Rio Frio Trip: Fun for the whole family

Here is just a famil shot Stephen took with my camera, it turned out grainy but I tried to salvege it, I like how it turned out. We had the BEST time, relaxing doesn't even begin to describe how chill it was. God reavaled a lot to use there too... it was an awesome time to bond with Kiki even with matching pigtails. or "tink tales" as she calls them. More pics to come from our trip.

Puppy Love

Tell me this isn't love?!

Wordless Wednesday Vide-o-rama!

In the little things

Something tells me I will have a lot of these stories to share. Bry loves doing the yard. For some reason it's a sense of ownership for him, maybe because it's our first house, maybe because of all those hours he spent sweating and slaving in college working on other people's yards for Scott....nevertheless, he loves it. Well, this weekend our lawn mower broke and he had to go borrow one from his brother. He was glad to have that option but quickly trying to plan HOW we would be able to fix ours, which it wasn't fixable, or buy one, which we have no money for.

Let me interject that I don't care about a lawn mower and I have no idea why we couldn't just borrow one forever, but it's REALLY important to him...

So the next few days go by, I of course thinking nothing about a lawn mover and he of course praying for God to make a way that he could buy this much needed device.
We get a check in the mail for a pretty good amount, not sure why we receive it, we call around do some checking and it turns out Bry won some kind of award SO..... that next day at work he is praying for a way to get a lawn mower and that evening is when we receive the check. He now has enough money to cash the check in, go buy his mover on the way home from work, AND take me and kehnley out for some much needed family time :)

I already knew that God would meet our needs, He's done it so many times before in the past... but Bry has a hard time with that one. Maybe it's a man thing, :) anyway, needless to say God used this lawn mower "crisis" to very loudly say over the hum of the slicing blades, I have it all under control... even your yard matters to me :) It helps us know that God will take care of the big things if He will provide the silly stuff too. As always His timing is perfect because in three short weeks we will cut our income in half ( no pun intended) and I know there will be moments where we will wonder how we will get by and God is going to show His love and power in mighty ways.

Thank you for the reminder Lord.

Isaiah 58:11 "The Lord will guide you always, and satisfy your needs...."
Phil. 4:19 "And my God will meed all your needs, according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
1 Tim. 6:17 "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us everything for our enjoyment."

If you want to see Bry in action come by our house this week... He will be showing off his new mover to the world!

Easter 09

It's amazing how much they change in such a short time...





This was Kehnley just one year ago....
and here she is now!

Kehnley loved the sucker Fancy put in her basket more than her beautiful Easter dress...which is why it's in every pic even if you can't see it. She held onto in all day.

The Easter baskets are fun, but we don't even begin to act as if they could compair to the anticipation of the gift of God's promise to come back from the grave like he did that bright morning. I hope that we will convey that to our children like our parents did for us.

Her Chick and Bunny made friends while we all hunted for eggs inside.

Jennifer got a new pup for Eater, and Kehnley was in love! maybe

TOO in love :)

5 Fav. things about Easter

1. getting something for the people in my life to encourage them towards spiritual growth

2. seeing my daughter all dressed up and swirling as she dances in her dress

3.dieing Easter eggs

4.The Easter service the Friday before Easter (this year is was wednesday) it just always reminds me of God's awesome power and love.

5. Being with all our families all day

What will we do...

It's so funny how as parents we really DO reflect ourselves on to our children. So many parents talk about it and then apologize for it, but really I mean... they are watching our every move, listening to our every word, and being shaped moment by moment into the people they will become. And because Kehnley sees me painting and making art so much she naturally wants to do it all the time!! I have a friend who's son LOVES to sing and play the guitar... i mean everything he picks up can magically turn into a microphone... well i make since considering the two of them are musicians and vocalists! So spring break, when i had a lot of time o spend with my darling I let her have what she had been asking for "paints... paints!" Who knows if she will be an artist or a lover of math ( heaven forbid!) or a Jamie of all trades... whatever she will BE she already is, it just hasn't been found out yet. On thing I KNOW for sure is that she will be extraordinary in whatever she does.

she would dip her brush in the paint...

then carefully brush the paper...

now she's really getting into it!

Every good artist needs a snack while they work...

this is no starving artist.

We hung the painting up in her room... I will post a pic of that soon. She wakes up in the morning and I hear "wow... oh, wow! on the monitor, I go in and she is pointing at her picture, so proud.

So So Good

Some other things happened over the month of March that had nothing to do with Spring Break and making my kitchen one big chalkboard or butterfly museums or shopping sprees or naps with my sweet girl.... God did something amazing and let me of all people be a part of it.

First Wednesday references the First Wednesday of every month where my church holds a service for members and anyone else who want to get an extra dose of the Lord in a very intimate way and it's a time for those that serve on Sunday's to have a time where THEY are fed. I was asked to do a painting, well three paintings burring the Lord's Supper service for the first Wednesday of April, right before this Easter weekend. I couldn't have been more blessed by it. If you know me at all, this is what I feel I have been put on Earth to do, one of my many tasks and it's to show God's love to the world through images and anything my hand can make as an artist. It's one of my most rewarding gifts, one that I am most passionate about. You know when you are looking for the perfect tool for something and you have tried all these other makeshift tools to do the job and they may get it done but you have to work REALLY hard at it.... until you FINALLY find the right tool and it just goes so easily and takes the work out of it for you and it's like they were made for each other? Well... for me... this is how I feel when I get to be a part of something like this past Wednesday's service.

Being on the stage and sharing the images of Christ on the cross with an audience isn't really what I thought about, it wasn't performance art... it was truly an act of worship for me. It's what I was made for.

Before I went out to paint for the next 55 minutes I prayed and asked God to bless the people there, bless Pastor David as he spoke, bless the band and the singers and to show me what He wanted me to do and to let it all work out, I was a little nervous about finishing 3 paintings 6x6 ft. in 55 minutes... but I was trying to just trust Him. I prayed God, what do want to say to me, i feel like I am talking and you really just want to tell me something... quiet my heart and speak to me. in my soul I heard " just be with me"

I asked again thinking it was in my own head... He spoke again, "just be with me". If you have experienced God speaking to you it's not audible as you would imagine BUT VERY audible in the sense that you hear His voice.... you know it's Him. I started to cry feeling like I didn't deserve such a request and I wanted to hide my face ashamed of how distracted I had been in the weeks prior and even in the midst of my prayer... but I needed to go on stage in a few minutes so I wiped my face and stood up.

During the next hour I just listened to God, sang to Him, heard His word through David,thought about the cross, thought about the gift, the blood, the way it must have felt, the Hurt God must have had, the people seeing this, spitting on Him, hitting Him, the moment He felt His Father had left Him, what Jesus' mother was thinking, the disciples, the cup, the betrayal, my sin, my fault, my need, my love, His grace, Heaven, His hands, His feet, His side, the wounds.... forgiveness, mercy, sovereignty, everything seams so small in light of Him, thank you God, don't let me forget, don't let me wash over this, burn the image of the cross on my heart that I might always remember what You gave.

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that borough us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray, each has turned his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the inequity of us all." Isaiah 53:5-6

To a lost world, these images are just a gruesome, overdone, over depicted look at something that happened thousands of years ago... to us who believe, it's a beautiful sight at love to the highest measure. Have a wonderful Easter and remember why we call today good Friday.