"I press on toward the goal. . ."

WOW! I travelled to Jacksonville this weekend to the Beth Moore Living Proof Live event. It was indescribable. At the beginning, she had us write down what we wanted out of the weekend and my key phrase was "renew my spirit" and boy did I ever get a renewal. The conference was centered on Philippians 3: 3-21. It was all about how God gives us a Revelation, we have to spiritually Comprehend and then step in with both feet and Apprehend what he wants us to. Beth Moore is truly a servant of the Lord. It is obvious that she is working only for the glory of the Lord and she inspired me to do the same. To look FORWARD for my revelation and apprehend the "prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3: 14)

I also truly enjoyed spending time with my mom and friends from my church family. We had a great girls' weekend (even though we didn't do as much shopping as we would have liked). I enjoyed the ride up-thanks Tina for driving all of us crazy talking women up! And Dot-for being the calm in the storm and Tina's co-pilot. Thanks Heidi D. for driving us around Jacksonville I enjoyed being your co-pilot. Heidi D., Robyn and Doreen-I enjoyed our talk-fest! Tracy, Doreen, Robyn, Heidi, Julie, Tina, Pat, Sharon and Dot-It was great spending time with old friends and making some new ones! Can't wait for the next trip!

And Heidi S.-It was great seeing you there!!!! It was great being there knowing you were there sharing the same experience. I also appreciate your support of my attempt to do a good deed-you'll be glad to know two lovely ladies came and sat there right as the music was beginning. What a blessing this weekend was!!!! Thank you Jesus.

Generations of Love

My grandmother's birthday was today. My kids are so blessed to have 3 great-grandparents still in their lives (my grandparents and Jon's grandfather). It is always amazing to see generations of a family sharing time together. I took the picture of Rylee Jane and my grandmother at Brady's birthday and the one of my grandmother and I was taken 30 years ago around the same time of year (you can see I have an Easter egg in my hand). Anyway, I gave a framed copy to my grandmother today. Happy Birthday Grandma Frances!

Easter Fun. . .Sort of.

Well, Easter was a good, relaxing day except for poor Peyton. This was Peyton the night before Easter with his dyed eggs (he was very proud of them).











The next morning he was not so cheerful. He woke up early and was very sick. Let's just say the potty and a bowl were his best friends that morning. I even tried to take his mind off the situation by asking him if he wanted to see his Easter basket. He agreed, made it half way down the hall, stopped, turned around and said, "No Mommy I'm just going to go back to bed." How sad! He didn't even feel like presents :( Anyway, no Easter-best dress, no church, and no Easter egg hunting for Peyton. Although he did eventually feel like checking out his basket later in the afternoon.








Rylee and Brady enjoyed themselves on Easter. Brady was not to into hunting eggs especially after he realized he already had chocolate candy in his basket. In fact, I'm pretty sure he only picked up one egg before he found a seat and started working on unwrapping his candy. And of course, this wasn't his first taste of the candy that day. He got into his basket on the way to my aunt's house. This is how we found him in the backseat when we arrived.








Rylee was beautiful in her first Easter dress and a very good baby all day long. She is my very precious little girl and these pictures turned out really well. She loved sitting in the grass and playing on Easter afternoon. What an "unexpected" blessing God has given us in Rylee!








At least my nieces, Madison and Maci, invited Peyton to an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday and Mommy plans to take "Easter" pictures next Sunday when we all get "fancied up" again. Toodles.

Spring Days Page

Well, I finished a scrapbook page the other day. I promised myself I wasn't going to work on 2008 until I had at least finished 2007 but I just couldn't resist scraping these "spring" photos.

The kit is the newest free kit from Shabby Princess, "Promise" and the template was a freebie from Jen Caputo. Thanks!

Manic Monday & Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a little bit of luck; Brady went pee-pee on the potty! He went Monday morning after I pulled out the Sesame Street potty seat. Now, he did feel the need to wear the potty seat afterwards but hey, whatever works. (Don't worry, I wiped it off before I left him walk around with it.)

Peyton played his second-to-last T-ball game Monday night and as usual, had a blast. He loves t-ball! The last game is tomorrow and everyone will be sad. On another note, Mommy took Brady and Rylee to the game all by herself which was an accomplishment for her. I very rarely take all three anywhere completely by myself because I find it a little overwhelming but I did it and I'm still here to tell the tale.

Today (Tuesday) we actually enjoyed a night at home with no activities. I took the kids outside to play while Daddy cooked dinner and we enjoyed the time change now that we've adjusted our sleep patterns. We enjoyed dinner and then Mommy went for a jog. I started a program I found online called "couch to 5K" so that's my goal. This was the first day but I'm blogging about it so I have some accountability. Toodles!

Sweet Sunday

What a nice, relaxing day we had today. We went to church, of course, this morning. After church we enjoyed a great spaghetti dinner sponsored by the members of our church going on a mission trip to Jamaica in a couple of weeks. After lunch we came home and everyone took a Sunday afternoon nap-even Mommy and Daddy! There is nothing better than a nap on my couch with my favorite quilt on a Sunday afternoon! Thank you God for sleeping babies.

After naps we had an early dinner at Outback with some friends and arrived back at home early enough to spend some time playing outside. Brady and Daddy went to the store and Peyton, Rylee, and Mommy spent some quality time outside. Peyton did some tree climbing; he hasn't done much of that so he had to have some help from Mommy but made it up to the top! In other news, Rylee sat in a highchair for the first time today at church and then again at Outback. I didn't get a picture!!!! Tomorrow begins another week!

Do I really have time for this?

I'm not sure I have time for blogging but I going to do my best to keep up with it because it is a great way to document my children and their childhood. Just like yesterday when Peyton and I went to Starbucks and as we were leaving he said, "Mama, that guy (the Starbucks guy in the drive-thru) was really nice; he was actually, really nice." Actually? Where did he learn that word and he even used it correctly! I'm pretty sure he's already started his campaign for the presidency in 2044! He knows no strangers and loves to meet new people. When I told him once he couldn't talk to strangers I think he took it as a challenge to make sure there were no strangers to him.
Speaking of nice, Brady has just entered the terrible twos (Feb. 22 he turned 2) and is having trouble with being nice. Around here we call it being "ugly" and being ugly can include but is certainly not limited to: throwing one's self on the floor and screaming loud enough to pierce ear drums, hitting my older brother for no reason, sitting on my baby sister, throwing my pecan roll behind the couch, you know-just general two-year-old stuff. So anyway, when Brady is "ugly" he has to go to his room. And after he screams for a few minutes he then proceeds to offer apologies. He will yell, "Mama, I nice. . .Mama, I nice" then often, when we go get him he'll tilt his head, smile, and say "I nice." He is a charmer! I will admit though he is not in denial about his "ugly" issues. The other morning he was yelling at the cat and I said "Brady, are you being ugly?" He replied, "YES." That's my Brady-he pulls no punches!
Back to the original subject of the post, I am going to do my best to keep up with this so I can go back and read all the great (and funny) things my kids have done!!!!

Well, it is official. I am blogging!!!!