A long awaited "Date Night"

Now I often tease my husband about the fact that after he got the ring on my finger, he believed his chase was off and he had conquered the battle. But he out did him self this weekend:) He had arranged weeks ago for a date night. He booked the sitter (none other than the very best Miss Jen) and even borrowed a friends (VERY nice) car for the night. I was laughing at him all night. He was like a boy with a brand new (borrowed) toy. I'll never understand guys and cars I guess! We first headed to my new favorite store, Plato's closet ( I know Ade, you told me about it over a year ago!) to shop a bit then to dinner at a very nice place in South Bend called Trio's. We had been given a gift card back in February and were anxious to use it. We got back not too late to put the boys in bed. Owen (5) asked me "mom... did you and daddy smooch in the car with the top down?" I said, "you betcha!" He thought that was pretty gross of course. But that's ok for now I guess:) Over all we had a great night. Thank you honey! I love you so much.

Somersaults

Scott caught this on video today. I think it was Chapman seeing if what he can do on the trampoline, he can also do (as easily) on the ground! He sure tried hard:)

Wow! What a weekend

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post. After reading about my weekend, you'll understand:) It started with our evening MOPS that I coordinate on Thurs. evenings. Then my co-coor. was out of town so she asked me to run the morning group that meets on Friday's. So we (all 6 of us) were up and out the door a little before 8am on Friday. It was our annual Spa day which was fun. We had many vendors there to "pamper" our moms. We stopped at McD's on our way to the orthodontist for Reis and Hudson (initial consultations:) We were home for 2 hours then attended a wedding that night. Saturday was a wonderful full day as I attended a "Loving Well" conference for women at church. Beth Moore was our speaker (via DVD). I had been asked to head up the worship for the day which was such an honor and a blessing. We had 6 of us on the worship team, 3 guitars, drums, keyboard and piano. The day flowed very well and I pray everyone was touched by the Lord in a special way. My wonderful hubby did great home with the kids. It was a great warm day outside so they played hard. I guess I forgot to mention, we had an extra as well. Friends went out of town so we kept their 11 year old for the weekend. Sunday was as usual a full blessed day worshiping the Lord with our church family. I did sneak a 30 min. nap that afternoon:) Today, I am tired but uplifted. I was challenged to LOVE in a different way. Here are some things I walked away with. I pray they will encourage you as well! Have a great week:)

God measures maturity by HOW we love

We will not love WELL until we believe
we are WELL loved by God

Insecurity and anxiety are the outgrowth of
unbelief rooted in pride

We must live in the reality of God’s love in order to love those God has called us to love.

Let’s start loving because we’re loved, not so we can be loved. We can love anyone through anything because we are loved.

We will never be more Christ-like than when we love people that do not love us.

A day at the park!

Karla and Ashlee and I had a day at the park
yesterday. We kept Jack for the weekend so Karla came over night Monday to take him home. It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but we had a fun time. Here are some pictures of our day.

Braylon and Jack

Davis

Briggs

The Gang!

A trip to the movies!

This video of Davis is so funny. I caught him with an old cell phone talking to someone. He was telling them about going to the "movie feater". He had no idea what a "movie feater" was but had heard the older boys talk about it. We are taking a vacation in May so we are not taking a spring break this week. But for something to look forward to, we planned a fun night out last night to a local Mexican restaurant (all you can eat chips- they lost money on us:), a browse around Toys R' Us and to the $1 theater. We had a great time together and Davis did pretty good in the "movie feater". We saw National Treasure- Book of Secrets. It was excellent. We LOVE the 1st one and now the second as well.

They did survive!

My daffodils did in fact survive! It reminds me of how beautiful our Lord made this earth and everything in it. We have been singing a song in our Worship services lately that praises HIM for his beauty.

And I will declare the beauty of the Lord

Nothing compares to the beauty of the Lord

Jesus you love, it takes my breath away

Now I'm living everyday

For the beauty of the Lord

Catching up!

Bremen Tea Party!

I will attempt to jog you through our last 3 very busy days. Starting on Friday, my friend Shawn, invited some friends to a "tea party" in a small town nearby. A friend of her family hosts these and it was incredible. She has a tiny house next to her own house that is like a doll house. Every square inch was filled with tea pots and pretty things, with a small path to walk through. This is her table with yummy desserts and punch. She then served hot tea to us. It was a lot of fun. Thank you Shawn for a wonderful "break" from my normal routine:)

Next on the agenda for the day was gym day for our home school group. One family in the group has an indoor pool. So we got to go swimming in April:) I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because I was IN the pool helping Davis swim AND it was so humid in there, my camera kept fogging up:)

The day is not over yet! I forgot to mention it was Hudson's birthday. He turned double digits! He had 4 friends over for a party and sleep over. He picked a triple chocolate cake which was delicious:) The boys had a great time and were very well behaved!

Saturday was a full day with Scott's parents having an estate auction. They are retiring soon and moving to an apartment so they sold almost everything they owned. It was a long but fun day. There was a pretty good turn out. Cars lined the street and even 3 Amish buggies parked out in the corn field! We ended the day at some friends house to watch the basketball game.

Chapman taking a nap!


Sunday of course was a wonderful busy day filled with morning worship and evening ABF. We took advantage of other families being on Spring Break and had 2 families over for ice cream after church. All in all, it was a good weekend but glad it is over:) Hope yours was a great one! We sure enjoyed beautiful weather here in northern Indiana! It's about time:) Right??

ECA Senior Class Trip 08

I was on YouTube and found our school's video from their Senior Class Trip. Scott and I overlapped their trip a couple of days in the Dominican Republic. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing it. It impacted many lives and changed some of the seniors that went forever! Missions trips will do that!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKWGWI7Swbg