Dirt Bikes!

We've spent several weekends camping and letting the boys ride their dirt bikes! 

It's been a lot of fun for them because several of the kids from church have bikes, and they can all ride trails together. 

Jeffry checking Bray's tire

Caleb and Paris

Bray bear

Off he goes!

Caleb with a double thumbs up :)

All the bikes and gear

Love this guy

And then he was 8

Brayden's Birthday Celebration at Gatti Town in Hattiesburg

He turned 8 on January 17th

Last Week

*Monday was Martin Luther King day, but most importantly my Bray bear's 8th birthday! So hard to believe. He has truly changed my life for the better. We celebrated by staying at the camper all weekend and letting the boys ride their dirt bikes that they got for Christmas all day. They had a blast! We'd gone out for his birthday dinner at Red Lobster the Friday before. 

Our trip to Gatlinburg this year

In his football uniform after their state playoff game

Little cutie at Christmas 2005

Oh, and it also was my sweet IRL friend Em's bday; she was in my wedding. Go visit her here. 

*Tuesday was Caleb's day to bring snacks at school. I worked most of the morning, and then ran by Walmart to pick up some juice boxes and snack mix bags for his class. He was so excited that I brought them by and stayed for story time, ran by Bray's class, and then took them both home. It really is the little things we do that bring our kids so much happiness. I spent the afternoon baking birthday cupcakes for Brayden to take for his class the next day since it just so happened to be his snack day! 

*I let Bray take his cupcakes with him like a big boy. No need for Mama to pop in to his class two days in a row. Wednesday night I led worship for The Chamber which is our midweek prayer service. Our church is in the midst of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, so this worship time was especially exciting. 

*Thursday was Sales Tax day at the store. Blah. I have to do it once a month, but I never enjoy it. I mean who enjoys paying taxes? Usually my focus on Thursdays is more about what's coming up for worship team practice that night. I look forward to practice all week long; it's my passion! We just got an actual acoustic drum set! We've had electronic drums which totally work, but wow, a real acoustic set just makes a huge difference. Exciting stuff. 

*I was so excited for Friday! I had a few things to do at the store before I got to leave to go to lunch with my Dad in Hattiesburg. He had to come down for a doctor's appointment, so we met at Newk's. After a great lunch, I had the shopping bug. I ran by Forever 21 and got a couple cute shirts. Then I went to GAP where I had a 30% off my entire purchase email! Let me tell you, I racked up on some sale rack deals in GAP. The two best buys were a thin gray sweater for $2 and a cute tweed skirt for $9. I still had some money left on a Belk gift card from Christmas, so I went there next. I grabbed up some super cute Jessica Simpson black suede boots at 50% off! I was so proud of my sale-finding self that day. :)

*Saturday was Brayden's birthday party at Gatti Town. All of our family came, and we invited several of Bray's friends from church and school. It was such a blast. The party "hero" (the Gatti Town worker) made balloon animals, painted faces, made an obstacle course for them, served the pizza, drinks, cake, and ice cream, decorated the room, and cleaned up afterwards. This was our first birthday party that wasn't at home and I must say it was SO nice to do nothing but sit back and take pictures. Speaking of pictures, there aren't any yet because I left my camera bag in my mom's car! :( I have to wait until I see her again to get it back...we live a little over 2 hours away. Stink. 

*Sunday was tremendous. I love Sundays because as a worship leader, they are what I prepare for all week long. We had a great set list including a new song to us called "Hallelujah" by Stephen Cole. You can find it on the Catalyst Music Project in iTunes. The sermon was so incredible though. So many people were touched that day. I left saying, "I really wish I could do that everyday". Maybe one day...

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* What is your biggest passion in life?

* What's the best deal you've ever gotten on a piece of clothing?

Storyteller, Part 2

I knew that I wanted to share our story on our blog because although a lot of you know us personally, a lot of you don't. And even those who know us may not really know the details of what God has done in our lives. So I'm starting at the beginning. Our story is real, raw, and unrehearsed. I hope you read with an open heart.

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But our story doesn’t end there obviously. Jeffry and I got married in June 2002 and had Brayden in January 2003. One of the hardest things we both ever had to do was to tell our parents, but they supported us every step of the way. What a blessing to have parents who loved the Lord to walk through this with us.

Over the course of our first year of marriage, we had Brayden, bought our first car, decided to open our own building supply store in Wiggins and bought our first house; most of these are things people do in the first five to ten years of marriage! We searched for a church in Wiggins and eventually settled down at one, but it just wasn’t what either of us were used to. It was small and just didn’t seem to be life-giving.  I think we both knew that I was a little more spiritually mature then Jeffry was, especially evident when he did not understand why I wanted to go to special things at church. He was a good guy, but he had a good time at poker night with the guys and wasn’t ready to change that. Jeffry remembers me asking him one night, “Why can’t you and your friends ever get together without drinking beer?” He really didn’t have a great answer; he just said “That’s what we do. It’s how we have a good time”.  Don’t get me wrong, I was not the picture of perfection either. I went to church more out of obligation because I grew up doing it and I knew it was the right thing to do. But we got to the point where church just wasn’t a priority any more. We would be up in plenty of time to get ready to go to a Sunday morning service, but it seemed like we could always find a reason not to go.

In February of 2006, we began attending Northwood Church. Jeffry was brought up Methodist and I was brought up Baptist, so we both had a lot of questions and were a little skeptical about Northwood because it was non-denominational. However, we continued to come to services, and we could not deny the power of God in that place. It was something we had been longing for and searching for when we really didn’t even know we were missing it. We loved the fact that the people at Northwood were REAL. We wanted Brayden and Caleb to grow up loving Jesus in an atmosphere like the one at Northwood.

We jumped in with both feet. We both attended an Encounter Retreat over the next few months, and then we started some discipleship classes in August 2006. We both grew spiritually by leaps and bounds during that period, and it was so great to do it together. Jeffry really stepped up as the spiritual head of our household. We really felt like we fit at Northwood and loved getting to know Jesus better with other people who loved Him and made Him their priority. 


In December of that year, my grandfather passed away unexpectedly. He was supposed to be discharged from the hospital that Saturday morning, and my parents, my brother, and I were on our way to see him. He died before we got there. I was so mad at God. Why didn’t He give me the chance to get there and lay hands on my grandfather?  I could have prayed for healing! Why did I not get that chance? I never got to say goodbye. 


I felt like I just had my knees kicked out from under me. The day after the funeral I drove home and attended our church's Vision Convention that night. I remember singing, “You have turned my mourning into dancing”, and I just felt the release as I gave everything to the Lord.  It took time, but God carried me through that dark place.




To Be Finished in Part 3 Tomorrow...

Sick day

I'm home today with Brayden and Caleb. Seems they both have the stomach bug that Jeffry and I had last week. There is lots of sanitizing, washing of sheets, and resting going on here at our house today. The sad thing is that today is their Thanksgiving lunch at school. All of the parents go up to the school for a traditional Thanksgiving meal with their kids. We've done this every year with Brayden, and I'm so sad Caleb has to miss his first time!

Aside from my sick boys, a huge thing on my mind today is our Thanksgiving menu. My parents and grandparents will be at my house this year and I want to cook my first-ever turkey. Do any of you have any turkey tips or tricks to share?

One more thing- I'm going to ask for new casual dinnerware for Christmas and I want to know what you have or what you love. There are so many choices...I lean more toward neutrals like ivory or taupe but I'm not ruling out colored patterns. If I could use the new Fiestaware Christmas pattern everyday I would but Jeffry won't go for that. Help me find something I will love for years to come....that's durable enough for my three cowboys. :)


...this was my first post from our iPad. I'm figuring it out! Hooray! When I get back to work I will retry my post with our Tennessee pics.

Tailgate Time!

Another home game weekend! We spent Friday night at The Rock cheering on our Eagles. They were facing Kansas and the game was being broadcast on ESPN. I knew it was going to be a long night for the boys because the game didn't start until 7 and with it being a televised game, there'd be a lot more timeouts than usual. However, that is the beauty of tailgating with our camper! My mom actually stayed behind at the camper to begin with, so at the end of the 3rd quarter when Caleb and Trace had had enough, I just took them back to her.  They fell asleep so fast! 

Here's a little view of our tailgating setup.  

Jeffry's mom and brother with Caleb. 

Some of the crew. We didn't even set up our tent this week. 

The newlyweds! Jeffry's brother, Johnny and his wife, Danielle got to come to the game. 

Trace, again, enjoying his food. Remember last week?

We brought the big boys' scooters, which was a great idea! They got to ride around on the sidewalks and in the parking lot near us. They burned lots of energy and had a blast doing it!

Danielle and me

The Pride on the field getting us ready to start the game!

My hubby is so crazy! 

Sweet Caleb

Bray with the scoreboard in the background. We beat Kansas 31-16! Woop woop!

Caleb and me. I never get this many pics taken of me in one day.

My hubs and me so excited about beating those Jayhawks! SMTTT!

Fireworks after the game. Great way to spend a Friday night with the fam!