Boo!

Livy loves to close the shower curtains now when she takes a bath. I grabbed the camera and surprised her. Got some cute ones.

I couldn't decided which one I like so I posted all of them.

All In The Family

We had family at our house this weekend. I don't know why... but I did not take a single picture. What is up with that?!?! My Momma took quite a few pics and didn't get any from her.?? Oh well. John's parents came Saturday afternoon and then my parents and brother Brian came in time for church Sunday morning. After we went to church together we went to Fred's Fish House and had some yummy-licious, greasy, fried fish. YUM! After we got home my sister Angela came. A few people slept off their greasy fish coma, well a few of us visited. We had a good visit.

John was ordained last night as a deacon in our church. A very special time. I was very emotional! My friend Meredith sang which was a nice surprise. She does a great job. Beautiful voice! Poor John, he was so nervous yesterday afternoon. He didn't say two words to anyone. He kept himself pretty well secluded from everyone else. He studied what he was going say and prayed most of the afternoon. He did a great job answering his questions. God helped him speak from his heart. John is a good man. I so blessed to have him as my husband.

Saturday morning before all the fam came, I had a women's conference at church that morning. It was wonderful (Mere sang again!). The speakers were awesome and brunch was yummy!

Well the laundry awaits. How fun! Have a great day!

More random things...

Is that comfortable?

Hey, kitty. I get in too!
Look at me Momma!

Silly girl. Then her Daddy came in wanting to take a shower. She didn't like the fact that they had to get out.

25 Random Things..

I have friends that have done this on Facebook. It's fun and interesting.

25 Random Facts about me:
1. I'm married to the most WONDERFUL man in the world. God has made him an awesome man!

2. I love being with Livy Grace. She an absolute JOY!

3. I love coffee with good dessert...(note.. I'm trying to cut back on the dessert part...sad, i heart dessert).

4. Goes along with my "note". I'm on my way to losing another 10lbs. (it's all in what you put in your body and how much. and that little thing called exercise. not a favorite thing!)

5. I love to watch Livy play the guitar with her broom. Hilarious!

6. I love family.

7. I love being with friends.

8. I hate doing laundry. With a passion! (but i guess it has to be done)

9. I actually enjoy keeping house. I love a clean house. Feels good. (especially cleaning with any fabreeze product. i heart fabreeze!!!)

10. I love vacation time in the summer with my fam.

11. Scrap booking is fun! Need to get back to that..

12. Love going to Bible study.

13. Love family reunions.

14. John and I are saving and planning for a 10 year anniversary cruise to the Caribbean. 2012!! Yea!

15. I enjoy coloring with Livy.

16. Going on a picnic. Picnicing in the Rockies would be incredible!!

17. My favorite flowers are tulips.

18. I love clean sheets and their smell!

19. If I could I would eat Mexican food everyday. Although my body would have objections...

20. I love to cook! (and I'm trying to lose weight? it's all about what you put in it and how much you make!)

21. Date nights are the best!

22. Love making chocolate chip cookies with Livy.. (okay, that pesky weight thing again..truthfully, we have nothing like that in the house right now. this weekend..well a different story. we are having lots of company this weekend!)

23. Love a good movie.

24. I'm a candle burner. Makes the house homey and smell great!

25. Love to road trip! One of my most favorite road trips during the year is going to craft festivals in the fall. I LOVE IT!!

If you want to do this...DO! I would love read your 25 random facts.

Gearing Up

Good Morning! Oh man... did we have a night last night. We are tired. Livy got up at 2:30 this morning and didn't go back to sleep until 5a.m. Of course, she is getting out of bed and coming out of her room. She just started doing this last week (with the exception of last night...she slept all night. She always had been a good sleeper. Even has in infant). We remedied her coming out of her room. John put one of those child proof doorknobs on the inside of her door so she couldn't come out. However, I don't think that will fix the problem. Really I believe it's a heart issue and we need to TEACH her to stay in her bed and to obedient, not put a "bandaid" on the situation. I think it will have to come off the door. Plus, if she needed to get out and couldn't that would be bad. That's not safe! The kicker is, even after being up for 2 1/2 hours she STILL wakes up at 7a.m. What the heck! She hasn't been taking long naps anymore. She only naps for about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half (she used to take 2 1/2 hour long naps). If she sleeps much more than that I wake her up. Really, I think she is it's because she can open doors now and abusing freedoms. Most kids her age do this. Just being a two year old. I smell a good nap this afternoon. Anyhoo, I know a lot of you moms have been through this so pray for us. Thanks! Okay..now that I have ranted for a bit I can move on. I love that little tooter!

Ornery...
and precious.

Got some great things happening this week. Thurs. night in women's Bible Study we continue our study of Esther. It's a great study and I love the fellowship with the girls. Then Friday Kim invited me to go see a movie with her. I'm excited about. Sat. morning we have a women's conference and brunch at church. It's called "Live Simple" or is it "Simply Live". Don't remember, but it's gonna be good! This momma gets great "time out", the good kind. Then that same day John's parents are coming, and on Sunday my parents are coming in too. Sunday night John is being ordained as a deacon in our church. He's kinda nervous because he's the only one that will "in the hot seat" so to speak. Pray for him this week. John has such a servant heart and will make a good deacon.

I found this in my prayer journal this quote in my prayer journal this morning. I love this..
"The pathway that lies before me my Heavenly Father knows. I'll trust Him to unfold the moments just as He unfolds the rose."

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

Love it!

Valentines Weekend

I had a great weekend with my valentines. Friday morning Liv and I had mommy group. The kids decorated heart cookies. Icing and sprinkles were everywhere, but they had fun and got all sugared up.

Saturday morning John and I made a valentines breakfast pizza. I formed the crust in a heart shape. Gotta love refrigerated biscuits. Then later that night John grilled some steaks. Completely unexpected. Kinda one of those spur of the moments things. Thanks babe. They were yummy! You are a good hubby to feed me steak. Mainly we stayed home that day. We did take Livy to the park for a little bit to play. All in all it was a great valentines day with the two people I love most.

Some pics of the weekend.

A beautiful day for early valentines

First of all, what a beautiful day outside! It was 60+ degrees this morning. Awesome. Liv and I went outside for a while. It has been so great to get outside and enjoy the weather. To tell you the truth I've gotten some serious cabin fever!! I'm glad the weather was nice today. I was a much happier mommy, plus Liv had a great time. She was glad to get to go out and play too! We did some drawing with sidewalk chalk, and blew bubbles.

This was our big valentine for John.

When John got home from work today he came in with flowers for me and Livy! He is such a sweet husband and daddy.

So sweet! I am so in love with the fact that John bought Liv flowers. I hope he makes this a habit every year. I want Livy to see how a man should treat her one day. This makes me love him even more.

Although...she didn't want to hold them. Silly girl.

Little Miss Busy

Livy loves to dance in front of the stove because she can see her reflection through the glass. So funny! She is quite the rambler too. I can understand every other word she says. Also she is into saying "shake it". Of course when we try to get her to say it....oh no, she won't. I love this. Listen.

I wish I had that much energy. She's busy!

Greet The Day

For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Psalm 108:4 NLT

This is the day the Lord has made.We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24 NLT

Livy decided to wrap her kitty Twix in her blankie. Cute.

Congrats Nathan and Adrienne!

Our friend Adrienne had her sweet girl Lucy Caroline last Tuesday. I bet her Daddy Nathan is super duper proud. Adrienne had an emergency c-section after some complications with her low amniotic fluid and Lucy's heart rate. Little Lucy was 4lbs. 4 oz. This is a pic off of Adrienne's blog.

Lucy went to a hospital in Little Rock for precautions. Nate and Adrienne are with her. Lucy is doing so well, which is a praise! God is good! Isn't she precious?!? YES!

Come home soon miss Lucy. We can't wait to meet you! Please keep them in your prayers.

A Quiet House

Well, for the weekend anyway. John and I get to be alone for a few days. Livy went to my Mom and Dad's until Sunday. Mom drove down today and had lunch with us, visited for a while, then her and Livy left. I got some cleaning done this afternoon now I'm relaxing with a good cup of coffee and Anne of Green Gables. This is technically our Valentines weekend together. Tomorrow night John is taking me out to eat and to see a movie. Such a sweet husband. We will go to my parents and get her after church Sunday. We look forward to our weekend together.

Livy will have a great time with Nana and Papa.

Birthday Girls

Yesterday was my Grandma Spencer's birthday and today is my sister's b-day. Happy birthday ladies!

Babes and Bows

As I got Livy ready for church last night and I put one of her homemade bows in her hair.

She is too cute!

Her hair is getting long enough I can put it in a ponytail now.

My sweet baby is growing up. God has sure blessed us with a precious little girl.

Memories

During the ice storm we stayed with our friends the Long's. We made some good memories the three days we were there. Also thanks to the Koehn's and Chamberlins who let us take showers at their houses. We are so blessed to have friends that have become our family.

The force of ice is amazing! Ah memories!

Good Ol' Betty

I get Betty Crocker emails quite a bit and there was lots of yummy soup recipes this go around. I am really gonna try to make 1 new soup a week. These are my favs.

Slow cooker northern wild rice soup
Slow cooker potato and double corn chowder
Slow cooker Italian chicken-lentil soup
Southwest cheese soup
Cheesy Chicken Enchilada soup

Yummy!

Back to Normal

Well as normal as it can get I guess. Boy am I glad! I loved waking up knowing that we have a warm home and electric. There is so much to be thankful for today.

First of all there are so many people w/o power still. The electric company said it could be a few more weeks for some people. In Bruno it could be until March 1st. I can't imagine. I got this pic off of my friend Adrienne's blog. This picture is of her sister Meredith's street. I hope to post some pics of my own soon.

Amazing isn't it!

Second, I'm thankful for our emergency fund. I'm so thankful that we had $$ set aside. That's what it is there for and it was a TRUE emergency! Even though a "budget" has been challenging and a discipline for me and John, it has been so good for us. As I was checking my email I recieved one of my email devotionals this morning and it was so encouraging. This gal has an amazing story.Check it out. Mary Beth Whalen's blog

Third, last night we went to a Super Bowl party for our Sunday school class. Actually, we had some guests. The Red Cross workers that have a shelter set up in the children's and youth buildings came to watch too. We had good group and watched a good game. Sad the Cardinals lost though. There for about 2 min I thought they would win. The last two minutes the Steelers came back to win it. Darn! Oh well..that's the only time I watch football during the year anyway.

Well I gotta get me and my sweet girls some grub.