Memorial Day

An entire day with family. A nice relaxing day.










And a GINORMOUS "THANK YOU!!" to Grampa Bill and all those who have served or are serving our Country.

So little time...so little posts!!!

You would think that drumming was my job this month!! Out of 15 days straight, I have been out drumming for one event or another 12 of them. Josh likes to say "mommy by day, rock star by night". Haha. I would have to say that I'm far from "rock star" status..but I sure am having fun!!

I haven't really had much time for my camera...but I do have a couple of pictures to share.

Ethan was in the upstairs hallway in his spiderman costume (or more specifically "venom" costume) and I noticed that the lighting was good at that moment so I grabbed my camera. He has no trouble posing for the camera when he is doing something like being spiderman. Ignore the old ripped up wallpaper in the background...we haven't gotten to that room yet:) And..since I have exhausted all of my free photoshop trials, I am without a photo editing program to fix them. Its hard..because now that I tried the trials of the really really good programs, it is hard for me to settle for a $100 to $200 program. I'm just gonna have to save my pennies:)

Until then, all pictures are "sooc" (straight out of the camera).





Also....I have a new place to host my photos that I am VERY excited about!! I have finally made the jump to smugmug which is an amazing photo hosting site. They have the most quality uploads and a really cool set up for navigation and things. You can also order prints from here as well. I have UNLIMITED space here....YEAH!!!!

So..bookmark this site....
http://brownjelo.smugmug.com/

The Basin

Some amazing friends of ours, Paul and Dona-Lynn, brought Josh and I (and Owen!) out for breakfast at Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill. Its one of our favorite places to go...we try to get there at least once a year, if not twice. Its about an hours drive, but well worth it!

One the way back home we stopped for a little hike to the Basin. I was having fun trying to really capture the movement of the water. A tripod would have been very helpful on this day!

Fishing with Daddy...

Catchlights/Reflections

I got some cool reflections of myself in Ethan's eyes today.

Idol breaking.

We finished up the sermon series by Mark Driscoll preached out of the book of Song of Songs. I can't even begin to explain how awesome this series is and how Josh and I now have a completely different outlook on our marriage relationship. The very last sermon was titled "I was a wall" and it dealt with a few issues of parenting. Again, another amazing sermon.

One particular portion of the sermon really stuck out to me. Pastor Mark posed a question, "think of the times when you are getting most frustrated by your kids. What is really the cause of your frustration?". In this part of the sermon he had been talking about idols. He was pointing out how many "idols" we, as parents, have and by having kids we are setting ourselves up for our idols to be smashed and broken all day long.

It made me realize how often I get frustrated with the kids because they are ruining or interrupting something that I am doing for myself.

One of the biggest idols that my kids demolish all day long is my clean house! I'm not sure why I haven't been able to let go of this idol yet...because you would think having four kids would do that to me...but lets just say I do 'cry over spilled milk'. I mean, obviously..we have spills and accidental messes here all the time and the kids don't get in trouble for this, but inside it drives ME crazy. I am always cleaning...and looking behind to find a trail of mess and this makes me frustrated with my kids.

I do think that an organized home is best and I love to provide an "en gedi" for my husband when he returns from a hard day at work (one that he doesn't require...but does appreciate!), but there IS a balance there. I cringe when my kids walk inside and leave their shoes on, or when they are eating lunch and food is dropping on the floor.

Until now, I've just tried to hide the fact that these things make me crazy. Now that the fact that my clean house is actually an "idol" has been pointed out to me, I am trying really hard to 'lay it down'.

These last few days of summer weather have really been a test to this...as the kids have been enjoying mud puddles and all kinds of fun summer things! Of course, they have always enjoyed these things, but yesterday I actually let them walk in the house to their bedrooms with muddy feet to change their clothes!!

And trust me, I've always loved the look of dirty kids at the end of a summery day! Dirty kids equal tired kids!

What are some of your idols that cause you to be frustrated with your kids?

A baby dedication.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to be a part of the sweetest baby dedication. Not only was the ceremony sweet but even sweeter was the little baby and his entire family! I have been able to snuggle with baby Asher on other occasions and today he proved, once again, just how happy he is! He has the most loving big brothers who glow with pride for their little baby brother!

The ceremony seemed special because of its intimacy. It was a small gathering of family and friends and it was clear that Asher and his entire family hold a special place in many hearts. I was glad to be able to be a part of it!

Here are a few of my favorites from the day.

This is proud big brother Quinlan (although, I'm not entirely sure that I am spelling his name correctly!).
This is another proud big brother Zeke!

And this is Asher!!


The Pastor did a lovely dedication. My favorite part was when he held little Asher and just talked to him. Asher was completely engaged in this conversation.

I just love Quinlan's expression in this one!

Both brothers looking on.

Asher and Mommy.



Seriously...babies don't come much cuter than this!!

The fam:) (not the greatest as far as exposure goes..but at least Zeke is looking at the camera!)

(And for the record, I did a little editing on some of them in the area of exposure and cropping...but I didn't have to touch the eyes in any one of them!)

Edited to add the following picture because I meant to put it in here and realized that its not there!! I love this one of Quinlan!