Lately in Pictures

 {A little Saturday Golf and Swimming}

 {Make-up time when Mommy and Daddy weren't looking}

 {The Zebra and the Ballerina on a walk}

 {Corn hole with friends}

 {Snow-cones for summer!}

{Adelyn swimming with the boys}

 

Memphis Vaca Photo Collage

These were the last pictures I had from our trip to Memphis and I wanted to post them to remember our wonderful vacation!

Visit to Arkansas, Tea Parties, and Christian's Adoption (Please Read)

 We had so much fun in Arkansas, I had to include some more pictures from our trip. Adelyn is sitting beside me and she is looking at these pictures saying, "That's hot." They definitely remember how hot Arkansas is compared to 'home.'

 This picture absolutely cracks me up. This is the girl's cousin Dillian. They all look like teenagers in this pic. ha!

 We had a dinner party at my mom's house that night and lots of relatives came over. It was so so good to see everyone!

 We swam every day at Lala's! It was so fun and a great way to cool off! My sweet step mom got these bathing suits for the girls and they were just perfect with the floaties built in.

 Adelyn hurt her foot one day and Annabelle was her doctor. Me and mom were laughing hysterically that they were both cooperating with this!

 And today the girls had a tea party and it was too cute not to snap a picture of. 

Now, please, please don't stop reading here...


 A precious lady from the blog "Team Sullivan" met a boy named Christian on a trip to Ghana and now is blogging to raise funds for the family that is trying to adopt him from Ghana. Please take 2 minutes and read a snip it from this "God story." 

"After our time in the school yard we went back to the hotel for the rest of the night. Jake and some of the others headed into the restaurant gazebo to talk….I snuck away to our room to write the day’s happenings in my journal. As I was writing tonight, all of a sudden the door flung open and Jake walked in with Christian and some of his friends!!!!! When I saw him peek around the door I said, “Christian, I was literally just thinking writing about you!!!” Jake began filing through our suitcase of shoe donations to find some for Christian and his friends (it turned out that many of the children from the school yard had followed a few of our group back to the hotel…many of us rode back in the pick-up truck, but a few walked back and apparently had company coming behind them). Unfortunately medium sized boy shoes had been the hot commodity over the past few days, and there were none left that would fit them. Instead Jake rounded up some t-shirts, food, and candy and as quickly as they came in Christian and his friends were gone – practically skipping off happy as could be! Later tonight as Jake and I were summarizing our day with each other Christian’s name came up again.

“I asked him about his eye,” Jake said.

“What?!?!?! When?!?!” I answered.

“When he came to the hotel tonight. We were talking up in the restaurant before we came to look through the shoes.”

“Well, what did he say?” I asked.

“All he said was that his dad didn’t want him anymore…so his dad had tried to gouge out his eye. He also said that his mom didn’t want him either, so he lives with his grandma now.”

As Jake spoke my heart sunk for this boy. He was so intelligent, and well-spoken, and sweet-hearted. Knowing that his own mother and father didn’t want him made me sick. Immediately Psalm 27:10 came to my mind – Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
After Jake and I talked a little more I felt strongly that I should look around and find Christian tomorrow. I wanted him to take me to meet his grandma."

If you can, please click on "Team Sullivan" above and read the whole story. It's amazing how our God works.


**You can donate to "Christian's Grace Fund online by clicking  here.**

Green Monsters & Hilariously Backward Bathing Suits & Some Serious Stuff too

 Oh the sweet girls looked so precious yesterday in their white dresses. I am so silly, I always want to take picture of them in their dresses because it might be the last time they wear them. I was actually thinking that after they grow out of the nice dresses they have I might now get anymore because people at our church just don't dress up all that much. I don't know. I'll wait and see what happens.

I love their little profiles though. They are so sweet!

Of course this post is going to be random. Can you expect any less of me at this point. haha! When I used  to read other people's blogs (I haven't in sooo long) but when I did, I saw these things called "green monster's" on food blog all the time. I decided to try one with these ingredients and it was soooo yummy and BOTH girls like them too! You don't even taste the spinach, all you taste is banana! :) I know you think I'm crazy (I already know I'm crazy, it's ok.)

 This weekend I also did some looong awaited projects. I was pleased with how they both turned out and look in my house! yah!

Last night, we went to the Love and Respect Bible Study that our church has and it was so good. I went through this book when I was first married in Mrs. Rita's biblestudy and we went through it when we first got to Living Hope (but Ab was a little baby and I couldn't listen all that well) and so we are doing it again. We are the first to say that our marriage isn't perfect and that we are the epitome of the boy and girl he talks about on the videos (i.e. I couldn't be more girly and Adam could be more like a guy.)

Last night I learned all kinds of things about respect like how important a man's job is to him and his self esteem. How his responsibility (and not his right) is to be the head of the household and how that comes with all kinds of responsibilities that I don't want including laying down his life for his family and especially his wife if need be. I learned how in "guy world" everything is done in hierarchy and so they feel so belittled when we come at them like we are over them, like we have the authority but they still have the responsibility to be the leader. I was reminded of how important shoulder to shoulder time is to men. We talked forever about all of these things last night at 11:00 pm (why do we put our kids to bed soo late) and it was so good! :)

Annabelle insists on doing everything herself. This is how her bathing suit ended up today. haha

Also, in my Daniel study today:


"We try to get joy through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, and perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another's imagination to divert and enlighten our own poor lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely temporary-a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run out of money, the joy trickles away."
Eugene Peterson.


Wow. Lots for me to think on today.

Our Week Randomness & A Recipe

 (Doesn't she look so big!?)

We have had a good week. I'm pretty sure the Lord is trying to teach me patience. I tried potty training Annabelle this week because she gives me all of the signs that she is ready. She was doing great but somewhere along the way she changed her mind and this is her third day to refuse to even look at the potty.

Oh well, right?! What can you do? With all the potty drama, I totally forgot to do Thankful Tuesday! So, this week I am thankful for so many things. Although I'm not in the most thankful mood. Just one of those days I suppose or maybe it all goes back to it is all how you look at things. This morning I thought to myself in the service, even though I have to get up by myself on Sundays and get the kids ready alone etc etc at least my husband is a christian and I am not coming alone while he doesn't want to be a church. That puts things in perspective for me for sure!

 (Ad got her toes painted for the second time ever this week by Mrs. Beth. She LOVED it!)

Something I have been learning a lot about is that self pity is a form of idolatry. There are lots of reasons I want to wallow in my self pity mostly having to do with living so far from family but that is just has sinful as pride because it is still all about me and not at all about God.

 (I painted Ab's fingers and toes teal at her request. I love having girls.)

I seriously need to write about my Daniel study. It has been soooo eye opening and humbling. I am thankful for it!

 (We swim almost every day. Ab looks like such a diva in my sunglasses!)

(Yesterday we were swimming and I saw Ab memorized by the sprinkler in the neighbors yard. I asked her if she was ok and she said, "Look moma, it's a hummingbird!;" That girl is hilarious!)

In other big news, me have a new niece named Lilah Jane Fisher and our friends Sammy and Kimberley now have baby Zeke!!! God is good. Pictures of babies to come I promise!

On a completely different note, I made this dessert for a  family at our church last night. It looked so goo I wanted to eat it but I couldn't so I'll have to make it again soon!! I have no idea what it is called; my sister in law Dottie introduced me to it and I don't think she even has a name for it!

 Ingredients= chips ahoy cookies (1 or 2 packages depending on how big of a pan you are making)
                      a large tub of whipped cream
                      a cup of milk
                     your favorite candy (optional)

 line pan with whipped cream and dip cookies in milk and top whipped cream with them and then repeat those two steps again.

and make sure whipped cream is your last layer and top with crumbled cookies (not dipped in milk) and crushed candy. Sooo easy and next time I'm going to have Ab hep me because I think she would LOVE it and there is no way to really messs this recipe up!!

Oh and I'm sure you are wondering how in the world I made this without Annabelle around!? Well, Adam took both girls out for ice cream with his first official outing with both girls! I had the house to myself for about an hour and a half! It was awesome!


Have a wonderful REST DAY!

Slip and Slide & James 2

¹MY BRETHREN, pay no servile regard to people [show no prejudice, no partiality]. Do not [attempt to] hold and practice the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Lord] of glory [together with snobbery]!    ²For if a person comes into your congregation whose hands are adorned with gold rings and who is wearing splendid apparel, and also a poor [man] in shabby clothes comes in,
    ³And you pay special attention to the one who wears the splendid clothes and say to him, Sit here in this preferable seat! while you tell the poor [man], Stand there! or, Sit there on the floor at my feet!
    ⁴Are you not discriminating among your own and becoming critics and judges with wrong motives?

⁵Listen, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and in their position as believers and to inherit the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?    ⁶But you [in contrast] have insulted (humiliated, dishonored, and shown your contempt for) the poor. Is it not the rich who domineer over you? Is it not they who drag you into the law courts?
    ⁷Is it not they who slander and blaspheme that precious name by which you are distinguished and called [the name of Christ invoked in baptism]?
    ⁸If indeed you [really] fulfill the royal Law in accordance with the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself, you do well.

⁹But if you show servile regard (prejudice, favoritism) for people, you commit sin and are rebuked and convicted by the Law as violators and offenders.    ¹⁰For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.
    ¹¹For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the [whole] Law.^{(B)
    12}So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].

¹³For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.    ¹⁴What is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no [good] works [to show for it]? Can [such] faith save [his soul]?
    ¹⁵If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,
    ¹⁶And one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?
    ¹⁷So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
    ¹⁸But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.
    ¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as ^[a]make a man's hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!

^{(I started repainting this piece of furniture today...more to come)}

²⁰Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless?
    ²¹Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac?^{(C)
    22}You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works.
    ²³And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God's will in thought and deed), and he was called God's friend.^{(D)
    24}You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].
    ²⁵So also with Rahab the harlot--was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route?^{(E)
    26}For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.

(Amplified Version) 

Week in Review

 Well, it was just as I suspected... a crazy week. We all managed to make it and actually had lots of fun!!

 Adelyn spent most of the week pretty upset about some teeth she is getting in. It's some of her bottom molars. It looks pretty painful so I don't blame her a bit. I just try my hardest to be patient with the whining!

 I am going to try to do a recap the best I can. :) Monday, we went to the park to have a picnic. It was very hot but we really didn't mind at all. Monday night VBS started! The whole video for VBS can be found here.

 Tuesday, we went to the store after meeting the Kirby Woods team for lunch. This is what happened or I guess I should explain. Adelyn was having a major meltdown and all she wanted to do was to lay on the gross walmart floor so I gave up and I just stood there for what seemed like an eternity to wait for her to get up. It's funny now....not so much then though.

Tuesday night, I decided to take Annabelle with me to VBS because all she could talk about were the puppets all day long since she saw them on Sunday. She had a blast and so she came with me the rest of the week. So fun! I couldn't believe the forecast this past few weeks and especially this week. The weather has been wonderful. Just perfect in my opinion!

 Wednesday, we tried to chill at home and color. Annabelle is working hard on her "A's."

 And I just could not get over how big she looked in this outfit. I guess it was the jeans but she just looked so grown up!

I have been thinking about taking down our baby gate. The only problem is that our stairs are sooo tall, if one of the girls was to fall all the way down them they would most probably get really hurt. I took this video of them playing on the stairs. They just love it! Later in the week, Annabelle pushed Adelyn down the stairs so needless to say, the gate is back up.

 Again, Annabelle had the time of her life. I can't wait until she is really old enough to go!

  

Wednesday night after VBS, we had SUMMER JAM for the youth group. This was my view from the stage. I had the chance to lead worship again, something I haven't done since the Purity Event. 

I was overwhelmed with emotion and so thankful for the opportunity. I miss leading worship so much but I know I am doing the right things but not doing it right now. I cannot wait to sit and write about all the things I have learned from this season.

 Thursday was the last night of VBS and we were pooped but Friday was my birthday!! YAH!! I got this message from my dad on my birthday and it was so precious to me and I took a picture of it with my phone and had to post it to remember. Sweet memory and sweet birthday this year.

 On Saturday, I ran in the Marysville 5k for pediatric brain tumors. It was so fun. My friend Brandy has gotten me back into running and I am so thankful. I forgot how much I like it! I also thoroughly enjoyed the race setting. I so desire for my focus all to be on Him and it's hard for me with races. Idk. I looked up lots of verses on running that morning in the bible my favorite being Hebrews 12:, "Let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." I decided running is an awesome picture of perseverance in life. I'm still processing this...more to come...

 After the race we ran by the Westbrooks to look at their new beginnings to a patio and Adelyn decided to swing. She is still in her pjs (from daddy keeping her :) ) but she looked so adorable and big! How did my baby get so big so fast!!

 

This morning the girls actually walked into church by themselves and I had to snap a picture. This is a first ya'll!! After I looked at the picture, I realized it was hilarious. Annabelle insisted on having bows on both sides of her hair (which in my opinion look ridiculous but I was trying to not fight an unnecessary battle this morning.) Adelyn has two cereal bars in her hand because she simply cannot have just one of anything food wise. haha! The memories....

 

Tonight we spent some good time as a family soaking up the beautiful weather on our new patio (post to come I promise) and watching the girls swim! What a fun and busy week. This week is definitely more relaxed and I am so thankful for some rest.