A beautiful first day!

We've had an amazing first day and all the details are over here:

http://riverstoneyouthincostarica.blogspot.com/2012/05/beautiful-first-day.html?m=1

Love you all! Thank you for praying for us!

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We're here!!!

We're here and doing well! Travel was smooth and the team is doing great!

Tomorrow we spend our morning at the children's home. The boys have a special day planned to teach the armor of God. The girls have an awesome princess day planned. We've already met as a team and we are now in our groups practicing for tomorrow.






We have two more team mates traveling here tomorrow. Please pray for their safe travel.

We'll head to bed soon since it is after midnight back home. We've already fallen in love with our home away from home!

To close, here's just a few pictures of the beautiful sunset we watched tonight!!

Location:Costa Rica

Costa Rica!

The McLendons are in Costa Rica for the week. Keep up with our other blog while we are gone!

http://riverstoneyouthincostarica.blogspot.com

Thank you in advance for praying for us!!!!



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7...and a winner!

Several weeks ago I placed a giveaway on my blog...and in my inability to blog as of lately a winner was yet to be picked....but lo and behold...here we are today....with the winner!!!!

Thank you to all that participated in this giveaway (and your patience in waiting!)!

I am very excited to mail a copy of

Jen Hatmaker's New Book....

to.....

T! 

Email me at 

kristinmclendon at gmail dot com

with your address and 

I'll get your copy of Jen's new book

in the mail to you!

Have a great day!!!!

Happy Birthday Jude Robert, My Baby Boy

One year ago today you made me a mommy...

my world to never be the same.

You are every bit of everything we dreamed of...

and more.  

You are strong and courageous.

Full of personality.

Loving, sweet, caring.

We are madly in love with you

and I have a feeling you're madly

in love with us too.

Tonight my sweet boy

I just wanted to hold you a little longer

and thank my sweet Jesus

again for you.

You are our miracle baby

and a blessing from our Jesus.

I have recounted all of our steps

of this day last year

(and March 4th with our water breaking, etc.)

and just remember the excitement

and how much we were eagerly awaiting you....

were you to be a boy or a girl?

The most precious moment was hearing

your Daddy say....

"It's a boy!!!"

A son.

A man of God.

That is who you are.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy...

Here are just a few pictures of

your birthday weekend!

Your 12 month post

and all your birthday party pictures 

are coming soon.

We love you!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

Cake Smashing!

Trip to the Georgia Aquarium

McLendon Family
March 5, 2012

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7. {a giveaway}

**As of 2/29 Giveaway is still OPEN (due to this being a super crazy week....my baby is turning ONE...all that to say, there is still time to enter....go for it!  Info on the bottom!**

Seven.  It's such a fun number isn't it?  I'm a fan!  So take the number seven.....then add the words, "an experimental mutiny against excess."  Yikes!  Part of me wants to run the other direction, the other part of me needs this so desperately.

Let me introduce you to my new friend.  Jen Hatmaker.  I was at the beach celebrating a friends wedding by staying at a beach house with another couple.  We had a great weekend and my friend Katie introduced me to Jen Hatmaker.  I borrowed Katie's copy of "Out of the Spin Cycle" to read in the swing out back our beach house and it spoke so deeply to my new mama heart that I ordered it as fast as I could upon returning home.   I also started following Jen on twitter and immediately became a big fan.

A little while later Jen twittered asking if any of her twitter friends would like to read a copy of her new book, "Seven, an experimental mutiny against excess."  Thankfully my sane side responded with yes, please!

I can not even begin to tell you how good this book is.  Maybe it's the season of life I am in.  Maybe it's I'm tired of the just "too much."  Maybe it's the fact that this is the message that we all need to hear.  I'm going to go with option E and say it's for me and for you.  May our hearts be open to receive this word from Him.

7.  What is this 7 all about.  It is about 7 things.  Things such as....Food. Clothes.  Spending.  Media.  Possessions.  Waste.  Stress.  It's about taking a different thing each month, evaluating it, and letting the Lord stir in your heart what He wants to say to you regarding each area.

I read this book front to cover, but it is definitely a book I now want to go back and actually do.  As in read a chapter a month and actually do it.

So how do we remove the excess in our lives?  We take food for example and we eat 7 foods for one month.  That's right 7.  And only 7.  Do you know how many different kinds of foods we eat each day.  I just put dinner in the oven and the recipe says "mix first 6 ingredients together"  and that was just the beginning! There were 3 more ingredients to go.  If I were doing 7 right now, dinner alone would fail me.

And Food is just the beginning.  Clothes.  Wear 7 clothes for a month.  Spending.  Only spend money at 7 different locations for the month.  So on and so forth until we've let the Lord Jesus work his way through these areas in our life.

7 is good.  7 is for me.  7 is for you.  I highly recommend it.

In the words of Jen in regards to fasting, "It's the means to the harvest.  Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk, and more of you and your kingdom.  Here we go."

You ready to jump in?  Jen and her people have graciously given me a copy of this amazing book to give away.

Want to win?  It's easy!  Just leave a comment telling me which area you especially want Jesus to come and do a work in.  For me, it's the spending.  We have a pretty tight reign on our finances and walk the Dave Ramsey way, but I know there is more we could do.  I want to invite the Lord to come and do His thing and have complete and absolute control of our finances.  And waste....yes, I'd love to become "greener" and plant a garden...that's a dream of mine.  Okay...it might be harder than I thought to tell me just one, but go ahead and try!

Want more ways to win?

Mention this giveaway on twitter mentioning Jen Hatmaker (@JenHatmaker) and myself (@kamclendon)
Follow this blog through google friend connect

Mention this giveaway on facebook 

(if you do any of the things above, be sure to come back and leave a separate comment

telling me what you did!)

This giveaway is open for the weekend....

and I'll pick the winner on Monday!

Ready, set, let's go and let Jesus come and do what He wants to do!

Jude Robert, You are Eleven Months Old

You are one month

away from turning ONE!

You are every bit of precious

and I love every ounce

of your 11 month old being!

This month you added the word...

DADA

to your vocabulary!

We are so proud of you

and love that you now say

Mama and Dada

(amongst lots of other jabberings!)

You are crawling full speed ahead....

you are so fast and

into everything!

You pull up on everything

and "walk" around the living

room holding onto the furniture!

You gained about a pound this month 

rounding at at about 19 pounds....

and you've grown an inch and a half...

putting you at 30 inches tall!

It's time to install that big boy car seat!!!!

You're our little eater...

eating everything and anything

that we give you.

There isn't anything you don't like.

Your a tall, skinny little man.

For anything that has legs...

you're wearing 12 month clothing.

You can still fit in some 9 month shirts,

but we've mainly moved onto the 12 month category.

Our washing machine broke over

the course of this month, so you were in

disposable diapers more than we would have liked!

While you were in the disposables,

you were in a size 3.

Still trying to figure out the night time

sleeping/diaper arrangement.

Think we're just going to have to give in

to disposables at night (boo!)

You held onto 5 teeth during your 11th month...

tooth number 6 looks to be making an appearance soon!

You completely dropped your morning nap

during your 11th month.

It's been quite interesting getting on a new schedule...

but we are persevering!

We had a very healthy 11th month!

Whoohoo!

It was much needed!

During this month you nursed 2-3 times a day

and we supplemented the rest with a bottle

(some breast milk, some formula).

You eat a huge breakfast and a huge dinner.

Lunch can be tricky bc you

can become toast before we can get you home

(since you've dropped that morning nap!)

but we do our best to get it in you!

And of course there are lots of snacks throughout the day!

You are full of energy....

full of life...

and so much fun!

You still love your Murphy....

and you sleep with 3 lovies and 1 elmo.

You have to have them all 

and it is precious to

see you love your little people.

And these cheeks.

I could just eat them up.

Thank you for a beautiful 11 months.

It's been a beautiful ride and I'm 

excited for all that the Lord has

for this little McLendon family...

party of three!