Good Friday Musings

Tonight we were reading about that blessed dark Friday as a family.
Here's a quote from our favorite Children's Bible:

"Jesus chose to stay there on the cross
and died to save all those who believe in Him.
No one could ever love as much as Jesus.
Then it happened: God poured all of His people's sin
– in the past, now, and forever –
into Jesus' heart.
'Father!' Jesus cried. 'Don't leave me!'
But God had to turn away from all the sin.
And Jesus felt all the dirt of sin
and all the anger of His Father that came with it.
But it wasn't His sin.
It was ours.
Jesus felt it and suffered for it
so that we would not have to."

- - -

Just after I read the part where Jesus cried "Don't leave me!"
Taylor winced and then sobbed aloud, "No! I don't want God to leave Him!!"

With my own tears in my eyes
I read the next line:
"But God had to turn away from all the sin."

My skin tingled and heart raced as we then discussed
how our hearts are naturally dirty
from our bad choices- from our sin!
But Jesus knew that if he stayed there
and let the people be mean to him,
  laugh at him,
  put a painful crown on him,
  whip him,
  hang him on that cross
  and then kill him-
he knew that all those people's sins,
  plus Adam and Eve's sin,
  plus Samson's sin,
  plus Mommy and Daddy's sin,
  plus Tay's own sin-
he knew that all this sin would be put on him
and he would feel God's anger
and would be so dirty
that God would have to turn away from him.

But BUT but
Jesus also knew that if he stayed there,
as God had planned for him to do,
then people who believe He is the Son of God
and ask for forgiveness for all their dirty sin-
these people can then have clean hearts and can be close to God!

Tay chose to pray a few minutes later
to say that she believed in Jesus,
and that she was sorry for all her bad choices
and that she wanted a clean heart too.

As I was tucking her into bed
she grinned from ear to ear
and proclaimed,
"Mom, when I had a dirty heart
and would make bad choices
I couldn't be close to God.
But now I am!
And if I make a bad choice
I can tell him I'm sorry
and He'll forgive me
and then we can be close again!"

AMEN?!?
AMEN!!!

I pray the reality of what He's done (and is doing)
is real to you this weekend
as we sit still long enough to remember
what He CHOSE to endure
in order to pay for all OUR sin
so that we can now go to the Father blameless!

And that's not the end of the story...

Vriday Vamily Votograph for Valentine's

Oops... we cut Daddy's head off a little short...
but these two photos are a GREAT peek into our kids' personalities =)

Jacob Sterling: 5.5 months

Robbie John: 2 years 1.5 months
Taylor Lee: 4 years 1.5 months

Taylor is SUPER into taking a "silly" pic these days...

And look what Jacob did for the silly pic!
Such a dashing smile!

FFF and we're BACK!

The kids did INCREDIBLY well on our trip to AZ and CA!

I'm so proud of them,
and it was fun to get away from the cold here
(check out the background of our FFF from this morning!)

Jacob Sterling: 5 months
Robbie John: 25 months
Taylor Lee: 4 years 1 month

FFF and OFF!

Here's technically our first FFF of 2014,
as we've been outta routine,
and not taken one yet this year!

YIKES!

So I give you an FFF,
and then me and the kids are OFF
for a trip to Arizona to visit with Buela and Buelo
and then jet over to see Auntie Nancy and baby Sophie!

Jacob Sterling: 4.5 months
Robbie John: 2 years, 1 month
Taylor Lee: 4 years, 1 month

FFF

We took our FFF at Greg's pinning last night!

Jacob Sterling: 15 weeks

Robbie John: 23 months
Taylor Lee: 3.9 years

FFF in the C-C-C-Cold!

No goin' outdoors this week for our photo!

At night it hit -22 degrees yesterday!!!!

Don't worry though,
it warmed up to
NEGATIVE NINE DEGREES
before we left for church at 8:30am!

So-- family pic INSIDE today =)

Jacob Sterling: 15 weeks old
Robbie John: 23 months old
Taylor Lee: 3.8 years old

Non-Posted FFF & Thanksgiving Fam Foto

We all have a bad day sometimes...

and every once in a while it gets captured on camera
for a Friday Family Photograph.

(We'll blame it on the rush of the holiday weekend,

and the fact that sleep schedules and daily routines

were interrupted by the hub-bub of Thanksgiving!)

So even though we took an FFF this week,
we're not gonna put it up cuz Taylor was just havin' a bad day...

Jacob Sterling: 14 weeks (3 months today!)

Robbie John: 23 months (a bit short of 2 years!)

Taylor Lee: 3.9 months (three weeks til 4 years!)

But...here's a few pix

to prove we still have a happy, silly girl on our hands

(plus a goofy brother and a smiley baby)

...most of the time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three Hicklets

FFF & Silly FFF

Jacob Sterling: 12 weeks old
Robbie John: 23 months old!!
Taylor Lee: 3.9 years old!!

FFF and FFF

Here's TWO WEEKS of FFF Pix!

Taylor LOVES school!

And last week was Picture Day
so we were practicing her smile!

What do you think?

Jacob Sterling: 10 weeks old
Robbie John: 22.5 months old
Taylor Lee: 3.75 years old

And then this is the FFF for this week--
still a little work to be done on makin' the smile natural
but we sure LOVE being a fam of five 'round here!!
There's lots to smile about!

Jacob Sterling: 11 weeks old
Robbie John: 22.5 months old
Taylor Lee: 3.75 years old

Fall FFF

We got to go to the Corn Maize and Punkin' Patch on Friday,
so we took our FFF there!

Jacob Sterling: 8 weeks old (almost two months!)
Robbie John: 22 months old (can you believe it?!)

Taylor Lee: 3.75 years old (almost four?!? what?!?)

FFF

This week's Friday Fam Foto comes complete
with CAPTIONS!

Taylor: Ooh, this is gonna be a good photo!
Robbie: They did say I had to say cheese, right?
Jacob: I didn't ask to be born into this crazy family
that takes photos every weekend!

Taylor: Wow, I can see myself in the window reflection.
I look great in my new BEAUTIFUL dress, if I do say so myself.
Robbie: Yeah, they did say to say 'Cheese'. I can do that!
Jacob: No seriously, I think this family is crazy!

Taylor: Oops, we're supposed to look at the camera... 'Cheeeeeeeze'
Robbie: I hear you, Jacob. You just might be right 
about this being a crazy family!
Jacob: I'm tellin' you Robbie! I'm tellin' ya!

Jacob Sterling: 7 weeks old
Robbie John: 22 months old
Taylor Lee: 3.75 years old

FFF

We are full swing into the "cheese-y" smiles these days....

This is what we get when we say "Look at the camera!"
ha ha ha

I love this Fam'o'Five!

Jacob Sterling: 6 weeks
Robbie John: 21.5 months
Taylor Lee: 3.75 years

FFF

An evening FFF

The super cold temps have ceased,
and now we're back into a "Fall" of sorts!

It was even nice enough tonight
to throw on a sweatshirts
and take a family walk around the neighborhood!

Jacob Sterling: 5 weeks old
Robbie John: 21 months old
Taylor Lee 3.5 years old

Lovin' being the Hickles five!

FFF

So we took an FFF yesterday afternoon

when Daddy got home from school

but it was so full of shadows that we took another today...

Jacob Sterling: 3 weeks old

Robbie John: 21 months old

Taylor Lee: 3.5+ years old

So here's a new photo pose today!

And--- if it seems Mommy's eyes have a little LESS tiredness in them

that's thanks to Grandma and Grandpa

for providing the opportunity for Mommy to sleep in

two mornings in a row

by taking the biggers when they got up

so Jacob and I could sleep in!

Thanks so much Gary and Kathy!

And Jacob's ADORABLE outfit (seen in both pics)

is from Ms. Jane,

our wonderful friend from our teaching days at ACS!

Jane, I am in LOVE with this little sweater!

Thank you so much!!

FFF of Five

Jacob Sterling: 2 weeks old
Robbie John: 20.5 months old
Taylor Lee: 3.5 years old

Oh, and- no, we did not put any product in Jacob's hair...
But after we bathed him last night it dried STRAIGHT UP like that!

Too cute if you ask me!

Friday Family Foto of Five!

Daddy set up the camera on timer
and got a few cute shots of Taylor, Jacob and me

And... as is to be expected,
getting a great photo of a family with three kids three and under
proves to be a bit of a challenge
haha!

Jacob Sterling: 1 week old
Robbie John: 1 year 20 months old
Taylor Lee: 3 and 1/2 years old

(and Auntie Anna, Taylor LOVES her new dress!

Thank you so much!)

Final FFF of Four

Our next FFF will hold another little face!

Excited to see him soon!!

Little Buddy: 38 weeks in utero
Robbie John: 20 months 1 week
Taylor Lee: 3 years 8 months

Tomorrow morning is the planned induction.

Thank you for your prayers!

FFF

Little Buddy: 37 weeks in utero
Robbie John: 20 months
Taylor Lee: 3.5 years

FFF

This week's photos are funny to me--
Taylor was in a silly mood
so we've got funny poses and faces!

Little Buddy: 36.5 weeks in utero
Robbie John: turns 20 months later this week!
Taylor Lee: 3.5 years

FFF

Little Buddy: 35 weeks in utero
Robbie John: 19.5 months
Taylor Lee: 3.5 years