My Mother's Day

After a truly amazing GCC service,
Brittani surprised me with lunch at Brewster's Italian Cafe in New Buffalo

I love how quaint this place is and the food was awesome!!! They start out serving fresh Italian bread with grated mozzarella and olive oil and they have these really cool bread sticks which are the size of straws. For my meal I had their house salad and turkey sandwich and Brittani had soup and their Roma pasta.

Afterwords we took a drive along the lake [which makes my heart ohhh so happy] and on our way home we stopped at a place called "Oinks" for a lil ice cream treat.

I also was given an unbelievably beautiful card along with some awesome perfume...
but the BEST part of it all was getting to spend the day with MY VERY BEST FRIEND!!!

Thanks again Brittani...I love you beyond words!!

[christmas]

Last weekend we went to Ann Marie [my dad's cousin] and Lamar's house for a family Christmas party. I had a really great time seeing everyone and especially loved their tree and these villages with a working train!

LOL...Lamar sent my dad on hunt to first find King Kong then he had to find a campfire. The little campfire was the hardest to find ;]

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Last night we celebrated Christmas with our family [which was wonderful!!!] watch Brittani's blog for pics...then Dad, Mom, Brittani and I went to the 11pm service at GCC [which was AMAZING!!!]

Check out the pics from Mark Beeson's blog...
better yet you can watch the service HERE

The 11pm service is my favorite because when we're at the candle lighting part it's Christmas morning!! I'M TELLIN YA...THERE'S NO BETTER WAY TO RING IN CHRISTMAS!! Then after the service we went to IHOP for hot chocolate...pancakes and french toast [yum yum]

Ok...

Now to my shocking SURPRISES...
I pretty much wanna sing the theme from Vonage [the woo hoo woo hooo hooo song]

BRITTANI SURPRISED ME WITH MY VERY OWN
iPod Touch!!!!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how shocked I was...so yeah...I pretty much cried!!


Then to top it off...
she made me this amazing work of art to go above the fireplace!!


And the cherry on top was a huge print of my all time favorite pic of her for my bedroom!!!

ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I'M SO BLESSED!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at Brandee and Terry's...

Another amazing job on the turkey sis...it rocked!!!

The look of "ohhh we've had too much to eat"
well except for Kyle ;D

Mom lovin Dad

Looks like Peyton's gonna break out in an all out cry
but seconds later...

he's smiling and loving his Brittani :D

Uncle Bubby playin the "p u stinky feet"

Britt givin Kyle some lovin after he bumped his ear

Ok Aunt Angel on the count of 3...

We had a really great time together!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE 3 MEN IN OUR LIVES...

...it's so nice to see a pole in his hands rather than a hammer!!







LOVE IT!!





...each day starts and ends with family!


LOL...Kyle was a lil wiped out :D

A FATHER'S GUIDE TO CHANGING A DIAPER...

Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.
~Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

Our God Reins...

ROMANS 6:8-11
(The Message)

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

Valentines...

Ok...these last 2 Valentine Days have been horrible!

Because of what happened with Morgan on Wednesday, I didn't get to the store to buy flowers for Brittani. So my plan was to get up really really early yesterday morning to run to Martins so I could surprise her when she woke up but I woke up with a splitting headache and barely made it to work on time :[

So after work I ran to the Martins by my office hoping something would be left...

They had a few huge bouquets left but I kept going back to this little bundle of roses...I think everyone bypassed them because they were pretty sickly looking but I thought the slight hit of pink around the rim of the petals were gorgeous...so I bought them!

My dad was a florist so I've picked up on the lil secrets...
It only took about 1/2 hour after I arranged them for them to perk into this...

and they smell AMAZING!!!
*click on the pic to enlarge and you can see the detail around the rim

When you can see through the outer layer...that's where you'll find the true beauty ;]

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve.
Middle age is when you're forced to. ~Bill Vaughn


An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.
A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan


Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. ~Author Unknown


A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

Merry Christmas

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 AMP).

This was a very Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a blessed one as well!

I'm not crazy...

...just a lil excited!

Here's the new ornament I was telling you about...isn't it cute :) I couldn't just leave 'em in the box for the next 2 weeks sooooo...


I gave 'em a home...


these skates with the fuzzy trim are what I picked out
for my special ornament from last year...


I couldn't figure out why the tree looks so different this year and then it dawned on me...no red walls :)

Aawwwww...

Sneak peek...

Every year Brittani and I pick out 1 new Christmas ornament for each other...
Last night we spent quite awhile at Hallmark looking through all their gorgeous ornaments...I was having a hard time deciding which one I wanted...that is until I walked around the corner and THERE IT WAS!!

It's Rudolph and his mom...nose to nose
and his nose really lights up :)
(I'll take a pic of the actual ornament when it's on the tree)

As a kid I always looked forward to watching Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman on TV and as a mom...it was even better creating great memories with Brittani!!

Without a doubt this is my favorite time of year and now I'm really looking forward to celebrating the "New" this season...

* Fresh new start...in our new home...new outlook...new business adventures...and Brittani's new journey after graduation!!

I'm so thankful for God's unbelievable Grace!!!

4th of July

Check out this cool cloud!


We were out chasing fireworks Wednesday night

and we saw this awesome cloud...what was cool about it was that it was having it's own fireworks show. We were bummed...every time Brittani glanced up from the camera it threw another lightning bolt but she couldn't catch it.

She did get some pretty cool shots on her camera so hopefully she'll post them :)

Pre 4th of July...

After work we decided to head up to Silver Beach to take some sunset pics
but it ended up being cloudy...we still had a great time.
I love love love the beach!!

When we got home we were greeted
by a lil impromptu neighbor party...
we have the greatest neighbors!!

This is Amanda's dog Libby
...and this is Libby's chair!

Angie

Tom and Bill

Brittani and Amanda


Morgan and her boyfriend Levi
(Angie and Bill are Levi's humans)

aawww sneakin a lil kiss kiss ;}

Cricket say's "...he's mine!!"

HAPPY FATHERS DAY...

WE LOVE YOU DAD!!!

(this is the look you get when you beg for a cheezer grin)

but look who ends up gettin him to cheezer ;}


Great Granpa's expression's like..."Huh?!?

Happy Dad's Day Bubby!


Happy Dad's Day Terry!!





Ok...now it starts out being ON the water...




Which then leads to being IN Brandee's water...


Then on dry land...
Granpa tries to help Kyle get daddy with the water balloon



But daddy then tries to get mommy back with the water balloon...


Mommy returns fire and daddy starts to flee :}



What a great day!!