Panama Bound!

Brian and I are leaving Tuesday afternoon for David, Panama!!!! The girls will be in good hands with some dear friends while we are gone. We will be very busy while in Panama with gospel distribution, prayer walking, discipleship trainings, women and children activities, and many other things I am sure!!! If we come to your mind please say a prayer for us and the girls. This is the first time we both (at the same time) have left (me: the country) them for more than a day or two. I am looking so forward to going and seeing what God has in store for Brian and myself as well as our family! I know I'll come back a changed woman/wife/mother!

This is also the first time I have EVER flown in an airplane.....fun fun!!!! I'll have plenty of pictures to post when I get back! ;) We're so excited!!!!

"Don't follow what's with you, follow what's in you."
Holly's quote

Kiddo Activities

(Sorry I forgot to put the ages:) Our girls are 8 and 10 years old!)

For Kelly's SUYL this week we are sharing our favorite activities for kids.

*Summertime is always fun because there is plenty to do outside. But our girls LOVE to read and usually they join the summer reading club at our public library. This summer it has been kind of crazy busy, and they have been reading a ton, but we have yet to make it up there to officially sign up! But when we do their cards will fill up fast. Most libraries have these book clubs for all ages too!

*Of course summer = swimming and we do plenty of that!

*Our girls love taking colored cardstock and making crafts. In our classroom I have some plastic drawers that have nothing but stickers, paper, and various craft supplies for them to use any time they want to. They come up with some pretty neat stuff and usually make decorations for whatever holiday is coming up.
(You can get the cardstock at Hobby Lobby when it is 50% off or use the 40% off coupon this week! Click HERE)

*A few years ago when we went to Disney World I made each girl a personalized folder with coloring sheets and activity pages that I had printed off for the road trip. I also took a random toy that they had not played with in a long time and put it in a small brown paper sack and stapled the top. Then every 100 or so miles I'd let them open up a new "surprise" (old) toy! They loved it! I threw in some brand new toys that I had picked up at the dollar store for added excitement!

*When they were younger I would pull crafts off of the DKLT.com website! This is a great free site that has TONS of cool crafts and coloring sheets. Another website I love is Danielle's Place!

Have a blessed weekend!!!

Toy Story 3 and a Few Great Dads!

We had such a great weekend! Saturday we went to see Toy Story 3 and I must say it was really good. It definitely met the high expectations that we all had! The look on Anna's face when Woody made his first appearance was priceless!

This movie was a little more emotional than most cartoons. I found myself wanting to sob a few times. However, I was feeling a bit nostalgic that day anyway and that didn't help I am sure.

Sunday morning the girls gave Brian his card and gifts! :) For every occasion Holly always wants to get Brian a watch. We've told her that he has a few nice watches, but just needs the batteries replaced. Well this weekend when we went to Belk I had the battery replaced in one of his watches while he was shopping away in the men's department. So on Sunday morning he finally got "his watch"! The girls had also made him another watch out of cardboard and it was funny watching him open that one first.

Sunday afternoon we stopped by Dad's newest house. Which is actually my Aunt Gerty's house that he is buying. It was neat to see this house again. I spent many hours there growing up when we visited Uncle Ed and Aunt Gerty! Now my girls will get to visit their Pa there. One memory in particular happened when I was about 12 years old. Uncle Ed always thought I was so nice and quiet and that I hung the moon! Well, one summer night when we were out there and they were letting me play on the lawn mower. What I didn't realize was that if you sing while riding on the lawn mower it actually echoes back to the house. Where of course my mom and dad and uncle and aunt were sitting. Needless to say that my version of the Judd's "Young Love" was not Grammy worthy! But when I got back to the house Uncle Ed said to me, "you sure were singing pretty!" Ha! I am quite sure that I turned 30 shades of red!
Brian and his girls!
I am convinced that he is the greatest Daddy this side of heaven!

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my wonderful hubby! God could not have sent me a better man that is a wonderful hubby, daddy, provider, love, that is also patient, caring, & protective! Our girls adore him and I truly love him with all of my heart!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Woody!!!!

I bought movie tickets online this week to insure that Anna will be reunited with Woody at the big screen Saturday! She has counted down the days until Toy Story 3 comes out and now the time is almost here!!! We were gonna go to the midnight showing last night, but we wanted Brian to be with us so we're gonna wait until Saturday.

She and Holly are so excited! To be honest we are all pretty excited!

Photoshop and Art!

Again I have neglected my blog. :(

Here is what we've been up to lately!

We have been loving on this little girl a whole big bunch!

I recently got Photoshop and I LOVE it!!!! Still have a lot to learn, but I do LOVE it!!!!

Our dear sweet friend/sister Christis Joy was with us last week so that she and Anna could go to the Mitchell Tolle watercolor workshop. They had a great week and I am so thankful for the opportunity for Anna to be a part of this class. She has learned so much from one of the world's greatest artist!

They held the workshop at a church out in the country and the little creek right beside the church is absolutely beautiful.

Mr. Tolle is such a godly man that has a passion for sharing the Gospel of Jesus! This relationship that he has with the Lord shines through in each and every piece of art that he creates.

This week Anna worked on a piece for Brian and me. She didn't let us see it until she had it finished........and here it is:

She painted it from the picture that Brian took at Martin's Station when he was studying with Don (Christis' dad) for the Heritage Ministries Daniel Boone tour.

Here is original the picture! We loved her work on it!

Psalms 28:7

Psalms 28:7

"The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him."

This has been my favorite Bible verse since I was around 10 or 11 years old! I got a bookmark with this verse on it from my best friend for my birthday and I have claimed this verse many times!!! The Lord truly is my strength and my shield!!!!

Randon Acts of Kindness

For Kelly's Show Us Your Life this week we are to share "random acts of kindness" ideas. After reading a blog a few months ago about a mother that for her birthday did a huge list of RAOK all in one day! It has inspired me to extra things to help out my neighbors (read: any stranger I might come in contact with:)

Here are a few that I think is neat:

I have gone through the drive-thru at a fast food place before and paid for the lunch of the car behind me. I also gave a salvation tract to the worker and asked them very politely to hand it to the person when they drove up to pay for their meal.

Another idea is to help carry out groceries for an elderly person or a mom wrangling a few kiddos at the store!

Or if you have the extra $$$ you could pay for their groceries! Buy a gift card and go back into the store and find someone you can tell is struggling with choices and few items in their cart and give them the gift card.

Clip coupons (preferably free ones) and randomly hand them out while shopping. Or even lay them on the items they belong to. We do this at Hobby Lobby all the time! I love the look on people's faces when I hand them that 40% off coupon!!!

Buy a restaurant gift card and drop it off at a table of a a sweet elderly couple or a family with children. Put change in the meters of the ones that are getting ready to run out of time.

Take a special tray of sweets to a local elementary school and ask to leave them in the teacher's lounge.

Hand out waters to runners you see on the road. Especially the ones that are drenched in sweat.....ha!

Have your children write/make special thank you notes for our men and women in the armed forces and buy a gift card to attach to them. When you randomly see one out in public give them a thank you card!

I LOVE this idea of RAOK and would love to see my family doing more of it! I can't wait to read some more ideas too! Hope you all have a super blessed day!!!

The Proposal

For this week's SUYL over at Kelly's Korner we are sharing our proposal stories!

Brian and I were high school sweethearts and got engaged Christmas of my Senior year. While most people told us we were crazy and were way too young to even think about marriage, we both knew it was just right. This past January we have been together 16 years and in August will be married 14 years!

Now onto the proposal story.......

Nothing really fancy or super exciting happened. Other than the fact that he picked out my ring all by himself and I LOVED it! I think it is about .75 of a carat but that totally didn't matter to me!
We were at his house a few weeks before Christmas and he brought the ring over to me and in the sweetest voice simply asked me to marry him. It was just the two of us and was a very special night and one that we both will always remember!

I have a diamond wrap that Brian gave me our second Christmas after we were married, but the band broke this past winter and I have yet to get it fixed. But I love the simplicity of a simple band and engagement ring too!

Here are a few scriptures that are beneficial to marriages:

Matthew 19:6
“So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

Hebrews 10:24
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

Proverbs 12:18
"So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

Ephesians 4:15
"Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is that Head, that is, Christ."

1 Corinthians 13:5
"Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs."