the one and only man of the house...

is back, and not a minute too soon. I called him yesterday afternoon:

me: where are you?

Kyle: on Research

me: come straight to my parents', they have a snake in their house and I need you to kill it!

He got there after a 10 minute stare down I was having with the snake. I didn't want the snake out of my sight...fearful he would slither and hide somewhere, reproduce, and my parents' would return from their month long trip to a snake infested home.

I tried a month ago to kill a snake in my backyard and it got away after one blow that didn't do the trick. So I knew that I SHOULD NOT attempt that in this house. I needed a FOR SURE shot and it was certainly NOT ME.

The snake was cooling off in my parents' dining room...crazy...I thought it was a rope, or an extension cord at first. I digress. Kyle didn't use the shovel I frantically got in hopes I could destroy the snake on my own...he got a hoe and a rake...trapped the snake in the corner with his body and rake, sliced it with the hoe, scooped it up with the rake, and the snake was removed in less than 1 minute. I screamed for special effects...I impressed myself.

Kyle is back in full effect playing with his girls...

making a whirlpool so they can ride the current...

jumping from the rocks...

swimming with our mermaid...

I will carry you...

UPDATE: it's playing on my blog, not good quality, but you can hear it here!!! last song, scroll to bottom of the page, click on 12th song, and just listen :)!!

Angie Smith, author of Bring the Rain, and wife of Todd, one of the three singers of Selah, lost a baby that she carried to term despite the terminal diagnosis. Her husband wrote a beautiful song about Audrey Caroline, their baby, and our precious heavenly Father who carries you and me. It's on Selah's new release...

I Will Carry You

There were photographs I wanted to take,

things I wanted to show you,

sing sweet lullabies,

wipe your teary eyes,

who could love you like this?

People say that I am brave but I'm not,

truth is I'm barely hanging on.

But there's a greater story,

written long before me

because He loves you like this:

I will carry you

while your heart beats here

long beyond the empty cradle

through the coming years.

I will carry you

all my life

I will praise the One who's chosen me

to carry you.

Such a short time,

such a long road,

all this madness but I know,

that the silence has brought me to His voice,

and He says:

I've shown her photographs of time beginning,

walked her through the parted sea,

angel lullabies,

no more teary eyes,

who could love her like this?

I will carry you

while your heart beats here

long beyond the empty cradle

through the coming years.

I will carry you

all your life

I will praise the One whose chosen Me

to carry you.

you can find....

Kameron here...

Erin here...

and Brooke

swinging from the chandelier...

yelling 'order in the court'!

It's 8:45 am...

and all of these people are here...dressed up and ready to marry their prince in the backyard until...

this happened...a bee sting (baking soda and water paste, thanks Rach for looking that up!)...

and not to mention that Kameron has been up since 5 am sick (both ends)...oh yes, and just in case you forgot, Kyle has been gone for 5 days :)

unredeemed

Two posts in one day, woohoo! Selah, my favorite Christian group, released their new CD today!! Here's the link to itunes if you'd like to purchase it, you'll have to type in You Deliver Me into the search bar :) It's AWESOME, and since music speaks to me, just like it speaks to you, I've written out the words to my favorite song off of their new release :)

The cruelest word,

the coldest heart,

the deepest wound,

the end that's dark,

the lonely ache,

the burning tears,

the bitter nights,

the wasted years.

Life breaks and falls apart,

but we know these are:

Places where grace is

soon to be so amazing,

they may be unfulfilled

they may be unrestored

but when anything that's shattered

is laid before the Lord, just watch and see,

it will not be unredeemed.

For every choice

that led to shame,

and all the love

that never came.

For every vow

that someone broke,

and every life

that gave up hope.

We live in the shadow of the fall

but the cross says these are all:

Places where grace is

soon to be so amazing,

they may be unfulfilled

they may be unrestored

but when anything that's shattered

is laid before the Lord, just watch and see

it will not be unredeemed.

He'll wipe away every tear.

We'll never be beyond the unredeemed.

Places where grace is

soon to be so amazing,

they may be unfulfilled

they may be unrestored

but you never know the miracle the Father has in store.

Just watch and see and it will not be,

Just watch and see and and it will not be

unredeemed.

missing daddy...

Kyle left Friday for Arizona and won't be back until this Friday :( It's Tuesday and we're really missing him. So, Erin took some pictures of the house for you, dad, just in case you're missing home.

she thinks before she shoots...

just one of the 50 she took of the tv...

she signs off with a shot of her feet each and every time....

Since you've been gone, Kameron's still trying/pulling up...

Brooke has been doing a little more of this...

and Erin is wearing her wedding dress with handmade flowers for her wedding day...don't worry, she still wants to marry you :)

and I've just been eating these...chocolate covered almonds.

I felt drained and out of gas yesterday, but today, I've been reminding myself of this verse...love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

James...the uncommon sense

Our class just finished studying James. It is such an awesome book and one of our favorites because reading it my sophomore year in college with Kyle marked a change our lives :) Here are just a few truths from the Book of James.

Be doers, not hearers only

Get your heart ready to study God's Word

Faith without works, and works without faith, is no faith at all

Be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath

If you say your saved, why doesn't your life show it?

What comes out of our mouths is a reflection of our hearts

Your tongue has the power to speak death or life

Success: being in the middle of God's will

skip this post, if you unsettle easily...

Brooke. Brooke is three and has been potty trained for almost a full year...but, she's returned to the love of poop. While training, she played with her poop on numerous occasions. One in which, in Kyle's words, looked like a terrorist had attacked her bedroom. Those days seemed far behind us until the last two playgroups. Today it was just on her shirt, her calf, and Becky's house. I'm so sorry Becky. Last week, she was outside, and decided to make a mud pie for her friends...that ended with a cold shower...apparently not cold enough.

Kyle has left for the next 7 days. I'm hoping we don't have anymore episodes.

6 + sleeve = great weekend in Big D

We had a fun weekend in Dallas with our friends from college...it was just like old times, except we're 10 years older and well, we all felt our age...

We stayed with Kelly, my college roommate...we still talk everyday :)

The six of us laughed all night long,

with the help of one guest, the sleeve...

that was passed to my husband...

and showed up at the bowling alley.

a year ago today...

Kameron was in there, for just one more night...

because the next morning we were headed out for her debut, a scheduled induction...

and Kyle patiently waited...

but, not for long...

because, like her sisters, she came really fast...


and was in our arms before noon that morning :)

Happy birthday to our baby Kameron, I just can't believe it's been a year! She is growing so very fast...still crab crawling, loves to be held, has four teeth, eats table food (her favorite is avocado and cheese), still nurses (NEVER took one bottle!), and is sleeping very well! This year has been so good and will be remembered as one of the best as we adjusted to life with three little ones...so blessed and so thankful for all we've been given :)

(in)courage

(in)courage, www.incourage.me, is a new Christian blog, with lots of writers, including Angie Smith, from Bring the Rain. They kick off today and asked readers to write about what encourages them.

People with courage, encourage me.

What is courage and how do you get it? Well, courage is a noun, but really it's an adjective. Courage, to me, is bold, confident, brave, and most importantly trusting. Bold is my husband, Kyle. He's not fearful of confrontation nor adversity. He faces it every day in his profession. Confident are my little girls. The world hasn't beaten them down, told them they don't measure up, or they don't look like the girls in magazines. Brave is what I want to be. I want to raise my girls to be brave, because being brave, means you have courage, and all of the other adjectives including the most important one...trusting. What is trusting?

Faith is trusting God. From my own life, I can tell you what trusting isn't. Two years ago, I was having a full blown love affair with worry, it was my obsession. I was chained to it, in a prison of my own making. I told people that I had a strong faith in God, but I wasn't fooling anyone, particularly Him. I didn't want to worry anymore...it's oppressive, draining, and fruitless. So, I desperately wanted to learn how to really trust God. If I know God is omnipotent and sovereign and therefore in control of everything, including my life, then all the worrying should stop, right? It didn't. And so, one morning in BSF, our Lecturer was telling us how we could learn to trust God. My ears perked up, as she said we need to read God's Word, to understand it, understand it, so we could trust in it. I thought wow, I want to remember that...read, understand, trust...and so, the acronym, which I love to do, became RUT (read, understand, trust). Ahha, to get out of the worry RUT, I will read the Bible, so that I can understand it, understand it, so that I can trust God. And trusting God has set me free.

"...Christ has made us free..." Galatians 5:1

With that freedom, we can (in)courage others by having the courage to be bold in our convictions, confident in our eternity, brave in the battle, and trusting Jesus through it all.

Not Me Monday!

Not Me Monday was created by MckMama. "Not Me" let's you write down some of the things you cannot and would not believe you could or would ever do, but do you did and it's fun to let someone know!
I did not skip Kameron's first birthday party this year because we wanted to save money and she wouldn't remember anyway. Ahh, that sounds so terrible. But, we did, however, have our awesome playgroup help celebrate by watching Kameron eat her first bite of cake, and she loved it. See?



I did not let my children swim in the pool when it was thundering because, well it was thundering not lightening, and the community pools are just overly cautious when they call a thunder safety break...and I know better. But just in case, I googled 'thunder and lightening' on my iphone and it said that lightening causes thunder. Oops.
After I curiously put Erin and Brooke into the dryer Saturday morning to see if they'd fit, I did not shut the door, after their persistent requests, because it's dangerous and I wouldn't want to put any ideas like that into their heads. Nope, not me.

Erin smashed her face up against the glass...

Brooke immediately knew this was not a good idea...

fit?

Curiosity got the best of me this morning while I was folding laundry...

yes...

yes, and

yes!

Playgroup party for...

Kameron! She turns one next week, so we had a party for her today at playgroup. She enjoyed herself and so did the other little ones.

Happy

Birthday

To

You

Happy

Birthday

To

You

Happy

Birthday

Dear Kameron

Happy Birthday to You

addicted??

Kyle teases me because he thinks I'm addicted to blogging. I don't blog everyday, but I do blog surf everyday and I feel like I'm friends with some bloggers that I've never met and most likely never will. Sounds strange, but it isn't to me. :) So, I took a blog addiction test. I'm barely addicted.

57%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

same kind of different as me...

by Ron Hall and Denver Moore...buy it and read it!

Check out the video here :)

Favorite Denver quotes:

"We all has more in common than we think. You stood up with courage and faced me when I was dangerous, and it changed my life. You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had just gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life."

"Just tell em I'm a nobody that's tryin to tell everybody 'bout Somebody that can save anybody."

"The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain't no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless-just workin our way toward home."

"you're outnumbered"...

that's what strangers like to say to Kyle when we're out. It's rare that we don't get a comment with three little ones running around...three girls? three weddings? lots of DRAMA at your house! But, there is one comment that I don't think I'll ever forget. It was from a woman in her 60's at Rico's a couple of months ago. I walked in with all three girls and it went like this (it's censored!):

woman: are they all girls?

me: yes :)

woman: I feel sorry for you and your husband.

me: ha ha...I get that a lot!

woman: we (looking at her husband) were just talking about our two daughters and how they are %#$*@.

me: oh, I'm sorry.

wow, she totally caught me off guard...I had NO idea she was going to blurt that out. Who says that?!!! and to a total stranger with 3 little girls, not to mention that they were listening! Guess she was really having a bad day.

I'm happy to say we haven't had any other remarks like that since and I don't think we will ever again.

After the man said Kyle was outnumbered today, his wife said, "you're triply blessed"...that's how we feel and we wouldn't want it any other way!