who will be visitor #14,000???

I promise to update with new pictures and stories soon (b/c I have so many just waiting to tell...specifically back to school for my sweet baby girl or I should say Kindergartner!!!) But I just noticed that my blog counter is at 13, 991!!! So, I wondered who would be blog visitor #14,000?!?!? So anyone that visits between now and then...leave a comment with what number you were just for fun! I did this back at like 8,000 or something and my friend Meredith won (it was a HUGE prize too...a big pat on her back from herself!!!) hehe.

Anyways, just for fun...do it! ;)

sweeties....

storytime...

Asher had a date with three of his little girlfriends (ages ranging from 2 weeks to 4 years old!!!) We met my friend Sarah and three of her girls at storytime yesterday morning. It was a lot of fun. Asher and I had never been without Lynzi, but we really enjoyed our time together! Then we had a drive-thru lunch date on the way home! Asher and I really enjoyed this time together since Lynzi has been in summer school. It was quite an adjustment for him at first, since he's never not had Lynzi to play with! I didn't think about it that Lynzi had 3 years of practice playing alone, so she's really good at it. But after 20 minutes or so...Asher is ready to play with somebody, so needless to say we've done a lot of playing together the last few weeks! It was a good glimpse at what life without Lynzi will be like once she starts school in the fall. We did miss having her around all day, but we enjoyed our Mommy/Asher time. Here are a few pictures from storytime (none of them are great [again] b/c he was on the go from station to station they had set up, so i had to snap while he was sitting still in the "car wash" for a minute!) His friend is Gabrielle. One of the books they read was about a car wash, so they had a "car wash" set up made out of cardboard with streamers hanging down for the brushes and bubbles for soap and a box of cars and trucks for washing!!! This was their favorite station...

school's out...

Today was the last day of Lynzi's summer school and she is not happy that it's over! She L-O-V-E-D every minute of summer school and she is so ready to start "real/official" kindergarten! She already misses her teacher (and it's only been over for an hour and 1/2!) She started praying a few nights ago that Mrs. Doyle would be her teacher when kindergarten starts in August! We really loved her and she LOVED Lynzi too...so we're all hoping that we get her in the fall!

~Lynzi and her first school teacher Mrs. Doyle~

Asher...

Here are a few pics of my sweet little man at 28 months old...2 1/2 is creeping up on us scarily fast! Everyone keeps telling me how big boy he is starting to look (and I don't like hearing it one bit!!!) But he's just as precious and HILARIOUS as ever!!! Love this boy...

Father's Day...

We had a great Father's Day spoiling the sweet daddy that God blessed my babies with...and being thankful for their precious PawPaw, Poppy and great grandpas too!!! We are so grateful for the phenomenal men that God put into our lives...such an incredible blessing!

My little family woke up to the smell of freshly baked banana bread and all mosied out of bed and into the kitchen for a slice before getting ready for church. Then we headed to church for an amazing sermon about "The Blessed Man". It was wonderful and they gave each man a huge beef jerky stick! They also had steak giveaways in church...hilarious, but what man doesn't want steak!?!?

Speaking of steak, I think we joined about 94% of the American population in grilling steaks yesterday for lunch, along with corn on the cob, homemade sweet potato fries and fresh strawberry pie! That put everyone to sleep while I cleaned up and got to my 3rd round of cooking for the day. I was in charge of snack for life group yesterday, so I made a veggie pizza (crescent rolls covered with cream cheese/ranch mixture and piled high with fresh veggies...yum) and another batch of banana bread.

After everyone's naps...we gave Daddy his Father's Day presents! I printed and framed each of the kid's pictures for his office and we also got him a nice watch

Then we headed out to Life Group and had a great time of fellowship and studying the book "Crazy Love"! We are all really enjoying this book!!!

Here are the only pics I took yesterday. None of them are fabulous, but at least I got something! Nobody is even smiling in the daddy/kids pic...but we were short on time, so I just went with it! And Asher's pic is super blurry, but since I'm posting Lynzi's...I'll post his too! He's still cute...blurry or not! :)

~my sweet bunch...even though they're not smiling~

~Lynzi on our way to church~

~incredibly blurry, but incredibly cute~

modeling clay...

Isaiah 64:8 "Yet, oh Lord, You are our father. We are the clay, You are the potter. We are all the work of Your hand." (NIV)

Remember that modeling clay that was on our Kindergarten school suppy list that was in a box with four different colored rectangular molds, hard as a rock and covered with that crinkly plastic wrap??? And as an excited Kindergartner, we couldn't wait to get our hands on all of our cool new school supplies, then FINALLY we got to open that box of modeling clay and we were surprised (because up to that point, we're used to gooey and soft play-dough) and slightly disappointed at how hard it was and impossible to use. But once we held it in our little kindergarten-sized hands for a while, it started getting soft and usable and we could create our very best and coolest kindergarten creation!

When we fully turn ourselves over to God (the potter), we are hard like modeling clay. He holds us in the palm of His hand and warms us up while He gets ready to use us. Once we're pliable enough, he begins to form us and make us into what He wants us to be. Sometimes He'll have to stretch us and it might hurt a little, but in the end we'll be a beautiful creation designed by God (worth more than anything to Him!)

Thank you, Lord, for taking the time to hold us and make and mold us into Your perfect creation...(and warming us up and comforting us before you begin to stretch us)!

Just a little thought He placed in my heart...