Pumpkin Crazy

Lately, I could eat pumpkin every day. This fall I have been craving pumpkin and have had it almost every way that a human being can have it. I have made:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese dip for veggies

Pumpkin Raisin Pecan Bread

Pumpkin muffins

Pumpkin Cheesecake (i put mine in a graham cracker crust, I wasn't daring enough to do the gingersnap crust)

I have also just ate plain old pureed pumpkin by:

Spreading it on sandwiches- yum!

Dipping crackers and other items in it.

Eating it straight out of the can. Oh yes I did.

Then to top it all off- I had Pumpkin Pancakes at Kirby Lane in Austin this last week! D-vine :)

I think this baby must be craving some beta-carotene and the fall must be getting in my blood. Hope this encourages you to break out of your pumpkin box!

Wielding my Sword

Over the last couple of weeks, I have really been battling fear regarding my pregnancy.

I am taking up my sword and wielding it in my battle against the enemy. I thought there might be someone who needs these verses too. They are in the amplified, which always gives such a fresh breath to His amazing Word.

Fear not, (Melissa), I am your [a]Shield, your abundant compensation, and your reward shall be exceedingly great- Gen. 15:1

It is the Lord Who goes before you; He will [march] with you; He will not fail you or let you go or forsake you; [let there be no cowardice or flinching, but] fear not, neither become broken [in spirit--depressed, dismayed, and unnerved with alarm].- Deut. 31:8

Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; for consider how great are the things He has done for you.- 1 Sam. 12:24

Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, [even then] in this will I be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple- Psalm 27:3, 4

I trust in You [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, without fear or doubt]- Psalm 86:2

The reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it rests satisfied; he cannot be visited with [actual] evil.- Proverbs 19:23

Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.- Isaiah 41:10

because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).- Eph. 3:12

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony- Rev. 12:11

Love and victory to you!

Baby Girl Has a Name!

We are so excited to share with you our baby girl's name...

Elyana Joyce

Elyana (pronounced el-ee-AH-nah) means "God has answered" and her little life is such an answer to prayer and we have experienced so many answered prayers lately.

Joyce is Joe's grandmother's name. She really is amazing and I am so excited that baby girl is going to be carrying her name. It also means "Joy" or "Rejoicing"

North Carolina Weekend Recap!

For someone who is as picture crazy as I am, my camera situation could really send this pregnant girl into a frenzy but I'm trying to remain calm.

I have no pictures from our trip to North Carolina. To top that off, the video that I took somehow didn't take.

So in order to capture our awesome weekend, it will have to be here, in words only. Bummer. So if you're not into details, then I would skip this post :)

Friday- We drove to the Houston airport but due to the monsoon that we drove through, it took us 3 hours. It didn't really phase us because we were so excited about experiencing a plane ride with Isaac again. Then, the flight was also 3 hrs., we caught a shuttle to our hotel, checked in, didn't eat dinner until almost 9, and the little man only had a 1 hr nap all day long. All of that to say is that he was a REAL TROOPER!

Saturday- We got to hang out with my grandmother "Gee-jo" in the morning, and Isaac just loved her! A shout out to my grandmother who reads my blog- we love you and are so glad we got to spend the weekend with you! We also took a taxi into some shopping areas to find some paraphenalia so we could show our support for the Wolf Pack! Then we gave our boy a little nap, then headed out to our first tail gating party as a family. My dad, grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousins and their fiances were there- it was quite the family affair.

Oh and the game! Bobby played really well. He is on defense and special teams and he was really tearing it up. Wish I could say the same for the rest of his team, but they'll get 'em next week. Isaac LOVED the big stadium, all the people, sitting with our family- especially his grandpa, the band, the fans, the lights, the music, and THE FOOD (my dad got him a huge tub of cotton candy- Isaac was squealing). I mean, he was livin' it up! Their mascot is the wolf and so all of their fans were howling and he really got into that. NC State unfortunately didn't win but it didn't phase us b/c we were having so much fun and enjoyed getting to see my cousin on the field.

We waited outside the locker rooms for Bobby to come out and then walked to a restaurant up the road. Then, we stumbled into our bedroom late that night.

Sunday- We got up, played around, little man napped, then headed out to the airport. The flight took extra long b/c of flight delays. After this marathon of a weekend, Isaac was showing off that he was his daddy's boy- a real travel extraordinaire. I think he was saying that he's ready for Europe ;)

We had such a good weekend, had lots of laughs and soaked in our family. Thanks dad for a wonderful trip!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

The Terry Tribe is leaving on a jet plane headed for North Carolina today! yea! My dad so graciously offered to fly us kids to see my cousin play football for NC State. We are so excited about taking our little man on a airplane and to a college football game where he'll get to see all the action up close.

My cousin, Bobby, has been doing awesome this season and has been named as NC State's best tackler and he plays on special teams. (He is the one in red below :)


Yesterday when the wee man woke up he had the molar sniffles and I was thinking, "OH NO, not before the weekend." Then I have been thinking and praying that there has to be something that I can give him to boost his immune system and keep the teething runny nose from turning into more than that. Off to the health food store I went and was referred to this little gem.

I thought I would pass this along for all you other moms wanting the same thing :)

Sambucus which has elderberry, echinacea, and something else. One of those things is to help block infection. So far, so good. No green snot, just a little bit of a drop of runny nose (yesterday it was pouring out of his sweet nose). He is overall feeling more peppy and himself.

Fun stories and pics to come!

Its that time again...

Okay, so its that infamous time in the Terry household...family pictures. I love photography. Not that I am a photographer, but I love photography blogs, seeing what other photographers do and seeing the art that photography can be.

I, yes I, have been cutting Isaac's hair. His hair grows so fast and gets long in the weirdest places that I have probably already given him about 6 hair cuts. But I figured for pictures, I better leave it to the professionals. So I made an appointment for both of my boys with the girl who did my hair last (it was a salon mind you, not a barber shop :)

Just before we were going to pull in, I asked the hubbs if he would pull into the gas station. He inquired, "What for?" Well, I just wanted to get a piece of candy to have on hand for an emergency. We both start cracking up to which he comments, "So, we've reduced our parenting style to bribery." For family pictures....yes :) I have just heard many a stories of perfectly wonderful children who have a meltdown in the barber's chair. I thought it would be a good precaution.

So I picked up this little life preserver for 22 cents :( (Lomama, you'd be proud)

When Joe saw what I had picked out he said, "Hmmm, candy-coated sugar. Get him wired so he'll wiggle in the chair. Good plan."

Now, we are ready :)

Let me tell you, that boy hopped up into that chair, she put a smock on him with flip flops and he sat as still as an 18 month old could sit. It was probably one of his top 3 cutest things he has ever done.

This is him when he first got in the chair.


At the end he was moving his head a little so Joe was reading him a book.

He is getting more ready every day for being a big brother!