Wordless Wednesday...

Sunset at the lake....

Worship...

Today we had a great sermon at church and it really spoke to me--on many levels.
I'm just going to share a few of my notes from today's sermon.  If you want to hear the sermon, you can go to http://www.riverlandhills.org/sermons.asp later this week and listen.

So here we go....

Worship is that thing in your life that is the most important thing.  It tells everything about you!!

What do you worship?  Your job?  A hobby?  God?  Self?  Jet ski?  What is it?  Are you sure?  Ask your kids, they will tell you what is number one in your life.

Where should our focus be?  On the One True God.  We have such a short time with our children and they will learn so much from us--most of what they learn will be from our actions and NOT from our words!!!

God is always there but when we take time to focus on God and God alone, He pays special attention.

What is the take away?
Here you go...5 things....
How to worship God before our kids
1.  Believe that God loves them more than and better than we do!
2.  Tell your kids that they belong to God and tell God they are His--OFTEN!
3.  Do not dream dreams for your kids that do not square with God's heart for them.
4.  Challenge your children to invest their lives for Christ.
5.  Put God first, when you feel like and by faith when you don't!

So what do you worship?  What have I been worshipping?  Are our priorities in the right place?  Don't let the urgent (day to day things) take the place of the important!!  Are we working toward the most important day in our lives and that of our children?

Conversations with Landon....

Well last night was a big night for Landon--no more nursery at church.  Yep he's on to bigger and better things...well maybe....

Here is how the conversation went when I picked him up....
Me:  Hey Landon!!  How was your night?
Landon:  I in Mission Friends.
Me:  Yep.  How about choir?  How was that? (Choir had been earlier in the evening.)
Landon:  Those girls tell me I sit in dat chair.
Me:  Well sometimes we have to sit in the chair and listen to our teacher.  You are a big boy now so you can't run wild all the time.  What else?
Landon:  I not sing.  I want dance.
Me:  Really?
Landon:  Those girls tell me to pat wike dis.  ( He shows me how.)  I not want pat.
Me:  Well I bet you will have a better time next week!

Later on the way home.....
Landon:  The moon is my faborit.
Me:  It is.  Why is the moon your favorite?
Landon:  It's white like my head.

Later still with Daddy:
Daddy:  Landon how was choir?
Landon:  Those girls tell me not to sing.
That was the end of the conversation.  Those girls are his teachers.  I can only guess that he was singing what he wanted to sing at the Loud Landon volume he is so well known for around here.
Praying for all of our choir and missions leaders.  From what I hear, it was a LONG night (and they were only with them for 1/2 of the scheduled time).  Also praying for Landon's choir teachers especially.  I'm thinking that they might really need it with him.  He's sweet and good but he's head strong.  Thankfully for Casey, she gets all the teachers first.

Happy 3rd Birthday Landon!!!

I just cannot believe how fast time is flying by.....

It seems like just yesterday, I was holding this little baby but he's 14 now.

How did we go from this day.....

To this day so quickly?????

Slow down just a little bit time.  You are going by to fast for this mommy!!

Happy Birthday Landon!!!

We are so happy that God blessed our family with you!!!

Long time no post....

Well we are going to try and change that today.

I had placed the blog on invitation only reading but so many people that do read the blog could not get one--they weren't missing much though since I let it slide over the summer......

So what have we been up to this summer???

Well 2 days after we got home from that great beach trip, I broke my right ankle!!  That was no fun.  I mean really having to be in that hot cast in the summer was not such a great plan!!  The rest of the summer has been spent playing "don't hurt my ankle."  Again another thing we do not recommend.

Landon, true to his nature...fell and broke a tooth!!!  One more reason we call him Helmet Boy!!

Shelby met a huge milestone this summer when she went to camp for a week!!  She cried when Steve put her on the van but she had such an amazing time--we knew she would!!  She is already planning to go back next year!!  She also had a great time a music camp.

We enjoyed spending the 4th of July with the Rooneys!  It was a blast!!  Every year we have some sort of back yard games to do with the kids.  This year one of them involved eating a donut that was tied to a string and held over your head.  This was made all the better b/c they had frosting and sprinkles on them!!!  Sorry I squirted you with the hose, Jen!!

We went on a mission trip to Greenville in August for Drew's birthday again this year.  Once again it was great!  I'll post some pictures when I get some!!  I don't think I will even have any of Drew b/c I don't think anyone on his team had a camera!  I will say that for about a week before we left on the trip I didn't want to go.  Then on the day we left, if it could go wrong it did.  I almost didn't go when Landon really hurt his leg that morning!  But guess what--God blessed me so very much on that trip.  There were things on this heart that He used someone on that trip to speak directly to me and I am oh so thankful for the chat that we had!!

So now we are 7 weeks (I think) into our new school year and finally getting settled into a routine--I think.  So if you are still checking in, I will try to do better about keeping you up to date!!

Camping at the beach

We had a great time camping in Myrtle Beach with our friends.  Lots of kids, lots of stuff and tons of fun!!!

There was tons to do at the camp ground.  There was a HUGE water slide called the HIPPO SLIDE.  

We all had fun on this slide.  Well Casey took one look at it and said NO WAY.  Landon went down it one time and said NEVER AGAIN!

Drew and Shelby loved it and went down it what seemed like 100s of times!

.

Every day, all the kids (well not Drew, Casey and Landon) went to kids club for 2 hours.  They were supposed to be some type of spy on a mission.  They all seemed to have a great time. While they were at camp, we tried to keep everyone else busy.  

One morning while we were riding on the paddle boats, we saw some of the cutest little ducks.....During these mornings, we went for walks and paddle boating, and mini golf.

We also swam in the pool and played on the beach!!  We also enjoyed using the paddle boats, riding bikes and playing putt putt.

We floated right next to these baby ducks but only for a minute.  The mommy and daddy let us know that we were to close and needed to move.  Ducks make a lot of noise if you bother them.  They will also splash you with water!!

After the big kids got done with camp each day it was time to hit the pool and the beach.  

We loved getting to see our friends, Ms Mary and Mr. Lynn, who live at the beach.  We had dinner with them on Wednesday night and then Ms Mary came and went to the beach with us on Thursday.

Landon loved just digging in the sand and Casey loved filling buckets with water.  On Friday, Steve built/dug a huge bunker for the kids to play in.  That thing kept Landon busy for almost 2 hours!!

Shelby had a great time learning to wide waves.  She got pretty good at it!!  Drew, Steve and I also had fun doing this.  I was reminded that salt water and contacts just don't mesh!!  Go figure!!

Another favorite activity was to play water wars.  This is a great water balloon game.  Drew made a friend named Faith on afternoon and I think they played water wars for about an hour one day.  Casey and Landon also loved water wars but they needed help each time.  

The evenings were spent just playing on the playground, hanging out and sometimes swimming in the pool or riding bikes.  

We also played LOTS of putt putt!!!  Landon cracked us up playing putt putt.  Every time someone putted and missed he ran onto the green and put his ball 2 inches from the hole while saying "I show you!  I show you!"

Did I mention that it was hot?!!!  Well it was hot!!   Check out 2 of my guys....they look cool don't they????


Now we are back to the real world with work and VBS and broken bones.  Just for the record, breaking your ankle 2 days after vacation is better than doing it 2 days before but still not recommended!!

Before....

and 

after...

Just ignore the sucker stick!!!