Sweet Little Moose Feet

So sweet.

Moose feet!

Himself

I ran into these lyrics and had to post them here so that I could remember them.  Oh, that these words would be fully true of the Haynes family!  Especially the first stanza.

HIMSELF
 
Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

Once 'twas painful trying, Now 'tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost.
Once 'twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;
Once 'twas constant drifting, Now my anchor's cast.

Once 'twas busy planning, Now 'tis trustful prayer;
Once 'twas anxious caring, Now He has the care.
Once 'twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;
Once 'twas constant asking, Now 'tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.

Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He's mine;
Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, Now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, Safe within the veil.

   by A. B. Simpson (1843-1919)

4 Months of Noah

I'm already 4 months old?!

Look how big I'm getting!

Can you believe it?

My monkey's eyes are blue just like mine!

Enough pictures, mom.

Really.  That's enough.  
I'm gonna have to chew this monkey's head off if you don't stop.

Noah's First Real Hike and Mama's Nasty Bite

Noah's first hike!
He rode in the jogging stroller over the rocks and roots.  Very brave.
(We decided to it was toooo hot to carry him in his carrier.)

Love these guys!
Robbie and Noah were both very patient as I got the camera ready.

First real family photo with Noah!?  

(Hard to believe!)

And -- it was probably in this sweet family moment when the yucky tick was hitching a ride on my pants...  thereby giving me Lyme Disease.  Not such a great way to end a hike, but the LORD was kind to help me identify the bite and get quick treatment, so no real harm done.  Mostly we're just glad it was me and not Noah!  I'm doing fine aside from some fatigue and muscle/joint stiffness.  We were praising God for antibiotics!  It seems I am developing quite the record for a variety of infectious bites!

I won't say who did it, but somehow Noah ended up like this in his car seat.

Ahem...  Not naming names.

hehe.  Hilarious!
Poor little guy.  Mommy laughs at him all the time!

Noah's First (?) Two Hour Nap

I don't think he's done this before...ever.  We are celebrating and hope it happens again! 

SOOO happy after a real nap (ie. longer than 30 minutes).

And we're back!

Good golly, I'm behind here!  My card reader was kaput.  Took me a while to get a new one.

So, I'll probably play a little catch up here for a while with some random updates.

Noah is growing so fast I can hardly keep up!  We've also been in our new house for a little over a month, so we're finally feeling pretty settled.  

Reading with Papa.

First Stars and Stripes

Happy 4th of July!
(Wardrobe provided by a very thoughtful Grandpa Haynes.)

Even though we just moved into our new house, we had dreams of hosting a Johnson-family picnic/house warming party.  A little too ambitious.  We ended up mooching off of our neighbor's grill and watching our other neighbor shoot crazy little fireworks from the center of our cul de sac.  We'll host that exciting cookout at our house one day.