HAVE A BLESSED EASTER!

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!

Those of you who know me well, know what my favorite things are. But in case you don't here they are in order.

My God
My Husband Soowan
My Children, Micah and Amanda
A beautiful Spring Afternoon
Flowers
Gardens
The Dallas Arboretum

I was blessed beyond measure to be able to experience all of these in one afternoon.

Today was a beautiful day in Dallas. I love springtime here! The weather was PERFECT for our family to enjoy the day at the Dallas Arboretum. This place is amazing! Right now the gardens are full of daffodils, tulips of every color, delphiniums, daisies, dianthus, poppies, peonies, azaleas and the list goes on and on. Everywhere you turn there is an amazing display of God's craftsmanship in the beauty of each bloom. When in any garden I feel so close to God. It's hard to explain, but when I'm surrounded by the fragrance of the flowers and sounds of the wind through the tree tops, I feel His presence, His peace, His love, His joy, His power and His majesty.

Our family had a fun time walking through all the gardens, sitting on the lawn together to enjoy a small picnic. With all the flowers in full bloom of course I had to take a bazillion pictures of the kids and the gardens. ENJOY!

The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
Genesis 2:8

The flowers are springing up,
the season of singing birds has come,
and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.
~Song of Solomon 2:12

Easter Egg Dying Fun!

Every year we invite friends over on Good Friday to dye Easter eggs. The kids had fun getting messy (esp. Amanda) while coloring their eggs. This year was rather low key and calm considering last year we had over 40 kids at our house. YIKES! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! I don't mind really, it's fun for the kids and a good time for the mom's to get together and chat. This week is Spring Break for the majority of the schools in our area, so many of our friends were out of town therefor they couldn't join us yesterday. Either way we still had fun and Amanda had just a little too much fun in her first egg dying experience. She spilled several cups of dye onto the ground and decided to dance then roll in the puddles of dye. And to top it all off we gave her a deviled egg to smear all over herself and then a chocolate cupcake. Yes we're crazy... but we are not the type to get all on edge if our kids get messy. In the end the kids had a blast and that's all that matters to us!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Today is my incredibly, loving and wonderful husband's birthday!!! The day started out with all of us sleeping in Ahhh...(this week is Micah's spring break, so no alarms were blaring at 6:30 AM in this house). We started the morning off with donuts and coffee per request of the birthday boy. Soowan went off shortly afterwards to have a manicure and pedicure done. Yes, my man is manly enough to admit that having nicely groomed fingers and toes is a good thing! ;0)

A little before noon we headed off to the Fort Worth Zoo. When we got there the place was PACKED! It took us almost an hour to park and get our tickets. We enjoyed our day at the Zoo, even though it felt as if the entire population of the DFW area was there along with us. It wasn't too bad really. People were courteous and no one seemed like they were in a hurry or in a bad mood, so that helped make the day enjoyable.

Afterwards we went to a Japanese hibachi grill for dinner. The food was delicious and we were happy that our table side cook was actually Japanese this time around. Last time we went to a hibachi grill for dinner, our cook's name was Jose and had a huge bandage wrapped around his index finger. That in itself makes it a bad experience when your cook's hand looks like he just returned from the ER. Our cook tonight was incredible and he even allowed Micah to come over to the grill with him and learn some moves. We all had a blast!

When we got home we lit a small fire in our kitchen to symbolize my sweet husband's 35th birthday. What impressed me the most is that he was able to blow out all 35 candles in one breath. Yeah... He's the MAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOOWAN!!! WE LOVE YOU!

Praying The 5 P's For Our Kids

Another thing I learned at the 2Moms conference (mentioned below) was 5 things to pray for our children. They happen to all start with a P, so the mom's made reference to them as the "5 P's to Pray for Your Children."

Pray for your Child's Passion for God.

Pray that your child will know Purpose.

Pray for your child's Peers/Pals. (both present and future)

Pray for your child's future Partner.

Pray for your child's Purity.

Also they have created a prayer calendar to pray for you child, in scripture, for their character. Here is the link so you can print out your own prayer calendar as well. Prayer Calendar

I began praying for Micah on Saturday about his peers. With him starting a new school this past January, I know it's been tough for him to get to know his new peers. It's always tough being the new kid.

This morning while we were driving to school I told him that I've been praying for him and his ability to make new friends at school. He asked if I could pray for one student in particular. He revealed to me that a boy has been calling "glasses boy" just about everyday at school. Micah asked if I could pray that this boy would stop saying this to him. He had mentioned to Soowan and I that someone made a comment to him when he first got his glasses, but I had no idea that this boy has continued on since then. Before Micah got out of the car, we prayed together both for this boy and for Micah to not become bitter and to still love him as the Bible tells us to. I prayed that the Lord would soften this boy's heart and see that Micah is same person, with or without his glasses on. (Micah had mentioned that the boy was nicer to him prior to getting his glasses).


Here is a picture of my "glasses boy". It's sad we are creatures who judge what's on the outside and not see what's on the inside first.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

2Moms

On Saturday my church had a 2Moms Conference. It was a great time of song, laughter, tears and 2 Moms sharing what they have learned on their journey of motherhood. So much of what they touched on was relevant onto how I've been feeling like a Mommy lately. My heart was pierced with conviction and that's a good thing. I knew the Lord was speaking to my heart and it came relevant there are some areas within me that need to be refined.

For You have tried us, O God;You have refined us as silver is refined.
Psalm 66:10

Gotta Love Texas Weather

We have had quite an interesting weather pattern in our area this past weekend. On Saturday it was mostly sunny with a high temperature 78 degrees. On Sunday it was cloudy the majority of the day, but still mild in temperature. Around 6:00 pm it began to rain and we were under severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in our area until 2:00 AM Monday morning. Yesterday the high temperature was in the early AM and the temperature quickly began to drop as the day progressed. It began snowing around 7:30 PM last night and the snow continued throughout the night. Our area received about an inch and a half of snow. Just enough to blanket the rooftop and the lawn, but not too much of the white stuff so Micah still had to go to school today. Much to his disappointment of course.

Today is still a bit cold, and the snow is quickly melting away in the bright sunlight. We let Micah go out and play in the snow last night, and this morning I took Amanda outside and check it out. She didn't seem to mind the snow, but then she really didn't love it either. Here is a slide show of pictures I took of the kids and a video I took of Amanda this morning as well. ENJOY!

One last thing... Amanda picked her first flower today! You will notice a purple, pincushion chrysanthemum in her hands in some of the pictures. I'm planning on pressing the flower to save and put it in her baby book. There is actually a space in her book to save her first picked bloom. Cool huh?

This evening I went out to dinner with my three dearest friends Kim, Lisa and Julie. They are my answer to prayer and I love the three of them with all my heart. I've known them for over 3 years, (well I've known Lisa for 4 years because she is my neighbor) but in that short amount of time we have formed an amazing circle of friends.

Every couple of months we plan a ladies night out. I love our dinners together because we are able to get a couple of hours away from our normal nightly routine and enjoy uninterrupted, adult conversation. We always chose a restaurant that we would never dare bring our children to, and it's even better when the place has no children's menus as well. This secures the probability that another family will not be eating at the establishment with their children. ;0) Don't get me wrong, we all love our kids to pieces, but we are also realistic and know that we need adult time away at the same time. We feel it makes us better mommies, and we are blessed to have husbands who encourage us to have that time with away with one another.

So thank you my sweet, sweet friends! I had fun tonight and will look forward to our next ladies night out.