A time to celebrate

A Time for Everything

 ¹ For everything there is a season,
      a time for every activity under heaven.
 ² A time to be born and a time to die.
      A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 ³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
      A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
      A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
      A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
      A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
      A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
      A time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 

What a great weekend of celebration!  Saturday, August, 21 was Faith Lynn's 8th birthday in heaven!  It's such a bittersweet day.  It is a reminder of her life, her death, and her eternal life with our Father.  The celebration started out on Friday when my grandparents came to town and stayed in a local hotel.  We went to visit, had fried catfish, swam, and just had a whole lot of fun!  The lighting was AWFUL at the pool, so I only have this one pitiful looking picture to share. =(

Of course I had to get one of Hannah enjoying the pool too...

Can't you see her excitement?

Saturday morning was a little difficult for me.  I was sitting there with Hannah, looked at the clock, then realized at that exact same time 8 years prior I was holding Faith.  Even though it was a tough moment, I'm so grateful for God's gift of memories.  We went back to the hotel and had a yummy waffle breakfast with my grandparents.  Hmmm...didn't think to take any pictures.

After breakfast, we caravaned to the cemetery where we met my brother and sister-in-law, their 2 girls, and my dad for Faith's birthday party.  For some people that might be weird...but it's a wonderful celebration of Faith's brief life here on Earth.

After we had our cupcakes, we headed over to our traditional restaurant and met my mom, sister, and niece for lunch.  Here's the whole crew:

Hannah

Ava, Joseph, Emma, Jill, Claire, & Brian

James & PaPa

Mom, Dad, & Nathan

Grandmaw & Lindy

Me, Grandmaw, Lindy, & Mom

All in all, it was a great day remembering our sweet Faith.  

James & Faith

Faith,

We love and miss you so much!!!  Eat some of heaven's special cake for us!  We can't wait until we get to see and hug you again.  Thank you for being our special baby girl.

XOXO,

Mommy, Daddy, Joseph, Nathan, & Hannah

  

It's ME!

Soooo, I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon.  Everyone is constantly telling me that I should write a book with the funny things my kids say.  So this blog will be a big part of that and a few things about my life here and there. =)

I guess first, I've been married to my best friend, James, for 10 years.  We have two handsome boys, Joseph(age 5) & Nathan(age 3).  We have a daughter in heaven, Faith, who would be 7 if she were here with us.  And I'm currently expecting a baby girl due in late April.  Sorry folks...no name for her yet.  She won't officially have one until she's born.

I'm pretty sure that my boys are the funniest kids ever created.  Just an example:  Last night at church we were playing a variation of "Duck, Duck, Goose" to help the kids learn the Gospels.  Instead of "Duck", they were saying, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John".  When they wanted to say, "Goose", they said, "Gospels"  So Nathan being the youngest kid in the class, he wasn't exactly playing by the rules.  Every time someone was picked, he'd get up and run around the circle with them.  Finally, one of the other kids picked him.  He was so excited.  He walked around the circle repeating several times, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John".  Then he couldn't wait any longer and picked someone and instead of "Gospels!", he so very proudly yelled, "Goofballs!"  It was classic.

Anyway, so there's my first installment.  Thanks for wasting 10 mins of your time learning a little more about us and maybe you'll do it again sometime!