15th Anniversary

Tim and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a get away to Petite Jean State Park. We stayed in a cozy cabin with a beautiful view and had a great time hiking, eating out, and having long periods of time to talk. I am so thankful for a husband who loves the Lord and is truly my best friend. Sometimes the busyness of life seems to overshadow the joy of just sharing life together. The kids had a great time with Michael and Naomi, a young couple that was so kind to watch them for us. The girls surprised us with a gift card for a favorite restaurant when we arrived home. When we asked where they had gotten the money to purchase this, Rebekah replied "well there was the garage sale, the lemonade stand, and then came the poop." Tim had been paying them a small amount to clean up the mess that Lila makes in the back yard. We wondered why they were so eager to help. They are precious girls and their sacrifice of their own money makes this gift incredibly special to me. 

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. Holidays are often the time when we miss family the most so we were thankful that some of church family could come and celebrate the day with us. Our church service was great and full of special music. We ate lunch with the Cains and Franklins and then had an indoor Easter Egg hunt due to the pouring rain. We are most thankful for the Lord and His willingness to suffer and die for our sins and we rejoice in his power over death. He is Risen!

Our girls our growing into young ladies.

Friends make holidays fun!!

I love this picture because the girls thought they were done. Notice the egg on picture behind them.

Spring Fun

It has been so long since I have written it is hard to know how to catch up. We are enjoying spring soccer and the girls are doing very well. Tim and I went on the Spring Retreat with the youth to New Life Ranch. This was the first time at this facility and it was great. We planned the retreat on the weekend of Spring Break and ended up with about 3 inches of snow. This changed the activities that we had planned but we all had fun anyway. The speaker was tremendous and fed the youth as well as the adults from God's word. We are so blessed with a youth staff that are selfless servants of Christ. We are thankful and blessed for the opportunity to be involved with this ministry.  

The girls and Tim were up early to welcome me as I finished my 1000th mile with Nike+. 

The girls have great fun selling lemonade to all our neighbors.

AWANA - Career Night

A few weeks ago it was career night at AWANA. Elizabeth went as an author of children's books, Abigail a zookeeper, Rebekah  a veterinarian, and Rachel a teacher. The ideas change from year to year. What fun to dream.
Abigail found a special treasure the other day. Rumor has it that this hat was worn by Tim night and day for an entire summer when he was young. Abigail is carrying on the tradition. She thinks the "a" stands for Abigail. School can be a little challenging when your hat keeps slipping over your eyes.

Recovering

I am still recovering from the garage sale we had last Saturday. Each spring I have tried to have a garage sale to make money to join our neighborhood pool in the summer. Every year as I am getting ready for the sale I say  "I am never going to do this again" but then I will have a great sale and make $700. So then next year I am at it again. Well I think this year will be it for a while. I did make enough money ($375) to join the pool and have some extra "fun" money but I am feeling old and tired. Part of the problem was the fact that I tried to have this sale in a month that contained planning a Valentine party, watching other kids for a weekend, having Elizabeth's birthday, having mutiple meetings at my house, and giving a devotional at a friend's shower. All things that I love to do but not a good time to add something else. I wanted to take a picture of my garage to capture the moment but when I got home from putting up my signs on Sat. morning, I had people waiting to get in. The day was rainy and cold but we had a decent crowd and I enjoyed visiting with the friends who participated in the sale with me. After we were done we packed up all the remaining items and took them to Good Will. I found great joy in putting empty plastic bins back into my attic. A feeling of freedom from the weight of stuff. I want to simplify life trying to live with less.  I also want to be more willing to give to others - not merely looking out for my own interests but the interests of others.

Elizabeth is 10 years old!

We enjoyed celebrating Elizabeth's 10th birthday. For her party this year we planned a Scavenger Hunt around town. The girls were divided into two groups and we all had fun racing to collect the items on the list. The girls got candles and ice cream from the grocery store, a crown from burger king, a gift for Elizabeth from the dollar store and a balloon from the party store. It  happened to be pouring rain during the whole outing but everyone had fun anyway. Elizabeth has such a tender heart and we are all recipients of her kindness. She enjoys writing and thinks that she would like to write children's stories about dogs when she grows up. We are so thankful for our Lizzie Boo. Happy Birthday.

No party is complete without candles.

The whole gang eating pizza.

Elizabeth had plates with dogs on them since she is such and animal lover so Lila was the honored guest.

On Elizabeth's actual birthday we were watching two extra children for the week-end. Riley is one of Elizabeth's dearest friend so we were glad to have a two night sleepover. After church on Sunday we all went to Cracker Barrel for a birthday lunch.

Double digits.

What a precious girl!

Basketball

We have enjoyed participating in a basketball program at a local church over the last few months. I keep meaning to take my camera but have not been able to remember. Here are some shots of the us enjoying our wonderful cul de sac.

A tough team to beat!

Tim gives Abigail a little boost!