Not Just Any Sunday

April 15th we went to church just like any normal Sunday.  We should know better because there is never a normal Sunday at Church of the Highlands.  I love our church and the passion it has to help everyone come into relationship with Christ.  Notice I said relationship, not religion.  You see many of us think what we do is what matters when all that really matters is what Jesus did for us.  He died so that we can have life and have it to the fullest.  All we have to do is to love Him back.  Since coming to Highlands our relationship with Jesus has grown and developed like never before.  The Sunday after Easter the message was about now what?  So many people come to know Christ at Easter but its the after that gets hard.  Since our church is not the traditional type of church and we don't have a permanent baptistry we only have baptismal services once a month.  Well, our amazing team had something big planned.  They had two pools setup for anyone that felt God was leading them to take the next step.  When PC said head on over people everywhere were getting up including Shane.  It wasn't that Shane has not been a Christian for a while he just felt that he had been baptized before he truly came into relationship with Him.  I am so proud of Shane and the man in Christ he is.  He is truly the spiritual leader of our home.  I am so thankful for the relationship he has with Christ!  We have both grown and continue to do so and pray that others can see something in us that will allow them to get a glimpse of the joy we have found through Christ!  

Happy Birthday Pawpaw

On Friday night we headed up to Guntersville to meet Pawpaw for his birthday.  We like eating Top O'the River because it is good and because we can play in the grass out by the river when we finish.  The kids had a blast and even got some energy out.  They even played together.  Well, can you see his face?

Yes, that is a big pile of dirt he is partaking of.  Guess he didn't get full at dinner.

If you can't beat em, join em.  Well, that is exactly what I did.  Who knows what they were doing but apparently it was lots of fun.

They had to get their pictures made with the birthday boy!

Aunt Janet got her loving in too.  Somebody was a happy boy!

Dance Rehearsal

When we signed up for dance we really had no idea what we were getting into.  The recital is quite the production which means rehearsal is also a production.  We were there for quite a while before HC got to go on stage to practice.  She was ready though.  Thankfully she had her new buddy to hang out with.

Of course one dance done and we had to wait for the tap dance.  The girls did great and were ready for their next performance.  

After several hours and no dinner we were finally done and headed for some yummy food with our new friends.  Hannah Claire was ready for the big night.

Our Big Girl is Officially 4

Four years ago we welcomed our precious, strong willed, talented, smart, beautiful, tender hearted, silly little girl.  Watching her grow up has been so rewarding.  Hannah Claire has so much personality.  She may have a future as a stand up comedian.  Really she will be able to do whatever she wants to do, she just has that personality.  We are so very thankful for the spunk and sweetness that HC brings to our family.  We saved gifts from us for HC to open on her birthday.  She was super excited about opening them.  Both gifts were somewhat sentimental to me.  First she got a t-ball set.  Since I loved softball so much I want her to love it too, but I don't want to push her into anything.  We thought this would be a good first step.  Her second gift was a china tea set.  It was adorable and she was fired up about it.  I have one that I played with at my grandmother's even when I was "too young" to play with a real one.  Every little girl needs one. 

FYI, she loved the t-ball set and the girl has got game!  

Family pictures.

We even taught her some dizzy izzy.  Hilarious!

She might have thought Wyatt's head was the ball and his body was the tee. 

Just kidding, she didn't hit him.  He did have a blast though.

We had to get our traditional red chair pictures.

She showed off her birthday tassels.  She loved it!

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah Claire

Hannah Claire was adamant about having a rainbow party to celebrate her birthday.  We, well I, had planned on Strawberry Shortcake for a month or so but the birthday girl had other ideas.  Since it was her birthday I didn't put up too much of a fight.  Also thanks to Pinterest I was able to find all sorts of cute things to do for the party.  Some worked better than others.  We were so excited to see all of our friends that were able to join us for the party.  Sweet baby Lillian came to celebrate.

An idea I stole from my coworker was to buy the colored bubbles and let the kids catch them on a piece of paper to create artwork  The kids were running all over the place catching the bubbles.  A big shout out to dads that were our bubble blowers (Brad, Geoff & Tyree)!

The Carter kids were loving the balloons.  The balloons were suppose to be a beautiful rainbow.  Well, that didn't work so well.  Oh well, the kids loved it especially when they all started popping.  Hopefully no one was traumatized by the craziness and now has an aversion to balloons. 

Ms. Dampadoes got to come this year.  HC & Samantha have been friends since they were little bitty babies.  Now they are both big sisters to little brothers.

Next was time for food.  We had cake for everyone else and so Hannah Claire could blow out her candles, of course she didn't eat a bite of it.  I love that she finally wore her Birthday Girl hat.  We have attempted every year now!

I would like to draw attention to the super yummy, super time consuming rainbow jello cups.  I found these on Pinterest and was so excited to make them.  Plus it was something that HC would eat.  I knew they would take some time but wow, I was so not prepared.  You had to do a layer of jello and let it firm up, then a layer of cool whip and let it firm up (or there was white floating all in the next layer) and keep repeating.  Everyone that set foot in our house before the party helped with these crazy things.  They turned out really cute and they were super yummy and refreshing on a hot day!  Plus the birthday girl like them!  Success!!!

Wyatt spent most of the party hanging with Aunt Janet and Pawpaw under the tent.

The cake was yummy and not that time consuming compared to the jello cups.  Haha!

Hannah Claire got lots of great toys and we have enjoyed playing with every single one of them.  She was very excited about the princess dresses.

She also loved her baby, Jojo!  Jojo sleeps right beside HC every night.

Hannah Claire had fun playing with her friends from school, the neighbor kids, family friends and cousin Wendy Lynn!  Wendy Lynn even got to spend the night.  They played so well together and had a blast.

Some kids got away before we got a group picture but here are the ones that were still hanging out.

Sleeping Beauty!

Snow White, along with her new purse strapped over her shoulder and new baby Jojo.

The last 4 years have flown by and have been filled with joy!  We are so thankful for Hannah Claire and her silly, tender-hearted, thoughtful, smart, beautiful self.  She is so funny and makes us laugh all of the time.  We are so proud of the little girl she has grown to be.