Baby shower for Tabitha and Freedom!

It's almost baby time!  So that means the ladies of VSIBC wanted to throw Tabitha a wonderful baby shower! 

I was so thankful my Mom and Taylin could drive up for the shower.  They drove up over 4 hours, came to the shower, and drove back over 4 hours.  So special.  Sure do love them!

I think Freedom was excited to kick her Aunt Tay!

Isn't Tabitha just the cutest pregnant lady?  So adorable!! 
So blessed to have a wonderful daughter in law that is also a wonderful mother!

So thankful for many wonderful friends and lots of good food at the shower!

Cynthia planned an adorable game reinacting the true life of a mother!

At present time Liberty was ready to help!

Another girl will soon be added to the Gimenez's!!  We are so excited!!!

Nearing the end?

We feel like we are on the home stretch of the school year.  Something we like to do is make a chain for us to tear off the days as we finished.  I thought we were nearing the end, now it feels like we have a ways to go.  Either way, we have summer fever!  Patrick is working hard to get the pool ready, because summer, here we come!!! After 30 more lessons or so. :o)

"Lay it Up" Service

Easter Evening we had our services out at the new property.  It was a gorgeous evening!  Everyone brought their chairs and sweet tea.  It was such a sweet time!

Brother Arlo Elam, a man that has been such an encouragement to my Patrick, preached the message for us.  What a wonderful sermon as he challenged us to work together and be involved in building this building for the Lord!  We're excited about what God is going to do!

For several weeks Patrick had been encouraging our people to ask God what they can give for a special offering we would take at the end of the service.  Some people sold things so that they could give.  Some people brought things of value to be sold.  Some gave their income tax returns.  Our people gave! 

Our people gave over $10,000 that night for the building/property fund!  It's so exciting to serve the Lord together and give together.  God is doing some amazing things at VSIBC!

Easter at VSIBC

I love Easter at our church.  There's so much excitement!  For the past 6 weeks in Sunday School we had been learning the Easter story.  We've been building up to this Sunday to teach on the Resurrection of Jesus!

My sweet husband preached on "Lessons learned from the Resurrection."    Love my preacher/hubby!

We had a packed house with 90 in attendance!  We need our new building!!  (Our auditorium seats 78...it's always great to bring out chairs!)  I also love all the ages I see in this building...young, old, in between...all are welcome at VSIBC! 

This cute little head poking out from behind the piano has so much talent!  I love to hear Brenna play!!

Then, it was egg hunt time!

Liberty was so adorable!! She would pick up an egg, look inside, then show everyone what she found.  She definitely wasn't in any hurry!

A family of 3 for only a few more weeks!

Sunday mornings are busy for our family.  Easter Sundays??? They are super busy!!  This year I didn't get a family photo.  :o(

This is Micah and Carter's 5th year to do the egg hunt together.  These 2 buddies are growing up into fine young men!

Happy Easter everyone!

Coloring our Eggs!

Saturday night we colored our Easter Eggs.  We love to do this as a family! Such precious memories! :o)

I was telling Tabitha that you could probably look back on most of our Easter photos and see cute children with dyed hands.  I love it!!

These two always stop to munch on at least one egg!

Brenna created "fruit" this year.  How adorable!!

And Beth recreated what an actual bird's egg looks like.  I have some creative kiddos!!

Gorgeous eggs were created, fingers were dyed, lots of talk around the table about Jesus and celebrating Easter....it was a good night!

Choosing to be early

When my Silas was little he was an early riser... I mean up with the sun type of early!  In St. Barths the sun was up and shining before 6.  When he would wake up, then baby Callie would wake up.   So that meant they were my alarm clock.  When they woke I did.  So usually I would have my devotions while they sat with me and drank their milk.  Or I would have them as they played quietly (somewhat) on the floor after breakfast.  Or if all of those plans failed, I would have my quiet time alone with the Lord during naptime...which was usually 1 or 2 o'clock.

My goal was to not let a day go by without reading something from God's Word.  That was a good goal.  Until I hear a message by David Gibbs.  I love his sermons and always walk away determined to live my life better for the Lord!  One of the illustrations he used was about his Mother.  He said there never failed a day when he would wake up and see his Momma praying or see evidence that she had had her time with the Lord. (by seeing her bible at the table)  He said that before he ever opened his eyes in the morning that he had been prayed for and that is what helped him through his teenage years, time in law school, and serving in the ministry.

 Because of his Mother's time with the Lord, he is what he is today!  That was such a convicting statement to me! My mind then thought of all the reasons why I couldn't do that...Silas is an early riser, I can't possibly wake before him!...I have babies that sometimes wake through the night, I need that extra rest!...I'm not an early person!  And the excuses went on and on.  But, I couldn't get away from the thought of David Gibbs waking and seeing his Mother with her head bowed in prayer.  I knew I wanted to be that kind of Mom.  I determined to start having my quiet time with the Lord first before anything else! Even if it meant the alarm went off at 5:30.  And I'm so thankful that almost 9 years ago I made that decision!

  Starting my day with the Lord is the best way.  I can't imagine facing the days demands without time with Jesus first! 

 I have found a few things that help with this: 
~ I have the coffee pot ready to go, even the creamer and sugar in the cup so all I have to do is pour and my coffee is ready!
~ I have my Bible and notebook in its place so I don't have to go looking for it.  (When the 3 little ones were babies, being quiet was of the essence!)
~ Once I started the routine, after about a week my body was used to getting up early and oftentimes I'm awake before my alarm even goes off.
~ Realize that if the plan doesn't work, don't forsake time in God's Word and time of prayer. Read and prayer in the afternoon, but my goal was first things first!

Looking back I am so glad God let me hear that message!  My mornings are so special and I wouldn't trade any extra time to sleep for time with God!

Linking up today with A wise woman builds her house

How??

How do you eat a bagel without any front teeth?

Very Carefully.  Very Roughly.  Sometimes Very Slowly.
 New teeth on the way!

A New Addition....Huckleberry

I mentioned a few posts ago that there have been a bunch of changes to Storybook Farms.  Well, the one I want to share with you today is my favorite change!  I've been asking Patrick for a while for a new buck.  I'm just not ready to give up on the idea of having a little herd of goats.  I want to be able to have fresh goat's milk for cheese, butter, soaps and fudge!  But, if you've followed this blog, you've seen we've not been very successful.  We've had some learning bumps along the way.  Our last goat we lost was Corduroy....my favorite.  It was sad.  And we thought we needed to give up.  But, we still have Jenna and Trixie.  And they are as healthy as ever!  They just need a husband! :o) 

So, after a little convincing and lots of praying, we decided to get another buck!  I knew I wanted a nubian.  I knew I wanted him to be sweet.  And I knew I wanted him to have brown coloring in him.  When I saw someone post this guy for sale, I knew he was the one!  And my sweet husband bought him for me!! We named him Huckleberry.

 He's three months old and already pretty tall!  He was a bottle baby, so he loves loves loves attention!  He's very sweet!!!

 Liberty loves all the animals.  It's so cute to see her watch them.

Of course Silas, my goat lover, loves Huckleberry.  And huckleberry loves him.

                 

 He's acclimating well to Storybook Farms.  Or at least he's trying to.  Jenna is pretty bossy with him and very protective of all food in the paddock.  Poor Guy.  We've been taking him out for his own time of feeding.  After a week, Jenna and Trixie are tolerating him better and they seem to be getting along pretty good.  No romantic interest yet. ;o)  Maybe this summer!