esther victoria is born

esther victoria was born on dec. 27 @ 4:20 am. she weighed in @ 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. we are so blessed to have another little one in our family. God bless everyone and have a happy new year!!!

happy early birthday

dec. 17 my daughter will be 3. olivia my dear, you are so precious. you are my little princess. you make me laugh and when i think about the future you even make me cry. i just have to tell you that i love you and that you will not date until you are 32. thank you for allowing me to be your father, and i love you. by the way, this is my little cinderella. this was her birthday outfit from my mom and dad. i just had to put this on this blog so that all you princes out there could be jealous. God bless you all!

our tree

here is our finished product. we were so excited about putting this tree up this year. i don't know what it is about putting up a stinkin' tree, but it will just put you in the holiday spirit. my favorite part of putting up the tree is first being able to use a saw (since i don't do that very often) and the other thing is putting on the star at the end of it all. that star represents one thing to me and that is the birth of Jesus. He is the reason for this season. this last week we watched a charlie brown Christmas. that is my favorite Christmas movie. when charlie is trying to find the real meaning of Christmas and everywhere he turns there is commercialism. snoopy is drawn in by the decorating, sally (charlie's sister) wants everything under the sun and lucy tells him that he needs to be busy doing things. they all think that this is what Christmas is really all about. when charlie doesn't find happiness in any of these things, he finally has enough and shouts, "does anyone know what Christmas is all about?!!" linus steps up to the plate and tells him what it is all about. he tells the real Christ-mas story from luke 2:8-14,

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And , lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And
the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.'
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.'"

this is the real story of Christmas. this year as you are out and in the lines and getting really annoyed with the whole thing, just remember why we celebrate Christ-mas. May be that will help you get into the holiday mood.

hunting a tree

we had a great time going out and picking a tree. we did it on a day that it was snowing and that made the experience that much better. we are excited about our 10 1/2 foot tree. hope all of you had the same experience as us with shopping for a tree. God bless!

merry christmas

it's been a while since i have posted anything, so i thought that i would catch you up on our lives. a couple of weeks before thanksgiving we were having some drainage issues in our bathroom. i love plumbing so i thought that i would give it a go. okay, so i don't love plumbing, but i am too cheap to call a plumber so i thought that i would give it a go. needless to say, the look on my face in the second picture tells you that it did not go well. i was yelling and screaming and luckily the kids were up because if they hadn't there may have been some choice words that would have come out of my mouth. anyway, just to let you know our downstairs bathroom sink is still out of order to this day, and i have no motivation to make it work right now.
on a lighter note, things are going well. we just got back from vacation in new jersey with jess' family and we had a blast. it was good to get away for a week, but we are back to the same ol' grind again. we have a tree, but i'll post some pictures later to show you those. the kids are getting big and jess is about to plop esther out anytime now. hope all is going well. God bless!!!

lies

i'm having some issues here lately. my wife is now 7 months pregnant as you can see. she is doing marvelously, but she is starting to get under my skin. she has been reading a book called lies women believe and i am starting to get a little frustrated with her. the book itself sounds pretty good. the lady who wrote it has based everything around scripture and i find that that usually makes for a pretty good book. the problem that i am having with jess, though, is that one of the lies that this writer says that women believe is that
we have a right to decide the size of our families. this is something that has bothered me over the past week and a half. the reason that it bothers me is not that it comes from scripture, but that it is a faith issue. you see, i have always struggled with faith and putting my whole life in God's hands. that is the exact point that jess is talking to me about. another problem is that i don't want to have 500 kids and i feel that if we just didn't have me snipped and if we didn't use some sort ofbirth control, soon i'll be driving a bus just to get my kids around. gentlemen, let me advise you, if you don't want a lot of kids, then i would advise you to never let your wives read this book. right now, i am fighting a fight that i thought that i was done with. we had made a deal that after our 3rd kid, we were done. now i'm not so sure she feels the same way. hope y'all make out better than i did.

my love

just real quick. i know that this is an old picture because look at how small garrett is, but my wife asked me the other day why i never had her on this blog. i told her because i don't have any pictures of her, but she was just wondering why i didn't even write about her. i obviously love my wife, but i think that the kids get in the way of that love sometimes. i know that this isn't right, but i think all of us as parents do this, and even those of us that are christians do it. we forget the one person that has been there with us all along, God. let's try not to do that anymore, instead lets dwell on the good that He has done for us. by the way honey, i love you alot!!!! thanks for giving me such great kids and beautiful kids (luckily they take after you!).

nasal excavators

hey, just wanted you to know that like father like son. this is my little man and i believe that i am going to start a new blog just about my boy. the other morning i was laying in bed with garrett walking around our room and he got into some jounals that my wife has. one of them was one we got when we got married that we were supposed to journal in that takes us through our marriage, the other was one that we got when olivia, our oldest, was born. we were supposed to write to her and tell her about herself. as i watched him looking at these i thought about the fact that he has nothing like that at all. i got a little sad thinking that and so i have decided to set up a blog just about this little tike. i'm trying to out-do olivia for one thing. she always gets the best stuff, so i thought that i would give garrett something a little more special (not to mention i hate writing stuff with a pen and paper). i'll let you know more later. God bless you, and God bless my little man!

joy of being a father

i have to say that God has been very good to me. He has given me the best kids in the world. the past couple of days have not been the easiest and my head has been very low at times and i have been pretty depressed, but when i come home and i hear that precious word, "DADDY" or "DADEM" as my son calls me, i let all of those cares go to the side. they brighten my day more than anything else. now the only problem is that i have to raise them the way He wants them raised. Lord help me!!!!

our kidz

some of you were probably wondering what our kids looked like. i came across a web site of sam bills and i saw his pretty little girl and i thought that i would share with you what our kids look like. they are my pride and joy and they brighten my day when i get home (even on the best of days). they make my life so much better. i think that i'll keep them. we are also expecting our third, which will be a little girl. we are so excited about the third. i can't get over the wonderful children God has given us, especially considering who their father is. well i am expecting some teens anytime now, so have a wonderful day and keep those heads up. God Bless.

my make-up is done

i thought that i would let y'all know that tonight, here in ocean city, nj, we are having a great night. we did our make-up and right now i am wearing what you might call a glam look. seriously. we are having a wonderful time here in nj. we are playing in the surf and sun and we have had wonderful weather here the whole week. welp i must leave you for this evening, but i will keep writing you letting you know what is going on here. God bless you all.

going on vacation

jess and i are very excited to announce that we will be going on vacation this friday and will not be back for a week. this is so exciting because we have not been out to nj for a long time and we have not had a vacation in a long time. just pray for us, though, because garrett has a viral infection and is not a very happy camper right now. i'm hoping that the 12 hour drive will cheer him up though. HA! HA! i'll be away from my computer for a week though, so i hope that you all don't miss me too much. God Bless!

announcement

jess and i are very excited to tell you that we just had our ultrasound for our new baby. we will be having a... girl!!! we are so excited and i just couldn't wait to share this new with the world. we have been very blessed and God is always good. just a little update, yesterday i posted that i might boycott all pro sports. when i told jess about this she told me that she would give up reality tv if i gave up pro sports. this has really got me thinking, because i am soooooo tired of reality tv. i'll keep you updated. God bless!

it's me again

well i know that it has been a while since i have posted anything, so i thought that i would write and let you know that i am still alive. i am looking forward to my vacation to new jersey. we will be going to the shore for a week and i can't wait to get there. the one thing that i hate about new jersey is that terrell owens lives there. i don't know if you are keeping up lately with all of the news of t.o. or not but i am tired of his belly-aching. i have been reading in isaiah and i found something in chapter 40 that has really got me worried about t.o.'s life and where he is going to end up if he doesn't get over himself. in isaiah 40:23-24 the Lord says, "He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take roo in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." what worries me about all of this is that t.o. is making himself out to be a god and that is a problem. it says here that God made t.o. and just as easily as he made him he can take him out of commission. you would think that t.o. would see this since last year he was taken out of commission for so many weeks with a broken leg, but he still seems to think that we should bow at his feet and worship the very ground that he walks on.
another thing that bothers me about all of this is that t.o. is making so much money but that won't make him happy, he just has to have more. does he not understand that there are firemen out there that are doing their jobs as volunteers? there are policemen and teachers that barely get by on their salaries, but he is playing a child's game and yet he wants to be paid how much? i haven't decided yet, but i am so tired of hearing about all of these "sports stars" that aren't making enough money. i am really thinking about boycotting pro sports altogether, which is really hard for me to say since i live for sports, but i am really considering. do we not understand that there are far better things for us to spend our time and money on rather than sports. instead of sitting on our butts on the weekend watching the boob tube, we could be outside with our children or nephews or neices or whatever teaching them how to play the game the way it was invented to be played.
i know that i have rambled on for a while, but i just had to get this out. like the name of this blog is called, i am a very confused man trying to think all of this through. i hope that may be God has said something to you through this and if you don't agree with me, then i am sorry, but not really. God bless you all and good day.

don't be afraid

well... this is my first blog and i'm at a loss of what to write. there has been a lot of things going on in my life as of late and i was just going to share those, but i'm not quite sure where to start. there has been a lot of death in my world lately. there was a pastor in town that was helping a person clear some trees around a power line and he got to close and was electrocuted. then my wife and i just found out that a couple that we went to college with and that i worked with for a short time just lost their 3 month old daughter. pretty depressing, eh? this life sucks, huh? let me tell you something that doesn't suck though. Jesus the Christ died for you. something has been ringing in my head the past couple of weeks and i just feel that i have to share it with you (whoever is reading this). God has done some pretty amazing stuff in my life and i'm sure that He has done some pretty wonderful stuff in yours too. we (Christians) have to start sharing what God has done for us. if we don't, we will get lost in this world of hatred and sin. Jesus told us in the great commission that we have to go out and make disciples of all the nations. what does that mean? that means we are obligated to go out and tell others what God has done in our lives. nothing more, nothing less. we have to go out and tell what God has done. we are not responsible for saving them, that is God's responsibility, but we are told that we must go out and tell others about Him. it pains me to hear of all of the death that is going on, but i know that at least the 2 that i have talked about here i will see again in heaven. what really hurts is to watch the news and see all of the death that they talk about there. that is what really bothers me because i don't know where they stand with God. will i ever see them again or will i just hear their screams as they are tormented in hell? God has done so much for me, from being able to get out of bed in the morning to giving me a wonderful family to love and that loves me. He also sent His one and only Son to die for us and that we might be able to come to Him through the sacrifice of the His perfect Son. if you are a non-Christian reading this right now, i want you to know that God knows your name. God knows everything about you and that he even knows how many hairs you have on your head. He sees everything that you are doing. but know this too... nothing, yes i said nothing, can seperate you from the love of God. He wants you to come to Him and just sit with Him. if you are a Christian that is reading this i want you to know the same thing. sometimes we forget about this. don't fall away from the Scriptures, but just fall in the arms of God and allow him to comfort you. and don't forget, tell others what God is doing in your life.

Matthew 28:16-20