Friday, June 29, 2012

A Baby Shower for Lisa AND Hank!

Our church is constantly filled with pregnant ladies :) It's fun to watch their bellies grow and the pregnancy glow shine all over their faces. The next baby due to be born is Hank. Our small group hosted a baby shower for our sweet friend Lisa and her soon-to-be-baby boy. The shower's leader, Shannon, designed a vintage, tractor themed shower. The setting took place in Lisa's father's beautiful barn. We had many homemade foods and desserts present and just enjoyed watching Lisa open all of her BLUE/BOY gifts. Lisa has two beautiful daughters and is excited to welcome a little testosterone into her home. For some reason, I think she is a little overwhelmed with the thoughts of being a mommy to a little boy, but she's done such an amazing job with her girls, she truly has NOTHING to worry about. BOYS hold the key to their mommy's heart.

Lisa's dad parked a real tractor outside of the barn.
The table settings included brown napkins, tied with string, and faux silverware. The table cloths were burlap and/or blue gingham fabric.
Each table centerpiece included a vintage styled tractor.

Total pinterest material, right here.

A mason jar and a hydrangia flower also accompanied the vintage tractor in the center of each table. These flowers actually came from Erin's garden. I love how we use things we already have to lower the cost of the shower. It was the perfect touch really!
The gift table was a picnic table with gingham fabric.
Jody had a ton of vintage-like toys and antiques to help decorate the shower.
The shower favor was a handmade fan. The guests used these during the shower to cool off.
Lisa is a blogger like me, so she came to her shower with ONE thing in hand... her camera. Ready to capture this special occasion.
Lisa opens gifts. She received a ton of diapers and wipes, some adorable baby boy outfits, a personalized baby bracelet, and....
A bucket of boy things.... sticks, string, a hammer, a lightening bug jar etc. Very clever idea.
I think the guests really enjoyed their time.

I know they, for sure, went home stuffed. Check out Tabby. I captured Tabby using her fan. LOL!

We are praying for the Fernandez family as they prepare to welcome a new addition to their home. God's grace has provided Lisa with a healthy pregnancy. We look forward to meeting Hank very soon!!!!!!! We love you Lisa.

Baby "Food"

Our small group put together a vintage, tractor themed, baby shower for our dear friend Lisa Fernandez. I was responsible for bringing two desserts and a fruit platter. I wanted to give the fruit platter a little more pizazz, so I tried making a baby watermelon basket. I thought, considering I am not artistic, it turned out pretty cute.

Take a peak at the baby "food" fruit platter.
First, I carved out all of the watermelon and shaped the empty watermelon to replicate a baby craddle.

I loved the tiny detail of the blue passie ~ representing baby "Hank".

This "newborn" didn't make a peep during the entire baby shower :)
I rotated marshmallows and fruit around the baby platter. This was much more fun to make than the average fruit bowl. The guests got a kick out of it too.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Vacation Bible School - Day 5 - Water Night

VBS week was a huge success. I know God was glorified in all that our Church body did to teach our children and the kids in our community the gospel. It's amazing how receptive the children are and how well they absorb the information.

Thanks to Kaitlyn, I have some photos captured of water night. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the special water night because Lilah had to go to urgent care. I did get to enjoy the final VBS mascot challenge. Wait to you see the footage (I'll upload it soon), it's hysterical.

One of our church members is the chief, I think, of the fire department or EMS team. He is always so kind to bring the fire truck and use the hose to enjoy some sprinkler fun.
"The Golden Boy" gets ready to go into the dunk tank.
Up he goes.
Just like my man.... always smiling.
Tyson was the first one to try and get him into the water.
Then Jax.

It was bound to happen... he got WET!


"Blaze"'s turn.
And Ezekiel took a turn too!!!
Ms. Jill gave Ty the Ezekiel wig to keep. He was thrilled. He even tried to wear it to church on Sunday, per the suggestion of Ms. Jill.

Friday, June 22, 2012

"The Golden Boy" VS. "Blaze" in the TOUGH MAN Competition

"The Golden Boy" and "Blaze" competed in a real competition last night. Who could do the most sit ups in one minute, star jumps in one minute, and push ups in one minute. According to "The Golden Boy's" counter, he did 76 sit ups, 78 star jumps, and 76 push ups. "Blaze's" counters said 20 was a generous quantity per exercise for him. It was a humorous and exhausting competition to watch :)

Sit Ups

"Star Jumps"

Push Ups

Vacation Bible School - Day 4

Ahhhhh! I only captured 3 photos last night, at Vacation Bible School, due to a different assignment I had. Embarassingly, I have been driving around with "Ezekiel" and 4 skeletons each night as they tour Salem in costume. We've been to the Duck Pond, Chick-Fil-A, Salem Fitness, Cost Cutters Hair Salon, Starbucks, and the mascots even painted the pig. It was a rough on me because I was the only one not in costume. Anyway, here are the three photos. LOL! AND, be on the look out for video footage of Mascot Challenge #4. I like to call it the TOUGH MAN COMPETITION! And as expected, "THE GOLDEN BOY" won this one. Give my man a REAL challenge and well... you can see from the video footage, on the next post, what happened. :) The mascots are now tied, 2 to 2 for the challenge (even though I saw "Blaze" spit out all of his worms into a napkin at the end of the challenge ;( Somehow Blaze is still up by 94 points I think. Tonight ought to be very interesting!!!! Again, our HOPE is that what's penetrating these children's heart is everything that they have been learning all week about our need for Jesus Christ.
Pastor Eddie got in costume and was displaying his amazing dance moves on stage with all of the skeletons.
Coby tries out Ezekiel's wig.

"The Golden Boy" watches "Blaze's" entrance.

Pool Pals!

Our small group, thanks to Erin, has a "summer fun time" calendar that was devised so we can make sure to get together at least 2-4 days a week. It's been nice having this extra time to spend together just simply doing life! It's so easy being around friends who discipline their children similarly with one goal in mind. I have yet to snap A photo of any summer event, so I was sure to bring my camera to the pool since our family hosted this pool day! Ansley was unable to attend and I failed to capture Cohen, Mason, and Vivian. So sorry!!!

Julia was having a blast.
Hmmmm, is that "Mrs. Ashely" jumping in the water? BIG KID.
Tyson jumps in after her. He was thrilled because usually the mommies sit out.
Kate loves older boys! Tyson's gentle spirit came out with her and he gave her some one on one attention.
Jax discovered he can jump in the pool.
"DITTO".... Go figure!!!! It's a twin thing.
Caleb thinking about his next step.
The littlest sun bather! Precious Presely.

The day was warm and sunny! The kids seemed to be a ton of smiles. We had 11 children total. We were fortunate only have one drown attempt. It's so nerve racking trying to keep your eyes on that many YOUNG children and maintain a conversation with a grown-up, but we managed.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Happy Father's Day DAD!!!!

Ahhh, what can I say!!! I truly believe my children have the best father anyone could ask for. He's down right HAPPY to be a dad. I knew when I married you honey you would be a good dad, but I truly had no idea you'd be THIS GOOD!!!!

Unfortunately, we were traveling back from Myrtle Beach on Father's Day so we were unable to really celebrate. I still owe Darren a nice home-cooked meal, but we did take daddy to breakfast and treated him with love and kindness all day plus showered him with some nice gifts. Take a peak because some of the gifts may be things you just might be interested in :)

First up, funny cards. I guess one could gather, from the cards, that Darren is a typical man. PS. I love the Dollar Tree. You get 2 cards for $1.00. I thought these were funny, but if you prefer sentimental/mooshy cards, they have those too. Lilah gave one of those to her daddy!


Next up, a special book created for Darren by Tyson an myself. I caught wind of an amazing coupon code that "Paper Cotiere" was offering, for father's day, and I couldn't resist. This personalized photo book titled, "All About My Dad" was originally $39.00 plus shipping and Paper Cotiere" was offering it for 60% off. The grand total of this book was only $16.00. Excellente!!!!
It was so much fun putting this book together. It forced me to go through 3 years worth of picasa photo albums and allowed me to revisit many wonderful memories that we've had as a family.... oddly enough some that I had forgotten. It is a 32 page photo book that is accompanied by questions or"fill in the blank" areas for Tyson to fill in. Darren was so appreciative of this book. After Tyson presented it to him, Darren came and found me and gave me a hug and thanked me too. I think it really meant a lot to him. Ty did a really good job filling it in. Here are a few of my favorite pages.




Next up, "YOnanas". I saw this item in a magazine, but was unsure of where it was sold. I also didn't know if it was legit or not. I then ran into "yonanas" randomly at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. After reading all of the reviews (yes, I am a review reader), I was convinced to buy it. What is this? Basically, it is a soft serve "ice cream" machine, BUT.... as we all know Darren is Mr. Health Concious and wouldn't dare eat ice cream, so WHY did I get this for him? The soft serve "ice cream" is made strictly from NATURAL ingredients, such as a single frozen banana. Pop a single, frozen banana into this machine and waaaalaaaa.... you get frozen banana yogurt. Darren has tried it with just bananas and then with bananas and strawberries (frozen). He said, "It's delicious. Tastes just like ice cream, but the clean up involved is not entirely worth doing this that often." I have yet to try the "yonana" machine, but I am anxiously awaiting to try the recipe called "pecan pie". The ingredients are completely healthy (frozen banana, frozen dates, and pecans). I'll let you know how it turns out once I make it. For more details check out this link for "yonanas"
Finally, a iHOME Ipad Alarm Clock/Docking System - This makes Darren's night stand look modernized. AND It's a convenient/safe way to keep his ipad charged and "put away". It has all kinds of cool features. Of course it's not on my side of the bed, so I can't enjoy them :( Haha. It's probably better that way. I would be up all night playing on the ipad.
"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!" ~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836