A Friend Blessed My Heart Today!

A friend of mine shared this beautiful beautiful gift with me today.  I hope it blesses your day as much as it has mine :)  Enjoy life's little moments!

And They're Off...

How in the world did our baby girls get to be so grown up?  Why does it seem like time is going faster and faster?  These are all things that have been going through my mind this morning.

 We took  Hannah to her last first day of middle school today. She has turned into such a beautiful young lady.  She was not nervous what so ever and was really looking forward to getting back into school!  What a blessing it is to see her so EXCITED about school.  Hannah loves learning, loves so many of the teachers and administrators at the Middle School, and loves the social part of school!  So here we come 8th grade...Hannah is ready for you!

Allee started 4th grade.  Allee is our girl that is a little more reserved about school.  She would be perfectly happy staying home with us ALL day ;)  Once she is there she has a good time... it is just the getting started that she is always unsure of.  All summer long Allee and I have prayed that God will place her in a class with a Godly teacher and a good friend.  I think God has taken care of her in both of those departments :)...(Although I don't think you can go wrong with many teachers in our district)!  She told me yesterday that she keeps telling herself that this is God's plan for her ;)  I love knowing that she is putting her trust in him!

Emma was really EXCITED to be heading off to Kindergarten when I put her to bed last night.  She did AMAZINGLY well this morning when we dropped her off in her classroom.  Keeping her home with us last year was the BEST decision we made for her.  She just needed a little more time to get ready...truth be known, Mommy enjoyed that time as much as Emma did ;)  She is in very GOOD hands at school...which made leaving her at school a little easier for mommy!

Alright, I know there are many moms out there and probably a few of you that are reading our blog who will roll your eyes when I tell you that  I cried when I got back in the van after getting everyone dropped off.  There is something about the first day of school that always gets me.  Maybe it is the realization that our girls are growing up way too fast.  Maybe it's the fact that I feel like our girls are each a piece of me and when they aren't with me I feel like a piece of me is gone.  Maybe I just realize that they are that much closer to becoming adults and they won't NEED me like they do now.  I truly enjoy the time that I get to spend with our girls. I enjoy running them to practices and games. I enjoy them coming to work with me and helping me at the store. I enjoy picking them up from school and seeing their smiling faces. I enjoy cooking them dinner and eating at our table together. I enjoy being someone they feel like they can confide in. I enjoy reading them their devotions, praying with them and spending a little one on one time with each of them before I tuck them in at night.

As Jesse and I left the school.  I heard this song on the radio and it gave me a peace :)  Hope you all have a great day!

Camping Trip!

 We have wanted to go camping all summer but with the record breaking July temperatures we never were able to make it work.  It just so happened that the weekend before school was beginning was a PERFECT weekend to go!  So we loaded up and headed down to *Roaring River State Park.  It was a great place to camp with lots of things to do.  You could easily spend a week there!  Here are just a few pictures of what we were able to fit into our weekend trip :)

Mommy and The girls

Daddy with his girls

We were so proud of Emma for making the 1.5 mile hike 350 ft. up!
No complaining and she walked the whole way!!

Daddy and the girls in front of the natural spring.

SILLY FACES

Hannah caught her limit in trout!  The rest of us only caught 1 :)

Little Sis and Big Sis

Big Sis and Middle Sis ;)

Alright...funny story with this one!  As you can tell from several of our pictures Emma is going through the "FAKE" smile phase, so the big girls were all trying to make their best "Emma Smile"!  

Good Times with Old Friends and their Kiddos

We were able to enjoy time with some of our sweet friends and our whole crew of kiddos!  It's AMAZING that so many beautiful babies came from all of us :)  Thanks girls for such a fun day together!  I hope there are many more days like these!

We CELEBRATED Beyond Blossoms 5th Birthday!

 We celebrated the Birthday of Beyond Blossoms last Saturday!  It is so hard to believe that we have been working hard on this store for 5 years!  I saw some of these pictures and was shocked at how little the girls looked when we first opened!  WOW...the girls have literally been raised in the store :)  Thanks girls for being so helpful to your mama the last 5 years!  You all are turely a blessing!  Thanks to all of you who have helped us be successful! 

Allee and Emma the day before we opened!

Hannah, Chase, Allee, Grace, and Emma...These kids can run the place now :)

Spent the day CELEBRATING together!

Allee and Emma 5 years of working in the store!

We started a blog for Beyond Blossoms also!  Check it out!  beyondblossomsllc.blogspot.com

Hannah's Camp Experience

 Hannah absolutely LOVES church camp!  If you spend much time with her she will probably tell you that church camp is one of her FAVORITE places in the world.  She almost counts down the days until she gets to return.  This year they dug deeper into who the great I AM really is.  Hannah came home with some AMAZING news.  She feels like she is being called into the missions field!  She had expressed this to me before...but it became much clearer to her this year :)  God has got some big plans for this girl!  Right now we are just trying to enjoy and cherish every minute of watching her grow into the young lady that God has intended her to be! 

I Wanna be Your Feet...

Hannah on the AWESOME new zip line!



1 GREAT Group of Girls!



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I Wanna be your hands...