Happy Birthday, Honey!

Today my precious, amazing husband turns 35 years old. Can it really be true that I have celebrated every birthday with him for the past 16 years? I remind him everyday that we are young, NOT old :). I am blessed to have been by his side for so long and pray that the Lord allows me to be by his side for every birthday he has yet to come.

I did something I have never done before. I surprised Chris on his birthday, not for a party, though. I showed up at his office yesterday at 3:00 and took him away for an evening with just the two of us. Time for just us, together. I was hoping that he would be excited about this "gift" and he was! We had a fun evening and are very thankful to Nan for keeping the kiddos so that we could enjoy some one on one time together. Due to many reasons, that is a rare thing for us.

We are headed to San Antonio today to visit Ryan, Ash and the girls. Nan is going along with us. We cover your prayers for safe travel.

Blessings,

Catching Up

Wow, last week was a busy week and I have a feeling that it is just going to get busier. All fun, just busy fun. I love the holiday season!!

Recapping our weekend:

Friday after school the kids had their friends, The Matheus, over to play. This would be 3 boys, K, 2nd and 4th grade, plus my sweet peas. Sound crazy? A little, but they are really very low maintenance when they all play together. Kris, their mother, and I were discussing this phenomenon. It is a huge blessing for my kiddos to have them to spend time with.

We have been needing to have a Christmas Parade of Lights Float Planning Session :) with the Carrolls. So, at the last minute, we decided to do that on Friday evening. In reality, it turned in to more of an eat dinner together (yummy Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice soup and a Raspberry-Chipotle-Cream Cheese appetizer), play Wii and squeeze in some float planning type of evening. We had a blast and did manage to get most of the planning done in there somewhere, now we just have to execute that plan. The parade is always so much fun and this year we are excited to have a "real" float! Please plan to join us on December 6th in Euless if you are free. There is sure to be a reenactment of the Great Fall of 2005. If you're not sure what that is just ask Rachel. :)

Speaking of Rachel, we had muchas fun with she and her sweet hubby, Kris, on Saturday. The guys played golf (in the cold) at Texas Star. While they were busy doing that, we went and played with Aunt Cathy, Will, Eli and Molly and then spent the afternoon shopping at Southlake Town Center. It was so much fun! Even Alex was a trooper :). We met up with the guys and Nan for an early dinner at P.F. Changs. We were home by 6, and finished up the evening playing and cleaning out closets. A fun AND productive day, I just love it when that happens.

Anna and Rachel playing with Molly

(Molly has on Anna's old PJs, it makes me cry almost every time I see her in Anna's old clothes, the time sure does fly by)

Sunday morning we were up early and headed to Church. It was an absolutely wonderful message and we were blessed to be with our sweet friend Christian as he was baptized. Christian is in 6th grade and Alex absolutely idolizes him. So, it was really neat for Alex to get to see Christian living out his faith.

After a quick afternoon rest, we headed to Grandma and Papa's for an early birthday dinner for Chris. They will be leaving for Japan this Friday, the day before Chris' birthday, so we celebrated with them early. We had lots of fun and wished for more time to be with them. Thankfully with the holidays coming up, we should get to do just that.

Daddy's Birthday Celebration at Grandma and Papa's

I will end this post with by bragging on my husband. Last night as I was taking a hot bath, I heard him unloading and reloading the dishwasher.....while watching the Cowboy game. Wow, I am blessed and loved!! Thank you, honey, for all that you do!!

Blessings on your week,

Yummy...Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Waffles

I like food. That is just the plain and simple truth. I like to read cookbooks, try new recipes, etc. Every once-in-a-while, I crave something that I cannot find a recipe for. Such was the case the other night. One recipe that we love to make in the fall is Pumpkin Chocoloate-Chip Bread, but that just did not hit the spot. I was really wanting waffles with that same taste, though, so I decided to create some. And, I must say, that the results were scrumptious :)

See the waffle maker pictured here...it is from Williams-Sonoma and although not expensive, was definitely a step-up from the 4 $15.99 WalMart versions I had gone through over the last 10 years. It has made a huge difference in the quality of my waffles, and I would have saved money if I had just purchsed it sooner :)

My resident taste-testers loved the outcome of my experimentation:

Now, I promise that Chris loved them too. He was just slightly distracted by the newspaper and has difficutly showing enthusiasm about my food ;)!

Since he was not enthusiastic enough, I decided to take a picture of myself...super cheesy!

God is in control...

Warning: If politics intermingled with a precious story about a little boy would bother you, stop reading now.

So, yesterday's Presidential election did not turn out exactly how I had hoped. However, I had prayed repeatedly in the days, weeks and months leading up to the election for God's will to be done. I know that God is sovereign and loves me and that no matter what happens He has good planned for my life. It may not be easy, but He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and I have nothing to fear.

All that being said, I am 32 not 6. Alex is 6. And before I get into this let me say that I am not sure that he should have known as much about the election as he did. But he can read almost as good as I can and is very intuitive and aware, so he did know lots and there is no going back.

Alex had been adamant in his support of McCain for quite some time, but he became more serious about it in the days leading up to the election. I think part of this is due to misinterpretation of a story he heard about 3 days ago. In a nutshell, it was about Obama kicking off his plane the journalists from the newspapers that did not endorse him. True or not? I am not sure. But Alex took it very seriously....making a comment that Obama should be put in jail for doing that. It took me about 24 hours to realize that he had misinterpreted the story and thought that these people had been thrown off a moving aircraft way up in the sky, presumably falling to their deaths. As soon as I realized what he was thinking, I quickly clarified things for him but he was still adamant that was a terrible thing to do and he was still very displeased.

Then yesterday, he started reading the Sports section at breakfast. And quickly needed to call Daddy and let him know something, "We can not root for the Cowboys or Mavericks anymore." He is serious about this one. Our local paper polled players on all of the DFW pro sports teams and the Cowboys and Mavericks heavily favored Obama, so Alex is done with them.

All this leads me to this morning. Alex had gone to bed last night with a hopeful heart that his prayers would be answered. And unlike myself, who had prayed for God's will, Alex prayed specifically that McCain would win. And knowing that he would hear the results from classmates this morning, I had to address it before school. So, I sat the kids down and told them the outcome of the election. I read to them Romans 8:28 - "And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I explained that God was in control, no matter what. That He will be glorified in every situation and that it would all be ok. Alex cried, actually Alex sobbed. I felt so bad and at that moment I wished that he knew nothing about this election. After consoling him for a minute, I diverted his attention with some cinnamon-sugar crescent rolls for breakfast and then I left the room to get ready for the day.

About ten minutes later, I walked back in the room to this scene: Anna and Alex sitting on the couch with my Bible in their laps. Alex had asked Anna to please look up Isaiah 41:10. Not knowing that verse off the top of my head, I sat down with them to read what it said.... "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand." Or in Alex's words, "Fear not, for I am with you."

And in that moment, my regret of him knowing about the election changed. If this situation had caused him to recall scripture that he had memorized and apply it to his situation, then it was all worth it.

Like I said, our political choices as a Nation may not cause things to go just as we want them but if they draw us closer to the Lord, then it is all worth it.

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,