Bass Pro Shop, Guns, and Thoughts

Mike and I love spending time with our youngins'. :) Our kids are so much fun to be around (for us anyway...) and we really love just taking an afternoon or evening and going to the park, walking around the mall, or heading over to the Bass Pro Shop! Our kids love that place!
They have awesome mounted animals- it's almost like walking through a zoo...except, all the animals are dead. Ha ha! Caleb loves to see the moose and turkeys and deer. And they have this huge tank full of really big fish that Abbie will stare at for a loooooong time. Great place! Sam is happy as a lark in the cart in this picture... it's one of the few times he's actually IN the cart because he mostly wants mommy to hold him all the time!

Hmmmm, out of order photos- me and Mike on the way to church.

Me with my new hair-do!

Back to Bass Pro.... Mike was lovin' the pontoon boats!

Sam playing with a turkey while we wait for Daddy, who was looking at guns....There's a story behind that!

"Look at me Mom! I can see the whole first floor of Bass Pro!" He was like a monkey trying to climb up the wire!

Caleb took a picture of Abs and me. :)

Self-portrait! Nice smile son!

Caleb and Sam all ready for church- I had to take a picture! Look at the difference in their eye color. Got my blue-eyed boy and my brown-eyed boy! They are both so precious and handsome!

These two little monkeys found some balloons in a drawer and were walking around the house like this. They crack me up!

The Gun Story:

Last week I had a garage sale. This guy that came to the sale wanted to buy an item but wanted to come back later that evening to buy it. Fine. He never shows. Whatever.

The next morning, we hear this pounding on our door at 8am. Its a Saturday, and while not everyone has the luxery of sleeping in on Saturday, we do. We were sleeping. Mike jumps out of bed and scrambles to get to the door. When he walks out of our room he sees the yardsale guy standing in our livingroom!!! We DO lock our doors at night (and I have them locked during the day when Im home alone with the kids) so after figuring out that we weren't in immediate danger and kicking the guy out, Mike asks Caleb if he let the guy in. He did. Looooong talk later, Caleb understands that we dont open doors EVER to strangers. And Mike says, "We are buying a gun today!" While we've talked about it for years, there has always been something more important to buy and we've just never done it. Well, Im proud to say we now own a gun. And I'm a pretty good shot, just to warn you! ;)

Thoughts:

So, these last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions for me. Leaving our beautiful state where everything is blooming and changing, and life is starting afresh once again is really hard! Just being honest! I love the mountains, the sunrises here, the fact that it's 60 degrees in the morning when I go running with my friend, the green grass all year round, and most of all I love how close we are to Knoxville! Its a bustling city full of life and there are always things to do! We live so close to everything so its easy to get around. And I also feel comfortable here because I know this place.

All of these things are great. They are fabulous really. I'll admit, I've been spoiled! But God has something greater for us in Minnesota! It has taken me awhile to come to this conclusion- like, five years. But God has done an amazing work in my heart recently, and I am truly excited to see what He has in store for us. I think its going to be hard to beat what He's given us here, but God is ABLE to do anything! So I think that life in Minnesota is going to be awesome. Mostly because I will have my amazing husband there, and my three sweet children.

Have a blessed day!

A taste of Spring

Tid-bits

Well, this is what my livingroom looks like right now. We have plastic totes and boxes stacked up, furniture sitting out of place ready for the yard sale, and toys pretty much in every room; although the toy part is just everyday life around here.
Moving is truly an adventure. I am really excited, nervous, sad, apprehensive, and eager to go. Mike has known we would one day move to Minnesota since he came to Tennessee, so its no surprise that we are finally going. Its actually a sense of relief to know we will be where God has called us. However, the downside to all that is that we are leaving Tennessee. All of my friends are here, my church, my home, my neighbors, everything I have known since we've been married has been here. I know we will make friends in Minnesota, start a new church there, have new neighbors and grow accustomed to the weather (maybe), but it will different. It wont feel like home, or be comfortable. It will be strange and new. And although that is exciting in one way, it's sad in another.

But if my husband and I truly believe that this is what God has called us to do (which we do), then we will make it and be okay.

So, in other news, I think we can safely say that Abbie is potty-trained now. It's been almost 5 days of consistent runs to the bathroom, followed by huge grins and an organic fruit snack treat. Sam also finds the bathroom facinating so maybe we can start on him next!

Awww, aren't they cute? Notice Sam's huge choppers? He has been using them to chomp on various parts of my body- arms, shoulders, legs, neck, whatever happens to be close. I am working on solving this issue, but it's taking longer than it did with Caleb and Abbie. One good bite back and they were cured. Sam must have tougher skin...

My little man is growing up too fast! He is just a few days shy of being 10 months old! He is changing so fast- making hilarious faces, laughing at silly things, saying "mama" and "dada" and "baba" (which is bye-bye). Its too cute.

Yes, Caleb is holding a fantastically large Nerf gun that his Daddy bought a few days ago. That makes four that we now own. Mike claims to have bought it for Caleb, but I have my doubts...

Let me just say that we love our kids. We really do. God has been so good to us, blessing us with these little ones to love and train. I truly believe that if you love your kids and love God, that's all you need to raise a family. And we have both of those ingredients!

I just can't take enough pictures of me and my sweet boy!

My blue-eyed beauty. She is such a doll! Although she is by far my most challengin child, she is also very sweet and loving. We all get lots of hugs and kisses from our princess, and many many smiles too!

Silly kids! They beg for ice cream all the time, and fortunately for them, Grandpa and Grandma Frey were around this time. :)

Hope your week is blessed of God!