The TWINSx2 are SIX MONTHS!

They are rolling and crawling and babbling 

and keeping mommy on her toes!

They are precious beyond words

and I am having a hard time believing it's been

SIX MONTHS!

We Mourn And We Celebrate

Nine years ago today 

My big sister died suddenly

 On my baby sister's birthday.

Today we mourn

And we celebrate.

A life we miss dearly

And a life we enjoy daily.

Happy Birthday Amy Beth!

We miss you Vicki.

And The Winner Is................

AMANDA!

Amanda blogs at

http://growingupgratefully.blogspot.com/

Go visit Amanda and get to know her!!

Amanda, I have emailed you!!

Congrats!!

And thanks to all who entered!

I may have another giveaway closer to Christmas!

One More Day Until Drawing!!! Great Giveaway!!!!!

Scroll Down to October 1st post !!

I draw tomorrow!!!!

Six Years!

......Since they said I DO.

Now look what God has done!!

photo by: jennyconklin.com

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

We are all so blessed!

Love  the five of you!

(p.s. the giveaway has two more days! go to post below to enter!!!)

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

(No...not the babies!)  :)

I don't love a Giveaway.

Too much trouble.

Annoying.

BUT......

I love my DIL and I LOVE her new site!!

www.jennyconklin.com

Sooooooooooo

A GIVEAWAY it is!

All you have to do is go to her site HERE.

Go to the *blog* tab at the top of her page.

Leave her a comment and me a comment.

That will enter you in a drawing for ANY item on her new site.

(Excluding photography)

I will draw on October 8!!!

Good luck!!!

I'm Not An *ISH* Kind Of Person

You know who you are

You ISH people.

You know, you go to bed at 10 ISH.

And you eat dinner at 6 ISH.

And you meet your friends at the mall at 4 ISH.

I am not an ISH kind of person.

Meet me at the mall at 4.

Let's have dinner at 6.

Not ISH.

How do I become an ISH?

I would like to be an ISH.

Not being an ISH is stressful.

The End....ISH.

And just because I have some CUTE ISH grands...

38

.......as in years.

38 of them.

i love adding to them every year.

with him.......

He is amazing. Truly. His biking buddies and his golf buddies are always commenting on how wonderful it is that I don't nag him about taking the time to do those things. It's not because I am not a nag :), it's because he is so *present* when he's NOT doing those things. That makes it work for us.
 I consider it pure joy to be his wife!

Beach Buddies

Thirty years ago we moved to where we live now.

It is a couple of hours away from my family.

That was such a hard time for me.

And though we made that trip AT LEAST several times a month....

I needed a support group here.

I developed a friendship with some ladies at the school my kids attended.

We started going on beach trips once a year.

That turned into a once a month get together for meals.

We have shared births and deaths.

Divorces and marriages.

Happy times and sad times.  

We haved cooked each other meals.

And played *Florence Nightingale* during hospital visits.

We've given baby showers

And wedding showers

And we have prayed like crazy for each other's kids...

And grandkids.

My family will ALWAYS be the most important people in my life.

But these ladies........

They mean the world to me too.

I'm glad I am doing life with them.

Fitbit

This is the Fitbit!!!

It is basically a pedometer....but so much more! It tracks your steps, your stair climbs and even your sleep. It also tracks calories burned. The thing I like about it is it synks to your phone, Ipad, etc and automatically uploads to it. You never have to hook it back up to it. It's completely wireless. You can also follow friends that use Fitbit and compete with them in # of steps walked.

I love mine!

Do you use one??

How cute are these magnets?????

The grandchildren LOVE to play with the magnets on my refrigerator!

 Sarah, at Personal Creations, contacted me about sharing one of her products on my blog. I took a look at her company and immediately knew how much the kids would love having a magnet to play with that was their very own! I pointed out to the twins last night which one was theirs and they were so excited! They can't read their name yet but recognized their own after a few minutes! I love that I can hang their art work on the fridge with the magnet that is theirs! 

Click here take a look at Personal Creations. 

They offer lots of gifts for the home, for grandparents and for gift giving!!

Specific

I remember the times I prayed very specifically for something.

Like when the twins were born early.

And were in the NICU.

I prayed for T to come off CPAP.

And for C to learn to suck, swallow, breathe.

And I prayed specifically for this mom (DIL) to have a baby.

Last night I was reminded of a passage in the bible:

Luke 18: 35-42

A blind beggar wanted his eye sight restored.

He ask Jesus to heal him.

And though Jesus KNEW what he wanted,

Jesus wanted him to be specific about it.

Jesus said "What do you want me to do?"

"Lord, I want to see....."

And his sight was restored.

Be specific in your prayers.

Ask the Lord to bless your children with a christian spouse.

Ask Him to heal your cousin who is facing heart surgery.

The Lord knows, but He WANTS you to be specific.

I was also reminded to be specific with people.

We often say *Let's do lunch.*

But we never get specific.

I want to be better about saying

*Let's do lunch. How about Wednesday at 12:00?*

If we are specific in our prayer and in our daily living,

We will start to see changes.

Being specific is a goal of mine.

God hears my prayers.

Put Your Big Girl Panties On And Deal With It

Sometimes don't you wish you could just say this to someone??!!

LOOK!!

LOOK who started to preschool today!!!

LOOK who got a new tooth!!!
(And it's not the one with the pink bow!!)

LOOK who LOVES to ride the horsie.......

LOOK who thinks Poppy is funny.....

Lots to LOOK at and be thankful for this week.

Trying hard to LOOK for things to be INTENTIONAL about.

There are lots of blessings all around you.

Just LOOK for them.

Happy Birthday to The BEST Surprise Ever!

So, yeh, it was the 80's....

And the BOWL CUT was obviously IN.

Happy 32nd Birthday

To The best Surprise EVER!

We love you Jordie!

Lately......

The girls came to visit for a few days.

Unfortunately they were sick while they were here...

So, we didn't get to do the fun things we had planned.

But, in between bouts of fever we did this:

The oldest grand started K5 this year.

She wears a uniform every day.

I love that!!

Hubs and I were in a magazine shoot....

WHAT????

Yeah, that's what I say too!

But somehow we got ourselves into being the grandparents 

for a photo shoot in a bridal magazine called 

Southern Weddings.

(Sibi, at Pearls and Grace, is SOMEHOW responsible!! :))

Can I just TELL you how wonderful this magazine is?!

And how talented and amazing their staff is?!

The magazine comes out once a year.

Look for it mid November....

I can't wait!!!

We are still excited and looking forward to grand #8.

She is due to arrive the end of November.

My daughter and her sweet family are counting the days

until baby sister arrives.

photo: Jennylynnphotography

That's life lately for us.

How about YOU?

Twinkies X 2

LOOK how they have grown!!!

Four Months Already!!!

Two FABULOUS Desserts!!!

We tried some new recipes at the beach this year!

You can find both of them on Pinterest...

But, I will post them here!

The first one we tried was

Key Lime Pie Dip!!

Ingredients:

1 can Eagle Brand Milk

1/4 cup plus two tablespoons Key Lime Juice

(I use Nellie and Joe's)

1/2 cup Marshmallow Fluff

(I use FLUFF... which is different than Marshmallow Creme)

MIX:

With a wire whisk, mix milk and juice.

Add the fluff and stir with a wooden spoon.

Chill

Serve with Ginger Snaps

(I use Trader Joes Triple Ginger Snaps)

You can also serve with Graham Crackers or fruit!

source

Homemade Frosty:

1 8 oz Cool Whip

1 Eagle Brand Milk

1/2 gallon chocolate milk

(not low fat if you can find the full fat)

Chocolate Syrup

(I used 1/2 of a large bottle)

Just mix all above and put in ice cream freezer.

This tastes JUST LIKE a Wendy's Frosty!

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family did!

Have you tried either of them?

There is a Firetruck in my Bathroom

Life is busy.

I am trying to live INTENTIONALLY.

If you remember, that was my word for 2013.

I blogged about it HERE.

I received this in the mail yesterday from a dear friend:

Such a sweet reminder hanging in my kitchen!

Thank you Teresa for your sweet gift!

Recently I kept the two oldest granddaughters.

Sometimes that involves lots of driving and changing of plans.

My sweet son-in-law met me to pick them up

And brought me this great Starbuck's mug:

(along with a gift card)

Thank you Big Al for noticing and appreciating.

Our oldest granddaughter lost her first tooth yesterday.

She is five.

This is a big week for her.

She starts kindergarten this week too!

Hubs is back to cycling now after six weeks of recovery from his bike accident.

He is like a kid in a candy store.

Back in the saddle again!

The oldest of the second set of nieces starts her freshman year...

TODAY....

at college.

Such an exciting time for her!

We only live about twenty minutes away from her school

And we can't wait to take her to dinner...

Or maybe wash some clothes!!

We sure do love you KiKi!

Yesterday was a doozy....

Is that a word?

Anyway, I kept five of the seven grands yesterday...

I was deliriously tired and happy when I got done....

Hence......

There is a FIRETRUCK in my bathroom!!!

Beach 2013

This might be the longest I have gone without blogging!

We just returned from a wonderful beach vacation with the family.

I won't lie, it was chaotic at times....

Well, most all the time.

But, we have seven grands in the same house 

And the oldest is five.

Yeah.

I love that these cousins are growing up together though

and fighting together

and learning to love together.

It's the best gift.

photos by Jenny Lynn Photography