Pics from church camp (Part 1)...................

I am lovin' Lil's expression in this picture!! Cracks me up!! :)
Claire & Jase playing on the floor...
Lily & Claire taking song leading seriously!!
Kylie, Lily, Claire & Alaina (our own little quartet) :)
Claire, Lily & Jase in the sandbox


*I'll post some more tomorrow! What a FUN & CRAZY week we had!!

~Julie~

If the shoe fits....

ouch!!... this one stings a little bit for me, how about you? Have you truly prayed as you promised lately? If you have, has it been just a quick hasty prayer? Today, I vow to pray even harder for those whom I have promised to pray!!!

Just a gentle reminder....

Love,
Julie

Why we LOVE our church family

*tonight, we are handing out treat bags to the local kids.

* we have TONS of activities with our youth

* the entire church family (youth, too) is going to watch Fireproof this weekend& we will work on "The Love Dare" at Bible Study.

*we are serious about loving others.

*our Sunday dress code is "come as you are". we often wear jeans.

*my husband and other men give lessons (we don't call them sermons) every week. This gives them something to discuss with each other and to learn from.

*we eat dinner together at least twice a month. we are always trying to find ways to do more things together.

*at my husband's job, our church is referred to as, "that church Charlie goes to, they are good people. they don't look down on you."

*I don't know about you, but to me, that means we are doing something right. =)

*our kids love each other. their friends from church are very important to them.

*we do SO many things as a group. we are trying to live life together. To BE the church.

anyway, I just wanted to say all of this. I have been meaning to for awhile. Sometimes I feel like I focus on the problems in life to much and I don't proclaim all of the good things, all of my blessings. Our church family has been a MAJOR blessing in our life. And continues to be.

Please be in prayer for my Uncle Edwin Crowell. He is very ill and doesn't have a good prognosis. we love him so much.

*There are just SO many things I could say about our church family, but here's the one best thing to me:

WE LOVE IT!!!!!

Claire & Lily's new favorite movie...

They watch this every day! I LOVE the play on Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn! It's such a good wholesome movie. Charlie & I are HUGE VeggieTales fans, ourselves! We are going to purchase this one for the girls this month (instead of a bunch of candy) and we are going to share it with our bible study group at church (we have about 12-15 little kids at church on Sunday) and I think this would be great for a movie night! We already took the kids to see it at the theatre when it came out and they all loved it so I know a movie night would go over well! =)

Just wanted to share these great movies and ask you, "What are your kids favorite movies?"

Have a great weekend!

Julie

You've been Boo'd...

INGREDIENTS

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup shortening (I use the butter crisco and it is soooooooo good in these!)

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate pieces(M&M's)

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, shortening, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 3/4 cup of M&M candies. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 11 minutes, to your liking.

A friendly ghost has come your way

To wish for you a wonderful day

.He left a small gift and something sweet

Never heard him come cause he's light on his feet.

You must be light on your feet too,

Cause this is what you have to do:

Choose two friends, and choose them well.

Now this is a secret, you musn't tell.

Copy this poem, and the sign twice,

If you do it by hand, make sure it looks nice.

Take a couple of gift bags down from the shelf

,Or a plain paper bag, you can design yourself.

Fill them with sweets, and a gift of your choice.

Leave em' on your friends porch,without any noise.

Hang this sign on your door, for all ghosts to see.

They'll know you've been "BOO-D", and will leave you be.

This is only a game, to have a little fun

,Let's see how far it goes, before the month's done.

Now you have 24 hrs. to visit your friends.Please don't be the cause of our games early end.
Happy Haunting!

I don't know how many of you know about this but it is a fun little activity that we participated in when I worked at our local elementary school back way before I had my kids. It is fun for me because I like any excuse to do some baking! =) This year, I am going to try and do this for some church friends and some family on both sides. But I can't tell you exactly who because that will ruin the surprise! =) These cookies are a GREAT way sweet treat to put in your BOO bags or baskets! So, feel free to try this idea! Pass it along, HAVE FUN & start a new tradition in your neighborhood or family or church (we in NO WAY celebrate or promote evil and I would have nothing to do with anything that did; just want to clarify that point!) This is just a FUN way to reach out to people!! =) Have fun & Happy Fall!!!! (You can use the poem above or the one printed on the link I gave you at the beginning of this post!)

HAPPY FALL!!!!!!!!!!!

*I will probably do a part 2 of this post because I will find more cute crafts & yummy treats that would be awesome for this; I always do! =)

Love,

Julie

Just a whole lot of randomness

*(This was written on Friday night not Saturday; so I am seeing them today!) Tomorrow I get to see my little sister, my brother-in-law, and Kylie, Alaina & little Jason. Jack has been here for almost a week now and he's been a blast to have around! :o) And, Charlie's side of the family is having a cook out tomorrow night. Looking forward to that & the girls playing with the cousins. :o)

Claire has a severe sore throat and I am starting to feel the same way. Claire began running fever today while we were on a shopping trip with my Mom and so right now she is in the bed recuperating and feeling pretty miserable. I hope that we don't have strep throat. Please pray that it isn't that and if it is that we will recover soon. Strep is also very dangerous for pregnant women. Lily feels fine, so far, but if sissy has it, she will get it, too.

Charlie is feeling better, for now. I hope he continues to feel better. :o) Work has been stressful lately but he is handling it very well.

We are off to church camp starting Sunday. It's family camp and we are really excited to see familiar faces and meet new ones again this year. I will have to dedicate an entire post to church camp sometime this week or next. Promise.

Went shopping with my Mom today. It was a LONG trip (1 & 1/2 hr. drive). We bought things for church camp and I got some maternity jeans for $8 and a pair of capris for $7. I also got a nice t-shirt for $8 and some cute flip-flops! :o) I found some tank tops and sundresses for the girls at around $4 a piece. What a great shopping day!!! :o) All at my favorite store, TARGET!!! YAY!! Can you tell that shopping makes me happy?!

We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel; love that place. :o) My chef salad was great, as usual but just not the same with no tomatoes. Ah, well.

I did miss out on ice cream at Coldstone Creamery. We meant to stop but the kids were so tired and Claire felt bad so we just drove on home. Maybe next time. Seriously, you need to try their ice cream. Oh, so good....

I also did not get to go to Bath & Body works (they are having a HUGE sale right now; 3 bubble baths for $10) I SO wanted to go but alas, the kids did not feel well, so, no go. Maybe soon.

But, I had fun anyway and I got out of the house for awhile. I really needed that. I found some oh, so cute, cupcake things at Cracker Barrel and I am going to start saving up! If anyone wants to buy me anything, there you go!!! LOL. I am just joking. :o)

Well, off to bed to read my bible and pray and talk with my husband. I am not trying to sound all super spiritual, either. That's what we have REALLY been trying to do lately!

*one more thing; Drew now keeps his feet in my rib cage and my belly button popped today!!! :o) Hard to breathe now and impossible to bend over, haha.

Love,
Julie

Random stuff and lessons learned

Thanks for your prayers. The girls are still a little congested but feeling better! :o) I am congested and my throat is very sore right now so I guess we will all have it before long.

If I haven't visited your blog lately, I am sorry. I have been busy with the kids and trying to get things straight in my head and in my life. Good luck, huh?! Just been really convicted about how much time I put into blogging. Not proud of that at all. Anyway, I don't know what I am going to do yet. I think I may cut back to just being on here twice a week or something......still praying about it.

I need to finish my Husband Encouragement Challenge posts. I have been keeping up with it and actually doing it, I just haven't posted about it lately. After that I may take a break for awhile. Forgive any grammatical errors on this page. I am tired from a crazy night with sick kids so I may leave commas out or not make any sense with run on sentences, who knows?

And to make this post completely random, here is a link that you must read! This man and his wife completely inspire me. They make me think about who I am and what am I doing? Seems like God is asking me that a lot lately and it's not exactly comfortable. Not that I could adopt children right now but there are so many things that I could do that I just don't. And that is just wrong and sad.

Okay, now I have to go and live my life. I will try to post again before too long. Everyone have a great weekend! :o)

Love and Prayers,
Julie

Light some candles...

"My point is this: Uncontrolled anger won’t better our world, but sympathetic understanding will. Once we see the world and ourselves for what we are, we can help. Once we understand ourselves we begin to operate not from a posture of anger but of compassion and concern. We look at the world not with bitter frowns but with extended hands. We realize that the lights are out and a lot of people are stumbling in the darkness. So we light candles." Max Lucado

Just some links I found today...

This guy is the kind of preacher that I wish every man had. I think he really gets it. And this guy has a very challenging post that I just had to share.

So, if you get time, read these and tell me what you think.

Love & Prayers,
Julie

Day 16-Husband Encouragement Challenge

"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18a)

Sometimes we live so close to our spouse that we fail to see him as others do; we only see our husband's faults. Take a step back. Perhaps he is growing spiritually in ways you have failed to appreciate. How can you encourage his growth in a fresh, new way? Remember--your husband is accountable to God for his spiritual development. You are accountable to God to encourage and not hinder that growth.

Can you identify an area of spiritual strength in your husband? Does he pray or read his Bible regularly? Does he like to read about or discuss spiritual matters? Does he go to church with you? Is he a spiritual leader? What do others say about him? If you can identify a specific area, praise him for that.

If not, pray earnestly that God will work in his heart, and watch for signs of spiritual growth in the future.

*Charlie is very good about reading his Bible and we try to pray together every night. WE are both trying to be better about praying and focusing on the word of God more often as a couple. He attends church with me every time and is one of our speakers at least once a month. He is a song leader and prayer leader. He does a lot with our youth and is very active in their lives, as well. He is currently trying to get more things together for the men in the church to do as a group. He is very focused on fellowship and training our youth in the right way. I am very proud to be his wife. I am sad to say that often times I hinder him by not having things ready so that he can have more time to focus on what he needs to. He ends up helping me a lot. But, we are both learning to better organize our time so that this is avoided. I really do love my godly, kind, patient, understanding husband. I will be back in a while to post his letter he wrote that he said I could share with you. I promise to do it today! :o)

Love,
Julie

Claire loves church! (and Cheesecake)

Today we were driving by our church to dump trash in my car at the dumpsters down the street. Claire all of a sudden unbuckles her car seat and starts crying. I said " Baby, what's wrong, why are you crying?" She points back at the church and says "Tata(Michayla)". I said "Do you want to go to church ?" She said "Uh-huh" ( I know I shouldn't encourage it, but if you could hear her say Uh-huh, it is just so darn cute!) I said" Baby, we can't go there today, Michayla's not there, Do you like church?" She shakes her head and says, you guessed it, "Uh-huh"! Then she says Kylie, Laina, Rosie, Casey, Crissa and a whole bunch of something I'm sure was very important!

I just thought this was so adorable and I had to share it! Now, a recipe for the most AMAZING cheesecake in the world!(made this for the 4th, just for me and Charlie and Claire). Yes, we will eat the whole thing. By the way, if you are afraid to make this, I will bop you upside your head, the only thing that can go wrong is that it can crack. Big deal if it does, put some cherry, blueberry, whatever topping on it and no one WILL EVER KNOW! It's not like you are running a bakery or something!

Classic New York Cheesecake

*2 cups graham cracker crumbs
*1/2 cup (a stick of butter), melted
* 2 tbs. sugar or splenda
*4 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
* 1 1/2 c. sugar
* 3/4 c. milk
* 4 eggs
* 1 c. sour cream
* 1 tbs. vanilla
* 1/4 c. all purpose flour

Bring all ing. to room temp. This prevents the batter from being lumpy. Which means a lumpy cake. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 in. springform pan. Mix crumbs and butter, press into pan. Mix cream cheese & sugar until smooth. BLend in milk, then mix in eggs, one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla, flour, until smooth. Pour filling into crust. Fill small pan with hot water. Place on bottom rack. Place cheesecake on top rack in oven. Bake for 1 hr. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 2 hours. Remove, wrap in plastic wrap, place in refrigerator for 2 hours or more until set. Remove from springform pan. Place pie filling on top. Eat and ENJOY!!!!