Justin and Ciarra's Wedding

It's been really amazing to watch the Lord work in the lives of the kids and adults from Trinity Gardens. Our friend, Charlene, has been having Bible club every week at the community center in Trinity Gardens for like over 8 years I believe. In the past couple of years, a few other couples from our church began getting involved in Trinity Gardens and about this time last year, the girls and I started going on Wednesdays to be a part and to meet some of the kids. Justin is a guy that Charlene has known since the beginnings of her journey with the Bible club. He is about 20 year old now. He and his girlfriend (at the time), Ciara, and their precious little girl have been coming to our church this past year and have also been spending a lot of time with Scott and Katie (our asst. pastor and his wife). Well, back in November, both of them surrendered their lives to Christ. As they began learning about this new journey with the Lord, they also decided that the best way to honor the Lord in their relationship was to get married. They faced a lot of opposition with this decision because marriage is not held at a high value in most of their friends' and family's minds. They decided to get married on January 21st. Several people in our church volunteered time, resources, talents, and food to help this wedding come together. We pray that this marriage is the beginning of a new legacy in their family's life....a legacy of loving, trusting, and walking with Jesus.

The bride and her little cutie :)

Food table ready!

I mean, who doesn't love a chocolate fountain....

Bride & Groom table...

A sweet, sweet lady in our church had this wedding cake made for them....

Sherbet punch...yummy!

Jim, our pastor, walked Ciara down the aisle and Scott, our asst. pastor, married them.

The candle stands and flower arrangements were also donated. The sanctuary really looked beautiful.

Cake time!

May the Lord richly pour out His grace on you and bless, protect and grow your marriage and family....

The birthday parties just keep coming...Kaylin's turn!

Kaylin, one of the girls' friends from the gym, invited them to her 4th birthday party. She had an indoor pool party at the YMCA. The girls was beyond pumped about being about to swim in January :). The momma was beyond pumped that the party was on a Sunday afternoon and that the daddy could get in the pool with them and she didn't have to :)

Kaylin is currently obsessed with Rapunzel. Look at this awesome cake! The tower part was made out of rice crispy treats....too cool!

Pizza time!

all the party goers :)

Kaylin getting ready to take a swing at the pinata....

Gabs turn....

After each kiddo had about 10 turns a piece....the pinata finally was cracked and the herd rushed in for the candy!

Pool time!!

OK, judging by the daddy's face...I'm pretty sure Jocie may have just kicked him???? :)

They haven't been swimming since last summer so I wasn't sure how they were going to do....well, they didn't miss a beat....they jumped right in and swam better than they ever have....

Needless to say....every time I take them to the gym they ask me if it's time for Kaylin's birthday party again.... :)

Bank's Birthday Bash

Bank's had his 3rd birthday party at this cool indoor jumpy place (the name of it has left me at the moment). The girls, along with the rest of the kiddos, were super pumped about the big slides.

The birthday boy and his fam. Not sure what Brooks thought about it :)

Emma and Blake

Jake and his perfect form!

Gabster

While the kiddos were jumping and sliding....the other "bigger kids" were having an intense competition :)

They talked the daddy into going down the slide "upside down"...

Big Sean and little girl Sean...aka...Shelbia Drew :)

Such cute decorations.....

The cake was super yummy.

Ashley and Steph getting the ballpark food ready....

Sweet baby Shep...

Banks and his daddy...

The girls got a front-row seat for the "blowing candles out time" :)

Katie's surprise (not really a surprise) birthday party :)

Scott planned a surprise birthday party for Katie....but then he ended up telling her about it a few hours before the party....so I guess technically, it wasn't a surprise party in the end :) Regardless, it was way fun and I'm pretty sure she had a good time....or, at least, from this pic we know Fallon did :)

Jimbob, Shane and Sean....and yes, Jim asked Shane to hold his drink for him while I took the picture, of course :)

Whatever that fruity, slushy stuff was...it was good :)

The amazing cookies and creme cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream waiting for us....

The birthday girl and the Beckster....or some might know them as the pastors' wives :)

"Man, doesn't it seem like yesterday that we were all at South?!".....yep....but it's been a quite a while, fellas :)

Getting geared up to blow out her candles!

Good times and some GOOD dang cake and ice cream. Man, I could eat a bowl of that right now....

Blake and Meg

Megan and I played volleyball together at Troy State (yes, I know it's just Troy now....but way back in the day it was good ol' TSU!). Some of my favorite memories are with Meg during those years :) We became super great friends and have remained close all these years. We both became Christians in college about a year apart and were in Bible studies together during our time there. I'm so thankful for her and what a constant, faithful, and loving friend she has been to me all these years. We don't get to see each other near as much as we'd like to, but when we do we pack as much fun and conversation in as possible. Her hubby, Blake, also went to college with us and Shane and him share their love for basketball, golf, and good food :) Blake took a job teaching and coaching this year and his team had a game down here in Mobile back in early January. After the game we met them for dinner at Moe's (mainly b/c the girlies LOVE Moe's and we thought we might actually get to have a conversation while they eat their gallon of sour creme :) We actually did get to hang out for an hour or so catching up and telling stories. It was great fun. SOOOO wonderful to you guys!! Great friends are SUCH a blessing from the Lord. Love ya'll!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack......

Ok people, I am officially back to the blogging world. I know it's been a while....a long while. Life has just been really messy the past few months and honestly, the last thing that's been on my mind is blogging. I'm starting to get my motivation back as of the last few days and I must warn you that there will be a crazy amount of posts coming very soon.....so get excited!!

Quotes to remember

So for about 6 months now I have been jotting down things the girls have said that I wanted to remember. I didn't mean for 6 months to pass before I posted them, but as we all know, time just seems to fly by and here I am 6 months later finally writing them on here. I LOVE reading friends' blogs or FB pages that have funny quotes from their kids on there. I've been waiting for the day when mine would say hilarious one-liners or "make me pee-my-pants" conversations. Here are some of those that I want to post so that I will remember them :)

1. Me: Gabbie I can't believe how tall and big you are getting! When you were a baby you were so itty bitty and now look how big you are!?!?

Gabbie: I big now, Momma?

Me: Yes, you are SOOOO big!

Gabbie: Does that mean I can drive now???

2. Me: Gabbie you better NOT pee-pee in your pants (as she holds herself swearing she doesn't have to got potty). You need to go pee-pee in the potty right now.

Gabbie: I don't have to pee-pee.

Me: Yes you do. You better go pee in the potty. Little girls only pee-pee in the potty, not in their pants.

Gabbie: Yea mommy, I can only go pee-pee in the potty OR in the grass.

(Awesome. When we would be swimming at a pool or playing at a park and the potty was too far away, I would have them just pee in the grass. Now she thinks that's normal :)

3. (during our MANY night-time going-to-bed battles) Me: Gabbie, are you telling mommy the truth? Do you really have to go pee-pee?

Gabbie: Yes, I have to pee-pee.

Me: Because if you are lying to mommy, I am going to have to spank you and take pinkle baby (her FAVORITE baby) away for the night. Do you understand??

Gabbie: Yes, mommy. I have to go pee-pee.

(Go to the bathroom. She sits there for 5 minutes and doesn't pee. I KNOW that she lied and so does she)

Me: Gabbie did you lie to mommy?

Gabbie: (After a few seconds of silence) Yes.

Me: What has to happen since you lied to mommy?

Gabbie: I don't want a spank! Please don't take my pinkle baby!!! (said in complete desperation)

Me: I have to discipline you because you lied Gabbie. God does not want us to lie. I love you too much to let you lie to mommy. You have to learn to tell the truth.

Gabbie: (dramatically weeping at this point) mommyyyyyyyyy....call me Grace, mommy, pleeeeeease.

Me: What??

Gabbie: Call me Grace!

(Shane walks in and hears all of this going down)

Me: What do you mean, call you Grace?

Gabbie: Like daddy did, mommy, call me Grace and let me keep my pinkle baby....

Shane: Ummmm, I think she means "show me grace" b/c the other night she lied to me and chose to "show her grace" and not give her a spank and take her baby away.

Gabbie: yea, that's it. Call me Grace, Mommy, PLEEEEASE.

4. (Jocelyn woke up early from her nap. Gabbie was still sleeping. After a while, I needed to wake Gabbie up b/c she had been asleep for so long and I wanted her to be able to go to sleep at a decent hour that night) Me: No, Jocie, let me go in there by myself to wake Gabbie up b/c she may get scared.

Jocie: (laughing) Mommy, I Jocie. I not a dragon!

5. Jocie (running inside from being in the backyard): Mommy!!! Look come outside!! I found a roller coaster!!!

Me: You found a what?

Jocie: A roller coaster!!! Hurry mommy! Come see!

Me: Ok (very curious to see the roller coaster she found in the backyard)

Jocie (holding up a small bucket with a little worm thingy in it): See mommy! A roller coaster!!

Me: Oh, Jocie, I think you mean a roly poly!

6. Preface: Many of you know that Shane played football in college and used to work out with really heavy weights and such back then. One of his big fears is developing "man boobs"...aka...you have big firm chest muscles while you are working out, but then when you stop working out as much, the chest muscles can become saggy and take on the appearance of "man boobs".

Shane is in the bedroom changing clothes and doesn't have a shirt on.

Jocie (walks in and starts laughing and pointing): Daddy!! your boobies look like pineapples!!

Shane: Great. I have man boobs. Awesome.

7. Shane (putting Gabbie to bed): Night-night Gabbie. See you in the morning.

Gabbie: Night-night daddy.

Shane (stepping on something in the dark): Ouch!!

Gabbie: Did you get hurt daddy??

Shane: No, baby, I'm ok. I just stepped on something on the floor because I can't see since the light is off.

Gabbie: Yea, daddy, you can't see because your eyes are dark.

8. Shane: ok, girls, what did we say this first candle meant about Jesus? (Talking about advent)

Gabbie: Ummmmmm

Jocie: Ummmmmm

Shane: Remember, we lit it and said it meant Jesus was......

Gabbie: Ummmmm

Jocie: Ummmmm

Shane: Remember...Jesus isn't darkness, He is.....

Jocie: I know daddy!! Jesus is SUNNY!!!!

Shane (laughing hard): yes, Joc, I guess that is the same thing as Light :)

9. Jocie (after sitting in the same position on the couch for a good while): ahhhhhh!! Daddy!! come here and help me!!

Shane: What's wrong?

Jocie: Help my leg! (As she is rubbing her leg with both of her hands)

Shane: What did you do to it?

Jocelyn: Nothing, daddy! It just has bugs and rice on it!! (first time her leg had ever went to sleep and that's how she described it :)

10. (as we are doing the advent candle and talking about how the wise men gave baby Jesus gifts when they came to see him)

Me: What gift would you want to give to Jesus if you had been there when he was born?

Jocie (without hesitating for even a second): A Popsickle!!!

Gabbie: I would give him a soft brown bear!

I LOVE hearing what comes out of their mouths these days (minus the talking back, screaming, fighting, arguing, etc :). I hope to post quotes more frequently as they happen vs. waiting for months at a time :)