Happy Birthday to Lil E (Sept)

Happy 7th Birthday to my sweet sweet baby girl! Even though she is my oldest, and not such a baby, she will always be Momma's baby girl!





Lil E is such a tom boy who loves playin in the dirt and mud. She loves everything racing! She loves to do anything she can outside. She is all girly girl! She loves dress up, make up, and jewelry. She loves lalaloopsy, hello kitty, horses and peace signs. She loves art and crafts and listening to the Disney Station on the radio. She is a great helper and teacher to her little sister.




We are so blessed to get to be her parents!!!! I can't imagine life without her! Not one minute!

Below is several pictures from our photo shoot! I selected the snap shot in action to share to showcase her personality, and the fun we had. Not just the still shots. It was lots of fun.

Happy 7th Birthday Lil E! Mommy and Dad are very proud of you and love you so much and always will!


Hugs and Blessings,

Day 3

I'm having such a great time sharing and reading what others are so thankful for! So check out Garden of Learning for other's Gratitude Challenge Posts.

Today is a double Gratitude, but I couldn't have 1 with out the other. So today I'm thankful for being a Mom to my girls, and this wouldn't be possible without adoption, so as well, I'm thankful for the gift of adoption. It's never been a secret that my greatest desire in life was to be Mom. Medically/ Physically this was not possible for me to bear children from my womb, but instead God had a greater plan, and that was to make me a Mom via the most beautiful gift of adoption!

Many don't understand the adoption world, but even with every difficult and hard issue to get through, you are rewarded with the greatest gift, a beautiful child! A child that you can't imagine not having in your life! And I am telling you, I couldn't love my girls more if I had birthed them myself! They are so much me! They are just like me and even physically look like me! I love them unconditionally and they love me unconditionally! I can't imagine life without them! Not one of them. I love the silly things they do or say, the faith they have! I love how their sweet hugs and kisses my all my troubles fly away! They are perfectly perfect for us and I wouldn't have them any other way!

It wasn't an easy road, the yes no or maybe so, was hard in the waiting for the private adoption world..... Then the 2nd adoption was long and drawn out, as it was foster to adopt. And now baby 3 is dragging along in the state foster system as well! But with every headache, every heart ache, every tension headache (over the system), I have to remind myself, that not only am I blessed, by adoption and growing my family with my children, that I wouldn't have it any other way! And even though many say, to us, why do you keep doing it. Because for one our kids aren't perfect in their eyes, and that we in a way enable the bio mom. About enabling the bio mom, well I say, we are blessing the girls and keeping the sisters together! And they are our greatest blessing!!! And if that is how God wants to grow our family, then so be it! And when I hear you know your girls could have so many issues coming for a line like that, well that's true, and we have seen some things, but guess what.... God is BIGGER! And He will deliver the girls to victory! It is our job to care, love, and protect them, while teaching them the ways of Christ! It's a work in progress, but one I'm so very thankful for!

Lil E is the sweet oldest! Very shy and reserved! But not to be fooled, because she full of the wittiest sayings and can be so outgoing! (alot like me) She is very sensitive, just like me! We both get our feelings hurt so easy. But always full of life, a real thrill seeker! She loves nothing more than working on the race car with daddy and playing tag, or even thrill rides. But she also loves to cuddle up with Mom and watch a movie and play with her cat! She loves her baby dolls and pet toys. (little pet shop, zhu zhu, and fur reals). She loves horses and cooking and crafts! She is a wonderful artist! She is very smart! She loves Jesus and is very faithful and so intune to see and hear from our Lord. She loves to go and do stuff! She loves to be out and about!

Lil K is so full of being a silly clown! She is funny and always witty and a lot sassy! Or should I say confident in what she is saying and sharing in a very comical way! She is the people person and never meets a stranger! She loves music and can sing so many songs! She can hear the first couple of notes and tell you what song it is! She loves to play in the mud! Digging in the dirt is a favorite of hers! Yet, she can be such a girly girl! She loves to be home and doing things as a family. She would rather be home than out and about, unless it's going to Church. She is a sweet sweet soul! She is a little lover! But has a very head strong stubborn side! She is wild and crazy, wants it her way or no way.

Lil B I just can't wait to share all about the newest bundle of joy! But until I can know her, I can't share it! But I can tell you I can't wait to get my arms on that precious baby girl! Neither can her daddy and sisters!! And we are trusting God to bring her home, much sooner than expected.

So today, I'm so very thankful for not only my beautiful perfect in my eyes girls, but also for the most honored blessing in my Earthly life, adoption. We so see adoption as a high honor, by God, because he choice for Joseph to adopt Jesus, and if it was good enough for his son, then it's by far more than good enough for our family!!!

Hugs and Blessings,

Day 2

So if you want to join up in the 2011 Gratitude Challange, do you here. It's really awesome to share all we are grateful for with others!

pic taken Sunday night 10/30

Today I am so thankful for my most awesome husband!!! He is such a wonderful hard working man! He works hard, and even stays on night shift, because he can make more money, and htis allows me the chance to stay home with our girls. He is very much a Godly man! He wasn't raised this way, or to have faith, but I'm thankful for his Grandma's Bible that he was given and read and wanted more! He is my bestest friend! He is always there, and knows me through and through. He is my greatest cheer leader, and by far the greatest supporter I could have! He is more than I ever dreamed of!!! And to see the kind of father he is, only makes me love him more!!! He loves our girls and is open to more blessings through adoption! He never made me feel less than through any of our infertility or my female or even my other health problems. I can never love anyone else like I love him, because there is no one else that can be to me what he is!!!! He supports my dreams and desires, and we make an awesome team!!!! He completes me!!! He is truly my best friend!! He loves me even at my worst, and has always made me feel beautiful, (now at my smallest of us knowing each other, and my biggest), and we always have so much fun together, even when we are doing work! From work around the house or yard, and back in the day of us working together, to working on the race car! I really am blessed with the greatest man, I could have ever dreamed of!!! I am so thankful that God brought us together!!! And that we have kept God in our lives and even brought him to more importance for us, our marriage, and our family!! We aren't perfect, but we are truly soul mates!!! We have struggles and hard times, but we will always get through them, and after this past year, that has been proven to me!! All I can say, is Thank God for blessing me through my broken roads, beacause they led me straight to James!!! I love you James with all my heart and always will!!! Your arms are a favorite place for me!!!

Hugs and Blessings,

I'm so Thankful ~ Day 1

I will be taking party of this years Gratitude Challenge... Join on in here! I'm really excited to do this. I'm also doing something similar on facebook!

I'm so thankful for being a child of God! I am truly a princess of the highest King! I can not imagine my life without my Almighty Father! And he loves me and all of us so much that he gave us the GREATEST gift ever! His one and only son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior! He did this so that we are saved and have eternal life in Heaven!!! What a wonderful promise and gift! And because of that, I know that even though my dear Momma has passed on from earth that is is celebrating the greatest life possible in her forever eternal home! And One day I will join her and all the others that are waiting there! It will be a party like no other!

Today I started with a huge thankful blessing in my life, but without this, I'd be nothing and I'd have nothing!!

Hugs and Blessings,

Faithful Fridays ~ Listening when God speaks

oops, I started this yesterday and well, now I am just finishing it..... Sorry for the delay.

Want to check out other Faithful Friday posts, Check them out here!

I thought I'd share something with all of you this week on Faithful Fridays.... As most know we have moved many times in the last 6 years and have yearned for a Church home, but we try and try and nothing feels right. We were just going to stick it out at this place, but by the time the day was over, I couldn't tell you what we learned about at Church. I wasn't being fed! Life was getting crazy and hectic and what could go wrong was! But I keep faithful, and started a Bible Study with a dear friend. I knew that God our Heavenly Father was going to bring me to the right place so that we could live abundantly! In this all, we remained faithful and walked the walk.

After Lil E started public school, I made a new friend, and right away she asked if we wanted to try their Church! Like only the 3rd time she even spoke to me. And by speaking I mean very general talk while picking up our girls from School. We started standing on opposite sides of the area, but God moved us to the same area! First convo was her asking if I made the girls bows. Then Satan stepped in and kept us for talking the next couple of days, then we had sick girls that kept us home and not at school. So it was nearly a week before we had a 2nd time to chat. Funny thing is, God had already planted into my heart that I needed to find out in a round about way what Church they went to and give it a try. She just screams Proverbs 31 Lady! So of course when she asked, I said yes! Without even knowing anything more about the Church.

I first tried out the Women's Bible Study and feel in love! I couldn't wait to try Church! So it was off to Church their we went and WOW O WOW! I am so happy to say, that we have found a Church home! All of us are beyond excited and love it there! No one wants to even miss now! Before if we missed a day, it didn't matter so much. We weren't getting what we needed! Now we can't get enough!

But see if I had not been listening to God's seeds in me, I just might have not been eager to try a Church that someone I had only spoke to 3 times, invited me to! Because in my mind, I would have said, what if I didn't like it, I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings. Or I would have asked what type, and wanted to check out their Faith Statement and beliefs before I'd even consider trying it. But God spoke, and I listened (and it was something so not normal that I'd listen to) and then he spoke to her too! She listened and acted! We listened and now have a beautiful Church home and some awesome friends who share in our faith and walk with Christ! And it's so awesome!!!

So if you aren't being fed where you are, listen to God he will lead you where he wants you to go. He will make the way and open the door to that special Church, because he wants all his children to be in the word, walk the walk, have the fellowship, and be together in the body of Christ! He wants only the best for his children, but as his children, just like we want our children to do, we have to listen to his instructions!

Hugs and Blessings,

Faithful Fridays ~

I plan to start joining up each week with Faithful Fridays... If you want to join in or read other Faithful Fridays, just click the link and it will take you there. I want to share just how awesome our God is!

So tonight I am sharing something that happened just tonight.

Tonight we were driving home, and out of NO WHERE my dearly spiritually gifted and blessed Lil E, exclaims "Momma do you see Jesus? He is right there looking at me! Right out my window! See him, see him Momma. He is showing me Belle and her little feet. See her eyes. Momma Jesus is showing her to us! She is coming soon!!" ... WOW!!!! I had some super happy tears!!! Happiness that our little one will be home soon, but not just that, I am elated that my sweet daughter is that spiritually connected to our Lord, that she could see and feel him! And knew! But not only am I beaming about her and the message, but it made me start thinking, if we all had the faith of a child, just how much better we would be!! And how much closer we would be to God! And not only that, but it would please him so much!!!

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Matthew 18:3

And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

So that's is my work, to be more child like in my faith, so I can hear him better, see him better, and please him more!!!

Praising God for my 7 year old daughter who showed this very thing tonight!!

Hugs and Blessings,

Slow Cooking Thursday ~ Meatloaf

It's that awesome time of the week where I get to share another crock pot recipe with all of you, and also get other great recipes. So be sure to check out, Slow Cooking Thursday's @ Dairy of a Stay at home Mom.

Today I am going to share a recipe with all of you, that I just never thought I would do in a crock pot! As much as I love my crock pot, it never occurred to me to make a meat loaf there, then I found a recipe, well a few... And I was like I can do this with my own recipe and style. So here you have it.

Crock Pot Meat Loaf

2 1/2 lbs of Lean ground beef

1 small can of tomato sauce

2 TBS spicy brown mustard

2 TBS brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup of bread crumbs or crushed crackers

2 TBS worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, diced

Salt, Pepper, and Garlic to taste

Sliced American or Cheedar Cheese

a couple of slices of bread

Topping

1/4 c. mustard

1/3 c. ketchup

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Mix everything for the meat loaf in a large bowl, except the cheese and slices of bread. Spray your crock with non stick spray or use one of the crock pot liners. Place the bread on the bottom. Divide the meat mixture in half. form half for the bottom layer of the meat loaf. Place it on top the bread in the crock pot. Then place the cheese in the on top of the meat. But not all the way to the edge. Then add the other half the meat and make sure it's form together on the edges. Cook on low for about 7 hours. Then mix the topping together in a small bowl. Add to the top of the meat loaf and cook for another hour.

I hope you and your family enjoy our favorite styled meat loaf, and what's better than it being so easy to throw in the crock pot and not have to worry with it all day!

Hugs and Blessings,

First Day of School

We had planned to kick off our official first day of school after Labor Day... Then when we started doing mini days and things went crazy around here. I had to do something that I never wanted to do and was pretty much against! (against for us) And We put Lil E in public school!!! So on Aug 29, she started her first day of school! She is in kindergarten and doing GREAT!


She was so ready and eager to go!

Mommy and her big girl!!! Man time flies! My Baby girl is growing up!!!

Daddy and his girl!


As she was walking into the school.....


and by her locker.....


And by her desk.....

She was so excited and happy to take on this journey! She was scared and nervous too! But she has blossomed and is shinning! She has made a great friend and is doing really well at school!!!

I now know without a doubt, God lead us here, because it's the top rated public school around here! And it was like really stepping back in time. They still do a moment of silence each morning so the kids can say a prayer. They do the pledge for both the US Flag and the Texas Flag and then the silence! It really is an awesome place! Even though it wasn't my dream or plan, I'm thankful we are here if I was going to have to send her to public school!

And I hope that maybe one day home school will work out for us again. Either way, it's in God's hands and I just want the very best for her!!!

Hugs and Blessings,

Our Aug as we ended Summer

After our mini vacation with my family and my Scentsy Convention, it was back home to enjoy some time with daddy!! I hate when I am out of town and we don't get to spend lots of time together. He is the GREATEST!!!!

No real importance of this picture, but just that I love it! My sweet sweet girls!!! They are my world!!!

Is it really a storm? Are we about to get some rain? ...

With the storm near us (it missed us), there was Thunder and lightening and Lil K did not want to hear it! So just look what her awesome big sister did!
Lil E had her sister dressed up in her fairy princess and then when the thunder was bother Lil K, E put her ear phones on to Lil K and held them and her sister so that she wouldn' t be scared by the Thunder!

I couldn't go to Scentsy and pass up these shirts for the girls! Being as Lil E always wants a Scentsy shirt, I knew it was a must! They are my Scentsy Girls! They love everything about Scentsy! And love to help me sort and label shipments.

Aren't they the cutest lil Mommy's Scentsy Girls around? I sure think so!

And how could we let summer end without more fun at as a family in the front yard!

There's nothing more fun that playing in the sprinkler! It always makes me smile and still takes me back to my childhood.

Oh my, someone had been playing so hard, she had to relax for a bit! But don't be fooled, it wasn't too long of a rest, she was up and running again!

And Lil K found a blow flower, as she calls it!

One weekend, we spent painting on the hood of Daddy's race car! How awesome it was for the girls!!!

It wasn't just the girls who painted, both mommy and daddy painted a lil too. So here's our painted hood! It's so so so special to me!

Just as a little proof of how much racing is a part of all of us, check out Lil E as she is busy racing herself! In her super cool mustang! And btw, she is drawn to mustangs more than any car out there! We have even tried to trick her to see if she would know a mustang in other years and she hasn't been wrong yet.

And Lil K has to have some time to do her favorite thing, play in the mud! I flooded more than just the yard when I left our sprinkler on, and it made her day! As she had a lot of mud to play in.

This is one of my most favorite pictures of her in the mud. I just love it!

It was the night before Lil E was to start school, and we are making some last minute summer memories!

Our world will change as Lil E starts school and summer is over as we know it!! But I am so looking forward to fall! As it's starts my most favorite time of the year!

I hope everyone had a great Aug, and is looking forward to an awesome fall full of blessings!

Hugs and Blessings,

Bible Study

I am so excited, I joined a new Women's Bible Study yesterday with my new found friend! It was the best Bible study I have ever joined and I am so excited and looking so forward to next week! It's about being Women of Destiny! Being the woman God wants you to be in all aspects of your life!!! And I learned so much! Even stopped and thought tonight before I said something rude to James. Because he didn't listen to what I said 3 times already. Normally I would have popped something off like "Do you even listen to me" or "you wouldn't be lost if you would have listened to one of the first 3 times I have said this". But instead I stopped and just answered him, because I don't know what or why he didn't hear me. And is it worth being rude, or is it better to be Godly and just answer the question? So I did that, I just answered him. And I'm sure it was the fact he was in a bad area and his cell phone cut out, but before I wouldn't have cared about why. I also could see and feel my momma's presence with me at Bible Study and I knew she lead me there! And I am so thankful that I listened to God speaking to me, because I would have maybe not had this chance.

I have also been ding the Celebrate Recovery Bible study with my friend. And I have learned so much about myself and my life! It's not all about an addiction. I really think this is a very powerful and helpful Bible Study for all to do.

What Bible Study are you doing? Are you enjoying it as much as I am both of the ones I am doing.

Hugs and Blessings,