Life with my sister

This is what we are singing this morning at our house and hope you are rejoicing with us! Henry adores this song and we are pressing repeat on our CD this morning as we prepare for church. "I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." Revelation 1:18 Abby

I got my camera out last week while it felt like spring and took some photos of Henry in his Easter outfit. He was such a good sport. Henry holding a Jonquil in our flowerbed ("What the h*&& is a jonquil" - mama, daddy and julie, are you laughing??!! Rest ole Harold's funny soul.) . I love how God allows them to bloom way ahead of the other flowers. It gives us a little taste, hope and joy of spring before the rest of the earth is ready. This tulip tree in our yard is always so pretty to see in full bloom. I did not ask Henry to pose his leg in this photo, just his arm. It cracked me up to see his leg. He is learning to pose for mama...bless his heart! He will pay me back later in life. I am sure of it. I am in love with this photo. This is truly my Henry. Smiling, silly, and full of life. He did not pose for this one either. I just happened to snap the camera while he was giggling about the eggs. Nothing makes me happier than this smile. I pray ...

The boys pictured at the bottom of this post bring me so many smiles and much laughter. They will be 12 in a month. A month! One year away from teenagers! Help!!! One of the boys is a pessimist, a glass half-empty kind of guy. At times I feel like he just endures us. The other one is an optimist, a full glass kind of guy. I'm pretty sure he believes there could be a party at any time, and he will most certainly want to be there! To have such different personalities, their interests are the same. They both enjoy reading, watching movies, playing Wii games, and having air soft wars. The funniest thing is that when they have friends over for more than a couple of hours I'll look for them and find them on their beds reading. The friend is somewhere in the house or outside entertaining himself. It seems that they need a moment or two of quiet and solitude before they play again. It's like a mini siesta! They are rarely separated. They have the same friends, and the same i...

Henry keeps asking, "Is it Easter time?" and we keep assuring him that it is indeed!   We made some cheese cracker carrots  to give to some special bunnies this Easter week. It was so easy, inexpensive and super cute. I recommend it if you are looking for a little happy to make this week. We have also packaged up some jelly bean bark. I used almond bark and Starburst jelly beans. Those jelly beans are addictive so I was glad to get them melted into something besides my mouth! I am excited to pass these out to some of my little chicks this week. We visited Lifeway last week and bought these things to celebrate Easter with our little mister. The Resurrection Eggs are precious and he loves to open each one and tell us what they mean. The sticker book is a little too old for him, but it is fun to use the stickers with the story. The Story of Easter book is perfect for his age and explains Easter as God showing His love to us. It is perfec...

 A year ago today Abby and I asked for prayer for mom as she was having surgery. Little did we know that the three day scheduled hospital stay would turn into a three week stay. Those weeks were full of days that were trying on many levels. I cried, worried, laughed, and texted. Oh man did I text! Trying to keep everyone up to date on moms condition was important and something I did often. Crying, worrying, and laughing were also things I did often. Some of my sweetest times with mom were times she doesn't even remember. She was asleep, breathing with the help of the ventilator and I would lay my head on her shoulder and pray. And cry. She wore my mascara on the shoulder of her gown for many days. I also had some sweet times with The Lord. Oh, I poured my heart out to Him with tears and without. Abby and I began the hospital stay just praying that we wouldn't embarrass ourselves by our gagging. Neither of us like hospitals! God was good to answer that prayer. As He ...

I really have the best mother-in-love. She became a mother to Randall when he was five years old. She married his dad and has loved Randall like her own since day one. Molly was a God send for Randall and without her we would not have met each other. I have the best time with Molly. She makes me laugh and she laughs with me. I love laughter from a pure heart. She has one of the purest. Her love for Jesus is evident in how she loves us. I treasure that. I know all the mother-in-law jokes and the stigma that often comes with that relationship, but we are not like that. We have a Ruth and Naomi type relationship. I would go with her and she would go with me to the very end.  She is Henry's Nana and there is nothing more precious than those two together. Nana likes to come get him or have Randall bring him to her for over night stays quiet often. They live 1 hour from us. She and Papa (Randall's dad) frequent garage sales and rack up on toy...

Delta Baptist Church is doing good. We are having weekly services and have between 14 and 28 in attendance. The services are mainly for our core group, the group of people that are helping us to start the church. We have invited a few others to come, but until we find a permanent place to meet and have more of what we need in place, we'll wait to invite others. We are meeting new people, seeing the needs that need to be met, and praying for what part Delta will play in these things. We are excited about what God is going to do! I know some of you that read this are people of prayer and faith. I'm going to list a few things that could use your prayer. ...A place to meet for services ( a building of our own, or one that we can use on Sundays) ...More churches and people to help support Delta financially until it can support itself. ...Churches and people to support Delta with prayer. We know God hears the prayers of His people. ...Mission groups to come help us this s...

In honor of St. Patty's Day we decked out in our green a day early to head to a birthday party of one of Henry's best buds, who happened to be born on St. Patty's Day. It was fun times.   I am not one to believe in luck, but this shirt was too cute and he really is a little lucky charm. He makes me green with giggles most days. I love this child more than life. Randall got home right before dark tonight after being away for the past 5 days planting corn at 2 of his locations. He drove 7 hours home today after finishing up in AL this morning. His first stop was in the floor with Henry's new resurrection eggs we bought today at Lifeway. He could have showered, laid back in his recliner, read his new Runner's World or Delta Farm Press.... but no, he chose this. He always chooses the best. I love his heart. Abby

This week I had the pleasure of getting face to face with a childhood friend of mine right in my very own home. That is rare for me and I loved it. Terri was in town for work and came over for pizza and conversation...and playdough, and fire trucks and Daniel Tiger's neighborhood...etc. Henry and I had fun entertaining her and catching up. She and I grew up in church together and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. There is nothing like a friend who knows what has molded you into who you are as an adult. I don't have have the luxury of being around friends like that much because of where I live and not going back home that often. It was great to talk about Jojo Skutt The Wonder Mutt and things such as that, and having to explain nothing. Silver friends really outweigh the gold most of the time, truth be told. Henry and I have had a lot of mama/son time this week with Randall being in LA, AL and MS planting corn. It has been nice enough to play and frolic outside after sc...

Friday was family day for the Beavers family. As church planters with the Southern Baptist Convention we receive money from the North American Mission Board(NAMB), if you give to Annie Armstrong and Dixie Jackson offerings through your local Southern Baptist church you are supporting church planters like us. As a gift to us, NAMB sent us a gift card to use for family fun. We knew we could use it to pay a bill, but we did what they requested and headed to Playtime Pizza. Playtime Pizza is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids, and we enjoy it a lot. The kids had fun, Stephen and I had fun, it was money well spent. We want to say Thank you! After family fun time, we went to buy shoes. This sadly wasn't funded by our giftcard (Playtime Pizza took all of that!). We chose to go to Academy Sports, we love that store! David and Daniel got new tennis shoes. There are so many friends of ours that can only tell them apart by their shoes. So, today I put an fyi on Facebook to alert everyone th...

It's been a while since I've written anything. Do I start every post with that sentence? I was writing a post last Monday, and it was a good one. (Believe it or not!) And right in the middle of it, right when it was getting good, life happened. Not like red kool-aid spilled over my entire (en-tire) white formica circa 1971 countertops life happened. That happened today. After I poured almost a whole can of Comet on it and it didn't get the red stain off, I sprayed bleach and voila! I had white countertops again. No, like real life happened. I don't ever want to sound overly dramatic here or anywhere really. But sometimes when i'm talking to mom or Abby I know I sound like a drama queen. Be glad you aren't privy to those conversations! And be even more glad, that I don't share such drama here. The Beavers' family is doing good. The devil is alive and well in Pine Bluff and we aren't immune to his bad deeds, neither are those closest to us. But...

This is Henry's About Me Book he made at school this past week. I got the biggest kick out of it and figured I would share it with you since most of you are family and always look forward to the latest "Henryism" via email. Henry now thinks it is neccesary to smile and say cheese in this manner. It is quite entertaining. He is a solid boy and less than 2 feet shorter than me now. He captioned this book with the prompting of his teacher. None of these foods he said were his favorite are his favorite. I am puzzled by his selections...especially the "sauce". Oh, Henry. He was right on the money with this one. We own almost every one ever made. It is an impressive collection, I must say.   This is truth. Henry loves his toy bobcat and wants nothing more right now than to ride in a real one. We are trying to find someone at church or someone we know in town who has one. I never in my life thought I would be trying to find a bobcat to ride. Oh...

Every night after bath we are greeted with Woody from Toy Story, a duck, a fish or this little green monster. It is always exciting to see what will appear running around the house before PJ time. The simple things in life....I love it. The things that evoke happiness and squeals never cease to amaze me at this house. Swinging upside down is always a favorite. I love that Randall plays with Henry like he does. He and Henry are best buds. I am thankful for a husband who is a hands on daddy and adores his boy. Easy afternoons at home are more abundant these days, thankfully. On this particular day I was having Henry try on all his new spring/summer clothes I have purchased. He was quite fond of the khaki shorts and decided to just play in them afterwards. He added the hat and made his own little "outfit" he was most proud of. I love my fashion forward fella!   Henry has no desire to pedal and has this super fun Mickey Mouse bike. Nana and Papa got it for him...

It is always a beautiful view from Aunt Suzy's kitchen. She lives in Little Rock and the back of her house over looks the Arkansas River. Growing up, it was always one of my favorite places and it is fun to watch it become one of our kids favorite places. Watching Henry and Mawmaw look at birds was super cute. I also appreciated a moment to catch my breath. He was a wild one on this day. Mawmaw and UD came to Arkansas to visit everyone. I was not sure if I would be able to make it but the morning of the gathering I decided I was going, so Henry and I loaded up and showed up without anyone knowing. I called them from Aunt Suzy's driveway. It was fun. I like to show a little sass with my folks and you can always count on one of Vera's girls to have a hat or wig to model. My great-grandmother raised some sassy girls. It carries on with me. Sitting around the table with all the girls was so fun. I just got to squat for a few minutes at a time while chasing Hen...