Mother's day happenings

I had a wonderful Mother's day! It started by me waking up to beautiful flowers and cards from Michael and the kids. Then I was able to take my time getting ready for church while Michael got breakfast made for the kids and got them ready. We went to the 9:30 service and then went to Chipotle for lunch, my favorite! The food was delicious but for some odd reason they had rap music playing in there and it was very loud which made for an interesting atmosphere. But the food and company was delightful. We then went to half priced books and spent time wandering the isles. I love that place! We then headed back home after a quick stop at Lowe's to get chicken wire for our coop. Michael spent the majority of the afternoon working on the coop, it is coming along quite nicely and should be ready for our baby chicks to move in next month. The boys and Anna lended a hand between playing, swimming, and relaxing. Michael then made a delicious bbq'd dinner and we ate while watching the Suns play. It was a great game! At half time Camden, Anna and I went on a walk. It was the perfect night for a walk and I enjoyed the time spent with them. The rest of the night was spent lounging around and before we knew it, it was time for bed. It was a great Mother's day and my family made me feel very special!

I noticed that our neighbors tree bloomed beautiful yellow flowers so I decided to take some pictures of Anna in her cute dress.


Working on the coop






These two enjoyed some fun times yesterday, I wasn't sure how I felt about Camden tying his sister up but she was having fun so why not take a few pictures. The reason he did this was to see if she was telling him the truth about something, so I guess it was an interrogation of sorts.


The interrogation begins.

then she begins to think about how she can escape.

And she moves into action.

And she is free!

I love being a mom, I love the constant entertainment that happens in our household, I love seeing my kids grow up and reach new milestones, I love taking care of them, I love talking with them, and I love hanging out with them. And I really love my husband for being half the reason I became a mom, I would be the other half in case anyone was wondering. If it were not for him, I wouldn't have given birth to our two boys and if it were not for his gentle persistance about adopting, we may not have been blessed with our beautiful daughter. And I love how my husband encourages me to be the best mom I can be and how he gives me time to myself when he sees that I am frazzled. I am one blessed wife and mother!

Legacy

Our family went on the Legacy Adventures family camping trip a few weekends ago. We had the best time! Legacy Adventures is a ministry Michael is involved in and they put on father/son and father/daughter camping trips throughout the year. The goal is for fathers to spend quality time with their sons/daughters while fulfilling that role of the Godly leader in their life. Our boys have been on several father/son trips with Legacy and they come home each and every time saying it was the best time ever. They come home with such a special bond with dad and they usually talk my ears off for days telling me all about their weekend. Anna will get to join dad next year for her first father/daughter trip. Last year was the first annual legacy family camp for the Legacy leaders and their families. Last year we camped in tents and this year for our 2nd annual family camp we went to a Christian camp called Mountain Meadows Ranch and stayed in cabins. Let's just say I enjoyed the sleeping arrangements here a whole lot more than I did last year.
I took over 200 photos and had a hard time narrowing them down. Since I blog for the purpose of creating a family scrapbook each year by downloading my blog to a program that puts it together into a nice book for me, I figured why not include a whole bunch of pictures because after all we have a whole bunch of fun memories from our family camp weekend.

We have arrived!

And arrived to some cold and snowy weather.

Wonderful nature.

Camden's wonderland

I love this sign, and that is exactly what happened.

We LOVE nature.

Anna and Luke loved ringing the dinner bell and not just for dinner.

There were so many fun things to take pictures of.

We enjoyed many campfires!

A late night pizza snack.

For ice breakers, we played many minute to win it games. This was the oreo one where you had to try and move an oreo from your forehead to your mouth by only moving your facial muscles. It was so funny to watch.

Jadon and daddy

Just for fun

One of the family activies we did was making a boat out of recycled materials. It was a family favorite last year and this year was no different.

Dad was the mastermind behind our boat this year.

And Jadon had some grand ideas as well.

Camden and dad busy at work.

After our boat was done we enjoyed a family hike and a few pictures.

On a hike as a family, photo opp with Cam Cam.

And Anna Banana

Anna enjoyed playing at the ropes course, this was so fun!

Camden enjoying the ropes course challenge.

I even got in on a little of the action and yes, I made it to the top of this wall and over.

This was my favorite part, we had to work our way around the wooden beam by moving the wood and all staying on without falling off. It took a few tries but we managed to do it.

This was part of the ropes course challenge, let's just say it was a whole lot harder than it looks especially given our height difference.

We all got a chance to shoot some arrows.

Michael was jogging and Anna was laughing so hard!

We had craft time and Anna was making a bracelet.

Our cone head child.

Worshiping by the campfire.

The banana song, Anna with her buddy Luke.

Girlfriends!

This was taken at the obstacle course where families compete against families. So fun!

The weather was wild, we had snow, hail, rain, wind, sunny skies, but cold weather the whole weekend. It really made it fun though.

Camden's baptism

Today was a very special day for Camden Michael Ray. May 8th, 2010 is the day there was rejoicing in Heaven because Camden made his commitment to follow Jesus and be baptized. Camden started talking about baptism in March shortly after the tragic death of our friends baby boy. After his death it opened up many conversations about dying, heaven, and God. Camden mentioned that he would like to baptized during one of those conversations. He actually brought it up during our homeschool devotion time so we spend that morning reading scriptures about baptism and Camden especially enjoyed hearing the story about the Ethiopian eunich who Philip baptized.

Acts 8:26-36
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[d]eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.

31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth."[e]

34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"[f] 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

After reading some more scriptures we talked about how Camden would like to be baptized and when. He was very specific that he would rather be baptized at home instead of at church in front of a bunch of people he did not know. He wanted a private baptism with a select few. We planned to do it when our pool water warmed up a bit and after looking at some dates in May, Camden thought it would be extra special to be baptized on his Grandma's birthday. So that is what exactly what we did. We had Grandma and Papa, Aunt Teresa and the Warner family over to celebrate in Camden's baptism. After everyone arrived Michael and Camden got in the pool. I read the above passage and then Michael asked Camden some questions about his belief and commitment to Jesus. After that, daddy baptized Camden!









My heart is filled with joy tonight!