Cabella is FOUR!

Cabella Lou 

Favorite Food - Meat, Eggs, Popcorn

Favorite Color - Purple

Favorite Thing to Do - Play Outside 

Wears Dresses Everyday

Bella is such a fun addition to our family. She is our rough and tumble girl who rarely fusses. 

She never wanders far which is such a joy for me. 

She is super brave and will try anything - which does make us nervous. 

Eats Anything. 

Family Comedian. 

Sleeps So Well. 

Mail from her Primary Teacher - Sister Chadbourne. 

This fancy gem from Pappy & Bubbe (Levi's parents)

Sibling Presents in Pajamas!
Also, Levi's mom sent her so many clothes which is SUPER nice because farm life doesn't seem to hold up to clothes very well. 

Coraline kept a secret for a long time - she got Bella
Calico Critters which is their new love. 

Nephi decorated Bella's present so sweet with her name/stickers and a bracelet he made for her. 

Bell family sent pajamas and a book that Clairana read to Bella over and over again yesterday. 

Bella LOVES the baby strollers - so we upgraded and got a double! 

Cecily proceeded to steal it when everyone was busy. 

Aunt Rene came over to drop off a present for Bella and Clairana made her a friendship bracelet from all the supplies she gave her for her birthday.


Then we did something magical that hasn't happened since last year. Thanks to Levi.

I had invited Jack and Jane and mom and Randy to come over to watch the kids play in Bella's new unicorn sprinkler for her birthday if they felt comfortable.

They accepted our invite which we were all so excited for company. Then we were sitting out on the front porch late one evening and Levi asked Bella who she would like to have come over if she could pick anyone and if the sickness wasn't around.

She picked her cousin, Reagan.

So in true Levi fashion he jumped up and walked over to the barn and made a phone call to my brother.
He said he was going to send out the invitation and let them decide.

They said YES.

This time in life has been SO exhausting on trying to figure out what decisions are the best ones.

This seems like such a small thing but after months of not having playmates or a get together from a family that was hosting multiple times a week it was perfect for everyone in our house.

We went to bed last night so full and happy that we all got to enjoy a night with loved ones.

Sprinkler Time, Campfire, Ice-cream,  Presents, Sunshine, Grandparents and Cousins.
Perfect.

Cecily and Eden were so fun to watch - like they hadn't seen someone their own size forever. 

Coraline, Ensley, & Reagan with Clairana and Grandparents in the background.
Clairana worked on friendship bracelets most of the night. 

No pictures of the grandparents I guess I was too busy taking pictures of little people. 

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My girlfriend sent this to me the other day and it seems so perfect for this time. I have felt these feelings about who we choose to see and how we interact with everyone. 

Judgement. Fear. Dark Enemies. 

Without these times of darkness, we would never realize that it is only the walk of faith that gets us through even the best of times. Those good times when we could pretend to know what was coming because we knew what has passed. 

The only light I have is faith. I almost said my faith, but to tell the truth, my faith is too weak for this journey. The faith I have today is a faith that has been bestowed on me by Christ. As I walk through the Valley I am aware that all around me others are also feeling their way to an exit. For some, the unseen enemy is right behind them whispering into their ears fear. Occasionally I hear one scream, “We are all going to die.”  But there are other demons about. When the powerful message of fear doesn’t work they pull out another insidious weapon: apathy. “Who cares?”  The ancients called this acedia. Fear and acedia are two arch enemies indeed. 

What looms even more terribly in this darkness is judgement, broken friendships, misunderstandings. We are all very hard on one another these days. It reminds me of the book of Judges in the Bible where everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The problem with that is that we all see things through different lenses. Maybe my neighbor isn’t trying to kill my grandmother as she walks down the street without a mask. Maybe she just sees through a different lens. Maybe the girl across the street doesn’t want a one-world government just because she is comfortable obeying the stay-at-home order.
Fear, acedia, judgement. How can we fight such dark enemies? We wrestle not against flesh and blood. When we don’t know which way to go; when we can’t know what is true; when we are tempted to point the finger at others, we do have a recourse. We can take our eyes off the darkness before us, off our neighbors, and off our own inward selves. We can, instead, do the one thing needful and gaze at Christ, steadily and continually, not daring to move our vision away from him for the least second, lest we sink like Peter did even while walking on the water.

We honestly don’t have to know what is true or who is true because we already live and move and have our being in the Truth and that truth is Christ. If you do not belong to Christ then today there is only one thing needful for sure. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. When we do that then we can walk by faith and not by sight. We can love our neighbors on both sides of the fence. We can rest from even our own selves, that nagging, intruding, insistent taskmaster in our heads. 

The light came into the darkness, my friend. We are free to put one foot in front of the other in confidence that the center will hold world without end.