Sassy hair bows!

I recently was browsing the etsy.com site and saw some adorable hair bows. As always I try to think about whether I could make some of my own so I started searching online for a video or blog on how to make these cute hair bows! Turns out, they are SUPER easy to make!!

Here is a video that I used to learn how:


Here I have some of the ribbon on the wooden dowels:

Here are 3 of my finished bows:


I looked all over town for some alligator clips to put these bows on but couldn't find any. I resorted to ordering wholesale from eBay so now I'm just waiting for my clips to arrive so I can hot glue the bow onto the clip! I'm so excited about these and my daughter kept saying how cute they were! LOVE IT! These would make great birthday/Christmas gifts too!

Completing Him Challenge!!

I recently discovered a new blogger that I just LOVE! Her name is Courtney and she seems like an amazing christian woman and she has youtube videos that she posts about being a christian wife and they are so encouraging and motivating! Anyways, check out her blog: Women Living Well, you'll be glad you did!

So as I was browsing around her blog I saw the Completing Him Challenge and knew I wanted to jump on the bandwagon! I've recently started a book study with a group of friends using the book Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl and along with that I've been posting the daily dares from the book, The Love Dare (seen in the movie Fireproof) on my Facebook page. So this weekly challenge totally goes with what I've been working on. My passion and heart is for women's ministry, particularly involving being christian wives and mothers so I can never get enough of this stuff!

Mind you, this challenge is running from June 7th-Aug. 9th so I'm a little late in the game but you know, it's never too late to start working on being a better wife to your husband! So late or not, I'm jumping in! :) Week one says to post that I'm joining in the challenge so here I am! Here is a vido of Courtney explaining about the challenge:


I really hope some of you feel led to join in as well!!

PRAISING GOD!!!!

My stepson, Taylor was baptized this past week while he was away at church camp!! I just feel like shouting it from the rooftops! We have a complicated relationship to put it nicely. I do get glimmers of hope and I can see that God is fully working in the situation but as always, once things start getting good Satan jumps right in and does stuff to mess things up again. He's 13 now and as he's becoming a young man I can see that he's starting to see truth in things rather than the lies he's been constantly fed since I entered the picture almost 11 years ago. He is still blinded in a lot of ways but that's to be expected until he gets a few years older or even until he moves out on his own, away from the constant influence he gets where he's at. I just cherish the moments, however few and far between they are, that I get with him that are genuinely good and free from all the cruddola. I constantly pray for him because it has got to be so tough being in his position and bouncing from house to house and being put in situations that he's put in. I look forward to the day that God fully opens his eyes and when Taylor is free to love us the way he really wants to without shame or feeling like he's letting the other family down. I am just so beyond excited that he heard God calling him to step out and be baptized! I know that God is working in his heart and that just moves me to tears and makes me want to jump up and down and cheer!!! I still hold strong that God is going to mend my broken relationship with Taylor but even if He doesn't, I know that I'll be seeing Taylor in heaven where things are uncomplicated and perfect and there we will be free to have a perfect relationship without Satan's influence!! That in itself brings me peace!! So today I want to thank God for the work He is doing in Taylor's life and in our relationship! Thank you ABBA!

FOOD FIGHT!!!

Some friends of ours have a food fight every summer and this is the first year we were able to make it out there and let me just say what a blast it was! We started out having a bbq at the house and then walked down to the lower field where they have their garden area. All the food is tilled into the ground to help fertilize so it's not a complete waste!
The kids running to the field, chanting, "FOOD FIGHT, FOOD FIGHT":


The food fight barely started and Keegan got plastered with butterscotch pudding! LOL


My friend Dea got Tatym with red jello! She didn't think it was too funny! LOL


Keegan had a blast and was picking food out of his ears the next morning! :)


Checking out her messy dress:


Showing me the mess LOL:


After the food fight the kids jumped into the pond to rinse off!


It was so much fun! Maybe next year I'll put the camera down and join in...maybe! LOL

Forgotten pictures...

Back in May I took the kids puddle jumping and forgot that I took some pictures on my cellphone so thought I'd share! It was so fun and I'm glad I have these pictures to look back on!!





This picture was taken on one of our Girls Night Outs! The sky was so stormy looking and later on it was almost black out and it just POURED down! Luckily by then we were in the movie theater so we just heard it! :)

Lots of summer FUN!!

I can't believe it's already July 8th but thank goodness we're finally getting some awesome weather here on the coast! The kids and I have been having lots of fun (daddy too, when he's not working) going to the lakes, going fruit/veggie picking, birthday parties, fun projects around the house, Wildlife Safari, 4th of July festivities, etc. It's been a great summer so far!!
Here are some pics from our activities so far! An afternoon at the lake having a picnic and hanging out with friends:
Tatym stealing snacks from our friends and sitting on her throne! LOL

Gotta love throwing sand in the air and managing to get it on your head! :)

The 5 small specks around the grass on the left hand side of the sand dune is my friend Dea with her 3 oldest kiddos and my son, Keegan! Those crazy kids thought it would be fun to climb the dune all the way to the top and run down! It was fun but a LOT of work!



Keegan floating on the lake! Heavenly!!

HOME:


Fun on the 4th of July at the park:

Keegan caught a fish at the fishing derby booth (thank you to the local fire department!!):

ENDLESS performing at the park (they are one of our worship teams at church)--Ray & Christina and Bryan:

Tatym loved the sheep!

Gotta love smores in the backyard!



Wildlife Safari!!
We stopped for a picnic and to get the wigglies out!


My hubby & I have agreed that I have like a million pictures of various animals from Wildlife Safari, the Game Park, fairs, etc. that I don't need to take anymore pictures...but I couldn't help it! However, I did manage to only take 2 pictures of this giraffe and 2 pictures of the elephants and that was it for this trip! LOL



Then it was off to pick cherries (we got peas too but no pics of that):

Tatym would climb up in her stroller, grab cherries out of the box, climb back down and then go put them in another ladies bucket! I think the lady was paying her! LOL

I see a monkey in the tree!!

All the kids and the goods! They were such awesome helpers and I think everyone had a stomachache by the end of the day from eating too many cherries!


Well, that's just a few days of our fun, I'll post more, later!