Carley and Religion

Oh man, this girl keeps me on my toes! At 4 1/2 she says some of the funniest things, in my opinion. Lately she has said some funny things about religious things and I want to write them down before I forget:

1. We were drinking grape Gatorade last week and she said, "Mom, this is SO good. It tastes just like Jesus's blood".

2. Last year a man at our church named David passed away. He was someone Cody and I thought a lot of. He is also the first person that Carley was aware of that went to Heaven and she has been processing it in bits and pieces over the past year. We were at Abuelos waiting for a table the other day and she and I started playing 20 questions. My first question was "Is it a boy?" She said it was. I asked if he lived in Lubbock and she said yes. 99% of the time that means it is either my dad or Cody. When those answers were wrong, she whispered. "He lives in Lubbock, and in Keller, and in Texas, and in Heaven". Her sweet person was Mr. David and because he is in Heaven he is always with us.

3. We were in the car and she asked me if I was one of God's children. I told I was and that we all were. Then she started naming people and asking if they were His children too. I told her they were and she was quiet for a minute then said, "Goodness, Mom, God has some OLD children". I laughed and agreed then she said, "I bet we wear God out. You only have two kids and me and brother wear you out all the time. I bet God is tired of all the whining". Pretty profound and true, I am sure.

4. Tonight I was singing her songs before bed when she said, "Who is Bruce?". I asked her which Bruce and she said the boy from the Bible, Bruce. I asked her to tell me a story with Bruce and she couldn't. She said I knew Bruce because he had a book in the bible. She meant Hebrews which sounded to her like He Bruce. :)

5. And my favorite story was after singing the New Testament Books of the Bible in bed she asked me wrote that song. I told her I didn't know. Carley asked if it was someone on my IPOD. I told her no and that the song had been around way before mommy was even born. They she said, "I bet I know who wrote that song". I asked her who and she said, "Babe Ruth. He was on a baseball show me and Daddy were watching and Daddy said he did a lot of great things. That is a pretty great song so I bet Babe Ruth wrote it". I tried so hard not to laugh and came out and told Cody and then called my dad. The baseball men in her life thought it was a great idea.

6. We were headed to lunch the other day and I asked Carley where she wanted to go. She said, "As long as we don't go to jail or hell, I am okay with whatever".

7. In Bible class they were studying Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the firey furnace. Carley was recapping the story for me and she said, "Since they didn't have cell phones to call 911, God sent an angel to protect them".


I love you, Carley girl, and my prayer is that you always question and go deeper in your faith. You are a joy.

Happy 31st Birthday- Cody

Happy Birthday, to this sweet boy who turned into our sweet Cody. We love him so much and are so thankful and honored to have him in our world. Happy Birthday, babe.

Cousin Picts

Here are some cousin pictures from the O'Rear's most recent visit. It brings me such joy to see how much our kids love and enjoy each other. It is also cute to see a little boy in this mix of girls!

Let Freedom Rain...I mean Ring

Our 4th of July was rained out! The parade and fireworks in Lubbock were canceled. Rain isn't something we are very used to in Lubbock, so it was a very different 4th. Alyssa's family was here. We had a great time with the O'Rear's and celebrating Clint's 40th bday. What a special brother-in-law I have! The rest of the time we just hung out at Mom and Dad's. It was wonderful to have so much down time and family time over the weekend. It was also a very interesting feeling to "miss" celebrating the 4th. It has never been a major holiday in my world, which obviously means I take it for granted. I can promise that next year, I will celebrate with a more genuine heart because I missed so much this year. It is a very good thing to stop and celebrate our country, our freedom, our history, our heroes, and our future.

VBS - Egypt

Well, we have been visiting Egypt each night this week and the jet lag is starting to get to me! :) I loved being Ashley-patra this week. It was a blessing to be part of leading the worship and seeing these precious kids sing and dance for the Lord. We had about 130 kids this year. Carley loved VBS and learning about Joseph. She is sad that this is our last night. We had a couple of fun things happen at VBS this week. Lauren and Camryn came to town. They have been with us each night. Seeing my sweet nieces have a blast each night has been a ton of fun! Also, Carley brought her buddy and neighbor Elise each night and loved getting to be in group with her. Group 2 was a pretty cute little group of buddies, Carley, Camryn, Cora, and Elise. Baby Corey had his own little VBS fun in the nursery where Nana got to rock and play with him each night. He loves his Nana!

Carley's Big Week

Carley have a big week!

Boy, did She has had swim lessons for the last 2 weeks. They do not mess around at Sea Horse! They really pushed her and she did great. (unless she had a boy teacher. If that happened she would scream and refuse to do what he wanted because he had underarm hair)

She graduated with a lot of help from sweet Ms. Kelsey. Carley was SO proud of herself for sticking with it and working hard. It really made it worthwhile to see her achieve a goal.

Then she did Peter Pan dance camp with her buddies Elise and Brentley. They hadn't all planned to be together, but it worked out nice to have girls to play with and moms to chat with. Carley loved dance camp. I thought she was extra cute as well! She took it SO seriously.








Thursday night we took her on a big sister date to see Toy Story 3 in 3D! She loved the attention from her Mommy and Daddy. Our big 4 1/2 a year old is growing so fast. She is such a special girl...so full of life. She is really smart, really sweet, and really funny. We are so thankful to watch what God is doing with her and are really interested to see the plans He has for this spunky chic.

Sonic Night

We had a really fun night at Sonic with our Bible class. As always, I spent more time talking then taking pictures. We are thankful for our class Genesis and the blessing that they are.

Father's Day

Sunday was a great Father's Day. Cody got off work that morning and was greeted by a VERY excited daughter who had been deciding and redeciding and redeciding the order of cards and presents her Daddy would open. She was SO EXCITED when he came in the door.

We got to sit with Papa and Nana at church and go to a yummy father's day lunch after service.

I am so thankful for my sweet Dad who has a very tender heart, patient spirit, joyful soul, and a true love for the Lord. He is a wonderful example and support for Cody and I. My kids ADORE their Papa.

And Cody is amazing. Kind, generous to a fault, faithful, supportive, and he really works hard to intentionally lead our family in all areas. The kids are so very blessed to have him in their lives.


Happy Father's Day to you both. I love you!