Another little Roberson is on the way!!

Howdy friends. :) So....it's been 6 months I think since I've posted! I thought now would be the perfect occasion to pick the blog back up! 


Well..the big news (as most of you probably already know) is that I'm pregnant! I'm almost 14 weeks now, and honestly I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by. I realized I so diligently posted each week of Jackson's pregnancy, and I want to do the same with this sweet baby. I think it'll be fun to chronicle the similarities and differences. But before I talk about the difference/similarities so far...let me share the story of how and when we found out I was pregnant. 


The truth is, we had been trying for many months to get pregnant with this sweet baby. Although it had been several tries, I (thankfully) wasn't at the point of utter hopeless or frustration. As anyone who has tried for any amount of time to get pregnant knows, it's a journey. It's a faith journey really. It's recognizing that you can do all you can do, but ultimately God has to perform a miracle. And His timing is perfect, and it can't be rushed. So thankfully, in February, we got another miracle. 


I had been so very sick for a few days. I had a fever, and was on the couch. I didn't want to take any medicine because I knew there was a chance I could be pregnant. By the 4th day I had started to feel better, and that night for whatever reason, I wanted steak SO badly! I thought it had to be because my iron was low or something because I had been sick.  I talked Adam into going to get me steak nachos as like 9:30 that night. AND they were AMAZING. That should have been my first clue, but it wasn't. Then a few days later, I woke up that morning and just knew. I had the same thing happen with Jackson. I woke up on a Sunday morning with him and just knew. And this time, I woke up on a Wednesday morning and just knew. It's strange how that happens, ya know. We can buy millions of pregnancy tests hoping and praying they come out positive, but when we actually get pregnant, we don't even need one. Or I didn't anyway. I totally, absolutely just knew. That afternoon I took a pregnancy test to confirm, and while Jackson was eating lunch, I read a clear "positive" sign on the test.


I was overwhelmed and cried, and was so excited. I ran into the kitchen swooped Jackson up, danced him around and told him he was a big brother! I immediately tried to come up with a creative way to tell Adam, but that plan was thrown out the window immediately when Adam got home. I couldn't hold it in. I was sitting on the couch with Jackson, and he walked in, sat down with us, kissed me, and asked how my day was. I just started crying. I was so overcome with thankfulness and excitement, so my creative plan became a simple, "I'm pregnant", which was creative enough for Adam. :) He was so excited! 


That was February 8th. About 10 weeks ago! I can't believe that much time has passed! whew!  

I thought it would be fun to show a current belly shot, and the pic from Jackson's pregnancy at the same week. You can tell that I'm showing slightly more this go around (and my belly expands even more by the end of the day). Here I am at almost 14 weeks...the current shot is on the left, the one with Jackson is on the right. 

So far, this pregnancy has been as care-free as Jackson's. I haven't gotten sick, or had any super crazy cravings. I did crave steak for a few days at first (counting the steak I wanted before I knew I was pregnant). And I've craved coke with this one just like with Jackson. And chick-fila haha... One difference is that I've been waaay more tired, and instead of waking up at 5 am hungry with Jackson, I've been more hungry in the afternoons. Well, actually I've been more hungry in general with this one- a lot more hungry. And I've had more heartburn.

But other than that, it's been very very easy. I'm actually super excited to know the gender because I think it will make it more real for us! We find out in about 4 weeks what the baby is, and I absolutely cannot wait. We don't have names yet, but I think this time we are going to wait to know the gender before we decide. 

As far as what Jackson knows...well he knows there is a baby in mommy's tummy, and he prays for baby when he says his prayers. But he obviously doesn't really know what's happening. But I look forward to watching him learn and grow and realize that he is going to be a big brother! 

We are so so thankful that God has blessed us with another sweet child, and I am so thankful that I get to do what I know I was created to do-be a wife and mommy. So it makes my heart swell with joy to see our family grow. Most of you prayed with us through Jackson's pregnancy, so if you are reading this, I ask you to please pray with us through this pregnancy as well. I can't wait to meet this sweet baby!

~Monica

The past few weeks...

So....thought I'd update you all on what we have been up to at the Roberson household for the past few weeks..

• My awesome husband and I went on a date to get Sushi. We LOVE sushi. Especially deep friend and drizzled in a sweet soy sauce glaze....yumm!

• I had a bit of a sore throat about a week ago. Thankfully we are friends with a doctor in town, and he lets us come in the back door. He gave me some medicine for my throat...and he gave Jackson this:

Right after we left the doctor, I had to run in to a store and pick up something. When I went to get Jackson out of the car, he started freaking out. Naturally, I thought he just didn't want to get out. But oh no, he wanted his new friend, and wouldn't get out of the car without him. :) We creatively named him, "Cat", and Jackson has been loving on him ever since.

• Adam went to a leadership conference in Atlanta for a few days. Jackson and I missed him terribly. Every couple of hours Jackson would start calling out for his "Dadeeee!" and looking all through the house. Then when he wouldn't find him, he would find a picture of him and carry that picture through the house. Then he would find my phone and bring me the phone saying "Dadeeeee", so I would call him.  To say we missed him, would be an understatement! While he was gone Jackson and I sent him these pictures:

And I had to send him this picture. If you look closely, you'll see that Jackson fell asleep with Cat literally on top of his face. :) He loves that cat...almost as much as his daddy :)

• After Adam got home from Atlanta, he set up a date for us. It was awesome. Here's a hint of what we did:

Guesses anyone?! My sweet, thoughtful, awesome, husband paid for us to take horseback riding lessons, just me and him! It was awesome really. When we got there, we were shown how to groom the horses, and make sure they were cleaned and ready to be ridden. We then learned how to saddle them up and put their bridle in their mouths. Then we learned how to ride them, including how to get them to turn, turn around, walk, trot, stop etc. Once we learned all of that, we were able to take them through the woods on a trail. For this lesson we had a teacher, but the goal is for us to be able to arrive and get our horses, and ride them through whichever trails we want. We decided we would do it once a month. Honestly, it was so much fun, and so great for us to be able to learn something new together! 

• And here are a couple of other pictures of my cutie little boy:

Wearing daddy's cowboy boots. :)

Eating toast and jelly. :)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Monica

The Blessing of Motherhood

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a mother. I always knew I would love motherhood, and I can remember crying tears of joy and love before I was even pregnant because I loved my future children so much already. 

But nothing, and I mean nothing compares to the real deal. Actually carrying, and delivering, and raising, and cleaning, and taking care of a little person has so far exceeded any thought or notion I thought I had about motherhood. Literally there are times that I realize just how blessed I am to be a mom, and that realization causes my heart to swell so much that it feels like it just might explode.

He's showing me the dirt on his hand. :)

The older Jackson gets (he's 17 months old now), he makes me and Adam laugh more and more. His little personality comes out, and I realize just how much like us he is becoming. There are times when I am in the middle of getting on to him, and I'm down on his level, making him look at me, and telling him "no," and trying to be stern, and his reaction is to  to give me a kiss. It's precious, and sneaky, and smart. And he gets what he wants, because I cave. Thankfully he only tries that tactic every now and then. :)

He's so precious at this age...giving kisses, and hugs, and squeezing my arm, and laying his head on my chest, and giggling when I'm rocking him, and squealing when he sees he's getting a waffle for breakfast, and missing his "daddee" during the day, so much so that he wanders through the house calling his name and checking the bathrooms and the showers, and the closets hoping to find him...and he "helps" us sweep, and wipe up messes, and put away his toys...he picks up every picture in the house and brings it to me so I can tell him who is in the picture...he laughs ALOT, and cries hard when he's disciplined (obviously not all the time)...and he tries to learn new words, but pronounces them all wrong in an adorable kind of way.  He LOVES "belbo" elmo, and won't get up from his nap until he finds  elmo in the crib. He's energetic, and cautious, and affectionate, and into everything, and determined, and silly, and such a joy to me and Adam. 

He teaches us every day more and more about Christ's love for us through our love for him. There's nothing like being apart of creating a new little person, and then getting to watch him grow. 

My heart is full tonight. Hope your heart is full too. 

~Monica

Crafting and DIY Projects

So...I've been crafting and DIY'ing the past several days. I've been bitten by the crafting bug, and I'm pretty sure Pinterest is to blame. Most social media sites are a big huge distraction for me considering nothing productive is achieved, but Pinterest has had the opposite effect on me! For awhile now, I've had a laundry list of to-do projects, that I hadn't started yet. But after seeing lots and lots of inspiring ideas and pictures on Pinerest, I've gotten my crafting on! 


Case in point: 

This necklace I made with an old t-shirt, some glue, felt, a strip of ribbon, and a button. All  supplies I already had, which brought the grand total of this necklace to......


$0.00  :)


Here's a link if you want to make one too:  Coiled Flower Necklace Tutorial

And here's another one I made:

Yup, made from another old yellow tank top I had, and some felt, glue, and a chain I bought at Michael's for $3.00. I LOVE it, and have already made 4 more. Isn't it fun?!

Here's a link to this necklace tutorial: Pom Pom Bib Necklace

But my favorite DIY so far has to be our side table re-do! I've had two side tables that used to be my grandmother's sitting in our guest bedroom. I've wanted to paint these babies forever, and finally we got around to doing so this weekend. 

Here is a before pic:

Not too purty uh? But after some sanding...(thanks babe)

And priming.....

She looked better than ever!

The color is a little less yellow-green, and more pastel green in person, and we LOVE it! We wanted a green table to match our new living room color scheme. Mom bought us new slipcovers (thanks mom!), and we bought new throw pillows (thanks Ross Dress for Less and Target)

These are the pillows we bought at Ross for $5, $9, and $9....

And here is a pic of one of the 2 pillows we bought at Target for $9.99.....

Now for a "before" couch picture..this is the best one I could find. I somehow forgot to get a shot of everything before we ripped off the old slipcovers.

And the brighter, fresher, cleaner AFTER: 

So fun right?! (Now would be a good time to mention that I took these pictures at night, with a cell phone, not so wise uh? AND I forgot to get a picture of the other couch. How did I forget that?!)


My next project is to paint stripes on our white curtains that you can see in the before picture. I've already got some left over paint that was used on our walls...hopefully they will look as good as this...

We will see! I'll post pictures soon!


Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your Labor Day. :)

30 years

Happy 30th Anniversary mom and Dad!

(Picture taken at the same church they got married in. They look pretty snazzy uh?!)

"The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine unity, and the most wonderful of all things in life."- Sir Hugh Walpole

We are SO blessed to have such caring parents who are so dedicated to each other! What a wonderful legacy to leave! Thank you for honoring the gift of marriage, and for giving us the gift of stability and enduring love.

I love you!

What are you believing God for?


**(This post is looong, and it's more of an outpouring of my heart. Just wanted to give you a heads up, in case this kind of post is not of interest to you.)

Lately, God has been expanding my thinking. He's been showing me glimpses of His power that I haven't been noticing, or that I've simply taken for granted. Thankfully, He's opened my heart and my mind to possibilities of His splendor and work in our lives that, honestly, up until this point I probably just never believed.

Because of the culture we live in, it is so easy to rely on ourselves. And honestly, because we are so blessed to live in this country, we often find ourselves not even asking God for the "big" things, because, to be frank, we simply don't need him. 

Likewise, God has been showing me that I've been running to my own solutions for situations, rather than going to Him first. I know that that sounds so cliche, but let me explain. A few weeks ago Jackson got incredibly sick with Bronchitis, and had to take lots of medicine, and complete some breathing treatments. Up until that point, praying for God to show up in the middle of that was just something I didn't do. Oh I would have prayed for Him to get better or feel better, but for God to actually show up and do something miraculous, was just not something I would have prayed for.

But, God, my sweet sweet heavenly Father has been challenging my thinking.

He wanted to show me that not only could He do something miraculous, He wanted to. 

At the doctor's office, I was told that Jackson needed to take some breathing treatments twice a day at home for a few days to open up his breathing. When I got home and told Adam, we both admitted to thinking the same thing, "There is no way Jackson is going to sit still with a mask on his face, hold it there, and breathe 5 times, TWICE." We opened up the breathing treatment parts, and at first, hoped for the best. Oh but God is too gracious to just allow us to "hope". Before we gave him his first treatment, Adam and I decided to pray out loud with Jackson for God to bring peace and stillness to Jackson, to calm him, and to help him take his treatments. Adam was so sure God would do it. 

And you know what? God did. Honestly, when Jackson sat still and did the treatments peacefully and calmly, I wanted to cry. I think I did actually. In that moment, I just realized that I needed to be praying and asking God for help for everything.  Adam is not perfect (although I think he's pretty close), but for the most part, He has such a strong trust is Jesus' provision. Me on the other hand, I really struggle with that. BUT God has been changing me. 

Now, I find myself praying and running to Jesus for everything. It's like a switch went off and I realized that God wants to do something powerful in my life. He wants to surprise me and show me His glory. 

A few weeks ago one of our two cars died. The truck has been so faithfully running for several years, but after hundreds of thousands of miles, it finally just died. Which meant, we were left with one car. My first thought was, "Oh dear, what are we going to do?" BUT, God spoke to me again. 

⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:6-8)

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:19)

I knew, not only does God know what we need, but He says He will meet our needs. So I've been praying those verses and believing those verses and expecting God to show up. The truth is, in my opinion, we don't "need" another car. We could certainly make it work, until we could afford to buy another one, but I wanted to see God show up. I wanted to trust God to provide. I knew that our circumstance only provided God an opportunity to do something miraculous. 

And you know what happened? No, we weren't given a car. (Although I'm still not totally convinced He won't do that. Wouldn't that be nice? :) ), but we were "given" a car. Adam meets with several men on Monday mornings for a bible study. He shared with them some prayer requests we had, one being making our financial situations work for another car. They prayed, and another man prayed for God to provide us with a vehicle. Seconds after they said "amen" another man spoke up, and told Adam that this may be the quickest answer to a prayer he has ever received. They were blessed with 3 vehicles, and we could use their third car.

When Adam came home and let me know that so and so would let us use their car, I cried. I knew that this was God. I prayed for God to provide, and He did. I don't know how long we will use it, or when we will buy another vehicle, but I do know that God knows my needs, wants to meet my needs, and wants to grow my faith in the way He meets my needs. 

And the truth is, He wants to do the same for you. 

God wants to show up in your life. What are believing Him for?

BigStuf '11: Part 2

Here are some of my personal highlights of the week. Enjoy!

1) Listening to students talking on the bus ride down to the beach.  Incredibly amusing yet slightly awkward conversations. :)

2) Speaking of the bus ride down there.....watching Adam chat it up with the bus driver.  He could make friends with ANYONE. Love that man!

3) Watching the opening act for the first night session. The smaller dancer was a little creepy to me, but creepiness aside, I could appreciate their 'mad' dancing skills.  They reminded Adam and I of the Jabbawockeez. Don't ya think? I guess that was the idea.

4) Watching these girls get to know each other and become friends. Watching God form friendships never ceases to amaze me!

5) Writing letters to children in Kenya. (We wrote on dry erase boards, took pictures of ourselves with Ipads, and Bigstuf sent our messages to an orphanage in Kenya).

6) Watching hundreds of students spending time with their creator on the beach. Beautiful right?!

6) Worship on the beach.

7) Praying over this sweet girl before we baptized her in the ocean. 

Two years ago she accepted Christ at this camp, and this year she went as a middle school leader. Since Bigstuf was where she became a Christian, she wanted to be baptized there. So we took all of our students out to the beach one night, and baptized her in the ocean. It was a sweet, sweet moment.

And lastly, I wanted to share with you a link to hear one of the songs they did that week. Love the song, love the lyrics, love the overall message. God's love NEVER fails. This song is a beautiful reminder of His faithfulness to us. Enjoy!

Your Love Never Fails   performed here by Jesus Culture