He is Risen From the Grave and He is Lord!

 

He is risen from the grave and he is Lord! Or as my son goes

around singing, GOD's NOT DEAD he's surely alive!

A few highlights from our 2014 Easter...

On a whim this year I decided to offer Easter mini sessions.

 After a few were booked, Jon and I talked about how we would just put the money aside, let it add up and then take whatever we ended up with to the store and buy stuff for our local Samaritan house.

I am not even kidding that the following day I sat down at the computer to check emails

and there were a page of messages asking to book a session.

Session after session is what I have done for over a month now, and they just

keep coming. And we did as we said we would do. We took the cash and

made a trip to Sam's Club and Wal-mart and loaded up on items

we knew they could use.

Upon delivering we met Katie, the girl that is over the pantry side of

the Samaritan House and she was thrilled that we had included

men's deodorant. She said it's an item that they barely get in. 

So we are now stock piling men's deodorant and will make

another trip later this week. We are currently at 42 sticks!

In our area the Samaritan house is about 5 minutes from the Sam's Club in

Bentonville. I challenge and or encourage, whatever word triggers

you to take action :) - The next time you go for your weekly stock up trip to

Sam's Club, grab a few extra items and run it down to the Samaritan Center. It's a right and then a left down the road.

This one speaks to me pretty clearly:

Romans 12:2 NLT
"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

-------

The Foundation's Easter Egg Hunt was our main egg hunt this year due

to our schedule on Easter day of taking Jax home. 

Bayleigh is cracking me up over on the left with her pout. She

was unhappy with her egg count. These kids are a hoot.  

Patience and Halle are Kellen's buddies. I think the three 

of them stir up a ruckus in their mission friends class together.

:)

This corker has said some of the funniest things lately and I could kick myself square in the

teeth for not writing it all down.

We have some hilarious talks about working and earning money and how one day he'll marry the girl God has planned for him and they will live together. He just can not comprehend that Jon and I will not be in this house with them. ha

'When i get married to that wife I'm just gonna get in the car and drive to your house and she'll say where are you goin?!' -- KPD. I just love these talks with my son

We made it through terrible twos, rotten three's with noooo issues and now

that four has hit we are just now seeing some fits and some

testing the waters on discipline. I don't care for it one bit!

ha

Just when I think he is rotten to the core he will say something completely

adorable and remind me why he is my world. What will I ever do when

he no longer pronounces it ' ring around the rosie, pocka pulla posey'

or he calls the tub 'slippy' instead of slippery,

or says ' I think that's daddy's truck 'ahind' us' = behind

Oh sigh sigh sigh.

the power of the praying parent is tops on my list to read next!

 

 

 

...And this is what's up.

So this kid decided he was doing his own hair for the day..

As I awaited my

customer he comes in and sets down in the seat and

wants me to get a picture of his hair.

I have an Austin Moon junior on my hands.

I am really praying that I can turn him into the

Christian version at least!

(he sings and dances and all! )

sigh  

He has been a good sport through all of the mini sessions

we have hosted this year. Easter has been a busy

season for my business and that is a huge blessing

for us. K is a good sport to appease his

Momma for some quick pics in Easter duds.  

At least he has gotten to make some new friends out of the

deal. This is 'Snowy' the floppy eared - red eyed

bunny we have been blessed to use

in mini sessions this year. Kellen and Jaxson

LOVE him and I had to convince them, that no

we can not keep him, he already has a

loving owner :)  

... and one day some customers brought their

own baby chicks. It was a hoot watching him

pick them up non stop and try to help put them

in the pictures, and then watching the baby girls

with the chicks in the pictures... priceless!

I thought I needed someone to design a logo for me.

Considering I have gone almost 6+ years without one I

thought it was a necessity for some upcoming gigs..

Our friend, Sarah, designed some really great ones

for me to check out, but ultimately I concluded on this. It is simple, I am simple.

Great match :)  

 

-----

 

Jon's Papa Davis passed away a few weeks after his Grandma Evelyn.

(mom's mom, dad's dad.) --

We, the boys and I, were able to meet him a couple of times and visit with him. 

Another grandparent that was blessed to live a long life on earth and now should

be in heaven with our maker. There is nothing but celebration when

that is the case.

-----

 

Our household has experienced some 'Radical' changes over the last month.

Reading Radical, by David Platt has changed the hearts of both

Jon and I for the better.

Our eyes have been opened up to a reality that is far more in depth

than the surface layer of 'the American dream.'

I have gone my entire life being a 'Christian'.. an extremely talk only

dormant Christian. Being in my comfy little happy spot of life

doing everything to please myself and my own wants rather than

serving God and listening to his direction and guidance.

We are making extreme changes in our life. 

I'm not sharing this for show or for any other reason than to share

how awesome God is, and how present we want him

to be in our lives. We want everyone that knows us to

know we have experienced this change.

I am literally in infant stage of Christianity at the age of 34...

I'm not proud of that, but I am accepting it head on and

desire to grow through God's word and provision over my life. 

I am truly excited for things to come.

In talking with a friend this past week, she shared her 'God-sized plan'

with me, and as I listened I couldn't help but feel joy for her but also

inspiration.

Since having Kellen I have gone back and forth from thinking

I should work, but where to work.. or

thinking I needed to do more than pictures, but

what to do.. All the while being confused because I was

trying to do what  'I' wanted.. It was all about me.. Never

once listening to what God needs from my life.

At least now I am listening for direction from him.

As always I am a work in progress.