There's a new splash park by our house. 

We met our buddies there this morning before it was a bajillion degrees outside.

Just Pictures

Blake climbing at the bounce house

Sisters enjoying their party favors from a birthday party

Visiting the stockyards with Nana and Papaw

This wasn't even fake!!! They really do love each other!!

The beauty of Fossil Rim, TX

Best Buddies

This fella was hungry!

Can you say "CREEPY"? 

Looking at the buffalo with PaPaw.

Blake and I had a day just us....this was one of the highlights for her.  Riding the rides at Kroger.

On the Bed of Nails at the Children's Museum

Kate, Caitlyn and Blake at the Children's museum.  We LOVE HER!!!

Blake, Kate, Lex, and Caitlyn at the water park.

The Seesaw Grandpa Brown brought the girls!

Riding the Jetski on Lake Grapevine. 

Oh ya know...just hanging out...

You know when your Mom calls and asks if you have somehow blocked her off your blog list because it's been so long since you posted that maybe it's time for an update.

So here is my synopsis of the past 2 months. 

Life is busy....and often messy. 

 Around here, it's felt like both. 

 And honestly there's always something to do that takes priority over blogging. 

 Like playing with the kids, cooking meals, cleaning up meals, giving baths, vacuuming (again!!), maybe having a phone conversation with an adult, play dates, working, reading, finding time alone with Nick, finding time alone with the Lord. 
Somehow tons of little things find a way to take up my entire day.
  Just like every other Mom in the world :)

So here's a few things going on with us:

We're selling our house.  Well maybe I should say we're trying to sell our house.  Oh boy, I could give myself a stroke stressing over having a perfect home to show potential buyers.  In fact I had it all planned how smoothly this process would ensue because a potential buyer would walk into our home and be astounded at the sheer beauty of my domestic endeavors.
 The sparkling toilets and floors, the staged bedrooms, the lack of any personal photo in the entire place and automaticaly offer us full listing price for our home....
cause that's completely reasonable right? 

God is so funny. 
He knows I grasp at any control I can get. 

And he knows how to not -so- humbly remind me I'm not in control. 

 Like when our first showing was while I was starting a 12 hour shift at the hospital, my younger brother in law was at our house with 4 little girls and a dog and Nick had to go ino the office for an emergency.  Talk about me having no control.  I had to laugh. 

Or when we thought there was a solid offer on our home so we found a new one for ourselves only to have our buyer back out a week later. 

One of my favorite ways I was shown I'm not in control was the 2nd weekend our house was on the market.  My Mom and Grandma were coming for a weekend visit. 
My Granmda is such a healthy lady, she has overcome breast cancer but other than that is 100%.
  So when she walked into my living room ater a 6 hour car ride with a pained look on her face and  admitted with reluctance she was having chest pain I knew we couldn't ignore it. 

Praise the Lord I know a good hospital!  
We headed to my hospital thinking we would be home in a few hours feeling silly for making such an improtu visit to the ER.
  In fact, she almost had me talked into turning around and taking her home, so convicing she was that she felt better. 

But knowing that time is of the essence with cardiac matters we went on. 
Three nights and three cardiac stents later she was back to my house
then back home to Arkansas the next day. 
It was a whirlwind of a weekend, with 4 showings that Saturday while Grandma was in the hospital. 

So yes Lord, I'm getting it.  Not. In. Control.

So you need more proof?

Two weeks ago my neice was staying the night. 

 It's pretty common for her to spend a night a week with us. 

Sometimes Usually she and Blake find ways to get into things they aren't supposed to...
and I know this.

But when Kate walked out of their room bringing me some kids scissors, I was confused.

  I walked into the room to see TWO little girls with hair chopped in various degrees of

OH MY GOODNESS.

I was completely shocked. 
Me?
  The Mom who limits sugar and tv and processed food has TWO kids (one who is not mine!!)
in my house,
under my care
that have given and received horrendous hair cuts. 
God help us all. 
I frantically called her Mom.
  I  frantically called Nick. 
Then in shock I sat and cried. 
Then we rushed to a hairdresser that did the best she could to make our girls look fit to go in public without embarassment.  Then we came back home to lots of long talks (she loves those ;) about how she knew better and how she can't have curls or braids for a very long time. 
About how you do what you know is right no. matter. what. 
About punishments we need to execute so she remembers that we never ever ever cut hair. 
I'll still never understand how why they did it. 
My daughter loves her hair.
 She loves having it braided and curled and pairing it with a pretty bow and a ruffled dress.
  She is all girl. 

So now she is all girl with a short little chopped haircut.

In all seriousness the Lord has been working on my heart about HIS control over my life.
  He is faithful when I am overwhelmed.  Praise the Lord.

I have felt inadequate, over-burdened, beat down...then I found this verse.

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said,
“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
 So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. http://bible.us/2Cor12.8.NLT

I still can't read it without tears filling my eyes.
When I am weak, Christ is working?? 
So easy to say, hard to let sink in. 
But believe me when I say it held me up this week.
My burdens are so light compared to others, but somehow they can still wear deeply on me. 
So I cling to this verse. 
I let his words and promises change my heart and I choose Joy.
  I choose renewal by His spirit. 


If you made it to the end, you deserve lots pictures...I promise I'll work on it!

Because I have been a Terrible blogger, here is what was saved in my draft!
I promise to get a family update soon.  There's plenty to talk about, so I'll work on it :)

Meanwhile, several MONTHS ago....goodness....my Dad and Kim came for a nice long visit...
Here's some of what we did..

Life Questions

Dear Blake,

Today you asked me a tough question.  It seemed easy enough when you asked it, but as a few minutes passed it made me contemplate a few things. 

You asked me "Do bad people get to go to heaven?" 

My knee-jerk reaction was, "No, sweetheart they don't."

But then a few minutes passed and I caught myself.  I tried explaining this concept to you, but I could tell it didn't sink it...so I wanted to write it out so that someday you can look back on it. 

What we believe is that we are going to be in heaven some day only because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  The Bible says that we (me especially) would ever be able to stand in the "GOOD" category without the blood of Jesus.  Without Him standing in my place and saying to God, "Wait, don't look at all she's done wrong, look at what I did for her on the cross!  I will stand in her place, I paid for all her sin!"   {for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23}

There is only one that lived a "Good" life, a perfect life, and that is Jesus.   So my answer now to you is:  There are lots of bad people in heaven....but they looked to Jesus and accepted his free gift of salvation and even though they did nothing to deserve it they will get to spend an eternity with God.  Just like you and me, there is nothing we can do to be good enough for God's presence.  And yes there are "bad" people.   Those that hurt, threaten, bully.  But the truth is that there is nothing so bad that God can't forgive us and welcome us into his family, and into heaven someday, if we accept Jesus as our perfection. 

The key to how we live our life now is this....because of what Jesus did, because of his great love, we live our lives wanting to show him how thankful we are for what he did.  How could we do less? 

God uses you little one, more than you know, to make me remember these things. 

Love,

Mommy

Kate is 2!

March 29, 2012

Dear Kate,

You are now officially a two year old!  We just celebrated you with a big birthday with lots of friends.  You had a Piggy cake, a bounce house and an Egg hunt!  You actually had FOUR parties this year!  We traveled to Arkansas last week to see all our family.  Nana and Papa, Grammie and Papaw, and Grandma and Grandpa EACH had you a party!  That’s a lot of getting “Happy Birthday” sung to you and lots and lots of cake and cupcakes!   You had a great time in Arkansas.  You really love your grandparents and all your cousins.    

As I write this you and Blake are playing in Blake’s room trying to avoid a nap time.  It’s funny how well you two play together when a nap time is looming. 

You love to sing, mostly twinkle twinkle little star, but there is a song I sing to you at bed time. It goes like this:

“Think of me every day.

Hold tight to what I say,

Then I’ll be close to you even from far away.

Know that wherever you are

It is never too far

If you think of me I’ll be with you.”

I hope you remember this song when you’re older.  I’ve loved singing it to you every night.

Just recently you started climbing out of your crib.  For two years you have been a fantastic sleeper, but I’m afraid that is no longer the case.  You dread being laid down and immediately climb out of your crib.  It’s been a learning process for our whole family!  Recently I rock you a little longer, then stand by your crib a few minutes in hopes you will drift to sleep. 

You are so excited to come find us when you wake up in the morning.  You’ll say “I out!!”It’s hard to be angry that you are up earlier than usual when you are so proud of yourself. 

You love babies.  You like to tickle them and play with their toes. 

You have the cutest little “Phoebe from Friends” run: arms flying, big grin across your face.  This has also led to lots and lots of scraped knees but you don’t really mind. 

You make new friends everywhere you go.  You are very outgoing. 

You still LOVE piggy.  She is a big part of our day!  She’s getting a bit tattered but you don’t mind.  You like to pretend Piggy is crying and comfort her, or pretend she needs a snack and let her have some of yours.   You even like ME to comfort Piggy if she is upset. 

Your favorite books are “Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom” , “How does a Dinosaur say I Love You?” and anything Sandra Boyton. 

Your favorite show is Blue’s Clues with Dora in a close second.

Your favorite drink is chocolate milk.

Your favorite food is cheese or anything sweet.

Beside me, Daddy and Blake your favorite person is your Uncle Baus.  You ask for him so much and just light up when he is around. 

You are SO confident in your colors, but are rarely correct! I’ll ask you what a color is and you will instantly shoot back “Green!!” when the object is red.  It makes me laugh every time.  Who knows if you really know it’s red and just like making me laugh.

Being your Mommy is so much fun.  We have a great time taking walks, coloring, going to the park and cooking in the kitchen.  It amazes me how much I love you. 

As always, I hope you know how much love the Lord has for you.  He has been right by you since you were even this young.  I have seen his hand of protection and provision work in your life already.  Remember Him, Kate.  Remember how He loves you.  Don’t let the world tell you He’s not real or doesn’t care about you, because He does.  He will be the only sure constant in you r life.  Lean heavily on Him. 

I love you to the moon and back.

All my love,

Mommy

Fairy Garden Tea Party

Blake is recently really  in to ballet.  I think  Angelina Ballerina on NetFlix started it, then a friend from work gave me her little girls old ballet shoes and tights....

We love to turn on Pandora Radio, move the coffee table and dance some ballet moves in the living room.  So when my friend invited us to a Ballet Fairy Garden Tea Party how could we refuse?

Sweet Friends, Ava and Blake

we also rode the elevator several time for "fun"

With Miss Teen Dallas

It was a bit windy, but we had so much fun and I loved giving Blake my undivided attention for the afternoon.