Mom to Mom

Not only was it a refreshing weekend with one of my bestest friends, a chance to relate to another mom, get away with just me and Kehnley somewhere also...its such a time of teaching for me to watch another amazing mama in action!

The things I learned in this season of life from her I am forever grateful for.  Whats so amazing about this friend is that she has taught me things in so many important times of my life.  (its an honor to be learning from her still today!)
1.dont sweat the small stuff - she was so chill about things I'd normally freak about.  Now obveously i cant change my personality or make myself not care about things that I clearly care about... but I could definitly use the chance to see things will be okay if it doesnt all go how i picture in my mind
2. Have more grace in my tone towards my children
3. Lower some expectations of my kids
4. Stop trying to measure up to some book standard or compare myself to other ppl in my time of life.  She didn't seem at all to have another "person" whether real or imagined (ie bloggers, FB, fab moms in her circle) she was trying to live up to or a check list of what makes someone a great mom she was constantly worried about
5. Nap time was not the Holy Grail of her day and she didnt put that about the feelings and emotions of her child (i needed to see this BIG time!)
6. Her sanity in the day didnt wrap around selfish endeavours of workouts, peace and quiet time, perfectly made dinners and set tables, spotless living rooms or compliant kiddos.  She seemed at ease if not one of these turned out like she planned.
7. She actually did get a great deal done in her day regardless if any of the above mentioned things fell into  a perfectly ordered schedule.  She played with her kids, meet their needs, exercised, showered, cleaned up, folded clothes, spend time with friends, got rest, talked to her husband, read... and didnt have any anxiety or anxiousness in her spirit at all! 
8. Enjoy each day for what it is and not what I dreamed it would be
9. Enjoy my children where they are, who they are, in the special ways that they need
10. Love on my husband, support him, encourage him and be proud of him

Thank you Ans for teaching/reminding me of all these things this weekend. 
I love you! I miss you already!

Precious ones

Here is a sneaky peeky at some pics of some girls that are super special to us!

baby Kairi Ann and her sweet cheeks...

    

...and cousin Addy, who has a birthday coming up!

    

...then there is the wild child with a smile that can melt my heart!



And this little sassy pants always full of surprises :)





Kehnley modeling her new rodeo get up...the middle on is the "im a texan model with attitude, watch out Gisele"

Ps. I am not a photographer, I just love the way these girls make memorable moments I can't help but try to freeze and keep them forever

I almost forgot! Kehnley so happy to have her "baby friend from china" here :)

Bum Bum Ba Bum

So many new beginnings to celebrate! First Terry and Ansley's Wedding was so wonderful, she was radiant... it was much more emotional than I had anticipated, but with me... you can assume as much!

Laughing moments:
Ansley's face when she saw the dancing duo of Lyndz ans Keri Live!
Amy crawling under the table to get out for our speech
Me taking the aisle alone and the coordinator throwing me under the bus by sending me out too early ( then later when i reached the end of the aisle, Lyndz's face like "what the heck are you doing lol")
Ronnie dancing up on JBlow and him standing there, mystified

Crying moments:
Me and Amy giving our speech at the rehearsal dinner and my part going down through my tears!
Terry's face when he saw his beautiful bride! Every woman wants to see their future husband so overwhelmed that he gets to have her for life... and I got to see that for her, first hand
Ansley's last dance with Terry before she left ( I remembered my own dance then)

Then off to Amy's Bach Weekend ... I was only there for a little over 24 hrs, but a lot to take in for sure!

Laughing Moments:
So many I can't recall....

Crying moments:
Not so many crying moments unless from overwhelming laughter like the time that Amy played her recorder for the entire Pat O Bryan's crowd, or when she kissed a bald mans head (poor guy!) or when she stood up and announced her first nights love with Landry to a room of 40+ strangers! Or the moments when she did her cheer, first rehearsed by Tarra.. "UN-B lievable!"

(Apparently I didn't get the memo on the sorority squat!)

Here she comes.... walkin down the street....

(And Amy played...)

The Cherry Anniversary
We love Meg and Ronnie and wish that we could see them more than we do... we always think "man we wish that Megan and Ronnie could be here for this... or that" or that we could just call them up and have a game night or reality TV moment shared with them. We laugh so much when we are together. They celebrated their anniversary this past weekend, and so in honor of the "Cherry's" Kehnley had a cherry photo shoot!

All these events, at their core, have the same message to me...it really is amazing to have so many people so close to our hearts even though they don't live anywhere near us. This weekend reminded me of that so much. Me and Lyndz stayed up late talking like the old days and God kept telling me that His plans are for good, and His plans are eternal, and though we don't see the fruit right away and we may not know what His promises always mean they are always on the horizon. A truth that is often hard to wait on but makes each new day so exciting to see what God is going to do and teach and change in us. it made me realize I would rather spend my whole life waiting on God's goodness than wasting energy spending time trying to make my own way, knowing it will never match up to His.

I remember a day I was close to graduating and I was running at Higanbothem (spell check) Park, like usual, but I couldn't get the future off my mind. I was close to ending this chapter of my life, I was engaged and I knew we'd be moving. I didn't know where to, I didn't know what job I would have or where I would live, or who my friends would be. I was scared to say the least, because isn't that what we do when we face change? Even the ones who love change have a tinge of fear at the though of the unknown. In those moments, God's soft still voice broke through he music on my IPod and said "when have I ever let you down?" "when have I have not given you more than you dreamed of, more than you knew you could handle, and more joy than could be express... when have I ever broken a promise to you? When have I ever disappointed you. Not in the midst, but after all was said and done, who made a way for you? Who loved you? Who held you in His hands?"

I couldn't help but look back over my life and time after time, God had been so faithful to me just like the scriptures said. It wasn't always easy or what I might have chosen at the time... but looking back, it was a wonderful life. His presence was always there, He had changed my heart in so man ways, restored relationships, deepened my trust, broken down walls, lead me to incredible worship, shown me the mysteries of Himself, freed me from sin and captured my heart. He was showing me His goodness... and so any time I start to doubt I remember that moment where I was able to praise my God for all He had done, and all He was yet to do... and I am still here to say that His will is always good.

Wordless Wednesday

Well almost wordless... so here are bach pics from Ansley's weekend O fun... and also just to let all those who are dying for Destin pics, I have made an oath to not post them until I have made my photo album first. I am really falling behind on the albums and I need to do that before I can post them. They are amazing so get excited!

Hebrews 12:1

It's official... Bry and I signed up this weekend for the half marathon on January 18th. There is no turning back now! 13.1 miles to go :) What a great way to spend our 3rd anniversary! We've been training for a few weeks now and as time goes on we get more and more excited about it. I have trained before, but it's so fun getting to do it together. What makes it even more exciting is that we get to run for a cause! Bry is running for Alzheimer's in memory of his Grandpa Blowey who he loved very much and passed away a few years back. I am running for Multiple Sclerosis for a friend of ours Erin and my Aunt Beth who currently suffer from this illness. There is a growing awareness of MS but there is still much to be done in research for new treatments and cures to BOTH these illnesses. They are so dear to our hearts and it's just one small thing we can do to support and love on people in our lives and in the lives of those around us who are affected by Alzheimer's and MS. We will be sending out an email in the fall about how you can support us in fundraising for each of these.

In the meantime, Kehnley is getting to experience a lot of bumpy roads to the finish line as we take her in her stroller while we train :) She loves it though, she hangs over the edge to see us as we run...

On another note we have two exciting events we are waiting on and anticipating this summer...

The wedding of these to special ladies and their lucky beaus....

Ansley and Terry

Amy and Landry