Not Much To Say...

...so I'll just share a few pictures from today!

Because I Have a Hundred Pictures to Post...

This post contains about a hundred pictures...not really...but pretty close!

Lucy couldn't decide if she wanted to be a cowgirl or a ballerina...so she chose both =) My sweet friend, Amy, and I had a plan...a big plan. A plan to take all of our girls to the Riverwalk and take some pictures of them dressed in Matilda Jane. So here are a few of the several hundred that we took between the two of us. You can read about Amy's plan for these pictures here. Amy is my precious friend...she is as precious on the inside as she is on the outside. And her little girl Bes is just adorable...my girls love her like a little sister! Amy found the most perfect quote to describe our friendship...

"Yes'm, old friends is the best, 'less you catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of."

I love it...and I love her!

Getting a picture of the 3 of them was no easy task!

This picture cracks me up...I keep looking at it over and over and just laughing =)

They had fun jumping for pictures...

This one cracks me up too...

Still jumping...

We found this tree that was the perfect spot for taking some cute pictures.

Macy had a violin lesson after our picture taking session. As I was leaving MUW campus (which is where the lesson was), I passed this old building and decided to jump out and take a few more pictures. Besides being one of my favorite colors ever, this building holds lots of memories! It was once a warehouse grocery store. I can remember going to it with my Mom and my grandmothers. We would get underneath the shopping carts (remember the kind that were really tall...the kind that a couple of kids could sit under?) and ride while they shopped. I remember something about store-provided shopping lists and these black waxy crayon / pencil things...funny the little things you remember. Anyway...I did snap a few pictures of the girls in front of the building, which looks pretty much condemned now.

Back at home, Lucy has decided that she wants to be a little helper...which I think is great!

And here is Macy doing her homework...such a studious little girl =)

Then it was project time. Macy has to do a model of a solar system. Here is the start of it...

It has been a great day!

Giving It Up

It is funny the things that God will use to draw you closer to people. This weekend, as crazy as it sounds, He used lots and lots and lots of rain...and a cheap, sleezy motel room! Sounds a bit crazy, huh? The deal was...we were on our church's "Relay For Life" team. A lot of people had poured lots of effort into making it happen Friday night...LOTS of people and LOTS of effort. We couldn't control the storms. And they were big. Because the relay was to last all night long, our team had rented a hotel room closeby just to use for bathroom and shower purposes...after all, it was going to be a long night! So instead of going home to wait out the storms, we decided to all pile up in the motel room...the very nasty hotel room. The only thing that could have possibly made this room more nasty would have been roaches...thankfully we didn't see any!! Some of the guys hung out right outside the room looking for car parts and such...
Macy and Lucy had a blast with their sweet friend, Miss Denise. She was so sweet to entertain them! Here they are giving her bunny ears...

I like this picture...Macy and Lucy just adore Miss Denise!
Oh, and she lets them jump on the bed too =)

Jason's parents came to pick the girls up since we weren't sure just how long of a night we were going to have. Macy and Lucy were going to be spending the night with them anyway, and because they were SO excited about getting to stay with them, we just let that go on as planned. They were super excited...you know, they get BlueBell ice cream when they are with Nana and Gran =) The whole relay was cancelled around 9:00 that night, but it took us until about midnight to get everything cleaned and packed up from our site. And it was pouring down rain the entire time. I haven't been that soaking wet in a loooong time!
But we had a blast!! Everything worked out just as it was supposed to...and the relationships that were made and strengthened over the course of the weekend were worth every drop of rain that we weathered. We ended up spending Saturday all together as well getting things put up...we couldn't ask for a better church family.

And you know, we had to have our Sunday pictures =)

Lots of them...only I needed a little lipstick.

And we have to end on a silly one, of course =)

When I titled my post "Giving It Up" I did not mean that I was giving up my blog...although sometimes I do consider it. Seems like there is just lots of evil out there and people that try to get you down. I have had a finger pointed at me because I openly talk of my faith...this person has questioned my Christianity because they think a truly humble Christian doesn't talk about their faith. As I type these words, it sounds crazier than it did before. By no means would I ever want anyone to think I use this blog as a "pat me on my back" sort of thing. I am just an everyday Christian striving to get through every day. And blogging has allowed me to encourage others and has allowed others to encourage me.

"Giving It Up" is just what was weighing on my mind this morning...as in giving things up to God. Giving it all up to God. We are studying a really good book in our discipleship training entiled "3:16...The Numbers of Hope" by Max Lucado. Last night we talked about giving things over to God and letting go of them. If we give our problems over to Him, but then constantly worry about them and let them consume us, then we are saying we don't think God can handle them and have not truly given them over to Him. I have some things I need to give over to Him. I have some things I want to give over to Him. I have some things that I just want to quit obsessing over and worrying about, and I am sure some of you do too. Isn't it comforting to know that God never sleeps, never gets tired of our whining (although our husbands might!), always is there to listen to us...He actually LOVES to listen to us!! I find great comfort in this verse...

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for You."

1 Peter 5:7

How comforting is that? To know that the God who created me and everything around me cares about all of my silly little "issues." My friend, Sonya, sent me an e-mail one day last week that I was just able to read this morning (the weekend was so crazy!), and it just spoke to me...talk about God's timing! This was from a devotion that she gets by e-mail, so I am quoting what follows from that...

"We may pray that God will handle a problem for us...while never letting it go for Him to handle. We instead take it back and try to handle it on our own. The next time that you ask God to handle something for you, leave it in God's capable hands, and 'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him' (Psalm 37:7) Do not pull it back and try to handle it without Him."

And to close on a funny...here is Lucy all dressed up in her Tinkerbell costume. 6th change of clothes for the day. You know how some days, children can be particularly challenging? Well, yesterday was one of those days for Lucy. And it seems like they always pick church to show off the fact that they are going to be challenging. But how sweet are these pictures of her? You'd never know that underneath that sweet little smile was a little girl who gave her Mama and Daddy some fits today for sure, would you??

Have a great week!