Birthday Girl...and other random things.

Our little Hailey is two!She's sunshine and joy,our little singer.She had fun on her birthday.I did a party for her too and she loved it.

I thought the butterfly cake looked so girly and fun.The bright colors just looked exciting.It was fun to decorate and much more fun to see this pleased look! All this birthday fun in the last two weeks has had these little ones excited!Now they have to wait another WHOLE year for another birthday ;)

Cakes...

cupcakes...

balloons...

cousins....

friends...

gifts...made this party fun for our little Hailey.She adds a touch of specialness to our family.

And now,on to random things :D

This morning Braxton got ahold of my shaver...and shaved (or rather skinned) the end of his nose.Hopefully it doesn't stimulate any hair growth there.LOL :D I have always loved to kiss the end of their noses and would hate to kiss a patch of hair! :D c(:  Nevermind,I'm not really worried I thought it was kind of funny.I put a lightning mcqueen band-aid on it and it looks comical!I wanted to take a picture and his reply was an emphatic "no!" But,being the wonderful mother I am,I bribed him into letting me snap one with my phone :D Now I need to get one with the camera ;) One day he will love me for keeping these memories for him :D

Wednesday we did something different....Joel had an overnight to do for work,so Tuesday he came up with this plan that me and the kiddos head to Abbeville on Wednesday to my aunt's place,go swimming and just hang out there for the day and then Wednesday evening he'd come meet us there and spend the night with us.I totally DESPISE having him gone overnight so this sounded like a wonderful plan to me!Wednesday forenoon we headed down there and had a good time.Braxton was excited about seeing Kyle again and they loved floating around in their little "boats" (as they call the floats.)

I thought this picture was funny.I caught Braxton right in the middle of falling.Funny how you can just "freeze" a moment :)

They had so much fun watering Naomi's flowers :)

Later in the evening Jen got out her horse and gave the kiddos rides.Braxton wasn't to sure about it but Hailey loved it.

Yesterday our S.S. lesson was based on these verses:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and greatest commandment.And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Do I give God everything I have?Do I put all my energy into serving Him?
Sadly I think if I'm honest,I could say I have not!
Do I love my neighbor as myself?
No,again honestly speaking I don't think I have.
So often I think I look at these verses and don't take them seriously enough! Way to often I've failed in both of these commandments!
Yesterday I was once again convicted to live a life fully dedicated to God!When I am fully dedicated to God I believe everything will follow in order.
I love our God.He's an awesome God and my desire is to give him full Glory!
The whole church service was encouraging! We had baby dedication and it always gives me a refreshed feeling,and git to go on and put everything we've got into the children we're raising.Raising them to glorify our Saviour and never giving up!
I hope everyone has a great week! :)

No,they're not fighting.Hailey was just not willingly receiving Braxton's brotherly love ;) I love these babies!

Camping...

Awesome fun to us! We love camping and we were looking forward to our camping trip for weeks before we ever went :) Yep,that's us.Doesn't take much to make us happy and excited. Retta did a great job picking out campsites for us and we just had an all around fun time.

This was the little spot we called "home" for two nights.We got a new tent to take this year.We outgrew our free 4 man tent that my uncle so generously gave us.It fit us well for the time we had it! Thanks so much Omar!

Anyway,back to camping...It's just so much fun to make your food over the fire,be by the water ALL DAY long,listen to the children laughing and squealing in delight,sitting by the fire,hangin out with friends,eating roasted marshmellows,hearing all the night critters,sleeping in a tent under the stars...*happy sigh* There's just so much to love about camping.Some of my friends strongly disagree with me on this but that's ok :) We all give each other a hard time but we still love each other and agree to disagree! That's real friendship when you can do that ;)

These sweet people were our neighbors for the weekend.Alyssa doesn't care so much for camping but she did a great job ,and I think if she admits it she at least likes it a tiny bit.Right Lyssa? ;) Anyway,they have a gigantic tent,a mansion of tents.It's nice,has lots of room! One morning when they were still snoozing in their mansion I snuck over,got their stroller and took Hailey for a ride.Then I came back and snuck over again and got their skillet to make our breakfast in.Ok,not really snuck, but they never did find out till they woke up of course.LOL ;) Yep,that's what friends are for,to help each other in times of need :) Our little gas burner gave out and didn't work and we didn't feel like starting up the fire so we were kind in need :D I should mention tho' that after I was done with the skillet I shared our breakfast with them, just so you know I wasn't  totally taking advantage ;) (is that better now mom? ;) You can check out Alyssa's blog at 4iamjustanotherblogger.blogspot.com.She's funny and adds humor to her blog.

Joel was super excited about making breakfast.Honestly,the first morning basically all I did was set the table and get the things we needed to eat on our pancakes,like syrup,butter and whatever else.He did all the cooking and it was yummy...Especially the break I got from cooking!

The children had so much fun! Gene and Elaine's daughter had a birthday that Saturday so we celebrated her and Braxton that weekend.

Blowing out their candles

We wanted a picture of all the little boys...they ended up in a group hug...that was ok,it was cute! :) Ornery little guys!

I think the picture of Hailey has got to be one of my favorites from the weekend.Lickin the icing off the top,dirty as dirt (check out her fingernails :D ) she is in her glory! Livin' it up.

Braxton was so excited about the water guns Joel bought for him to take along and share with his friends.A few days or the day before we left to go camping,we were walking around in some stores and Braxton said to few random people he saw... "I got guns!" So as a mom I considered it my duty to quickly, with a smile on my face,explain that he has water guns to take along camping!!!! :D

 Doesn't he look like a genuine cowboy here,party hat and all!? LOL

Brooklyn and Hailey were so taken by baby Alli.

Alli was such a trooper and oh,so squishable! I love this little dolly!

I asked Joel why we don't just camp out and live that way!? So cheap and fun! NOBODY seemed to agree with me on that one!hmmm,wonder why?
After I got home I wasn't even agreeing with myself anymore! It felt so good to be clean and have a clean house to come to!Camping is fun for a weekend but then it's fun getting home into your own bed again and sleeping oh,so good!!

Joel built this cornhole game.I was quite proud of him!And it served us well that weekend.

These friends came to visit one evening.They decided to decline the invite to go camping this year.Beth is due to have her baby in a few weeks so it really would have been a little much for her! We were happy to have them come for an evening tho :)

So long friends.This is our camping story :)

It's party time....

Our little boy turned 3! Hard to believe! And even harder to believe that I have a kid going to sunday school !? That thought makes me feel old (er) :D But I guess I rest in the thought that they start attending S.S. at a very young age here,so,that takes care of that :D

The Birthday Boy all ready for his party - playing with one of the gifts he already got from one of  his favorite neighbors.John and Barbara couldn't make it because John got sick so they brought Braxton  HUGE bag of gifts.I must say,he is spoiled!

We had family over and then some neighbors and a few friends.Jonas and Rosie are kind of like second grandparents to the children and Ernie and Jan are definitley a second set of Uncle and Aunt.Almost a second set of parents! :) The children A-D-O-R-E them!Miss Pat and Dillian are neighbors and Dillian is one of Braxton's much loved friends.Seems like some days Brax can ask a million times "can Dillian come to my yard?"

Braxton has wanted a horse cake for months.He finally got his horse cake.It's such a cute cake,fun to do and fairly simple to decorate.He loved it!

And like he told Grandpa Lantz "I blowed out my candles." ;)

I made some cupcakes to go along with the cake.Rosie had the cutest cupcake holder she wanted me to use for the parties.It just adds something to a table. The cupcakes were supposed to be red (not pink :D ),yellow and brown.

Pizza was on the menu.By the time I was done making them I had pizza running out of my ears :) I made to much but I'm enjoying that now because I have them in the freezer for handy grabbin!

Hailey with our much loved Ernie and Jan

Brax had so much fun opening all his gifts.I believe it was probably a bit overwhelming for him but extremely fun.

Rosie checkin' out his new bow and arrow with him.He has played and played with that already.It was cool because all the gifts were totally down his line! bubbles and balls and bow and arrow and pjs etc.etc.

This lion blows out literally hundreds of bubbles.They have had so much fun with that too already!I just loves Hailey's looks when she gets these bubbles.

Funny glasses from aunt Rach :)

Rachel they have loved those watering cans too!They did make a huge mess with them but we won't go into detail ;) They have also watered flowers so that's great :D

Note to Grandma Mast : He loves those pjs you sent,but they are a size to big so I stuck them away for this winter. They will be perfectly fine :)

We had a fun evening but the fun isn't over yet :) I know that sometime there's going to be a birthday box from Texas :) (that makes me excited too) ...and... next week this little girl -

will be 2! Hard to imagine how time flew so fast.

God has blessed us beyond measure with these two! And they are at the age that I ADORE.Sure,it's tougher in some areas right now than it was but I wouldn't trade it.So far God has given us grace to get through all the training we've done already and we're not anywhere close to done -but life's a dance! ;)

When I was getting ready for the party,or after it was done,I can't remember,I told Joel that this is what I love about being  parent! Being able to do fun stuff for them and interacting with them.It comes much easier for me than trying to quiet a crying baby and feeding and bathing a tiny baby.Sure I loved it when they were there but I love this even better! :)

Now I'd best scoot along and get all my work done.Today we are leaving to go camping for the weekend and we are super excited! We love camping.But...there's LOTS of things I need to get together before I can enjoy the weekend so I'm outta here!Good day to all.

Thought I'd leave you with pictures of me with the 3 greatest blessings in my life.I love these people.And since we weren't all on one picture I had to do it in two.

If you ever think you're not blessed,please don't forget those you love and who love you.Everyone has at least 1 person that loves them!

I may be redneck...

...but I don't really care :)
We had this beautiful P.Graham Dunn picture that I love for our living room.It's been hanging there for 2 years now :) Anyway,it's beautiful like I said but one thing ALWAYS bugged me when I looked at it...
The verse that is printed on the picture blended in so well with the background color you almost couldn't read it without getting up close.
So I took the matter into my own hands (with my husbands approval to try ;) )

From this....

....to this :)

I don't know,I think I like it better.All it took was a permanent marker (Joel warned me NOT to do it while the children were awake! ;) Now I guess I'll see if it passes his approval.If not maybe P.Graham Dunn will see us back!

Then again,they may see us back even if it does pass approval :) Rachel,you might want to leave a day open to go when we come up in June :)