Sweet 16...

Happy Birthday Heghine!

The Spring 4-H Geology Trip...

The kids and I headed out on Sunday evening to meet my mom and several others to look for rocks and fossils for the kids' 4-H Geology project. We headed to a State Park and spent the night in one of the cabins, then took off early the next morning. The cabins were awesome and the kids are already hoping we can go again soon.

Lots of laughter with grandma on Sunday evening...

Monday morning we had breakfast with friends and then headed out... It was a busy day, the temperature was cool and we had rain but we also had loads of fun!

One of our stops was a t Mushroom Rock State Park... we didn't get anything for collections here because you can't in the park, but we did check out the cool rock formations!

All the 4-H kids together...

Climbing on the rocks...

With the rain, we found lots of mud which Nate was loving!!!

 

All in all, a great day, several rock specimens, 6 shark teeth found, a few minerals and lots of fun together!

{Easter & 8 years}

Posting a few days late...

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He’s ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again...

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day...

Glorious Day- Living He Loved Me~ Casting Crowns

What an amazing time of praise at church this morning as we sang this song... how thankful I am that a glorious day is coming for us!

Though I love all the festivities of Christmas, I will admit that Easter has a much deeper meaning for me personally, especially as I have grown older. Coming to understand that my Jesus was willing to suffer and die and violent, painful death because of me so that I could have life... Life that I don't deserve but He freely gives means more and more to me each day...

How blessed we were to celebrate Easter with special friends who love on our kids when family is far away. We had a mix of American traditional food and Armenian traditional food to celebrate the day...

Eight years ago on Easter, I got to go to church for the first time after a long period of bed rest during my pregnancy. I remember that day very clearly, sitting in the back row of our new church building, the fellowship with friends, and hearing our Pastor at the time share about Jesus unending love and sacrifice for each of us...

We also knew that our little one would arrive soon... so this year is special as today we celebrate Easter and our Risen Savior and Lenna's 8th birthday! How thankful I am that God called me to be her mommy. It was a rough start but the Lord ahs been so faithful these last 8 years as we have watched her blossom and grown...

Here was our sweet girl 8 years ago...

 What a blessing to celebrate with her today...

 Fun gifts to open from her brothers and sister...

 Lots of smiles...

 And cake of course... our sweet girl loves art and this is my attempt to copy one of her favorite paintings on top of her cake...

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
We had a small disaster while taking pictures... but we made the best of it and fixed the candles and enjoyed what was left...

 Happy Birthday Honey, we love you!
Never forget God's promises to you...

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know this full well. ~Psalm139:14~

And the winner is...

Tamara!

I will have your book delivered and drop your necklace in the mail! Enjoy it friend!

 Do you worry? {and a little giveaway...}

Cast all your anxieties on Him, for he cares for you... 1 Peter 5:7

My  Bible Study  Group is currently working our way through the book, Calm my Anxious Heart, A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment by Linda Dillow. This book has been a huge blessing to me and I want to share it with someone else so I'll be giving away 1 copy of this book to a lucky inner!

This past week the chapter we studied was on worry and anxiety. I don't know about you, but I struggle in this area and the message of the chapter was exactly what I needed to hear! I worry about my kids, finances, if I am being a good wife, mom and friend... I have anxiety sometime over timing and what I feel like might be the plan for us but I am not sure... can you relate?

Dillow refers to worry as the "God Can't" disease, saying that when we worry about things beyond our control we are not trusting the Lord with our whole heart to take care of the issue. The scripture of the study was Matthew 6:25-34, part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He reminds us again and again in this passage (5 times) actually to "not be anxious." I am working hard to really trust the Lord and have chosen 3 areas that I need to work on in this area and have been spending time praying for each of them and giving them to the Lord.

In her book, Dillow suggests having a place or a box to "place" your anxieties as your turn them over to the Lord. I was so excited to find this little necklace at Hobby Lobby on sale a few days later. The little charm opens and inside if you look close, you can see a tiny piece of paper. On it I have written the 3 things that I struggle with the most when I worry and allow anxiety to enter my life. Hanging next to the little box  is a small charm that says PRAY, reminding me to pray! I love the little red crystal, it is rather fitting for this season in my life!

I would love to share this book and one of these necklaces with one of you! Take a moment to leave me a note in the comments between now and noon on Easter Sunday. The kids will draw a winner Sunday afternoon. If there are ways I can pray for you, leave your request in the comments or email me at the address on the side bar!

As we head into these next few days of celebrating our Savior, I am reminded again of what He has done for each of us. He came to this earth as a child, grew to be a man that would suffer and die because of my failures... my sin and my imperfections... and it did it all willingly because of His great Love for us! In return, He simply asks us to trust Him... to follow Him... to love Him with our whole heart... 

Are you willing? It isn't an easy task, but He promises we won't be alone and because he cares for us...

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

{Don't forget to sign up and share with others}

The Easter Reading Party

Yesterday was our Easter Reading Party at our house. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time I think. We had cookie snacks, a couple of Easter Stories read by the older kids, we made hand print Easter Lilies and then had an egg hunt in the next door neighbors backyard!

It has been so much fun getting together with a few other moms and all their kids to have these parties this year and I am looking forward to planning more next school year. I am also thinking about doing an American Girl Club were we will read through the books and do activities- cooking and crafts from the time periods. Can't wait to start planning!

A quick look at last week through the lens....

Life has been busy lately and I have been bad about consistantly posting. There is so much to share and I promise I will soon. In the mean time, here are a few pictures from the last week...

Things I love...

Tea parties with the best of friends....

Mr. Ben's haircut and giggles of laughter while the cutting it going on....

Red buds... they remind me of my grandma, she loves the red buds in spring time. There wre a lot of them on their farm when I was a child...

Easter egg hunts...

Games and new experiences... some good, some bad... ugh! loosing an egg toss:)

Working together to finish a task...

The blessing of an extra daughter for the year...

Glasses...

 

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

Lady bugs, earth worms, onions and Lenna's Project...

With spring coming and beautiful weather outside, that is where my kids want to spend most of their days! We have started working in the yard and I have hopes that someday it might be green and landscaped... we'll see! The yard needed some loving care when we bought the house and we are finally getting to it.

On Sunday afternoon, Hubby and the kids were racking and cleaning up leaves and sticks from last fall when they racked into a "ladybug nest." It was amazing, hundreds of Lady beetles were crawling everywhere! In the leaves, on them... the kids were so excited! (click on the pictures of the ladybugs and you can see them bigger.)

They also found some earthworms which they prompted relocated to our garden...

Then they watched them tunnel down and make themselves at home in the onions...

We also enjoyed reading outside yesterday and Lenna worked on her t-shirt rug that I mentioned. It is looking awesome... she has her t-shirts all cut...

And she started weaving...

Hope you are enjoying these spring days too with lots of laughter and smiles!

Sunday Snapshot {Tie-Dye and s'mores....}

The weather was absolutely marvelous this weekend! We enjoyed as much of it outside as we could. We had neighbor kids here playing, cleaning up the yard (it needs tons of work, one of the projects we are just finally starting to get to since we bought the house a year ago and did all the work on the inside,) working in the garden, riding bikes, working on 4-H projects and just enjoying fund times together as a family!

Lenna is in 4-H crafts and she is planning to weave a rug using a hula hoop and t-shirts, we found the pattern here in Family Fun Magazine. We decided it would be fun to tie dye her t-shirts first so we spent Saturday afternoon tie dying. It was a blast!

 Lenna loved the silly plastic gloves, I just didn't want dyed hands:)

 Today they are done and we are going to start cutting them into strips. We'll keep you posted on her progress!

Then last night we had "red-neck" s'mores. The weather was great and so were the coals so we enjoyed the time with laughter, smiles and yummy treats!

Heghine had her first s'more during her orientation to come to the States. She has loved them every time since as well!

 

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24