Summer is here!!!

Our family loves summertime! It means baseball games, swimming & long days! This past week we have brought summer in with a bang (or should I say slide!).

We have had so much fun! First we went to see Sam & John John (as Emily calls him) play a little softball. Emily loves going to see any sporting event - especially if she can hang out with Daddy! Here's a few pictures from the night.

The weekend was full of fun things. We did some shopping, had our friends The Davidson's over for BBQ on Saturday, and had some family time on Sunday afternoon. I think Steve's favorite part of the weekend was the 100 ft slip 'n' slide at Lindsey's going away party on Sunday night. Nothing says it's summertime more than breaking all your bones going down a hill on a 100ft slip 'n' slide. I think everyone had a lot of fun and luckily no one went to the emergency room! Thank you God!

As many of you know, I am part of Celebrate Recovery at our church.

Celebrate Recovery is a 12 step program to help anyone with hurts, habits, or hang-ups; which is everyone! It has really helped me in my marriage, my relationship with Christ, and in my day to day life . Every week I learn something new about how to truly have a relationship with our Lord and Savior!!! I look forward to the meetings and seeing all the friends that I have made there.

This past week the lesson at Celebrate Recovery really hit home with me. On Monday, I was in a poor pitiful me state of mind while I was at work. There were just a lot things that were bothering me, so I decided to just be still and talk with God. I felt a peace that I had not felt in a long time! He amazes me!!! When I get so bogged down with day to day stuff and get so wrapped up in everything that means nothing, I fall further and further out of the lap of my Heavenly Father!! So, after actually sitting still and being quiet for awhile, I realized that all the things that I was feeling so poor pitiful me about were my own doing. I was not looking into what God wanted for me or how God wanted me to see things - I was SO looking at the worldly view!

On Tuesday night, Danny taught on "Crossroads" at worship. It goes along with Principle 7 & Step 10.

Principle 7 states: Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Step 10 states: We continued to take personval inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12

This lesson spoke so clearly to me! Step 10 is so important for someone to remain in recovery and not fall back into their hurts, habits, or hang-ups! I have always loved to journal, just to get my feelings out, yet since I've had Emily it has been very difficult to find the time to get it done. During the lesson Danny gave 5 questions to ask yourself at the end of the day when you are taking the time to do your daily inventory. My challenge to anyone reading this is to do just that: Take time to do a daily inventory! Ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. What good did I do today?

2. Where did I blow it?

3. Did I hurt anyone today?

4. Do I owe anyone amends for something that I did to them?

5. Did I learn anything today?

I know that since Tuesday I have been doing it and it makes you look for ways to help others and not be so demanding or impatient with people. This lesson is not just for those who may be suffering with addictions - this is for everyone!! We all are humans and make mistakes!!

"If we say that we have no sins, we are only fooling ourselves, and refusing to accept the truth...we are lying and calling God a liar, for says we have sinned." 1 John 1:8-10

I know that having a quiet time with God is hard for a lot of people. We are so busy in our lives that we don't have time for God. Yet could you imagine if God didn't have time for us? Where would we be if God didn't make time to have a relationship with us?

A Special Mother's Day...

This Mother's Day was so special to me! It was an exciting day for the whole family! Emily was dedicated at church. She was so excited to be able to get on the stage with Brother Dave...in fact as we were stepping off of the stage she told me, "but I want to sing Mommy." She was so dissapointed that she wasn't able to put on a show for everyone at the church! The best part of it was that our dear friend Danny was the one that annointed her with oil and prayed with us! It really means a lot for Steve and I to have him be the one that did it! We love you Danny!

Since it was such a special moment in Emily's life, my parents came up and went to church with us. I was taken back to my childhood standing there in that pew singing hymns with them by my side! It was truly a blessing!!!! After church, they came to the house and I cooked lunch for everyone. We then went to see Steve's Mom and Dad. I really think that Steve's mom like her gift. He went above and beyond what most guys would ever think to do. He made a shadowbox picture with a prayer, his favorite scriptures, and lots of photos of his family and his Mom. He amazed me with how it turned out! I think I have some competition now in the Scrapbooking department!

That about sums up my Awesome Mother's Day! I thank God everyday for allowing me the honor of being a Mommy and thank Him for the blessing He has given me through Emily! I could not imagine my life without her in it! I'm going to leave you with a picture of my sweet blessing and me playing around at the end of Mother's Day - it was taken after a very long family nap! I hope your Mother's Day was as special as mine!

Mommy's Big Helper...

Emily is Mommy's Big Helper! She definitely takes after her Daddy and loves to clean. Her favorite thing to do is help with the vacuuming!! Just like her Daddy!

The funniest thing is that when she is helping me, she is constantly telling me what a big helper she is!

Here's some pictures of her helping me clean!

Bitter Sweet

Sunday was a bittersweet day for our church and our family.

It was Dave and LeAnn Simmerman's last day at the church! Steve and I know that through Christ they are going to do wonderful things at First Baptist Columbia, yet it is still

hard to see them make that move. Dave and LeAnn both have been great examples

of the live that Steve and I are called to lead. We are going to miss them greatly!!!!

The reason there is a little bit of sweetness to the idea of them leaving is that now Steve and I can experience just a glimmer of what full time ministry will mean for our family! It's pretty exciting to see God working through our marriage to touch others lives!

Just so you know, Dave and LeAnn, we are truly going to miss you!

A Star in the Making...

As many of you know, Emily is definitely a star in the making! Her favorite singer is Hannah Montanah, but any will do for her, just as long as they sing. She knows all the words to Hannah Montnah's songs and sings them on a regular basis. In fact, she is constantly telling me that she wants a guitar and a microphone. She really does take after her Daddy!!!

We were making the bed, which always leads to jumping on the pillows, hence the pictures. And before you know it she had her Daddy's guitar trying to play and sing with it. She wasn't quite able to pick it up, so the playing the guitar part didn't work. But she just kept right on singing for Mommy! It is so precious to see her sit there singing! Especially when she starts singing "Jesus loves me"! How wonderful it is to hear your own child singing about Jesus loving them! Here's some pictures from her singing debut!

Living with Purpose

So, my friends Sheri and John had a gorgeous baby girl on Thursday, and I went to see them on Friday night. They were at Baptist and, as many of you know, there is a Krispy Kreme straight across the street. (In fact, Mom brought me a dozen hot doughnuts the night I had Emily!) Since my friend Michelle had watched Emily so that I could visit the hospital, I thought it would be nice to take some home to her and the girls. My other friend Elizabeth ended up being there when I went to pick Emily up. So, needless to say the "three muskateers" enjoyed some heaven here on Earth.

I really do have a point to this story, I promise! I'm not just rubbing in the fact that we had Krispy Kreme's and you didn't! Just bear with me while I get to the point!

Well our church's Spring Revival started yesterday and the speaker is this awesome guy named Pat. So, during service yesterday morning, he started talking about how much he enjoys food, especially DOUGHNUTS! (which by the way, don't we all!) Then he went on to explain how a Krispy Kreme doughnut is very similar to being a Christian! We were all laughing because we had just had such a wonderful, tasteful experience with the Krispy Kremes.

It was so refreshing to be reminded that we all have a purpose here. Just like a doughnut that doesn't have the good stuff (the glaze) on it yet. We have these horrible attitudes and then Jesus (the sweet glaze) comes into our lives and it is so SWEET! Our lives are turned in another direction and we know what our purpose is!!!!

How amazing is that!?! To know that I have a purpose and that purpose is to love Jesus and to have a PASSION to be more like Him and to longing to know more about Him! There is nothing sweeter than that!

Sleeping Beauty

So, we rented a movie last night and of course Emily and I fell asleep practically before it even started. She ended up sleeping with me last night and Steve slept on the couch. He wasn't tired like always and stayed up WAY later than Emily and I. When I woke up this morning and saw her sweet face, I just knew that I had to share some of the pictures of her sleeping.

Children are so sweet when they sleep! I think it may be the only time that they are actually still & quiet and that's why mom's love to see their babies sleeping! Emily hates going to sleep because she is afraid she might miss out on something, but when she finally doses off, she could sleep through anything. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

being single...

Those of you that don't know, Steve is taking over the Singles Ministry at church. Ministry is something that he has really been wanting to get into, so this is his chance to get his "feet wet"! He is so excited!!! He made his premiere last night and God really helped him through! We celebrated by going to Wing Wednesday for dinner with some of the singles.

Since I'm new to the blogging thing, I have lots of pictures and stories stored up just waiting to be shared. So bare with me as I catch you up on our lives.

The pictures are from a night of Barrios Lawn Appreciation. Although, it was Easter weekend, so we didn't do much lawn appreciating! It was way too cold!!!!

And yes, that is Lindsey Claytor trying to behead my husband with his own sword!!!

my first cup of joe

While we were in Knoxville for Ma-maw's funeral we had one day that was free. So, we all slept in a little bit (because none of us had slept more than 3 hours the night before) and then were going to have a great big breakfast. Just when we started to cook the electricity went out. There were actually some pretty bad storms coming through and apparently it knocked the whole neighborhood out. You know sometimes God makes us stop and be still even when we don't want to!

Well, as all the adults are sitting there drinking our coffee and remembering Ma-maw, the kids start asking for their own cup of coffee. And because what Emily wants, Emily gets...she had her first cup of joe!

Of course I'm not a crazy lady - there was lots of milk and a little bit of sugar in there.

Emily thought she was so "big" because of that coffee. Now every morning she tells me that her milk is her coffee as we are on our way to school! She cracks me up with all the things that come out of her mouth!

So here's some pictures from that morning:

Our Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend. We spent a lot of time with our friends, which is always fun!! We started our weekend with bubbles, Emily's favorite!

Then we went to our friends the Davidson's house. We ate dinner & watched a movie, or shall I say everyone but Emily watched a movie. She was so tired that she didn't want to sit still. So while we watched the movie, she played in Carah's room.

On Saturday, we had to do the normal stuff. We went to the grocery store, cleaned house, played with the dogs, etc., etc. We did do one thing that we don't do on a regular basis - Emily & I went to Toys'r'us!!!! Last weekend, one of our friends was in an opera at Austin Peay and we promised Emily that she could get a swing if she was good. I never thought she would sit still during two hours of an opera. But she LOVED it!!! It was Noah's Ark and she was fascinated with Noah and kept asking where Lindsay, her friend, was!!! It was too cute. So, anyways back to the story. On Saturday, Emily and I went to get her a swing. She already has the play set, just no swing. Well, not anymore!

She loved her swing so much that we couldn't keep her out of it! Even though she couldn't swing, she just wanted to sit in it. I'm suprised she didn't want to sleep with it!!!

We had friends over for dinner both Saturday and Sunday night, so she got lots of attention this weekend! God has definitely blessed our family with lots of loving and supporting friends. And we are truly thankful for all that He has given us!!!