april here and gone....

i seriously cant believe how fast this month has gone by.... i am going to do a quick recap with photos of our month.

at the beginning of april, papa p came up for a board meeting for the camp and got to come a day early. we enjoyed his company and playing with him at Fun Expedition.
we have been enjoying the park and picking dandilions and making wishes :)
brenna taught herself how to swing! serious! it took raelyn forever to learn and then the other day brenna hopped up on the swing and said, mommy, watch this. and just did it. she said raelyn taught her. she learns so much from the big kids.
the girls and i have been enjoying the back yard. i love mowing the lawn and working in the garden.
the caterpillars came out in full force this year. one morning after a big storm they were just EVERYWHERE. the kids loved it. i thought it was a little creepy. this is just one small cluster of them.
i got a new rug for our family room. an AWESOME deal. i love when i find great bargains. it is a wool rug though and is going through a shedding process. i read up on this and i guess it is normal but it sure is a mess right now.
snuck a few pics of a precious sleeping baby. she likes to cuddle her blankets now. i love watching my kids while they sleep.... and its oh so quiet :)

jori loves her daddy and his hat. she talks and giggles with him all the time.
we got a trailer full of black mulch and the girls helped me with it. raelyn loves to be dirty! this girl was black from head to toe. when i put her to bed that night she said, this was the best dirty day ever!
jori turned 9 months on april 20th! cant believe it. i miss her babyness already. more pics of her 9 months coming up soon.
garret received an awesome package from our friend who is over in Iraq right now. Captain Shipley and his crew from the hospital sent garret a shirt that they all signed. garret has been praying for the Shipleys every night and Jody wanted to thank him. what a GREAT thank you. garret was so proud of his shirt.

i made this fun little bunny shirt. one for rae and one for brenna. they were really easy and fun. i want to make a few more of them with different shapes. here is the link i found to make the shirts.
april 22 we all headed to florida on a PLANE! the kids had a ball. they had a great time on the planes and an even better time with their aunts and uncles in florida. i had a great time with my brothers and sisters too.
more on easter to come a little later.
april 27 tornados hit our area, we were safe but just up the road from us there is terrible damage. i am so thankful and grateful for our safety but so sad for my "neighbors".

april 28th my wallet was stolen out of my car at the park, my stomach is in knots about it. makes me feel very uneasy.

april 29th garret had his second annual American Cancer Society Mini Relay for Life. his school raised $31,000. and second grade brought in the most money :) so proud of him. you can read about our walk from last year here. i am sad to say that Mr. Todd lost his battle with cancer last year, but rejoicing is saying the Mr. Bakers lasts tests have come back clean. We continue to pray for complete healing for him.

april 30 my parents celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary. hope you guys have a wonderful celebration. Love you LOTS.

so that is our month..... that seems like a long post but a really short month. hope to stay better kept in may.

scary night

i sit here in my completely intact house, with the power on, kids watching cartoons all morning and i'm in shock of the night we had last night. we spent most of the night watching the news reports of tornados all around our area. we even got the kids up out of the bed and spent some time in our downstairs bathroom all together. the Lord protected us and i am so grateful but so many people are not sitting in their dry homes with the electricity on right now. the county we live in, greene county, was hit hard last night with severe thunderstorms, hail and tornados. the area that was hit the hardest was camp creek, just about 15 minutes from us. dave is actually working on an addition on a house out there. so he has spent much of his time recently in camp creek.

people have lost homes, farms, animals, cars and even their lives. dave is out there now checking on the house they are working on. i got a call from him and he said the house is fine, but MANY are not. he and his crew brought chain saws out too and are helping cut up trees.

my heart aches today for the people who have lost so much. i pray for them and their families and am so thankful for the lord protecting mine. i feel guilty for having so much right now.

praying for:

the rescue teams still looking for people trapped in debris

the families that have lost their homes, especially the children

the families that have lost loved ones

the role my own family can play, lord show me whatever it is that we can do to help

here is a link to our local news paper if you want to read it.

spring.... i think

it has been a kind of weird spring here in greeneville. we have had some really warm days in the 80's and then the very next days were back in the 30's. we have had huge wind storms and thunderstorms and beautiful clear blue sky days. still none the less, i see the earth around me changing colors and sprouting new life. the above picture is of our cherry blossom tree in the side year. i anticipate its beautiful blooms each spring.
and this is pretty much all that is left of the flowers after a large storm, just petals on the ground. but even just petals on the ground i think they look pretty.

i love my hosta plants! i cant wait to see their big, thick vibrant leaves, but even just as little buds i think they are so awesome.
oh the dog woods! such creative little blossoms this tree has. i just cant help but think about God and what an incredible artist he is.
this is a little sprout that will soon be a lily. they were here when we moved into this house about 4 years ago and i look forward to them bringing new blooms each spring.

hopefully we can expect to stay out of the freezing weather now until next winter. i am just ready to be warm and stay warm for awhile.

thanks for walking through my garden with me.

and the angels rejoice

i am embarrassed to be posting this GREAT GREAT news so long after the fact but on July 30th, 2010 Garret prayed and asked our Lord to be HIS Lord and Savior!

we had communion at church the week before and he watched dave and i take part and i told him to just pass the plate on and that he couldnt take it at this time. he asked why and i explained that it was only for people who have asked Jesus to come into their hearts and be their savior. he told me he had and i said we could talk about it more after church.

when dave and i talked with him, he was so calm and serious. his mind and words were clear and it was evident that he understood what Christ had done for him and was ready to make the decision to follow him and live his life with His guidance. dave asked garret if he wanted to pray with him and garret said no, he wanted to do it on his own. so he prayed the most genuine prayer.... and the angels rejoiced!

and so did we!

we were so proud of him. this all happened on Friday and then at church on Sunday morning he said he wanted to get up in front of the congregation and let them know of his decision. he follows in his momma footsteps when it comes to shyness so we were so proud of his decision to do this as well.

our friend snapped this photo of us after the service.

right after this is when school had started school and we were all having such a hard time with his original second grade class. i was sad as i felt that the spiritual warfare for his heart had already begun. i was also encouraged by this in a way.... the devil knows he is a threat now! He has Christ on his side. we pray for you daily garret and pray that you will always seek the Lord. through Him ALL things are possible our prayer for you is that you love him with all your mind, heart and soul.

love you so much, Garret!

master bedroom

finally a few pictures of the master bedroom. i just finished this painting for our room and feel like now it is complete. the weather has been really yucky here and the room was dark when i took these photos so they arent super crisp, but you get the gist.


i created this fun wall with thrift store frames too. and notice the chair :) more on this little wall coming soon.

thanks for looking.

a diamond in the rough

while mom was here a few weeks ago we stopped at a used furniture store to look for a small chair for my master bedroom. we came across this gem. ha ha.

the guy gave us a deal on it so we got it for a steal. only $15. it was in pretty good shape but i wanted to paint it and recover it, so we got to work pulling it apart in hopes to get it back together :)
enjoying the sunshine!
we spray painted the chair black and found bargain fabric at Hobby Lobby. i used spray adhesive to put the fabric on the outside of the chair and used a staple gun for the inside/front side and seat of the chair.
i sanded some of the black paint off to try to make the chair look a bit antiqued. then i took some stain and went over the entire chair. i really like how it made the wooden part of the chair look.
i am super pleased with how it turned out, and that it cost less than $25 total. i will be posting pics of it in the room soon.