silly baby, silly daddy

Who knew a coffin over sized box would be our new favorite toy?!

And by 'our' I mean Joel and Mylin - I will often walk into the room finding them in it together, him pulling her and like 7 stuffed animals AND eme around in it...or using it as some sort of fort

I love my family :)

the best little girl in the world

This first stream of pictures makes Joel and I laugh out loud! 

Look at the determination in her precious little face!

 Another day - another new object to wear as a hat...

 And lastly - could you not just eat up those cheeks?!
We thought they were big when she was a breastfeeding machine - they sure haven't gone down much...

Catalyst Conference

Last week I was blessed to be able to attend a 1 day conference in Chicago with 20 of our Life Community fellow leaders. 
I was so blessed to have a husband and mother-in-law take over everything for Mylin so this trip was possible in the middle of the week for me!
Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel spent the day sharing with us about their history of becoming pastors of multi-campus churches and how life has transformed during their 16 years of pastoring.
They offered so much wisdom on organizational culture, values, building a healthy staff, and self-awareness (and so much more!)
This took place at Willow Creek near Chicago and Bill Hybels (senior pastor at Willow Creek) even sat and taught us a bit about central beliefs to our theology and what he has learned in his 30+ years of pastoring.

(For more information on the details you can visit here.)



Anyways...I went to this conference not really knowing what it was about or what I would even get out of it.
I didn't have too many expectations other than I love the relationships that develop on road trips and the conversations that are shared among like-minded people. 
After the first session on Thursday morning, I realized that I wanted to being praying for an answer to a specific prayer request be revealed to me that day.
I have been on a long quest to simplify things in my life and God is continually showing me areas that I can cut back in or change.
I had 2 small ministries that I served on a monthly (if that) basis and I was feeling God calling me to cut that down to 1...and keep my focus on my main ministry, MomLife, and 1 of these smaller ones.
I shared this with a friend I was sitting by and began praying for a clear answer to be revealed - my judgment was being clouded with pride, emotions, and over-thinking.
I am SO grateful that God delivered!
And it was VERY clear!
I won't go into too many personal details, but one sentence came out of the speakers mouth, "Loyalty is not a fruit of the spirit" and I felt released from one of my ministry obligations
Thank you, God!

Another cool thing that was happening to me was that God was giving me direction and wisdom on creating rules, or rather, a mission for my family.
Joel and I have been discussing this lately - what phrases, beliefs, values, we want our children to know and live by
While we are gathering wisdom from other parents that have come up with these already, we are molding some of the themes God echos in our lives into a Draper family mission statement
I do not know what this will look like for our family, but I envision having them framed and displayed in our house for our children to easily see and for us all to reference regularly
Some of what I feel that He is calling us concentrate on is:
All for the kingdom's glory
The joy of the Lord is my strength
Authenticity
All done to honor/give honor to God
LOVE

I know there is so much more to add - and I know that it could end up just being the entire New Testament...but I want to make a concise, simple list that young children can memorize and obey
I hope to remember to keep my readers updated as this goal grows and transforms

Lastly, I felt that God was giving me many ideas of ways Life Community can improve as a ministry in our community and what I can offer/do to serve and help - I still am not sure what that looks like detail-wise...but I plan on working some of that out and having accountability to act on it!

What things has God been teaching you, lately?
I love to be vulnerable with friends and learn from each other - please share!

a visit with new and old friends

Several days ago we had a visit with our old friends, Dave and Kim, and our newest little friend, their son, Leo!

Kim ran in a local race, which she blogged about, and we enjoyed eating soup all weekend, playing rummikub, and just talking about being parents and our precious babies.

Enough of the recap, here are the only pictures I managed to take (even though there was plenty of picture-worthy moments!)

 Smiling Leo AND smiling Dave in the background :)

Hello buddy!

We are so blessed to have a great long distance friendship with this family!  We love you guys!

new stuff

Miss Mylin has so much new stuff going on in her life!
She'll be 17 months next week :)

She's been taking off her shirts while napping
Trying to take off her pants while playing
Pooping and peeing through her diapers at night
Getting anything she wants out of the cupboards (thanks Joel for baby-proofing them while I was gone yesterday!!!)
And just today she started walking down the stairs forward-facing like a big girl!

But the newest stuff going on in her life is this:

It took me many tries to even get this picture....she was being such a stinker!
So, while she's not showing her enthusiasm with smiling - we are all REALLY REALLY REALLY excited!!!!!
Wee one is due end of May/beginning of June - more details to come on the last 12 weeks of pregnancy soon....
Thank you God, for your abundant blessings!

sweet shoes :)

If you thought that Mylin and I couldn't get any cuter...you were wrong

Check out our newest way of matching

 And a close up just for good measure

200th post!

It was only 8 months ago that I posted my 100th post!
I have really ramped up the frequency this year - besides my 2 week sabbatical that I took last month...

Maybe this isn't worth dedicated a whole post to...but what else would I be writing about?!

When I was in first grade we used to have '100 day' and we got to bring in 100 of something for like a show and tell...I think I brought in stickers
Other kids brought in other fun, small items like cereal or pennies or marbles...I can't remember them all, that was a long time ago...

So should I write 200 of my most favorite things?
Or post 200 of my favorite pictures?! (not likely since my virusy computer is HIDING ALL MY PICTURES FROM ME! grrrrrrrrrrr)
Or should I do a free right of 200 words?
I really have no idea, I'm just wingin it as I type this (very unlike the organized me.)

I do know 1 thing...I am glad that I have posted so many of my favorite pictures to this blog or on facebook especially now that I am worried I may have lost many of the pictures we already had :(
That makes me reflect on what I put my stock and treasure in...
I think I posted about this awhile back - storing our treasures in heaven and not on the earth
But I am thankful for circumstances in my life that remind me of this important meditation
It is so frustrating to think we may have lost not only pictures, but other important documents on our computer...and then we think about how much we rely on technology to do so much for us - instead of relying fully on God to provide what we need
We ought to be more responsible with what He has blessed us with and be good stewards of our technology, bodies, money, and relationships............

There are so many places to go from here!

I pray that I can not only be diligent to learn what God wants from me in these areas - but also be ripe for the teaching and be able to share it with my readers, since you all have blessed me with so much insight!

It's amazing that even after 200 one-sided conversations I still might have more to say :)

Homemade cinnamon rolls

A couple weeks ago I made my first batch of homemade cinnamon rolls!

I used an easy recipe online that didn't require yeast (yay!)

Our sister-in-law Roni came over to keep me company too - what a treat :)

 In the midst of all this I began listening to Christmas music on my Pandora station...I know, I know, it was October 29th...and a virus attacked my computer!!!!!!! (maybe I was getting punished for my music choice?)

This was bad for several reasons, but most of all - I lost my recipe!
Luckily Joel is able to bring his laptop from work home so I could pull up the recipe on there - whew!

 The rolls pre-frosting (I think they would still have been delicious this way!)

And post frosting! (Notice that 3 are missing...Roni and I inhaled enjoyed ours before I got a picture, plus I had packaged one up for my mom to take to work that night)

This is a recreation of what Roni and I looked like when eating ours :)

This recipe is definitely a repeat!



Hello?!

So it seems that I have fallen off the face of the blog-earth...
After 2 years of 'regularly' posting...I hit a wall!
Many factors contributed to this:
1. We temporarily lost our camera - and I don't like to have too many posts without pictures!
2. We have been incredibly lazy in the evenings and veg on the couch reading or watching t.v. after Mylin goes to bed
3. On Sundays, when I usually post, I have been napping :)
4. We got a virus on our computer a week and a half ago - and I have spent barely anytime on it since!

So...this is my brief post of return and I will work on some new posts to start scheduling again...look forward to my 200th post!!!

What have you all been doing lately?! I'm glad you are still posting and haven't been hit by the same lazy bug I have :)