God is so good.

Every scripture I read, every devotion, every song I hear, are ALL speaking to my heart right when I need it. Today's devotions at proverbs31ministries is EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

I am accepted…

Ephesians 1:3-8 I have been chosen by God and adopted as His child.
Colossians 1:13-14 I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins.
Colossians 2:9-10 I am complete in Christ.

I am secure…
Romans 8:28 I am assured that God works for my good in all circumstances.
Romans 8:31-39 I am free from condemnation. I can’t be separated from God’s love.
Philippians1:6 I am confident God will complete the good work He started in me.

I am significant…
Ephesians 2:10 I am God’s workmanship.
Ephesians 3:12 I may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Something amazing happens when we faithfully cry out to the Lord in our weakness and believe in His perfect care. We experience His super-natural power and peace. Our faith suddenly becomes stronger than our fear, and our trust becomes a strong witness to others. Go ahead and be weak when the crisis comes. His strength and grace are sufficient.

When I am weak, Then I am strong.

(excerp from proverbs31ministries)

I cannot sleep. Silly me, forgetting that having a chai anytime after 6pm is a BAD idea.:)

On tuesday, i put my eldest in a car to drive to the airport and fly to Florida with her aunt and uncle ( and Justin of course:) for nearly 2 weeks. I still cannot believe I said yes.:)

BUT, i KNOW these memories will last her a lifetime and will create a bond with her Aunt that all little girls wish they had! I am getting a few phone calls a day from her. Letting us know how she is and what she is up to. I'm so glad she could go, but man, i miss my girl.

Today is Ms. Aeva's birthday. I am having a hard time with the thought that my BABY is 4.

This picture was from the day I met her..she was 9 months old!
Her 9 month picture in Sweet home, Oregon.
Here's her 1 year picture...cute chubby cheeks!
and here she is 2!!
This was last year for her 3 yr. pictures...fashion model anyone?
and here she is today with her birthday pancakes..4 years old!
She is a little mommy. She enjoys being in charge of anything she can..she LOVES to play mommy with whoever will let her...here she is doing her daddy's hair.
She loves to do mommy things, like sweeping.:)
She is getting better and better at swimming..although it still makes her nervous.

she will be starting preschool next month and is excited about it!

I love you sweet Aeva, and am SO glad God made me your mommy!

Isaiah 55:10-11 is such a good reminder of how we can tap into God’s power no matter what situation we are facing:

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

In my devo's this morning...what a good reminder to check what I say, before I say it.

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?

This past weekend, i went to Ohio to surprise my sister for HER birthday. Can u believe i didn't even get ONE picture with her?? Craziness.

However, i did get one with the next best thing, my nephew!:)
(yes, his shirt says, my Aunt digs me...and i do.:)

After church on sunday, we did a little family photo shoot... I think these turned out alright!


same picture, different tone. Charrie likes the muted colors

his face in the one above cracks me up!


i love the wrinkle forehead.
i think this is one above is my favorite..and it was after the photo shoot..:)
looks like he's getting ready to punch someone.

Possible caption:

" Take your hands OFF the milk. Or ELSE"

I had a fun 32 hours spending time with my sis and holding my little buddy.

CANNOT wait to see them again THIS weekend, along with my other nephew from Florida!!!!

Be still my heart!

Ok. to catch you up on us...

Ms. Bekah graduated highschool.(boohoohoohoo) She looks so grown up in this picture..AND it's a super good one of my kids too.:)
We went to Dryhill, Kentucky for a missions trip for a week..

It was awesome. alot of work, but awesome.

I got to spend some time with the pastors mom who was visiting.

She is such a beautiful lady. So super sweet and I just LOVED talking with her.

ONe of the nights, i went upstairs to her room and visited with her and found out about her life, and then sang some hymns to her.. i left with tears in my eyes. I will never forget her.
This is one of the girls from our youth group who got the extreme honor of praying

the salvation prayer with these twin girls. What an awesome night. They, along with 5 others, went forward and 2 of the teens prayed with them all....again, tears in my eyes.
Cassie jumped right in and talked with the kids and played with them. One of the girls was a very shy little thing, and Cass took her under her wing and stayed with her most of the time! I love my girl.
Samantha did the same. this is her little friend, Hannah. Oh my goodness, you should hear these kids and their adorable accents! If you have ever seen the movie " little rascals", they sound just like those kids....it was pretty impossible to not talk with a twang.:)
The whole group of us who went, standing in front of the cement wall we painted and the house we power washed.:)
Victory Mountain GBC.. it was so beautiful up in these hills..reminded me much of Oregon, except they have kudsu,( if you look closely, it is the vines growing up all the trees behind the church) instead of fir trees...
Now, back to real life. Aeva's quote when we got home:

"MOM!!! I was starving for you!" adorable.

It is officially summer. Actually, we are already through the first week. It's going too fast.

and it has been crazy busy. We are getting ready for the a missions trip next week with the 2 oldest girls, while the little ones stay with friends and my parents. Last friday night, we went to a baseball game with the youth group. The kids loved it. It was Star Wars night, so there were lots of people dressed up, and it was also fireworks night, which is a better show than our town does for the 4th.:) The youth group kids love our kids and do so well with them. They even got to run the bases after the game. The mascot was on 3rd giving the kids fives as they ran past. As Aeva rounded 2nd, she saw him, and started BAWLING and wouldnt run, so Cassie had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way..it was pretty funny!:)
On Sunday, we went with some friends to the "beach" and played in the sun and water(GROSS!!!) I grew up around creeks,rivers and oceans, lake water is so nasty! But the kids love it!:) Here are the boys, enjoying the sun..they look so big. They are going to ALL day kindergarten..did i already tell you that before? I cannot get over the fact that they will be in school all day.:( boohoohoo.
I am officially the mom of a 5th and 2nd grader. ACK. 5th grade??? Are you kidding me? Period and hormones, here we come!!!!:)

So, prayer request for this week.

1. growing and safety in kentucky( lots of SNAKES.ew.)

2. the little kids while they are home and being shuffled between lots of people.

3. PRAISE!! we had our LAST day of cleaning at the church on Wednesday!!!

4. for Tyson to be able to continue to get overtime, to replace the cleaning job, so we dont have to have 3 jobs.

5.patience with Aeva as she is being pretty difficult lately....sigh.

SUMMMMMMMER! It's the last week of school. My kids are excited, I am excited...:)

I love the relaxed schedule of summer(ha) at least most of the time. We spent a quick weekend in ohio, letting the children meet their new cousin. It was gorgeous and hot so we put the pool up for some splashing fun!

there is just something totally precious about a sleeping little girl in a tu-tu, that is, until she pees a HUGE pile of pee in her sisters bed she was napping in.:( boo. Once again, aeva has regressed in potty training..an everyday battle for her to not pee her pants. She KNOWS what she is doing, when she is doing it...i don't know what to do. it's very frustrating. At least she's a cute little booger.:)

6 of the 7 of us ran a 5k on memorial day.(aeva has short legs, and not alot of stamina.:)

we all finshed right at 45 minutes! they were troopers and are excited to do another!
along with summer, comes summer hair cuts..Mitchell looks so much more like max with short hair.:) I am hoping it grows back in a bit by school, so the teachers can remember who is who.:)

Sammie also wants a summer cut, which i am going to do once school is out...she wants it SHORT.sigh. i love her long hair...but it is HER hair after all.

and last but not least, i caught this cute little man, grinning. He melts my heart to a million pieces..