Ethan is FOUR!

It's been four quick years since this energetic little boy was born. Ethan has taught us much about parenting and how unique each child truly is. Greg and I often joke that Ethan is the one who keeps us humble as parents. He's ALL boy ALL the time. He's super smart and has a "Hollywood" smile. We trust that God has a specific purpose for this bundle of strong will and energy. :-)










We love you Ethan Edward Sabo. You are truly a joy and we're SO glad to be your parents! Happy Birthday Lovey!

Pictures

A Few Photos


Well, it's been a while since I've posting anything let alone pictures. Our camera is out of commission, so here are a few we captured just before the camera went out.


This one was taken back in December. Cheyenne and her friend Shelley played in a piano recital. They both did very well. Their piano teacher, Mrs. Woodard, stands between them.



Five of our younger crew. Not sure where Ethan was while taking this.



Sweet Jonathan. Here, he was about nine months old. He is now nearly eleven months.



We recently took a trip to the zoo....one of our favorite places to visit. Since Ethan was missing in action in the photo above.....here he is enjoying the play area at the San Antonio Zoo.



And here's almost the full crew. Of course, I'm taking the picture.



Hoping to get back to blogging a bit more consistently now. Stop on back soon! :-)

1-2-3 Dip

Photo Credit


This dip is so yummy and so easy to make!  Yes!  It's as easy as 1-2-3!  ;)
My sweet friend, Hollie, passed on this recipe to me years ago...and it's been a favorite ever since.

1-2-3 Dip

1 (1 lb) bulk tube Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage (or any brand you like)
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
1 can Rotel

Brown sausage.  Drain.  Add cream cheese until melted.  Add Rotel.  Serve hot.  I usually keep mine hot in the crock pot.

See....wasn't that as easy as 1-2-3/

Enjoy!

Home Government - What Is It?

an excerpt from Mother, Home and Heaven by Theodore L. Cuyler

It is not to watch children with a suspicious eye, to frown at the merry outbursts of innocent hilarity, to suppress their joyous laughter, and to mould them into melancholy little models of octogenarian gravity. And when they have been in fault, it is not simply to punish them on account of the personal injury that you have chanced to suffer in consequence of their fault, while disobedience, unattended by inconvenience to yourself, passes without rebuke.

via Westminister Family

Then and Now

Happy Valentine's Day


In this photo, Greg and I had been married just two months. He went to Basic Training three weeks after we were married...and this is when I flew to San Antonio to visit him.




This picture is now just over three years old. It's not exaclty a "now" photo, but it's was our last professional pic taken. (Oct. 2006)




This photo was taken last September on our 18th anniversary. We've now been together 20 years....more than half our lives for BOTH of us. Even though we are still young (yes we are!), something about "20 YEARS" makes us feel old. But, after 18 1/2 years of marriage and 8 kids later, we are still crazy about eachother.



Happy Valentine's Day, Greg. You are still....and always will be the love of my life!

Google 411

COOL



HT: Judy

Genevieve's Birthday

A Few Birthday Photos

Yesterday, we celebrated Genevieve's 2nd birthday. Her birthday was the 7th, but we waited for the weekend to have the party. We had just a simple family celebration full of noise and laughter. I think she enjoyed it! ;-)

Her first gifts were from Celeste. She didn't seem too sure about these at first.....

She loves books......

She also loves to do the splits........

The cake.......to tell you the truth, I had planned to keep the cake very simple. I wasn't up for cutting out shapes and mixing several colors of icing. After all, she's two! BUT....after Celeste suggested I make a Ladybug Cake...the girls begged me to do one. They found this one online. Since it was made from two rounds and only had two colors, I felt it would be simple enough. Thankfully, it was pretty easy....and I thought it turned out well.

Thought I'd throw in a bonus picture.....isn't he cute?

Vivi Turns Two

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENEVIEVE

It's hard to believe our sweet Genevieve is two today! Our first home birth baby...it really does seem like just yesterday she was born.

Here she is at two months.......


And didn't she JUST turn ONE?????


And here she is just a couple of months ago at the zoo.

Genevieve, you're a gift, a blessing, and a joy. You make us laugh, your eyes and your smile melt our hearts, and your fire cracker personality keeps us on our toes. We love you so much and thank our Heavenly Father for creating you and allowing you to be born into your Daddy's hands! HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVI!

New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE SABO HOME TO YOURS

Is it really 2010???

Advent

"In Advent spirituality we are also called on to meditate on the birthing of Christ in our hearts. In this matter we are dealing with the conversion of life, the movement away from the old life lived under the power of evil to the new life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. True conversion is a turning from one way of life to another. Christ calls us to be converted to him, to make him the pattern of our lives, to make our living and dying a living and dying in him." —Robert Weber

Remembering the Solas

Something that really intrigues me is the state of the church universal. Spiritually, it varies anywhere from portraying Jesus cool and fun.....to the pendulum swing of reverting back to ceremonial law, making faith the work of the person and not Christ.

I love studying about the great Reformers and the historical Church.....and remembering the solas is a great way in which to measure the state of the modern Church. In my time of study, I came across this article that I thought was worth sharing.

Remembering the Solas
by Ben Merkle

Christians who are concerned for the well being of the Church will readily agree that the modern Church has strayed and is in need of some sort of reformation (notice that this is a reformation with a small r). When this reformation, however, takes the shape of a Reformed movement (now a capital R), it will be characterized no longer by an ambiguous yearning for the good old days, but a defined debate over doctrinal issues. In the latter case, unanimous agreement becomes more difficult to get. Yet both the Reformed movement of today and its counterpart of the sixteenth century address what is needed to reform our Church. Now, if we claim to be reforming the Church, then we must constantly ask ourselves "What does it mean to be Reformed?"

The early Reformers gave us five points for evaluating our Church. These were the five solas. The first of these being sola scriptura, or Scripture alone. In the midst of an increasingly unchecked Papal authority and a Bible that was unavailable to the lower classes, it is easy to see how the sixteenth century was in need of a call to anchor itself again in the Word of God. Our modern church, however, does not see that we are in the same boat. We have created a culture that sees regular Bible study as a pain and not a blessing. We refuse to put effort into our Bible study, insisting on having our Bible studies livened up to entertain us. Instead of regularly reading our Bibles, we take a quick read of the uninspired, inspirational paragraph of our daily devotion book. Our Bibles are marketed by adding footnotes and short stories that are supposed to make the Bible relevant to today's youth, the working mother, or nicotine patch users. Our eschatologies are shaped more by tabloids and TV, than by the study of Scripture. We are bored of our Bibles and truly need to reform our view of Scripture. What a joy it should be to read the Word of our Lord.

The next sola is solus Christus, Christ alone. In recent years the good news of Christ's death has been significantly tampered with. Although the tampering is often well-meaning, it is a destruction of the gospel all the same. The new gospel is not that Christ died to pay the price for our sins, but that He died on the cross in order to give us more meaningful relationships. Life just isn't fulfilling as is, but with the help of Jesus things just seem a lot rosier. If we are preaching a gospel that doesn't teach Christ's death for our sins, we obviously aren't really preaching the gospel. And, if we aren't preaching the gospel, then how can we even feign surprise at the poor state that our Church is in? We need to reform our gospel message.

Next is sola gratia, grace alone. It is by God's grace alone that we are brought to a saving knowledge of Him. Yet, we are continually apologizing for what our God looks like to non-Christians. We try to dress our Lord up to make Him more appealing in the hopes that we might woo an unsuspecting pagan into the kingdom without him ever noticing where he is going. The Bible continually describes the nonbeliever as a God-hater, an enemy of the Lord's, and under His judgment. Why, then, are we distressed when they don't like the looks of our God? If a non-Christian is not frightened by the God we worship, then the God we worship is not the God of the Bible. It is by God's grace alone that anyone comes to a saving knowledge of Him. We are to preach His gospel as it is, not to give Him a make-over.

The fourth sola is sola fide, faith alone. Again, like sola scriptura, we can see the immense need for this sola in the sixteenth-century Church. A works-oriented salvation had become the norm and needed to be rooted out by the Reformation. Salvation by faith alone flew in the face of many in the sixteenth century. Yet, salvation truly by faith alone, and apart from any work or effort of its recipient, still flies in the face of the majority of Christians today. Faith is now redefined so that it becomes a work of the person, not the work of God. As long as we insist on finding the grounds of our salvation within ourselves, we have not submitted to salvation by faith alone and are in desperate need of Reformation.

The last of the five solas is Soli Deo Gloria, to the glory of God alone. Everything a Christian does should be done completely to God's glory. Yet, we have flipped this completely upside down, especially in our worship. Instead of going to worship to glorify God, we often go to glorify ourselves. We require as much fanfare and excitement as possible in order to keep our attention, making the entire service focused on ourselves. Then, when we get ourselves as worked up as possible, we hope that God might take notice of us and somehow feel vicariously glorified. Glorifying God is giving glory to God, not getting ourselves worked up and slipping Christian phrases in, hoping that God will feel the excitement that we've manufactured for our own benefit.

As we consider the issues that the Church has continually muddled, it is interesting to note that our doctrines have not undergone a random decay. The truths we have muddled are crucial to our faith, and are the same ones that have been muddled many times before. It is no accident that we continue to stumble at these points, but it is because they are so crucial that we continue to stumble there. Because of this, it is important to have an historical perspective to our faith. We should be standing on the shoulders of those who went before us, not running to catch up with them.

Photo Credit

Perspective

An eye-opening, yet beautiful reminder...

Perspective. Or How I'm Learning Not to Sweat the Small Stuff



ht: Granny

My First Half Marathon

On October 10th, my friend, Blair, and I ran a half marathon. We trained for six weeks, scheduling our runs between nursings (we had babies two weeks apart). ;-) Blair has been running for several years and has done the Half before. I, on the other hand, hadn't done any significant distance running since I was in junior high. I did some running in high school.....and then picked up running again after births three and four to help get back into shape; but even that wasn't any more than a mile or two at a time. So this was pretty much biting off more than I could chew. So, with losing baby weight as my motivation......I accepted the challenge.

Here we are before the run. Blair's hubby, Brandon, also ran. It was a chilly morning, which proved to be the perfect running weather.


Here, we're coming down the final stretch. We DID it! For me, it was quite miraculous. Honestly, I didn't think I would make the whole 13.1 miles without having to walk. Blair was such an encouragement....couldn't have done it without her.


With jello legs, aching feet, and very sore hips, we pose with our medals (and Jonathan). Our finish time was 2:38:32. We maintained a 5 mile per hour pace.


Our wonderful cheering section.......it was such a blessing to see them at the finish line.


I've enjoyed running so much that I plan to keep it up. Blair and I have already signed up for another run scheduled for this Saturday. It's an 8 mile Fall Fest run. Even my older girls have jumped on board and will be running with us this weekend, along with two other friends from church. We'll be sure and get more pics....it should be fun!

Sophia's 7th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Beauty

Today, our spunky Sophia turned seven. She is an incredible young lady who brings much joy and laughter to our famliy. Here she is showing off one of her birthday gifts. She's a huge reader and I can always count on her to read the younger ones a story. She's also quite athletic and can run like the wind. She enjoys puzzles, coloring, and playing dress up.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl......we praise God for seven wonderful years with you. We love you!

Ethan's Shiner

Ethan's First Shiner


It never fails.......whenever the kids are having a blast playing together.....someone ends up getting hurt. On this day, it was Ethan and Genevieve. All the kids were running around playing Follow the Leader when the two of them collided. Though they were both hurt, Ethan's the one who walked away with the visible proof. ;-)

He took it like a man and is quite proud of his black eye....which looks MUCH worse now than it does in this picture (I'll have to get another pic). Don't ask me about the bruise on his forehead.....who knows where that came from. He's a boy, after all!

Sour Cream Bacon Chicken

For Bacon Lovers........

This is one of our favorite meals......definitely a fall/winter comfort food. I say fall/winter because this dish bakes for two hours....and who wants their ovens on for two hours during the summer?

We always serve this with chicken flavored rice (like Rice-a-Roni) and either green beans or a salad. And because of the rich, creamy sauce the dish creates......the rice really compliments the savory flavor, especially when they mix together. OH SO SCRUMPTIOUS! Give it a try.


Sour Cream Bacon Chicken

6-8 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
24 oz. container of sour cream (3 cups)
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup
1 package of bacon

Cut each breast in half. Boil them for about 15 mins. You want them mostly cooked, but not all the way through. While chicken is boiling, mix together soup and sour cream in medium bowl.

Remove chicken from water. Add a little salt and pepper to chicken. Wrap a piece of uncooked bacon tightly around each breast half.

In a 9 X 13 dish (or larger), place a small amount of soup mixture on bottom. Place wrapped chicken halves in dish. Cover chicken with remaining soup mixture.

Cover with foil tightly. Bake @ 350* for 2 hours. Let cool about 15 minutes so sauce can thicken. When serving, be sure to spoon that sauce all over your chicken.....and even some over your rice. ;-)

BTW, this dish feeds our family of 10 and we always have leftovers. It can be easily halved if needed.

Chey's 17th Birthday

Happy 17th Cheyenne

Today we celebrate 17 wonderful years with our sweet Cheyenne. She has blessed our lives more than words can express. The oldest of eight children, she never ceases to amaze us with her sweet spirit, her hard work, and the love she has for her family and friends.

Childhood.........

She made us parents........

She always makes us laugh........

She was the first to balance on Daddy's hand........

Cheyenne, we love you and wish you a Happy Birthday. We look forward to seeing where God leads you this year as you experience new adventures. Happy Birthday, baby girl!

18th Anniversary

Happy Anniversary To Us

Eighteen years ago today, Greg and I made a covenant to spend the rest of our lives together; how time flies! We met in high school my junior year, his senior year. We were married three months after I graduated. I was eighteen, he was twenty. It's been a wonderful adventure ever since! Here are some photos from the early years:

Married just two short months, I flew to San Antonio, TX from Modesto, CA to visit my soldier who was just finishing up basic training. This picture was taken at the River Center Mall on his "free day".


High School.......
Greg and I were all about sports. One of the sports we enjoyed doing together was Track and Field. Yes, that was my track uniform! Are you diggin' the Oakleys and the acid-wash shorts?


This one was during a track meet. We're resting between events.


Oh my!!! Winter Formal. Yikes!


My basketball star! Just to give a little perspective on this photo, the tall guy on the far right was 7' 2". White boys CAN jump! ;-)


Our engagement picture.


The wedding party. Unfortunately, our eight rolls of wedding photos were lost.....never to be found. What little photos we have were sent to us from sweet relatives.


Our first duty assignment was Jolly Ole England; RAF Alconbury. We were obviously bored this day and had nothing better to do than to play dress up. I am seven months pregnant with Cheyenne in this picture. Ahhh....the fun.....


And here we are.......eighteen years older and eight children later. We are blessed beyond measure, eternally thankful for each day we've spent together. Here's to eighteen more years.....and then some!


1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Chloe Turns Five

Happy 5th Birthday Chloe


Today my sweet Chloe turns five. It's hard to believe that five years ago, on a Sunday, I went into labor with her; my water breaking at church is not an easy detail to forget. ;-)

Chloe is our shy girl, but is coming out of that shell and has become quite a spunky little character. She keeps us laughing with her silly expressions, and she melts us with those big blue eyes and amazingly long eyelashes. She loves to play dolls and dress up like a princess. She loves taking walks and LOVES to color! But most of all, she still loves to snuggle with Mommy and Daddy!

Chloe, we love you Bunny, and can't believe our fifth child born is already five! You are so special and we are so thankful for you! God was so good to have entrusted us with you! Happy Birthday, sweet girl, for you were fearfully and wonderfully made!

Jonathan 12 Weeks

12 Weeks

I'm supposed to be posting vacation pictures. There are so many to sort through, it will take a while to get them organized. So, in the meantime, here are some recent pics of Jonathan. All photos taken by Celeste.







Okay, so this isn't Jonathan, but I just had to throw this one in. I think it's so cute!

I'm not sure what Genevieve is unhappy about.....maybe the bandana?