He is risen!

 i hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

i was trying to remember the last cloudy rainy Easter day 

& i can't remember one. i feel the last several years have all had such beautiful weather.

& yesterday was no exception!

the love birds celebrated a special day in their relationship

with a yummy dinner at Nava in Buckhead.

 (remember, if you will, when i explained my girls reaction to my
"mini-wedges"?

well, check out their platform wedges in these images & you'll understand

exactly what they consider a true wedge! ;) )

 

the highlight of our weekend

was watching our Bailey's baptism!!!

the scripture says there is no greater joy then seeing my children walk with the lord...

well, she's not "mine", but i felt so much joy witnessing her

make this public profession of her faith!!

prior to the baptism, savannah shared some tender thoughts

& blessed bailey...

sweet bailey girl, it has been a privelge to watch you grow in the lord.

i see his spirit in you!

 i know you will do great things at ole miss!!

i love you & am so proud of you!!

 

 

 we are blessed at Grace to have an awesome staff

especially our youth pastors.

brian, the high school pastor, has been a huge influence on the girls

and was who baptized bailey!

 

 we headed home after the baptism

ate a little chocolate and then headed over to celebrate 

with Passion City Church, at the verizon amphitheatre.

i really wish i had brought my camera, but i doubt the picture would have captured

what a glorious day it was!

PCC is the "other" church we occasionally attend, usually on sunday nights.

PCC is the one where Chris Tomlin leads worship & Louie Giglio teaches.

wow!

wow is what we say after every service there.

however having worship with those guys

outside on a breezy gorgeous spring morning

at a fantastic venue 

with the birdies chirping no less

was so powerful.

one of the phrases louie spoke on was that Jesus came

to bring

life

forgiveness

& freedom.

that gave me chills.

 i am so thankful for a savior who gave it all for you & i to have life!

 why on earth am i slumping?

 quick wardrobe change for a couple girls

& then hooked back up with emi

before heading over to my brother & sis in laws

for a great lunch!

 

thank you sweet madison

for whipping up some cute bunny cupcakes!

what would i do without you?!

He doesn't give up on YOU!

You paid my ransom

You chose to suffer

Love I cannot deny

Sure as the morning light

Jesus, my Redeemer

Now I am not ashamed

To You be the highest praise

Jesus, my Redeemer

"Barbara's difficult home life had left her afraid and insecure. While the other children talked, she sat. While the others sang, she was silent. While the others giggled, she was quiet. Always present. Always listening. Always speechless.

Until the day Joy gave a class on Heaven. Joy talked about seeing God. She talked about tearless eyes & deathless lives.

Barbara listened with hunger. Then she raised her hand & said....Is Heaven for girls like me?...

I would have given a thousand sunset to have seen Jesus' face
as this tiny prayer reached his throne.

An earnest prayer that a good God in heaven would remember a forgotten soul on earth.

A prayer that God's grace would seep into the cracks and cover one the church let slip through. A prayer to take a life that no once else can use and use it as no one else can.

A prayer to do what God does best: take the common and make it spectacular......

To take three spikes and a wooden beam and make them the hope of humanity.

God would give up His only son before He gives up on You."


~~~~ from Max Lucado's Six Hours One Friday

my friends, i pray this Easter fills you with the hope of sweet Jesus,

who paid the price for our sin and gives you new life!!

He is Risen!!

conversational highlights & completely unrelated photos

 

- babe, every time we head down to passion city church, 

something in me wants to pack up and move in town.

-mom, do you remember your first kiss?

i hate to admit this, but the answer was no. i do not remember where or with whom.

hopefully this will help this particular daughter of mine realize that first kisses are sometimes over rated and maybe she'll postpone hers a few more years.

meanwhile, i'm totally planning to contact my highschool bff and ask her. surely she remembers who i kissed and when.

incidentally, dan remembers his. he also remembers who sat beside him in first grade and the one boy that got the one hit off of him when he pitched his little league championship game.

( i'm hoping his first kiss is not of equal importance as his 12 year big game. surely not.)

 

-did you see our neighbors took down their christmas lights?

-mama, i totally had on my cutest outfit ever today. 

& the winner~

-"hey mom ,so i facebook invited over 400 friends

to the graduation party at our home. 

but don't stress ok? 

they won't all show up."

......classic

for the love of new shoes

friday was a big day for me.

i got a new pair of shoes.

& not just any shoes my friends.

gold wedges.

now, this may not be any big deal for most of ya'll,

& remember , i already told you things might not be riveting around here,

but the shoes are awesome.

this of course coming from someone who lives in either

flipflops

ballet flats

running shoes

or cowboy boots.

but truly, they are awesome!

it will come equally as disappointing 

for you to find out that i own only one pair of heels,

one.

black patent leather.

that incidentally i think are classic and stylish.

my girls think not.

well back to my gold shoes.

they rock

they match my fave gold gap bag which is really more frostyish gold that 80's gold.

i know you understand me. completely.

and while they might only be considered to be a mini-wedges, 

( per my highschoolers)

they are wedges nonetheless.

the clencher=

all teenagers that live under the same roof as i

love them.

& let me really seal the deal

& maybe show my age.

they are comfy.

last year, i picked out this awesome high heeled wedges.

girls, they were awesome.

pink & gold

sorta lilly pulitzer meets kate spade.

i felt confident i could be graceful in them.

the girls laughed.

they were quick to put me in my place & inform me these pink&gold beauties

were

not

me.

i don't recall asking their opinion

yet i'm sure i did.

because of course,

when it comes to my personal fashion statements,

affirmation from someone born in the current century is a must.

so

all that to say

you may happen to see me in my gold comfy mini-wedges

at every fun event

between now & labor day.

ps. because i'm a weirdo

i actually ran to two different rooms to shoot them.

mean while, neither shot looks like the correct color.

oh well.

born brand, on sale at tjmaxx.

announcement & an attempt to be all there

 i always love a blog title that allows me a good alliteration!

first of all, i want to apologize in advance

for what i'm certain is going to be several weeks of less than riveting blog posts

& maybe even less visiting out in blogland.

& probably a few too many sappy posts!

furthermore, with one preparing to leave the country

& one preparing to leave the nest

i feel the need to be on my spiritual a-game.

(whatever that means)

i feel the need to really focus on some things here at home...

focus on encouraging my girls

& focus on my prayer life.

we had a meeting last night at church regarding emi's 3 week mission trip to peru.

besides the obvious physical preparations for her to function well 16,000 feet above sea level,

comes the mental & spiritual preparations for the trip.

i am certain the Lord is going to do awesome

life changing

things 

both in & through her.

i'm one of those people that can skim across the surface of many events and commitments

but i really want to be "all there" 

& engaged

for these preparations.

we are in the final month of meetings, dinners,

awards banquets, honors celebrations,

and all the fun exciting events for savannah's graduation.

throw in prom

& emi's 8th grade celebrations

and life....

well, you get the picture.

so,

not that anyone really cares

but i just want to apologize if it takes me a while to respond to emails

or if i'm a loser at leaving comments.

i love this supportive community here in blogland

& hate to disconnected or negligent.

&

i'm tickled to announce the winner of the paperlife journal class...

christina!!

please contact amy & she'll get you all set up!

an impromtu photoshoot of her.....

 this is bailey~

ya'll have heard me talk about smk's bestie many times.

i love this child.

i have watched her grow into an absolutely stunning young lady,

full of grace and charm

and dreams for her future.

( she's gonna kill me for this post...)

she'll head off to Ole Miss later this summer

but i'm praying our home will be one of her destinations when she returns to atlanta.

when they first started their friendship

bailey did not like her picture taken.

after several years, homecomings, proms, cheerleading events, etc

she now is comfortable with me

& allows me to shoot until my heart is content.

isn't she gorgeous!?

the other night she was headed over to crown the winner of an event at the girl's school

& stopped by on her way.

while this is not the gown she wore when she won her crown

our yard around dinner time has the perfect lighting

(& ya'll know how much i love back lighting)

so being the good sport

she allowed me to snap a few.

savannah quickly flowed into the unfortunate stepsister character....

many of these images were post processed with the new LUXE 2 actions from florabella.

i love them!

&  i may not sleep this weekend because i'll be playing on photoshop!