Favorite Little Faces

Because APRIL (yikes!) was the last time you saw photos of this family, I thought I'd throw in a few from November. It's been a busy month around the Sieh house...we celebrated Bennett's first birthday, had a delicious Thanksgiving, announced #4, and decorated for Christmas (Most-Excited-For-This-Endeavor Award goes to Cameron)!

Anyway...just wanted to add a few pictures and updates to liven up the blog. And, personally, I can't think of 3 cuter faces to do that with! ;)

Excited big sibs getting ready for Bennett's first birthday party.

Elly is commanding Cameron to pose or smile in a particular way, no doubt.

Pre-Thanksgiving feast snooze with Daddy. One year and one week old. *tear*

Ummm...who stole my chubby little baby and replaced him with this lean & mean little boy? Bennett's appetite is still the same (ravenous) but he's burning it off like crazy! Probably all those stairs he climbs.
More on that later though...

Silly brothers. Bennett absolutely ADORES Cameron. Like, lengthy embrace in the morning and after each nap. Cam is such an amazing big brother...patient and extremely enduring :)

My princess girl :) Always posing, performing and continually wrapping Daddy around her little finger. Notice the belly and UNDIES in this picture...she is POTTY TRAINED! Hallelujah and Amen. It was 100 times easier with her than Cam! Only one child in diapers?? Luxurious :)

Enjoy my favorite little faces :) Hope to upload a pic of the very littlest face soon!

Rocked

Got rocked today in worship. Literally...not trying to be cheesy. I was going about my pleasant worship time, holding (restraining) my bouncing, clapping, kicking baby and swaying to the music. We sang 3-4 songs, and then the team closed with this arrangement of a classic hymn, Rock of Ages.

I can't describe it any way but that the Lord was speaking directly to me through this song. I mean, I was singing it (well, the first verse anyway) but I felt so completely wrapped up...so sheltered, so loved, so hidden in Him that I couldn't even utter the words. It was like my heart was singing but I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't verbally express myself. Hasn't happened to me in a loooong time.

The lyrics of this hymn are SO powerful. So intense to me this morning that by the fourth verse, I was sobbing. Just as I was about to remove my O.C. self from the public, however, I was saved by my eldest, who (of course) got his foot/leg/shoe stuck in the seat behind him and couldn't move.

As not to induce a 3.9 year old's panic attack, the shoe was removed, and we needed to put it back on right there. Needless to say, I had to pull myself back together. Bennett was snoozing away, a pile of mush in my arms by this point...and I was a strugglin'! Thankfully, one of my girlfriends saw my distress and reached over from the row behind me, helping Cam with his shoe and receiving an inappropriately loud "THANK YOU" from him. :) I had to laugh at my situation while I wiped the tears and flowing mascara from my face.

I wasn't going to blog today, but I just had to share the lyrics to the song. Please listen to it...I mean...enjoy the music...but listen to the words. So true and powerful. Verse three is what really gets me time and again. Hope this beautiful, timeless hymn blesses someone else as much as it did me today!

Rock of Ages

Augustus M. Toplady, 1776

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From thy wounded side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands

Can fulfill thy law's demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow?

All for sin could not atone,

Thou must save and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress,

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul I to the fountain fly,

Wash me Savior or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,

When my eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown,

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Hebrews 12:28-29

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that CANNOT BE SHAKEN, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

Overwhelmed with thankfulness today...for the goodness of God, His mercy and grace, His gift of eternal life and of true FREEDOM as we live our lives on Earth, and that in spite of the ups and downs of life...He CANNOT be shaken! Truly truly truly, we have everything we'll ever need and more. So blessed. Happy Thanksgiving!

Blog Humbug

Well, I feel as if I need to start out by apologizing for my lack of blogging for...well...the entire summer and fall :( I feel as though I committed to something and then let the whole "team" down. I have a Thanksgiving resolution to pick up blogging again. I'm hoping it'll be like exercise...you stop missing it when you get out of shape, but once you start up again, you crave it?

Here's hoping :) I miss all my blogging friends and I think once I get the [pseudo] creative writing part of my brain going, I'll be better about it. We don't have a home computer, so I rely completely on my husband's willingness to haul his work computer home every other day for me to gallivant about online and such - thanks babe ;)

Since I've been such a Blog Humbug, I thought it only proper to bring a peace offering of sorts...a little exciting news to accompany my return to blog-land...so I did what I could...

Blessed beyond measure to announce that

CraSieh baby #4 is on his or her little way...

♥ June 1, 2011 ♥

I know the majority of people think we've gone completely nuts...
but we're SO excited :)

Now to figure out how to get new pictures on here without my photo editing program! Happy Thanksgiving week, friends! Hope it's filled with love and laughter! We truly have so much to be thankful for :)