more fun with instagram

here are some more fun pics with instagram...the sweet baby gazing at her mom is Evie at RLG...such a precious girl :-)
the others are of the kiddos at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus...

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lincoln

...hard to believe you are 3, Linco boy. We love you and you bring our family a lot of joy and laughs.

a great smile

she makes me smile :-)

Corpus Vacation

 

We traveled to the Texas coast for the first time with our friends and neighbors the Bailiff family. We stayed in Corpus Christi at Embassy Suites, compliments of Sean and all his bonus travel points (thank you!) and made several visits to Padre Island and Port Aransas. We took the vehicle ferry across the channel (a first for the kiddos and I), and the boys were stung by jellyfish on Corpus Christi Beach (another first). Aaron and Lincoln enjoyed a tour of the USS Lexington, while the Bailiffs, Landon, Leia and I enjoyed exploring the Texas State Acquarium. The kiddos loved the time we spent at the beach, in spite of the jellyfish epidemic, and Landon said his favorite part of our vacation was sleeping at the hotel!

he spoiled me!

Not one...not two....not three...but FOUR gorgeous floral arrangements! Happy tenth anniversary to me...thank you, Aaron, for spoiling me. It smells like a florist shop in here and I LOVE it!

Happy 10!

Happy 10th Anniversary, Aaron. :-) I look forward to celebrating with you in Cancun this summer. Thank you for all of the flowers...you REALLY spoiled me. I love you!

The Proud Graduate

Landon graduated from his mother's day out "preschool" program today. It was hopefully just the first of many scholarly accomplishments and graduation ceremonies. ;-)

instagram

another fun and free app that Barie recommended to me...instagram...turns photos into works of art...here are a few photos that I have played with recently...

Mudfest

Here are my boys, after they participated in a really fun and free family obstacle course full of mud. :-) Landon thought getting squirted off by a fire truck after the course was pretty cool.

Words with Friends

Is anyone else out there addicted to Words With Friends on their smart phone? It's a free iphone app for me, and such a fun, turn-based scrabble game that I can play with friends...hence the game title. It's also a fun mental stimulant for me on the days where it feels like I am in a whirlwind of cleaning messes and getting slimed (I guess slimed is not a word...wonder if words with friends would accept it?!). :-)

Brothers

one of the many wild and zany things the Murray brothers do...really, keeping them alive is at least half of my job as a parent :-)

Leia Driving Her ATV

...not even walking yet, but she can drive! Thanks, Kelly, for the girly power wheels....she needed her own to keep up with her brothers :-)

Preschool grad

Landon graduated from preschool today! :-)

Love Wins

I have been wanting to join the discussion about Rob Bell's latest controversial book, Love Wins, for the past week. I have yet to discover a good solid chunk of time to collect and post my thoughts, but I will try to get a few down now and perhaps finish later. :-) An article in WORLD magazine piqued my curiosity about this book due to Bell's controversial take on eternity and specifically, eternal judgement (in my teenage years I watched a few NOOMA videos that Bell put out and was captivated by his creativity expressing Biblical truths, and so I have somewhat followed his progression to popular pastor and author...read and enjoyed Velvet Elvis. Anyway, all that to say, I've enjoyed Bell's work in the past and was surprised to discover that his latest work was stirring up a firestorm of controversy and that the blog world was going nuts. Aaron treated me to a day of reading and relaxation at Barnes and Noble for Mother's Day, and I decided to read Love Wins there. It was an easy read, and one that I mostly enjoyed...except I just felt a little bit confused and almost uneasy....like, it all "sounded" good, but something was just off and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I mentioned my feelings to Barie, and she and Keith just finished reading it and both posted about it
Barie's Post
Keith's Post
....and Keith also referred me to another great blog post about it.....Kevin DeYoung's Post

After reading all of these posts and reviews I realized that I had fallen easy prey to Bell's skillful and creative way of communicating his beliefs. I felt a bit sheepish, I must say, since I have a minor in Biblical Studies and think that I have a pretty good grasp on the gospel and general Bible knowledge, to have read the entire book and not really be exactly sure what was off, until reading other reviews. I think I need a second read to go back and really study the texts he brings up in context, but I do feel that the above reviews covered that well, and Keith references several other reviews in his post that also extensively cover the problems with Bell's liberal and "creative" use and interpretations of scriptures.

If you have read Love Wins, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm especially interested to hear what a reader thinks that has previously enjoyed Bell and didn't know about the controversy, and just picked up the book to read it at face value. I think if you don't go in with your guard up and your brain ready to question Bell's many seemingly innocent questions, it is easy to get pulled into his wayward thinking and warped theological thesis (in my opinion).

End of April collage

 

Easter Collage

 

Leia's 1st Easter

This is a bit late, but I had to at least post a few pics to commemorate Leia's first Easter. Auntie Nancy came out to visit, and our neighbors the Bailiff's came over for lunch, and the Blackman family (my aunt, uncle, and cousin). We had a lovely, very warm (the chocolate candy in all of the eggs melted during the egg hunt and we took the kids swimming afterwards!) Easter celebration.

REI

Deju vu....I am the proud owner of a new BOB stroller for Mother's Day...again! The kids and I took the old BOB that Aaron surprised me with last year in tonight to see if we could get a few things fixed (the handlebar foam was destroyed and one piece of metal was rusting), and they swapped it out straight across for a brand new one! Whoa- let me tell you how excited and giddy I was.

I went with orange this time, and I just want to say, if I was on Facebook I would totally "like" the Round Rock REI. The manager there was so kind and helpful, and very generous to swap out my almost one year old stroller for a new one (it made me feel good, because Aaron had paid a pretty penny for it, and we got what we paid for this time- total satisfaction guaranteed- thank you BOB and REI!).

Then, we headed to IKEA to get a few things for Leia's room (now I am going to use the expedit cube bookcase with their cute black and pink bins for Leia's "dresser" in her closet- I don't like hanging up baby clothes and I think this will be a perfect solution). Lincoln was tall enough, and potty-trained enough (did I mention that we started potty-training this week officially...no, of course I didn't....I have been so behind on blogging...)- anyway, he got to go into smalland or magic land or whatever they call their fun childcare area....he and Landon had a blast while Leia and I shopped, and then, get this, it was kids eat free day, so all of the kids had a free meal and watched a movie and playing the child merchandise area and it was just a wonderful start to Mother's Day weekend!

And it gets better...tomorrow, Aaron is treating me to an afternoon off and I get to go to B&N and do my favorite thing- just sit and READ! hooray!!!