Good times, great friends!

Summer time is here, and for us that means 4 hour drives to see our good friends in
Lagrange, KY. We all had such a good time together. We were so sad to leave and come back home. All the kids have gotten so big.
Baby jail......."help, get me out"
Some things never change either. Baylee and Elijah will be partners in crime no matter how old they get. This reminds me of another pic I have of the two of them giving a horse a bath! Baylee had a big, pink horse in her room when we lived in Louisville. One day she and Eli decided that the horse smelled bad, therefore he needed a bath. Erin and I walk in the bathroom to find shampoo all over the place and very wet children. They were so proud of themselves. Despite the mess they made it was all fun and games to them. Oh the wonders of childhood!
Neal and John will always be the best of friends. They love to goof off together!

Some things never get old, like seeing old friends. We love these guys. We all had such a great time together. I know, we don't have any pics of the adults! There were six children to run after, feed, change, wash, ect...no time for very many pics! But even in all the busyness, us adults had a great time too. We went to the YMCA water park, grilled out, and Erin and I even managed to sneak away and do some shopping. It was a good time had by all!

Horseback riding

"Come on kids, lets go to the horse barn"...............music to their ears. We love horses in our family. Maybe someday we'll have some of our own, but for now we have to drive to Lebanon, Tn and ride the ones there. Baylee got to ride on Satin. We usually ride Grey, but he was out on the trail.
She was so proud, such a big girl.
Giving Satin a kiss goodbye.
Neal got to ride, Chicaro. I think Neal likes trail riding better than being lead around. Who can blame him? No time for it on this day. Hopefully we'll get back this summer for more riding.
What is up with the peace sign all of a sudden?

Last days of school

Stewarts Creek Elem. really is a great school. We had the 3rd grade Awards ceremony last week. They went all out for the parents and the kids. Neal got three awards in all. We are very proud of him and all he has accomplished this year.
Field Day was great as well. A whole day of outside fun in the sun. The tug of war was great. Neal is in the red shirt, blue hat. The won that round.
Potato sack race. It was a great time.

Karate moves

Neal is doing very well in Karate. He was more than happy to show off some moves for me.


It was a kick, but the camera went off to early. Quite a big jump though!

Baylee's Kindergarten Island

Baylee had an amazing year in preschool. We loved every minute of it. This week she and her classmates put on a performance called "Kindergarten Island" It was so cute. They danced and played air guitar. We had the most fun ever!
Baylee's teacher, Ms. Jamie. She is one of those rare teachers that truly loves her job. She made Baylee's year extra special. Ms. Jamie gave all the parents a scrapbook for the year. She also has three children of her own. How she finds the time and energy is beyond me.
Singing songs with Ms. Shelly, the teaching assistant in the pre-K room. We love her too. Baylee really was blessed with great teachers this year!
Our girl, isn't she the cutest!

Makes a momma proud

Two very different things happened today with my children. One was a profound "God" moment, and the other I just had to laugh at because really, sometimes that is all you can do.

1. Neal went on a field trip today and at lunch with four of his friends, who are also Christians, they decided together that they would pray and bless the food! I'm so proud of my Neal and his friends for being bold in their faith.

2. ok, this is just funny! It is a well documented fact that women have more words to speak per day than men do. Brad and I have seen this play out in our marriage A LOT! Who knew this truth would start so early in life. The following is a conversation I overheard my kids having at the dinner table tonight. It was 9pm and they had reminded me that we didn't have dessert after dinner! What a tragedy! So like any good momma would, I sat them down and gave them each a scoop of ice cream...LOL! Then I went to the next room to fold laundry; its never ending!

Baylee: Hey Neal

Neal: What (with the sound in his voice that says before the conversation begins....."don't bother me right now, I'm busy can't you see")

Baylee: Today at school we had a performance in the gym and there was this guy who did puppet shows and made jokes and ms. jamie was in a talent show and oh...it was sooooo cool i wish i could be in a talent show i wonder what i'd be what would you be if you were in a talent show i bet you'd be a superhero or a race car driver, i'd be a rock star, movie star and oh then we went back to the classroom and had treats.....(yes, just like that. one big run on sentence)

Neal: Baylee shush

Baylee: and when we had treats someone got in trouble because they were being loud is it loud at your school its loud sometimes in my class but we sing a lot of songs so we like it loud our favorite song is "driving in my car" its great and we are going to sing it soon i like to sing

Neal: Baylee please; slow down

Baylee: i'm just telling you about my day

Neal: I don't care, I'm eating ice cream

Baylee: well i like ice cream and cake and oh today at school we ate in the cafeteria and it was good mom packed my lunch though i ate it all but morgan didn't eat all her lunch and i bet she is hungry now

Neal: Baylee please; be quiet!

Baylee: why

Neal: because I don't care and your giving me a headache.

Baylee: why am i giving you a headache i'm just telling you about my day

Neal: I don't care about your day right now, we are eating ice cream and then we will play hi/low with mom and then go to bed, now please be quiet.

Baylee: but neal

Neal: MOM!!!!! WOULD YOU PLEASE TELL BAYLEE TO LEAVE ME ALONE!

That was rather long, but I just had to share, I was laughing hard in the next room. I thought to myself, it only gets worse guys! Just wait!

He is mighty indeed!

A little background: This is my aunt, Donna. She came to live at my grandmother's house when she was just 13 yrs old. She was taken away from her family due to extreme abuse and neglect. My grandmother adopted her and she has been part of our family since. When I was a baby her days were spent rocking me to sleep while watching her soaps. She has many disabilites. She has never learned to read or write. When she came to live with my grandmother, Donna's social worker told her that Donna would never mentally mature past the age of 6yrs old. Dispite her limitations and the abuse she has endured, Donna has a heart of gold and a spirit of sweetness I have never seen in another human being.

I say all that to say this: She came to spend the weekend with me. Time was coming for Sunday morning worship. Donna is very uncomfortable in social situations and I was advised by my grandmother to not take her to our church. More than anything, I think my grandmother's concern was our "loud" music. She was only concerned that Donna may not handle it very well. I felt in my gut that she should go. Selfishly I was thinking how she could help me, by carrying an extra bag or two. Getting three kids into church (and one is still not walking) can be down right bothersome. And Brad would already be at church practicing with the Praise Band. So we get into church and the music starts. I look to see Donna trying to sing and hum the melody even though she couldn't read the music. That was precious enough....and then the last song was "Mighty To Save" and the whole church entered into this worship that I can't explain. It was just of God. He was there and you could sense it. I had Brennan in my arms and I couldn't raise my hands so I just closed my eyes and worshiped the Lord. I just got this sense that we had entered this holy place, we were on holy ground together. Words can't express what I felt in that room. And then.........God did something so "mighty". I looked over and Donna was crying. And I knew why. And then I started to cry and was a blubbering mess. This is just my take on it, but this is what I feel like happened. Even though Donna can't really understand the concept of "the body of Christ" and even though I have shared Jesus and the gospel with her many times I don't know if she has the "abilities" to understand and accept it. Only God knows that. But when she with limited capabilites and understanding witnesses the church in worship of their Lord it says something about him and about our love and affections for him. I pray that one day, Donna will bow at the feet of Christ and place her crown at his throne, but today I think she maybe got a glimpse of what worship on earth is like. Maybe today God gave a human being with limited understanding the ability to understand something of eternity, that no matter what our brains may or may not understand here on this earth that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord and is to be worshiped.

These are the lyrics:
"Mighty to Save"

Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

My Savior
He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
ForeverAuthor of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus (x3)
Chrous

Nanny's garden

My grandmothers favorite flower! The blue iris.
Mother's Day rose bush that my grandmother has kept alive and thriving for 50 yrs.
My grandmother is also an avid bird lover. Her yard is full of things birds love and they flock (heehee) to her yard every spring and summer. We peaked a look into her latest addition. Aren't they cute!
The picture above and below is of the same flower, but has an interesting story. My grandmother's mother, Etta Jones-Simmons lived on over 150 acres of what is now known as Shanty Hollow Lake. To them it was just their family farm. When they sold the land and moved to Jack Simmons Rd, she took these iris bulbs with her. She planted them and they grew. When she died, my grandmother, Nanny dug them up and took them to her own land, (which was really just the 3 acres behind her mothers land). They have come back every year since. So these same bulbs that produce such pretty flowers for all of us to enjoy are the very same ones that my great grandmother found growing in the wild about 100 yrs ago. Very cool, I think.

Motherhood

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. A blog I read yesterday reminded me of how grateful I am to have these kiddos in my life. Motherhood is not easy. It is hard. To completely give yourself to another without any expectation of returned favor, to worry about how to best shape your children for this life, what experiences to give them and what experiences you hope they never have to live through in this life, to pray for the salvation of their soul and pray that God would answer your prayer not knowing if he will or not, I could go on and on. Motherhood is difficult to say the least, but I wouldn't trade this for the world. Motherhood has taught me so much about life and love, but most of all it has taught me about the love of Christ. He has seen me through some of the most difficult days of my life. I think of when Neal was in the hospital, he was around 2yrs old and we didn't know if he'd make it or not (he had an infection in his blood stream and even the Dr. assigned to the case was reluctant to give us hope), but God saw us all through it and made us stronger for it. When I was carrying Baylee I was "wrapped around the axle" about having a little girl. It brought up so many issues for me. How would I protect her, how could I teach her to fix her hair, how could I prepare her for her own motherhood? Then she came and they put her in my arms and all my troubles melted away and I fell in love with this tiny creature wrapped in pink. And I heard God speak to me and say, "she is just a baby, she just needs your love". When I found out I was pregnant with Brennan we were not in a good place to have another baby and I wondered what in the world was God thinking. And then I had such trouble carrying him. My body almost fell apart under the pressure of another baby. All during that time God taught me how to rely on him for strength b/c I had none of my own. Once again when Brennan was born and was placed in NICU for the first few days I questioned God. He reminded me once more that his ways are not my ways and that I should trust him no matter what. I knew he meant me no harm, but only good whatever may come. I thank God for his grace that has enabled me to be a mother to these children. These are some of my favorite "Mother" quotes:

-Anyone who thinks that the art of conversation is dead should try and put a child to bed.....Robert Gallagher

-Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother......Oprah Winfrey

-Life affords to greater responsibility , no greater privilege than raising the next generation......C. Everett Kopp

-There is no substitute for a mother......Anonymous

-Live your life so that when your children think of fairness and integrity they think of you.....H. Jackson Brown

-Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother......Lin Yutang

-Mothers are the pivot on which the family spins....Pam Brown

-She broke the bread into two fragments and gave them to the children....."she has kept none for herself"...grumbled the Sergeant. "Because she is not hungry", said a soldier. "No, it is because she is a mother", said the Sergeant..............Victor Hugo

-Bringing a child home is the greatest act of hope there is..........Louise Hart

-There was never a great man who did not have a great mother...........Olive Schreiner

-Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and you weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate.......Charlotte Gray

Happy Birthday to ME

My 30th birthday was great. I had been working on my flower bed for a month. We've been pulling up shrubs and old bedding for what seems like forever. My grandmother, Nanny came to stay with me a few weeks ago and brought me a rose bush that belonged to her mother. I pray I don't kill it. So far its going well. So when Brad asked me what I wanted for my birthday there were really only a couple of things I could think of. There is this little town close to us called, Nolensville. It is the cutest place. The streets are lined with antique stores and such. So, for my birthday, Brad went with me to a few of them (antique shopping with your wife, now I know the man loves me!). I got some things for my flower garden and the next day I got my flower garden finished. The picture above is me and the kids on my birthday before heading out to Olive Garden for dinner. We did put shoes on the baby before taking him inside...lol. We are only "wannabe" rednecks!
My Mom sent me these flowers. They were so pretty!

On the one hand I can't believe I'm 30, and on the other hand I feel like its about time......I can remember thinking that 30 was old. I laugh at the thought now. I honestly feel like I'm just getting started. I don't have to wonder anymore who I am or what I stand for or what I stand againist, I know these things. I know who I am and I know who I am not. Its a good feeling to stand on your own two feet and not fall down. More importantly I know who I am in Christ and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter what may come or what may go in this life no one can take that from me.

I wrote a song on my birthday. It had been in the process for about a week. Brad helped me figure out the chorus on my birthday nto finish it up. He has to put it to music for me. I couldn't tell you one musical note from another. Thats why I have him around. Yes, I am songwriting again! I used to write a lot, then life happened and my love of writing poetry, music and such got put on the back burner. Our church inspires its members to be creative so I'm trying to get back in the groove again.