New Life

I have always resented Spring. I love Winter, so every year Spring rolls around and steals Winter away, always makes me mad. But this year has been different, I have actually been excited about Spring. New life all around me. Such perfect opportunities to teach my kids about Jesus and Creation. All the blooming trees and plants and flowers. The kids and I planted a little flower garden together. We've been out watering it everyday.....Skylar has loved watching them grow....she gets so excited. God is so good. I love how creative He is, all these little things in creation that speak volumes of the kind of God we serve. He is sooo detailed. So if He's that detailed about a tiny little flower, how much more detailed is He about me and my kids? How much more care and attention does He pour into my family by taking care of us, protecting us...that I miss out on noticing every day. I wonder about what my life would look like if I didn't lift things up in prayer every day. When I put Sklyar and Caleb to bed every night and pray for Gods angels to surround our house and protect us and watch over us.....I fully believe that He does, I believe that so many angels actually come and watch us and protect us all through the night. How comforting.
Yesterday was Easter. The greatest day in History. Best church service yet.....New Life all around me. Talking to the kids all day about God rising from the dead. Caleb told Seans mom, "God wose fwom deadness".....so sweet. Being able to witness Amy, Nicole, Tracy, Melissa and Chrisitian's baptism was just amazing. I have watched a lot of people get baptized, but yesterday was powerful. Maybe it had something to do with it taking place on Easter.....I don't know, but it moved me. Just listening to thier stories and realizing that the Life we have inside us IS so powerful. Heaven is crashing earth through us. I've been learning so much these past few weeks about Heaven. As much as it boggles my mind, it gives me so much excitement. We bring Life to the "Deadness" around us. God awakens what He plants in the hearts that He loves....I want to be a part of that!

Tahoe

We got a dog. Christmas Present. He's 1/2 lab 1/2 Rodesian Ridgeback. We have a love/have relationship with each other......when he's good and minds, I like him....when he comes running accross our beige carpet with muddy paws and jumps on me, and then onto our couch, not a whole lotta love is flowin out of me towards him. And especially when I open the door into our garage and see my brand new white bra now mangled and wrapped around his neck........

Landscaping

Alright, so we moved into our house in October. Experienced Fall, beautiful. All the leaves changing, and then, of course everything dead and winterized. So then Spring rolls up on us and everything starts popping out of the ground, and a crazy amount of Spikey balls continuing to fall from our huge 80-foot tree out front. Now, I am NO gardner....I can't even keep a little green plant in my house alive. I have a black thumb. Literally. Black, not pretty. So Sean and I have been trying to re-do our front yard. Whoever lived here before lived here for 50 years and so everything was overgrown and "old". Camelias, rose bushes (lots of them), wierd bushes. Sean starts going crazy and ripping EVERYTHING out. Rose bushes, gone. Huge Camelia bush, gone. 80 ft. Liquid Amber tree, gone. Mimosa tree, gone. So our front yard is a pile of dirt. And when you have 3 small children, dirt is their playground. Not fun for trying to keep a house somewhat presentable. Skylar and Caleb are a constant ball of dirt. Caleb has all his cars and trucks out there and is making tracks for them. His brand new shoes are now brown. We go through 7 pairs of pants in 3 days. Awesome for my laundry.

We were now at the point where we could finally DREAM about our yard. Every plant and bush and tree I look at and LOVE are Japanese......I have always loved Japanese Maples. I made my mom plant one in her yard years ago, i was living vicariously through her. SO Sean drew up a whole diagram of our front yard and we headed to Lowes and purchased our layout. SO fun!! We came home Monday night and layed everything out. Tuesday we planted. And now I LOVE our yard! Its finally coming together. Sean has been so so amazing. He has poured everything into doing everything. He impresses me all the time. And now our yard is beautiful!

Heres the process:

Beginning the process.

80 ft. Liquid Amber (that little lump in it is Dan)

Gone.

Laying out what we bought.
Finishing planting and laying bark.....now just have to plant grass seed where the dirt it......

MY Japenese Maple!! I love it!!
Its all coming together....so exciting. Now all we have to do is go get our 3 Redwoods and plant those where our tree was and plant grass. I can't wait to watch it all grow. Hopefully I don't kill it all in the process......

Leah Caldwell

So our amazing friend Leah, flew here for the Retreat. It was so great to see her and catch up with her. She came over last night and spent the night and presented us with this present.....

Freakin awesome!! She cross-stitched this, crazy!!!

Leah- Thank you so much, I can't even express how sweet this gift was and how precious to me your friendship is. I am so so glad you flew here and spent the weekend with all us women, we were so blessed to have you here with us. Love you!

Deep breath

I can finally breath again. What an amazing weekend. I don't even know where to begin..........72 women....Beth Moore.....God just kept giving me such overwhelming love for every woman I talked to, so crazy cause I usually am not that full of compassion, but man, this weekend I was overwhelmed with it. So, God totally showed up, I feel like this weekend was just a start to something so much bigger, there were connections, breakthroughs, healings, walls broken down, shopping, good food, MAFIA, games......everything went so great. I think we will do it again there next year, but with 100 women (but I don't even want to think about it till September)......

Here are some pics:

Me and my girls :0)

Henna in the Spirit

Amazing worship, Thank you Jenna!

Not So Simple Life Anymore......

We're back. I have mixed emotions about it. I loved living simply. No TV, no internet, no cell phone. I liked just being at night with Sean after the kids went to bed.....hanging out playing games, reading books, talking......not having to keep up with all the TV shows, blogging, emails, myspace, facebook......but all good things must come to an end. We have TV back and cable, and DVR now, which I must admit is crazy addicting and pretty nice......we got a camera, which was the biggest part for me, not having anything to record my family was pretty disturbing. And now Internet.....which I was totally fine before not having, but now that we do, its nice just being able to shoot someone an email, or look up a question I have on ask.com, or once again spend time browsing through craigslist looking for that perfect something that we don't need.......

Anyway, Life is pretty crazy right now.....I feel like all of a sudden my life has doubled now that Ryder is crawling. Up until a month ago it was pretty easy having three kids, Ryder is the worlds perfect baby, he would just sit or lay there playing for hours, never complaining...but now.....oh man.....he's constant.....into the trash, into the toilet, drawers, cupboards, books, vases, candles, trash again, back to toilet.......the boy never stops....so yes, i officially have three kids. So trying to keep on him, a sink full of dishes, toys scattered everywhere, spills, trash can being dumped over, mud being tracked in from the dog, a constant 10 loads of laundry, oh yah, and planning a womans retreat, I feel like i want to go crawl in a hole and sleep for days.......but then absolutely nothing would get accomplished........

Super stoked for the retreat though, its tomorrow......its going to be amazing. I have such an amazing team of women that have just been so amazing.....God has been preparing me and I know so many other women for so much connection and vulnerability this weekend. I can't wait to see how He works and I am so humble to be a part of it. The weekend is going to be about Loving Well....couldn't be a more perfect title for what He's been preparing in the hearts of so many women at the Stirring. So thats pretty much my life right now.....

Good to be back.......

here's some updated pics of the fam.....

SImple

So awesome on Sunday....We started a new series, Simple...so great. Came home, woke up Monday and canceled EVERYTHING. Cable, internet, cell phone (soon).......can't wait to find a rythm and balance and get out of everything always being so busy and so crazy......why does that have to be the norm? Its like if you aren't crazy and busy all the time, you are a loser......I am so sick of hearing those words. Getting into a simpler life is so exciting for Sean and I, its so freeing for me. I am learning what it looks like to live in a rythm of being more purposeful in my days, not getting so dissensitized (wow, biggest word i've ever used) by the TV every night, and getting out of the habit of the kids watching so much TV through the day.....I am so excited. I want my kids to see what it looks like to not be running around crazy all the time, to take time to take clothes to Foster kids who have nothing, to take soup to the hungry, to give what we have, not constantly seeing what THEY don't have and wanting more for themselves....consumerism.
The Stirring is moving in a direction. We are traveling together towards a goal.....to live like Jesus lived. I see this happening. I see us living life out together week after week. Not just on Sundays, but all week long. I love it. I love what God is doing through our Pastors and doing through our community......

p.s. thank goodness for Mom and Dads computer and the computers at the library :)