Gymnastics~

Here are some pictures of my lil' gymnast yesterday! She is such a cutie patootie!

Group stretching time...

Stretching...

Parker was getting tired there towards the end....

My Garage Sale...

So after a gloomy morning...and a scare of some sprinkles at one point...I finished our garage sale today about 2:00pm & made a pretty penny I must say! I was worried about the traffic flow in our neighborhood since we live in the very back (newer part)...but it turned out great! Given it wasn't $1400.00 like last year, but it's still great extra $$$$!!! Let's go shopping!!!

Yep...that's what Mom & I are off to do tomorrow as soon as we are done w/ church, then lunch, then leaving the kids here at the house for naptime!! There is nothing more fun than a day of shopping!

Great day Downtown!

My parents came in Wednesday night to stay the weekend with us! We have had such a great time having them here. Yesterday we just hung out here around the house, going to the park & hanging out here in Katy a little bit. And then this morning we headed straight to the Aquarium Downtown! The kids had a blast as we saw all sorts of fish, snakes, sharks, even TIGERS at the exhibits; we rode rides & then headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Before we left we headed back to the aquarium for one last ride (or two) on the merry-go-round for McKenna since we had "all day passes" but the kids were running out of steam by this point. So we headed back to Katy for naptime and then McKenna had gymnastics this afternoon. Brian went with his buddy Dusty to the Sweet16 games tonight, so he wasn't with us this evening....

so we just took the kiddos to Chick-fil-a for dinner and stop by the Super Target for some groceries.

The kids are now sound asleep and I head out to work on stuff for my garage sale tomorrow. Our neighborhood is doing a "neighborhood wide sale" tomorrow from 7am-11am and we have more stuff than you could imagine from moving, kids clothes, baby stuff, etc....so I worked this week on getting that all together for tomorrow! So we'll see just how much I make this year. Last spring, I did a garage sale in Fort Smith and made $1,400.00!!!! So I'm hoping to AT LEAST get half that this time if I'm lucky!

We'll see... it's an early morning - so I'm off to bed! It's been such a long, but extremely fun day of making special memories here in Houston with Gigi & Poppa!

For more pic's of today click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022958&l=91543&id=82202106

Hillsong...

I love it when God puts a song in my heart and it just won't leave! One of the songs we sang in worship yesterday was "God of Ages" by Hillsong from their album "Saviour King - Live!"... here are the lyrics....

God of ages bringing glory here
You are good, You are good
Son of righteousness
You are all I see
With all my heart

Giver of life
Hope for the lost is in You
All of the earth shines with Your light Your glory

Chorus:
You are the God who lives
You are the God who heals
You are my hope my everything
You brought salvation to us
offered your peace to the world
You are my Lord my everything

In Your promise and Your faithfulness
I will trust all my days
King forever great in majesty
Be glorified

Bridge:
I'll trust in You, I'll trust in You!
I'll trust in You with all my heart

That song has been in my head and I just love it! I love the message it is so pure and so true!! I love it! All of Hillsong's worship songs are amazing and lead me right to His throne in worship of Him!
Two other songs off of that same album that I have listened to alot this weekend, is "You are Faithful" & "Here in my life". These are all 3 AMAZING songs, that if you don't have them on your I-Pod, Cd - whatever... GET IT! They are great!! (And "google" the lyrics so you can truly understand the song!)

Easter Worship....

Wow!! That's all I can say....worship yesterday was absolutely incredible at our 9:30am service that I attended w/ Brian! Every song that we sang was absolutely PERFECT for this day that we CELEBRATE our RISEN KING!!!! Our God is Mighty to save, and His grace is so AMAZING!!

Ben Young preached about Emptiness yesterday out of John 20 - his whole message was about how when we are are empty that is exactly where the Lord wants us to be.... so he can fill us up with Him! Like in Genesis 1 when He created the earth (vs.2) - it was EMPTY but he began to fill it with day and night and "it was good"! Then when Abraham who was 100 years old and still hadn't seen the promise of the Lord fulfilled that he would become a father, because his wife's womb was EMPTY...He filled that empty womb with Isaac from with whom the lineage of Christ would come from! And then the tomb, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, he was NOT THERE FOR HE HAS RISEN! The tomb was EMPTY! Praise the Lord and it is for that reason that we are here today and can have our hope for eternity with our Creator! What an amazing reminder that being EMPTY is exactly where the Lord wants us to be...and it's okay to be empty! Because it's then that we can be filled with Him - the One who brings true fulfillment to my life!

Then last night, we had our 210 youth staff and some other friends over for Easter dinner! What a great time we had!!
We are SOOOO blessed with the people that the Lord has brought into our life since moving to Katy. We are a part of an amazing church, Second Baptist, we have great friends, and a great home - I am truly blessed!!

Easter Pictures--- what a great day!

My pretty princess!

The Easter basket...

Good Friday!

May we all stop and remember what today means for those of us who know Jesus Christ as our LORD & Saviour! He was beaten, suffered, and died simply because of His great love for us,

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us." Romans 5:8-- What an awesome truth!!

He was Perfect. Sinless. Blameless -yet He knew there was no other way for us to spend eternity with our Father & Creator unless He came to be the Ultimate Sacrifice for our sins! What an amazing God we serve & love!!

For those of you reading this who do not know of this GREAT LOVE...my prayer is that you open your heart to Him today & experience the true meaning of Easter. It's not about eggs, candy, & a bunny; but the Death & RESURRECTION of a Mighty King!!

Spring Break- Day 4 (The Zoo!!)

This morning we headed out bright and early, (okay, so 8:45 isn't THAT early!)....but we headed to the Houston Zoo. The kids had a blast!!! There was a whole crew of like 7 of us girls and each of us had at least 2 kids each!! So you can imagine our crew of preschoolers as we toured the huge complex!! It was a gorgeous day so all the animals were out and about! The kids were so excited and loved every minute of it! We ended our morning riding the train - that was so exciting, Parker still keeps saying "choo choo"!! :o)

To see my album of pictures from the day- click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022634&l=1c343&id=82202106

The kids crashed immediately in the van, too bad traffic at the zoo was bumper to bumper when we were trying to leave so it took me 30 minutes to get out of the PARKING LOT!!! So by the time I was even half way home - due to the lovely traffic in Houston....the kids woke up!!

So no down time for me this afternoon!

Yea, tomorrow is Friday and BRIAN COMES HOME TOMORROW!!!! :)

We're so excited (or at least I am!!)....

Spring Break - Day 3

Back in the day when napping came easy....

Parker at 11 months.

McKenna at 14 months.

What has happened? Why is it that my kids do not like taking naps?!?

I will never know. It's 2:10p.m. and I started trying to lay my daughter down around 1:00p.m. = She's still awake. I guess I'm just going to have to give up and realize that she is 3 doesn't seem like she needs one anymore. And then my Parker man, I don't know what his deal is... I laid him down this morning after lunch and playtime with several of our friends who came over to play. He slept for about 45 minutes only to wake up, I thought he was dirty, but, nope...he just does not want to go back to sleep. Although when I sit and hold him, or rock him, his eyes roll back in his head like he's exhausted.
So I don't know, I give up....Parker finally fell back asleep but I've given up with McKenna, she's a ball full of energy today.

...and so...early bedtime at the Mills house!

~
We did have a fun playtime this morning.
Thanks Lezli, Lindsey, Christa, & Kenzie for bringing your kiddos over to play! :)

Spring Break - Day 2

Well, Tuesday went a LOT better than Monday, Praise the Lord!!

I don't think I could have handled another day like that. We had our usual Tuesday morning playgroup this morning at Kelly's and the kids did an easter egg hunt. They had a blast doing that and then playing outside. They took great naps that afternoon and then that evening we ended the day by going to the mall, I was looking for something for Easter (why we feel like we need new stuff each Easter - I don't know!) but anywho... I was on a mission, but didn't find anything.

The kids were great while I shopped and so we ended our evening letting them play at the play area at the mall.

Here they are...

Spring Break 2008

Ah.....now this is my idea of a Spring Break! But instead of laying out at the beach, I'm here at home with my two precious kids. Brian is gone this week with the youth group on a mission trip in Mexico. He won't be back until Friday so let the adventure begin!!

Brian travels quite a bit - so this isn't the first time I've been a "single mom" for the week.

However, you know it's going to be a LONG week when Monday morning starts off like this...

7:15a.m. - McKenna begins whining for breakfast - she's been in bed with me since 6:00a.m.

7:35a.m. - Hear Parker up so I go upstairs to get him out of his crib, only to walk in on him playing in....YOU GUESSED IT.... poop! Need I say more! Good morning to me! (Did I also mention I woke up with a horrible sinus headache that STILL has not gone away!)

9:45a.m. - Out the door, I have an appt for Parker to have his picture made. McKenna arguing about what shoes she wants to wear. I give up that battle and load them in the van.

9:59a.m. - Arrive at Studio1 for Parker's pictures and fill out the order form, then to be informed that the 9:30 appt had just arrived and they'd come get us as soon as she was finished.

10:15a.m. - STILL waiting at the photo studio trying to "chorale" my kids in their "waiting area"

10:25a.m. - A lady finally comes and tells me that the girl is doing her "senior portraits" and is having wardrobe changes and they will come get Parker to "squeeze us in" between her next outfit change - I thought..."GEE THANKS!"

10:35a.m- they finally come get Parker only to find they are HORRIBLE with kids - Parker is screaming and the two people taking the pictures did NOTHING to entertain him, distract him, or CONVINCE him to try to smile... so I'm acting like an idiot trying to get him to smile while McKenna is taking ever PROP off their shelf to play with! AH!!!

(All this is going on while the Senior girl and her mother are standing their starring at us waiting for us to get out their way... you could tell that mom was irritated. But HELLO!!! I had a 10:00 appt that didnt happen until about 10:40 because they couldn't show up to their appt on time!)

Since Parker didn't "cooperate" with the lady - I guess she just gives up so she can get back to the senior shoot, so she hands off the memory stick from the camera to some guy and says, "see if we got anything out of that that we can make work".... Excuse me?!?!? That's it?!?!

So after more wrestling with my kids to make them behave and quit getting into everything we go for a walk - I tell the guy, we'll be back in a minute. McKenna in the meantime has been acting up and deserved a major "trip to the bathroom" if you get my drift.... So after we took care of that situation, we gain our composure and go back to the Studio.

Finally around 11:10a.m. we were done and I just picked a pose to finish this horrendous experience! WHEW!!! So why did we stay and endure through the horrible Studio One photo-op??? Well first of all, I'm horrible at being incredibly frustrated but not complaining or saying anything....second, when I made the appt the girl took my credit card # and I was afraid if I had just left, they would charge my credit card for "their time"....

-We then head home for lunch and NAPS - which they both needed MAJORLY.... Although McKenna fought laying down for forever, she only slept for like 45 minutes!!!

Ugh....

Needless to say I'm worn out and it's only 4:00pm the same day Brian left for Mexico!

4 more days to go (AND COUNTING)....

I don't know - talk about a FRAZZLED MOM.... that's been me today.

But I know that the Lord is bigger than me and even though this may seem so minor compared to what could be going on in my life....I am slowly realizng and accepting that I need my God to be my ALL in my everyday life!!

Lord, give me strength, patience, endurance, unconditional love, and self control this week!

(Thanks for letting me vent!)

Our weekend!

The weather here in Katy was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S yesterday and today --- we've spent the majority of this weekend outside. (It's been in the mid-80's Friday & Saturday) The kids LOVE being outside and since it was so warm we even let them play in the water for a little while since Brian needed to water the backyard anyways...they had a great time. Parker wasn't so fond of the sprinkler so he played in a bucket of water with a cup for HOURS it seemed like...he seriously would have played in that ALL day if we would have let him. Here are some pictures of the kids outside; playing in the yard before the water, playing with their new bubble machine, and of course playing in the water...

Parker throwing grass

McKenna with her new "bubble maker" (Yes, she's in her leotard still from gymnastics that morning.)

"Huh?!?"

Lil' Parkerman - although he is NOT so little anymore :(

The Playplace & American Idol!

McKenna and Parker love any where they can find that has a play place. Parker yells "PLAY-PLAY" like a caveman at the top of his lungs, (which is how he says EVERYTHING lately).

So as we were running some errands this morning waiting for Brian to get out of his meeting so we could meet him for lunch - McKenna saw a McDonalds and was BEGGING ME to stop so they could play for a minute. So here they are playing at the playplace this morning...

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On a side note.... I haven't blogged yet about American Idol yet this season...I'm not sure why b/c I am addicted. I love it! I DVR it and watch it later on after the kids are down. I am a HUGE fan of Brooke White! She is just real & precious and I love that!!!

I LOVED her performance this week on the piano!

This morning...

Here are some pictures from this morning of the kids loving on eachother and playing on the stairs - their favorite place to bring all there toys too and play.
Parker loves throwing any ball he can find over the banister! And McKenna was pretending she was shopping at Target....haha...don't know where she gets that from!

"The Easter Story Cookies"

A friend of ours sent this to Brian in an email. It is a neat idea & great illustration to do with our kiddos the night before Easter Sunday...we might just try it this year.

Easter Story Cookies
(To be made day before Easter morning)

1 c whole pecans
pinch of salt
3 egg whites
1 c sugar
zipper baggie
1 tsp vinegar
wooden spoon
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300* (this is important so don’t wait til you’re half finished w/the recipe).

Place pecans in zip lock baggie and have children beat them w/the wooden spoon to break them into small pieces.
Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman Soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3

Let children smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp vinegar in mixing bowl.
Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar.
Explain that eggs represent new life, and that Jesus gave his life to give us life.
Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle salt into child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.
Explain that this represents the salty tears that were shed by Jesus’ followers and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27

Add 1 c of sugar and explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us and want us to know and belong to Him.
Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
Explain that the color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts. Drops by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet.
Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus body was laid.
Read Matthew 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.
Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus’ tomb was sealed.
Read Matthew 27:65-66

Go to bed. Explain that them may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.
Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.
Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow.
On the first Easter Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.
Jesus is Alive!
Read Matthew 28:1-9

The countdown to Easter...

I can not believe it's already the time of year when we celebrate our Risen Savior....EASTER!

I love this time of year and all it represents!

Last night we made "Resurrection Eggs" at our MOPS group for our craft for the night. For each of the 12 days leading up to Easter Sunday you open that egg for that day and read the card and the kids get to see the item that the day represents!

We started ours today...McKenna is so excited and wants to open them all up now. She had her Easter celebration and egg hunt today at preschool. She was so excited to bring home all of her eggs to show me! Just a great idea for you to do with your kids this Easter season to share the true meaning of Easter...

Praise the Lord that we do not worship a god who is still in his grave -
we worship a GOD who is ALIVE!!

New Blogs!!

I love finding new blogs - or finding out when old friends have started one! Two of my dearest friends in the world have now entered the blog world. Denise Lopez, is the Director of Women's Ministry at The Church at BattleCreek in Tulsa, OK where Brian and I both worked at for 3 years! It all began as a church start and God has just blessed them tremendously! We love and miss all our friends there in good ole' Broken Arrow! Denise's blog is http://everydaywithdenise.blogspot.com/ She just got started with it but she ALWAYS has great insight and advise! She's the greatest!
Another great friend, is my adoreable roommate from college. Leslie and I met second semester of our freshman year and I LOVE HER!!! Still to this day she can make me laugh at the drop of a hat! Talk about a true, genuine, and LOYAL friend who is gorgeous on the inside and OUT...that sums up Leslie! She does great hair and make-up, thus the title of her blog and her business she does for brides. I'm so excited she's just joined the Facebook world and now she's BLOGGING!!! That a girl Les! :)

Rainy Day & Sam's!

This morning Parker and I headed out for a morning of errands after McKenna was off to preschool. I was trying to beat the rain as a huge storm blew through around 11:00. We made it to the post office, the bank, and Wal-mart just fine; but we still needed to run to Sam's for some yummy Cheesecake bites that I needed to purchase to take to our MOPS meeting for tonight.

The storm hit while we were in Sam's so needless to say that turned into an hour excursion trying to "kill time" while it was POURING outside. So we walked all through Sam's and then shared a piece of pizza and a drink for lunch at their cafe. We then came home for his nap and then headed out again at 2:30 to go pick up McKenna and it was STILL RAINING! YUCK!! I hate rainy days!

Well now Parker's beating his sister with a wooden spoon - gotta run!

Praise the Lord for MOPS tonight!!!

"Jacob on the farm"...

This is a 11x14 canvas I just completed for a baby gift for a friend of mine from college.

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And this is a picture of the quilt from her friends blog of his bedding.

Mimi & Poppy in town!!

Brian's parents are in town this weekend! The kids are so excited since they haven't been down to visit since we moved to Katy back in September. We've got a fun weekend planned as long as the weather cooperates! :)

Have a great weekend!

RoundUp Sunday & Flag football!

We have an extremely busy Sunday at Second tomorrow! Bible Study or Worship at 9:30 or 11:00am followed by a churchwide BBQ in the South parking lot.

The student ministry will be doing lots of cool things in both hours as well as having a Flag Football Tournament from 1:00-5:00 at the church!

Lots to do - so come be a part of a fun day! It's suppose to be warm and gorgeous tomorrow too!! :)