Last Lazy Days of Summer…

It is August, and we are soaking up the last weeks/days of summer.  As usual, this one has flown by! We packed a lot into this summer, and made some great family memories.

Here is a small picture recap of our summer…

My Beloved and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary and got to have dinner at a local restaurant we’ve always wanted to try…                                         

      We went on vacation to our favorite place on earth…

Went to our favorite amusement park with two fun new cousins…

We got to see Mr. & Mrs. Kirby together for the first time…such a great couple!

We took our school pictures on the beach and pier…

We got a family picture taken by our favorite marina…

Our beloved AZ cousins came to stay with us for a couple days…

We had lots of fun on the lake…

We saw relaxing sunsets…

We visited a chocolate factory, and celebrated Oma’s 80th birthday…

          

We had a cousin photo shoot…

We went out for midnight milkshakes to ring in Charlie’s birthday…

And then had a super sleepover with the cousins…

The Four Musketeers were together one last time…

We had a family reunion…where we enjoyed great food…

And took a big family picture…

That’s our summer in pictures! We only have a few weeks left before our new school adventure, so we’re soaking in as much as we can.  We’ll enjoy ourselves right through Labor Day weekend, then it’s back to the books!

I hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as we have!

She Cracks Me Up….

This picture is the background on my laptop right now.  It makes me smile every time I look at it…she’s so funny!

Not A Magician…But Known For My Disappearing Act!

It seems I have disappeared again! I have good intentions.  I sit down some evenings thinking I should write a blog post, and then I just don’t feel like it, or there are other things that just take priority.  So, long periods of time go by, and I come back to apologize for my disappearing act. :)  Life is busy sometimes…

I sat in a restaurant a week ago with one of my dearest friends in life.  We used to see each other on a regular basis, and then she left my church.  Now we meet in restaurants every few months for a quick lunch, and long talk.  I love those meetings, and look forward to them immensely.  Ellen is my mentor, my spiritual “mom”, one who pours Scripture into my life, one who truly listens, cares about what is on my heart, and talks sense into me. :):)  Besides my husband, she is the one I go to when I have a struggle, or spiritual question.  We have quite a history together.  I am not exaggerating even an iota when I say that this woman is part of the reason that I am still walking this earth.  She walked me through some of the darkest days of my life….again, not exaggerating.  She forgave me when I sinned grievously against her, and is in the truest sense of the word a friend and sister to me.

Last week we were talking over some of that history together, and remarking how God has used it for good in my life, and the opportunities He has given me to minister to others going through what I did.  One comment we keep coming back to is that God only lets us go as far as He ordains before He brings us back to Himself.  Ellen reminded me of the verse in Luke 22 that says, ³¹ “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”  Have you ever been sifted?  It is an extremely painful process. No experience in my life compares really…

I feel like we are sort of in that “sifting” process again, in a different way.  It has been one thing after another for us since Christmas, and doesn’t seem to be letting up at all.  The only difference this time, is that my faith is not failing.  Jesus is the Rock in a weary land, the friend that sticks closer than a brother, our shelter in the time of storm, our refuge, our strength, our help, and our HOPE.  All of this is surely making us more like Him, molding us into exactly what He wants us to be, and will as always work out for our good….it’s hard to see that right now, I’ll be honest. And God WILL use what He is teaching us to encourage others, and cause us to be a comfort and help to others as well.  If it weren’t for what I know to be true about God, I would sincerely want to throw in the towel, or yell “uncle” like my sweet nephew Ben :)

There have been rays of sunshine in the process.  Meeting with Ellen was one of them, cards from dear friends thinking about us, phone calls from other friends, our precious small group locking arms with us, and our kids who are a constant source of joy in our lives.  I took them out for some fall pictures a week ago, and though it was REALLY sunny, and REALLY windy, we got a few good ones.  So, lets close this post on a happy note…with some pictures of my lovies…

         

       

             

          

I sincerely look at them some days, and wonder how they grew up so fast.  They were two and three yesterday! :) That handsome boy is in high school now, and about to turn 15 in a couple months.  That sweet girl just turned 13, and is right behind her brother in eighth grade.  They are the sweetest kids ever, the most grateful kids for anything you give them, the most affectionate lovies I’ve ever encountered, and just sincerely wonderful children.  I couldn’t be more grateful and blessed.  I am in love with them…they are MINE :)

I’ll be back soon. This sifting process is exhausting, and life is crazy busy right now, so there’s not much time for blogging.  I would like to blog more about our school this year, things that are happening in our lives, recipes we are trying, etc.  I will try to make more time for that.  In the meantime, prayers would be appreciated…

Pray especially for my husband right now.  He is off work recovering from a surgery that turned out to be horrible.  The recovery has not been pretty, and has actually been quite difficult.  He was supposed to return to work tomorrow, but it’s looking more like mid-week, if that.  He would be grateful for your prayers, as would I.  That job he is going back to is not very secure right now, and I know that weighs heavily on his heart…

See you soon….hope you’re enjoying the last colors of this beautiful fall!

I’m Still Here…

It seems my husband and I went away for a weekend, and I never came back.  I’m sorry for the disappearing act.  We have had much to do, much on our minds, and there has been no time for blogging.

We are currently praying through what we’re going to do with our children in the fall, as far as school goes.  My son will be in high school, and I’m just not sure I am confident enough to carry either child through that at home.  I’ve had several home schooling friends cheering me on, so we’re still in the praying stages.  Our co-op will be offering some classes that will be a great help to me, so we’ll see what happens.

Speaking of my boy, he is now towering 5 inches over me.  He has this incredibly deep voice, and he’s wearing men’s size clothes.  He is eating me out of house and home.  He is still my darling, precious, sensitive young man, and I love being his momma :)

 

My girl is 12, and will be heading into 8th grade in the fall.  She is still really tiny, and has gorgeous long hair that I hope to never cut much shorter than it is. :)  She is delicious! She and I have a very close relationship, and I love how she comes and talks to me when she has something on her mind.  I feel like I have accomplished something as a mom if my kids feel comfortable doing that.  We have had some pretty amazing conversations about life and God lately…I love it!

And my husband…That weekend we had in March, it was INCREDIBLE.  I have never been so in love with this man as I am today.  Our kids ended up having to come home early that weekend because of a snowstorm up north that knocked out the power.  But they didn’t come home before their daddy and I had some quality time together.  I loved every minute of having him all to myself, and I can’t wait until we have another chance to do that.  We just passed the 18th anniversary of the day I fell in love with Andy, and all of these pictures I’m posting today were taken at the place that happened.  Our kids got in on the photo taking, so MadisonE Photography now seems to be a family affair. :)  One of our little photographers is obsessed with making her parents kiss for EVERY shot, so excuse our PDA…I think she’s darling, and it gives her confidence that her momma and daddy are very much in love still :)  She’s pretty good with the camera as well.  She tried different posing techniques I have taught her, and I love how her shots turned out. Here are a few she took of us.

See? I told you she is a big fan of the kissing shots.  Here is one of my favorites she took with the tilting technique.  We’re almost standing sideways, but she captured a lovely moment…

I have to tell you a little story about that day.  I am always a little sad when we go on special family outings, and one of my little darlings is missing.  Truth is, she never came home with us, so she has NEVER been a part of our special gatherings.  It doesn’t mean I don’t think about her and wonder what she would add to our pictures, how she’d look at almost sixteen years old, and we try to at least remember her so we feel like she is a part of our day. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I LOVE butterflies.  I associate butterflies a lot with Madison, because the song “Butterfly Kisses” came out the year she passed away, and about put my poor man over the edge.  He could not make it through that song without tears, and God help us if he should ever hear it in public. The “ugly cry” would quickly ensue.  And since I can’t keep a dry eye when I see others crying, we would often be a blubbering mess together! I got several little tokens from people, with butterflies on them, when Madison passed away.  We also chose a little girl playing with butterflies for the picture on her gravestone.  Get the point? We’re BIG butterfly fans.

We were doing a little family photo shoot in front of our favorite restaurant in this town we were visiting.  I was shooting Parker (with the camera :), and Morgan said, “Look momma, a beautiful butterfly”.  She went racing for Andy’s camera, and I quickly turned and shot the butterfly right before it flew away from us.  It may sound crazy to you, but it was a reminder from God not to forget my girl, and another grace from Him to remind me that she is not missing ANYTHING.  She is with Him, and that is the BEST place to be.  Yes, me miss her, but God has been faithful to give us beautiful ways to remember her, and this was such a gift to my momma’s heart.  Here is our beautiful little friend… I found out later that it is a Red Admiral.  SO pretty…

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I promise I will try hard not to disappear again!  Happy spring to all of my blogging friends!

Christmas 2011…

We had probably one of the best Christmases we have ever had.  I came down with a horrible bug late last week, so getting ready for Christmas was a bit difficult.  We went to our Christmas Eve service at church, but sat in the back as I was coughing so much. 

Christmas Day it was just the four of us, and I would love for it to be that way EVERY year.  We just relaxed, had a couple yummy meals together, read Scripture together, opened gifts together, and just enjoyed each other’s company.  Not one of us got out of our pajamas that day, and it was WONDERFUL!

Yesterday we got together with our Arizona family who are in town for the week.  My kids were SO excited to see their favorite cousins, and they had a blast hanging out with them.  My FIL got tickets for all of us to go see the Harlem Globetrotters, and that was really fun….and they won! ;) Don’t they always???

In a bit we’re going to go meet everyone at a yummy burger joint downtown, and hopefully hang out for the evening. My kids want to be with their cousins every possible minute they can.

Here are some pictures from the festivities so far… My littles posing on the church platform for their annual Christmas picture.  Look how tall my boy has gotten!!!

Lovely vintage earrings I treated myself to this Christmas…

Our lovely pre-lit Christmas tree! LOVE this tree…hardly any work, and it’s so pretty.  We strung lights around the windows this year too!

A lovely tradition that I hope we keep up until they leave home.  SO fun to look back at the pictures over the years…

A bundle of presents, and tiny Christmas Tree Village (GREAT find at the dollar store!)

My favorite gift…a darling ornament that Morgan bought for me.  She knows how important it is for me to include Madison in our celebration somehow.  I had not had a chance to buy her ornament, so Morgan found this one…I LOVE it!

Cousins so happy to be together again…they adore each other so much, and it’s as if they’ve never been apart when they get together!

And since there must ALWAYS be one silly picture taken…this is CLASSIC of these goofy kids!

     

Fun with the Harlem Globetrotters!

Took this shot of my FIL’s beautiful mantle, and put the oil painting effect on it…love it.

More fun to come this week! I’ll post more as I can!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours! 

Fall Festival…

A nature center not far from us has a fall festival every year.  I don’t know why we never went before, but this was our second year going.  There were lots of fun things to do.  There was a hayride through the woods (no wait this year, but a GREAT LONG ride), a petting zoo that was so great, lots of pumpkins to buy, a climbing tower (had to be taken down because of the wind), a train ride for the little ones, live folk music, a campfire for roasting marshmallows, pumpkin bowling, and free cider and donuts (my dad’s rotary club was there serving them). They had popcorn and candy to give out, and free face painting also.

I decided this year not to lug my big camera bag around with me, and just take my iPhone.  I think it takes some pretty wonderful pictures.  I mainly use my good camera now for pictures at home, and photo shoots.

We had a lot of fun at the festival, and I got some fun pictures.  The fun thing about taking photos on my iPhone is that I can edit them right on the phone.  There are lots of fun photo editing apps available, and that is right up my alley.  The newest app I found with the software update is a photo collage app.  I used that today, and made a collage of our day at the festival. It has some fun backgrounds, and lots of ways to tweak the pictures to make them fit different ways.  I like how it turned out…

 
The animals were great, though I didn’t groove too much on the snake around my girl’s neck :(.  I took that picture from a distance :).  I can almost feel the heat of that campfire though, and smell the burning leaves….mmmmm…

We had a great time at the festival, and look forward to doing it again next year!

I LOVE Photography….

I LOVE to take pictures! I LOVE my camera, and I love my most favorite subjects…my littles! Each year I take their school pictures.  I’ll bet we could get much better pictures if we had them done professionally, but this saves us money, I love to do it, and I think they turn out just fine. :)

Saturday, late afternoon, we grabbed some “props”, and my camera bag and set off to find a location.  We settled on a lovely old estate not too far from us.  It’s much smaller than another nearby estate which seems to be my “go to” location.  This one was very nice.  It involved a lovely fountain, and lots of trees.  The colors weren’t as vibrant there as I had hoped they would be, so we’re going to go back out next week to another location, and shoot some more.  The kids REALLY want me to shoot them on a railroad track, so we’ll do that then too. :)

Both of my kids are pretty photogenic (If I do say so myself), but Parker just wants to shoot and get it over with.  I usually only get around 10 shots of him if I’m lucky.  Morgan, on the other hand, WORKS that camera! She is so fun to shoot.  I don’t even have to tell her what to do.  She just poses, and I shoot.  It’s so much fun. 

Here are some of our pictures for our FIRST fall shoot…

                        

                            

                   

I just think she is stunning :)

              

We got one fun one before Parker pooped out on us… :)

Parker and Daddy went on a hike, and I just shot some pics of my girl for a bit…

                     

Finally…oil painting of brother and sister walking off together…

Can’t wait to take them out again next week!