Mother's Tea

I just got home from the Mother's tea at Tatum's prek. It was so fun and precious!! She served my breakfast and painted my toenails and fingernails. She did a pretty good job too! The entire class recited Ps. 139 with hand motions. It was soooo precious! It does this momma's heart good to see one of my kids quoting the Bible...precious words!! So thankful that we gave Tatum this opportunity to go a year at CLC at church. She has been able to experience some great things, and hear God's word. She has had amazing teachers that love her like their own.

We are leaving after school tomorrow to go visit my mom for mother's day. So excited!

Easter preparations

Today was Palm Sunday and Tyler was in the play during church and also in our "Jerusalem Adventure" as a High Priest. He did such a good job! This afternoon the kids and I canvassed homes in our neighborhood. I can't believe they did so well!! They made it 2.5 hrs walking to over 100 doors!! I had to make the stop but promised we could go again tomorrow evening. So excited for a week of celebration. On Friday, Tatum is getting baptized. She is so excited!!

Easter Recipe

I have finally found a new recipe that is fun to do with the kids and also represent the price that Jesus paid for us. The first recipe was really neat because the when you bit into the cookies, they were hollow representing the empty tomb. However, They WERE HORRIBLE!!! Can you imagine a cookie that even the kids would not eat?

Anyway, this one is much better! Here is the link:

http://www.womenlivingwell-courtney.blogspot.com/

I may not have this exactly right. If you don't see it when it first comes up, scroll down a bit and you will find it. Have fun sharing Jesus' story. Praise God the tomb is empty!!!!

Lately

We have been so busy! We had a blast a spring break visiting family. We went camping on our way home with my brother and his family. My parents are visiting Israel right now!! I am so excited for them to get to have this experience!! I think they will forever be changed! Can you imagine what it would be like to walk the same steps as Jesus?!!! Unbelieveable!! I can't wait to get a turn!

We are doing a campaign at church called "Generations". We are definitely in need of more classroom space. At the beginning of the month, the kids were given a "seed" bag with $5 in it. They were taught about the "parable of the Talents" in Matthew 27. If you have had the chance to read it, you should. Anyway, we took our seed money and bought water bottles and ice to sell at the local ballpark. I took the kids out the the ball field to sell their water. I am soooo proud of them!! They worked hard for 2 hours and made nearly $50!! We put that money back in their seed bag and they had the opportunity to lay their bag on the alter during church! I was amazing to watch as a parent! Great lesson to learn.

God is doing amazing things in our home and we are so excited! I will be a preschool teacher next school year at our church!! I am so excited!

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's day and we have had a great day so far. Michael left me a rose and a box of chocolate and card before he left for work. He came home for lunch too! Tonight, we are having dinner with the kids. We don't really have a sitter so we will just celebrate with the kids. This is our 14th Valentine together and I am so thankful for that!

Awww..another snow day!

We had four snow days last week and now we have another one today! LOVE IT! Michael let us sleep in and we are having a great day! Due to last weeks snow, we didn't get our trash picked up, but Praise the Lord, they are out today. We could barely walk in the garage! Yuck! That is what is happening at our house!

winter

I know several of you are going to disagree, but, I LOVE winter! I love that it keeps us home more than any other time of the year. I love that we can have a fire going and snuggle up with a great book or movie together. I love the kind of food we make in the winter time. I love that we bake more and it makes the house smell soooo good. LOVE it! I love snow and skiing. I love that it reminds me so much of my childhood days growing up. We spent so much time outdoors with my dad doing firewood and he would do crazy driving stunts on the ice and snow because people would wait until there was a foot of snow on the ground before they would realize they needed to order it. It reminds me of the smell of our house growing up with the wood burning fireplace going. So for a little longer, I am thankful for the snow coming and the joy it brings to my heart. Hoping for a snow day tomorrow!

What we have been up to

I love lazy mornings. The boys got to have sleep overs last night...we each of two boys the same age so we switch off brothers on a regular basis. Tatum is not a fan of this because she is "always left out!" It is so tough being the little sister. I can't really imagine that she misses out on too much!!

We have played skipbo, farkle, wii, and uno and it is not 1pm yet. We had a "pick your own lunch" kind of day....love those days. And, the kids think they are pulling a fast one on me. We will go to church and Sunday School tomorrow...my favorite day of the week! And also my favorite activity! We started a new Bible study on Wednesday nights and it is on Marriage and Parenting. Our first class was fantastic. It is being taught by a couple who have been married for 44 years this week! They should have some great information for us to use along with the Bible. They are passionate about each other and about sharing what they have learned with us.

We don't have plans for our long weekend..just resting. I have a couple of books that I have started and would love to finish just one! Beans with ham are cooking on the stove, smelling great I will add! I have had my daily phone conversation with my mom, 5 of my usual 20 texts with allison, and waiting on my sister for her daily call...live is good and we are excited to see where God takes us next!

Prayer Challenge

I am going to start this challenge..will you join me?

I can't get the button to work so here is the link!

http://watchmefuze.blogspot.com/p/31-day-pray-for-your-spouse-challenge.html

New Year!

I am horrible at this blogging thing! I just looked over the past entries and they are pathetic!

Anyway, I am not one for making New Year's Resolutions...mainly, I am not one for keeping them! But, I do have something weighing heavy on my heart right now and I believe God is calling me to work with Him in this area. I am going to strive this year to better a better wife/mom/daughter/sister/friend. That is alot!! I just know with all of our life circumstances, we can let things slide and go to the waste side. Here is a list of examples:
1. Love more
2. Read my Bible more
3. Pray with intention more
4. Be intentional with Michael
5. laugh with my kids more
6. Make a point to pray for one friend on FB per day
7. Give more this year than last at church
8. Bake more
9. Smile because I can more
10. Blog more

I pray that God will use me in a way this year that He never has before. My prayers as of late have not been answered in the way I was hoping, but I pray that God's will be done in my life regardless of how I thought it would go.

testing

I am trying to add a new background but cant figure it out! Any thoughts??

Christmas 2010

I can not tell you how blessed I feel today. We had the very best Christmas. Michael had to close on Christmas eve so we decided to stay home this year instead of going to my parent's house in Oklahoma. It was a hard decision but we could not drive and come home on the same day. On the 23rd, I was in the kitchen and heard carollers outside. I opened the door and it was Kristi and Danny and my brother and Allison!! It was the greatest surprise!! Then the next morning, I had a knock on the front door and it was my parents!!! LOVED it!! We were able to have lunch with Michael before work and my parents stayed the night and had Christmas with us! Such a blessing! It usually is not possible for any of my family to come here because there are too many of them and they have to work in their extended family too.

Tyler and Tanner got new bikes from Santa and Tatum got a princess jeep. Michael and I got a new camera. Santa brought Michael a new laptop computer which I am using now so hopefully, I can update this blog more often! Ha! Our friends Brett and Melissa came to eat dinner with us too.

The saddest part of today was taking all of the decorations down :( I will post pics soon

Camping

We took the kids camping this weekend to Ray Roberts Lake. It was a 20 min. drive. Wonderful! We were at the best camp site...close enough to bathroom but far enough away in the trees to feel secluded from everyone else. Perfect! We went hiking, on a trail a little too long for my taste, had hot chocolate, made a fire, made smores, sang, played games, and cooked hotdogs! It was hard to leave. The kids had a blast and could be as loud as they wanted!

Pics to come!

Prosper Homecoming

Tyler is going to school in Prosper now and today they got out of school at 12:15 for the parade! Love it! Tonight is the game and he is so excited. Of course, it is raining right now. :(

This week has been terribly long for some reason. Can't really tell you what we have do this week but it felt like it took forever for Friday to get here.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!

Tatum's school

Tatum started prek at CLC at our church this year. To say that she loves it is an understatement!! She loves Ms. Sarah. She gets up every single morning and asks if it is time to go to school even though she knows it isn't the right day! She loves to pick out her own clothes and help make her lunch...which is always the same because that is all she will eat!!!! Ugh!!!! She goes with her sweet friend Tate who has been with us since he was a tiny baby! She loves him!

One more thing has changed with Tatum this last week! She became a real Princess of our KING!! She accepted Christ into her heart on Wednesday evening at the dinner table. She and Tanner were carrying on their usual conversation about Heaven and Hell. Tanner was explaining again, about going there and what she would have to do to go too! Boy did she ever want to go with us!! She asked us to be quiet a minute and she said her own prayer...she did not want any help! She shouted, "I'm going to Heaven!!" It was precious! It is the best feeling a mother could have! We were a little nervous at first, because she is so young. But, our prayer is that God will reveal Himself more and more to her (and us!) and if she has anymore questions, she will just ask. Our church does this amazing class called "New Christian Class" for kids. It is exactly for this reason. They talk individually with each child making sure they understand everything. They show them the baptistry and the Lord's supper trays explaining what each thing means and why it is important for them to do it. I love it! And the best part is, parents participate too!

school

Today was the first day of school for the boys! Tanner has Mr. Kane for second grade and Tyler is going to Prosper to the Rogers Middle School. Both seemed to have fantastic day...couldn't stop talking about it!! Love that! Tatum goes to Meet the Teacher tomorrow at CLC. She starts on Thursday. We have been shopping for school clothes and she is loving it!

We went to my parent's this weekend for my sister's birthday! The kids of course loved it! Aunt Alli was trying to teach Tatum to do a cartwheel. She is starting gymnastics tomorrow. She is very excited!

Prayer

Have you ever thought about prayer? There are so many things going on in my life right now that require prayer. I have never prayed harder in all my life. This has me thinking...I read a post about prayer and it went along with what I had been thinking. I always pray as if God doesn't know me. I explain what is going on, a specific need, how I would like Him to answer, and oh, a quick thank you for everything else I have already asked for. Why??? The God that made the universe, the same God that gave his only Son for me..knows me. He already knows my needs, my wants and desires, my heart. I was reading in Psalms last night and was completely blown away by God's mercy and grace and love. It was so freeing!! I don't have to bog down my prayer time with the Lord on things He already knows. Sometimes it is so nice to just say "Lord...I love you!" He knows the rest of my story. It is enough just to rest in God loving arms..doesn't that feel great?!! What I have learned is that I don't always have to know what to say and even though the words do not come out of my mouth exactly the way I waned them to..He still understands!!! What comfort!!

Random

I just got home from the best weekend at my parents house. We just played games and the kids swam soooo much. Every time I turned around, they wanted back in! We grilled and dad always makes the kids a huge (he never does anything half way!!!) fire to make smores. They always love to go. Michael had to stay home and work :(
I can't believe July is already almost over!! But, we are coming up to my favorite part of the entire year. I love from about October to Christmas! I love it because the weather is cooler and getting ready for Christmas is so fun and the kids love it. We reflect nearly everyday the entire month of December on Jesus' birth...amazing! We do not do it nearly enough the rest of the year.

We had a Twilight movie marathon, again! Love those movies! However, I hate that they have to leave so much of the details from the book out.

The kids are spending a few days at Michael's parents now and the house is so quite!! I came home to a wonderful surprise, Michael cleaned the entire house for me. He even washed the sheets because that is my all time favorite thing! God blessed me with the most amazing husband! He is so thoughtful and loving and the kids have the best dad. He is constantly doing something for me and it amazes me everyday!!

Gotta go run a few errands..namely go get some groceries for our house!!

Terrible Blogger

I am sorry to anyone that is still reading this!! I have been an extremely terrible blogger. I thought once summer got here, I could catch up on this and a long list of things but so far we have been extremely busy!!! We have visited family, gone to church camp, celebrated a few birthdays, and gone camping. I will update with pics and all soon! I promise!

Tatum's Dance Recital

On Saturday, Tatum had her first dance recital. It was adorable. I was so nervous that she would not remember her dance or that she would not want to go on stage. She did go on stage and she did remember her dance. She knew so much that when it came time to switch places on stage, she got fighting mad at the little girl that was not following instructions and trade with her!! I was so afraid she was just going to push her out of the way. She repeatedly told the girl to switch and included pointing her finger in the direction the little girl was suppose to go in!! She finally gave up and returned to her original spot just in time for the last 3 seconds of the song! I was relieved! :)Here are some pictures: