Arrows

Happy 4th of July! We had the best weekend, spent with family and friends. Tyson even took friday off, which was awesome. Below: BEST FAMILY PICTURE EVER. HA.My kids enjoyed playing with their cousin Justin all weekend...cute little man isnt so little anymore!
we all( although some would say I HOG the baby) got to hold and love on baby Caden... i just LOVE his expressive eyebrows~
We enjoyed the outdoors and nature. The guys found this ..well, we arent sure if its a moth or a butterfly, but it was HUGE. It showed up the first day on a plant in mom's yard, and the 2nd day there was a female one with it..pretty cool!

Another one of the days, a HUGE storm rolled in..we actually could SEE the clouds starting to rotate( and they had tornado's touch down a few counties over from ours) It was beautiful..and scary.

We celebrated this little girls 4th birthday while we had family in town~ I cannot belive she is 4 already. I am planning to put her into preschool this year..and my boys are going to kindergarten, which means mommy will have a few hours ALL to herself...whatever will I do?:)
Aeva, with Justin and her little friend Allie. She loved/hated being the center of attention.
The whole family went down to Winona for the 4th of July parade..it starts at noon, if you aren there by 1205, you will probably miss it..hehehe.:) But the kids love it and then they have all kinds of free stuff to do after that. Mr. Caden was being all patriotic.:)
Nannie with all her little babes..and their balloons. Nice one Cass!:)
Steph and I made dinner one night. YUMMO. This may look weird, but it is SO good.

Let's see, we had:

5 chicken breast , grilled and diced small

1 red onion, chopped fine

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

2 sm. bottles of BBQ sauce

( also 4 avacados diced and it a seperate bowl)

Mix it all together, top with diced avacado and use Matzo( jewish cracker) to dip in it

SO STINKING GOOD.
and then, i found this idea online a few weeks back, so decided to give it a try. It was super cute, and the kids loved them~:)
We sat and watched the fireworks ( they had to postpone because of the storm that hit)

The kids just love them. The boys in particular get a kick out of the girls being scared of the noise:)

Typical boys.
this was a cool picture I got of the lake relecting the fireworks and the the family in the canoe..just cool. Wish it was more in focus, but I am not a pro at the night shot settings...:) It's still cool though.
all-in-all, it was a great weekend, spent with family that I wished lived next door, and missing the ones who weren't here.:(

I am reading this book a friend sent me, called: Sun Stand Still, by Pastor Steven Furtick.

It was hard to get into at first for me, after just finishing Francis Chan's, Crazy Love. Two very different men, both changing the world for Christ.

Anyway, something hit me in the last chapter I read, so I thought I would share it with you.

" It's one thing to WANT to trust God to do the impossible things through your life. It's another thing to get to a place where you are ABLE to trust him at that level. No one can transplant a heart of faith into you like it's a new body part. Faith is more like a muscle you already have. It just need to be strengthened. You have to be intentional about making it grow,

The Bible describes a process of faith formation, one that integrally involves the word at EVERY step:

* Hearing the Word INITIATES faith ( Romans 10:17)

* Speaking the Word ACTIVATES faith ( Joshua 1:8)

* Doing the Word DEMONSTRATES faith (James 2:10)

Are YOU in the WORD?