A Six Month Summary!

Because I am such a creature of "order", I just couldn't bear to pick up here right now after six months of not keeping up! So....because really writing it all would be a littly crazy, I thought I would post pictures of the highlights of our lives while we were waiting for our Selah... That, I felt would fulfill my need for order and then I could proceed to TRY to keep up with our lives more regularly!

                     From January to March the boys participated in Upward Basketball which is a Christian athletic organization. It was so much fun and the boys not only improved their basketball ability but they spent time learning more about the Lord through devotions and memory scripture verses.

Boardbreaking event at Karate for Zachary

Learning to Skate!

Daddy's Birthday!

 Happy Valentine's Day! He's the cutest Valentine's present EVER!

Enjoying the snow up north in Overgaard, Arizona

The Harlem Globetrotters! What a fun night!

Zach asked his friend to bring a stuffed animal, book, and blanket to donate to Project Night Night. He decided on his own that he didn't need anymore gifts and that he would rather give something to children who are in need. I just love his heart...he is such a treasure!

Easter Sunday

A Sun's basketball with Reach Basketball.

Celebration of learning at Landon's preschool.

Landon had a ladybug obsession and talked me into ordering 1500 ladybugs! They were everywhere!

We went on a Disney Cruise in May! It left on Mother's Day so it was quite a treat and it also was in honor of our 10th wedding anniversary! I am truly blessed!

 

These boys were meant to be on the beach....funny we live in the desert!

A trip to Sacramento for a family wedding. It was beautiful there!

  

Summer fun in the pool!!

 

Exploring and fishing up north...no more snow, only beautiful weather! A needed break from the heat in Phoenix!

Back to school at the end of July...such a quick summer. Zachary is in 3rd grade this year and our little (but VERY tall) Landon went to Kindergarten! I can't believe how fast time flies!

February to August....all in order :-)

A Great Prayer Conference

Last weekend I went to a prayer conference with a couple of my closest friends that was sponsored by Central Christian Church. We were blessed by the teaching of Dr. James MacDonald, Pastor Cal Jernigan, and Pastor Hervin Fushekati! All three speakers were amazing in the way they allowed God to use them to send out His message. They are each a testimony to what God accomplishes when we are obedient to Him. Each of these men have life stories and experiences that convince me that walking in obedience to God has more than likely not always been easy. I’m sure there have been many times throughout their lives in ministry that they have been ready to throw in the towel, to give up because things get tough….but because of their obedience they are allowing God to work through them and in turn consistently touching and changing the lives of so many people!

If you haven’t heard about Dr. James MacDonald, you have to check out his ministry at www.walkintheword.com. He is the pastor at Harvest Bible Church in the Chicago area and he is the host of the nationally syndicated radio program called “Walk in the Word”.

Even though there were tons of “take-aways” from the conference, I think the two that stood out for me were:

1) The teaching on Jeremiah 33:3 which says “Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).” AMP


This verse just laid it out point blank for me. It says you have got to talk to God if you want to hear Him! Simple, huh? God tells us to talk to Him and He will answer you!” How much more straightforward can it be? If we want to know the things we cannot understand and want help making those choices in our lives, we must call on Him. He says He will then show us “great and mighty things”! Wow!! How can you NOT afford to take time out of every day to call out to God?


Here is that scripture from the Message Bible: “Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own”…I love the ending “things that you could never figure out on your own”. That tells me that if I don’t make praying and worshiping God a huge priority in my life, there are going to be WAAAAAAAAY to many things that I can’t figure out!!!!


2) The passion Pastor Hervin Fushekati has for Christ so totally “oozed” out of him as he shared his story of living in Albania and his conversion from the Muslim to the Christian faith. His sharing was so touching…I think not only because it was simply such an interesting and amazing story, but because of the humbleness with which he presented himself and his story. He told of being a part of a very powerful and strong Muslim family and even being placed in a position by Muslim leaders to infiltrate Christian youth groups and then to conversion to Christianity and church planting and even establishing the International Schoool of Theology and Leadership. Can you even imagine? To me it is so mind boggling. We forget that we, as Christians living in the United States have such freedom to worship….His story is a true reminder of how sad life could be without that freedom and a reminder to never take it for granted…nor to take our relationship with Christ for granted!


I will close with this Bible verse and thought from Pastor Cal Jernigan:

Be still, and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10

God tells us that in that quiet time with Him when we pray; we make a relationship with Him come alive…without prayer we will never experience the person of God.


Makes sense, huh?

My Sweet Baby Boy has Turned 5!

Landon turned 5 this month and we had a blast celebrating his special day over and over and over!!! First, we hit Build-a-Bear and the Rainforest Café to celebrate with his bestest buddies!

And then on his actual birthday we brought cupcakes to his pre-school classroom AND had his favorite dinner along with ice cream flurries (with a candle in them of course!) He was so funny about his dinner request…turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, mac-n-cheese, and strawberries! Quite a combination!

Then on the weekend we had to have the big extended family party as well! That one had a football theme. He loves football (especially the Cardinals…and the Vikings)!

As I sat and thought about how fast the time had gone and how I could hardly believe my baby had already turned 5, my heart was moved and God urged me to see how important the years…the weeks…the days…the moments of my life are with my children! I mean, I know that, but do I REALLY KNOW that?! I try to be present and I try to do what is best, but I know when I take a very honest look at MY life, I can see that sometimes the “trying to do what is best” gets in the way because it makes me over-commit and strangely enough my focus is on my “busyness” as opposed to being on my family! There are so many things to do and so many of them seem like they would be great for the kids, great for me, great for our family….but I have to draw a line in the sand and pick only what we can do without me becoming mentally absent, often distant, and sometimes even cranky!

I am stepping back quite a bit. Sometimes it feels weird and I don’t know what to do with myself in the quiet moments. It feels strange to not always be rushing around! But, I have found so much more time and mental ability to stay totally engaged with both the boys and my husband. I don’t feel myself losing my patience as often and I feel like we have more time to just simply enjoy each other. Will I EVER get caught up on emails, phone calls, and everything else? Probably not…but that’s okay.

I want to be sure to not miss even a moment…not a moment of the good, the bad, and the in-between. I am so blessed to be given the family I had always dreamed of and I don’t want to take a minute for granted. I want to carve the memories into my mind and on my heart so that they can last forever. I want to cherish the incredible gift God has placed before me …the gift of parenting…the gift of caring for His children while they are here on earth!

“LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble,

      and he saved them from their distress.
He calmed the storm to a whisper

      and stilled the waves

What a blessing was that stillness
      as he brought them safely into harbor! –Psalm107:28-30

Christmas 2009 Memories

This Christmas was so full of fun memories! It truly was one of my very favorite Christmases EVER!! I know one of the things that made it extra special was the fact that my husband was able to take quite a bit of time off from work. We all love it when Daddy is home with us!!!! I am so thankful for the family God has given me....How could I ask for more?

Hmmm....there is just one more thing though that I'm asking for....that next year we have our little girl with us to build even more family memories throughout the Christmas Season! Pretty Please?

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Friendship (Snippets Part 2!)

To start off the month of October, I was blessed by my sweet friend, Stacy who came out to visit from Minnesota. She was able to visit this time without her children and we attended the Women of Faith Conference in Phoenix (http://www.womenoffaith.com/) AND stayed overnight at a hotel WITHOUT CHILDREN! It was so great to get to spend that time with her. It has been six years since the last time we had been together without our children! I love it when our kiddos get to play and get to know each other, but any Mom out there knows how much (or how little) quality conversation takes place when you are surrounded by small children! :-) I think we have started and never finished at least 1000 conversations over the years! This weekend gave us the chance to talk about so much more than the surface topics...we got the chance to talk about the past, the here and now, and about our hopes for the future. The Women of Faith Conference gave us such a springboard of topics to helped us dig into some soul searching about our lives and the plans God had for us and the plans He still plans to lay before us. I am so thankful for that precious time I had to spend with Stacy!!!

The Women of Faith Conference is also a special time for me because it is a time each year I get to spend with a group of my friends from Phoenix, as well. This was our fourth consecutive year attending and I can’t even tell you how blessed I am each year by the entire weekend. It is amazing how God works and how He can make one event touch the lives of each one of the thousands of women in attendance. If you think about it….how different must all our lives be? Imagine the situations and stories represented by the thousands there? But still He is able to work through the writing, speaking, and worshiping to speak words of truth to each and every woman there. Does each year play as powerful a role in my life as the previous? No. But, does God use the time to bless me and change me? Yes! He is so amazing…ALL THE TIME!!

The blessing I thank Him most for during these weekends is the blessing of friendship that He has so lovingly placed upon me. One of the hurts that I had allowed to, almost in a sense, define me, was a lack of trust in the love and friendship given by others. Several life experiences had caused my heart to be broken in several pieces way too many times. Trust became a long journey of faith. Step by step I was learning about the work that the Holy Spirit could do in my life.

I remember four years ago sitting at the Women of Faith Conference and being touched by the depth of the friendships the speakers had with each other. I heard the speakers endearingly refer to each other as their “front porch” friends, and be described as “Jesus with skin on”. I looked around at the women I was attending the conference with and wondered if any of these women would eventually become that to me. I asked God to open my heart completely and help me trust in Him to guide me into blessed relationships. Guess what? He did it!!! Many of those women have become “Jesus with skin on” to me. They love me the way Jesus tells us to love others and I am so incredibly in awe and so incredibly thankful for how God worked in my life to answer my prayers! He is so good…ALL THE TIME!!!! I will forever remember to cherish the blessing of friendship He has given me and I never want to forget to take time to hang out on the front porch with those He has chosen to place in my life!

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel. Proverbs 27:9

Snippets of Summersaulting (well...maybe a bit more than a snippet :-) )

I CANNOT believe that I have been such a delinquent blog writer!! Well, after finishing up on a HUGE project and getting a little r and r, I am ready to write again :-) Now....where do I start? The last couple of months have been incredible and filled with so much! So, because I just can't bear to skip the good times, I am going to go ahead and write about each of them now...even IF it may be out of order and probably NOT good blog etiquette!


So....tonight's entry is about the trip we took over Labor Day weekend. We headed off to California and our first stop was Palm Springs where we took a little bit of time to hang out by the pool ....

Zach LOVED the slide at our hotel!!!

Landon, however, took a little longer to master it!

.........and then we did some sightseeing. Our favorite adventure was definitely the Aerial Tramway that goes up to San Jacinto National Park. It takes only 10 minutes to go up the 2.5 miles to the park! It was so incredibly beautiful up there and the chilly temps were such a welcome relief!!! I definitely recommend the trip if you are ever in Palm Springs! You can find more info at http://www.pstramway.com/.

Going up the tram...10 minutes to get to 8500 feet above the desert floor!

At the top! Soooooooo pretty!

The boys had so much fun climbing!

Just like a whole new world!

After that we headed to Carlsbad for a day at LegoLand and some time on the beach!

Star Wars and Legos...what could be better?

They LOVED the Pirate Water Park at Lego Land!

But the beach will always be my favorite place to make memories....

Look at those blue eyes!!!

Deep in thought....

Can I just hold on to these days forever?....

If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! Deuteronomy 11:9 (NLT)