Bug

Today I was able to spend the afternoon with Andrea and Katelyn. It was a nice time of catching up and watching bug play in her lil pool and eat her yogurt on her own- which was messy but so much fun. Its what summer is all about! :)
I love those 2 girls... see you soon.

dcb

I went with some friends to see David Crowder last night... it was an amazing performance. Basically a great night of worship. Loved it. I have one picture from my phone because I knew if I would have taken my camera it would have been a distraction for me.
I leave you with one song... there are many that were favorites of mine but sometimes a song just hits me a little differently when hearing it live. Some of the lyrics are below


Here we are
Here we are
Bandaged and bruised
Awaiting a cure
Here we are

Here You are
Here You are
Our beautiful King
Bringing relief
Here You are with us

So we lift up our voices
And open our hands
Let go of the things
That have kept us from Him

He is the one
Who has saved us
He is the one
Who forgave us
He is the one who has come
And is coming again
He’s the remedy

Another stormy Thursday...

Yesterday was another stormy evening... these were the clouds that suddenly rolled in!

Java & Cousins

Christine & I shared some laughs and stories over coffee yesterday. One of the cutest things was watching Madelyn and Chloe stand on the couch waiting to wave goodbye to their Daddy through the window while he was backing out of the driveway! Christine said they wave every single time he leaves. How special!

Thanks girls for the fun times...

siblings...

birthday partay

5 out of 8 smiling with their teeth- thats a good start ;)

Mother Daughter

We could call this "chillaxin"
Mom says they were forming "bookends" with their arms

Kyle The Balloon Collector

lotta candles ;)

Amanda Angel Angie

Grandma Mom Kyle

"Hey! I know you- from the lake" (Kyle talking to Noah)

The fam! Look at my Grandfather...nice!

Reading the "fart card" from Jayme

Surprise*

Thanks to everyone that came over! I know Mom didn't want a big celebration but I think it was a good day... start to finish! Plus she was a lion chaser! Love you Mom!

.P.A.R.T.Y.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family" -Anthony Brandt

(go to mom's blog for more pics)

Bourne

mmm such a great movie!

Now I want to go watch the other 2 again in their entirety.

all in a matter of 5 minutes

Madre called me and since she signed up for store duty, (thanks so much!) I figured she wanted to see if we needed anything else. When I answered she asked if it was raining since she heard the pinging on the store's roof.

So I look outside, and for about 5 minutes, while the sun was still out- it was raining pretty hard and then suddenly stopped. Hopefully it will continue tonight since we need it. :)


It made me think of the way I stick God in a box and limit Him to only my calls while I'm heading out into a storm- I want Him to give me an idea of what I'm going to be dealing with. Only to find out that the current circumstances I'm stressing about He has under control and they may only last a few minutes in the larger time line of "life"
Just some random thoughts.

Disclaimer: Mom was just making a call (she wasn't worried)... the rest is what God was smackin me with. :)

Ok back to the hw!

Jeny-is this what you saw?

If so, we have one too :)

He is hard to see since he is hanging onto the ceiling of the balcony and later was chillin on the door.

Interesting.

all in a day- a saturday

8am Coffee-a much needed start to my day
9 Office Depot run
1130 Call from Beth about taking her rental car to the airport
1230 I'm at budget rental picking up her and the kids
110 Drop them off at Ker's & head for the bypass
205 Arrive at Jason's in North Liberty for the family reunion
315 leave for Clint's
430-1130 Watch Zach
1130-3 Watch Jake
330-8 zzZZZ

ND

After visiting Anna Friday, I decided to go to ND and walk around a bit and it was a "picture perfect day" I wish I would have had more time!

Baby Anna

I was finally able to visit lil Anna who was born in record time one week ago today. Bryan & Janine got to the hospital at 4:58 and Anna was born at 5:27.
29 minutes which was not enough time for Janine to get an epidural so she had to be a trooper without pain meds.
She is such a sweet baby! Perfect skin and all!

mon&i

This is all I got for pictures. sad face.

The night didn't go exactly as I had planned but it was still nice hanging out with Monica for a bit and church was great!
I was able to hang out at Michael's party till late-which was nice... but now I smell like bonfire! :)

Happy Friday* (the 13th-I just realized it)

What a beautiful day!

Bird shaped cloud (see it?)

God is really distracting me today with these clouds. I'm trying to clean and read and its hard when God has set these beautiful white fluffy things in the sky! I have kept my camera on the table on "ready mode" With such an amazingly beautiful day- I just want to keep watching the clouds- I feel like a little kid who doesn't want to go to bed on time for fear they may miss something. I feel like I'm going to miss a photo opp if I don't keep looking out the window. Above are just a couple I captured- I'll post the rest in a slideshow later.

The many faces of Mon&Britt

This is over the course of a few years... but still funny nonetheless.

Mon & I are having a girls night tonight and she is coming to church with me again so I'm sure I'll have more photos from our extravaganzas*

there is nothing better then the smell of cool fresh air

the heat wave has passed and the humidity has lowered- so the a/c is off and the nice breeze is coming through the open windows...
hope you enjoy your Wednesday

48373625 mosquito bites

A great weekend... but now I'm full of Benadryl & have bites from my knees to my toes- grr! But only 1 on my arm-weird!
I get allergic reactions to these dang things (sad face)

Probably more than you need to know- but I had to vent about it. Although I was out both Friday and Saturday night till late with the citronella candles close but obviously not close enough. Oh well- its life.

Driving around to see fireworks and some amazing lightning in a big cloud... I wasn't really able to capture it while we were in motion though.

Rewinding to Wednesday...

We had Bill & Angie over for snacks, Mad Gab and some Office season2. We started out by playing the game and it was sooooo funny! We were all laughing so hard... Bill & Angie caught on quick since they had never played before. So it was Bill & Mom against Angie & I, fun times were had!




It was great spending time with them even though we had a neighbor party the night before :) We always have a good time laughing and such when we are hanging out. More fun times ahead I'm sure!