Lots of talks about Jesus...

Little miss Torah has been talking a lot about Jesus her whole life, but especially the last few months. Whenever she is hurt she always says, "I want Jesus to make it better." Lately the conversations have really turned more spiritual where she is learning when she gets scared at night (she is always talking about how she doesn't want the devil in her room to scare her) to pray and ask Jesus to protect her,  to calm her down, and keep the devil away. Though she understands (as much as a 3 year old can) that Jesus lives inside our hearts, she has been wanting to see him. She asks, "Is Jesus done in Heaven? I want him to come back!" Which I feel like is such a wonderful reminder of how excited and hopeful I need to be about Jesus coming back! Though she understands Jesus living inside our hearts she has not had her "moment" yet if that makes sense. We have been praying for her to have that moment since before she was born and are hopeful that with the right direction and lots of spiritual conversations she will come to that decision on her own. Last night she came to youth group with me, which she doesn't very often, and as we were walking in she yelled to one of the youth leaders, "JESUS LIVES INSIDE OUR HEARTS!!!" She said it with such excitement and conviction, and he said, "Yes he does, that's right!" On the way home she then said, "What is Jesus going to be for Halloween?" I laughed and said, "I don't think Jesus will dress up, but if he did maybe an angel." Then she started talking about what Jesus will get for Christmas and I explained that 3 kings gave him 3 gifts. She then wanted the 3 kings to give her gifts too. But then she said, "what is Jesus going to give me for Christmas?" Which was an excellent way for me to explain that Jesus is the gift!!! We LOVE Christmas and the excitement of gift giving and receiving, decorating, yummy food, being with family, and all the excitement that the season provides. But sometimes the literal hustle and bustle of the season casts a shadow over the true gift. So I just wrote this to encourage anyone who might have a chance to read this to have spiritual conversations with your kids and to remember that Jesus is the gift!!!

time gone by

Wow, can't believe it has been so long since I posted a blog!!! I wasn't ever all that huge into this but didn't think I wouldn't even post about having our 2nd beautiful daughter!!! Sola Grace Holler was born on February 7. She is 9 months old today!!! She is absolutely awesome!!! She has been sweet easy going Sola from the beginning. She was so laid back that I thought she might be getting a little behind on her development but boy was I wrong. She took a while to start doing things, but boy she has changed in a hurry. She now pulls herself up to standing all the time on the couch, crawls everywhere, throws her hands up for "Soooo Big," dances when she hears music, says "mama" "baba" and starting to say "dada!" Torah has been an unbelievable big sister! I am so proud of who she is and who I can see her becoming. She not once has acted jealous, purposefully hurt her sister, or even regressed whatsoever which from what I have heard from other people are pretty common things for older siblings to display when their space is invaded. We decided to wait another year on preschool for her. So she will just do 1 year of preschool (which strangely enough that was normal when I was younger but now it seems like everyone does 2 and even 3 years of preschool). I am just not ready to share her. I told Brandon that this is literally the only time in her life she won't have responsibility and I want her to savor every second! Once she starts school she will always have commitments and responsibilities, which is a good thing. Transitioning into a family of 4 has really gone beautifully!!! I am so thankful to God for that! Recently Brandon started working on his Doctorate in Ministries. So in probably 4 to 5 years I will be married to Dr. Brandon Holler!!! The student ministry is going really well and we love our kids so much!!! I am really encouraged by the next generation! Started Christmas shopping quite sometime ago for Torah and then didn't do anything for a while so now it's time to start all that back up! She has been asking for a watch and a pogo stick since July and last week added a tool box to the list. And then she said (with hands up ), "And that's it!" My girls are precious and I love having 2 daughters, I'm hopeful that they will stay close when they get older! By close I mean, close to home!!!!!!! Though I hope their relationship will always remain close as well! Excited to start the holiday (or as we like to call it...HOLLERday) season and all that that entails. It's fun (and a bit exhausting) having small children this time of year! Well now it's time to take advantage of nap/movie time and tidy up the house and do some laundry! For the maybe 3 of you who will read this (haha) thanks! I do this for selfish reasons, it is therapeutic for me to do this and an easy way to preserve memories. Have a great day and I hope to start blogging much more!!!!

The Calm Before the Storm

Well I am 37 weeks and 3 days along so far. Had an appointment this morning and I was 2 cm dilated! Very excited about the progress that's taking place. Torah has been delightful lately and I hope I don't live to regret that statement! The babies room is basically ready, need to get new blinds and put up an E-I-E-I-O wall cling and that's it. Now I just need to finish getting the rest of my house deepcleaned one last time before the baby comes...that's all I have the energy for...if that! A friend of mine had a diapers and wipes shower for me this past weekend and I ended up getting 1,737 diapers!!!!!!!!!! Can you even believe that!?! Now I am trying to get them put away and organized (somewhere?) and get them out of my garage. And I got tons and tons of wipes too! It was such a fun idea and that same friend is expecting soon so it will be her turn sometime soon as well to get lots of diapers!

Torah will be 3 one week from today. So I can't go into labor before then!!! Anytime after that is fine though! I'm so looking forward to meeting this new little blessing and holding with my arms and not my ribs! So excited for what God has in store for us and what he has in store for this sweet child. I hope and pray that the baby will come to know him in a personal way at an early age and that it's older sister would be the type of example my older siblings were to me. I pray that as a toddler I have patience to deal with them as they are, as an elementary age child God will protect their innocence and not hear or see or experience things inappropriate for that age,, as a tween they don't get too snotty, as a teen they choose to lead using the Lord's path, as a college student they find their soulmate and both of them love Jesus more than they love eachother, and as an adult they are my friend. And those are just my main prayers, I have many more detailed ones as well!!!

I can't wait to teach and be taught by my little sweeties as we grow in number and stature together as a family.
I am very excited at what the next stage brings and ready for the challenge of it! If I depend on myself i am weak, but with God I am so much stronger! (that is one of the main points we discussed last night in Bible study)

Excited for a miracle,
Shelbie