Lauren sings on stage (Age 2/half)

How fun!
I (Tim) sing on the worship team at church every other Sunday (approx.). This past Sunday, while we were finishing up the morning practice before the service I invited Lauren to come with me. She is usually quite shy with anyone she doesn't know, especially men. I held her up to a microphone and told her to quote a verse. She did and enjoyed hearing herself through the monitor. Perhaps 15 people began to pay attention to the little girl on stage quote scripture verses and sing songs. For those of you who haven't met Lauren or at least seen her lately, she can speak really well for her age and she has the cutest little lisp in her speech. She liked it so much that I eventually put her down on the floor and brought the microphone down to her level. She quoted a verse or sang a song and then walked a few steps toward me and said "can I do another one?"
I would say about 30+ people ended up hearing her.
"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you"
"A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones"
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it"
"Do everything without complaining and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God"
"Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right"
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"
"The Joy of the Lord is my strength"
"God is Love"
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
All of these, by the way, are spoken. They know these and many more in song form.
I brought a mic. down to Hannah's level too but she decided to wait till another time. Anyway, the pastor came by and said: "That is so precious, do you think she could do it during the preaching?" I told him I'd try. When the worship part of the service was over I went back to the nursery in search for Lauren. She agreed to do it so I brought her before the congregation. She was very cool about it but when our actual moment came, she froze in the silence and stage lights. She was brave to try :) It was a lot of fun while it lasted and Hannah was an excellent sport about it too, being very proud (and not jealous) of her little sister.

Cowboys and Cowgirls

All five of us now have cowboy hats. So, though we do not celebrate Halloween, we did dress our cuties up in their cowboy and cowgirl attire for a little parade in our neighborhood. Now we can dress appropriately for all of our fires at our backyard fire pit that we are enjoying so much!

Ruth and Naomi

What a privilege it is to teach our children about God's Holy Word and to train them up in the Lord! Hannah and Lauren's favorite time of day is after dinner when they have "Bible time with Papa." Every night after dinner Hannah says something like, "Can we go brush our teeth and then have a Bible story?" As you can imagine, that is music to our ears as parents. Tim is an amazing teacher and is a master at explaining things. It blesses my heart to watch Hannah's eyes fixed upon her Papa's eyes as he shares with her about stories from the Bible. Many times tears of joy fill my eyes and a huge smile covers my face as I observe what is going on. The girls are learning about the love of their heavenly Father through the love of their Papa.
During the days, the girls and I do a variety of learning activities in preparation for official homeschooling one day, and I tell them Bible stories some days. They are also learning Bible verses. They have memorized many verses that are put to song, and we are now working on saying the verses without the music. Last week they learned the following verses: 1) "Do everything without complaining and arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God" and 2) "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." At one point last week, Hannah said, "When we fight (referring to when she and Lauren don't share sometimes) our bones dry up. I want to have a joyful heart." :)
One of our recent Bible stories was about Ruth and Naomi. The picture you see for this post is Hannah dressed up as Ruth and Lauren dressed up as Naomi. It is so much fun to have precious children and to train them up in the Lord! We are blessed, indeed!

More SC State Fair Pics.

SC State Fair

We had a great time at the South Carolina State Fair with Grandma. The weather was actually pretty warm, even hot, not like the usual chilly fair weather. We watched a pig race, a horse show, ate an elephant ear,cotton candy, turkey leg, and fiske fries, rode the fun rides, and enjoyed some good music. Hannah and Lauren loved cheering on the pigs during the race, and Lauren had a great time riding a pony. They both enjoyed watching the miniature horses during the horse show and getting on a tractor. A great time was had by all!!

Pumpkin Patch

The girls have been looking forward to going to the Pumpkin Patch for weeks now. They ran and played among the pumpkins and finally got to choose a mini pumpkin to take home with them. I had lots of fun doing a photo shoot with my three precious cuties and now know how hard Tim works to get good shots - it's a lot of work but well worth it. We had a blast!!

Mama and Babies in the Hammock

These hammock pictures are becoming "classics" in the Reed home. One of my favorite things to do with my babies after they are born is to relax in the hammock in our backyard with them. Pictured above in order is Hannah (2004), Lauren (2005), and Timothy (2007).

Handsome Reed Boys

Of course, I (Allyson), the happy wife and proud Mama came up with the title of this post. :) Just had to show off the handsome men in my life. Timothy is now 3 1/2 weeks old and growing so fast. He was 8 lbs. 5 oz. when he was born, and he now weighs 11 lbs. He is such a sweet baby, and we are so happy to have him in our lives. Hannah and Lauren love helping us take care of him too.

We love Timmy

New Jr. Cowboy pictures

10 Days Old and Oh So Cute

Having two little girls, I wondered what it would be like to have a little boy. Of course I am still new at being a "boy Mama", but I am loving every minute of it! I am learning how to master the task of changing a boy's diaper and doing quite well so far. :) We are still trying to decide who little Timmy looks like. What do you think?

Making Pineapple Pizza

Two cute girls and a handsome little baby boy.... home alone with Mama for the first time. The girls and Mama decide to make pizza together. We gathered all the ingredients, mixed them together, kneaded the dough, spread the pizza sauce, sprinkled the cheese, and topped it off with pineapple. Then, it was into the oven for 20 minutes before we sat down to a yummy pizza dinner. We sure did have fun! It's wonderful having three little ones now.

Girls in Green

Family in Blue

Timothy Paul Reed Jr. was born on Sept. 20th, 2007

Timothy Paul Reed Jr. was born a hefty 8 lbs. and 5 oz. He wore a nice head of dark hair and measured 21 inches.
His newborn features favored Hannah's but we could definitely see both of his sisters reflected.
His original due date was Sept. 28th but mommy and Dr. decided that an induction on the 20th would be perfect.
We (parents) were set to start the day early, arriving at the hospital around 5:00 a.m to begin inducing and maybe having the baby by 12:00 noon. Well, God and Timmy had other plans. By 3:00 a.m Allyson purposefully wakes me up and says, "we have to go to the hospital now!" (having contractions every 3 minutes for the past hour). Our babysitter, uncle John, was spending the night in the other room so we quietly stepped out of the house and rushed to the hospital. I enjoyed having an excuse to speed in my Honda Ridgeline and we got there in no time.
We were buzzed in through the maternity entrance and were escorted to the room where we would have come to anyway a few hours later in the morning.
Things progressed quickly. Her Dr. wasn't scheduled to come in until 7:00 a.m so they called the 'on-call' Dr. and he never made it. By 3:30 she was in gown, in bed and in pain. The nurse checked and wide-eyed explained that Allyson was 7cm dialated and would not have time for her beloved epidural. Allyson was devastated and couldn't believe this was happening. I encouraged her as best I could and we braced for the following drama. Two nurses, a sleepless father and a brave mother witnessed the natural and laborious birth of Tim and Allyson Reed's first boy and third child. 10 fingers, 10 toes, healthy in every way. Praise the Lord for blessing us with yet another child.
Allyson and I were honored to dedicate him the the Lord right away. Rejoice with us, for unto us a child is born :)
Welcome home little man! May you grow in wisdom and stature and favor with your God and may you humbly pursue His righteousness.