We went to San Antonio yesterday afternoon and spent the night. We had a great time! We walked and walked (did I mention that we walked?) down the Riverwalk and over to the Alamo (or "Outletmo" as Kylie would say). We ate some good Mexican food and just enjoyed being with each other.


Kylie, Danny, Jillian & Kelsey on the Riverwalk

As we were walking around the Riverwalk there were at least 2 different areas (maybe 3) where live music was being played. As we were walking by one area, we immediately stopped and stood still. A young man was playing his guitar and singing about My Lord and Savior, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We stood there for a few moments captivated by this worship. There aren't many places you go out in public (except church) where there is a proclamation of the Good news, much less pure worship going on. My eyes immediately teared up and in that moment we all had our own worship session giving praise to the Lord. It was SO refreshing.

I am SO grateful and thankful for all that He has done in my life for without Him I am nothing.

This song sums up how I am feeling today:


For The Cross
You gave Your life for me
You wore that crown for me
And now I live for You

You gave Your all for me
You gave so I am free
And now I live for You

Thank You for the cross
Without You I am lost
It is for Your cross I live today
Living for Your love
Lost but now I'm found
It is for Your cross I live today

My Father, Creator
All glory to the King
So worthy of all honor
All glory to the King

I'm looking forward to our corporate worship session tomorrow. For me, it will just be an extension of what has gone on in my heart all week. Won't you come and join us?

Lord, Thank You for the cross!

It has been a very busy week for us! In fact, I am so excited that it is Friday, but also can't hardly believe that it is already here! We have been continuing to get some things done around the house and it feels wonderful to get it done! I still have several more "projects", but we are making progress.

Today is Kylie's last day of school and she is SO excited. It's always amazing to me when you look back at the end of the school year, how fast it seems to have gone by. We will celebrate this afternoon with her end of year party. She told me yesterday that her teacher had made been taking pictures of them all year long and that she made a video of all the pictures. She said that she had cried when she was watched it, she said "it was so touching". I couldn't help but laugh, that kid is SO funny. She was serious though, she has a tender heart.

We have a fun weekend planned and I am so excited. What are you doing for the holiday weekend?

I'm looking forward to a great weekend at Oasis as well. God is moving and is continuing to bring in new people. I am so thankful for what He is doing in the lives of our Oasis family.

We are looking forward to the summer. How about you? There are lots of things to do in Austin for the kids. For all the Austin, Round Rock people, what do you and your kids do for fun? I can't wait to hear your thoughts my friends!

Have a great weekend and bring on the summer fun!

The main road next to our subdivision has been under construction for quite some time. It has been very annoying. The work was supposed to have been completed by the end of February, but was not. They FINALLY striped it last night and opened it up and it is SO nice. Thank you Lord!

Kylie is on the final countdown, only 2 more days of 2nd grade! She said that she had a headache today from carrying her backpack since it was so heavy. Bless her heart! LOL!

They started framing the house next to us today and is it ever loud!!! I will be glad when they have completed the building!

Kelsey & I have been doing some "major" cleaning around the house. We have gotten a lot done, but still have more to go. It is so nice to have some of things done. When I was pregnant, a lot of stuff got put on the back burner and piled up. But, mama is back now! LOL!

The Lord has really been speaking to me about some things. I love it when He does that. Last night as I was trying to go to sleep He was doing just that. I did not get up and write it down right at that moment and I now regret that. I am so bad about that, I mean after all, this girl needs her sleep. Danny on the other hand keeps a note pad and pen by the bed and after he reads this, he will probably get on me for not getting up and writing it down. Sorry Lord! I remember most of it and it was SO good. Hopefully, I will get to share it with our women at some point in the very near future.

Danny wraps Jillian up like a little "burrito" every night. He always brags about how she doesn't get out of his wrap. (She always gets out of mine). When I went to check on her this morning, this is what I found:


Sweet Jillian got out of daddy's wrap 05/26/10 (I love those little lips)

She is so silly. Now, before I get any e-mails telling me to not put blankets in the crib, etc. She was completely bundled up when we put her in there. She is also big enough now to move them off of her face. If she cannot move it, believe it, she will let us know it with a nice loud cry on the monitor.

I'm looking forward to our service tonight at Oasis. We are on the Tabernacle and it is so enlightening and informative. Hope to see you there!

I can't wait to hear from you friends! Love & Blessings!

We had a little taste of summer this weekend and it was SO nice! Abby had her last day of school on Friday and she was home for the weekend. With the warmer temperatures, the girls were ready to swim. They went swimming Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. They all LOVE the water!


Abby, Jillian (couldn't get her to look with the sun shining), Kelsey & Kylie at the pool

It was Jillian's first time in the pool and she loved it! She was so cute in her little swimsuit. When I walked up with her, everyone in the pool stopped and were looking at her. They all said how cute she was. Abby said that Jillian was so precious and that she looked just like me. I asked Abby if that mean I was precious too; she was sweet enough to say yes. I love that girl.


Sweet Jillian in her swimsuit and hat ~ so cute!

Jillian turned 4 months old on Saturday. She is such a joy and is getting big enough where the girls can hold her a little bit more. They really enjoy talking to her and having her "talk" back to them. She is really filling out and is such a happy baby. She is so peaceful. She has really started to grab for things and has found her hands. It is so cute when she holds her hands together, it looks like she is praying.


Sweet sisters playing: Abby, Jillian & Kylie

We had a very busy weekend, Monday rolls around all too soon. Kelsey is still trying to get a few of her classes wrapped up and will be taking a final for one in the next week. Abby had a ball game again tonight and they won 16-2. They have not lost a game! Go Abby!!! This week is Kylie's last week of school, she is so excited! We are looking forward to a great summer! How about you?

I love our Oasis family, they are such a blessing to our life. It's always amazing to see who God brings to Oasis along with their stories of how God brought them there. We have a great group of people who love the Lord. I am continually blessed by watching them as they grow in their walk with the Lord and I count it such an honor to be a part.

The Lord has really been doing a work at Oasis. We had 3 salvations last Sunday and 3 more on Wednesday. Praise God!!

The Oasis ladies had a great luncheon today. It was so much fun to relax, sit and visit. It was a great time. Thank you friends!!!

The Oasis men have a breakfast next Saturday and I know that they will have a great time as well. 

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness. I confess that it hasn't always been easy to follow what YOU have called us to do, but it has been worth it to see people come to you and have their lives changed. Thank you God for allowing me to be a part of something so special. I give YOU all the glory and all the praise. I bless your name Lord! 

I don't know about you my dear Oasis family, but I can't wait to see what He has in store for us! I'm really looking forward to a great service tomorrow! Won't you come and join us? 

 I am so thankful for a Godly heritage on both my mom and dad's sides of the family. I am also very blessed that all of my grandparents are still living. Thank you Lord for this wonderful gift of grandparents that you have given me.

Today I want to honor my Pawpaw & Memaw and wish them a Happy 60th anniversary! We were so blessed back in March when they came to visit, we had such a great time. Pawpaw officiated over our wedding vow renewal and helped us dedicate baby Jillian, it was such an honor. We look forward to having them again!! 

I looked for a recent picture of my Pawpaw & Memaw together and could not find one, so I am posting a couple of my favorites of them from March.


Two of my favorite men of God: My sweet husband Danny & my sweet Pawpaw ~ I love them!



Memaw with Jillian (then 6 weeks old)

I love you Pawpaw & Memaw and am so thankful to have you in my life. I love you VERY much!

Pawpaw & Memaw brought us a wall hanging back in March that we have now hung in our home. The wall hanging says, Family ~ It's not what we have in life but who we have in our life that counts. I couldn't have said it better myself. We are blessed to have wonderful family and my prayer is that you are as blessed as we are.

Abby had her field day a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time watching her compete and believe me, she is quite the competitor. It was so much fun and we look forward to it every year. Her class won the tug of war and they were so excited! They had a blow up obstacle course that they went through, long jump, baseball throw, sack race, kickball and races. We went to eat lunch also and had a nice time. I love to hear her laugh and there was lots of that on that day! I imagine there will be quite a bit of that today also as today is her last day of school. Wow! It's so hard to believe that she will be in 4th grade next year, time goes by so quickly. We are so looking forward to spending time with her over the summer.


Abby at her field day

Abby has played baseball this year and she loves it. She is having such a great time! I haven't got to see a game yet, but from what I hear her team is really good! I can't wait to see her play! Go Abby!


Abby at her baseball game

Kylie had her field day today. They get to wear their swimsuits. She told me this morning on the way to school that she hoped that she got soaked AND wet. I love that girl, she is so funny! They had races, three legged races, tug of war, a couple of water games, little scotter races, tattoos and a big blow up slide. She had so much fun! They had the older kids out squirting all of the kids with water guns helping to keep them cool. They are getting to play board games this afternoon and she was really excited about that. She has one more week of school. Mr. Dave at church has asked her since the very beginning of school when will she be finished with the 2nd grade, she can now tell him she did it! 3rd grade will be here all too soon!


Kylie at field day

Kylie's class also won their tug of war. Then the girls took on the boys and won! Those boys were so mad. Yeah girls!!


Kylie racing at field day, I love that look of determination on her face.

I didn't get any pictures of Danny or Kelsey at either event. They are NOT morning people, so I let them be. But, last and certainly not least is sweet Jillian. She had a great time at both events. At Abby's field day, all Abby's friends wanted to talk to her and kept telling Abby how cute her sister was. Abby was so proud. At Kylie's field day, she kicked and squealed and wore herself out.


This is what sister thought of field day. I love it when she sleeps with her arms up like that.

Thanks for allowing me to share these special memories with you. We are so blessed to have these wonderful kids, all 4 of them. We are looking forward to having many more special moments and memories over the summer. Blessings to you my friends!

I guess I am feeling a little sentimental today as my baby brother turns 3? (I won't tell his age because I'm older ~ LOL!) I called to wish him a happy birthday and got his voicemail.


My niece Mackenzie, Rusty, my dad & me

I don't have the time today, but will make time soon to look for a picture of us "back in the day". I did find one of us from our family reunion in 2008, it's sad that we have to go so far back to find a picture. The truth is that we don't get to see each other very often. I saw him in October for a funeral for about an hour and a half or so but before that I don't remember when I had last seen him.
 
It's amazing to think about growing up together. We had a lot of great times and a lot of not so great times. We were constantly getting on each other's "nerves". We used to literally "beat" on each other. A friend of mine in high school called me "dent". There was actually a sunken place in my arm (dent) where my brother used to punch me all the time. But, believe me (he may remember differently) I got my fair share of licks in. We could "beat" on each other all we wanted, but let someone else say something about the other and it was on!

I could write a book on all the different memories we had together but this is one of my favorites:
The Pinto ~ Need I say more? For those of you who knew my brother back then, you would know about the Pinto. He had home stereo speakers in the back seat and needless to say he would crank that music up SO loud. To me, it was embarrassing. One day I did not have the car for some reason and needed a ride to work. Rusty to the rescue, he kindly offered to take me. It could have been DC talk that he was listening to, but whatever it was, all I know was it was loud. We pulled up to HEB where I worked and I asked him to drop me off at the BACK of the parking lot, he KINDLY insisted on taking me up to the front door. I was SO embarrassed. I told him I was not getting out of the car (while I slumped down in the seat) until he took me to the back of the parking lot. He just turned up the music even louder and told me he was not moving until I got out of the car. I could have killed him, I mean he totally killed my pride. I got out of the car, slammed the door and told him I hated him. (sorry) He smiled and told me to have a nice day, laughed, turned the music up even louder and FINALLY drove off.

I miss my brother. He is a great guy and married a wonderful lady, they have 2 amazing and beautiful daughters. I couldn't be happier or more proud for him. I feel like at times that I took for granted growing up with him and getting to see each other every day. I do have lots of great memories that I will always cherish. Without getting TOO mushy, I just wanted to say that I love you and miss you. I hope you have a great birthday. I hope to see you and that sweet family of yours REAL soon!

Our sweet Jillian Hope was born on Friday January 22, 2010 at 3:36 pm, she weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long.

This is one of my favorite "newborn" pictures of her. Danny took it with his cell phone while they were taking her measurements, etc.

I had gone to my regular Dr. appt. that day and my blood pressure was high. They had me lay down for a little bit to see if we could get it down, but when they re-checked it, it was still high. The Dr. came back in and told me to go home and come back on Saturday and that we would do my C-section at that time. I told Danny that I would like something really good to eat since I would be having surgery the next day. We went home to get the kids to go eat and the phone rang, it was the Dr.'s office. It was around 11:30 am when they called. They told me to come back today and be at the hospital at 1:00 pm. I started packing my bag. I guess everything was happening so fast and I was confused. I walked back into the living room and looked at Danny, we both looked at each other sort of funny. I asked him if they had said come today, he laughed and said that he was just thinking the same thing. So, I called the Dr.'s office back and asked them if I was to come today, she said yes. We hung up the phone and she called me right back and asked if I had eaten. I said no and she said good, now get up here! And life hasn't been the same since! What a joy!


Jillian ready to leave the hospital.

When she was first born, everyone was saying how much she looks like me. In fact, whenever they rolled me out of surgery we went right by the nursery where everyone was looking at Jillian. My mother said to me, "She looks just like you". However, now that some time has gone by, I can see how she looks so much like Danny as well. She is such a joy to all of us and we now wonder, what was life like before Jillian? She is 16 weeks old and will be 4 months old on Saturday, the time has gone by so quickly. She sleeps all through the night (thank you Jesus!!!). She is such a pleasant and happy baby. I love to watch our girls interact with her and "baby talk" to her. She is rolling over and "cooing" a lot! As Pawpaw would say, she is a little doll and we are so blessed. Since she is 4 months old, we already have SO many cute pictures of her. I wish I could put them all on here. Instead, I've picked out a few of my recent favorite pictures to show you.


Sweet Jillian ~ 13 weeks old ~ She is already a Longhorn! (Thanks Renee!)


The loves of my life: Abby, Kelsey, Kylie, Danny & sweet Jillian ~ 14 weeks old 04/30/10


Happy Mother's Day to me! ~ Sweet Jillian ~ 14 weeks old

And last but not least, one of my favorite pictures of my sweet husband and Jillian. I am so thankful for him. He was such a BIG help to me during the pregnancy and took such good care of me. It all paid off with this sweet baby.

Danny & Jillian ~ I am SO blessed!

Thanks for letting me "brag" on this sweet baby. We actually have 4 sweet babies. We are so excited that summer is right around the corner and are looking forward to spending time with all of our girls.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you my friends! Love & Blessings ~ Cheryl

Hello my dear blog readers.....I've missed you! I looked back and besides Danny "hijacking" the blog for the day of prayer post, the last time that I wrote was back in December. Wow! A LOT has happened since that time.

I would like to blame the fact that I haven't blogged in some time just on the fact that I have been "busy", but that has not been the case. It has come to my attention through various ways that there are those that read my blog to sort of be "nosey" if you will as to what goes on in our family, then there are some that do not like me or wish me well and only want to read it so that they can criticize. I am sorry that I let them silence me. I have a friend who has gone through a very public "fall" and has lived her life out loud on her blog. Come what may or whomever may criticize her, she has blogged away about her ups and downs. I read it everyday. I rejoice with her when she is up on the mountain and think of her and pray for her when she is walking through the valley. I wrote her an e-mail last week about how courageous I thought she was and what her blog meant to me. She reminds me so much of myself at times the way she reacts to different things, I catch myself laughing out loud at her at times, she has a great sense of humor. I thank God for her. She reminded me of a few important facts about the blog. First of all, I don't know who is reading as she does not know about hers either; which is the scary part. However, the good part is that I have in times past gotten lots of positive comments either on the blog or by e-mail thanking me for my "openness" and was told how what I wrote encouraged that particular person. My friend encouraged me to keep writing since "it could help someone out there". So, I have decided to take her up on that advice and keep on writing. To my family and friends, I hope that when I am up on mountain, that you will rejoice with me and when I am down, I hope that you will pray for me. To my critics, again, I am sorry I let you silence me. I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way, please forgive me. To those that have said, she's been through too much and God will never use her, well....I'm happy to say that I am having the time of my life. I thank God that He is not like people who will so quickly write you off. I am going back to the original reason I started the blog in the first place, to be able to share our lives with our family who we don't get to see often, to let all my girlfriends out there know that they are not alone and to hopefully, just maybe help uplift someone. I pray that whoever reads this blog, friend or foe, will be able to see Jesus in me, for without Him I am nothing. I am so thankful for what He has done in my life!

Thank you Shileen for the blessing that you are to me and for the encouragement to stand tall and be me.

Blessings friends,
Cheryl

P. S. ~ We've had some changes in our family as well. Our nephew Jon who lived with us for almost 2 years turned 18 last month and moved to Georgia. I believe that God has some great things in store for him.

I can't wait to hear from you!