Courtney in all her cuteness and my great mission

I'm on a mission...by the first of the year I will have all my pictures printed that I want printed and in books. I will be caught up to start a new year full of photos that I will once again forget to print. I was editing pictures the other day and I realized I have not printed pictures in months. When you take 12928129 pictures a day that is a lot to catch up on! I also started thinking...when my kids are all grown up, what am I going to give them, a disk to show their kids??? When I go to my parents house I love going through our albums, it brings me back to the moment, makes me remember things I would otherwise never think of...I want that for my kids. I so want that for my kids! As I was editing, I of course found some I have to post!

Last week for church Courtney was dressed down right A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. And on top of that, she was acting adorable. Made for some adorable pictures I might say.

This is the first time she wrote her name all by herseIlf. Mind you I have NEVER sat down to teach her. I know, bad mom, right? You'd think so but before she was three she was writing C O U R T and I had never taught her, so I figured she would pick up on the rest...and as you see, she did. By the way, we LOVE these 'tub crayons'. They are at Wal-Mart for like $3.00 and are awesome. We have so much fun drawing all over the tub. Even leaving it up for a couple of days and it washes right off. 

Stolen from Perry Noble...you know it will be good.

Seven Verses To Look At Regarding Your Marriage! October 20, 2010

Earlier this week I asked our church to read through Philippians 2:1-11 every morning and pray two things…

• Jesus, let me see the areas I fall short in serving my spouse…and
• Jesus, let me see my spouse through your eyes.

I hope you are doing that and that God is showing you some amazing things.  AND…if you want to do a little more reading and studying in the book of Philippians on this subject then I would like to submit seven to you today…(by the way…for those who are unaware of this, if you will just click on the verses listed below they will automatically appear on your screen in another window.)

#1 – Philippians 1:27 – The first word is the one that gets me the most – “whatever!”  AND…please keep in mind that the Apostle Paul was in prison when he penned that verse.  If Paul can instruct us to keep a good attitude when he was in prison they surely we must strive to do the same…even if we are in a difficult marriage.

#2 – Philippians 2:14 – DANG…notice the word “everything” in this verse!  If we would simply submit to this instruction how much better would our marriages be?

#3 – Philippians 3:12-14 – Paul refused to allow the fact that he had fallen short of who he felt God was calling him to be…he was willing to continue the fight!  (Everyone is tempted to give up on their marriage at some point…but if we are followers of Jesus we should be willing to fight FOR it and not just in it!)

#4 – Philippians 3:16 – AHHH!  Most of the time we already know what we need to do and how we need to do it….we know it but struggle to apply it!

#5 – Philippians 4:5-7 – We should be gentle to all (including our spouse) and not be anxious…but rather present our requests to God, knowing that He wants for us to have a great marriage even more than we would actually like to have one.

#6 – Philippians 4:8 – How we think about our marriage (or future marriage) will definitely impact it…this verse is essential in reminding us to think the right thoughts.  (Also see II Corinthians 10:5)  We must fight the temptation to constantly think negative thoughts about our spouse and our marriage.

#7 – Philippians 4:13 – “Everything” means “Everything!”  Trust me…your messed up marriage situation CAN BE HEALED by Jesus.  He specializes in bringing dead things back to life!  In Christ our marriage CAN (and SHOULD) work out in order thatEphesians 3:20 should be true about them.

This coming Sunday we will be continuing the “Man Versus Wife” series by taking a look at what the Bible demands of the husband (or husband to be!)  Can’t wait…hope you will join us and bring someone with you.

Precious memories.

So there are some things that are just down right precious to me, and my daughter is one of them. The other day it was gorgeous outside so we headed out to play. She hasn't ridden her bike in so long so I was excited when she wanted to. I grabbed the camera and off we went. I don't know if it was the lighting that day, a mommy moment, or what but these pictures to me are just precious. I always think Courtney is adorable and beautiful but I think these pictures will always stick out for some reason. The pure innocence maybe? 

Ethan is TEN!

I can NOT believe Ethan is TEN, but, well, he is. He had a pretty special birthday this year. Chris, Dennis and Westen drove out in the motor home (also for Grandparent's Day at Shiloh) then we headed to Little Sahara in Oklahoma to the dunes for the weekend. We have some awesome friends that let us borrow a couple of 4-wheelers and we had a blast. Ethan did amazing, we were quite proud of him. If you have never been to the dunes, take a look at the pics below...this is what we were riding on. I didn't take these, I am a horrible mom and didn't take the camera out while we were riding. It was tough riding with no camera. :-)