Hallelujah Harvest....Number 3

So, we had a blast at our 3rd Annual (self-titled) Hallelujah Harvest on Friday night. I really do think that it just keeps getting better, not that I am biased or anything. ;) I spent Friday cooking and getting ready and was blessed to have Julie come over and help me. We made 8lbs. of meat into chili, prepared a huge pot of queso and made approx. 5 dozen mini caramel apples. I really intended to take pictures of all this cooking and all of the yummy food in it's cute presentation, but my focus shifted from food to friends (and my kiddos). And, thus, there is no food in my pictures, you will just have to take my word that I did all that cooking and it tasted really good :)



Now for the good part, here is a photo montage of some of the precious people who we were blessed to enjoy our evening with (unfortunately I did not get pictures of everyone)...

MY PRECIOUS SWEET PEAS (known for this night as Padme and Captain Rex)

THE HAY RIDE

If you didn't make it this year, consider yourself invited for next time. We would love to have you!


Blessings on your week,

Intense Competition

Our evenings at home are filled with after-dinner games in the backyard. It may be trampoline dodge-ball (not the safest event), volleyball or soccer. Whatever the game may be, the competition is intense! The kids want to win....of course, we the parents are totally laid-back and have no desire to beat our children ;)

Here is a photo-story of a recent evening...



Anna and Alex getting the game started.



If you look closely here, you can tell that Alex is about to hit the ground hard in this shot. He was all smiles, though!



Daddy is now in on the action....

Uhoh! Do you think Daddy is celebrating a little too much? Anna is hiding her face after letting the ball slip by.


They are back at it again, who will prevail this time?

She did it!! Anna always needs to have the last word, who do you think she takes after? ;)





Have a great day!

1...2...3...4... We Walked For A Cure

Wow, what a week. I don't know that I have crammed that much activity into a one-week period in a LONG time. And, I think I am too old to do that again. Just kidding! I really am NOT old at all, and I have a new motto.... "I am determined to thrive, not survive!" More on my silly musings later...

For the important stuff. Among the long list of activities for last week, the highlight had to be the annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. Our team, Anna's Army, had strong representation and looked AWESOME in the shirts that Anna designed herself. In case you can't see the wording well in the pics below...The front said Anna's Army, 2008 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes....And the back said 1...2...3...4 WE ARE WALKING FOR A CURE! Thank you, Jesus, for my creative child.

We ended up with about 26 walkers (a couple are missing from the pic below).

The sweetest thing of the day had to be this...

Let me just tell you, that Molly knew exactly what she was doing, showing her support for her Anna. It was just too precious!!

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who sacrificed that precious Saturday morning time to join us. You have no idea how much it meant to Anna and to our family.

Blessings on your week,

Happy Birthday, Big Brother #1

Happy Birthday to my biggest big brother, and I don't mean that in a reference to size :)!! When referencing "big brothers" we are really meaning "older brothers". So, to say "biggest big brother" really means oldest older brother. Got it?

As mentioned in the previous post we celebrated Wade's birthday a couple of days early. I captured some pics of him blowing out birthday candles below...

Unfortunately, I did not get his face in the picture. So, this is the best I could do....it kind of looks like him, don't you think?

Happy Birthday Wade, I love you!!

Your favorite (and only) little sister,

Happy Fall Ya'll- Part 2

Happy Monday morning!!

We have collectively decided at our house that we want weekends to last forever...if only we could figure out a way to make that work. :)

We had a fun, wonderful weekend to include: a Friday-night football game, pumpkin chocolate chip waffles for Saturday breakfast, another win by Anna's volleyball team (they are now 3-0 and she is playing AWESOME!), a super-fun birthday party for Uncle Wade at our house with yummy food and a backyard, big-screen movie, a great church service, an afternoon hike at our local state park with friends, a delicious Sunday evening Pot Roast and a couple of naps thrown in the mix too :)! Too say that we are abundantly blessed would be a drastic understatement. Thank you, Lord, for your continued favor and blessing on our family! We need You and are thankful for your presence in our everyday moments...

Rewinding to last weekend and the reason for the title of this post....we finally put together our front yard fall decorations. The kids had been begging for a few weeks to go buy pumpkins and get out the scarecrows, etc. So, we finally obliged and here is the result...

The interesting thing that my sweet husband pointed out, was that for the first time, this year was really a group effort. We took our time, did not rush through the planting, and let the kids help. As Chris said, he has been planting flowers in our beds for over ten years but this is the first time he has had such WONDERFUL help and truly enjoyed it. Although I miss the baby/toddler years, it is sure fun to have helpers who really help! :) Needless to say, they had a blast.

This week is going to be crazy!! A lovely colonoscopy/EGD for me tomorrow, just so excited about that one. I have to be in Plano Wednesday, overnight Wednesday, and Thursday for our bi-annual recruiter symposium. Friday, Chris and I will be helping to set up for the JDRF Walk (by the way, don't hesitate to click on that link and donate :), we are in need of some serious help); Saturday morning is the actual walk, Anna has two birthday parties on Saturday afternoon which Chris will be chauffeur for since I will be heading down to Lake Whitney for Hayley's Bachelorette party. We covet your prayers this week, especially for my procedures tomorrow.

Blessings,

Alex COOL Barker

So, tonight while Anna was finishing her homework Alex piped up and said that he had homework that he needed to do too. So, he ran to his backpack and brought back a worksheet. He intently completed the worksheet and then wrote his name on the line at the top. Just as he was putting the finishing touches on his work, I looked down to see this....


Now, before you start to think that I have some cocky kid, let me explain. Alex's name is Alex Cole Barker and, apparently, he had never paid attention to what his middle name in writing looked like. He actually thought that you spelled "Cole"...C-O-O-L, not C-O-L-E. So, I gently explained the correct spelling of his name to which he kindly responded, "Ok, but I like C-O-O-L better."

So, maybe I should just go ahead and contact the government to begin the name change process, what do you think?

I pray for blessings on your Friday,

Vacation in our own backyard

We have been wanting for some time to add lighting to our back porch. We love to be outside, especially in the evening, but with one measly little light it gets hard to see anything past dusk.

Saturday evening we had planned to grill outside, light the fire pit, have fun, etc. But we overslept from our afternoon naps and did not wake up until after 6:00 p.m. I looked at Chris and said there is no way we can do all we want to do in the amount of daylight we have left. And that was it....He loaded Anna up in the car, they made a run to Target and tada....


BEAUTIFUL BACKYARD LIGHTING!! It is just perfect and the kids were so excited. They kept saying over and over again how they felt like we were on "vacation". A vacation in our own yard, it doesn't get much better than that. Nan even came over to join in the fun...

Let's be clear about one thing....Nan does not "jump" on the trampoline, but she will climb on and lay down to look at the stars :)

We all had a great night and are looking forward to many more nights like it in the future. So, if you are ever bored on a Saturday night, stop by and see if we are in the backyard...

I promise you will have fun!!

My miniature Picasso's

Good Monday morning!

We had an amazing weekend, I will download pictures and post them soon. Part of that amazing weekend, was my little buddy coloring approximately 199 pictures :) He is into coloring right now, not in a coloring book, but his own ideas down on paper, a regular Picasso!

Anna joined in on some of the coloring fun, and I have included some of their work below for your viewing pleasure.

First we have Alex...let me say this was probably not his most artistic work of the weekend but definitely one of the funniest. This is a drawing of a race car, the cute part being that it is sponsored by several entities and has 9 rockets. Let's review the sponsors...we have Big Daddy's (which just happens to be a liquor store, although when I asked Alex he said that it was a store that he has seen while we were driving ;); let's hope he never has occasion to try out Big Daddy's), we have Anna's Army (the name of our team for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes), and rounding out the sponsors we have Crayola Mini Twistables. Something tells me the inspiration for the last sponsor came to him as he was drawing the picture :)

Now, for Anna's lovely drawing. And I mean that in the most sincere form of the word! She has an affinity for somewhat abstract drawings and unusual techniques. I happen to love this one...
Now, totally unrelated to artwork. This morning, I came across a scripture that I just love and I wanted to share it with you:

"But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head."

-Psalm 3:3

I am encouraged today to be reminded that God is with me and in me and for me. He is my protector and His glory is upon me.

We had an intense, wonderful message at church yesterday, tying together spiritual warfare and our attitude/thoughts. I encourage you to listen to it. I pray that you will be encouraged of God's love for you today.

Anna: Pioneer Girl

Anna is living the dream today!! They are having a Pioneer day at school and will be watching the movie, Sarah Plain and Tall.


For those of you who do not know her well, Anna loves history and anything having to do with early America. She loves Indians and Pioneers and all things "old". So much in fact that she has several pioneer "outfits" (thanks, Grandma) that she dresses up in on a regular basis. So, it was no problem for her today to find something to wear. She even loaned out some things to a friend in her class.


Being the "supermom" that I delude myself into thinking I am, I offered to make homemade cinnamon rolls for her class to enjoy while they watch the movie. So, I grabbed a great recipe from The Pioneer Woman and proceeded to make 5 dozen cinnamon rolls from scratch. And, let me just say, I enjoyed every minute of it :)!


Here are some pics of the yummy rolls and the beautiful pioneer girl. Enjoy your Friday!


In that last pic, she is saying, "Hurry, Mom. I can't wait to get to school today!" Gotta love it :)

Happy Fall Ya'll

I am so excited!! It actually is starting to feel a little bit like fall outside, yeah! In honor of this nice change in the weather (and my lack of an internet connection that hindered my ability to sit at my desk all day and work) I did a couple of fun fall things yesterday. I added a couple of fun pumpkins to my pumpkin collection and I made tortilla soup for dinner. My new pumpkins, shown above, are just too cute and fit in nicely at their new home with the rest of the pumpkins, shown below :)!

I am also in the planning stages of our Third Annual Hallelujah Harvest party. We are so excited to open our home to all of our friends and family for another super fun party this year! If an invite has not crossed your inbox and you are interested in coming, just let me know. The more the merrier :)!

The kiddos are great, a bit tired but great! Although I don't like it when the time changes and it starts to get dark earlier, it does help to get the kids in bed on time. Right now, they would like to stay outside and play until way too late. And it is so hard not to give in, with the beautiful weather we have been enjoying some great evening play time outside!

Praying that you each have a wonderful day!

From: Anna; To: Mommy and Daddy

We love you too, princess!

Pretty Faces

We had a wonderful weekend, just relaxing and playing. It was great! Our last weekend before Volleyball games start up, so we tried to make the most of not having any schedule to adhere to.

We did LOTS of playing at home: light-saber fights, beauty parlor, dodge ball on the trampoline, etc. It was really great! And the outside playing will get even better as the weather starts to cool off this week, hopefully.

We are back into the weekly grind today, so I was reminiscing about our wonderful trip to WDW and thought I would post a couple of pretty faces for you to enjoy.

I am proud to introduce: Pocahontas and Dino Boy :)

Have a blessed week!

Hiatus

Let me just say that I cannot believe that almost two months have gone by since I last blogged. Time sure does fly....

Well, to get caught up- we spent the end of July and beginning of August enjoying the last bit of summer and preparing for the start of school. I was able to get most of my organization tasks completed that had been on my to-do list and we started school off on the right foot :)! The kids are absolutely LOVING school this year! Alex is happier than he has ever been and has a wonderful Kindergarten teacher. Anna is growing up on us, and is really enjoying being a Fourth-grader. She gets to change classes and is loving her four different teachers. Happy kids=happy parents!!

Here they are on their first (rainy) day:

Well, just two weeks into the school year and we were off to Disney World!! We had an AMAZING time and really enjoyed just getting to be together. Alex said, "I am just happy to be with my family" at least 50 times on the trip. We prayed for God's blessing on our trip and He honored our desires with some GREAT family time. Once again, we realized the importance of family vacations and getting away from all the must-do's so that we can focus on one another. I will post some pics soon, but for now you can enjoy the video :)!

After a quick work trip to Nebraska for me this past week, we are fully getting into the swing of Fall. Alex started swimming, once again, and is really enjoying it. Anna started Dance for the first time in 5 years and loved it. She will be starting Volleyball soon. We are planning for a fun fall with lots of time outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Blessings on your week!

Lissa