therefore be imitators of God...

Reader's Choice Best of 2013 - Vote for The Mather Company for Real Estate Company of the Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Hart Traylor) — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000

PLEASE NOTE: At the moment "Real Estate Company" is not an option online however it is an option in the paper ballot in The State Newspaper. I have contacted The State to find out why real estate company is not included. I'm assuming it's just a mistake and they will add it in. I will keep you posted. Until then, please refrain from voting until real estate company is added. I will send out a new post once I know something.

Hi all, this is Hart. I hope everyone is doing well. Well it's that time of year again. For those who don't know or remember, our local newspaper, The State, does a competition each year called Reader's Choice Best Of. In this competition people go through a list of categories provided by The State and vote for their favorites. Unfortunately these past 2 years the company I work for, The Mather Company, has come up short in winning "Best Real Estate Company", but, as you can see from the following picture/link, my boss, Charlie Mather, has won "Best Real Estate Agent" in back to back years (2011-2012)!

Well, the polls are open again for the 2013 year and I'm hoping to see not only my boss get the 3-peat, but our company is setting our sights on winning Best Real Estate Company! That's where you come in: We NEED your votes...as well as your family/friends/acquaintances/neighbors/etc votes! If we win then we get featured in the newspaper. So this is awesome exposure for the company! Now, you may be thinking "Wait a minute Hart, you're a real estate agent too, so I'm going to vote for you instead of your boss." Well, you're welcome to do that. But hear me out. Him having won it in back to back years obviously shows he is capable of winning that title. I on the other hand, highly doubt I can win that title. I would much rather see Charlie win and therefore our company receive that extra exposure rather than people voting for me and I not win and therefore we don't get that exposure. You follow me?

Ok. So the way it works is you'll have to go to the website listed below. You'll need to fill out some information and then you'll see a section called "Categories". In this section you'll see 4 main categories on the left side which are: Entertainment, Food & Drink, Shopping, and Service. If you click on one of those categories a list of sub-categories will appear. That is where you write in your votes. There is a total of 103 categories. In order to submit a vote you must fill out at least 30 of the categories. To make it easier for you I'm providing a list of suggestions. Of course, you are more than welcome (and encouraged) to fill this out with your own choices. But we would greatly appreciate you putting The Mather Company as your favorite Real Estate Company and Charlie Mather in as your favorite Real Estate Agent.

Alright, so here is the link to go vote: http://www.thestate.com/bestof/

And here is our list of suggestions:

Entertainment
Art Gallery - Columbia Museum of Art
Children’s Entertainment - EdVenture
Museum - State Museum

Food & Drink
Barbecue - Little Pigs
Brunch – DiPratos
Burgers – Pawleys Front Porch
Chicken – Zaxbys
Chinese - Miyos
Deli - Grouchos
Family Dining with Kids - Cracker Barrel
Fast Food - Chickfila
Hot Dog - Sonic
Ice Cream - Marble Slab
Mexican - Jalisco
New Restaurant - Cookout
Pizza - Mellow Mushroom
Salad - California Dreaming
Seafood - Blue Marlin
Southern - Lizards Thicket
Steak - Blue Marlin
Sushi - Miyos
Wings - Carolina Wings

Shopping
Art Supply/Craft Store - Creative Sewing Machine Center (this is where Vanessa works)
Childrens Clothing - Once Upon a Child
Gamecock Store - Garnet and Black Traditions
Jewelry Store - Moseleys

Service
Dance Studio - Gilbert Studio of Dance Arts (this is Vanessa's Mom's dance studio)
Dentist - Ben Jett
Heating and AC Service - Carolina Conditions
Law Firm - Law Office of Talley Lattimore
Pest Control - 1st Choice Exterminating
Photographer - Photos by JeeJee
Plumbing - Palmetto Plumbing of West Columbia
Insurance Agent - Morgan Faulkenberry
Real Estate Company - The Mather Company
Real Estate Agent - Charlie Mather

Voting ends on May 31. So please vote before then. And please pass this on to everyone you know and encourage them to vote for our company and Charlie! Thank you all so much for taking the time to do this for us! We really appreciate it!

Praying to Foster Care

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:39:00 +0000

Hart and I have been waiting on the adoptions side of DSS for over 7 months now. Before that we had gone through almost 8 months of paperwork to get to the final approval process. Needless to say, it feels like forever.

During this silent wait, we have met some really wonderful friends, the Harris family. They felt God calling them to become foster parents. Literally the week they got approved they got placed with a little girl that is not yet ready for adoption, but an adoption plan is about to begin. You can read Abbie's story here.

Watching them juggle through "should they" "shouldn't they" foster and then seeing how God has brought a beautiful sweet little girl to their family so quickly, it definitely encouraged Hart and I to consider fostering more deeply, to lift it to God, to open our hearts to it and pray if it was right for us.

Believe us, we have come up with every excuse NOT to do it. But there is still a small voice leading us there.

Believe us, we are seriously SCARED TO DEATH about it, but we are pushing through our fears and praying that God will help us in each moment as we now venture into becoming foster parents.

We have currently decided that we are going to continue pursuing foster care unless God shuts the door closed, like if I were to become pregnant, or some other issue were to arise that we were unable to do it.

We are truly clinging to God's grace and praying He will make us ready for the task at hand.

Please pray that God will help us through the next several weeks as DSS approves us as foster parents. Due to the fact that we are already approved and have an active home-study with them, it is much quicker to the approval process. The need for foster parents is so real that we expect to be called quickly. Our age range is still only 0 - 2 years, but the risk is much higher that the child will be re-unified to their birth family. This could mean that we may be placed with a child that then has to leave us. While I selfishly pray that they never do have to leave us, I know that this could be a reality and we need to be prepared for it.

Please pray that God will bring to us the child that we are to adopt via foster care and that he will do this right away! Pray that this child will be protected and guarded from whatever terrible issues DSS is having to remove them from.

Please pray that our heart issues will be resolved by the Holy Spirit. That our fears would not inhibit us to love deep the children God brings our way.

Please pray that the child God brings will get along with Cai with ease and that they will be sweet siblings whether for a short time OR in our forever family!

We cherish your prayers! Would you get on your knees and pray for us right now?

Love in Christ,
The Traylors

Cai's First Fishing "Trip"

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sat, 04 May 2013 15:10:00 +0000

Cai had his first fishing "trip" last week! Hart and I had a date night and Cai spent the night with my mom and Bear Bear. The next morning, they went to our friends land at Barber Photography's studio, where they have a man-made pond full of fish outside! Being family friends, they let them go fishing and they caught LOTS of fish! Cai LOVED it!

My step-dad "Bear Bear" has waited 2.5 years for this moment!!! My mom bought Cai a shirt that says "Knee High to a Grasshopper!" to celebrate!

Of course, mommy also used this time as a cute little photo shoot for a new hand-made by mommy vest.

Fishing wore him out!

Is this not the cutest little place to have had your first fishing "trip"?

It's very hobbit-esque, isn't it?!

I'm very thankful to my Bear Bear for taking his grandson fishing for the first time! He loved it!

Hart's 28th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:23:00 +0000

Hart turns 28 on Friday, May 3rd! Hannah and Mike came down this week, so last night we celebrated Hart's birthday dinner a little early with family and some friends!

The kids wanted to put their feet in the pool.

Well, you know how that goes...

Before long they were DRENCHED in the 71 degree pool water! Clothes sopping wet!

Pure bliss!

They loved throwing these duckies into the pool and asking us to retrieve them with the pool net skimmer!

Turner got some love from Mrs. Gail AND his doggy Bailey!

We ate a delicious birthday dinner of Hart's choosing: Palmetto Cheese hamburgers, sweet potato fries, fruite, and of course his favorite cake ever... Home-made German Chocolate Cake made with love by ME! I make this fancy cake every year from scratch for my love! He would eat the whole thing if I'd let him!

It was a special time!

Happy Birthday, HART!!!! We love YOU!

Back To Blogging! Park Time with Daddy!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:49:00 +0000

Good photos go hand-in-hand with blogging for me! I'm just not going to put the extra blogging time in, if I don't have pretty pictures! I probably shouldn't be that way! My dslr crashed a few months ago and after saving and hunting for an awesome deal, God provided! One of my brothers who works at Target found a Black Friday DSLR kit (2 lenses, bag, SD card) for a Canon T3!!! God is amazing! We were just about to pay over $100 more for a used next model up version of this camera! So blessed and thankful for this new camera!!!

I can take great family photos again, worth spending the money right there for me, and I am just so thankful for God for all the material blessings he provides for us! Mini-van, Dslr... baby... no, wait... can't check that off yet! Hopefully, this adoption will happen sometime this summer, right!? God's time. God's time!

Look how HOTT (two T's) my husband is... no wait... don't sin... just *note* how his belly is shrinking because I've made him give up processed sugar! He whines and complains, but he's losing weight and he's happy about it... Pictures don't lie!

Now to the point of this blog post! We went to lunch with Hart today, and I tried out the new super zoom lens as I call it! The 75 - 300mm! I was sitting across the park on a bench and able to shoot these photos of my guys playing!

Cai climbed all the way up one of those jungle things all by himself and I got underneath him. Pictures like these next few mean the world to a mama!

I love this little baby face!

He climbed the jungle thingy all buy himself without falling and then fell once on top of the play ground... uh oh!

This child ALWAYS completely loses it at the first sign of pain. It takes kisses and love to make anything better. He wanted a band-aid for his face! ha!

Hart had his turn at being the photographer, too!

Cai loves "eee-gloos" right now... (igloos). He loves to turn our papasan chair over on our porch and climb under it and say it's an igloo. Well, fun deal, this Columbia park has an "eee-gloo" as he calls them.

Adoption news: no news... it's been 6 months (just about) waiting! We've decided to commit becoming Foster Parents to prayer, but have NO idea if God will move that way in us yet. Will you pray for us, too? We've been told over and over again that it's the fastest way to get young children in DSS. It also comes with the understanding that our home *COULD* be a temporary home for the child placed in it. Foster parents get the first choice to adopt the children in their home and you get to know the children in your home, before making any major decisions, but with that could mean we fall head over heels and then have to say good-bye. Becoming Foster Parents would mean we would stay on the Adoptions side at DSS to be considered AND be considered on the Foster Care side, as well. We don't want to be driven by fear of losing the children in our home if we go this route. We don't want to rush God's timing for this adoption. We want his perfect plan! All we are doing at this point is praying over it. Sometimes the very thing you say you will never do, is the very thing God calls you to. We are praying for the One who directs our paths to show us the way to go! We know He will! Please keep praying for us!

Traylor Family Changes: For the BETTER!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:19:00 +0000

Here are some areas that God is working on me and our family. I share them in hopes that they will encourage some of you out there as well!

A SEWING/BLOGGING BALANCE: Not all people struggle with this, but I do. I always have if I am honest. I've been working on this lately and you may have noticed, I'm blogging a bit less, if you read my sewing blog, Designs By Sessa, than my past norm. It's true, maybe you've read that Google is getting rid of their reader in July 2013? Well, I think they are onto something! Blogging is actually phasing out. Or at least it is for me. While I love blogging, I've realized the immense amount of time I would put into it, working up some imaginary "grow your blog" ladder, and I realized that I'd rather be more present with my family and a better real life friend. I'd rather cuddle in the morning with Cai than write a blog post, and I'd rather find new ways to grow as a person, than feeling some weird pressure to always have something new sewing-wise to put in front of my readers. I love my readers!

I just knew I needed to be a better mom and wife in real life. I'm praying that will be reflected on all the blogs, but I'm just over presenting some imaginary perfection that doesn't exist in this life. How many times did I "arrange something this way or that" just so it would "look" better. When my DSLR died, I knew that God was telling me to just stop and rest from this whole blogging thing for awhile. Stop hiding behind the camera, and be in the action. Be present, open, and imaginative with my child. Take a break from all the tutorials that take so much time! I won't stop blogging completely. Just in moderation... which brings me to my next issue!

FOOD/Healthier Habits: Did you know it's kind of a trend to get rid of processed foods and sugar and eat healthy? Well, Hart and I are sort of late to the game. We eat "pretty healthy" compared to some, but I think if we are honest, we eat a lot of junky stuff on a typical basis, too. I don't flip things over and read how many ingredients are in something, or grab organic over something else. In fact, I have a hard time paying more for something period when it comes to our tighter grocery shopping budget. I am NOTORIOUS for sneaking my hand in the kitchen cabinet and grabbing a handful of whatever chocolate I have stashed there DAILY, especially at night. It's been an addiction. I am a sugar-a-holic. I admit it and I need change. Well, God is doing just that in not just me, but my husband, too, which in turn affects our son Cai.

Look mom... hummus is fun when you put it all over your hands!

Hart and I have been talking about how food is something that we so often don't want to give up to God! We like food. We like being able to eat what we want. Self control? What's that!? Food has been one little area where we've just thought, "Oh, we're fine. Those health nuts eat right and tell the rest of us what to do. Who cares if you have sugar everyday? It's my body. I can do what I want!" But God says, that if you're a Christian, your body is a living temple, holy and pleasing to God. Sure, there is complete freedom in Christ, but does that mean we just treat our bodies like they are nothing special and fill them up with junk?

A big fat NO!

We've given up sugar, except on Sundays, and we are trying to eat more veggies, more whole foods. It's going to give us a kick in the booty and hopefully get us better in shape!

Two blogs encouraging to me right now: From the Nato's Sugarless series and 100 Days of Real Food.

Our Marriage: Hart and I are working on bettering our marriage through Christ! It's easy with a kid to get side tracked and busy and not put enough into our own marriage, but we've set up regular date nights and are trying to spend more time together in the evenings NOT watching TV and better our marriage together. We're also seeing a Christian counselor a couple times a month for some marriage building type stuff and to work through some of our struggles and it's exciting how God is shaping us more into ONE through these things! I think it's true that EVERYONE needs counseling. Hart and I laughed while watching Fireproof where one of the main characters says this! It's totally true! Have your watched Fireproof, lately?! It's such a good movie! Hart and I watched it together again and enjoyed it so much!

date night with my man at Takosushi (a really crowded, overpriced, but yummy food option)

I hope you've enjoyed this little update and that seeing how God is changing our family will inspire change in you! All around we are aiming to honor God better in our lives, spend more time with him in the mornings, and become a closer knit family because of Christ's amazing love!

Fun Easter photos to come, I'm sure!

Up to the Mountain to Pray

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:59:00 +0000

Thanks Lauren B. for the photo!

I went to the most amazing women's retreat with my church in the mountains of North Carolina this last weekend. I learned so much about control and fear/anxiety taught by the amazing Stacy Hill, but mostly, it was so wonderful because the Holy Spirit met me there and renewed my walk with him.

I was on my knees thinking, "Lord, here I am and yet you are not here. You say, 'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.' I got on my knees, where are you, Lord? I'm sorry I haven't been running after you. I surrender all that I am to you."

Just in the moment when I thought God wouldn't show, he came. In a song, but the words went straight to my heart.

Here I am down on my knees again (I literally was!)

Surrendering all, surrendering all

Find me here

Lord as you draw me near

I'm desperate for You

Desperate for You

I surrender

I surrender, I surrender

I want to know You more

Drench my soul as mercy and grace unfold

I hunger and thirst

With arms stretched wide

I know you hear my cry

Speak to me now

Like a rushing wind Jesus breathe within

Lord have Your way

Lord have Your way in me

Like a mighty storm stir within my soul

Lord have Your way

Lord have Your way in me

It's the song "I Surrender" by Matt Crocker a Hillsong Publishing, but I had never heard it before.

On Saturday, I was laying on a grassy area of this mountain looking out over the valley basking in the sunshine with the beautiful mountains in the distance. It was perfect weather and the sunshine was so warm and wonderful! As I was laying still before the Lord, I could hear the wind rolling up the mountain. I could hear it long before I felt it wash over me.

I was reminded of God's grace. Like the rushing wind that rolls up the mountain, often times we hear it or have heard about it, but we don't always let ourselves be washed in it. Sometimes God's grace just pours over us and we can feel it, just like the soft brush of the wind.

I didn't realize how much I would need the physical reminder of God's grace on that mountain. Literally, I felt like Moses who went up to the mountain to pray and when he came down he had to face all kinds of various trials.

But even as the toughest of trials come, I can remember God's grace. I can feel it wash over me. I can walk in it, hearing it before it comes, and know that God is more powerful than the darkest sin. God is more amazing than I can ever tell and he mets us right where we are. In the hurt. In the joy. In the deepest pit.

Jesus takes us by the hand and lifts us up! (Matthew 9:27)

This Sweet Boy!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 03:41:00 +0000

Cai is almost 2.5 years old! Next week, he will be 2.5! Honest to goodness, I love where we are at with him! He's SO fun! He's so into playing, especially with power rangers (still!), and loves to have fun and he's constantly making us laugh!

I've been really thinking a lot about my God-given role as his mama! Maybe more on this another day! Reading "The Mission to Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson has got me focused a little more lately, as well as starting a new Bible study on the book "Desperate: Hope for the mom that needs to breathe!" by Sally Mae and Sally Clarkson! Really great mommy reads for those interested!

I love seeing how he's growing and learning! We've started reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to him in Spanish! Well, I read it in Spanish, and then Hart reads it in English each night. Sometimes he will say, "No, mommy, just talk like mommy." It's funny how much he does NOT like me speaking to him in Spanish, but I just tell him that we are going to learn new things and he will eventually understand me! I am, by no means, very good at Spanish like I used to be in college, but as we are delving back into it, I am remembering it more and more! I've got several different children's books and I've been reading those to him, as well, and he already knows some basic words like "agua" "hola" "adios" "nina" "vaca-cow" "toro - bull" among some others.

Cai's got his little quirks which we find hilarious, as parents only can. For one, he loves to take the monogrammed portion of his blue blanket and rubs it on his face while sucking his thumb. He's also started offering to do it on our faces to soothe us. It's pretty cute! It's funny to me that it has to be that particular section. He will turn his blanket until he finds that one little corner. (These are things I must note for ONE DAY reflecting back!) That and he loves putting on his bathrobe about his bath!

{I apologize for the blurry-ish iphone photos! I am currently living without a dslr. It's rough when you've been used to it's amazing-ness and great photo quality!}

The kid can multi-task! Here he is eating and playing with his tablet.

Hart is such a sweet daddy! They play together a lot!

Cai made a "house" out of the hall closet and took all his power rangers in there with daddy! It's funny to me how much Cai loves putting things inside of other things...

Like the other day he spent 15 minutes putting as many power rangers and animals in my pockets as possible. Then he would take them all out. I find his toys under his rug in his room, under blankets. He loves to hide his items in places!

Ya know... even the hall laundry basket!

Other cheesy cute faces that must be shared!

Goodness he is a precious child! We truly thank God for him! My favorite is seeing him grow in Christ. One day I was cleaning some stuff up in the house and Cai came up to me and told me that he "cried out to Jesus". His wording made me laugh and stopped me. We had a little converstation and I asked him, "Oh, really. What did you cry out to Jesus for?"
Cai- "I just talked."
Me - "What did you talk to Jesus about?"
Cai - "I told him about my power rangers."
Me- "Cool! What did Jesus say about your power rangers?"
Cai - "He said they were good guys."

LOL! It's so fun seeing him have a desire to just naturally pray and what a sweet learning moment for mommy to see the realness that exists between us and Jesus! God recently brought to my attention verse 2:19 in Lamentations. It's something like "Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord" (my paraphrase). That imagery of water being poured out is so sweet! Let's gush out all that we have, like a 2 year old can in the presence of Jesus!

Cai is already talking about his 3rd birthday... you guessed it... he'd like it to be power ranger themed. I'm not sure I can handle thinking that he will be 3 in 6 months! Nope... NOWAY! I'm ready for baby #2 sometime in the near future, because he is just growing on up!

We haven't heard any "good" news yet concerning the adoption. We've been a waiting family since October, so we are in our 5th month waiting now. I can tell my social worker wants us to think about fostering, because most of the young children get placed into foster homes and then adopted, but this is a special calling. You have to be prepared to say good-bye because the goal is reunification with the birth family. 60% of children get adopted by their foster parents. Apparently getting small children through SC DSS is pretty tough right now (her words). There just aren't a lot of young children available for adoption and it's a great thing, but she has around 600 families on her case load! My social worker's exact words were that she still had families waiting from 2010 in our age range. We truly have complete hope and trust in God that he will bring our Beloved at just the right time. We KNOW he will. Please keep us in your prayers. We know God does abundantly more than we could ever ask or hope for! We know families that have been waiting for over a year and families that got called right away! While I get eager to grow our family, God is ultimately in control! We trust in Him! God will bring Beloved!

FREE MUSIC!!! Page CXVI / The Autumn Film Jubilee

noreply@blogger.com (Hart Traylor) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:56:00 +0000

Hey everyone, it's Hart. It's been a while since I've posted, and unfortunately it'll probably be a while before I post again. But Vanessa does a wonderful job of keeping this thing updated so I'm not worried! But the reason I'm posting is because I wanted to share a way to get some really good music for FREE! The bands giving away the music are Page CXVI and The Autumn Film. The thing is, these 2 bands are actually 1 in the same. Here's a blurb from them explaining:

"After forming The Autumn Film, an indie-pop trio from Colorado, band members Reid and Latifah Phillips and Dann Stockton created their alter ego band, Page CXVI, to focus on re-imagining old hymns. The name is drawn from the page number in The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, the brilliant passage where Aslan begins to sing Narnia into creation out of a black void. According to Relevant Magazine, '...(Page CXVI's) genius is in making the compositions as thoughtful as the lyrics.'

As the band celebrates seven years of crafting music as The Autumn Film and Page CXVI, they are giving away their catalog - from both bands - for the entire month of March. Eleven albums, seventy-four songs, two bands. Think of it as a Jubilee. Think of it as a sweet springtime gift. Think of it as something to share with your friends."

There stuff is really great. I've been enjoying their music for probably about 4 years now. And I highly recommend at least downloading the hymns because that stuff really rocks. And pass this on to your worship leaders and pastors. Our church has incorporated several of their versions of hymns. In fact I bet their version of Rock of Ages may be one of our most popular songs we do at Crossroads Downtown. Anyways, go download this music so you can enjoy it. It really is free! All you have to do is provide an email address. Also, spread the word, pass this on, so other people can enjoy this music and so this band can gain more exposure. But be quick, all of their music is only free for the month of March!

Go here to download the music: http://www.pagecxvi.com/jubilee

Our "New" Honda Odyssey!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:31:00 +0000

God gave us our MINIVAN!!!

Thank you for all the prayers, cars lended, and money given. We are truly thankful! We are still so in awe of how quickly it happened this past Thursday after months as a one car family! And we praise God for it all!

This past weekend, my spirits had been lower than ever. Then, on Sunday, God gave me hope through some dear friends. They had given me a bag of sewing supplies at church to have and in the bottom of the bag was a note about how God had laid it on their hearts to give some money to us. I just broke down crying in our kitchen!

I have read about how God does this for other people all the time, but us? It has been such a hard time for our young family and it has been hard to be encouraged! But God was encouraging me that there would be hope! Hope for a car. Hope for Beloved. Hope in God! It's amazing how such a small thing can reassure us, but it does!

A few weeks ago now, we found a 2009 Honda Odyssey at the Honda dealership in Lexington. It was pouring down rain and we went to look at it, but at the time it was over $17K. We knew this was too much, but maybe they would be willing to work with us. We couldn't test drive it, since it was raining so hard, but we absolutely loved it, inside and out. When we went to sit down, Cai peed on me, hilariously enough, so I had to get up right as we were starting to talk negotiations. When I came out of the bathroom, Hart was waiting for me and he told me it was time to go. I was so confused! They wouldn't budge AT ALL? Don't you negotiate when buying cars anymore? Apparently this dealership is trying to change that! It felt wrong to leave... I mean, that was MY minivan! But we left.

Fast forward to this past week which had been plain busy. And on Thursday morning, I had actually emailed with another person we found via Craigslist about their van. Hart didn't feel good about that particular deal and he looked around online again. He saw the same van we'd looked at in the rain fo $1000 less. The dealership still had this van and was getting desperate to give it to us. We decided to call and see if it was still there.

It was indeed still there and we went to test drive it after Hart got off work. You see, people... sometimes we can't see God working behind the scenes! But he does work. It's his timing NOT our own.

Hart and I realized we were going to have to finance some of the van, but our goal was to have at least half down, more if possible. We went into the dealership with our whole game plan. Hart was the "bad cop" I was the "good cop". We weren't taking NO for an answer! This was OUR van, people!!! I told the guy on the phone that I knew this was our van and that we were coming!

It took some wheelin' and dealin' and if it weren't so late in the day, we do feel like we could have gone a little lower, but baby boy was tired and getting fussy, so we finally settled on a price.

We got our van for $16,500.

God has allowed us to save and have the money of $8K.

We financed the last $8,500. But we got a wonderful interest rate of 2.1%, because apparently Hart and I have some pretty amazing credit! Thank God!

We do have a small car payment right now ($150/mo), but with my extra income working part-time, we are praying and hoping that we can knock this debt out as fast as possible.

I personally feel so relieved, because we have a reliable car again. Our other car is a 1994 Honda Accord, which has been an amazing little car, but now we know we can take longer trips and that his van should last us quite a long time. Plus, Hart can show clients in it, if needed! They will have plenty of space! Haha!

It also is proving to be quite the little "missional minivan" or "servin' wagon" as my friends, Kitty and Carla like to call it!

It's first Sunday to church I had 5 kids in this blessing van! Had we not had this minivan, I would have had to tell my sweet neighbor girls that I couldn't take them to church this week, because I was keeping the Leong boys. That's something I could just cry over with God's goodness!

Our joke is now let's "fill it ups with bab-ezz".

We are expecting Beloved to come now anytime in the near future! And have no hesitations we have room for them to ride! :)

I can't 'member' face

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

So, Hart realized that whenever he would ask Cai a question, he's started doing this specific face and often he will say, "I can't member it." We finally got this recorded on video and in photos, because we think it's quite hilarious to try to ask him lots of questions to get him to make this exact face. It's just so serious that we find it hilarious.

We make up all sorts of really random questions to see if we can get him to make this face! Are we weird parents?! Don't answer that!

Sometimes we just say, "Cai... make your 'I can't remember face."'

He caught onto our scheme though and said, "Nooo! I can't do it!"

Silly boy!

Like Father Like Son

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:30:00 +0000

I made Cai and Hart matching Father/son shirts for our Christmas card photo this last year. I blogged about it on Designs By Sessa, but these photos are just so precious to me and I plan to make a blog book, so I want to do a post here, as well.

I love seeing Hart be a daddy to Cai. They just melt my heart when I see them together!

I love these boys with all my heart! Our prayer is that Cai does grow up to be a sweet husband and father like his Daddy, who seeks Jesus daily!

Blue Couch Photos: Traylor Family

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

It's becoming a little Traylor tradition to take photos on the Blue couch at Hart's parent's house. It's fun to see us grow and change!

Jan. 2011 - 1st Blue Couch Photo - Naomi and Cai ~4 months

January 2013 - Naomi and Cai, 2 years Turner, 3 months

Praying Beloved makes the next Blue Couch photos!

Cai's BFF: Thatcher

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

In December, I kept Thatcher while his mommy, one of my best friends, had his little brother Crosley. Crosley ended up having some apnea complications and had to go into the NICU for several days, so we literally kept Thatcher for like 6 days... maybe it was just 5, but it was definitely a good little chunk of the week! The thing was... y'all I cannot keep ANYBODY's kid that long, really. Usually after a day, I am pulling my hair out. But Thatcher is different, because Thatcher is Cai's best friend, and you stick them in a room together and they literally babysit themselves! They are so happy together playing, except when I heard Cai bashing T over the head with his microphone. That wasn't so good, but I promise you, that was like the worst thing that happened all week. These little boys were having a blast and they did everything, but sleep in the same bed, which they did ask to do.

Plus... Thatcher has a way of putting a spell on me. He's got some charm, I tell ya.

I took T to meet Crosley for the first time, along with Cai.

He had to have a little monogrammed hat from us, of course.

(See...Charlie Robnett... I need to know little boy's name... because I'm pretty sure Erskin Alfred would be weird on your baby hat. Just sayin')

Those newborns are so tiny!

All 3 "brothers" haha

Thatcher did great with little Crosley until he REALIZED that Crosley was really his new brother and suddenly he did NOT want Crosley. This is perhaps my absolute most favorite moment ever.

Oh and how could I forget this LITTLE detail... Crosley was born on 12-12-12 at 12:12 PM... NO LIE Y'ALL. How cool is that!?

Some daddy 'washing machine' cheered him up and he was ready to be okay with Crosley.

It was sweet to witness the newness of this family of four.

Because it will never be the same...

ever.

Uncle Hunter and Cai

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

My brother Hunter stopped in for a visit in December, so I could take some photos of him to put on his mission's letter he was sending out. He's going to be doing summer missions with Kingdom Building Ministries! It's been so neat to see God save my littlest brother, the spiritual growth there, and to see his desire to go on the mission field. If you would like to donate to his trip, you can actually do that here. He's currently at 25% of his support and we trust God will continue to bring in the rest!

And just to freak you out... have you guys ever done that face juggler app on the iphone? It's freaky and hilarious... here is Hunter and Cai switched!

Bahaha....I know... so weird, and funny! lol

Traylor New Year: Sparklers and Cute Cousins

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Over New Years, Hannah and Mike brought Naomi and Turner up to spend some quality time together! If there is one thing I've learned from the Traylor side, it's that we LOVE and cherish our family time!

It's been sweet to see all 3 cousins interact, even if Turner was asleep half the time! He's such a cutie!

Cai and turner were matching one night, so the camera had to come out, of course!

This sweet boy brings a bright spot to our days! He's such a happy, easy going little boy!

On New Year's Eve, Hart and Mike went and got us some Sparkler's and some fireworks to shoot off! The kids had a lot of fun! Naomi kept whipping her sparkler around everywhere and Cai just held his straight out!

Cheers to a happy New Year!

Riding the Pony at the Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Hart gets the whole week off around Christmas. Since we had no huge travel plans this year, we went to the zoo as a family one day! It was lots of fun! The only thing I really documented was Cai riding the pony, because I have yet to do this!

He's very serious about it and he obeys really well keeping his hands on the saddle.

It's so fun watching Cai love to do new things! We are VERY thankful for our zoo membership! Thanks, PaPa for all the year round fun!

December PaPa Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

It's always special when my dad comes to visit! This time we got him and Rebecca, and we had a great time together.

The first full day together, we headed up to Sumter, SC to see the wedding venue with Tyler.

Tyler and Ann-Marie will be getting married at this neat plantation in Sumter! Only a couple months away now! Can't believe my little brother is getting married! Love it! So does Cai!

Dad and Ty practiced their wedding sword "machine" tradition (sorry for the white balance problem).

Then, the rest of the visit was focused on spending time together in sweet ways.

We went to my Grandpa and Nana's and celebrated Christmas together!

Cai got his own special spot.

Great Grandpa and Cai

Grady got Cai an electric guitar and microphone!

Ann-Marie made these cute little brownie santa hats- something from pinterest! They were delicious! I think they should be a yearly tradition!

Cai got a slide for Christmas from PaPa and Be-kah, so the next day, Cai enjoyed being the "man" and "helping".

We enjoyed play time outside together before PaPa had to go on the last day.

Cai trying out the slide.

And then Uncle Tyler had to try out the slide...

Umm... a little too big, Unc!

Love you, Daddy! Glad we got to spend time with you and Rebecca! Come again soon!

Tella-Croi-S'Mores Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

You say "WHAT!?"

Tella-Croi-S'mores are AMAZING and a little Traylor family invention (on Hart's part!) I thought he was crazy when he whipped up this little concoction.

It does not disappoint!

All you need is:

-Cresent Rolls
-Nutella
-Marshmellows

Roll open the dough like normal. Spread nutella on half of the croissant, plop a few marshmellows in there and roll 'em up. Bake as directed for rolls.

Tella-Croi-S'mores.

Enjoy!

Yum!

No-la-la Play date

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

The day after my unforgettable 27th birthday, Nola and Cai had a little ~~play~~ date.

They played with some hats. It was adorbs, as usual.

I love my sweet friend and little No-la-la.

I made Nola her little Christmas skirt. Cutie patootie bootie.

We did some swinging by the lake.

Little Miss Nola just did NOT want to get off the swings!

I had to post this photo because she's so cute in her little sweater jacket crying! haha!

I love her crafty talented mama and her bow clip skills.

We played "Stick" toss.

The time we get to spend with Steph and Nola is always sweet and WAY too short!

Can't wait til baby Erskin Alfred Robnett is born!

{No, Erskin Alfred Robnett is not his real name. Charlie is being a punk and won't let Stephanie tell me his name... SO um... I'm gonna call him Erskin Alfred until I know his name. Please tell me I didn't guess it!}

Staff Christmas Party

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Before Christmas, we actually went to our church's staff Christmas party, because Hart is considered Staff with being on the Music Team. Hart and I did NOT communicate, and I never once read the invite, because they only sent it to Hart. He told me that it was at "Saluda" something.

Y'all I thought he meant, Saluda Shoals Park. So we left a little bit later than we had wanted to get to Saluda Shoals. When we got to the gate, we told the guy what we were there for he and he let us in free and we drove past ALL the people looking at Christmas lights up to the area he pointed us to. That's when I got confused. NONE of the people looked like Crossroads people. In fact, there were quite a lot of elderly people in wheel chairs, but we went inside anyways, because clearly the guy at the gate knew that we were there for this party, RIGHT?????

Long story short. We were in the WRONG place. The ACTUAL party was across town at this beautiful lodge called the Saluda River Club.

We got back in our car and got stuck looking at all the Christmas lights (which we tried to have fun with because well, we were stuck AND got to do it for Free), but were frustrated of course that we were going 2 mph looking at Christmas lights when we needed to be somewhere else!

{insert discussion about how we REALLY needed smartphones because holy cow we couldn't look anything up and all the people we needed to talk to were not answering their phones}

When we finally made it (REALLY late!), it was a nice party and I loved the setting. The pastors shared how God has been using their individual campuses and it was neat to join together in prayer and also have some s'mores by a fire, of course!

Christmas 2012 - The Gifts and Family

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:16:00 +0000

Does anybody else enjoy making Christmas cookies? Cai LOVED it!

We used lots of Sprinkles and he and daddy had fun making that snowman up there!

We woke up Christmas Morning and enjoyed our own little tradition of gift opening together - just the 3 of us.

I barely took any photos this year! WhAt!? was I thinking? Yo-no-se-senor! I do know Cai thoroughly enjoyed advent, Christmas, and present opening. Hopefully, he learned about Jesus and the reason for it all in there, too.

Cai got SO many presents this year. It was just crazy. I think we bought him 4 books this last Christmas, because the grandparents had some fun this year! Dear fam... there is a limit next year! haha! This really was the first Christmas he understood and loved everything. So it was really fun!

We had Hart's parents over for brunch and opened a few gifts with them!

We then went out to my mom's house and spent the rest of Christmas with them! It was fun! As you can tell Cai did NOT want to wear the wig that came with Madagascar 3 movie! Uncle Hunter did!

We sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus" and had cake.

Hopefully that wraps up the 'Christmas photos' I've been meaning to share! I'm sure my writing would have been more meaningful had I actually posted these 2 months ago! :)

My 27th Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:30:00 +0000

Y'all I had the funniest 27th birthday party EVER! I think God was telling me I'm WAY too old to be having birthday parties!

Yearly, I invite friends to eat with me at Miyo's. We made the mistake of choosing the Harbison location. Here's some back ground:

Imagine fighting insane traffic to get the restaurant, because everyone and their mother was out shopping for Christmas presents that evening! (My birthday is the 21st of December FYI!) Then, their restaurant is disgusting because you are right next to a cigar shop and it REEKED of smoke in their party room and bathrooms. It was freezing cold because they didn't have ANY heat in the party room. Everyone literally wore their coats the whole night and coughed because of the smoke! The waiter dropped a whole glass of water and it shattered all over the floor next to my pregnant BFF, Steph, who's poor fetus had to deal with the yucky stench. I mean... you get the picture. On top of all that my favorite cake of all is a Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake! So after shivvering through the whole dinner, they delivered my MELTED cake to our table and we all ate it IN THE COLD!

It was hilarious. And one I will remember forever! And probably the last...

This guy enjoyed the melted cake though... I'm just going to focus on HIS birthdays from now on! lol

What was funny about the cake was that I had seen it right when Hart picked it up. I KNEW how pretty it looked fresh from Marble Slab... When they brought my cake out, they had tried to mask the cake with whip cream to cover up it's melted state from lack of putting it in the freezer (even though we had asked them to). While everyone was singing me "Happy Birthday" I kept saying... "Y'all but this is NOT my cake!" I had to push my finger around in the whip cream to try to see if it actually had my name on it, because really it DID NOT look like MY CAKE! Hahahaha!

I love my sweet husband for doing all he could to make this birthday a special one despite all the hilarious-ness that took place!

And no matter how funny a birthday it was... it's always amazing when I get to spend it with my bestest of friends who I don't get to see very often!

Thank you sweet family for all my gifts and for making this a fun birthday! And thank you Steph for all the pictures I just stole off your blog post here.

Potty Trained - YAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:22:00 +0000

We are actually potty trained and only using diapers for naps and nighttime!!!! YAY!!! We are SO proud of Cai! If you had asked me last week, if we would be potty trained this week, I honestly would have laughed at you and said, "YEAH right!" I wasn't planning on doing potty training at all this week, but it happened (to my surprise)!

Back when Cai was 18 months, I really thought he was almost day time potty trained. I gave all sorts of tips and tricks for why we were almost there, and then we regressed, and to be honest, I kind of stopped thinking about it! Who knows why! We continued to use the potty daily a couple times a day, but he'd always go in his diaper if he had one on. I started to notice that if he happened to be naked he would run to the potty. He knew not to pee on the floor, especially after a lego peeing incident where he had quite a good time in his room and hosed down his entire mega block building collection and legos in his room! Let's just say, he learned his lesson, because this mama was NOT happy about having to clean all of that up!

I looked back over the 3 day potty training that I had read awhile back and this past Sunday started right after church. We took Cai's diaper off and let him go naked. He ran to his potty each time. On Tuesday, we let him wear some loose fitting pants/shorts starting as soon as he woke up. I was getting nervous, because he would pee just a little in his pants before realizing he needed to get to his potty, and I knew I had to work the next day, but by that afternoon, he'd figured out to not pee with pants on UNTIL going to the potty.

It was so funny, because on the second day, he woke up and came in our room saying he had to pee pee! The third morning he woke up, had pooped some in his diaper and first thing that morning had transfered his own poop to his potty in his room by himself. Thank God, it didn't get all over everything! That was quite a wake up call! We told him he shouldn't take his diaper off without us.

Apparently he didn't get the picture in our sleep stupor that this was not something we wanted him to do on his own, because when Hart's mom had put him down for a nap on Wednesday, Hart's mom had found him on the bed naked with his diaper taken off, and he was proudly beaming that he'd taken it off himself and had peed IN THE BED!!!! "LOOK, MIMI! I peed in my BED!"

Hart's mom could only laugh, because he was SO proud of his little accomplishment! Haha!

Thankfully, he's figured out that peeing in the bed is wrong, especially when I made him rub baking soda into the mattress with a brush and I think we talked to him about it like 15 times over. He hasn't since taken his diaper off without us.

Cai's continuing to be diaper free, but with pants on (NO underwear yet). Apparently if they can go 3 months without wetting their pants, then you can switch to underwear. We will probably do this switch sooner, as 3 months seems a little overboard.

We've made several outings diaper free, and I just make sure he's gone to the nearest bathroom if we've been out for awhile. It is a little more work, but not too bad. Thankfully, he can pull his own elastic waist pants down on his own, so when we are home, he just pulls them off and runs over to his little potty and goes. He really has enjoyed his little Baby bjorn potty, but I will start getting him to go back on the big potty eventually.

I'm very thankful we are now using a total of 1 - 2 diapers a day compared to 6 - 8! He also woke up from his nap this afternoon dry! I was very surprised by that! He's so smart and we are so proud!

GO CAI!

(I hope you enjoyed out potty training saga! Ha!)

Traylor Instagram-ness

noreply@blogger.com (Vanessa@Designs By Sessa) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:58:00 +0000

I've discovered why I {heart} instagram so much... it helps me to be thankful for the small things. The things in life that I just wouldn't remember other-wise. As I capture small tid bits of our lives, I am thanking God for them!

Our friends, Charlie and Lauren, had Anna Kate. We visited them in the hospital. She is precious! We are so thankful for a safe, healthy mama and baby!

Cai's hilarious-ness continues to crack us up. He thinks it is out of this world funny to be naked in his bed after his bath!

I'm thankful for my handsome husband that fills this home with praise!

I'm thankful for his ability to use music as his gifts for the Lord!

It was beautiful this last week, and then got cold again. We enjoyed every bit of the warmth and ability to be outside on our porch. Hart hung up a hammock swing on our porch and we LOVE it and have been swinging in it almost everyday! We now have a total of 4 swings in our backyard! Can you tell we love swinging in this house!

I know it's silly to love a swing so much, but my best friend, Elizabeth & her mom, had one of these hammock swing chairs on their front porch and growing up, I LOVED to sit in it. I often felt close to God at their house and I'd think about my relationship with him in it. It brings back great memories that I cherish!

One day we went and had lunch with Hart this month, and met at a park to eat! It was really fun!

This boy makes me laugh... all I can say is the magic of free publix cookies while shopping where it's a pleasure!

I got my hair cut this month and have enjoyed it!

More to come on Beloved's Room progress and other Traylor family news!