Joshua Likes His New Outfit!

Two Songs of the Day

Children of the Heavenly Father

Children of the heavenly Father, safely in His bosom gather; nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge e'er was given,

God his own doth tend and nourish, in His holy courts they flourish; from all evil things He spares them, in His mighty arms He bears them,

Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord His children sever; unto them His grace he showeth, and their sorrows all He knoweth,

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers, your protector never slumbers; at the will of your defender, every foeman must surrender,

Though He giveth or He taketh, God His children never forsaketh; His the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy;

More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Savior; not yon star on high abiding nor the bird in home-nesting hiding.

Sounds Like Life To Me

(Note: We do not believe everything in this song!)

Got a call last night from an old friends wife, said, I hate to bother you

But Johnny Ray fell off the wagon, hed been gone all afternoon

Well, I know my buddy, so I drove to Scullys and found him at the bar

Said, Hey Man, whats goin on, He said, I dont know where to start

Sarah's old car is about to fall apart and the washer quit last week

We had to put Mama in the nursing home and the baby's cuttin teeth

I didn't get much work this week and I got bills to pay

I said, I know this aint what you wanna hear but its what I'm gonna say

Sounds like life to me, it aint no fantasy

It just a common case of everyday reality

Man, I know its tough but you gotta suck it up

To hear you talk you're caught up in some tragedy

It sounds like life to me

Well, his face turned red and he shook his head

He said, you don't understand, three kids and a wife depend on me

And I'm just one man, top it off we just found out Sarah is two months late

I said, Hey, bartender, set us up a round, we need celebrate

Sounds like life to me, aint no destiny

Yeah, the only thing for certain is uncertainty

You gotta hold on tight, just enjoy the ride

Get used to all this unpredictability, sounds like life

Man, I know its tough but you gotta suck it up

To hear you talk you're caught up in some tragedy

Sounds like life to me

 

 We thank the Lord everyday for His rich mercies and carrying us through our trials in life, and thankful for another day to live to worship and serve Him!  We certain do not deserve His forgiveness!  

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Happy 26th birthday my love, my husband, my protector, and my friend!

May God bless you today and always! May He also give you wisdom and guidance in your daily activity at work, and in guiding this family to further seek and worship the Lord!

I love you Daniel!!

Everything Has Its Time

As I am sitting here pondering about my life, there is a certain scripture that the Lord brought to my heart.  Nothing I have not read before, but one that is there to remind over and over again that everything has its own season!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones. and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace. 

Joshua in the Car

Joshua's Very First Steps!

Enjoy Joshua's very first steps!  We are blessed to see our son go through his stages of life!

(Note: The blanket in the background is covering all the clothes that Joshua has grown out of! )

Joshua Playing

This video was taken this evening.  Joshua was in such a playful mood, so we decided to video tape him!!  He is so cute playing with his ball!    

Joshua 's Gift From Grandpa and Grandma McDonald

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the gift!!  Joshua loves playing with it!

Joshua and His Cake

Daniel and I thought that Joshua would dig right into his cake, but to our surprise...Joshua really did not want to touch it!  Enjoy the video! 

Our Home

Enjoy the walk through!

I (Christa) Am Blessed!

God had laid on my heart this past week/weekend of how blessed I am to have two such wonderful parents!  They have been through my tough times and my happy times.  My Dad has always been there when I needed him the most, and encouraged me in anyway and backed up his word/teaching with scripture!  My Mom has always been an example of a submissive wife, and through her, God has taught me to be submissive to my husband!  My Mom has also been there for me, even if it was really late at night, she would sit and listen to me pour my heart out to her.  Together, they have showed me the ways of the Lord.  Yes, I am blessed to have James and Stacy McDonald for my parents!

Thank you Dad and Mom for being there for me!  I love you two!!

Joshua's Cake

This is Joshua's personal cake. 

And this is the "BIG" version!!

We will have more birthday photo's up soon!

Happy 1st Birthday Joshua!!

It was a year ago today, that we enter into our very first labor.  We had waited nine months for that day, and it is hard to believe that it has been a year!  After a wonderful birth experience, we were able to look on the face of our child,  Joshua James Gregory for the first time!  Since then, Joshua has been a joy to our family, and adds plenty of laughter!  We continue to pray, that God would bless our son, and may he one day come to know our Lord!  

Happy 1st Birthday Joshua!  Daddy and Mommy love you!

We are are officially settled into our new home/apartment!  We are adjusting to this place very well.  Now that everything seems to be in its place and all the boxes have been out of the house for two weeks now, I am trying to get pictures, but I can not remember where I put the camera cable to download the pictures!  So, once I remember, I will post the pictures up soon! 

 Joshua really like this place!  So many new things to explore!  He likes the balcony, and the stairs.  Even though we have a gate, he just like to stand holding on the to the gate, and just look at the stairs!  So far, he has not been interested in the fireplace just yet!  It is hard to think, my little guy will be a year old next weekend! :-(   Here are the things he is doing:

   Army Crawling

   He LOVES baths!  Anytime of the day, he goes into the bathroom and heads straight for the tub, and talks to the the tub, and jumps up and down wanting to get in.  He does not like it when Mommy says "Not right now, but later tonight"

   Says "Dada" and "Nana" (I am "Nana" and only when he is crying!)

   Loves reading a book, and he likes reading to himself too!

   He talks a lot and holds a nice conversation with Daddy and Mommy (although, you really do not understand what he says, but he is so cute!)

   He laughs, giggles, and claps often

   He likes to take the couch pillows and pulls them on the floor and crawl over them!

   He is not walking just yet.  He does not seem too interested in it.  He likes to hold your hands and walk, but after a few seconds he wants to crawl.

   He still loves to cuddle too!

We will get the pictures up soon!  The picture above was taken off of Daniel's phone on the day of our move!

  

I know, I said that we would probably not be blogging until we moved, but my mind is too busy thinking of everything at one time, that I am not able to sleep.

We are almost done packing.  I think I would be done, if I did not have a little one crawling everywhere, or pulling things that I have just packed out of boxes!  Ah, the joys of packing with a little one.

Speaking of the little one...Joshua has been content with crawling to get from one place to another, despite the carpet burns, and has had no interest in walking.  Yes, he enjoys pulling himself up, but he will not try to walk to Daddy or Mommy.  He is also still figuring out how to stand on his own(even if we stand him up)  But, he has found a new interest.  Grandpa and Grandma McDonald gave him a walking toy.  He has just figured out what this toy is meant for, and now he knows how to use it.  You just might find him walking into walls, the piano, and the trash can!  Below is a video that was taking last night.  "Thank you" Dad and Mom for this gift!

Just a Quick Note

We will be taking a little time away from our blog, so that we may concentrate on our upcoming move.  We will be moving into a new apartment next week.  For those who would like our new address please email me at: crucifiedwithchrist84@gmail.com.

Things Joshua is Doing

This is a video of everything that Joshua is doing lately.

Our New Year's Letter

Greetings from the Daniel Blanchard household! Seems like yesterday we where celebrating the new year of 2008 with the McDonald clan in IL, and now we are in 2009!

Where do we start with regards to this past year and all of the blessings that we have enjoyed?

Perhaps we can start with the small blessings of Joshua James Gregory Blanchard. We welcomed our first born child into this world on February 28. He weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces and 18 inches. We are amazed at the speed that he is growing, in just the past few months he has been getting around more and of course getting into everything, but we wouldn't trade him for the world, he is our little blessing. God has tried our trust on him by allowing Joshua to experience some seizures, for which the doctors couldn't find anything wrong, for the past few months he has not had any seizures, and God willing will not have them again. Beside those small trials, Joshua continues to add joy and laughter to each day in our home. His favorite thing to do right now is clicking his tongue. He is starting to walk from one thing to another, as long as he has something to hold onto.

Daniel is still working with Hunt Construction on the same Project that he started last year, Collin County Community College. He still has another twelve months to work on this project. They are building four new items for the College, a new parking garage, renovations and additions to the existing campus buildings, the construction of a new library, and also a small clock tower. In addition to working for Hunt, he is also trying to start a CPR/First Aid training business. Nothing has happened at this point, but the Lord is good and hopefully he will bless our endeavors to praise Him in our work.

Christa continues to enjoy keeping house, and delighting that Joshua was added to the family. On top of keeping house, she loves taking care of Daniel and Joshua. Christa spends her days playing with Joshua and fellow-shipping with like-minded women and young ladies in the new church. She just started teaching voice lessons

This new year is already proving to be exciting and busy. Our year starts with a very short move to another apartment at the end of January. We also will be celebrating Joshua's first birthday at the end of February. Another exciting aspect to our lives is some of us are going to be doing some of the Homeschool conferences this year and will be staffing a booth for Greathall Productions for our good friends Jim and Randy Weiss. Hopefully we will see some of y'all at one of the nine conferences we will be attending.

Looking into the new year with earnest expectation of the grace of God. We thankfully acknowledge that the Lord has richly blessed our family in many ways this past year and we pray that He will bless all of our friends in this new year.



Happy New Year!

Blessings
Daniel and Christa Blanchard
(Joshua too!!)