Mother's Day in Albuquerque

My favorite picture of us :) 

What a blessing to be celebrating my second official Mother's Day this year!  

This little sweetie and her Daddy made me cry with their sweet cards they gave me, but being with them all day was really the best gift!  

We made plans for this trip, a few months ago, so that we could all be together to celebrate Mother's Day with Trav's Mom and her kids.  We all flew in to his Sister and Brother in Law's house and had a really fun, long weekend together.

Texie and her grandkids

Travis, his Mom and two sisters

The "Mom" shot 

Katy and Shaye

Troy, Shaye, Dominic and Addie

Troy and I decided we needed a picture together, as the "in-laws" in the family

We attempted several pictures, but never quite got a good one of the three of us.  

These days, as long as Ava's not screaming, I'm ok with it!  

She was in her own little mood during our photo shoot!  

This was the best cousin shot we could come up too!  Oh well, they're all cute and at least we had them all together!

After a wonderful brunch, we headed to Old Town to do some shopping and walk around.

It was hot out, but such a nice day to be outside.

 

We found this adorable little courtyard with lots of plants and chili peppers everywhere.

 

Ava had a good time walking all over and drinking her juice!  

I love this little girl :) 

We love aunt Katy!

 

We also celebrated Ava's birthday, one more time, with everybody!
 

There were no shortage of arms for Ava to go to at any point on our trip!
 

But her very favorite thing, was being outside in the backyard and playing in this water table!

Hard at work...Don't you just love the stringy wind-blown hair she's sporting here??  I swear we do bathe her!

 

Trav played lots of football with Dom, Addie and Troy and we also brought our new favorite wii game, Just Dance, which was hilarious for all of us!  Everyone played and we had a ball doing it!  It was a great couple of days in New Mexico and we are so thankful we had the chance to spend some time together!  

Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Here are some pictures from our impromptu trip to Texas last week for Trav's Grandma's funeral.  Although we were there on a sad occasion, it was WONDERFUL to see so many family that we love!

Trav's Mom and Ava's Texie

Ava and I were very proud of Trav after the service.  He did a beautiful job and helped us all remember the things we loved about his Grandma and the promise that we will see her again one day in Heaven.

Most of us!  It's not easy to get 9 kids happy at the same time, so we tried for a group shot, but didn't quite make it with everyone :) 

Paw Paw and his grandkids...all boys on this side of the family!

Some of his great-grandkids

Ava was surrounded by so many of her cousins, who were ready to scoop her up at a moment's notice!  

This is sweet little Chloe, who was the flowergirl at our wedding when she was 3.  Now she's 10 and so grown up!!  I couldn't believe it when I saw her :) She LOVED Ava and was my little helper while we were there.  

Thankfully, most of us got to stay at the same hotel and we all went back to the pool to play afterwards.  Ava was a maniac in the pool!  She LOVED it and was just as wild as her big cousins!  

It was hilarious :) 

Nana and Ava

Melissa and I decided to watch instead of swim...We got to chat instead.

Where do you eat on Cinco de Mayo in Texas??  

Mexican of course!!

The 3 amigos :) 

Ava and I with the two Melissas!  Melissa from Virginia and Melissa from Texas.  

It was a great couple of days for us to spend together.  We don't get to see each other very often because we are scattered all over the place, but it was very fun to catch up again and let our kids play and get to know each other better.  Thank goodness for blogs and facebook, where we can swap stories and photos, but being together in "real life" is always better!  It was a quick trip, but one we were thankful to make.  In 4 days we had BBQ brisket 3 times and Mexican once, plus gallons of tea with crushed iced, the best thing about visiting every restaurant around!!  Now that's my kind of Texas trip!!

Sizzlin in the Southwest!

We are almost done with our impromptu/planned adventures in the southwest!  This past week has been an absolute crazy one.  We have been in both Texas and New Mexico this week, with a stop in Minnesota in between.  If ever I've had to learn to be flexible, this week was it.  We are still visiting with some of Trav's family and having a wonderful time.   It is hot, hot, hot here and we are glad to be missing the wet and cold weather back home!  Ava has been an incredible trooper, but I think she will be very ready to be back in her own bed and her normal routine soon. We have drug this girl all over the southwestern united states, in 5 airports in 7 days.  I think we may NEVER fly again after this is over!!  Although she hasn't been terrible yet, she is constantly busy and we are stressed from the moment we get to the airport until the moment we arrive somewhere new.  I have a whole new appreciation for every parent who flies the "not so friendly" skies with their kids.  It's not easy people!!  I HATE the whole experience in fact :) However, we have made some fun memories and caught up with so many of our loved ones this week, so it's been worth it, but next time I think we need to gather in Minnesota!! 

I will have to wait and post all of our pictures when we are home tomorrow night in our own house on my own computer.  We took a trip to Santa Fe today and I took lots of fun pictures there, plus we have lots of new ones with Ava's cousins, aunts, uncles and other assorted people!  One thing about Trav's family that I've grown to love are all the names for the "grandparents" on this side.  I grew up calling my grandparents "Grandma and Grandpa" but he grew up calling his Granny, Pa, Mee Maw and Paw Paw.  Now Ava has the same list, along with a Nana, Papa, Texie, Grandpa Ron and Grandma Pam!  And that's all on Trav's side!  It's exhausting just figuring out who you're talking to-HA HA!!  But, we love them all and are blessed to have so many people who love us (and Ava) right back. 

We've got one more night of hot weather and we are going to enjoy it!  Ava is a little backyard rat and she wants to be outside in the grass all day and night!  It's been so fun to watch her toddle all over the place with her cousins, laughing and giggling!  I can't wait to show you the pictures. 

Hope you've had a wonderful week!  If I survive the last leg of our airport tour, I will get some pictures up as soon as I can!  Happy Monday!!

We Have a Winner!!!

Sorry it's taken me a couple of days to get this up, but I did pick a winner!!  Well, actually http://www.random.org/ picked a winner :) According to their random number generator, #12 was the lucky winner!!  That means that Rebecca is the winner of a new journal and sharpie pen set!


Rebecca said...

I found your blog about 1 and 1/2 years ago through Kelly's Korner and have been following you since, I love reading your blog!
May 5, 2010 11:08 AM

Please leave me a comment with your email address Rebecca, so that I can get your info!  I can't wait to go pick a fun one out for you!!  Thanks for playing along everyone, it was fun to read how you found me and how long we've been "blog friends!"   I am very thankful for all of your sweet and encouraging words...It's been a pleasure to "meet you" too :)

600th Post and a Giveaway!!!

It's almost too crazy for me to imagine, but when I signed in to blogger tonight, I realized that this short, little post I was planning was actually a pretty big milestone!  Somehow, this is my 600th post!!  Can you believe that???  As it turns out, I have turned this little "hobby" into a regular part of my life (well, some weeks it's  more regular than others!).  And for some reason, lots of people I do and do not know, continue to read my random thoughts and updates...all 600 of them??  That seems so wild to me, considering I started this blog because we thought it would be a good way to keep our long distance families up to date, with pictures and descriptions of what our life is like.  Now, I keep lots of people up to date and this blog has really become like a family scrapbook for us.  My DREAM is to have this blog printed and bound each year, so that we will always have it to remember these years and all that the Lord has done and taught us.  So much of our life has been chronicled here, for better or for worse, and I'm so thankful I was brave enough to sit down one night and figure out exactly what a blog was and how it works!  Occasionally I will go back in my own archives and read what I wrote for the last few years.  Is that weird??  I do it because it's so fascinating to me to see just how God answered so many of our prayers or how He used different things in our lives to paint the picture we see today.  Maybe that's why I love journaling so much...I love the gratitude that pours out from a little self reflection.  It's so easy to think God has forgotten me or that He isn't working in my life...But when I see how He uses the good days and the bad days and somehow makes them all work together, I know that He is always working and always faithful to complete what He started in me. 

Soooo, thanks for all the sweet comments and encouragement so many of you have taken the time to leave me for these last few years.  I've been blessed by them at least 600 times!  It amazes me to think of some of the sweet relationships I've made with lots of you, people I've never actually met in "real life" but through our blogs and the thoughts and cries of our hearts, I feel like I've known you for years!  I love how God has used blogging to do that in my life. 

In light of that and because this is my 600th post, I don't think I should let this post just pass me by, I think I should celebrate with a little giveaway!!  Why not, right??  Because I just ranted and raved about how much I love to journal and because it's such a wonderful part of my personal walk with the Lord, I would love to give you...

A beautiful journal

From my favorite store Archiver's

Along with a set of my absolute favorite pens...The Sharpie Pens. 

If you've read this blog for very long, you know that I have an obsession with sharpies and I am IN LOVE with the Sharpie Pens.  They are basically all that I write with!  I especially love to use my sharpie pens in my journals...they just make all of my thoughts and prayers look so much prettier on the page!!  Ha Ha :)

So, I would love to send you these things that are a regular part of my life and my time with the Lord most days.  I use my journal to record my thoughts and insights about what God is teaching me through His word, what's happening in my life and what I'm struggling with.  I pour lots of myself into my journals and it's been a wonderful way for me to develop my prayer life in a more authentic way.  If you are the winner of this giveaway, and if you DON'T have a Bible, please let me know that so I can send one along too.  It would be my pleasure to send one to you.  Journaling is such a wonderful way to strengthen your relationship (or  begin one) with God.  It's an easy way to have a conversation with Him and to see Him working through you.  I know you're going to love it!!

Sooooo, are you wondering how you can win this giveaway??  I'll make it very easy for you.  Just leave me a comment with your name and email address and tell me how you found my blog and how long you've been reading.  Just because I think it will be fun for me to read that!!  If you've been along since the beginning or if this is the first time you've found me, let me know.  I always get a kick out of seeing the people I know and don't know yet, who end up here! 

Now, in other news, we are still in Texas and today was a hard/sweet day.  Travis did the funeral service for his Grandma and he did a wonderful job.  I was very proud of him.  It's a privilege that he's been able to do this twice, for both a Grandpa and a Grandma.  I was thinking about that today and realizing that what a special honor he has, that not many people get, to do something so hard and so sweet for the people who have loved and help raise him.  It's always emotionally draining and we both felt the immediate release of all that pent up stress.  Now we are able to just relax and enjoy some much needed time with our family.  I've been taking lots of pictures but I forgot to bring my usb cord with me, so all you get tonight is one picture I took with my cell phone!

Miss Ava is making her Texas-born and raised Daddy proud this week, eating some barbeque brisket like it's going out of style!!  She is having a blast with 8 of her little cousins following her every move and passing her round and round.  We did run into a little snag today, when after the funeral and while driving around so she would fall asleep, she instead decided to throw up all over her cute dress and her freshly washed car seat.  You can imagine the fun we were having, while standing in the Texas heat, cleaning up vomit and trying not to repeat the occasion ourselves.  It was almost more than this pregnant woman could take.  She seemed to be fine immediately after and hasn't missed a beat tonight, but I can now smell the traces of vomit every time we get in the car.  Perfect. 

When we get home, I will share our pictures and announce the winner of the giveaway!!  You have until Friday to enter so tell your friends and play along!!  Can't wait to see who you all are!! 

Just Because...

...I think she's cute.

Maybe it's the toothy grin...

...or her adorable little profile.

Maybe it's her wild personality...

...or her "must be busy always" attitude.

Maybe it's her charming little way...

...or just her mere presence.

Whatever "it" is, one thing is for certain.  

She's got this Momma wrapped around her finger.  

Just because.  

Upside Down

That's one way to describe our lives for the past 3 weeks.  Completely upside down.  We have had a non-stop schedule that is showing no signs of letting up.  Sometimes life is just like that.  Our life anyway.  It seems we have seasons that are just really intense and right now, we're in the middle of one.  Thus, my very random blogging!  My family has needed my undivided attention lately, and of course they come first, but I thought I'd take a minute to fill you in.

We got a call on Saturday morning that Trav's Mee Maw had gone to be with Jesus in the night.  Although we are very sad to say good-bye to her now, we are confident that she is in Heaven today, out of pain and enjoying the place her Savior prepared for her.  She was only diagnosed with cancer 3 or 4 weeks ago (I can't remember now) but she took a turn for the worse last weekend.  We knew this was coming, but nothing ever makes you totally ready to let someone go.  This past week was full of pain for her, so it is a blessing that she has now received a full healing!  Bonnie was a dear woman in our family.  Very energetic and full of life...She faithfully stood by and cared for her sweet husband for many years, all the while loving her kids and her grandkids well.  I am quite certain she was greeted by the Lord on Saturday with the promised words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."  She lived well and loved well.  There is no greater gift she could have given her family than for us to know of her love for her Savior and to rest in the confidence that she is with Him today and we will see her again one day!  There is great hope in her death and we are choosing to put our trust and hope in the one who is faithful to do what He promises.

In light of the tragic death we walked through 2 weeks ago, with the Mom of our sweet junior high student, we have had the reality of eternity ever before us.  2 funerals in 2 weeks just does that to you.  In that situation, we did not have the certainty or the hope we have this time.  As a Mom, nothing was impressed on me more during that funeral, than for my husband, my kids, my family and my friends to be certain of my relationship with the Lord.  When it's my time to leave this earth and be with Him, I want them to be able to rejoice with me and rest in the knowledge that I put my trust in Christ as my Savior and I am exactly where the Bible says I am...with Him!  I don't want them to have to worry about my eternity in the midst of their pain.  It doesn't mean there is no grief in death, grief is a good and natural process of healing and it's very necessary.  But it does mean that we grieve with HOPE!  Unlike any other religion on earth, Christ is the only one who guarantees a future with Him.  We don't have to worry if we're good enough; we're not.  We don't have to hope we did enough; we can't.  And we don't have to imagine a "reward"; it's called Heaven.  Jesus is the reason we can stand before God, pardoned from the judgement our sin deserves.  His death is the perfect substitute for our sin.  And His word spells out the inheritance He has for us that will never rot, fade or be taken away.  When we put our faith in Him, as the one and only God, who died to take our sins away and reconcile us with him, we recognize that His resurrection conquered sin and death forever.  It fulfilled the prophecies long foretold and gave us the HOPE of eternal life with Him!

Helping Trav prep for yet another funeral, has re-awakened my gratitude and my hope in the salvation Christ offered me.  I believe Him and have put my faith in Him, therefore I am secure in Him.  To have hope in death is truly a miracle and a gift.  If you have put your trust in Christ, make sure you let the people around you know!  We do not know what the future holds and none of us are promised tomorrow.  It is heart wrenching and devastating to wonder if someone you loved is with Jesus or not.  The Bible is very clear about where those who believe go when they die..."To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."  It's also very clear about where those who reject Him go.  Don't make your loved ones wonder about that in their grief.  I know this is kind of a depressing post, but death has a way of revealing the brevity of life and the reality of eternity.  We are in a season of walking through 2 different kinds of death and it's heavy on my heart.  You just never know what tomorrow holds...

Yesterday we spent most of the day making arrangements and preparing for an unexpected trip.  This week we will go to Texas to celebrate the life of a sweet wife/mother/grandmother who loved the Lord.  Trav will be performing the service, which is always a bittersweet thing.  He lived next door to Mee Maw and Paw Paw for many years and has wonderful memories from their investment in his life.  It's a privilege for Him to do her funeral.  We're grateful we'll be able to see lots of family and to be able to spend some time with them.  Ava will love being able to play with so many of her cousins I'm sure!

We will miss Mee Maw dearly, but we are rejoicing with her promotion to Heaven and celebrating the life she lived on earth.  Kiss your husband and your kids tonight, and assure them of your relationship with the Lord and the truth of His word.  He is faithful and we can believe Him.  Even when life seems upside down, He is always in control.  Thank you Jesus!