I cannot get over the beauty of these bluebonnets! These are in beautiful clumps all over our church property. So at church today I took some more pictures of them. Didn't get any of Ian or Hazel, but it was still fun! Today was church, lunch with friends and then a nap. That's pretty much all we had time for!

As much as I wish I could have been with the youth at Acquire the Fire again today, I needed to be home with the family. Hazel is just too little to be away from Mommy that long. We had a great day though! We went to the church for a picnic that the school hosted and then we took pictures in the bluebonnets. This is my favorite picture of Ian. I did not get a chance to take very many pictures because the kiddos were tired and grumpy (and believe it or not, it was kinda hot!) We were all exhausted after all this excitement that both babies crashed hard for like 4 hours (both) So pretty much the rest of the day was at home being lazy.

Today is a day that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Tonight I got to go to Acquire the Fire. It's a youth worship/spiritual retreat weekend. They had bands, worship, dramas, videos and speakers. It's a Friday night-Saturday thing. Tonight we had some amazing worship and dramas, and some crazy videos. I got to pray over and pray with some of our youth. It was an amazing night. This picture is the view we had from our seats. It doesn't matter how many times I see it, a large group of teenagers unashamed worship for God really is an amazing sight!

Today we cooked hamburgers and stuffed jalapenos on the grill. Its a lot more fun to grill now that it stays light outside longer. Ian is able to go out with Jeff and play while he is grilling. Jeff was having a really hard time starting the grill. So by the time the hamburgers and jalapenos went on the grill we were sooo hungry we probably didn't leave them on long enough. I also grilled some zucchini while we still had a hot fire. I was literally searching the fridge for things to grill because the fire was really hot and great for grilling....too bad it took so long! This picture is of Ian throwing the ball to Titan. As you can probably tell, Titan was very excited about this...but probably not as excited as Ian. He would giggle and giggle every time he'd throw the ball!

This Bible verse was part of the youth message tonight. We have been talking about spiritual warfare and tonight it was very applicable! I, again, had my junior high youth tonight and they amazed me, yet again, with their depth and curiosity! I got to spend some quality time with them talking about Satan and temptation. At the end, I used Psalm 130:23-24, the verses in this picture as a prayer and prayed for the youth. After youth I got to hang out more with the youth and hear what was on their hearts. I was reminded tonight that teens now have a lot of serious, heavy, burdensome things that go on in their lives. My goal, my purpose is to be there for them; for advice, for venting, for listening, for hugs, for whatever they need so they know that they are loved

Today I, again, took caution to the wind! I turned off Sesame Street and decided we were going for a walk! I put Hazel in the SINGLE stroller and made Ian walk with me (such a horrible mom, I know!) We walked down to the neighborhood playground down the street. It was lots of fun and Ian enjoyed the swing (as you can tell from the picture) His wiggling during the swinging made me nervous. I swear he was going to to flip right out of there! We walked back...and I use the word "WE" very loosely! Ian got tired and I had to pick him up and carry him while pushing the stroller. That required a talent I did not know I had. Needless to say, Ian took a nice nap! After Jeff got home we went back up to the park to run. I ran a good two miles (with a slowed down pace) and it felt GREAT! Jeff ran a mile with the stroller (he's crazy!) He said it was just as much exercise as my two mile run. He's probably right!

Today I felt like throwing the stereotype of Monday being bad out the window! We decided to run some errands and do a little shopping. My best, and really only, purchase of the day was some new running shoes. I went to Ross hoping to find some running clothes. They didn't really have anything in that department so I went and looked at shoes. They never have anything in my size, but sitting all by themselves, in my favorite color, my favorite brand of running shoes! I was so excited and they were only $30!! Jeff and I are planning to doing the Zoo Run 5k near the middle of April. So we are going to start running...well actually we started today! After Jeff got home from work we headed to the park with the kids to run. We took turns running because of the kids (our stroller is NOT runner friendly) I ran about a mile. It was the first time I had run in a REALLY long time....like before being pregnant with Hazel and possibly longer! I took the pace a little too fast so I was feeling it at the end, but I was still excited to be able to run again! This is a picture of me stretching/showing off my shoes!