Happy Birthday, Adyson Ruth!

A year ago, on August 30, little Adyson Ruth Willcutts was born at 6:09AM. She weighed 8lbs and 13 ounces. She was pretty sick with an infection when she was first born, so she spent the next four days in the NICU recovering. By God's grace, she healed very quickly, and we were on our way home.

Shortly after being born, the pediatrician discovered that she had Hip Dysplasia, and that she needed to see a specialist right away. Over the next 3 months, she had to wear a special harnass to correct her loose hip joints. Again, by God's grace, this was corrected, and she is doing great!

Ady is such a blessing to Scott and me, and we can't imagine life without her. She laughs and smiles all the time, and she loves people. She loves to crawl and play with her toys, and she especially loves her pets Izzy and Charlie. This year has been full of adventures, but we have gotten to see God's amazing grace and His hand in our lives as we've started this journey of parenthood. Our prayer is that Ady will continue to grow in stature and health, but that she would also grow to have a tender heart toward the Gospel. We can hardly wait to see what will happen in this next year!

Here are her 1 year old pictures:

We love you, Doodle! Happy Birthday!

This weekend we had a birthday party in Loveland for Adyson. Thank you to all of the friends and family who came! What a blessing it is to Scott and me to have so much love and support as we raise Adyson. You were all so generous, and you made her birthday so special! We had so much fun! Here are some pictures from her birthday party. (I'll post another blog with more pictures next time.)

Waiting for birthday cake in her special Birthday hat!

Ahhh! The first taste! Mommy made this birthday cake.

Needless to say, Ady loved her birthday cake! She was so excited!

One of my favorite moments: Ady sharing cake with her cousin Azureya. She wiped it in her face! It was so cute!

One other favorite moment was when we all had just finished singing "Happy Birthday", Ady clapped really animatedly. I think she wanted us to sing it to her again! It was precious.

I will write one more blog hopefully tomorrow with some more pictures and stories so stay tuned!

Have a great day!

love,
me

Small and Random Update

Hello Readers!

I just thought I would write a little blog update for you since it has been a while. I hope this finds you well indeed.

Adyson's first birthday is coming up next weekend! It is hard to believe that she is already a year old! I will post an official birthday blog on her birthday, so keep posted for more on that subject. For her birthday, Scott and I got her a hiking pack from REI. We wanted to get her something that she would enjoy but that we also needed. It is called a "Piggyback". Pretty creative. Well, we tried it out this weekend because we couldn't stand waiting till her official birthday. It was so much fun! We went for a few walks with her in it. She wasn't sure about it at first, but while on her first ride in it this is what happened: (see pic below)

She was completely zonked out! The little sheep behind her head is named "Snowficient", and he did a good job supporting her head from getting knocked around while she slept. What a little doll baby she is! I expect many good times to come with this backpack.

On another subject, my little garden this year has actually produced a few veggies. I am sad to report that my pepper plants, cucumbers, and squash plants, however, did not do too well. I don't know if that is because of the weather or if it is because Charlie kept eating the "fruit" off of them. It's all good, though! I have several carrots that are growing quite nicely, lots of lettuce, and believe it or not several tomatoes! Who knew that I could grow a semi-successful garden in some file cabnits?

Below is a picture of my tomatoes. The plants look pretty sad, but they are providing pretty nicely! Dont they look like traffic lights?

And lastly, we took some pictures of the family this weekend, and I wanted to give you a preview. We took our own to save money, but I am pretty pleased with the results. I'll post more later.

Hope you all have a great week!

More to come soon.

Check out little ady's curls at the end of her hair? She's so cute! Scott is quite the hunk, too.. WOW!

My Helpers in the Kitchen

I had some BIG help while doing the dishes yesterday, and I thought I should share some pictures of my volunteers. If the pictures are blurry it's because I was giggling so hard that the camera kept shaking.

Charlie always helps "rinse" the dishes before I put them in the dishwasher to be cleaned. Ady decided that she wanted to help too, so she crawled into the kitchen and started helping. Keep in mind that this plate had left-over steak on it. Charlie just scooted over to let her have some. They are such good buddies. Gross!

Ah, yes! Now they are truly working like a team. "You rinse them, Charlie, and I'll load them."

Such a big help!

After all that hard work and getting rinsed off in the kitchen sink, Ady crawled over to the oven and was looking at the reflection in the glass. She decided to give the oven some love. In this picture she is giving it kisses.

When I asked her what she was doing (kissing the oven), this is the face I got! What a cutie! How about those pigtails, too? Little pixie sticks!

I Belong

I woke up this morning feeling a little blue. I think it was from a dream I had last night that reminded me of some heartache from several years ago, and I have been kindof in a funk all morning. I hate waking up and doubting the life God's given me and doubting His plans in my life. I knew that the best thing for me would be to grab my Bible and remind myself of some encouraging things God's Word says. As I was reading through some selected passages, one verse in particular stuck out to me and encouraged me. It has warmed my heart with hope and peace, and I thought I would share it.

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

What a wonderful reminder that I can conquer the struggles and trials in my life through the strength of Jesus. There is such hope found in the promise of knowing that I belong to Him and nothing can seperate me from His love -Not even my broken dreams, my weaknesses, and my failures. Oh how gracious of a God we have.

I love the lyrics to this song called, "I Belong" by Katherine Scott

Not angels, nor demons, no power on earth or heaven
Not distance, nor danger, no trouble now or ever

Nothing can take me from Your great love
Forever this truth remains:
I belong, I belong to You

Not hardship, nor hunger, no pain or depth of sorrow
Not weakness, nor failure, no broken dream or promise

Nothing can take me from Your great love
Forever this truth remains:
I belong, I belong to You

Click on this link to hear it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg9TchaiOck

Satisfy me, Lord of all. Satisfy me and help me to see that all I want and all I need is in You. Satisfy me that I can praise Your name and bring You glory today. I am Yours.