Favorite Foto Friday!

Oh my goodness! I came across about 10 pictures on a memory card from Luke's 4th birthday party that I had never seen before! He and his cousin, Harlan, shared a pirate party and we had so much fun! He looks SO little in this picture!

Before we got our camera I was so anti-digital! I was so scared I was going to lose a bunch of pictures! We are so blessed that that has never happened, but I sure don't get my pictures developed like I used to. Most of them are just saved on my computer. I try my best to back up CDs, but I need to start uploading EVERY single picture to a company like Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak or Flikr.

Have you ever lost pictures? What company do you use to store your photos?

Happy Father's Day, Eric!

Happy Father's Day, E! Eric and I have been married for almost 15 years! It makes us feel so old to say that! It has gone by SO fast! We were married for 8 years before we had Luke, but I cannot imagine how we filled our time without him. It's hard to even remember when he wasn't with us. People ask us all the time if (and when) we are going to have another child. There was even a time when it was all I thought about, but now I am so content with our little family.


Eric is such a giving person. Luke and I REALLY wanted to go to Walt Disney World this year. I really thought it was something that was going to be several years away, but Eric just came to me in December and said, "If you really want to go, let's book it!". WDW is NOT his idea of a dream vacation, but he was such a good sport and we had the BEST time!


Luke is so much like Eric. His expressions, sense of humor, storytelling abilities and his love of video games! This is the two of them at Disney Quest. It was a FIVE-STORY building filled with video games!!!! After 20 minutes, I was looking for the door. Eric was like a little kid...he looked at me and said, "I could stay in here all day!". Are you kidding me!?! Ha!


Eric is so patient with Luke. He has been an assistant coach on both of his T-ball teams. He's a great teacher and really wants Luke to enjoy playing like he did when he was a kid.


Eric loves the outdoors! He loves hunting (deer, duck and squirrel mostly), fishing and playing golf. This was our trip to Petit Jean this spring and we LOVED it! We have yet to take a camping trip with Luke, but that is definitely on our TO DO list.


People tell me all the time that Luke is Eric's "Mini-Me". Luke doesn't really look like Eric did as a kid...he really looks like Eric now. Their coloring, hair and eyes are the most alike. I love that Luke looks like E.


Eric is teaching Luke through example about how to make God's Word an important part of his life. Luke sees Eric reading the Bible daily. They read the Bible together and pray together. I am so thankful that Luke is learning about the Lord from his Daddy!

We love you!

Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Favorite Foto Friday!

Here's Luke, Ty and Harlan a few weeks ago with their AWANA awards. They love AWANA on Wednesday nights at our church. Each week they memorize Scriptures, have game time, and go to council time/handbook time. Luke and Harlan are Sparks which is kindergarten through second grade. Ty is a T&T boy which is for third through sixth graders. It's amazing how quickly little kids can soak up God's Word. With AWANA they also do activities like Bible Quiz and Grand Prix (where they build, paint and race their own wooden cars).

I didn't grow up in church and I so would have loved AWANA! Especially filling out the workbooks and memorizing the Scriptures. What about the game time?!? NOT SO MUCH!!! I was literally the slowest runner in my whole class all through elementary school (I take that back...there was one girl slower than me, but I think she outweighed me by 75 pounds and that was in 4th grade!!!!). Needless to say, I was not anywhere close to being at the top of the list when kids would pick for kickball. I told you guys I was a nerd!!!!

Anyway, back to AWANA! I'm so glad our boys are spending their Wednesday nights at church learning more about our Lord-Jesus Christ! They are all such good pray-ers! They are so sincere and caring about how they pray for their friends, family and prayer requests.

Did you grow up in church? Did your church have activities that encouraged you to memorize Scriptures?

Great Western Cattle Drive

This is my sister, April, and her husband, Bryan.
Guess what they are doing this week?


This!!!!

They are on an actual cattle drive in northwest Oklahoma.
They've taken four of their horses and two friends and driven
NINE hours away to herd cattle like this for 30 miles.
They love this trip and have gone for several years.
They took their little boys one year, but it stressed
April too much to have the kids around all those horses.


April says the scenery is incredible and Bryan
has a blast pretending to be a real cowboy.


When April gets tired of riding her horse, she will sometimes
ride in a wagon like this. One year she got stuck in here with
a bunch of crying kids and she said that was horrible! Ha!

Every time someone hears about the cattle drive, they will say
it reminds them of the movie "City Slickers". Its just like that. It's
pretty primitive. April and Bryan sleep in their horse trailer (which is
nice that they have living quarters), shower in the temporary barrel shower
thingies and port 'o potties. YIKES! April says she's going to take me
one of these years, but I'm not sure if I could make it...ha!

At the end of the three days of riding they get to the little town of Vici.
The town has a parade for the riders, a fish fry, a rodeo and a dance
at the town's fire station.

April and I didn't grow up around horses. We had family that owned
horses when we were younger, but didn't get to see them often. It's funny,
because I had much more of an interest in that sort of thing than she
did. I rode with friends when I was younger and took a horseback
riding class at summer camp. April loves her horses and helps Bryan
take care of them (she even gives them shots!), but she will be the
first to tell you that they are not really her cup of tea. Horseback riding
just does not come naturally for her. She got thrown from a horse about
twelve years ago and she has not really ever gotten over that. It may be
a long weekend for her! :)

Do you like to horseback ride?
Would you ever go on a "vacation" like this?

Girls Weekend Trip

I keep meaning to tell about a girls' weekend trip that I took with my sister, April, and our friend, Christi in February. We drove to Rogers, AR to go to a Priscilla Shirer's Going Beyond Conference to take your relationship with Christ to the next level-experiencing more with God! He wants so much for us and we so often are just content with the norm. She also gave some very applicable ways to study your bible. I've used them in my ladies' Sunday School class.


Here's her praise team. They did a wonderful job of leading this weekend. It's pretty powerful hearing more than a thousand women singing praise songs to Jesus at the same time!


We loved seeing the church's Children's Ministry area. They had an inside playground, full kitchen, aquarium and tons more that big churches like this can offer.


The conference was held at The Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers. This area of town has grown A TON since I was living in Fayetteville in the early 1990s. It was literally unrecognizable. We had so much fun! We ate at Noodle's in Fayetteville on Friday night and the yummiest Mexican place on Saturday after the conference. The Mexican restaurant was called Abuelo's and I'm really glad we don't have one here, because I would want to eat there every week!!!


April and I don't get to get away without kids very much at all. We had so much fun with Christi and adopted her as our sister. It is eerie how much we have in common with her.


Here's Priscilla. She such an encouraging speaker! I need to get some of her speaking CDs to put in my car. If you ever get the chance to hear her, make sure you go! Her ministry verse is Galatians 5:1 which says, "It is for freedom that we have been set free".


Yes...I am wearing my pajamas in this picture. You just can't see them! Ha! Had to post one crazy pic from the weekend of laughing our heads off!

We stayed in the nicest motel room for $69 bucks. It was a Hilton Homewood Suites. We were amazed that we had a full suite with granite top sinks, a full kitchen, two flat screen tvs, nice comfy beds with great bedding, indoor swimming pool, fitness room and full living room. We were like little country bumpkins coming to town for the first time. We have decided to take another girls trip to Rogers just to stay there (and we will definitely go back to Abuelo's).

What is your favorite thing to do on a girls' weekend trip?
Have you ever gone to a women's conference that changed your life?