My Aunts & Uncles!!

This is my Aunt Shellie. She is my Mommy's older sister and Brielle and Hay Hay's Mommy.

This is my Uncle Brad. He's married to my Aunt Shellie. He's a really fun uncle!


Here I am with my Aunt Kimmie. She is my Mommy's younger sister and Anthony and Andrew's Mommy.

This is my Great Aunt Becky. She's my NayNay's sister. She's holding baby Alex in this pic.
This is my Great Aunt Debbie. She's my NayNay's sister too. I enjoyed having lunch with her and my GreatUncle John.

This is my Great Aunt Kay. She's my Grandman's sister. She thought I was so pretty and really loved my red hair.

Cousins!!!

Here I am with all my cousins (on my Mommy's side)
Me, Brielle, Anthony, Hay Hay, Andrew

This is my oldest cousin, Brielle. She LOVES to hold me!
Anthony, Brielle, Andrew, and Hay Hay (her real name is Haleigh)
Here I am with my boy cousins. Anthony did a great job holding me.
Here's my Daddy with Andrew and Anthony and Megazord.
Brielle even gave me a bottle one time!! She's so grown up! Finally, a cousin smaller than me. My mommy is holding baby Alexandra and her cousin, Tiffany is holding me! Alex was 2 weeks old in this picture.

I just love my family so much! I can't wait to get bigger so I can play all the fun games with my cousins.

Stayed tuned...up next you'll get to meet some of my aunts and uncles.

The BEST Great Grandma EVER!!

Well here she is...the most beautiful Grandma in the whole wide world!! This is my great grandma, Gladys Kinder Flowers. I was SO HAPPY to meet her. She is so wonderful...I can hardly find the right words to describe how much she means to me. I LOVED staying at her house and soaking up the hours she spent holding me. She is such a pretty and sweet lady. I smiled at her ALL THE TIME...I just couldn't help myself. All of her friends swarmed her at church as she held me in her arms. It made me feel good to see the look of pride on her face as they doted on me. I flashed them lots of smiles and coos to let them know that I felt just as proud to have such a WONDERFUL Grandma! I love you, Grandma and I can't wait to see you again this summer!!

Easter Sunday 2006

My first Easter! How fun! The day started with worshipping God with my friends at church, www.fxcc.org for pics. After church, Mrs. Mindy held me close & actually got me to take a nap in her arms. I needed a little snooze to prepare for the egg hunt & lunch out.

Then I got to meet the Easter bunny! Who knew he had such a freakishly small head...he and Santa have a strange way of making appearances at our biggest celebrations at church. They both play a 2nd fiddle to Jesus, so no confusion here. Well, they "hum" a second fiddle in my particular "faith" heritage....

Then on to lunch at Red Lobster with George, Ben and other friends...thanks John & Jena for the treats! Who knew an Easter basket could have shrimp & salmon in it ;)

After I enjoyed my Easter basket from Mommy & Daddy, we all took a long nap. Daddy got up & pulled some weeds in the flower bed. Then we went over & talked to a neighbor, then dinner with a friend late Sunday evening. Chastity, thanks for holding me! I love making new friends.

Here's "hopping" everyone had a wonderful Easter. We should have a contest for the best caption capturing the expression on our tiny-headed bunny's face. The guy inside couldn't be any cooler, though. Thanks Mr. Paul.

Tune in later this week for pics from Mommy & Daddy's Bradley Class reunion, my 1,200 mile road trip to Indiana over Spring Break, including pics of me with my great-grandma, Gladys Kinder...I love her name. Oh yeah, and pics of me with: my Aunt Kimmie, Aunt Shellie, Uncle Brad, Great Aunt Debbie, Great Aunt Becky, Nay Nay, Grandman, Mimi, Sharon & Judy, Anthony, Andrew, Brielle & Hay Hay, and the whole Martin gang...all 8 of them. Then there's always my 2nd & 3rd cousins too....I'm enjoying learning all about my great big family.

Another First for Faith

Here's another first to share.... We made a quick trip to Baltimore last weekend (cool tunnel under the harbor) to pick up my new embroidery machine. (We bought the machine from ebay and met the seller at a McDonald's). We decided to grab a quick bite to eat before we headed home. As we were packing up, Murray exclaims..."Wow! this is Faith's first time at McDonald's. We gotta get a picture of this!" So without further ado, here is our sweet baby on her first trip to Mickey D's...

That was Jaime, this is Murray now...

Another 1st for Faith, her 1st 9 hour trip in the van going cross-country to see her great-grandmother, granparents, aunts, uncles & cousins...Pray for us & pray for Faith to sleep like the baby she is! We leave Sunday, April 9, right after church for our 1st road trip to Indy with little Faithers.

And since we brought up consumeristic "McDonald's" to you today on our blog, this quote from Dallas Willard, who is one of my favorite authors, couldn't be more ON regarding Christians become CONSUMERS in other things besides hamburgers & french fries...It's a convicting quote, which I aim at myself 1st of all. We must constantly remember what we're about so that we avoid the "customer service/consumeristic" mentality.

“Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer Christian is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it.”
(From The Divine Conspiracy, pp. 301, 342)

This quote appeared on my friend Mike Cope's blog www.preachermike.com and I'm thankful he brought it to his blog-community's attention.

National Cherry Blossom Festival

We had a fabulous day today! Windy, cool, but very sunny...the trees took quite a hit on Monday evening with the hail/high winds. This is our 3rd year in a row to go to the Festival, and this is the least amount of blooms we've seen. Fortunately, the ones that were blown off last night were all on the ground, so it was sort of a nice effect in a snowy sort of way. :)

I just have to say I love being with my wife & daugther. Suddenly, everything else in life pales in comparison to the love we have in our new little family, and the joy we have in spending time together.

The Cherry Blossoms are Blooming!

These pics were taken in the Kenwood neighborhood...I think it's in NW DC, but it may be actually Maryland or northern Virginia...can someone clear that up?

Anyway, the cherry blossom trees in this neighborhood are so spectacular. Thanks to my buddy Neal who told us about this enchanted, fairy-tale neighborhood.

We're headed to the official National Cherry Blossom Festival around the tidal basin tomorrow. Hopefully tonight's hail storm and high winds didn't make the trees shed their blossoms!

I'm finding less & less time to post lately. Faith is growing so much every day, and I don't want to sit at this silly computer & miss anything! She is talking so much now (no words, but she's communicating!...and she is smiling & reacting with so much personality. If I type "so" one more time, will someone please slap me so silly?)

Enjoy our pics of God's creation!

Mandisa's in the house

Ok, I'm sitting here on the couch, chilling after a great day off...spent all day with my beautiful little girl, Faith. (Nana & Aunt Melody, we loooove the stroller!) She is cuter than ever, and I actually wish she would just stay the size she is right now for a long time. She is so cuddly and perfect size for my arms. Jaime was able to come home for lunch today, which was awesome (she started back to work this week, part-time), and then she was home for good at 3:15 pm. So we got to spend some good time together as well. Faith's taking a quick snooze, and Jaime ran up to the store for some scrapbook supplies...and the only other thing on the couch is my Nilla wafers...

When all of a sudden, Mandisa, on American Idol, busts out with a TESTIMONY to God's power in her life with a song "I wanna praise you" by Mary, Mary. INCREDIBLE! The song was great, for what it is, and she's clearly a person of great faith and bubbly energy & vitality. But what's incredible is her ability to sing that song on a show like Idol, to go completely against the grain of Hollywood and boldly share her faith. Clearly, it wasn't what celebrity judges Randy & Simon were looking for (not surprisingly). Paula blurted out that a bunch a people are now converting to the church of Mandisa, to which Mandisa quickly shook her head (of which I was proud). It's safe to say that none of them really got it.

Ok, for the 1st time this season, I'm texting in a vote...and I'm voting for Mandisa. To this point, I was pulling for Chris D, who I still believe will win, but I'm so proud of Mandisa, and I know the Lord will bless her for her boldness. And I think Simon was dead wrong on Chris, Idol needs to be a lot less Pop-ish, and Chris' rock style is a welcome relief from popurbia.

Psalm 73:28 says "But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." Mandisa stood up and proclaimed God's goodness tonight, and it moved me.

My prediction: Bucky's going home. And Mandisa has a huge career ahead of her in gospel music.

Dallas Trip, Round 2

Here I am with all my cousins....it's fun being the only girl!
This is my cousin Bennett....he's so wonderful to me!
Here's my Granddad. He sings to me and reads me Bible stories.
This is my new friend Kennedy. She was a flower girl in my parents wedding.
This is my Aunt Darla. She bought me this cute outfit for my 1st trip to the park.
This is my Daddy with my Uncle Michael (don't they look alike!!) and cousins Stone and Sterling
Sterling is ready to hit the track with my Daddy.
My Uncle Brad is the greatest. He gave me that really cute pink cowgirl hat.
My Nana and Briggs (Aunt Mel & Bennett) all greeted me at the airport.
These are the WONDERFUL ladies my Mommy used to work with at The Shelton Speech Clinic.

Cool new book on Fatherhood / Faith's 3 mo pic

To all of my "new father" friends, I highly recommend Stephen James & David Thomas' new book, Becoming a Dad: A Spiritual, Emotional and Practical Guide.

Here's a great quote:

"Fatherhood calls us to acknowledge our heart and embrace the truth that lives within us all. Becoming a joy-filled father is about embracing the hope that relationships really can be good, full and rich. It is about entering into and leading our children toward an abundant life replete with pain and mystery. The priorities of joy-filled fathering must never be about doing more, learning more, acquiring more skills. Rather, our focus as godly men must remain about discovering a life of authenticity and abundance based in the person of Christ. It is about stepping into the mystery of being and living truthfully out of how we are uniquely and wonderfully made."

As Faith develops her little personality & begins to be more & more interactive, it's getting harder to leave her in the mornings! Say a prayer for Jaime, and all of us, as she prepares to head back to work part-time next week...Lord willing, she'll get to stay home for good once the school year is out.

Mocha Marble Macchiatos and Musings on Worship

It's Friday, thanks to a friend I've got a steaming Mocha Marble Macchiato (new at Starbucks) sitting by my computer, and life is good.

Here's a thought-provoking quote about worship from one of my favorite authors:

"It is absolutely essential that the church keep God as the subject of worship since to be Christian means to believe that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is everything to us - Creator, Provider, and Sustainer; Deliverer, Redeemer and Lord; Sanctifier, Inspirer and Empowerer.Friendship, instruction, and other aspects of the gathered community are important, but we lose our reason for being if we do not constantly remember that God has called us to be his people and our ability to respond to that call in worship and life is totally the gift of God's grace." Amen!

I like this quote because at various times we all forget what we're coming for week after week, and we sometimes turn into consumers..."I want this!" or "I want more of that!" And thankfully, with great relief, it's nice to know...it's not about us. Thank you Marva Dawn, for your marvelous book "Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn of the Century Culture".

and a little more about the meaning of the word...

"The word worship comes from the Old English roots weorth, meaning "honor" and "worthiness," and scipe, signifying "to create.""

Have a great weekend, and if you want EXTRA worship, join us at the ARLINGTON Church of Christ for a night of praise, beginning tomorrow night at 6:30 pm. www.acocfamily.org

Pics from our Trip to Dallas