More than my husband

I'm breaking my 30 day blogging strike for this post:

Some people don't believe me when I say that I have loved him for half my life and hoped for him the other... this picture might just prove that...

we were 15!





It's true that we don't always aggree and I know my lack of time managemnt drives him crazy, as eaqually crazy as it makes me when he is acting like he's doing something besides looking at his watch, it's totally obveouse I don't know why he tries to fake me out.  Matt Chandler claims that there is no such thing as the "mythical one" but I believe that Bry is my one, my only one.  I don't just say that to impress some on looker or get the affectionate "awww" from the blogger world.  I think if you know both of us well, you'd aggree, there just isn't one without the other.  Bry you know you are much more than my husband, you'r my __fill in the blank__.  Whatever you can think of, you are! I love you, happy birthday!

Beach Bums

We all need a little sand between our toes sometimes!

Picture project-October

I am loosing my mind not sure why I am up right now... and whilst I am up I am not sure why I get so distracted by things that are not on the important immediate to do list.. if you know me you know that i obsess about albums, getting them done, looking at pics, capturing our lives as they flash by.  not sure why, i know it has no place in eternity... but them again, it's a ref. to where we have been and where we are going and... ok enough rambling lets get to the good stuff.  So I decided for a few weeks I am going to post random pics I come across while making my albums, just fun ones that I haven't seen in a while that make me smile, enjoy if your looking.

Looked up in the past hour:
how to make potato plantain omelets
Summer fun crafts by skiptomylou.com
Scrumdillydo.blogspot fireworks painting with a salad spinner
Splat mat material to make my own
Kiddly.com paper dolls hopping K and I can make ur own and share with an artsy friend too
& last but not least:
~these pics~

I love this group of pics bc it captures the explorer side of Kehnley, her posing and the amazing cuteness of little kids in jeans, it's amazing to me that they have denim is small and smaller! Her expression as she kisses Fancy just for the picture to be taken then say "let me look" to see herself is priceless!

Day 8 to 10 : Thanksgiving to Obedience

We have certainly had a lot to be thankful for, and I am thankful especially for this week, for Bry to experience God in a new way, and for God to use my time alone (and by alone i mean surrounded by kids and toys and friends and family) lol... but totally alone at some parts of the night once the girls are in bed and to just hear God's voice.  It's amazing how the things God gives us can distract us so much from Him!  I am learning more and more just how to honor Him with those gifts and not be carried away by them.  I had an awesome time in Dallas getting ot love on my best friends and I only wish that I had more time to do that stuff more often.  I got to experience God's miracle in seeing Kairi Anne, so beautiful this baby girl!  I loved seeing Amy and Landry's new place, it's so nice!!  I want to move in :)  Sadie looooveed the dogs!  I can't wait to get back and see how kehnley has been doing! I will post pics soon of my trip there. 

As for thanks giving, I picked Bry up from the airport on my way back and it was so funny to see him, he looked different, but the same, Sadie looked at him and stared for a moment then smiled like she hadnt all weekend.  It blessed me to think that at 6 months she knows his face and loves him so much!  I know that smile made him feel so good that she was saying with her little gummy grin 'I missed you'. 

I have spent the past few days listening to Bry's stories, they are pretty amazing and I am so beyond joyful that I married a man who knows how to share his heart...he has been reading me his journal and its like Im there with him experiencing it all together.  Thanksgiving that God lets us be a part of the sharing of the gospel that it my give us momentum to love others into knowing Him and experiencing His joy and experience His power to change hearts, especially our own.  If the soul propose of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever then in a world where there are so many distractions from that:, where rather than enjoy Him we enjoy His gifts and instead of glorifying our God we glorify ourselves...the gift of seeing salvation come to the lost it reminds us that it's personal and speaks differently to everyone.  As long as we dont misunderstand the gospel message is the same: Christ came that we might be united once again to God after the sin of our flesh separated us from Him, we are saved by believing in our heart that Jesus is Lord and confessing with our mouths that He is all (Romans 10:9-10), although the way it reaches hearts is very individualized.  Thankfully we celebrate the 30 lives that were changed because of those who were faithful to go on this trip and the many more from them who will come to experience the Joy of the Lord.  We have much to celebrate, tonight under our roof we celebrate that my darling Bryson is home but more so that he did not let anything keep him from sharing the love of God with the world! People from all over: age, gender, race, social standing received Christ last week because God was gracious enough to call Bry out of his comfortable home and into the mountains of Venez.
Thankful for the men and women and children all over the world putting their own agenda aside to live out their faith and share Christ with all they meet, to orchestrate meetings in order that some might know Him and be formed into His likeness...they are risking their lives even for the gospel.  For their obedience I pray tonight.  Let the harvest be fruitful for them Lord, let them not labor in vain. 

Obedience for us, here in our lives, to look for the greater picture, to Him who is greater and worthy of it all...how will I live out this boldness and purpose in my home?  How will I teach my girls all the mysteries of Christ?  I must start with prayer!  Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and prayers, we have felt them and it's been life changing for us all.

Day 5&6: Giving light and Boldness

To date I have missed two calls and a facebook message from Bry.lol.  Looks like it's all about him and God and it's been fun being an onlooker in the relationship they have.  I love hearing the messages reading the text and seeing God working from afar.  I think it's the best possible thing because it's truly between them and I like that we will talk when he gets home.  Another amazing thing is when you pray and believe God hears prayers and then get to actually SEE them come to fruition and get to EXPERIENCE God's power, it's not only faith building, it's humbling because you realize just how awesome God is.  I am more and more learning that a relationship with Christ is about joy, experiencing joy, worshiping Him because of the joy He brings, and realizing that joy is worked, it's not a quick cheep temporary emotion, its worked into my life through sometimes really hard stuff!

Bry said that he had the opportunity to share this gospel of joy with 8 ppl and that Jeremiah 24:7 lead two to Christ and I am overjoyed that the Kingdom is growing that there are 8 more brothers and sisters in Christ who get to experience true joy in the Lord and that God let Bry experience that as well!

I know that he's the one who went away to do God's work...but I feel like God is doing a great work in me...I feel so much conviction over my heart to be greater for God, to be more loving less critical, to be encouraging, to parent with more grace and mercy and realizing how the cross is the only thing that makes me anything at all.  I feel a profound draw to the Lord right now that I haven't felt in a really long time.  One so strong that there is nothing on my heart more, there is nothing more pressing than to sit at His feet and take in His word and learn from Him.  I think it's good that Bry went away for this time for so many reasons, but one of them is that I might get a chance to be enthralled again with God.

How quickly I have been giving my affections to the things God has made and not to the creator who made them to reflect His goodness and cause me to worship Him all the more...

Back to Bryson, this days prayers are to be of sharing the light of the gospel and to cause boldness to stir in the hearts of those sharing...God has done that and there are many who's lives are just beginning, what a blessing!

We all go about our day to all kind of places with all kinds of people, it's not just about going across the world it's about going to where God has put us in areas of influence around ppl that only we have contact with and doing this very thing...
Mark 16:15
"He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

Lets do this!

Day 4: Melt Down!

Sooooooo... was going to try and be thankful today, turns out when you make that your daily task... you face MUCH opposition! It was a really hard day, Kehnley was on the verge of a melt down every second! It was pretty tough, BUT every time I would start to pray for something silly like "God please dont let this painting fall and break because I dont think I could take it!" I felt conviction to pray for something a LITTLE more substantial...so anyway, I did that, and me and Kehnley had to stop several times and pray together for kind words to come out of our mouths and for loving hearts to be what we had and not meanness (Sadie didnt have to pray because she was being sweet, I had to explain this to Kehnley).

We went to get Snow cones thought it might brighten up her mood. Everything was going great till I had to spend 30 min in the middle of sadies late afternoon nap and woke her up in the process going into the bank to get a new pen number bc the snow cone shack is the only place left in Htown that doesnt take anything but cash. We get our cones and lilly had her ice cone too and we are sitting down to enjoy when kehnley has a few bites and hers falls over, only a super tiny amount falls out and she LOOSES it! I mean, gone, loses her MIND! She grabs hr face like home alone and screams bloody murder and cries and gasps and grabs her mouth and shakes her head like Lilly had just ran off with her ice cone and got hit by a car! it was terrible and HILARIOUS all at the same time, it was one of those parenting moments when you want to die laughing but have to keep your composure at the fear of scaring your child for life.

Her are a few pics of our outing, the best part of the day, except maybe this quiet moment I am having right now and the ab workout I'm gonna have before lights out...

Sadie ate her dinner in the front yard bc... well... why not!





This is right before the melt down! that cup is about to tip over onto the grass...

~~~~~~

Ps. Why is is that one of the nights when Bry is gone, as I am laying sadie down into her bed after just getting her cleaned and dressed, Kehnley takes a break from singing Cruella Devill to call my name across the hall and say "Mom, I pooped in the tub, can you wipe my bottom." Wow... there better be some people coming to Jesus this week, or I'm gonna be ticked! ( just kidding lol) I had to whisper, "step out of the tub and sit on the potty and wait there for me, i'm comin' and baby doll, dont ever do that again please."

Day 2 &3- Hearts and Fear

I am writing this in the midst of the sounds of my girls playing and laughing and realize just how truly lucky I am to have the sweet children in my home, to have my home, to have my family, my country of so many freedoms, to have a car, a church, a store 3 minutes away, a neighborhood that is safe, a swimming pool around the corner, neighbors who are friendly, and many many more luxuries that we take for granted every day. I have been asking the Holy Spirit to impart to me what to pray for Bryson and conviction in the hearts of leadership and banishment of fear for following the Lord whole heartedly and what that means keep coming to mind. SO that's what I am praying for. God has dealt with fear in my life before, many a time. I am not a worrier or a fear driven person, I am a little more unaware and almost ignorantly blissful if you will most of the time lol... so when fear does set in i know that it's not from actual circumstance but something put in my mind to distract me from trusting God, from seeing things clearly, and sometimes from making wise choices in really important times.

2 Corinth 4:6
"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. "

It still is amazing to me that God made so many references to light and dark in talking of our relationship with Him. he gave us light that would live inside of us, that even in the dark we might not be in fear or taken over by it... but that everywhere we go would be illuminated the truth of who He is and that would change lives, including our own!

John 10:16
"I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. "

This verse really broke my heart i heard it in church one Sunday, a day when i was really facing fear of Bry going on his trip and it was so convicting to me to realize that God has ppl out there who He wants to bring under His care and they are waiting to hear from Him...that made my heart for the lost change dramatically and really give me a new desire to share His love with any and all who might be like a sheep looking for a shepherd.

Ppl who desperately wanted to belong to something, have a family, have a purpose...they have one in Christ.

Jerm. 24:7
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and "I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. "

Some people think that God is disconnected (looking over but never reaching out), or a spiritual vending machine (you put prayers in you get hings out, you put time in you get your hearts desire)... or even worse that He doesnt really matter or care about you. I love this verse because it's just one of many that fill the whole bible that God loves us deeply and wants us to know that. He can change lives, change hearts, and He is like a loving Father, a father some have never had, who wants to take us into His arms and comfort us, hold us up, and give us all things good.

I prayed for my heart as well as anyone else who might have forgotten or never really known JUST how much God loves them...

Romans 8:28-32
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? "

~~~~~

He has given us so many great things, salvation and eternal life are the two that are most precious and yet, very rarely through out the mundane tasks of the day do I thank God for those, or anything else we have so graciously been given. Today I think that's what my hearts focus is going to be on...thanking Him for all this and more!