Autumn tunic and wreath

Our front door had this lovely wreath to celebrate Autumn..and with fall comes my favorite pallet of colors. I had to make a few tunics for the girl's school wardrobe. This one was for Eden, even though they are 1.5 years apart I love that they can already share most of their clothing with each other because even though I made it for Eden, Novie ended up wearing it first ;)

Owl Love You

Once again, I found a product I love on Pinterest and HAD to make it. Since making these I've had about 10 friends ask how to make it and have made 3 since starting! They make the cutest gifts and very simple, easy to make. I enjoy making these and see many more Owls in my future.

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/12/snuggly-owl-for-sewing-republic.html

So, Pinteresting!

Not sure how many of you are on Pinterest these days. If you have any ounce of creativity in your body, need for organization or like to decorate for Christmas (everyone I think) this is the site for you! Everything from DIY, recipes, clothing, tutorials, tips on organizing, cleaning, decorating, holidays ideas, crafts etc (you get the idea) it's the ultimate of "idea" networking in a nutshell, and men, it's for you too. Props to the guy friends who have started to follow my pins.

I used to spend hours and I mean hours! on the Internet trying to find tutorials and adorable ideas for my girls, home and holidays now I'm just a measly click away to my Pinterest account where I have have categories such as; Fall/Thanksgiving ideas, Fashion Inspiration, Repurpose, Living Wiser, Motivation, and Pretty Food (plus about 5 more). Feel free to check out my page:

http://pinterest.com/tabicati/

Now the 1 and ONLY problem I have found with Pinterest is the downfall of just "pinning" ideas all day instead of actually following through on the ideas. Do you do this? or am I somehow the ONLY person who struggles with this. Pinterest needs "rewards" for those individuals who actually fulfill their pins! Like a sticker, balloon or cookie :) Anyone with me on this one? So after pinning for a year and fulfilling a pin once every 3months I completed/made 4 pins in 1 week! aaahhh, I feel fabulous! It's like I lost 5lbs! Anyways, I am going to try better on how crazy I get with pinning. I want to actually MAKE what I pin, complete that organizing tip, bake that recipe and put that outfit together!

Here's to a year of doing and not just pinning. What Pinteresting item did you fulfill this week?

Here's one of mine:

A Day with Mickey

Here are just a few of my favorite Disney memories:

This proves Disney was a HUGE hit

"It's a small world after all"

Nothing like squishing together in the People Mover

Just as we were walking away Eden turns around and shoots Goofy Pirate! It turned into quite the fight! Goofy with his sword and Eden with her gun. I could not stop laughing and cheering her on!

Auntie Sarah gets in on the dress-up fun, literally, this dress size; 3Years and up.

Waiting 2 years for a vacation

Have you ever waited over 2 years for a vacation we'll we did it and it was worth the wait! We went to Disney! Our WHOLE family was there! That was half the fun, the other half was watching Eden and Novie experience Disney for the first time. Man, I LOVED watching them as they "oohed" and "awed" over Disney. They were such troopers as the temperature hit 100 and we waited in long lines, the excited never died down. We stayed in Orlando for a week all 9 of us together in a Villa. We hit FunSpot, Magic Kingdom, Waterslides, the Pool, cooked dinner together, played games, went out for HUGE ice cream cones, met up with distant relatives from OK and made many fun memories. I love vacation ;) hope our next one is sooner than 2 years away.

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Just want everyone to know this is my favorite vacation statement ;)

Camp

There is just something about camp that I LOVE!!! and I LOVE camp at Word of Life Florida! It's exciting, heart-pumping, you run around while you sing songs, you jump, scream, cheer, worship, are challenged, encouraged and blessed. I have missed camp!!! and it feels like we have never left. Also, my kids LOVE camp!! They love to run around with the counselors, cheer, scream, clap their hands and sing as loud as they can. The guitarist in the band gave us the set list of songs we have been singing so we can "youtube" them, why? because my girls have been asking none stop to keep singing camp songs and we cannot remember them all! They are all wonderful, convicting, encouraging and such a blessing to sing together as a family. I love how the Praise Band here has written many of the songs, what a blessing to have such talent being used for camp!

I love the feeling of family here, and many of them are my family! Everyone is Uncle or Aunt, and even many of the Conference Guests have become family over the last 5+ years of working with them. It's amazing how we immediately catch up with one another, encourage one another, and leave refreshed after visiting with them.

Another key element I love is the contagious desire to serve here. When we need help with something we never hear, "no" or "we can't do that" it's always, "let me see what I can do and if I can't help you I'll find someone who can" and it always happens. That is encouraging! What a blessing to be surrounded by individuals who desire to be Servant Leaders. A rare quality even in believers today, and right now I'm surrounded by 100's of them! Greatly blessed to be here these past two weeks! We are having a wonderful time!

Michigan, Furlough Part I

It's amazing how fast our time in MI went, furlough is going by way too fast and its making me sad already! it started out kinda nice and laid back but it sped up quickly and didn't stop until we landed in Tampa last Thurs. It's hard to sum up one blog post for one whole month so I will highlight the major events that happened over our 30 day stay in MI:

Frankenmuth

If you have never been it's a must visit location if you are anywhere near it. It's know as "Michigan's Little Barvaria" I still cannot believe I did not get a pretzel! It has many unique shops, such as Bronner's where it's Christmas ALL year long,

the little Coo-coo Clock shop, Fudge and ice cream shops, leather, scrapbook, candle and candy making and too many more to remember! We had a relaxing evening browsing the little shops after the World Famous Zehnder's Chicken dinner http://www.zehnders.com/dining/zehndersdining.htm. We stayed at the Splash Village hotel where we swam, made Ashley go down the "scary" slide, tried to relax in the lazy river (too many people mushing us to really relax) :) the girls went down slides, shot water pistols, got water sprayed and dumped on them and ate DOTS ice cream. we all had fun swimming and playing. http://www.zehnders.com/waterpark/splashvillagewaterpark.htm

Outside of Bronner's

Eating our 5 course Chicken Dinner

Behind the little unique stores

Great Grandparents

I treasure and enjoy the moments my girls have with their grandparents but nothing it more precious than time spent with GREAT grandparents, sharing stories, reading books, playing chalk, games and in the sprinkler, touring the farm, playing at the park...we made some wonderful memories.

Our home

We were greatly blessed my Ms. Lynette for providing us with a beautiful apartment, rent free, utility free. Words cannot express what a blessing she has been to us. What a dear lady to hear of a need and take it upon herself to make it happen for strangers :) Than you again and again! thank you to all the Members of Deckerville Bible for furnishing the apartment and for Ashley carrying it up all those stairs ;)

Supporters

How encouraged we have been by our monthly supporters, 1 time gifts, churches, friends and family members in MI. We had 14 meetings, every Sunday and Wednesday night was full, we had dinner with friends, family and supporters, a park day to catch up with friends and supporters, toys, clothing and money given to our family and ministry, and many words of enocuragement and prayers. We came to encourage them but always left greatly encouraged. Thank you for your faithfulness!