ms. mary

we lost a dear friend this week. our neighbor, adopted grandma, gatekeeper of the neighborhood, and friend passed away on monday night. i'm taking it so hard. it was unexpected and it has rocked my world. But, in his true fashion, the LORD has shown himself to me in so many ways and i have to share one story. about three weeks ago, after passing a cemetery, allie began asking me about death and heaven. we've had many conversations about it since then. (she is mostly concerned about not having her toys when she dies). little did i know that those conversations were God's way of preparing the heart of a little four year old girl. i received the news about mary while we were out of town and i wanted to wait to talk to allie when we got home. i crawled in bed with her this morning and NO KIDDING this is the dialogue that followed:
me: "hey, babe, good morning."
allie: "oh, hey mom... (smile)... i love you"
m: i love you too!
a: (putting her hand on my face) you know, mom, we are all going to die one day."
m: (crying and utterly shocked) yeah, i know
a: but we get to go to heaven if we love jesus
m: yeah, you're right, we do. do you know mary loved jesus with all her heart
a: yeah, she does
m: and she got to go and be with jesus this week.
a: (laughing) ha, no, not now, mom.
m: yes, now... she died this week and went to be with jesus
a: oh... well, who will take care of mr. bill?
m: mrs. connie is going to take care of him now.
a: oh, ok
m: are you ok?
a: yeah
m: if you need to talk or have any questions, daddy and i would love to chat with ya about it
a: ok, i'm ready for breakfast now.

i know that she has not fully grasped it yet... she even yelled "hey mary" across the street when someone else was pulling out of her driveway. however, i am in total awe of God's graciousness to speak to the heart of a four year old little girl in the midst of all this. in doing so, my faith is renewed by HIS GOODNESS!

we miss you ms. mary!!!!

so much to be thankful for....

thanksgiving has come and gone! we had a great visit in simonton. i'll let the pics tell the story!

these are my childhood friends: lisa and brooke. we finally got together.... it has been WAY too long. we had some good laughs and stayed up late!

thanksgiving morning... this is my Gran and mom workin' in the kitchen!

i always try to bring some type of food from lance's family favorites. this year i was brave and tried his grandma's striped jello... wow, charline... i've got a lot to learn... but not bad for my first time!

this is my adopted grandmother, mrs. fann! we go WAY back. anytime that i tell her i love her, she responds with, "i love you better!"

here are our friends, meg and pat. they came from columbus to endure our wild family.

this is allie with two cousins, mady and katie. don't ask about katie's dress... long story. we just kept telling her she was overdressed!

can you find evie? she thought doing the puzzle upside down was more challenging

my cousins, david and stephanie! love catching up with them!!!

of course, who can come to mimi and pawpaw's and not get in the hot tub?

my precious parents... the host and hostess for the day!!

mom with her sister... her loving nick name is Crazy aunt robin!

there were many tractor rides!!

and they finished the visit by putting a few ornaments on the tree.
thanks for are great time, mimi and pawpaw... we'll look forward to new year's eve!

can you even believe

that we went camping!?
we left riley with a sitter and took an adventure with the big kids!

here they are testing out their camping chairs by the fire.

daddy got the tent up for us. we borrowed a 10 man tent with two rooms. it was GREAT!

smores were the hit of the whole trip! caleb had three and had a sugar rush the rest of the evening!

the fire kept us toasty warm

allie enjoying her smores... she showed a little more self control!

all in all, we had a great time. lance and i sat by the fire and chatted while listening to our kids giggle themselves to sleep in their new sleeping bags. we are hoping to go back sometime when we can stay longer to hike and ride bikes!

la dee da

it is hard to get good pics of little man lately... all he wants to do is stand
and when he isn't trying to get up on two feet... he is crawling at top speeds!

these two become closer and closer everyday!
here is a pic of them wearing mom and dad's shoes and not much else! :)

today allie got dressed and then caleb followed... he doesn't look up to her or anything! HA!

thankful hearts

i've said it a million times... fall is my favorite time of year. this year we are being proactive in voicing our thankfulness! i started by making a HUGE reminder that resides in our living room! i got his great idea from here!

then, we created a thankful jar. the kids would tell me things that they are thankful for and we'd write it on a piece of paper. each day, we draw a thankful card out and then do something about our thankfulness. (example: on the day that we were reminded of being thankful for our bodies we made sure to exercise... on the day that we draw "we are thankful for riley and caleb" we are going to wrestle with them!) this idea was stolen too... you can find it here!

this is a little area of my house that i spruced up for the season. the bench was in the garage and makes a perfect spot for my books. the wreath is a gift from my sweet Gran and reminds me of her often!

happy thanksgiving friends!! i hope your heart is overflowing w/ gratitude. He has provided above and beyond what we could ever need!

meg, jenny, and lots of babies!!!

as you know, pine cove has camps in columbus, tx also. i have two precious friends that live there now. this is jenny lay on the left and meg preston on the right. meg spent a couple of days with us while we waited on our husbands to come home from recruiting! allie took this pic. we laughed hysterically until she got a good one!

on friday all three of us got our kiddos together for a big play date just before the dads came home. this is aaden wearing his "my daddy is awesome" shirt, riley wearing his "charm: courtesy of dad" shirt, and tucker wearing his "my dad is the man" shirt!

allie being aaden's big sister!

landry holding her baby brother and watching allie for tips!

the gangs all here.... minus hank lay... he was busy being silly!

pedi for the princess

this may seem silly to some, but allie has been asking if she can have a pedicure for almost a year. we agreed that when she turned four she could get a pedicure. i'm trying to slow down the ever burning need for allie to grow up WAY to fast!

she was beaming! we got drinks and magazines and watched a little tv too!

she picked out a sparkly pink color... of course!!!

she is showing off her color and the bottom coat!

here is the finished look! she was so proud! and, i have to say, i had so much fun. she kept saying, "it's just you and me mommy!" i love that my daughter can wear her hot pink tulle skirt and get her nails done one day and play in the dirt the next!