Merry Christmas!!!!

I think this might have been one of my most favorite years with my children at Christmas! The month of December was full of all kinds of mischief from our elf, Clarence and this was the first year we did Ann Voskamp's Jessie Tree Advent. We were also very busy with piano recitals and school Christmas events. This really made the time pass quickly and before we knew it...it was Christmas Eve. Here are some pics leading up to the 24th.

Some memories from Clarence the Elf:
-He was found hanging from the ceiling fan on a toilet paper swing.
-He colored mustaches and funny things on our family pictures. (see pic below)
-He drove the Suburban up to the front door. He was sitting on the steering wheel.
-He colored the kids noses red while they were sleeping.
-He brought them chocolate things for breakfast.
-He was found sitting in the highchair. He had a diaper and a bib on! And he was eating cookies like a baby!!!!

I wanted to interview the kids about Christmas and here is what they have to say:

Noah-
What is your favorite Christmas memory?
"When I got my scooter and I drove it up the living room wall on accident." "That was hilarious."
What did you learn from the advent readings?
"Christmas is about Jesus. He was born a baby and then died on the cross for our sins."

Lily-
What is your favorite Christmas memory?
"Being with my family." "Opening presents with my family." "Running down the stairs and seeing all the gifts Mommy and Daddy left for me." "I was too excited. " "That's all."
What did you learn from the advent readings?
"He was born. It was his birthday. He was born so he could grown up. He can grow up and save them people from bad."

Hannah Grace:
What is your favorite Christmas memory?
"It was getting an Ipad on Christmas morning. I was really really surprised. I thought it was going to be a Nano."
What did you learn from the advent readings?
"God will provide for His children. He provided Esther with courage and Ruth with bravery to stand up for what she believed. I learned about how, like, the story of the Bible leads up to Christmas. The Old Testament is always pointing towards Him, Jesus. "

Hope loved her Big Barney, and Elmo books. She was not really too hot about her baby doll. She pulled its hair out and threw her on the floor. Sigh....
Hope is now 17 months and spunky as ever! She is constantly singing around our house. She loves to sing her ABC's and the Barney and Elmo theme songs. She says lots of words and can repeat just about anything. She never stops moving and is always in to something. We adore her feisty personality. We love her spunk.

We are forever grateful to have the opportunity to raise 4 incredible children. Thank you Lord!

And now for pictures!

Christmas Eve...all in new PJ's. Hope is ready to watch a Christmas movie. LOL

Christmas morning!
Noah opens up new tennis shoes!

Hannah Grace gets a new Cross necklace.

Lily gets a new bike!!

Lily opens up pizza for her kitchen!

Noah gets a motorized scooter. He couldn't wait..he had to drive it right away!

HG gets her own flat iron.

Noah gets The Action Bible. This came highly recommended! It's a hit! He has been reading it ALL THE TIME!

Ada was here for our Christmas morning. We enjoyed having Anna and Jordan and Ada over to open presents and then have a wonderful breakfast together. This year we ate: Crockpot Apple Cobbler, Breakfast Casserole, Monkey Bread, Sausage Balls and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. And shhhhh...don't tell anyone, but Carlton and I might be the only humans who did an Insanity workout on Christmas day. Yep, we squeezed it in before we left for Mississippi. Crazy, I tell you.

Look at Noah's face!! HAHA!!!
Hope gave Ada the Jesus Storybook Bible. Look at those sweet cheeks!



We want to thank the "SANTA" who sacrificially gave our family this brand-new IPAD 2. We are so incredibly thankful.
This was her reaction when she figured out what it was! She said, "NO WAY!"

OFF TO DEDA'S (my mother) HOUSE!!!!
Each year we travel to Columbus, MS to visit my mom and family. We usually get there around 5pm. Here are pictures from our Christmas in MS.

We made this picture for Deda. If you double click you can see that the kids held up letters that spelled out DEDA. She loved it.

Lily got a Baby Alive. And oh boy, does she love this thing!!!!!

Noah got a Pogo stick and an electric helicopter.

Hope got an Elmo that sings lullabies.

Okay...hope you enjoyed...Now I am off to have a cup of coffee courtesy of my new Keurig! Thanks MOM!

Our life in Pictures

The Life of the Weathers Family Via I-phone pictures.

Late October-November 2011

We go for Hay Rides and end up itching and sneezing the rest of the day. But, we sure do have fun gathering our pumpkins.

We go on Field Trips to the Jacksonville Square to visit local businesses. Can you find Noah? He is sitting next to his red-headed sweetheart.

Hope wears a bow...for 4.3 seconds. And then its gone.

We get to visit with our special Chinese friends on Adoption Day at Grace Fellowship. We sure did enjoy our friends...the Hammonds. Please come again soon.

We gather leaves for a school project.

We go to a Kari Jobe Concert.

Mommy goes bananas when she discovers Pinterest. She starts whipping out crafts left and right. LOL


Below: Mommy and Daddy go to the Alabama-Tennessee Game. Rooooollll TIDE!

Hope thinks it is funny to rub meatballs in her hair. Or bananas or chicken fingers.

Noah and Lily end their soccer season undefeated. Coach Daddy was happy.

We go to story time at the Library time on Thursdays morning.

We dress up for Halloween and ride in a hay ride to collect candy.

Mommy makes a another Pinterest craft. Found these two pieces of wood at the thrift store for .50 and glued them together, then painted the bird and verse.

Hope sits in time-out quite often these days.

Below: HG wins district and goes to State in Dothan, AL.

They don't win at State, but there were lots of opportunities through the tears to have good discussions about real life.

Mommy and Hannah Grace go and see My Fair Lady. It was oh, so good.

I have the brilliant idea to buy an old door and create a headboard out of it. It's still sitting in my storage shed. You know....I need time to get my creative juices going. lol

Ok...so I found this at the thrift store. Couldn't resist a canister set for $5.00

Add a little chalkboard paint and VOILA! Its Puurrrrrrty~

We go to Sonic during Happy Hour. Alot.

We get crafty again and make a Christmas Banner.

We spent Thanksgiving at home this year because a few of us were not feeling well. Even though we missed our family, we had a wonderful time not being rushed and just enjoying each other. We hung up decorations the day after.


TWO NEW VIDEOS
Lily is now on Lesson 22. We are averaging doing this book about 2 times a week. (So far, the book is a 10 out of 10...and I'm picky!) As I type this, she is on lesson 35. And wow! She is reading!! We have also added in sight words. She has about 30 in her box right now that she has mastered. She is a smart little girl...very easy to teach...and a fast learner.

A question that I get asked often..."What are you?" and "What do you believe?"

Well, I am what you call a Reformed Baptist.

Carlton and I both grew up in very traditional Southern Baptist churches. We have a long family history on both sides of devoted Southern Baptists including Carlton’s grandfather who was a Southern Baptist preacher for 50 years. We love and respect the Southern Baptist Convention. Our lives have been enriched because we were a part of the denomination. But since 2003, God has given us a desire to reach the world through biblical, Reformed Christianity. So many of you have asked what we believe and what makes our church different. I have put together a list of some of the distinctive beliefs of Grace Fellowship. Here it is!


1) We believe in God-centered worship. Worship is the priority of God and is to be the passion of His people. Biblical worship comes from the heart and is grounded in truth. The word of God determines how God is to be worshipped. The church should be committed to worship that is defined by and consistent with the Bible. (John 4:23-26)

2) We believe in consecutive, expository preaching. Expository preaching involves the public reading, explanation and application of Scripture. We desire to “expose the text” rather than impose our personal opinions on the text. Our norm is consecutive, expository preaching in which the elder’s preach through a book of the Bible from beginning to end. This gives the preaching ministry a biblical balance. This method also gives the people the opportunity to see “the whole “ of a book over a period of time in order to gain a better understanding. (II Timothy 3:16-17; Nehemiah 8:8)

3) We affirm God’s sovereignty in Salvation. Salvation is wholly a work of God. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. God planned salvation “before time began” and elected certain undeserving sinners to life eternal. God sent His Son Christ Jesus into the world to save those sinners by His righteous life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection. The sovereignty of God in salvation does not negate the responsibility of men to repent and believe or to share the gospel in fact God’s sovereignty is the motive for such. (John 6:35-40; John 10:7-30; Mark 10:45; Romans 8:28-30; Romans 9:1-29; Romans 10:8-17; Acts 13:48; Ephesians 1:3-14; Ephesians 2:4-10; Revelation 5:9-10)

4) We believe the church should be ruled by a plurality of elders under the Headship of Christ. We believe that there are two offices in the church, elder and deacon. The elders focus is on the ministry of the Word, shepherding, ruling and prayer. While each elder has specific gifts and abilities, no one elder has more authority than the others. The deacons are helpers and to focus primarily on benevolence, stewardship of the church property, and church finances. (Acts 20:17; I Timothy 3:1-13; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:5-9; I Peter 5:1-4)

5) We believe in the practice of church discipline. Christ wants His church to be pure from sin, error and division. We believe in the regular oversight in the life of the church members by the elders in the church. (Matthew 18:15-17; I Corinthians 5:9-13)

6) We believe the church should be evangelistic. We should seek to proclaim the gospel at every worship service. The church should encourage people to get to know their friends, neighbors and co-workers and find opportunities to invite them to church and share the gospel with them. We also desire to reach out to the community around us and share the gospel with them and invite them to church. We desire to support missions and to be actively involved in the lives of our missionaries. (Romans 10:14-17; Psalm 67)

7) We believe there should be a strong emphasis on the family in the local church. We believe strong families are foundational to strong churches and a strong nation. Families (which include singles, widows, divorcées, and grandparents) are God’s building block of the church. We believe that the church is not to take the place of the family but to equip them for the task God intended. We desire to train husbands to be godly, spiritual leaders in their homes and to equip parents to raise godly sons and daughters to the glory of God. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)


Some churches that hold to the same theology as our church, Grace Fellowship are:

Church of Brookhills, Birmingham, AL- Pastor David Platt
Briarwood Presbyterian, Birmingham, AL- Pastor Harry Reeder
The Village Church, TX- Pastor Matt Chandler
Bethlehem Church- Pastor John Piper
Grace Community Church, CA- Pastor John MacArthur
Pastor Al Mohler (President of Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY)
Capitol Hill Baptist Church- Pastor Mark Dever

Some people you might know that are also of the reformed faith:
-Kay Arthur (Pre-cept Bible Studies)
-Francis Chan
-Joshua Harris (Kissed Dating Goodbye, Dug Down Deep)
-Mark Driscoll
-LaCrae (Christian Rappers)
-Tullian Tchividjian- (Billy Graham's grandson)
-RC Sproul
-Charles Spurgeon
-John Owen
-CJ Mahaney
-Wayne Grudem (Author of Systematic Theology)


-Those are just the first few that come to mind. But, there are many, many more. A great website to find churches that are like-minded with the Reformed faith is: www.9Marks.org There you will find hundreds upon hundreds of churches.

OK..thats all for today!