I’ve also been to Israel and back since the last post. What a wonderful opportunity to see the Holy Land! Maybe I can post something on it later, but all I can say is that it was the trip of a lifetime. I’ll never read my Bible the same again. When you get over there and see where all the stories took place it brings everything to life. One lesson that stands out is how practical Jesus was in his teaching. If you read the Biblical passage standing where He would have delivered the message, you see how He used the world around Him as the illustrations for His teaching. It’s a great lesson for all teachers of the Bible to apply.

We’ve also moved closer to our goal of church planting. As many of you know, we are planning on starting a church in the Raleigh, NC area. Currently I am looking more specifically at a suburb outside of Raleigh called Knightdale. With the completion of a new section of the I-540 bypass around Raleigh, this sleepy little town has been the location of a massive influx of people. In fact, the Raleigh area as a whole has exploded. There are 167,000 people projected to move into the area between 2008-2014. This massive growth, combined with a general lostness makes Raleigh a prime spot for a church plant. Knightdale itself has grown 69.9% since 1990. It has attracted my attention not just because of the growth, but because no other church planters have been going there. In other news, about a month ago Jenny and I had our church planting assessment. This was a huge step to go through. With the completion of the assessment, we have the green light to continue through the planting process. As more developments arise, I’ll keep you posted, but continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek the Lord’s will for future ministry.

Lastly, I want to invite all of you to be a part of our prayer network. I know many of my readers are already on my e-mail list, but we need more. Prayer is the fuel for the journey! Without prayer we could do nothing! I will be sending out prayer updates about every other week unless an urgent need arises. I would like to ask all of you to pray for us at least once a week. If you would like to get our prayer e-mail click here to send me a message. You can also follow me on facebook or twitter. I update both of these daily, and you’ll be able to stay up to date with me there.

Josh is almost 20 months old…hard to believe our “baby” boy will be two in December.  He is such a delight – learning new words every day, understanding most of what we tell him.  Nathan and I have really enjoyed having a newborn and a toddler.  Hannah is sweet and cuddly, and Josh provides the entertainment.  He does his fair share of cuddling, too, though.  Josh has begun telling us when he’s ready for bed.  We spent last week in Virginia with Nathan’s family, and Josh got to play with his older cousin Olivia.  They wore each other out, and one morning, upon hearing me say that Hannah needed a nap, Josh ran upstairs to his bed and asked to lay down.  Ever since then, he says “nap” or “bed” or “night night” when he’s tired.  Nap time and bed time have always been fairly easy with Josh, but now it’s a cinch!  Another sweet story about my boy – we’ve been trying to work on first time obedience with Josh – the idea that delayed obedience is disobedience.  Up until now I’ve not been sure how much he understands about cause and effect or about the language I use when correcting him.  I mean, I know he understands a ton, but I wasn’t sure how much information to hold him responsible for.  Anyways, tonight, before bath time I asked him to clean up his toys.  He shook his head no and tried to run to the bath room.  I walked him back to the living room and instructed him to put his toys in the toy basket.  This started a temper tantrum complete with screaming, etc.  I grabbed his hands and walked him to the first toy and picked it up with him and we “together” carried it to the basket and dropped it in.  More screaming, more crying.  I told him he needed to obey Mommy and clean up.  Screaming, crying, etc.  As I tried to lead him to the next toy, very loud screaming.  I knew he understood the command to “clean up” as he frequently sings the clean up song while picking up his toys.  So I carried him to his room and explained that he needed to obey Mommy, but since he’d refused, he could lay on his bed until he was ready to try again.  I closed the door and waited outside.  After a few minutes of screaming and him trying to open the door, he quieted down and started saying “bey, bey” which is his version of “obey.”  So I went in and asked if he was ready to obey Mommy.  He grabbed his lovey and blanket from his bed, I carried him upstairs, and he immediately picked up the remaining toys and cleaned up.  I cheered for him, hugged and kissed him, and then he had his bath before bed.  What a sweetie!  And how good of God to reassure this mommy that my efforts are worth it. Whew – that was a long story!  Hope you’re not bored.

Well, my baby girl just woke up, so this mama is going to run check on her girl.

New Blog: www.nathankmiller.com

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Florida with lots of family! Josh really enjoyed being in a new place with lots of yummy food, people to play with, and several dogs to chase. He was a trooper on the long car rides to and from Florida, but we are all happy to be home again. We are looking forward to going to Virginia for Christmas – it will be his first trip to Roanoke where Peepaw and Meemaw live. And he’ll get to see his cousins Olivia and Michael!

In other family news, Josh is going to be a big brother – SURPRISE!! Many of you may already know, but baby #2 is due June 26, and we are all excited. I’ve felt great so far, and this pregnancy seems to be flying by very quickly since I have someone to chase after all day.

Josh will go for his one-year check up on Monday, and we’ll try to post some stats and recent photos then (including birthday bash photos). I think I hear Josh shredding something in the next room, so I better end this post for now. I sure love being Mommy to Joshua David!!

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Yes, he opened the pantry doors himself and began rolling pickle jars around on the floor.

Don’t worry, Mommy washed his hands right after snapping this photo!

Josh LOVES to walk around this glass table and play with the magazines (which are a “no”).

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This is my favorite. He was crawling around the kitchen last night and found himself under this chair. He is so good at pulling himself up, so he decided to stand up – then realized he was trapped. Then Mommy insisted on leaving him there to catch it on the camera. Poor little boy!

I love this one, too. I’m not sure who/what he was looking at, but he was captivated.

This diaper box gave him more fun than I would have imagined!

Watching the Georgia game (the Gators had the week off) with Daddy.

We’ll be visiting Florida next weekend, then Raleigh the following weekend. If you’re in one of those places, we look forward to seeing you!

Nathan’s parents came to visit in August, and we all had a blast together! My youngest sister, Megan, was home for a few weeks, so she got to go with all of us to the World of Coke. It was so much more fun that I imagined! Even Josh loved it – he went more than 8 hours without sleep, but was hardly fussy at all. Nathan’s parents also took us to the Georgia Aquarium, and Josh LOVED seeing all the fish and penguins and other animals in the water. How fun it is to experience things with him for the first time. His expressions and noises at the aquarium were hilarious! This past weekend we joined my parents, Megan, and lots of other family from Florida at the Stone Mountain Campground. What a relaxing weekend we had! Of course Josh loved all the attention from his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, but today he’s back to real life. Auntie Megan flew to NY yesterday, and it’s not quite the same without her, but we’re excited that we’ll get to see her (and possibly Aunt Leslie, too) in a few weeks.

Also in the last two months, several of my girlfriends have had babies. In fact, Josh has a new cousin, little Christopher Michael, who we hope to meet soon! Nathan’s parents brought pictures to show us when they visited, but it still will be much better to get to see and hold the little guy for ourselves. When we get to visit Michael, it will be fun to see Josh with his other cousin, Olivia (Michael’s big sis), who is about 20 months old.

Josh is very good at getting around the house now with his “army crawl.” He doesn’t usually crawl on all fours (although he has made it a few paces like that), but prefers to use one arm to drag his body behind. He’s taken as many as three steps by himself before falling, and can stand up for quite a while on his own. He’s now eating almost everything we eat, and it’s nice to be able to give him table foods. He understands what “no” means, and usually stops what he’s doing when we tell him no. He laughs and smiles easily, and has also started saying “dada” this week. How precious! He prefers men to women, and will choose his daddy over anyone else. I’m thankful he has a wonderful, godly daddy to look up to and follow after.

Well, I hope that catches you up. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be able to post the photos to go along with the post.

Tonight after dinner Nathan and I were indulging in ice cream cones, and Josh felt a little left out. Since it was almost bath time we decided to give him a little treat of his own to entertain him – a biter biscuit. We set him on his own blanket, gave him his little biscuit, and we all watched America’s Funniest Videos together. Such fun. As you can see in the picture, Josh really enjoyed his snack.

Josh is sitting up on his own really well these days, and while he still hasn’t crawled, he likes to walk with our help (especially when a kitty is in front of him). We thought a push and ride toy might help him out with that, and we found a John Deere Tractor this afternoon that our little guy seems to love. He can push it. He can ride it. He can even sit next to it and play with the farm animals inside. Maybe one day his Pawpaw can take him on a tractor ride.

In other family news, Nathan’s new job has been going well. He works for a printing and mailing outsource company called Data Media Associates, and he’s been enjoying the job so far. He had the 4th off, so we’ve enjoyed a nice long weekend as a family. We are so grateful to God for His faithfulness in providing for our needs!

This morning was especially fun because Cub (our cat) noticed the light. Of course, he loves to chase things, and he proceeded to chase the light that Josh was moving. I attempted to show Josh that if he moved the mirror with Cub watching it, then Cub would chase it. However, Josh was just as happy to watch Cub rather than teasing him. Maybe another day!!