Maternity Pics

Initially I didn't really care to take maternity pictures, then I changed my mind and decided I did want to do them, and then I ultimately decided that I didn't care to spend a bunch of money on them because I really just wanted them for the memory, not necessarily to hang in my house or anything. I definitely want to do newborn photos, so I decided to save for those instead. I planned to just ask my mom to take some photos, but she went out of town last week and won't be back until mid-June. So, I had to find a new plan. I knew I wanted to take them outside at Trevor's family land, so we ended up asking if his mom would take a couple. Again, I didn't want anything crazy fancy, I just wanted a couple pictures. Well, my sister-in-law offered to take a few instead because she just got a new fancy camera for Christmas and has been wanting to test it out. I am loving these photos! I'm so glad that we have these!

Trevor is really hoping for a 4th of July baby...so we had to do one with an American Flag! :)

Thank you Lauren for capturing these moments for us! So happy with how they turned out! Baby M, we are so excited to meet you and be your parents! You are seriously going to be so loved!!! For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted my request. 1 Samuel 1:27

Life Changes

I have been wanting to post about this for a while, but it is still a story that is unfolding in front of us, so it doesn’t really have an ending, but instead, just a beginning.

At the beginning of each year the past few years, Trevor and I have done some type of fast. We started small, just fasting from one or two things, then the last couple years we did the Daniel Fast, and then this year Trevor really wanted to challenge himself and he did a juice fast. His word for the year is health so that played a factor into choosing to do the juice fast, but there was more to it than just that. Trevor was getting a little restless, specifically in his career, but we weren’t sure what we needed to do or what next steps we needed to take. For instance, last June we thought there was a 90% chance we were moving to Edmond because Trevor was offered a job at Devon and I happened to stumble on a teaching job there as well. In the end, we decided that it was not the right move for us. So, when this fast came about, I believe it was half health and half spiritual. Trevor really wanted to pray over specific things, including his purpose, and be very intentional with his time.

During that time he didn’t really receive any “answers” right away, which, in the moment, can be frustrating. But, God doesn’t work within our time frame, which usually means he has far more up his sleeve than we will ever truly understand. The only thing Trevor really got during his fast was God repeatedly saying “trust me,” which again, seemed a little unsatisfying because he thought he was, which is why he was doing the juice fast.

The last weekend in January, a few days after Trevor’s fast ended, Life.Church was at the end of a series called Dangerous Prayers. The specific title of the last sermon was Break Me. It was a REALLY good sermon and we were both looking forward to this one! I was clinging to every word. When the service ended, Trevor and I were walking out and he was headed home and I had to stay to sing at the next service, Trevor said when I get home he wants to talk about the sermon. I was excited because it was so good and I had a lot to say! When I got home, I realized that was not what Trevor meant at all. I guess he really didn’t “hear” a word that was said during the sermon, but he was in this weird daydream. He said right when Craig started speaking, he didn’t hear a word that was said. He started having these visions of him doing a million and one different “jobs”. Here are some of the things he shared with me: taking a year off and building a house for us on his family land, working for a concrete company, going into business with his dad in the roofing business, building a church in Africa, quitting his job and doing missions work, going on a mission’s trip, etc. There were about 20 in total, but I’m drawing a blank. We really should have written them down! In the moment we really didn’t know what any of this meant, so we prayed over it for a few days. It finally dawned on us as we were sharing this with our LifeGroup that God was telling us, would you trust me if I asked you to pursue any of these avenues? We felt like that was an answer and a step forward, but again we weren’t sure of the exact next steps.

Neither of us can remember the exact day, but one day Trevor woke and said, I’m going to start my own business. It was a weird experience for me because there is definitely a lot of uncertainty when you start your own business and I didn’t even really have to ask him specific details without already feeling like this was the right move for us. This was a VERY different feeling for me in comparison to when we were looking at moving to OKC. I was a wreck the days that we were debating and preparing to make a decision. I cried a lot and just felt really uneasy. This was totally different, this was our next step and God really planted a sense of peace in both of us.

It was a little crazy over the next few days how everything fell into place. Trevor talked to his company about going part-time until we really got the business off the ground and running, on our way home from Kansas on Valentine’s Day weekend Trevor came up with a name – Armor Accounting, we got our home ready for an in-home office, several connections fell in our lap, the first two clients we reached out to said yes, we got shirts ordered, we got a couple personal loans for start-up costs, etc. It was honestly a little crazy how quickly everything took off. I can’t say I was much help since I was working full time at school and singing more than I ever had at Life.Church. It seemed like each and every day we just kept getting more and more confirmation that this was the path we were supposed to be on. Trevor had specifically been praying for his purpose and although we don't feel like his purpose is specifically accounting, we know that this business will help facilitate what God revealed to him. Trevor's purpose is to serve others. He wants to serve others by helping with their finances, personal or small business related, he wants to take that burden off of others and help them get back to what their business is specific to. If they are a roofing company, he wants to help them focus on what they know and love and he will take care of the office managerial stuff. That way these men/woman can have more time with their families or doing the things that they love and Trevor will take care of the rest! 

We officially launched March 15^th and have had a few hiccups along the way, but what startups don’t! Overall, things have been running smoothly.

What is Armor Accounting? We are a small accounting company that provides personalized financial guidance to local small businesses and individuals. Our expertise ranges from bookkeeping, basic tax management and accounting services to more in-depth services such as Xero and Quickbooks, financial statements, and payroll processing. If you are a small business in the Tulsa area, we would LOVE to meet and talk with your more about what we do! You can also visit our website – www.armoraccounting.com

How has this changed other aspects of our lives? Our lives are seriously about to be flipped upside down here in the next couple months – a baby due in July, trying to transition the business into a full time job, school ending, etc. I always thought I would continue teaching after we started a family because it truly is the most family friendly career. Plus, I LOVE my job! However, Armor Accounting has truly changed our lives and I am so excited for what the future has in store. As many of you know, I am a middle school math teacher and I am a vocalist at Life.Church in BA. I knew once I got pregnant that I couldn’t continue to do everything I was doing at school and continue down the path of taking more and more on at Life.Church AND be the wife and mom that I know God has called me to be. I literally went back and forth with this decision and prayed over this since before we were even pregnant. When it came down to having to make a decision, I knew I didn’t want to give up the time I was committing at Life.Church. Initially, this was a little scary because Trevor and I would be working completely opposite hours, which is great for childcare, but not so great for a marriage. When Trevor decided to start the business, I absolutely knew I made the right choice. He can kind of set his own hours/weekends which will allow us the quality time that we need and we won’t have to pay for childcare because we can help each other out at home and with a new baby when the other is working. I can’t say we have it all figured out because the baby isn’t here yet, but I know that God has placed both of these places in our lives because this is what we were called to do.

Leaving teaching is definitely bittersweet for me because I was literally at the best school, with the best co-workers and the BEST partner! I had some of the most talented students these past two years and that is making it an even tougher decision! I know they would be moving on to 8^th grade this year and I wouldn’t be their teacher even if I decided to stay, but they will truly be missed!

I cannot wait to meet the new addition to our family, and I am so excited to see how God is going to work in and through our lives with the new business. Anyone knows that with owning your own business, finances can be a little scary; but I know that it is going to help us have more dependence and trust in God, which will help us continue to write our story.  

Baby Shower - May 21

Yesterday, some of my very good friends threw me a baby shower! A huge THANK YOU goes out to Cassie, Nichole, Andrea and Katy!! You all are amazing! Thank you for making me feel so special and going out of your way to make this day so meaningful! The house looked amazing, the food was delicious and I know everyone had a great time! Thank you to Katy and Nichole for taking me to brunch before and going to get mani's! And thank you to Andrea and Cassie for getting everything set up and decorated while we were out getting our nails done! Such a fun morning!

Look at this amazing food and the adorable books that matched the food...what a CUTE idea!!!

They also had the cutest games...

Loved reading all of these!

 Love this guestbook idea!! And my super talented friend painted those adorable boots! 

And then came the SURPRISE gender reveal!! So, I have been struggling with what curtains to get for the nursery. I knew I wanted to make some, but I was having trouble with what route to go. If we were having a girl, I really wanted to make some REALLY girly curtains with ruffles and the whole shebang! I then just decided that I would make a boy curtain and a girl curtain and then hang whichever one after the baby is born. We went to the doctor for our 32 week appointment, which included an ultrasound, and that's when we found out! We went in still thinking we were going to wait to find out the gender, however, when we were getting our ultrasound, the baby was being stubborn and we weren't able to see it's face at all. She tried several times to get him/her to move so we could get some good pictures, but it wasn't happening. We hadn't had an ultrasound since our 20 week appointment, so I was really bummed when the baby was being stubborn. We then had to wait to see our doctor. When we were waiting, Trevor knew I was sad that we didn't get any pictures and he kept asking what would cheer me up. I knew I just needed to get over it, but then he asked if finding out the gender would make me happy. Of course it would, but we have waited this long, so I said no! He then told me a piece of him wanted to find out... and it was all downhill from there. We just kept going back and forth until we had talked about it too much! When our doctor finally came in, we asked her if she knew the gender and she said no, so she let us go back in and get another ultrasound so we could find out. The baby also decided to cooperate then and we got to see HIS sweet face along with finding out it's a BOY! We even got to take some pictures with us! That seriously made my day!

I seriously have the most generous and thoughtful friends!! We got so much stuff that we needed and stuff that was just absolutely ADORABLE!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to each and every person that came to the shower! You seriously made my day and I can't thank you enough for your generosity! You made me feel so special and it makes my heart so happy to know how loved this sweet baby BOY is!!!

Trevor even surprised me and bought me a gift! He knew I really wanted this diaper bag, so he went and got it for me and gave it to me after the shower! I LOVE IT!

Now that school is over, I am in full baby mode! I can't wait to finish up the nursery and get everything ready for this little one to make an appearance into the world! Again, thank you to everyone who made me feel so special yesterday! My heart is full!