If you were a fly on my wall...

If you were a fly on wall you would probably notice all of the dried yogurt that gets flung across the room and never cleaned up.  You might witness a few tantrums that experts could not even explain...and you might even see first hand how 3 small people can single handedly destroy a house in a matter of minutes.  Well today was one of those days.  Sometimes you just have to wave your flag and surrender.  Surrender to ciaos...surrender to dirty dishes, and definitely surrender to the sound of laughter by three insainly adorable children that only comes form turning the house completely upside down! 

 See...how could you stop that joy?!! even if it is caused by destruction!  :) 

More summer fun

 My boys are obsessed with Cars..and when I say obsessed, I mean obSESSED! haha  So when we took the family to see the new Cars 2 movie, it was no surprise that they were glued to their seats!  Look at that face...that is one intrigued little boy.

 Trying to get a family picture but as you can see...it's a little eaiser said than done.  haha  Ezekiel was wayyy too busy looking at the cars than actually taking a pic in front of them!  :)  

 Charlie and I got to spend the whole afternoon together in down town Asheville...talk about a RARE thing!!  haha It was super fun!  We just walked around aimlessly taking pictures of each other and walking in yuppie stores that we could never afford to get anything from....my favorite kinda day!!!  :)

 I was teaching Charlie how to use my camera...he's getting better at it!  :)

 My favorite place to eat!!  Veggie hummus sandwich and homestyle fries...YUMMMM!!

 I come out of my room to this!  :)  I asked what they were doing..."were having a camp out mom!" well, of course you are..what else would you be doing?! haha

 I'm sure McDonald's would be happy to know that their happy meal boxes are being recycled into a knights helmet.  :)

 I was cleaning out the car and the next thing I know Annabella and Malachi are taking everything out of the guarge and putting it on the driveway...*sigh*  kinda funny, kinda not... haha

They said they were in a rock band and this was their room. :)

You gotta love um! :)

The wasps of this life

So there is this theme that keeps following me everywhere I go...and it has to do with bees...but more specifically..wasps.

Just for the record...I hate wasps.  Maybe because they terrify me (even though I could crush one with my pinky) or maybe it's because I just think their evil little creatures that don't deserve to be able to fly around and sting whomever they please...either way...I just don't like them!

Little side story-  There was a wasp that flew in our house and I was...well,  for lack of better words...freaking out!  Annabella was on one side of the hall and I was at the other end and the wasp was in the middle of us...Annabella had to talk me off the ledge and SHE ended up having to kill it!  (And the worst mother award goes to..... haha)  All that to say....I HATE wasps!

But for some reason for the past like 2 years or more every house we live in and every where we go we have to battle some sort of wasp problem.  In our last house we couldn't let the kids go outside, like hardly ever because there was tons of wasps that lived inside our back deck.  And now the house that we are living in, every time we go outside we are greeted with a wasp trying to get inside our house.  It even happens when were out and about..... when we go to the gym it just so happens that a swarm of wasps live in the bushes that we have to walk beside to get in the door.  And so on and so forth!

So one day when we were getting in the car a swarm of yellow jackets or wasps (they are all the same to me..yuckkk) started racing around our car.  The kids were already strapped in and 3 of the wasps flew in the car.  The kids were freaking out and I didn't know what to do.  I quickly got the kids out and just prayed that the wasps would leave so we could quickly get in the car and slam the door.  Miraculously, they all just flew out and we all jumped back in the car and slammed the door.  Annabella's first thing she said was, "Mama, are they gonna follow us home?"   The weird thing was when we got home home it just so happened to be that some more lovely wasps were greeting us when we got out of our car.  We all raced in the house and shut the door.  We all sighed a big sigh of relief and I assured Annabella that we were safe now and they could not come inside.

This is when the Lord began to speaking to me.  The enemy is lurking...just waiting for an "open door" so he can swoop in and attack.   Ya see, when we were in the car and all the doors were shut the wasps were just flying around the car almost searching for any holes they could find to sneak in.  I comforted the kids by saying that there was NO way that they could get in and get us because we were in the car and it was all locked up.

Then I felt like the Lord said, "That is house is how you are to treat me.  I am your refuge."

Outside of complete dependence on the Lord we are absolutely hopeless; doomed for attack and ultimately..death.  We have no hope, no security and are just a walking prey for the enemy.

We were created to be in the presence of the Lord.  Surrounded by Him night and day, soaking Him in and dwelling with Him.  That is the only way we were meant to live... to survive. 

So back to the story....so then remember how I said when I got home there were wasps waiting for us.  Well, on the car ride home I was kinda thinking on the revelation the Lord had just given me and I was soaking that in but it was a long car ride... so after about 10 minutes I started thinking about other things and day dreaming about this and that.  So when we got out of the car and the wasps were there the Lord had another revelation for me....

I felt like the Lord was now warning me, "Don't think you can just have a little "dose" of me and that will cut it.  The enemy is waiting to destroy you.  the second you "open that door" so to speak...he is waiting to attack.  So the Lord reminded me not to become distracted with the things of this world and to fix my eyes on Him...because when i am surrounded by Him "shutting the door" or some cases "slamming the door" of distraction and the things of this world and just fixing my gaze on Him....in that place no fear can stand.  In that place.....there's freedom.

So Lord if it takes having to be reminded every day by wasps trying to get in my house...then do it.  Because  I don't want to forget that You Oh Lord are my source of life, that You oh Lord are my source of refuge, and that You oh Lord are my freedom!!!!!!!!!!!

Only in You oh Lord can I stand.  Let me never forget that.

July 4th weekend

 This July 4th was different than other years...mainly because for the first time we didn't actually go and see the fireworks.  Charlie and I decided this year we would opt out of sitting in traffic for an hour and chasing Ezekiel around the field trying to convince him that sitting and watching fireworks is fun. haha  Maybe next year!  :)  But we had a lot of fun during the 3 day weekend just hanging out with friends and family and enjoying each other.

 Our 3 day weekend started out by going to a surprise party for our good friend Chris. (this is his surprise face..haha)

 the guys hanging out

 The kids SUPER excited because they finally caught a firefly!  They had been trying all night long!  

 One of my most favorite things about summer- hanging out with friends...kids chasing fireflies...eating smores around a campfire and all the guys jamming out on their guitars.  :)))))

 Me and my Becky! :)

 Me and my Charlie!  ;)

 Charlie and the kids made Charlie's favorite cookies-Chocolate Oaties (the no bake cookies)

 In the process of making cookies Annabella came down with the hiccups.  Well, Charlie has an age old remedy for that one- a spoon full of sugar.  The kids LOVE it (of course) and it actually works! 

 The kids are on a painting kick.  They want to paint every day...I told them we are gonna run out of paper, but then we decided we would put it to good use and start wrapping presents with it.  (So if you receive any gifts with pink painted paper, you'll know why! hehe)

 This was on July 4th.  We had a cookout with a bunch of friends and the kids just stayed in the water the whole time. Well, actually that's not really true.  Ezekiel and Malachi wanted to get their clothes on and then next thing I know they are outside in their nice warm clothes rolling in the mud. So then my friend give them some skirts and tank tops (she only has girls) to wear! It was pretty awesome! haha  But then...they ran outside AGAIN when i wasn't looking and got in the mud!  Ahhh!  Boys will be boys!  :)

Here is Ezekiel sporting his nice scalloped tank top with girl soccer shorts and some fashionable goggles for his accessory...of course all covered in mud.  :)

Malachi will find a guitar anywhere!  I love that he loves music so much...although I don't know how he couldn't being Charlie's son and all.  :)

All the guys played croquet and they got pretty into it...haha. 

 I hope you all had a great weekend too whether it was filled with fireworks or just snuggling with your favorite people!!!