THE FINALE!

Well Rylan's Birthday was quite a special day for Him AND the rest of us too!

We started off with a chocolate chip pancake breakfast (per request of the birthday boy)...then headed to Jackson for the day..... the drive is about and hour and a half with nothing but scenery and a little snowmobile resort midway that we ALWAYS stop to say hey and use their lovely facilities

this was the first day since we moved here that wasn't snowy so the Teton Mountains were in full view

We stopped at a turnout for Ry Guy to take his first "5"year old pic with the Tetons

and throw a snowball at Dad!...

Now how much fun for your birthday to go from bundled in the snow to chillin in your trunks by the pool!!.....so that's just what we did, we went to a rec center that had all kinds of pools and waterslides..

here are the boys getting all syked up in the locker room

the water was warm like a bath which was marvelous (does anyone else get instantly irritated in a cold pool?)

and the boys could not have had more fun....Rylan was in his element

Bridge was a skeptic at first....

but all it took was a couple trips down the waterslide with Dad and He turned into King of the Castle, fierce and fearless

Remember that insane hunger feeling when you were a kid after swimming ALL DAY LONG, well we ALL had it so we started driving around Jackson and decided to give Rylan an "un-biased" choice for His birthday dinner. So here were the three "Hey Ry Guy, it's totally up to you so would you like to go to El Abuelito, Shogun Sushi, or Billy's Burgers?"..now oddly enough he does in fact love all three kinds of food so we waited in quiet, hungry suspense...Brad's all time favorite is Billy's which is this tiny soda shop-like place that cranks out amazing burgers for those meat lovers...and me...well  I could eat sushi for all three meals of the day and meat I could definatly go without...but we kept quiet, trying to make the day as special as it could be for Him..."please say Shogun, please say Shogun"...................

 

Hey people I DID put a smile on my face ok!...

look at the salivation as He orders...me on the other hand told them to grill up some veggies and slap em on a bun....um did that come out in Spanish because they did not comprehend! :)

the birthday boy was pleased to finish his burger and fries as well as his bro's hot dog!...We had to find a place to light his #5 candle and sing before we headed back home  so we hopped on over to a BBQ joint and stuck it in a piece of pie to top off the night...

A Birthday Success!!!

Part 2!

We have been blessed to meet some amazing people out here....the community (especially within our church body) has welcomed us with loving arms, they've put up with our LACK of western/wilderness/hunting knowledge and been eager to accept us for who we are AND teach us the ropes. ( I had this one lady say "oh yea, I forgot you all were URBAN")....cracked me up.....Anyway....I mentioned the people because they have been a crucial part to our journey as well as our kids too...being far from family for 6 years now, we've come to realize the importance of our spiritual families that God has given us and to have them love on us and our kids is a true blessing...One couple (Roger and Jeanene) have been a big part of this blessing...we hang with them often and our Kids just ADORE them...

There are so many things we already love about them, but their hearts for God are what shine the brightest. To continue the birthday fun they took us on a scenic drive to spot wildlife and took Rylan out to their pond on the ranch to try out his new fishing pole...

here's Daddy setting up his pole..

Mom was the only one to catch one...rare but true..(note to self: strong winds make for very awkward hair moments!!)

this is a stick, not His new pole, but he was admiring the beavers handy work on their dam

look at these two!...They are the real deal :)

love my boys...

right before this pic Bridge tried to dive in but Roger grabbed Him...Good save Rog!

Model...

I'm sad to say I didn't get a pic of ME trying to jump a creek only to get stuck hovering over it in a split-like stance and of course Jeanene was behind me, and of course we were laughing uncontrollably.....just know it happened...

moving on to our scenic drive..we stopped at a frozen pond for Ry Guy to run on it

and for Brad to take a pic of this funky tree he found...

go ahead...admire this one like you would at an art gallery, analyze and chat with friends about what you see

I see..........the split-kick maneuver I did about 20 minutes prior! :)

Birthday Celebration Part 1

Yes Rylan's birthday is on Monday but why not start the party today and ride it on through the weekend...We have some fun times ahead and some that have already happened....Before I post the pics I wanted to take a moment to reflect on just what we are celebrating this year.....

1. This is the first year Ry Guy is truly aware of His birthday and what it means and is so excited about it, which makes it so much fun for us as parents to watch him

2. We are celebrating 1 1/2 years of being healed and symptom free of asthma, something he's struggled with since his first attack at age 20 months (it had him hospitalized on several occasions and on breathing treatments around the year).....thank you Jesus

3. And just celebrating how good the Lord is for giving us this amazing son as our firstborn child....we couldn't be more blessed....We love you so very much Ry Guy!!!

My Mom and Dad sent a large package for Him to open up..there were all sorts of presents and goodies. They wanted to see His face when He opened up the fishing pole He's been asking for so we Skyped and they watched the whole thing....

can you see them in the background...

Here they are....amazing people just to let you know ( a Skip and Deb post some day)

The new fishing pole and some other treats that even little Bro got to enjoy!

then we enjoyed the first of the birthday cakes ( it was an ice cream cake concoction with all sorts of craziness inside)

and topped it off with a pizza dinner with some buddies!

Party On!!..........

The Great Indoors

We love the wilderness and all, but on frigid days like these, we seek to find adventures INDOORS!!

We went fishing for a bit (on the counter with the tape measurer of course!)

oooh.....caught one.....

We watched the deer pick at our front yard....

We sent Daddy off to work...

We play play played....

We did some crafts...

had chill time...

lunch time...

ahhh....naptime....

What a day in the great "Indoors"!!

BELIEVE

You won't usually find me writing "no picture" posts....Most of the time my posts will be lots of pics with little snippets in between, which TOTALLY reflects me being the visual person that I am.. If a cookbook doesn't have a picture on every page, I'm not interested and most of the time you'll find me skipping through magazine articles to get to the pic...you get it.. it's a good thing the Word has enough life in it that I don't need pics to read it!!...that's why I'm writing and I hope this is as fruitful for you as it has been for me.....

Man I just couldn't help myself......but look at those little mitts in the background just waiting for me to step away from that fruit!!....moving on........

I wanted to share what the Lord has had me on this week....Righteousness.... I've been reading Paul's epistles for a while now (currently in Galatians) and am starting to get the bigger picture of what righteousness really is....Rylan was watching Veggie tales and they asked what the word meant and went on to say that it is "doing what is RIGHT"...even the web definition of the word is "morally upright, without sin or guilt".....this is what we tell kids when we are trying to explain in sunday school.... "Do what is right and you will please God"...Now hear me out for a sec because absolutely do I want to do right and want to teach my boys what's right, that's how we show love for God, to obey His commands....but for so many years, I felt like righteousness was a distant hope and dream because of my susceptibility to failure...sin...guilt....flesh....

In Romans 3 it says that there is no one righteous, not one and we know that because it says that we are ALL sinners...then it goes on to say but there IS a righteousness from God, apart from the law, the righteousness from God comes through FAITH in Christ Jesus to all who BELIEVE...it continues on to talk about Abraham and that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and that all those who believe are children of Abraham and sons of God!!! (galatians 3:29 says - if you belong to christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Paul knew his crowd and knew that he was dealing with a lot of people that still didn't realize that salvation came through grace, by faith....they were still relying on the law...he says in Gal 1:10 that all who rely on the law are cursed but Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us ....3:23 says before faith came we were held prisoners by the law and now that faith has come, we are no longer under supervision of the law...Isn't it funny how Abe believed and that was how he was righteous.....that was WAY before Christ!!!.....God never intended the law (what WE do)...to redeem us, but only to point out sin until Christ came to pay for our sin.. Rom 8:2-through christ jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.....

If we could be justified by observing the law then we could take credit and say "I am good, I am righteous"...I know fully that God wants us to obey the law but not in a way that I used to think- be good or else!.....He wants us to obey his commands because we LOVE Him, not because we are trying to gain personal holiness...He wants us to live in the freedom of the Spirit..BELIEVING the Lord for who He is and believing in His promises...that's what Abe did...he believed the Lord when He told him that he and his wife were going to have a baby at a very old age and that he was going to be the father of many nations....... I also looked at the passage in James that says the prayer of a righteous man is both powerful and effective and it's in the context of praying over sick people in the church and praying IN FAITH that they would be well.....

Makes me want to STOP claiming EVERYTHING because I am nothing without the Lord....makes me want to stop measuring my right standing with God by what I"VE BEEN DOING OR NOT DOING and want to BELIEVE the Lord by FAITH through GRACE and continue to be blown away by His greatness...once we start believing the Lord like that, our lives actually start to be more "upright" than ever and the thing is...we didn't even try... I think that's how He intended it or He wouldn't have died for us why we were still sinners, he would have said "Start doing what's RIGHT first...and then I will save you".....

Alright...one more pic cause I just can't stand it....we have this hanging in our living room to remind us to simply JUST BELIEVE THE LORD....and that's IT!!!

The Countdown Begins

This crazy kid is gonna be 5 in 1 week... and to put it mildly, He's just a little bit excited for His 5th birthday...

look at Him standing tall....

sayin "look out cause I'm bout to be 5...oh yeah"....

We have a fun filled birthday weekend planned for this boy.... a post of the festivities to come!!