A Special Day

Ben and I have been on a spiritual journey, really, all our lives, but more intensely in the last couple of years.  All of that became public on Sunday, June 5th, 2011 as we were baptized in small, sweet ceremony with most of our closet friends.  A year or so ago when we made the choice to make Georgia our home, we immediately knew we wanted to become members of our church.  But after speaking to them, we lacked being baptized after we had made our commitment to Christ at a younger age.  Ben was baptized as an infant in the Presbyterian church he was raised in, but not by immersion.  I was baptized in a Baptist church when I was seven, but couldn't even remember the date or really, for the most part, the experience.  And I had been questioning within the last few years whether or not I should be re-baptized now that I understood more about the commitment.  But we really struggled with the fact that our church, not God, was requiring us to be baptized.  For the last year or so we thought about it, prayed about, talked about it with family and friends until we finally came to the conclusion, really I think it was God changing our hearts about the issue, that we wanted to make this public profession.  We did it to become members of our church, so we could raise our girls telling them we were members.  We did it so that they would see this as a step of obedience, so that hopefully someday they too would choose to do the same thing.  We did it because we love the Lord and we felt it was time.  It was the perfect way for us to do it.  We had a great friend and counselor, Bruce, perform the baptism at our Sunday school teacher's pool.  Most of our friends and their children were there.  These people mean the world to us.  They are a special group!  Our girls were there, little feet splashing in the pool, waving to us as we stood in the water.  After we were both baptized little Lindsey shouted, "You did it!"  Such a precious moment.  Such a great day.  So memorable.  Perfect for us.

Shoes

The girls did a little shoe parade for us the other night.  The whole time they were parading in and out of our closet I kept telling myself that I needed to get me lazy tooshie off the couch and go get the camera, but I didn't.  And as it was happening, Ben and I commented on how these were the things we were going to miss down the road. That still didn't convince us to leave the comfort of the couch to get the camera.  Once the shoe show was complete and it was time for bed, I asked Whitney if they put the shoes away, back on the rack in our closet.  Being the compliant one she answered yes and off we were to tuck them in for the night.  It wasn't until a couple hours later when we were heading to bed that we found their "putting away". 

This was too good not to get the camera.  Plus, I was already up off the couch, so I didn't really have an excuse at that point.  I love how the shoes are hanging from the rack.  And that most aren't with their pair.  And that some are lying down on the rack.  Some are shoved under the rack.  And still some didn't even make it to a rack at all.  Funny thing too is that I remember Whitney bellowing to me during her clean up process that "Mommy!  Lindsey just keeps making a mess with the shoes!"  Hmmmm....I wonder what Lindsey was trying to do to contribute to the process.

P.S.  I'm proud to say that after a few days, the shoes still look like this :)

A Parade

Yesterday we went to the Dacula Memorial Day Parade.  Usually our Sunday School class walks in the parade, but this year we all decided to gather and watch it.  The kiddos absolutely loved it, scrambling to get as much candy as they possibly could, inching out closer and closer into the parade route with each toss of candy.  The kids ended up at least three feet over the designated white line they weren't supposed to cross.  :)  Whitney was fixated on the candy, but she did say her favorite thing was the princesses that came by.  Lindsey, on the other hand, was content with the one tootsie pop she got and sat back with me to watch the parade.  She loved the tractors and the band.  There was all the typical parade stuff, bands, tractors, princesses, horses, cars, but my personal favorite was a local taxidermist advertising with a pickup bed full of various stuffed animals.  It certainly was memorable advertising, and now I know where I need to go when I need a taxidermist.

Whitney, Raleigh and Lindsey

Sweetness

Face painting and snow cones

Getting ready to start the gathering

Boots

The girls and I went to go check on our garden.  We needed our boots, of course.  Daddy liked us in our boots.

Ribbon Day at Gymnastics

Check her out.  On the podium at gymnastics.  She graduated to the next level.  From Tumble Tots to Jumping Jacks.

32

I'm 32 now.  Almost halfway to 35, which is halfway to 40...weird.  I had a wonderful day/week though.  My parents came to town with my Grandpa Ray and Grandma Joyce.  They live in Toledo, so I haven't seen them in a really long time, they hadn't even met Lindsey, so it was great seeing them again.  Whitney had fun playing airplanes with her Grandpa and Great-Grandpa.

 The hubs did a good job on the birthday front.  First he got me a chocolate cake.  He can NEVER go wrong there.  Then we went to dinner at a nice restaurant called Canoe.  We had rabbit and pheasant, very delish.  But the best was sneaking away for a night at a hotel downtown and totally vegging out.  We ate pizza, watched a movie and slept in really late the next morning.  So refreshing.  The next day we went to the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival which consisted of two full hours of completely gorging ourselves with fancy food.

Heading out to dinner at Canoe

We Are Warriors

So there's this thing called, the Warrior Dash.  It's a race, an obstacle course race, a little over 3 miles, through water, mud, up and over half walls, under barbed wire, up muddy hills with flowing water, up and over 15 foot walls, over a rope course, over logs floating in the water, a giant slip n' slide, oh, and leaping over fire...And a BIG part of the race is dressing up.  You see all kinds of things there, let me say that again ALL kinds of things.  It was the first time Ben and I got to do it.  Last year we were supposed to join, but Ben was injured so we couldn't.  And last year our friends dressed up in Gwinnett County bright orange jail jumpsuits.  They were a big hit!  This year, well, we went as prom dates...

The guys, I mean, girls, I mean, guys?

Girls? Guys?

Matt was trooper, see, his wife, Alisa is pregnant so she wasn't participating so that left Matt dateless, in a dress...Good sport!

Some of our crew, Britton climbing in the car in the foreground, Matt in the green and white, Chris and Kim coming out of the car.  In the back you can see Ben in the bright red on top of the car.

The wall, me and Mandy going up...

And coming down.  What you don't see is the 30 seconds of us contemplating life at the top thinking we were going to die up there.

Jumping the fire!

All finished. And dirty everywhere!  But so much fun!



Pool Time

It was another scorcher today so we broke out the kiddie pool.  The girls loved it!

Friends

Whitney had her little friend Samantha over to play yesterday.  It's hard for me to think that we are at that stage in life where our kids have friends come over or they go over to a friends.  We are old...Anyway, Samantha goes to school with Whitney.  They are silly little girls and just giggle all the time.  It's been steamy down here the last couple of days, and we had sod put in so the sprinkles are running around the clock, so it was the perfect time to go play in the water!

I Love Being a Mommy!

Mother's Day was so sweet.  My hubby and my girls made it special.  First church, then a picnic in the park with take out from Mimi's Cafe, one of my faves.  Then a Mother's Day nap, probably my favorite part of the day.  Then we headed over to The Hendersons house to have the first ever Mother's Day men cook off!  All the men cooked and everyone voted.  Winner took home a horse trophy.  It was fabulous.  Ben was going to cook some stuff, but after much thought and with my blessing he "made" Zaxby's chicken fingers (with Zax sauce, it's a must), fried rice from Ninja, and Snicker ice cream bars.  All some of my favorite foods!  Mandy's brother Greg won, but I will say, most of all Ben's food was gone.  We all consumed enough food for the entire nation. It was great!  I am blessed to be a mommy and thankful that the Lord trusts me with His children.  They are growing up so fast.  Special girls.  Wonderful times...

Yummy! Good!

It's strawberry time again!  So delicious!

Sweet friends. Kallie and Whitney.  (And two side ponies, or sided pony tails as Whitney calls them)



Garden

We started a garden with our neighbors, the Mocks.  This is our first attempt at a garden so we'll see how it turns out, but it sure looks good now!  We planted corn, tomatos, red peppers, peas, zuchinni, yellow squash, watermelon and cantalope.  The girls did a great job pushing in the seeds and covering them up.  Whitney especially loved it and took great care in getting the seeds cozy under the ground.  Can't wait for the deliciousness we have coming our way!!!

Ben was really diggin' our outfits, rain boots and capris...