The Stewarts Visit...

We had alot of fun the first weekend of September...Grandma and Grandpa Stewart(Michael's parents) made the trek up north to see us...we were so excited and thrilled to get to hang out and love on them....and them on us.....

The First full day they were here, we went to Thomasville and ate at a cute 'ol school' soda fountain....super cute....lots of fun memorabilia....that we wanted to sneak out and keep for ourselves....

We also accomplished alot....I have been wanting to start a little garden and they graciously helped up get it going....WOO HOO!!!!

So we loaded up on all of the gardening stuff..hehe...

I decided to do an above ground garden...so we used galvanized tubs...perfect and look super cute in the yard....hopefully i wont kill all of it....and we will get to eat some fruits of our labor(or veggies)....

We also discovered that we have several hummingbirds that live in our yard....and bought some feeders...to help coax them into staying around longer!!...They are interesting creatures....hehe...

Over all it was a great visit and we hated to see them go...until next time....we love you!!!!

rewind....the last months happenings!

This last month and half have, well.....been a whirlwind! It has been a crazy but awesome journey!

I will try to recap:

July 7-9:Beach Retreat with our youth(girls)....we took 8 girls, michael, emma, myself and my parents came along as our gracious and AMAZING chefs/emma-sitters! We had a great time! God showed His amazing grace and taught us of digging deeper into the Love letter of Gods Word! The weekend was a great way to begin our summer! And really helped us get to know our 'girls' more!!!

July 14-16: The next weekend I headed to OHIO...for the National Thirty One Conference! Boy....was it amazing! God showed up and well BLEW MY MIND! 8000+ Consultants singing God's praise....That is a company EVERY christian Woman would LOVE to work for! The weekend was filled with lots of Girl time, FREE stuff and many many laughs! Just what I needed! I am so excited and blessed to be a Thirty One Consultant, and really really want God to be glorified in all that I do with this Little Business!

July 21-23: The Stewarts headed west through Graceville(a walk down Memory lane) to Dothan Al...where we spent the weekend with friends from college! It was great to catch up and just have a relaxing, fun and enjoyable weekend among friends! Boy do we miss Josh and Cassidy(and Heidi their dog as well)!!!!

The last weekend Michael's Parents were supposed to come but were unable so we used that for a MUCH needed weekend at Home! We went to the Tallahassee Museum that friday and then hung around the house saturday....it was great to be able to relax and just enjoy each other!

August has been a slower month but the end of it and beginning of Sept are picking up quickly! Our next few weeks include: a fundraiser Thirty One party for a good friend Lindsay/AlyaCottons adoption of little Josiah, Thirty One Party with my mom and Family, Michaels parents are coming for visit, Michael and I are heading to Tampa for Marriage retreat and we are hoping to visit Family down south as well! God has also given us many opportunities around town to love and get to know our youth more!

So many things to be thankful for....God is good...ALL THE TIME!

...St. George Island!

So we are heading down to St. George Island with 7 of our youth(all girls...hehe)...for a Beach Retreat! So we decided to head down ourselves to check out the place and have a little family 'retreat' !

So we unpacked our little car and went out to explore...

It is beautiful there, God creation at its Finest!! The retreat center has a camper that they let pastors and their families stay in...just for....RENEWAL!!

Emma hadn't had a nap so after we got ice cream and walked around a bit we were so thankful that she zonked out in the backseat!!!

We had a good afternoon just chillin...however our night was less than restful...Emma decided she wanted to get up at 4:15am...(sorry this is the earliest i am thinking of taking pictures...but 6:17am is still too early to be awake)

so what else do you do that early...we took a walk, found some crab...

saw the sunrise(at least the last part of it) and...

picked up rocks....

We had intended on spending the day at the beach...but thought it would be less than perfect with ALL 3 of us being exhausted so we headed home....!!!!

(Which emma slept the ENTIRE way!! Praise the Lord!)

...messy face

I just had to post this...we had Mushroom Spagetti the other night(yes it was AWESOME)...but the best part about dinner wasnt the sauce...but emmas face and how crazy funny she was!

Say Cheesey!!!

Thank goodness she was done chewing.....hehe...

She just kept saying...'chesy, chesy, chesy'

Love it!

now for the clean up.....'hoo hoo' *owl sound*

She was really on it....too funny!

I am amazed daily as I watch her grow just how much God really does create individuals....even in her little body you can see little things that are so 'emma' and not anyone else! Thank you Lord for not making us little robots, thank you for showing off your creativity and creating us differently but still in your image! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for Emma!

clothing ministry.....

Well last weekend we headed up to the church to be a part of the clothing giveaway....

it was great....FREE CLOTHES!!! I am so amazed at how meeting NEEDS

of the community is sometimes the last thing that many believers see as MINISTRY!

There were two rooms and a hallway completely organized and PACKED

with clothes for ALL sizes, shapes and ages! We had men, women, children,

black, white, old and young there....IT WAS AWESOME!....

here are just a few pics I snapped!

Cant wait for the next one...hopefully we will

be able to meet more needs and touch more lives with JESUS love!!!

productive day continued....

here is the new shelf we have in our living room....

we found a wooden side rail to an ashley bed in our u-haul when we

cleaned it out to take back to the rental place...

so we held onto to it for some reason.....

so we bought some wooden brackets, spray paint and strong screws(about $23 total)

sprayed and sanded all the wood...

marked out our area on the wall...

and gathered some fun stuff to put on them....

which included mommy-n-me paint time...

EMMA HAD A BLAST.....and did a great job!!!

we had paint everywhere...but it washed off!!!!!

...love times like these!!!

Here is her masterpiece on our new shelf!!!

and....dunt da da da....viola....

here are 2 new 3 foot shelves that are in our living room!!!

...productive day!!!

So today we were able to finish some projects around the house that have been looming over....

1. We hung our curtains in our bedroom!!! YAY!

2. Michael mowed the freshly rained on yard....LOVE THAT SMELL!!!

3. We painted and sanded shelves to go in our living room....pics to come.....

4. We painted and sanded a little jewerly shelf i had from forever ago...it now holds my hard bracelets and a few other things...

5. We painted, sanded and then attached screen to my new Earing holder...LOVE IT! Turned out exactly how i wanted...and matches my necklace holders PERFECTLY!!!!

Had a productive and super fun day...i love getting projects done! Thank you Lord for allowing us to have a home to do these kinds of projects in!!!