And They Lived Happily Ever After...

Once upon a time, a little girl dreamed of marrying a handsome prince,
becoming a mommy, and making a home for her family.

The little girl grew up and one day, at her church, she met her prince.
Not long after, she fell in love with him and the prince in her dreams
now had a face.

In the fall of that year, her prince married her and swept her away
to his kingdom.

The prince and princess were blessed by children and their kingdom
grew and increased and every year found them more and more
happy.

All too soon, they realized their children were growing up and
becoming princes and princesses and forming their own kingdoms.

They also realized that even though their children were growing
older they weren't.  They seemed to get younger each year
on their anniversary.

The prince and princess have become a king and a queen and
are surrounded by their loving heirs and hoping for grandchildren
to join their kingdom one day.

The king and his queen have been mightily blessed by their
Lord and King.  And the queen realizes more and more
each day what a blessing her King and her king are to her.

Happy Anniversary, Lynn.  Let's live happily ever after.
I love you.

Firstborns

I'm so glad most of my children don't read my blog.  It would
probably embarrass them although that's not my intent.
Remember, family, this is a lazy mom's way to journal and
scrapbook :).  I post on the girl's birthdays but I figure
that grown male children would rather me not do that.
However, as I was cleaning and thinking last week it
occured to me that I did post a tribute about Lance
the day before he and Lucy got married.  That means
that Bryan has never officially had his own personal post
on my blog.  I'll leave the cute baby and growing up
pictures for the post I do the day before he gets married
and just put up big boy pictures  today (sorry, Bryan).

Call me predjudiced, but I don't think any
other children could have a better oldest
brother than my kids do.  He has proven
to be what oldest brothers and first-borns
were designed by God to be.  A born
leader he sets a Godly example for the rest
of the family.  The other kids greatly value
his opinion and proven good judgement.

Loves the outdoors and all things manly.
And.......my all-time favorite picture of him
doing what he does best.........

Serving and praising the Lord and
leading others in worship.
Thanks, Bryan, for blessing your mother's
heart and life.  You and all your siblings
are truly a gift from God.

Oops--rewind to August

Because this is primarily to record life--and because I have found this is a lazy way
to keep pictures :)--I need to rewind our life back to August and put in pictures of
the birthday boy.  Lynn's birthday was the 29th but with about a dozen schedules
all running together we celebrated on Sunday the 28th.  It's getting harder and
harder to get everyone together but it's really nice when we pull it off.

The birthday boy in his man cave with all his
dutiful children surrounding him in adoration :).
Or...maybe they're giving him a hard time
about getting older.

I've noticed we're starting to segregate--
this is the chick's table

The rooster's table

I don't want to advertise his age but if you want to do the math--in 40 years
he will be 98.  Happy 98 Lynn, 40 years early!!

Party in a Box!!

A good friend of mine calls Ashley a "Party in a Box" so when a PIAB has a party
it's a lot of fun.  A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Ashley's 26th birthday all.
day. long.  It started at lunch, continued into the afternoon with a chick flick, moved
to Gary and Carol's and continued and ended there.  I hope it was a good day for
her.  Happy birthday, beautiful Ashley.

Her favorite colors

Tubing fun on a deserted lake--there was no one out there

At the watering hole

a 21 layer chocolate cake

Awww....

Cuties at sunset

Happy Birthday, Ashley!!

Ummmm...

I spotted these cupcakes here yesterday and they looked like something my family would appreciate.


Bakerella's Cookies and Cream cupcakes are much better
constructed looking than mine but I still managed to copy
hers well enough to pull it off.  You begin by breaking oreos
into cupcake liners so you know you've got a winner here.



Oreos swimming in a delicious batter ready to be cooked.
And....tah-dah!!!

The finished product waiting to be tested, which it was.
Family-tested and family-approved.  An easy way to
win a best-mom award :).

Absolutely Amazing Ashley--25--NW Arkansas

This post is going to be linked to Kelly's Korner "Show Us Your Singles."
It is about our 2nd born child of 5--Ashley.  From these pictures you can
see her beauty but not the real Ashley so I'll fill you in on her!!


She is more beautiful inside than out--and that says a lot in itself.
She loves her family but more importantly she loves the Lord and
is committed to waiting on Him to bring the perfect man for her life.



Ashley is 25 and is the store manager for Christopher & Banks in the
Northwest Arkansas Mall.  Her employees love and praise her and
appreciate her generous, considerate manner. She studied interior design
in Dallas and completed her design studies at home.  She is a gifted
designer and loves to help ladies make their home special.

Ashley was part of a core group that went from our church to begin
a new church a few miles south in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  She has a
heart that loves to serve the Lord and is excited about this new area
of ministry.  She hopes to be able to use her talents in the area of music.

Ashley loves life and loves living it.  People are attracted to her genuine
smile but grow to love her for her sincere, genuine heart.  She is one of
the most sincere persons I know and has had a heart like that from the
time she was young.  She relates well to people of all ages from the very
young to the older ones. 
If you are a young man seeking a Godly woman look at and pray about this one.
If you know a Godly man--point him this way.  We love this girl and pray that
she will someday be the woman who completes a Godly man's life.

Well...Hello Summer!!

Welcome back, Summer.  In February when we measured
snow in feet and each day brought the question,
"Will today's temperatures break the record
lows for this date," you were just a memory.
But here you are again and we're glad you're here.

Of course that means the return of the family's
outside activities like volleyball--you know
that game where family love flees and
family competition comes to stay. And,
oh yes, where no one is safe from being
slammed to the ground in the name of
winning--not even the mom!

And one of the best evidences of summer--
the return of homemade ice cream. :)

When the red light is blinking...I am recording

Recording is really what this post is about.
I didn't want May to become too distant a
memory without recording what happened
in it.  So this will be pictures of Anna's bday,
Hope's ballet, "Eternal Light", and Anna's
Knight's banquet.  Warning: full of pictures.

Always a Lady Knight

Family bowling

Gorgeous costumes

All dressed up and ready to receive her awards

Too dark but there stands the Lady Knights--
2011 National Champions

Anna received the Christian character award

A lap-full of medals

Celebrating Anna

Today's blog is devoted entirely to Amazing Anna.
Today she turns 17 and it is hard to believe she has
become the beautiful young lady she is  in so
short a time.   I love this picture because it is just 
pure sweetness. 

This is Anna with Hope when Hope was a baby.
But Anna as a baby---well---she was tiny--all
4lb 15oz of her.

The same day Anna joined our family so did Cat-Cat.  Lance
bought him for Anna that day and he has been a
constant companion to Anna ever since.
A well-traveled feline, he has been to Texas
several times, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona,
and Florida.  He has traveled in backpacks on
planes and carseats in SUVs.  He was also
featured in just about every picture Anna had
made for a few years.

Another favorite was Rocky.  He became Anna's
dog when she was four months old and even though
he's been gone for 7 years he remains in the family
hall of fame.  He was devoted to Anna and even
killed a snake that was in her path when she was little.

Anna at 2.  She's on the playset at White Buffalo
which is our favorite get-away spot.  We've been
there 25 times in Anna's lifetime.

At White Buffalo again.

Becoming a beautiful lady.  This was last year the
day before her Sweet Sixteen.

This year just after the Lady Knights won their
National Championship game.  Anna is blessed
with the sweetest teammates and most Godly coaches.
Knights' Basketball has been such a blessing
in her life.  She is anxious for practice to begin
in August.

Happy Birthday, Anna.  You are a blessing
to our family and we wouldn't have been complete
without you.  You bring a huge sense of humor and
wit to our times together.  You are our star athlete.
Your love for the Lord and your desire to please
Him inspires us as we live for Him.  We're
so thankful the Lord sent you to us.  Thank you
for being the person you are.  We love you.

And The Forecast is......

On Thursday afternoon we had a huge thunderstorm that produced
marble to golf ball sized hail.  We had our first indication it was coming
when chunks of ice began falling from the sky.  No rain, no thunder--
nothing but hail.  We could hear a roar that sounded like the classic
freight train that people talk about in tornadoes.  No tornado but  it
was the sound of the coming hail.  We escaped the broken windshields
that some people experienced; however Bryan's truck has dings.

As of today the area has had 10 inches of rain since Saturday.
We have probably had another 2-3 inches today with more forecast
for tonight.  This shows the ditch that runs under the bridge
leading to the golf course.  The water is just under it.

Tomorrow should just be cloudy but more bad
weather is expected tomorrow night and Wednesday.
Bad weather for golfing :). 
Photo credits go to Anna and Hope who made the trek
down to the bridge under umbrellas.