Picture Perfect Spring

One of my friends is having a Spring cell phone photo contest on her facebook. The pics have to be done and edited on your phone and represent Spring! So I have been taking some pictures in the last week and have entered a few, for fun :) Here are some of the ones that I took of us enjoying the perfect weather!

I am sure that this weekend will bring many more Spring pictures, with scheduled egg hunts, easter dresses and family get togethers. Cant wait!

Visits to the park

Watching the trees flower and blossom, this one will have peaches soon!

Making friendship bracelets

Trampoline Jumping

Tons of bike riding

Sometimes it is just too much for us and we have to take a mid ride nap...

and sometimes we outgrow our old bike and need an early bday present..

Impromptu concerts from our very own Mad Hatter (this one doesn't really represent Spring and wasn't one of the ones that I entered but when looking through my phone, I found it and like it)

Yellow Cake Shows are always fun. Loved the Prophet Bar! great venue. boys rocked.

Making tissue flowers

The finished product! (ok, this one was not with my phone)

Now, on a different note.....99% of the pictures on my phone capture happy moments, mostly of my kids and family. I love looking at them. But when I looked through my phone I found this one from Friday night. Trinity and I had gone with my sisters and their kids to the Disney on Ice at the AAC. We had so much fun, laughed so much and sang Disney songs that even our kids didnt know. It was a lovely evening, until we came home and saw one of our neighbors houses...

I must admit, at first I was just in awe. I love fire. I dont go around setting them of course, but when there is one I love to be near it. Partly because I am always cold and partly because they are so cool to watch. You could hear the loud snapping and crackling (I mean LOUD) and the flames were huge and dancing in the sky. It was beautiful! And then......I heard my sister crying. It snapped me back to reality. This is someone's house, there could be people in there! Trinity and Timothy were very disturbed and prayed over and over and over (Timothy even called Grandma because he thinks she is really good at praying). One of our friends is a cop and was on the site later on in the night. He did inform us that all of the family was out of the house except two pets.

We looked the next day, and its down to the foundation. Wow, everything (even their car) is GONE.

I keep this picture, and post it here to remind me that nothing is permanent here on earth. Its all just stuff. It could be gone tomorrow. I do not want to take anything for granted and I will always be thankful for what I have....but no worldly possessions are worth more than my family and friends. I will always cherish them.

My prayers are still with this family and I ask that you keep them in yours.

Looking back...

This is a random picture blog. The idea was sent to me by my friend Danielle over at Deep Thoughts:

Rules:

1. open your first photo folder on your computer

2. scroll to the 10th picture

3. post that picture and the story behind it

Wow, this takes me back! The year was 2002, Trinity was probably around 18 months here. She was such a happy little girl, and still is although she has added a little bit of diva :) And she is swinging with my friend, Kris Forte. Kris had gotten married the year before this and was back visiting us. Trinity adored her...Kris had sacrificed so much for our family before Trinity was born. When I was so sick early on in pregnancy, she would come over after work and fix dinner, spend the night and make breakfast, sometimes even take the kids to school. I do not know how we would have ever managed with out her! She was there when Trinity was born. This was before Kris had three kids of her own, and before last year when her husband was sent off to Iraq for a year (two of her kids are twins and are 1!). She is still a strong and sacrificial person.

As I think back, those were such good times. We were surrounded by such good friends and it was a much simpler time that moved at a slower pace. The kids were young, they were happy just going to the park for a few hours for entertainment! We were flat broke and didnt really care because we had each other.

Dont get me wrong, I LOVE my life now and what it has become. It is not quite as simple, and my heart has been broken by friends more times than I care to remember but........I have grown. Our jobs wear us down from time to time but we have always made time for each other, even if it requires a few more cups of coffee some days. The kids keep us busy running them here and there, but they are happy and we are so close..and I love the life experiences that they are getting. They make us so proud.

So as I look back and think about how far we have come in the last decade, I am excited for what is in the future.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11

Christian

Well, our Christian is a Senior this year and has plans of going down to Waco (only about an hour from here, thank goodness)for school in the fall. We put down a deposit for him and a friend from school here to have their own apartment/dorm. I still just cant believe it! What will it be like to not have him here?! How will he manage by himself?! What will he eat?! I don't even want to think about it.

In the meantime, we have been needing to take some Senior pictures. I have so many friends who are amazing photographers, but I cant afford any of them. So with the encouragement of my family and friends I decided to do them myself. Michael, Christian and I had a full day together (which was a beautiful day by the way!) so we drove around and stopped at a few places that Christian liked. We laughed, listened to loud music, took pictures and had a blast. We finished off the day on the patio of Twisted Root eating burgers (elk, buffalo and veggie) and Thin Mint Milkshakes (still doing #40 days of water but technically it isnt a drink since you eat it with a spoon!Ha). It was so perfect and I feel so blessed to have these two men in my life. I hope to have many more of these awesome days with our oldest... He is such a cool kid and we love him!

Michael was documenting with his phone....