He is SOOOOO Good!!

I love God.  I love everything about Him.  

I love His love for us.  I love His provision for us.  

I love how He heals in ways I didn't know possible.  

I love that He is the God of the mountains and the valleys, too.  

This has been an awesome weekend/Monday (yes, Monday!) and I just wanted to reflect on how awesome He is.  This weekend, I realized that with the strength and healing that only God can give, my battle is over.  It's done.  Finished.  It is no more.  

And I give God the glory.

This morning, for the first time ever, I put sweet Lynnsie's hair in pigtails. Two of them.  And they curled up so sweet and perfect and pig-taily.  Some of yoiu know why this brought tears of joy to my eyes.  I would love to share in depth with you why, so you can know the details of praising God about this, 

but I have to respect my child's privacy.

And I give God the glory.

We had a wonderful afternoon in the French Quarter as a family.  Life has been so busy for weeks, maybe months, even.  And a nice, fun afternoon full of coffee, hot chocolate, and fresh beignets smothered in powdered sugar was the perfect solution to this craziness we're in the middle of.

I love this picture because, the last time I was at Cafe du Monde, I ate with Lynnsie

in my lap.  Only she was about 10 weeks old and in the b'jorn.  And her head

was covered with a paper towel :)

Creek never did figure out why he couldn't have beignets and

hot chocolate, too.  The goldfish just weren't cutting it for him.

This man played some awesome jazzy music on his saxophone.

I love saxophones.

That one section of beignet is left because if fell off of the plate

onto the table and the tables probably aren't the cleanest, just a quick wipe down with a reused wet rag between customers....

And I give God all the glory.

Keep Calm and Go Bananas!!!!!

  So, my handsome little man turned 1 this week.  Bittersweet.  Don't get me wrong, I'm completely happy that he is healthy and growing and getting bigger and we're a whole year closer to being potty trained...but why does he have to do it so fast??  Isn't there a way to get him to slow down just a little bit?

  We had his birthday party today...sock monkeys!!  I just love the "keep calm and go bananas" quote.  I think it's because it describes my life for the last 4 years and for the foreseeable future.  Anyways, my original plan had been a sock monkey birthday party - for months this is what I've wanted to do. But then I decided all brown and red decorations would be boring and I wanted more color, so I switched to the Paul Frank "Julius" monkey and found lots of cute, colorful decor.  But then I couldn't find anything for Creek to wear and I really, really wanted him to have a monkey shirt to match his theme, so I switched back to sock monkey because I found an adorable applique and an awesome lady to do it.  And just went with some solid blues, red, and yellows for the decor.  We had a blast!!

Birthday banner of some of my favorite pics of him throughout the past year

Deliciously adorable cookie favors my friend, Mary, did for me

She made a "1" just for Creek

My friend, Amanda owns Sophisticakes - she's awesome!!
How cute is this birthday cake and matching smash cake?!

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Now the really good pictures start :)

I could love on this little guy all day long

Bounce house fun with Daddy!

Working on opening the goods.  He scored pretty big.  

We gave him a tractor.  I just really thought he needed a toy tractor :)

Adorable shirt made by Emmabella Designs.  You can find her on facebook :)

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First bite...

He's thinking he likes it pretty good, so.....

He just goes all in!!!!

On the verge of a sugar coma, I'm afraid!

He's completely covered in icing, but that just makes him even sweeter!!

Getting ready for the post birthday party wash-down

Because they're so stinkin' cute, too...

A Berry Fun Birthday Party

We had Lynnsie's 3rd birthday party two weekends ago and I still can't believe

we celebrated her THIRD birthday!!  She wanted Strawberry Shortcake...be still my heart, Strawberry was my absolute, total favorite when I was Lynnsie's age.  I had the bedspread, sheets, curtains...even a giant strawberry for a toy box.  So as I strolled her up and down the party aisle at Wal-Mart to pick out a theme, I promise you tears filled my eyes when she pointed and said, 

"Strawberry Shortcake!! I want Strawberry Shortcake!!!"

"Me, too!!", I thought :)

Lynns helped make her strawberry cupcakes

The centerpiece...a brand new baby picture and one
from our family photo session earlier this year.

The Strawberry Shortcake table...strawberry ice cream cups went on the
two empty green plates

Strawberry cupcakes topped with vanilla icing and fresh strawberries.

Chocolate dip and powdered sugar for strawberry dipping

The birthday girl did not enjoy being the center of attention while
everyone sang Happy Birthday to her :)

Her friends eating cupcakes and ice cream

It doesn't matter whose party or where it is...Lynns is the last one
to finish eating because she is not gonna waste a single cupcake crumb
or drop of ice cream...this sweet girl has a very sweet tooth :)

The goodies from her friends and family!!

We got her a scooter (Sorry it's so blurry!)

She got a new suitcase you can ride on :)

I made some pink and green paper bunting
 (although it doesn't look too green in the pic
because of the flash) to hang behind the presents.

Strawberry Twizzlers for favors for our friends and family
who came to celebrate sweet Lynnsie's birthday!

We had a Berry good time!!

Summer 2012 Recap

Wow...I did not realize how busy we'd been this summer until I scrolled back 

through my camera a few days ago.  Here's a massive photo dump little photo recap...

We had picnics :)

We learned to crawl...

...and swim!!

We looked super cute while we watched out sisters learn to swim :)

We went to the softball field to watch Jacob play.

We loved each other

We became super heroes at the Savannah Smiles Spelling Bee

Mawmaw and Pawpaw came for a visit

We stayed caught up with current events.

We said "Bye for now" to best friends...

...and sent them to the mission field in Colombia with lots of love.

We made a rock garden.

We got sillier and sillier.

We got into stuff and my phone became a new favorite toy.

We got cuter and messier at the dinner table.

Celebrated the 4th of July and it completely wore us out!!
(Sorry, can't rotate the pics!!)

We started playing dress-up

We acted silly with each other

We found a new splash pad that we love!!

We went to TN and visited Gram and Papa

We started soccer!!

We got lots of kisses

We evacuated from a hurricane....

We snuggled a lot, too :)

And yesterday, our summer ended as we got our new backpacks
and lunchboxes ready for pre-K and Mother's Day Out