Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Jesus Said,

"Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” ~Matthew 19:14
Three weeks ago, Tyson came to me and said, "Mom!  I want to try and turn away from sin.  I know I will not be perfect, but I want to do the best I can to be obedient." What sweet music to my ears and to all of those who have been planting seeds in Tyson's life. 

Our faith is that God can do anything he desires, even if it means produce salvation in children, but  we  our church is never quick to baptize our children, instead, we dedicate them.  Which basically is a commitment between the Lord and the parents, as well as a church body, to raise our children as best as we possibly can in a godly home, until our children are able to make a decision to accept Christ into their lives on their own.

Tyson is ridiculously clued in theologically with his head.  We just have to make sure that it is transferred to his heart.  Since his comment (above), his sermon notes have increased 10x fold.  Ty used to write just the sermon points that Pastor Nick places on the screen, but now, Tyson writes very detailed notes and good notes, in my opinion, for his age.
We give ALL GLORY to God for any work that is taking place in Tyson's heart.  We will continue to fulfill our duty as godly parents, to encourage him to be obedient and to strive for righteousness through Jesus Christ.  We know that prayer for salvation is powerful and will be answered according to the Father's will.  

Tyson, we are so thankful for your desire to listen to Pastor Nick, engage in conversations about the sermon, and yes, while not perfect, attempting to turn away from sin. We are proud of you and look forward to watching you grown closer and closer to Jesus as you learn and understand the gospel more and more.

MY Kitchen Helper!

I LOVE THIS KID!  He'd much rather help me in the kitchen, ANY DAY, over watching television or partaking in video games.  He's going to be an amazing husband.  I will be so tough on whoever desires to marry him.  LOL!  I'm serious.

NO MORE CANDY!

It's hard to tell, but the trash bag was empty and our collection filled up the trash can half way!
We've decided, enough is enough!  NO MORE CANDY.  The rule can only go so far because the schools gives it out, our church gives it out, Halloween, Easter, Valentine's Day and of course grandparents give it out.  BUT, in our home, we will NOT have any candy available to eat!  It has ZERO nutritional value (despite what my sister's husband's shredding diet allows.... kookie diet :), not to mention, it makes the kids hyper and provides POOR dental results.  I am so happy to get rid of it ALL, but I hate to see it go waisted.  OH WELL!


So.... if you buy my children candy and they do not eat it before they arrive home... it will go in the trash :(  SORRY!  

Jax's Spiderman Room is FINALLY COMPLETE.

It's hard to believe after almost a year and a half, I finally have ONE of my children's bedrooms complete.  I am so particular.  I know exactly what I like, but sometimes finding all of the pieces to the puzzle, just don't come together as quickly as I would like.  Jax has been out of a crib for well over 1.5 years and finally, at age 4, his room is complete.  

I gave Jax a few options themes, for his room, that I knew currently interested him and he chose the Spiderman theme.  It was no surprise to me because what boy, BIG or small, doesn't love Super Heros?  

Being the 3rd child and 2nd boy of the family, Jax receives MANY hand me downs. It was also no surprise that Jax would be inheriting Ty's bedroom furniture. This was by no means a punishment because Tyson's bedroom furniture is only 2 years old.  Tyson is ready for a pre-teen room which required new furniture that can take him through his teenage years.  Basically, more mature furniture.

So allow me to introduce the 1st, but certainly NOT the last, FINISHED bedroom in our home.  
 A view taken from the bedroom door.
 I love all of the reds, blues, and patterns.
The headboard wall is navy, the rest of the room is a powdery blue.
Can you spot the build-a-bear dressed up like spiderman?
 The bedding came from Pottery Barn Kids.
The letters came from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child.
A shot taken from the right side of the bedroom.
 Scattered throughout the room are all of his super hero friends.
 The newest addition is the spiderman lamp from the Harris family.
 A "spidey" man night light.
 A spiderman trash can from grandad and grandee.
And even though Jax is a "big boy", mommy had to keep a few baby mementos.
A friendly reminder that, "Jesus Loves [Him]".
 All of his marvel masks are hung above his closet doors.
The only downfall is when he wants to wear them.  LOL!
I've started buying duplicates to eliminate the problem.
 This is my favorite accent (well one of them). A wall decal.
It makes the room look like Spiderman just entered.
I have a few little additions that I am considering adding.  
One addition may be a painted spider web.
A friend, Scott, from from our church, is excellent at doing this task.
This is my second favorite accent piece.
It's a really fun lamp from Pottery Barn Kids.
It offers two lighting options: a lamp or a small lantern light.
These curtains were Tyson's.  They are a little faded.
I'm contemplating replacing them with a red/navy striped shade.
 Behind his bedroom door resides a ton of "dress up" clothes.
Woody from The Toy Story!
A Police Man.
Of course all of the super hero costumes as well.

I've been searching for a biblical quote to add to his room 
That can relate to the theme of his room, but I am not having a ton of luck.  
I do enjoy the quote below and if I cannot come up with anything else... 
This quote will be made into a decal and added below the spiderman decal.

"Sometimes being a brother, is even better than being a super hero."

I'm mostly thrilled that Jax's room was finished first  because he's always the one who takes the back seat, being the 3rd child.  Oddly, he's the most appreciative.  :) Lilah and Tyson's rooms are 2/3 of the way done.  I think Darren and I are leaning towards redoing our bedroom for our wedding Anniversary in June.  We will be married for 12 years, but together for 20 years.  So hard to believe.

****Update: I GOT THE QUOTE - YEA!!!!!***** It looks so good.

Monday, April 29, 2013

A LASTING Birthday Present!

The Harris kids and the Bolling kids cannot get enough of each other.  The other day, we left a play date with the Harris family, and one of my kids said, "I wish they were our family!"  Ashely is very sweet and carefree when it comes to her kids playing in the dirt or simply being kids.  I, on the other hand, am not.  Everywhere we go, I have wipes and hand sanitizer.  I guess they enjoyed her style of mothering. LOL!  Btw, Ashely, Tyson is begging to come help with the chickens again on Tuesday.  

ANYWAY.... I ALWAYS GET SO SIDE TRACKED....

Check out this lasting gift that Ashely gave to JAX for his birthday, from Cohen.
Ashely never misses a trick.  Jax had been begging to have a sleep over and I told him when he turns 4 he can have one.  I guess I told Ashely this and low and behold, she didn't forget.  
Well, April 19th has already passed.  So that leaves just two dates left.  What's good for you Cohen Ashely?

Our Family "Selfie".... SORT OF.

It's no secret!  We are "THE" color coordinating family at West Salem Baptist Church and many other places we attend.  I love to do it!  Darren loves to do it!  It's easier on the eyes when we take photos and even easier to spot our children when we are out and about or on vacation.  AND... I hate to say it, but I have even noticed that we may be slowly starting a trend at WSBC.  Come on now... you know who you are.  You're starting off slow and when we mention it to you, you come up with a lame excuse like, "Oh, that was a total accident."  Yea right!!!!  Just admit it.  You like the way it looks.  LOL!!!!!

I'll tell you what is a TOTAL accident... "Candnee" aka Grandnee, somehow is always color coordinated with our family.  It has happened EVERY SUNDAY for at least 4 weeks now.  Last week it was purple, this week it was blue.  I promise, I am NOT calling the mother-in-law to tell her what the color of the week is.  Haha.  

Anyway, I loved our BLUES on Sunday, so we took a family "selfie".  What is a selfie?  A selfie is a picture, taken of the person, taking the picture.  LOL!  Sounds a little complicated, but it's not.  We didn't really do that, we just used the self timer on my camera.  
Don't be a hater.  Join in on the colorful fun!  We don't plan this out the night before. I pick ONE person's outfit the morning of and everyone else's outfit has to flow!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

ZACH HARRIS, #64, FANS COME TO WATCH

Last night, our family joined the Harris and Maggi family for a night, of FUN, at the Motor Mile Speedway.  NO, we are NOT turning into a VIRGINIA rednecks.  We just wanted to support our friend Zach who races. I thought experiencing this is a MUST to remain friends with Ashely :)  BIG D sponsored Zach this year and we feel a little more invested in his winnings, hehe.  Once we got there, we truly were excited to be there.  Sadly, we sat in the drizzling rain for two hours and the races NEVER got started.  They were actually cancelled because the track was too wet.  We hope to go back SOON though.  Either way, it was a pure joy being with our family in Christ. Here are a few photos I took while we sat in the rain.
 We followed #64's wife, my BFF, to the Motor Mile Speedway.
 I'm not sure I really fit in there.  LOL! Ashely said, "You are getting the stares."
 #64 comes to greet us.  GO ZACH!!!
 Lilah does what she enjoys BEST.... playing "Mom".  
 Caleb went along with it.
 Zach won his first-ever POLE!  Way to GO!!!
 The boys sporting their headphones noise blockers.
 Daddy and Lilah walk BACK to the WET park.  Check out her pants.
I had to capture this.  Cohen LOVES chicken tenders and honey mustard.
This is what he ate while waiting on his daddy to race.  LOL!!!!

Baseball OPENING Game Day! - 2013

It's that time of year again!!!  Baseball season.  Ty has returned to "Team Storm". His head Coach is his daddy, Darren.  Assistant Coaches are Nick Shaffer and Scott Wolk. This past Saturday, he had opening game day!  Here are a few pictures I took of my "boys" and his team during the first game. Storm won their first game... barely, but they won!!! Go STORM!
 My lil baseball player!
 Coach D!
 Pastor Nick  Coach Nick with Ty!
 Tyson plays the role of "pitcher" this year.
 Gabe Shaffer plays short stop.
 Riley!  One of the youngsters up to bat.
The cutest, little STORM helper ~Jax. 
He was sporting last year's uniform (borrowed from "bro-bro")

Have You Ever.....?

This is the kind of funny and clean stuff my husband entertains our family with!!!!
The Funniest Lyrics in the Song 
Have you ever had someone wake you up, just to ask you if you’re awake? 
Has somebody ever waved to the person behind you, but you waved back anyway? 
Have you ever searched days for your lost shades and then found them on your forehead? Have you ever slept all night on the top of your arm and felt for sure they’d have to amputate it? 
Have you ever not heard what someone said so you asked'em to repeat it again? But then The second time you understood it even less so you just smiled and nodded your head?  Have you ever been about to sneeze, then you freeze, it’s a tease and you look like you have an awful disease? 
Have you ever had your face grazed by your own hair but you thought it was a spider and you got super scared. 
Have you ever? Have you everrrrrr? Have you ever? Have you everrrrrr?

Friday, April 26, 2013

I'm Watching YOU Too!!!


Recently, I stumbled across a feature that blogger offers, has always offered actually, and never really played around with it.  Blogger provides each blogger with the statistics of who views their blogs and how often aka "audience", where the searches originate from aka "traffic sources", the keywords being searched in order to locate my blog on line, the most popular/most viewed posts aka "posts" AND the amount of visitors your blog receives daily.  I can see exactly where YOU view my blog from too (pinterest, facebook, other people's blogs, your google account etc).

It's been a real eye opener.  It's been a blessing having access to all of the above information.  I had plain view of  disturbing keyword searches that some sickos WERE using to view my children in their underwear.  I got my FBI agent, brother, on that one.  Since then, ALL photos relating to that nature have been removed. Pictures once innocently posted, sadly, left me with no choice but to delete them because people took advantage of using it for their gain. This has led me to be entirely more discerning when posting any photos of my children. This is a SAD world who preys on the innocent (children and elderly).  

I am also excited to see that my dear friends and family members are actually visiting our family blog and staying up to date with what's going on in our lives.  I am beyond surprised at how many "strangers" and extended family members visit our blog as well.  Our blog receives over 100 views a day!   By the way, we LOVE to receive comments!  So don't always withdraw from our blog, deposit a little something along the way too.  :)

SO.... You may be watching us, but NOW we are watching you too!!!  Don't feel violated.  Know that I love seeing when you visit and read our blog.  This is a great form of protection for our family.  Being a public blog has it's definite PLUSES, but exposing yourself and your family to EVERYONE has it's definite minuses too.  I'm glad I have access to YOU viewing my blog :)

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Family Resemblance

AMEN!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Cat In The Hat "ROLL UPS" - More Party Favors

Love, love, love to send children home with an abundance of goodies from our birthday boy and girl.  I just love blessing others.  I've decided to make several posts on the goodies that were sent home. I've already noted the personalized water bottles, "Clark" the fish, and the next party favor is Cat in the Hat "ROLL UPS". 
Crayon "Roll Ups" - I purchased several of these for prizes.

 Very colorful and fun!!!  
Great for car ride coloring or restaurant fun!
Every little boy received a match box car "roll up".
 Jax takes his to every restaurant we enter.

I like to give unique/different/memorable party favors.  Every time our party guest pulls their roll up out, I am sure they will reminisce on our sweet duos party!