Seek.Find.Love

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Maddox has a best friend he carries with him everywhere. He hugs him, plays with him, snuggles with him, and he is a must have when its time for a nap or bed time. Who is this mystery friend....well it is Raffie of course!!!

Our giraffe/blanket!!! If you ask Maddox "Where's Raffie" he will look up at you, put his arms out to his side, shrugs his shoulders, as if to say "I don't know" and fervently search for his cuddle buddy. Now, I know I have mentioned this bond before, but the Lord has shown me something amazing through our little friend Raffie....."If you seek me, you will find me....."

I often wander through life asking "Where's God" I put my arms out to my side, shurg my shoulders as if to say "I don't know" and then I leave it at that. I continue on my way, never stopping to seek Him and find Him. He has promised us that if we seek Him, we will find Him (Just like Maddox does with Raffie, he searches until he finds where he left him....coincidentally, it was Maddox who moved Raffie; Raffie did not move away from Maddox.....just like it is with God....I am the one that has moved, put God aside to "play" with something else, all the while He remains the same)

While we were at church on Sunday, we sang a song that said

"The more you seek me, the more you find Me. The more you find Me the more you love Me."

What a simple concept. Seek. Find. Love!

Happy Birthday Uncle J

Happy birthday to my big brother, Jason! Oh I could write a book about this man, he is simply amazing to say the least. He is the best big brother a girl could ever ask for. Don't get me wrong, we had our fair share of fighting when we were younger (mostly because I was a pesky younger sister and I initiated almost every argument...sorry brother) but he was always so kind and caring for me. He always looked out for me and was just a great influence on me. One of my favorite memories of Jason when I was younger was being able to see in his room in the morning time and I could see him sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed, his bible open, having his "quiet time" with the Lord. Oh what an amazing influence that had on me. He showed me what it was like to have a real relationship with Jesus and I am in awe everyday at the love he has for our Savior. I have been so proud of him, watching him become a father. He is such a natural at it. So calm and willing to do what ever is needed to help Kameron out with Mollie.

Happy birthday Jason. You are an amazing man and I am so proud to have you as my big brother!

Jason and Kameron holding Maddox for the first time!!

The Joy of the Lord

Today has been a wonderful day!! We started the morning off by stopping by Chick-fil-A for FREE breakfast...Yummy!!! Brad was not able to come home for lunch today; therefore, we made plans to meet up with my mom...we went to Chili's and overall we had a good time, although Maddox was not nearly as patient as I had hoped for. We came home to settle in for a good afternoon nap (fingers crossed for that one) and much to my surprise, Maddox napped for two hours and 15 minutes (thus, providing me time to clean out our closet and catch up on laundry) My favorite part of the day was after nap time...it is usually anyones guess on what mood the Madd-man will be in when he initially wakes up from his nap, and today, he was in a GREAT mood. He just giggled and smiled when I got him out of his crib...he played in the living room for a while and was just so much fun to play with!! He sat on the couch with me and cuddled and hugged me!!! (yes, my son, Maddox, the captain of high energy, never stopping, never sitting still and certainly never hugging actually sat still on the couch and just hugged me!!! Completely melted my heart) We then proceeded to bath time. He loved his bath as usual. I have been teaching him to put all his bath toys up before he gets out of the bath, well tonight, he started putting them all up without me helping him! It was so fun to watch him and the pride he had knowing he was doing it all by himself!!! The evening was coming to an end as we prepared for bed time! He snuggled with me as I rocked, read and sang to him. When I was putting him in his crib he just looked up at me and giggled! Oh what a glorious day!!! I wanted to write about it so I could look back and remember the JOY I have today!!! I know Joy comes from the Lord and I am so thankful He showed me HIS Joy today!!!

On a very serious note, you will see on the right side of this blog, the box for MckMiracle....this precious baby boy was born after all his doctors said he would most surely die in the womb because of heart failure. When he was born, there was NO sign of heart failure at all; however, this week his heart began to struggle and now it is very serious and life threatening. Please pray for this family. You can click on that box and it will take you to their blog!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wee!!

Who me?? I didn't do anything....

He is getting so big!! Where has our baby gone??

So, do you like my hair?? How about a drink of this delicious bath water??

Maddox enjoying some music with Daddy's new head phones!! (yes, he has his rock fist up and everything!!)

A video for Grandmom....

"Maddox, can you blow Grandmom a kiss?"

Watch Your Back

I have learned the past few months how important it is to always be on the look out. Since becoming a mother I try to be more aware of our surroundings, who is around, etc. Brad has always emphasized how important it is to "watch my back" Well, these past few months have definitely proven him right and I am so thankful I was able to be aware of some somewhat "sticky" situations and protect Maddox and myself.

About two months ago I was at Wal-Mart getting groceries with Maddox. It was about 9am and I got us unloaded and proceeded to enter the dreaded Wal-Mart. I noticed a man walking behind us, but I didn't think too much about it. I began shopping, starting with the produce area and noticed the same man shopping the produce as well. I went on the frozen foods, cereal, meat, dairy and the same man was right where we were. I decided to see if it was just "coincidence" so I walked over to the feminine isle...I mean seriously, how many men do you see over there on a given day....well, same man was right on my heals. I was concerned at this point, but I remained calm and took my groceries to check out and get us out of there. As I was checking out I could not locate the man and thought everything was fine....well I was wrong. As I exited the store, I noticed the man walking behind me, I thought to myself "I am not about to load my groceries in the car, with Maddox and a weird guy"....so, I turned around and walked back into Wal-mart and asked the greeter if I could speak to someone in security because I wanted as escort to my car. Security came and asked what the problem was, I told them I felt like I was being followed by a man and they asked if I could still see him. I pointed him out in the parking lot, and they immediately said "Oh no, not him again." Apparently they have had issues with this man and they arrested him right there on the spot. FREAKY!!! My groceries were loaded and I got the heck out of there!!!

Everything was fine, just freaky....well then we had another incident.....

In my previous post I mentioned we has a scary incident at a local park....well here is the full story....I took Maddox to a park close to our neighborhood (it is a park that sits within a neighborhood and it has great little kid slides). We arrived at the park around 10am and Maddox and I were enjoying the slides and the park to ourselves. The playground sits in the middle of lot of grass....you park on the street because there is not a parking lot....like I mentioned, it is in the middle of a neighborhood. We were playing and I noticed a black Ford Focus driving by and slowing down near where we had parked, it looked as though he was going to park the car when I noticed he was no longer on the street but had hopped the curb and was cruising towards the playground IN his car. I swooped up Maddox and reached for my phone in my pocket. I thought "what the heck is this guy doing...there could be kids running around and he is DRIVING on the grass and getting freakishly close to the playground" (He was close enough I could see in his car and saw that it was a man, probably in his late 50s alone) I immediately took off to our car...watching behind us as we walked briskly as to not cause too much of a scene. I got to the car, climbed in with Maddox and locked the doors. I could still see the man, in his car lurking by the playground. I got my phone out to call 911 and decided it was better to just get out of there because I had no idea what was going on. When I put the car in drive, I took one last look at the playground and the black Ford Focus was no longer there.....very strange and my heart was now pounding because I do not know how close we were to danger, or if he was just a weird guy driving on some grass, but I certainly was not about to stay with my 14 month old son to figure it out. Needless to say, we are all fine, it wasn't anything too serious, just makes you aware of your surroundings and I won't be going to any parks without my mom or Brad (just to be safe)

I hesitated posting about this because I don't want to come across as a drama queen or someone who is paranoid, but the more I thought about it, the more I realize other moms read this blog and I just think we all need a little paranoia in our lives to keep us as safe as possible.

Here are some pics of Maddox playing in the back yard!!!

Back in the Swing of Things

Well we are off to a good start for a new week (although I would love to be on vacation with my hubby again this week, I suppose the real world isn't so bad after all)

We had a great weekend...we decided to get a swing for the back yard for the Madd-man so we could play at the house more during the day and not go so many places alone (for those of you who don't know I had a VERY scary incident at a local park)

Maddox LOVES the new swing....really, should that surprise any of us...we are in fact talking about the little boy who slept IN a swing until he was 6 months old...

And the same little boy who tilts his head back and squeals with glee when we take him to the park to swing....

Maddox in fact loves the swing in the back yard so much when he looks at it he says "WEE" (oh just a funny fact about the Madd-man...when he babbles, he babbles in a higher pitched, baby voice, but when he says "cracker" or "wee" he says it with no expression and in a deeper voice...it cracks us up!!!)

Well I hope your week is off to "full swing" and you are enjoying the journey we call life!!

We're Back

We're back from vacation and slowly reentering into the "real" world. We had such a wonderful and relaxing time as a family of three. We left Sunday morning after we fed Maddox his breakfast and arrived in Ruidoso around 1pm (we stopped at the Bottomless Lakes State Park ate our lunch and let Maddox run around for a while)

We stayed at the Inn of the Mountain Gods.....oh my goodness, it was so beautiful. The view was gorgeous. Brad and I were talking this evening, and we both agreed our favorite part about the trip was the ability to not have a schedule we had to go by. We could go wherever, whenever, and however it best suit what we needed for Maddox or ourselves.

The view from our balcony

The boys enjoying a snack

For those of you who don't know, last week was a very trying week for me with Maddox. He is at a stage where he is testing ALL the boundaries, screaming when he doesn't get his way; thus making life in the Voda house exhausting and patience very thin. I was weary of the vacation, staying in hotel and the 5 hour drive; however, everything went beautifully. Sure, Maddox had a few times when he wanted to "make sure" we really meant he couldn't do certain things, but over all he was a complete joy....he slept great, eat great, laughed, talked and played as hard as he could.

(This picture here is for my Malone family....yes, we ate at Pizza Hut while we were there!!!)