a tree

My friend Erin lives in Tanzania. She is amazing. She just sent an update on her life there and I had to share one of the best descriptions of what I so often jumble up when talking about, "stop trying, start dying" . . .

On Wednesday in our staff meeting, a teacher remarked that a tree doesn't have to "try really hard" to produce fruit. If that tree is near the water source and near the light source, with its roots firmly planted, it WILL bear fruit. There is no effort required. And the same applies for us. "Blessed is the man who's.... delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law He meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither. Whatever he does prospers." (Psalm 1:1-3) When we stay close to our source of *light* and water (living water!), and keep our roots firmly planted in Him and His word, we WILL bear fruit. We won't need to "try really hard" at it. It will happen naturally.

Date Night

Tay and I had a great Date Night last night. We went to Cracker Barrel. One of the perks of pregnancy is that when something delicious to eat is mentioned and my eyes open wide, Tay's kind of a sucker to just go ahead and make new plans.

We were debating going out because in all honesty, we've definitely reached the limit of negative dining dollars for the month (again, due to the pregnancy perk) but when he (see, he's the one putting these delicious ideas in my head) mentioned Cracker Barrel and I thought about the corn bread, we looked up the closest one and went.

Truth: the atmosphere and cozy feel of the night was better than the food. But we loved it!

We're pretty excited about fall and the holidays coming up! How can you not get into the "spirit of the season" when you walk into Cracker Barrel?!

Love it! Love Date Nights! Love my Bukes!

so this isn't from Date Night but how handsome is he?

ps. maybe next post will be the story behind "Bukes"

here we go

So I decided to start a blog. I've always loved to write; an avid journal-er, but I liked it being "my pages" where really only God could read. Taylor told me to start a blog a while ago - he told me he'd read it :). But I was hesitant because I liked the privacy I had already with my journaling .

A few weeks ago I found out a friend from college had a baby, she's a photographer and has a hilarious blog about her life and her photo shoots. I found myself thinking, 'I love hearing about her pregnancy and now getting to see sweet Brody (her baby boy) continue to grow. . . man, I'm going to have to shape up when ours comes! I never take pictures anymore. Hmm, what if I started a blog with the inspiration of Baby Bukes?' So, she changed my view on blogs! She made me appreciate the uniqueness of each person's and gave me a little motivation that I can do whatever I want on my own blog. Not to mention Anna's blog, Catie's blog, Tindy's blog and Erin's (whom all live out of town so I love getting snippets of things I miss in their lives), Heath's blog and Linds just started one, Hal just started one - the inspiration is all over the place!

I don't have to write a journal entry if I don't want to! I can just send a little update on what's going on, post a picture of Baby Bukes, tell a story about something that made me laugh, etc. There is FREEDOM here and I'm excited about it!

So, no pressure, no expectations - just an outlet for me to make sure I capture this sweet time of preparing for a babe - not just a babe, OUR babe! wow . . .

Hopefully there will be entries about just the two of us (I guess you could say three: tay, phelps, me) until our world is completely turned upside down by "BABY BUKES" sometime near April 7 :)

In all honesty, I can't wait!

Thank you Jesus for this blessing of getting to step into deeper intimacy with you. You've given me just a taste of the miracle of this experience. We now get a tid bit more understanding of how you love us - your children . . . beautiful!

For your first glimpse of pictures to come:)

Baby Bukes @ 3 months

Baby Bukes @ 4 months (embarassing - I held up a #2 because it was the 2nd picture I've taken . . . but I should have held up a #4 for how many months! I'll learn for next time!

5 Months = Nov. 16 = find out if Baby Bukes is Baby Boy Bukes or Baby Beautiful Bukes!)