Beauty and the Prince

We went to Disney on Ice-Princess a couple of weeks ago.  The kids had such a great time.... almost as much fun as their mom.  I was so excited to go I could hardly hold it in.  A couple of our friends got to join us too which made the night complete.  D and C sat and watched the entire performance with eyes wide open.

It was a night we will not soon forget.

Cynthia was so excited about going to see the princess' but not so excited about the princess crown I had her wear.

one of my favorite pictures of the Beauty and the Prince

my sister and her little girl went with us.  Zoe had lots of bling bling on!

Me and my girl

Friends that went with us!!!

With all the princess' there you would think C would be talking about them all night, however Minnie and Mickey were there and C could not stop talking about Minnie all night.  

Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, did run a close 2nd by the end of the night. :)

Special Moments

I went to a conference in January and one of the things that I took away from it was that I needed to make ordinary moments in our life special.  It's not something I'm really good at but I vowed to get better.  

One of the things I do now a almost every meal, especially dinner is lite candles before we eat.  We always sit together at the table as a family but It's never been made a special  occasion unless it was a holiday.  

Now I light candles and turn some of the lights off to make dinner special.  

The kids love it and D always asks to blow out the candles when were done.  

I hope the kids remember that that mom tried to make uneventful moments eventful.  

I actually enjoy it and it seems to settle us down and blocks out the world as we enjoy each other and our food.

I took a few pictures tonight...

The beautiful flowers are from my hubby.  Love him tons!!!

Awana Skate City Party

Last week after D went to Awana they had a party at skate city.  I was not exactly excited to be taking a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 year old but I decided to take a risk.  

I'm happy to report that the risk paid off and the kids and their parents had a good time.  The skate party was from 6 to 8 and our kids did well up until around 7:45pm when it was past their bed time and they had no nap.  Risky I know :)

D meet a friend and he just enjoyed hanging out.  C was actually better than D on the skates, which surprised us.   We had actually tried to get a babysitter for her thinking she would not do very good, so glad we ended up taking her.

Here are the pictures from the night.....

Daddy just followed behind to pick up the kiddos if they fell.  I was so done skating by this time.  My feet were killing me.

D with one of his teachers

D wanted to dance so much but every time he did on his bottom he would be.  

She was a professional

He loved playing with his friend, but his friend was really done with me taking so many pictures.
(this was # 20 something)

Me and my baby girl.  She had a ton of fun :)

Taking me to another place!!

I had a conversation recently with a friend regarding a blogger and book writer. We were talking about Ann Voskamp the author of "one thousand gifts".  I got the impression from her that she was not a big fan.

I have to admit that I listen to people and see their reactions to stuff and I for some reason, after this conversation, I decided that I would not read the book or go and read her blog.

Something interesting happened after this conversation....I had a dream about the book. That's to funny and somewhat weird since I had no idea what the book or the blog was about. (my dream and the book ended up only sharing the title and differed in every other way)

I had been thinking about what book I wanted to study with a group of friends and was looking for something not to heavy but somewhat challenging but with not a lot of homework ect. ect. ect.

I went to sleep and when I woke up the next morning I remembered the dream :)

To make a long story short, although I have been pushed away from this book and her blog by several people I decided to begin reading it.  

I must say that this is a book worth reading. I could read the whole thing in one setting and yet take months to internalize all the nuggets given.

I have been reading and rereading chapters 1 and 2 for my book study and I have to tell you this book is rocking my world and changing how I think about things. I can't wait for the study with my girl friends. I will check back in with a small review later.

The moral of the story is....regardless of people around you if God has a plan He will see to it that it gets done one way or another. I'm so grateful to serve a God who loves me exactly where i'm at and for who I am but refuses to let me stay here.

 This book is changing and moving me from the inside out.

Name dropperS

Do you have people in your life that you would consider "name droppers".
I don't know why but this makes me cringe when Evers I'm around that kind of person.
Let me give you an example....
So what did you do this weekend? Oh we went to so in so's house.

Another example...

That's so funny I was hanging out with so in so And they told me _______.

I have no idea why this bothers me so much. Why do I care? Give that person their time in the sun.

I guess it has everything to do with the person and how and why they are saying it. Do you want me to think of you more important because of who you were with? Do you feel insecure and want me to know that you have so in so as a friend, to make you look better?

Here's what I really think....I'm happy for you. Enjoy your time with so in so and whose a face I'm really, and I do mean this, happy for you.

By the way did I tell you that my calendar's full this week because we have been invited over to so in so 's house and then on Friday we are going out with whose a face......smile :)

LENT??

So, do you celebrate LENT?

If you do Why?

I have a friend who I talk to about lent every year.  We talk about things we want to do with our kids and how this will be the year that we make sure that our kids understand what Jesus did on the cross.  This will be the year that we slow down and REALLY remember what happened on Easter and reflect all that God has given to us.  

This will be the year I have said many times. 

 I have to be very honest and say that the weeks before Easter are very busy for me for us as a family.  We tend to have lots of people over and lots of activities going on at church.  

I always give up something and try my hardest to focus but I get caught up in doing and truth be told the week before Easter I have a guilt that comes over me because again I have failed to stop, slow down and put this time of year in perspective.  

You see if your not a Christian then Easter is just another day but if you are a believer this day means everything.  You see this is the day that separates us from all other religions and religious people.  This is the day when our God, the creator of the universe rose from the dead.  This is the day when Christ beat death for ME and for you. 

You see Lent is a time to stop, remember, reflect and sacrifice something so that we might become more like Him who sacrificed everything.  

You see it teaches us to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Him.  

Is that to much to ask?  I don't think so.  

My prayer is that as I take time to remember that it will bring me to the foot of the cross where His love poured out for me.  That I will remember that this love is like non I have ever experienced or ever will experience and that I serve a risen God who gave up everything for me.  Hallelujah Hallelujah!!! 

Freedom From Performing

I got to spend the evening with a good friend last night and we actually got to hear a women by the name of Becky Harling.  She has a new book coming out, in May, called "Freedom From Performing, Grace in an Applause-Driven World."

She talked a lot about being a people pleaser, and who am I spending my time trying to please.....friends, husband, co-workers, kids, or God.  

She wanted to know if we "spend our time protecting our image and what people think about us or instead our we image bearers of Christ.  Wow.  Obvious my head says right away image bearer of Christ, but my actions say a lot of times protector of my image.  Is my house clean, our my kids behaving, is my marriage perfect....well, the answer is no but I spend a lot of time trying to make sure it is.  

You see all the things I listed above are great things if done for the right reasons.  If you do what you do to impress man instead of to honor your heavenly father, there's a problem.  Sometimes I worry to much about people excepting me that I forget how more important it is that they except Christ.  

I don't want to be a performer driven by the applause of man instead I want to be driven by the applause of my God, the one how excepts me and loves me whether my house is clean.  Hallelujah!!

The book does not come out until May but you can pre-order it now.  She was a great speaker and I saw a couple of her other books that I would like to read too.