My Testimony

Today, we had a guest speaker at our church it was Caz McCaslin who is the founder of Upward Sports. If you are not familiar with Upwards it is a way for the church to reach the community by offer recerational sports, basketball, soccer, baseball, football and cheerleading, and also being able to share Jesus Christ with the kids and parents. This is an awesome organization and Caz has such a passion for kids and reaching them. One thing he spoke about today was about how he had a best friend in college and they did everything together and spent pretty much every spare moment together, but one thing he said is he never during the first two years of their friendship did he share the one thing that meant the most to him, which was Jesus. Caz posed the question to us and asked if we share Jesus with the people when we have opportunities to. I started thinking that I really don't take that chance as much as I should. So I thought since my blog has some viewers that I would share my testimony on here as a start and hopefully with this God will open more opportunities for me to share with others.

I was raised in a christian home, both of my parents were christians and they always made sure we knew and understood that God came first in our lives. Every Sunday and Wednesday i was at church learning about God and his son Jesus. When I was 9 years old i got saved. I remember starting to ask questions and trying to understand. I spoke to my pastor and we prayed together and I asked Jesus into my heart. Life to me didn't change much. I didn't have a revoluntary moment in my life, I just knew I believed in jesus and what he did and now that I was saved i would spend enternity in heaven with him when I died. Church to me when I was young was confusing, the hyms we sang didn't make much sense and the bible was full of thee's and thou's so it was hard for me to read the bible and understand so I think at some point I just decided it was easier to know I was a christian and let that be that instead of trying to build a relationship with Jesus. Church became a social thing for me and it was hard for me to stand up to my friends saying a I was a christian and speak about God because I really didn't know him. For the next better part of my life I just when throught life knowing God was there if I needed him, but as long as things were going good I didn't really give him much thought. Even thought I didn't show God much love or attention He still continued to work in my life by putting people in my life that were strong christians, one in particular was a co-worker Patricia. I worked with her everyday for 5 years and we became great friends but through her and her actions and words I started to realize that I was missing out on something with God. She had this amazing trusting relationship with God and it was all based on faith. Even though I started to see these things I still wasn't quit ready to turn my life back to God, to me things were going great and God was the person you went to when times were bad. I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to and I knew if I was going to follow God I would have to change things in my life and I just wasn't ready to do that. I first had to let go of my pride and the thought that I can handle everything going on in my life. It wasn't until I had our first daughter, Katie. I remember like it was yesterday. The day I had her and was holding her. I heard that small still voice inside of me, saying the love you feel for your daughter is just a small portion of the love God has for you. I started to realize at this time that God had to become a more important part of my life. Not only for myself, my marriage but for Katie and eventually Bree. I have two little girls that I am now responisble for in everyway and not given them the opportunity to know God and learn of Jesus love for us just didn't seem fair. I wanted my girls to have that chance, so even though my motives for church were more for them, God worked through this decision and has completely changed my heart. I see more now than every how amazing it is to love and serve Him. Anyone can go through life and have a great life without God, but life is just not the same. I have had the life without God in it and I know have the life with God as the center and our life is so much more blessed by having Him in our lives. Everyday I see how God works more and more in our lives and how the Holy Spirit gently guides me in my decisions and thoughts I have. I have always been a person that could just hang out in the back and be fine not being noticed, but it seems that God keeps pushing me to get out of that comfort zone. Even thought I fight Him all the way on this I am starting to realize that when I feel that nudge from Him I just need to do it and trust He will take care of the rest. So putting my testimony out here is a step in that direction and I will from time to time put other things like this on our blog when I feel God is leading me to speak what He has put on my mind.

Nothing Like Cheap Family Fun

Friday evening the four of us and are good friends Jeremy and Stefanie and their two kids Braedn and Lydia all went to a place we found called Kiddie Park. It is about 45 minutes away from us in the next town over called Bartlesville. We had heard that they have all these small kids rides, no admission fee, no parking fee and all rides are only .25 cents....could it really be true. Did such a place exist??? Well, we all set out see for ourselfs and can you believe it, it was all true. This was the neatest place, plus it agreed with Chris' frugile side so he was all for it. We bought $10.00 worth of tickets and still didn't use them all. The park is only open during summer months from 7-10pm in the evening. We stayed until 10pm and still had some tickets left over, but the good thing is they never expire so the next time we go back we can use them. To make the trip even better the food they have there is also inexpensive. The most expenisve thing is 2.50 which is nachos. Everything else is either a 1.00 or 1.50. Every Wed night they have a magician that does a show and every Friday night they have a group of clowns that make animals balloons, face painting, etc. The kids had so much fun riding as many rides as they could, we didn't get to all of them but hopefully we can go back one more time before they close for the summer. Here are a few pics from the evening.

Bree and Lydia riding the horses together. The both were shaking the reigns like crazy.

Katie and Braeden riding together. Braeden actually tried to ride on the horse infront. He thought that would be much funnier.

Hang on....going for a ride on a rollercoaster. This was Bree's first rollercoaster. I thought she would cry but she didn't. Katie and Braeden were screaming everytime we go up and down one of the hills.

Time for the carosel. Family favorite. Katie, Braeden, Stefanie and Lydia, who was hiding from me.

Can't forget me and Bree, we were in front of Katie so I snapped a pic of me and Bree riding.

A Giggle That Will Make You Giggle

This one will probably only interest the grandparents, but I wanted to share it. Bree, in my opinion, has a very contagious laugh. You can be in a bad mood and when you hear her laughter get going you can't help but smile or even laugh with her. Last night she was laying on the floor and started tickling her and well, I had to get a little video of her laughing. Also, she is showing off her big girl training panties. She has been doing so good with potty training. Some days are better than others. We are so proud of her and i am happy to see a light at the end of the tunnel on not having to buy diapers every again. Yeah!!!!!

Still Enjoying the Boat.

Last weekend we went back out on the boat. the girls have fallen in love with being on the water and fishing. We found a great beach area to take them to play so we having been going over to every time we go. Katie can fish and play in the sand. Bree started out hating the sand but has slowly warmed up to it. We also found a restaurant on the lake and grabbed a bit to eat while we were out. It was a fun afternoon. At first i wasn't sure how the girls would like being on the boat but it has actually turn out to be some great family time for us and they are loving it which makes it that much better.

Captian and Co-Captain...both looking so serious not sure why???

I took this one of me and Bree as we were cruising along. She loves the wind in her face and hair.

Weeee daddy go faster

Picture of the boat

Bouncing Party

My lovely, dear, sweet friend Joy says that I have been slacking on my blogging and I can't disagree with her so I am updating it with a couple of things we have done over the past couple of weeks. Joy, my mom is probably thanking you for saying something because I am sure she has been wanting to read something new also. Lova ya girl and I hope you are happy now. :)

The other weekend Katie and Bree got invited to her friend Braeden's 4th birthday party. Katie and Braeden are really good friends love to hang out together. Bree and Lydia, Braedens little sister are good friends. Everytime Bree sees her she yells Lyyyydia, its so cute. Braeden had a sea world party at the Bounce Barn. We thought it was so cute that Braeden had all girls at his party...he is a little ladies man.

The b-day group.. Bree, Marissa, Katie, Conleigh, Braeden, Shayli, Lydia and Campbell.

Taking a bouncing break for some pizza, fruit and cake. Yum.

Chris took on the job a storyteller. He was reading one of the new books Braeden got for his b-day

10 Years and Lifetime to Go

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary. It is amazing to me that it has been 10 years that we have been married. In many ways it doesn't seem like we could have been married this long and in others it seems like a lifetime, but in a good way. I look back today on the fact that when I met Chris I was only 18 years old, so young, but I saw something in Chris that not many people did. By looking back over our relationship I know that was only a blessing God gave to me at that time. I didn't even realize it unitl maybe this past year. God was working in our relationship from the moment we met, Chris and I just chose not to see what God was doing for awhile. But as always God is faithful to his children and in His time he reveiled to me exactly what His purpose was for us being together. God knew that Chris and I both had huge hearts to love others and serve others and he brought us together to carry out that purpose in life. The thing I love most is that wherever God wants to use us we will be there. I am so grateful and thankful for God's amazing blessings he has poured out on Chris and I. He has given us both the stregthn and desire to not let the world tear apart a marriage that He brought together. Chris is without a doubt my best friend, the one I can share anything with. He is my encourager and always supports me anything I want to do. I look foward to the many, many years to come that will no doubt have wonderful times and sad times but I know that as long as I have Chris by my side and God at the center of our relationship it will all be okay.

Philippians 2:2-5
Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value other above yourselves. not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had.

July 4th - Fun, Festivities and Fireworks

This long weekend was a busy but fun weekend.

Friday:

Recently Chris and I bought a boat and on Friday we took the girls out on it for the first time. We had great weather, it was hot but sunny all day. We spent sometime fishing and riding around the lake. We suprised Katie and Bree by buying a raft to pull behind the boat. This was the only thing Katie has talked about wanting to do since we bought the boat so she was excited to get to ride in. Chris pulled me, Katie and Bree in this raft. It was funny to me because we were going so slow, but the girls just couldn't get enough of it. They were laughing and enjoying the bouncing motion when we would ride over waves other boats made. They were also so excited about being able to eat on the boat, not sure why but they just thought it was the best thing to have a picinic on open water. As we were riding around we found a great beach area to take the girls to but it was to late in the day to go on Friday, so that one is on marked for our next trip.

checking out the cabin in our boat.

Getting ready to lauch out from our dock.

Little blurry, but we are all in there having a blast


Katie is fishing and Bree was eating some gummy worms.

Saturday:
The day started out very rainy so we weren't sure what kind of 4th we were going to have but my lunch time the sun was out and it ended up being a beautiful rest of the day. We headed over to a friends house for a cookout and fireworks that afternoon. We had the best food ever. Our friend Todd owns a smoker and loves to use it so he smoked up a feast for us, brisket, pork loin, hot dogs and the guest brought all the sides so we had some good food. Todd also had a small arsenol of fireworks to set off. We started setting off fireworks at 6pm and by the time we left at 10pm they were still going but it was fun to hang out with our friends and let the kiddos play.

Katie holding her own in a water balloon fight.

Playing some football. Go long Bree!

Katie and Kenndey showing their spraklers

Bree was not a big fan of fireworks on this night.

The four of us..Chris looks really mad in this picture but he wasn't...him and Bree were actually watching fireworks and not paying attention to getting our picture taken.

Sunday:
Well, this day was literally a day of rest for us. The girls were so wore out from all the activities fo the past two days. We went to church in the morning, grab some lunch afterward and then back home for naps. The girls were down in no time and took a long nap. We ended the weekend was one last cookout here at home, good ole hot dogs and then took the girls for an evening swim.

I love 4th of July not just as a reason to get together with friends but to honor those who have fought for our freedom and the ones who continue to do so. Thanks to all the soliders who have given so much to protect our country. Happy Birthday America!