad lost his job at the beginning of the year (that might not sound like a blessing, but it allowed him to have time to enroll at Liberty!) He put in applications anywhere and everywhere! Finally, God provided him with a job this week, a job that will not involve truck driving, and still give him enough time to be able to study! Isn't this awesome!?!? God never ceases to amaze us!

What are some ways the Lord has been showing His hand in your life?
  
Love from,
Layla

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!
We hope you had an amazing Christmas celebration... we loved hearing about your family traditions!
Here are a few snap shots of our Christmas...

We attended a midnight candle light service...

In the morning we opened gifts... I think they were a little excited!

Eli modeling his felt mustache Hagen made...

The aftermath...

We had a non-traditional Christmas dinner of Sourdough Fry Bread...

...and sang "Feliz Navidad" the whole time!

Afterwards, we drove around to look at Christmas lights...

 

 

If you have ever read the Little House series, this reminds me of Laura and Almonzo going on their sleigh rides!

I bet you are all itching to see who won the Christmas Giveaway, huh? Well, I won't make you wait any longer...
The winner is (drum roll, please)...
Emma Schramm!
Thank you to all the lovely ladies who entered the contest!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love From,
The Two Blessed Damsels

Renewed

Whoa, just whoa....

We are so, so sorry.

We left you hanging for 3 months, without any notice of our disappearance.  

But Huzzah, we are back and we have many tales to tell of our adventures. 

After we posted our last post, we upped and moved back to Missouri. Things just didn't go too well with Dad's job, so we had to back-track. At the time it seemed quite frustrating, but looking back, we can see how God had His hand in it all. We are back in our home, our home. It may seem like a waste of time and money, but for us it was a trial we had to go through to learn a detrimental lesson: we had everything we needed already. By this we mean, that we need to do the best with what God blesses us with, show Him that we are good stewards. Our dream as a family has always been to have a plot of land where we can farm, garden and live peaceably among men. Before we lived in the RV, we thought that .48 acre was not enough space for this dream. But, after living in a 32 foot metal box, it seems like more than enough! I guess it's all about perspective. So, when we look back on the RV life, we do not see a horror film (though it seemed like one at the time) but we remember all the relationships we built, the shells we collected, and see it as an extended-working-vacation.

In summation, we went from Missouri to Texas to Missouri with a renewed mind and outlook on life. Sure, we had our ups and downs, but God never ceases to amaze! He gently puts us through the refining fire, and though it may be painful, when He pulls us out, our spirits are renewed, cleansed, and burden-less. This verse just about sums it up!

 

We hope you can forgive us (once again) for dropping off the face of the blogging world. We will do as many posts we can when we have access to the internets, for we personally have none at the moment. May your weekend be blessed, and your spirits renewed!

Love,

Layla & Hagen  

Easter Sunday

Hello!

I hope you had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday, 

 we sure did!

We drove up to Houston to visit our Aunt's church. There we watched a Crucifixion reenactment and sang praises and hymns.

John 19:17- And he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 

After the service, we 'walked down to the Jordan' as the pastor said. We witnessed several people get baptized. I think the baptism of our friend was the most touching. We were all in tears!

2 Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

Every year we usually do an Easter Seder meal, which is much like a Passover meal, but each item has a differnet meaning, and purpose.

Since we are limited on space in our tiny RV oven, and not having enough time to plan everything out, we decided to go to a Mexican Restaurant, instead! 

Even though things have been a bit hectic around here, it was a good to slow down and remember what Christ did for me. He went through torture and ultimately death to save me. He conquered the grave! MY REDEEMER LIVES!


I would like to hear all about your Easter Celebration!
Blessings,
Layla

Biblical Inspiration- Faith

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

What an amazing verse...

So simple, yet so powerful.

The Hebrew word for faith is “Batah” which means “trust in, trust or rely upon” or “feel safe, trust, be full of confidence”.

This verse tells us that by having faith, we should put our entire trust and full confidence in that which our faith is in. Whether it's during hard times or blessing, we all, including myself, need to put our entire confidence and trust in The Lord. Only the Lord can change peoples hearts, only the Lord can save you, only the Lord can bring healing to this nation and world. As 1 Timothy 6:12 says, "Fight the good fight of faith." 

My prayer for each of you that reads this is that you will be strengthen in the Word, that the Lord would equip you with wisdom and knowledge in Him, and that each of us would fight the good fight. It is written in James 2:26, As the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. May the faith and confidence that we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ, shine out through our daily lives, and reach those that are trapped in the darkness.

Blessings,

Layla