Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Kirby,

If I paid you a salary out of my own earnings for every hour that you put in, for the quality of work you turn out, for the dedication to your work place, I would have to take out loans — a lot of them — just to pay you. What you bring to this family is invaluable to me!

You are the most precious thing to me. "A wife of noble character is her husbands crown" (Prov. 12:4). You are my most treasured possession! You are my crown! And not like a Burger King crown. "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all!" (Prov. 21:39) I feel like the grandest of kings with you as my bride.

I have never seen sweeter children and it is a complete joy (and learning experience) to watch you love them the way that you do. I also haven't seen many sassier children, but, obviously, I love that characteristic. The fruit of your tireless work are these precious children who so tenderly love Jesus and love others.

You not only pour yourself out to your family, you do so with so many college girls, so many young moms, so many friends. You are a blessing to all who know you — to all who meet you!

It is truly amazing to get to watch you grow into the mature woman that you are. If I was to be so bold as to ask God for one more blessing outside of this precious gift of His Son, it would surely be for you — a companion who proves God's sovereignty that it is not good for man to be alone.

"How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1)

I love you and I hope your day is special. Happy Birthday!

Char, The most blessed

Apel of My Eye

I love this woman. I love sharing with her. Life. Moments. Milkshakes.

This is a picture from our wedding day (I would say night as it was after 11pm here, but that just makes it awkward). Yep. We went to Whataburger. We were starving. (ADVICE: Either make it a point to eat at your wedding and ignore some guests OR just eat after the reception.)

We were so hungry that we decided that it would be satisfying and probably even a little cool to go into Whataburger in wedding dress and tux and get some world famous breakfast taquitos. And it was. The cashier, a little caught off guard, even gave us our meal for free after confirming that we had actually just gotten married. (ADVICE: If you do decide to just eat after the reception, go in full wedding attire to your favorate spot and see what happens... could be free and you'll get a lot of looks!)

Fortunately for us, God sovereignly brought Kirby's uncle to the same Whataburger wielding a couple cousins and A CAMERA. I feel like we sort of ruined the magic for boys, though. I mean we had just left minutes ago, running through sparklers, driving a highly decorated Escalade, off to Honeymoonland only to be sited at the local Whataburger. I'm sure it was like seeing the man formerly known as Mickey Mouse, mouse head detached, taking a smoke break at the Happiest Place on Earth.

But these are some of my favorite pics from that day. These are some of my favorite moments in life. The ordinary. There are so many exciting times and special days in our life, but at the end of it all, I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my family. I love my church. I love the God who gave us all of these perfect gifts.

To enjoy.

To share.

Sweet Girls!

To my sweet girls:

Nayne, Klayney-bop, Princess, Sister,

I'm sorry if you're a little confused about what your real name is. There are just so many things that we love about you. It doesn't seem like it's been a year already, but it's seems like you've been here the whole time. You have grown up so much. I love how much you love Asher. How you look for him when you wake up. How you squeal when you see him. And how you try to do everything that he does. You are so sweet, yet so sassy. You can definitely hold your own and have earned your Princess title. We pray that you grow to be a strong, yet gentle, pure woman of God. That you delight yourself in Jesus and love people so deeply. We see this at work already.

Happy Birthday, Sweet McKlayne!




Princess, Momma, Sweetheart,

Four years! It's been crazy. Crazy fun. Crazy fast. Crazy tough. Crazy good. I'm so thankful for a friend like you. No one knows me like you. And I've told you how that's the biggest blessing to me. I love that we're so different. You challenge me so much. I know that I wouldn't be the same man without you and you without me. God is so sovereign and merciful and good to these two wretches. I praise Him that He working so hard on us and brings so much peace in the midst of the craziness. I'm so glad I get to go through all of this with you. None compare. Thank you for loving me, serving me and pouring yourself out for our family. I love you, Princess.

Happy Anniversay, Kirby!

5 Years Ago

Five years ago today, I asked Kirby to go out on a (double) date with me (and two other people...obviously). This is not a picture of that day or that date. Just the closest one I could find to that time in my limited resources.

Anyways...
After seeing and talking with her at Island Party that weekend, it takes me almost three days and plenty of encouragement from friends to get the guts to make a phone call that went a little something like this:

K: (Hmm. I've never seen this number before.) Hello?

C: Kirby?

K: Yes?

C: Hey! It's Charlie.

K: Hiii, Charrliee...(Charlie who?)

C: Hey, I was wondering, if maybe sometime, that you and Cate might like to go out on a double-date with Ryan (Thompson) and me? You know...you being my date and Cate being Ryan's. (This was obvious. Ryan and Cate had been dating. Doof...real smooth and can you just taste the confidence...a real man!)

K: Sure, that be great! (WHOOOO HOOOO! I GET TO GO ON A DOUBLE-DATE WITH CATE!!!! I should really find out who Charlie is.)

C: Well, I will talk with Ryan and we'll get back to you on a date and what we're doing. OK?

K: OK...that sounds great.

C: OK, well...I guess I'll talk to you later. (Get off the phone before she changes her mind.)

K: OK, bye!

C: Bye! (My heart is beating too fast...I'm going to puke.)

And that was it. Cate cheated for Kirby and invited me over for some pre-date studying a few days before our scheduled date. And as they read and took notes (business school type studying), I hammered stuff together for one of my projects on their front porch (architecture school type studying). Again, real smooth.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that those days are over — for so many reasons. I do like reminiscing about how 'in love' or infatuated we were with each other. However, I much prefer this deeper love (which still includes quite a bit, if not more, infatuation) that has developed and matured through our relationships with Jesus and the trials and immense blessings that we have been through together over the years.

Another reason is that Kirby and I have learned so much in the past five years about dating and relationships that we would have done this so differently knowing what we know now. We love sharing what we have learned with our younger siblings and family members and with the college students that attend our Hope Group. The college students are probably the ones who have taught us the most, or, at least, given us hard questions that we've had to seek biblical answers for. And we're so thankful for the mentoring relationships that we've had with Aaron and Heather and others in our church. The Hendricks tend to help us with the answers to the bulk of these questions. They are so much further along in both dating research and their marriage.

So...our advice?

Love Jesus first.

Be involved in your church.

Have mentor/discipleship relationships (this is older than you, farther along that you, same-sex people that you see doing things very right) in place during 'dating' that both challenge you to holiness and accountability and protect you in the same manner.

Happy Day-Charlie-Asked-Kirby-Out-for-Their-First-Date Day!

Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Today is my amazing wife's birthday. She's 25. She believes that your body shuts down after 25. I love her.

Kirby, no matter how dramatic life gets (jeans come to mind), I love the passion that comes along with your drama. You are passionate about Jesus...

about your husband...

about your son...

about your daughter...

about our families...

about your friends...

about discipling our home...

about Her Hands and discipling other women...

about saving us money...

about Round Top...

about SO many things. You put your whole self into everything you do and every person in your life. You convict me so often by your generosity, by the thoughtfulness of every gift and how you KNOW the people in your life. I'm learning from you.

I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do in a normal day. After having the kids for a few hours or a day, I know what a feat it is when I come home to clean house or if anything else is done outside of you three surviving. It is so important to me that you are at home and you do it with such humility, grace and eagerness.

You're the best friend a person could have. And I know they'll be many who'll echo that on this post as well. You're an amazing helper and so good to your needy husband. I love confiding in you and depending on you. I love reading with you, jean-shopping with you, Wizard-of-Ozzing with you, Round Topping with you and doing all of life with you.

Don't even get me started on how beautiful you are! None compare, Kirby.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

I'm having a crisis...

a fashion crisis, of all things.

I realized tonight that I'm officially a mom.

I thought that when I bought my first swim skirt for my tankini the summer after Asher was born that I had been initiated into motherhood.

Not so. Tonight I recognized that I had drifted in into a whole new realm of oblivion somewhere over the years...and not even known it.

I went jean shopping for the first time since fall/winter of '04-the winter before I got married! The winter after we got married I was too poor to buy any clothes and the last two winters I've been pregnant, so had no use to shop for anything non-maternity.

I've pretty much been wearing jeans that I've had since the middle of college-and, though, they're old favorites, I've slowly had to start throwing them away or designating them as "paint jeans" because I've worn them for 4+ years.

So...tonight I started out...rather excited. I was getting to go shop for myself...childless...like not having to stop to feed any babies or bribe any toddlers to keep quiet.

I began at one of my old favorites-Plato's Closet-a consignment shop that mostly only sells name brand and designer clothes from the previous season. I panicked as I hardly recognized any of the brands of jeans that I was shuffling through.

Seriously...I felt so dumb when I saw jeans that said "X2" on them and was confused. How come no one told me that some time in the last four years Express had changed their label?

But that was just the beginning...Silver, Hudson, 575, iT jeans...I needed a translator!

Actually, what I really needed was a college girl standing beside me to tell me, "Yes, go try these." or "No, not those." But I was WAY too prideful to go ask one of the sweet girls behind the counter to help...so that's where you come in...but more on that in a minute.

So, I picked up some Silver jeans and tried them on because my friend Jenn had recently just mentioned that her (super cool, rockstar's wife) sister-in-law had recommended them. I bought Silver jeans for $18...is that a good deal? Are those even still cool?

The rest of the night I spent checking out every college girl's rear that came near me at the mall...in search of "cool" jeans. I went to the Buckle and tried on a few that I liked. But I need help...are BKE jeans still "in"?

Blaire?

Emily?

Brettney?

Where are you?

I can't wait for 15 years for McKlayne to fill me in on what's appropriate to wear. I need your help.

If you're reading this blog and I don't even know you but you have jeans that you LOVE, please share...include the brand, style, and where I can purchase these, etc. please. Price doesn't matter...I just want to know your favorites! I will be getting money or gift cards for Christmas, so I plan to use them on jeans.

Ugh...this is so hard for me to do...I never thought I'd be asking for fashion advice...and especially not on the world wide web...but I'm desperate.

My favorite jeans...which, like I said, I haven't shopped for them in a good 4-5 years have been...Lucky, Citizens and jeans from Arden B. Are these still okay? Be honest.

I don't want to succumb to this and not even know it: