Fun times!

What craziness this past week has been! But what fun we have had! Here are some pics of some of the things we have been up to:

Jackson and his dad played a little Golden Tee....what form!

Jackson just "hanging out" at OU basketball practice with his cousins and his dad. He even got a lift from current OU player Cade Davis (who is now officially Jackson's favorite person this week.)











Mommy got in on the action playing a little one on one with my little man! He totally schooled me.

We went to visit Isaiah's Memorial and to give thanks for the time we had with him.

When asked what he was most thankful for this Thanksgiving, Jackson always replied, "For Isaiah." Totally unpromped. Total tearjerker. Everytime. Love my sweet boy!

We also went to Unpluggits to Cali-Kae's 4th birthday party. Jackson LOVES to paint!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Clinton, OK with my grandparents and extended family. It was so good to all be together this year and to truely feel in our hearts how thankful we really are for eachother.

After we left Clinton, we headed to the lake for a fabulously wonderfuly relaxing weekend. Renzi, Jackson and I had such a good time taking walks, watching movies, fishing, eating and even laying in the hammock and reading. We are headed there again this weekend for our lake family Thanksgiving with the Nighs', Regans' and Stems.' I can't wait to get all of the munchkins together again!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and an even better week ahead!

LAS

Spirit of Gratitude

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in ALL circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Sometimes life does not go the way you had planned. Things happen, people change, people pass on.

I do not believe that God wants bad things to happen to us. I think it is how we handle these bad things that truly help mold who we are and who God wants us to be.

Each day when we wake up we have a choice about our attitude for that day. You can choose to live in a spirit of Thanksgiving in every season of life. You can give thanks for what you have received, but also for what you have NOT received. You can choose to live in a spirit of gratitude.

Living in a spirit of gratitude comes when:
(1) You recognize what you have already received.
-Are you in good health? Do you have a warm house and food on the table? Do you have friends and/or family that give you love?

(2) You bless another, in good times and in bad.
-Helping another will warm your heart in ways you never knew possible. When you are down in spirit, help another. It will surely help to show you that you have much to be thankful for.

(3) You give up anger about life and the way things are, or anger at another.
-To truly let go of ill will or anger about something or someone will give your heart and spirit the peace you are looking for in life. Forgiveness.

This is what our sermon was about at St. Luke's yesterday and it really spoke volumes to me. This Thanksgiving, ask yourself, "What do you need to lay down your strength for the journey?" "How can YOU live in a spirit of gratitude?"

LAS

Six Months

How has it been six months already? In some ways, I feel like it was just yesterday and in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago.

So much has changed in our lives, but one thing remains constant. God is good. All the time. And his understanding, no one can fathom.

While dilly dallying around on the computer last night I came across this.

The Old Testament prophetic book of Isaiah, with its 66 chapters, is a microcosm of the whole Bible with its 66 books. There is a definite, direct, one-to-one correspondence between each chapter of Isaiah and each book of the Bible. This is an amazing, if indirect, proof, of the sovereignty of God and the superintendence of His Spirit over the whole of Scripture.

Renzi and I struggled with finding a name for Isaiah. We couldn't agree on anything and nothing sound "right." When taking on the task of "Reading the Bible in 90 Days," we came upon the book of Isaiah and felt this overwhelming urge that THIS was the name of our son. How amazing that the verses that have helped us through this difficult time have been from the book of ISAIAH!

How amazing that I found this website last night on the eve of the six month anniversary since Isaiah passed away.

http://www.bibleprophecy.net/isaiah/

I think God knew I may have a little bit of trouble today so that is why he put this website in my path last night. I have read through it many times today and am reminded again that our God has sovereign plans for each of us. It is so hard, but I believe Isaiah's death has to be a blessing for the quality of his life had become unbearable for him. My firm belief is that he is now at peace and we can rejoice in the fact that there is a Heaven and he is now in it.

If you have a moment, I encourage you to go to this website and then read the book of Isaiah. My hope is that you find it as inspiring as I do.

At each of our meals we say a short little prayer and at the end Jackson always chimes in with, "And God Bless Zayah." So, today, I say Thank you Lord for blessing me with both of my babies and in the words of my Jackson, "God Bless Zayah!!!"

We miss you every day.

Lee Anne

Jack-son channeling Daniel-son

As a child of the 80's, it was my duty and responsibility to introduce Jackson to The Karate Kid. Enjoy the best one minute, twenty-five seconds of your week.

Just when I think he can't get any cuter....

Beth Jansen takes THIS picture.

http://www.bethjansenphotography.com/blog/tgif-photo-of-the-day-oklahoma-city-childrens-photography/

And I am blown away by his never ending cuteness!

Red Dirt Chronicles

We were "mentioned"today in a wonderful blog called The Red Dirt Chronicles. Here is a little bit about the blog....

The Red Dirt Chronicles (RDC) was born summer, 2010. If you’re saying to yourself, “Hey – that’s, um, recently?!” then your reaction is a positive sign you are of sound mind. Well, it’s at least one sign, anyway. The project is comprised of contributors who love Oklahoma and have a little Red Dirt running through their veins.

Our mission is simple – we wish to capture and document Red Dirt culture, both literally and metaphorically. Connections to the state of Oklahoma are a mandatory requirement for our contributors; having lived here, or currently being a resident is a necessity.

http://reddirtchronicles.com/2010/11/11/chicken-soup-for-the-blogaholic’s-soul/

So humbled that Kendy Cox (one of the contributors to this blog) takes the time to read the blog and encourage us! If you get a chance, click on over to www.reddirtchronicles.com Kendy is a FANTASTIC writer and her blogs are wonderfully well written and about the happenings in her life and our great state!

Thanks for reading!

Lee Anne

Under House Arrest

Well, we survived the sickness here at the Stone house and all seems to be back to normal. It was a little tricky as Jackson started to feel better (but wasn't quite back to his normal, fever free self) and he wanted to get out and do things. Instead, I found many different ways to keep him occupied at home!

Last week I took advantage of the after Halloween sales at Target and purchased four different costumes for Jackson to have around our house to dress up. Here are two pics of him as Iron Man and a policeman. Each costume was $3.99 and provided lots of hours of pretend play fun. Except when Jackson kept trying to "arrest" me over and over again.

Something else I wanted to share is our new favorite meal at our house. We actually got the idea over at our friends The Peters' house a few weeks back and decided to give it a try at our house. Its a great way for Jackson to get involved in cooking and make it a healthy meal at that! The meal is....Grilled Pizza!!!

Here is what you do.

Buy whole wheat pizza dough, you can get it at Target in the cold section near the eggs and other bisquits. Spread the dough out on a cookie sheet and place in your outside grill for five minutes. Bring the dough back inside. This is where you kiddo can start to help!

In a bowl, mix EVOO with spices. I used salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. Stir it up and get a baster out and use it to spread the EVOO mixture all over the pizza dough. I let Jackson do this because it was like he was painting the pizza. Then in a couple of other bowls put your favorite pizza toppings in them. I let Jackson pick what he wanted on his pizza. He chose cheese, banana peppers and turkey pepperoni. (We used low fat cheese too!). He spread it out all over his pizza in any way that he wanted to.

Then I took the pizzas back out to the grill and let them cook for 6 or 7 more minutes. And VOILA! Grilled Pizza!

I posted some pics of the process of making the pizza so you can see how it looked and how proud Jackson was to be able to help mommy cook.

Happy Sunday!

Lee Anne

Saddest Face Ever.

Is this not the saddest face that you ever did see? Jackson woke up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning with a terribly high fever and we just couldn't seem to get it to break. It was a steady 104.5 (and this was using my forehead thermometer!). All he wanted to do was lay in my lap and have me carry him everywhere (including carrying him to the potty!). I made an appointment with our pediatrician Wed. morning and we did a strep test and flu test which all came back negative. He then sent us over to Mercy to get an X-Ray of Jackson's chest because he didn't like the way his lungs sounded and he was concerned with the possibility that Jackson might have pneumonia!

After traipsing all over Mercy Hospital carrying a 35 pound, burning up 3 year old, we got word that it was not pneumonia but just a nasty virus. He has had a fever on and off now for 36 hours, but thankfully the fever is just 101 degrees and not 104! As sad as it is having him be so sick, I am cherishing all of the snuggle time we are getting together. I don't think Jackson has sat in my lap this much since he was 6 months old.

Oh and I can't get him to stop eating pickles. Seriously. The kid has eaten like 7 pickles today and about 10 yesterday. Pickles are vegetables right?

Baby Momma

To Infiniti and Beyond!

What a fun and blessed week we had at our house this week. Halloween is such a fun time and we took full advantage this week to wear ourselves out. :) Jackson and I went on a date to the first Thunder game Wednesday night and had a ball. Jackson knows all of the players and calls them by name when they shoot or steal the ball. He also likes to yell out, "Mom! It's my song!" when different songs come on during the game. The funniest one was when it was "Sir Mix Alot, I Like Big Butts." Nothing like a 3 year old yelling at the top of his lungs when that song comes on , "Hey mom! It's my song!"

On Thursday, Jackson got to wear his Halloween costume to school (He was Buzz Lightyear) and he was so pumped! He came home telling me all about the boys costumes in his class. He knew what each of his buddies costumes were but when I asked him what the girls were he replied, "Hmm, I don't know Mom. They are girls!"

That night we went to Cal Furnish's birthday party and Jackson (and mom and dad!) had a ball. Jackson ran straight into their glass door as we were walking in which resulted in numerous bloody noses for the rest of the evening. Have no fear because he just wiped it on his Buzz costume. When we went home I decided to wash his costume and as I was reading the wash instructions, this is what it said, "Do not machine wash. Do not dry clean. Hand wash only. Do not machine dry. Do not line dry." WHAT????

Saturday we headed over to the Heskett's for CJ Heskett's first birthday party. It was a costume party that everyone was required to dress up for. This is actually the first time Renzi and I had ever dressed up together and I think we make a pretty cute Jessie and Woody. Thanks for being such a good sport honey. Even when I made you wear the Woody bodysuit you never complained. Ha!!!!

All in all, so much fun was had by all of us and we can't wait for next year's Halloween. :)

Sincerley in a Sugar Coma,

Lee Anne