Laurie's Life

I had the great honor of going with Kelly this weekend as she spoke at a church.  She did a fantastic job!!!!!!  I loved getting to go and hear!  We had a really good time! Emily's class had a Mother's Day tea today.  I LOVED every second of it!!!!  Everything about the tea was just darling!  They did portraits of their moms and we had to take a turn guessing which one was us.  I guessed right!  I am the one with the orange background.  Because my guess was correct, my name was put in a basket for a drawing.  I was the winner!!!!  I got a pot of Gerbera flowers!!!!  Emily was sooooooo soooooooo excited I won! They did a video presentation that was so cute.  The children said things about their mothers.  Emily said my favorite thing to do was clean the house.  HA!  IT IS NOT!!!!!!!!  She just always sees me cleaning, but the house seems to never look any better.  She also said that my favorite food was pizza that smelled like cat food.  HA Ha!  That would be ancho

These may be the worst quality pictures ever posted on a blog, but I had to share.  Emily had her first "real" musical Sunday night.  It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!  The kids did a wonderful job!!!!!  I was so proud of Emily and all the other kids.  Emily has enjoyed choir so much!!!! Emily is in the pink on the front with...a pink bow too, of course!

My girls are taking gymnastics this year.  They both LOVE it!  This past weekend they had what was called a "Fun Meet."  It was for children who are not in competitive gymnastics.  The girls did a really great job!  They got to show all the spectators what they have learned.  They got medals that they are so proud of.  This was a fun time and a great way to build self-esteem. Sunday night, Sarah Kate had her choir program at church.  She was super fussy and sad.  I thought she was just nervous about the performance.  She is a super friendly little girl, but she DOES NOT like to be in front of a crowd.  She did not sing and even sat down a time or two.  She was not herself at all.  We got home and I took her temperature.  She had 101.8 fever.  I felt so sorry for her.  THAT explained everything.  She had been fine during the day.  My girls seem to get sick so fast.  Fine one minute, sick the next.  She has strep throat.  We have stayed in

The Summer before Emily started Kindergarten, my friend Amanda had her second baby.  I made a meal for them and carried the girls with me to deliver the meal.  It is a beautiful country drive from Amanda's house to mine.  As we drove back home, we were having small talk and listening to their Vacation Bible School music c.d. All of the sudden Emily says with urgency and strong conviction,  "MOM, MOM.......I just asked Jesus into my heart!!!!!" I told Emily how wonderful this was and all that.  She wanted to call her Daddy and grandparents and tell them her good news. We began talking that very night with Emily about what it means to be saved from your sins.  Steve and I quickly saw that there was a lot that she was very confused about.  We looked at that time in the car as one big step toward God.We talked to her about baptism and she told us that she wanted to get baptised so her sins would be washed away, but she added that she had to take swimming lessons first. 

This past weekend we had our Sunday School class "Night of Nothing."  We had so much fun laughing, talking. eating and just being together.  Our friend Amber came back and joined us for the weekend.  I miss her so very much! We also had a special guest, Susan Goss.  She is so wise.  She spent a couple hours speaking truth into our lives on Friday night. I am so thankful for these wonderful girls!

Sunday was one of our best Easter's EVER! We had a wonderful church service with Clay Crosse and Junior Hill.  We picked up KFC and ate with Kelly and Scott and girls.  We had good food and a really good time together. We headed home and relaxed a little before going to the Murray's house for dinner and an egg hunt.  It was so much fun and the food was so very good. SO blessed to be able to spend a beautiful day with friends and family!

Friday afternoon we went to Branson.  We love going there as a family to get away from the stresses of life.  We had a really good time! We stayed at the Hilton at the Landing.  We were able to step out of our hotel and be at Cantina Larado in about 30 seconds.  Friday night, I had THE BEST dinner I have EVER had!!!!!  Nothing could ever top it!  I got a thin cut steak with bacon wrapped shrimp.  Their chips and salsa is the best in the world.  I wanted to eat there again Saturday but I think my family thought I had lost my mind.  I am trying to plan when I can get back to that restuarant again. After we ate, I could barely walk, but we walked around the mall.  I found a necklace at Francesca's that I thought matched a shirt that I had brought to wear on Saturday.  I was pretty sure it matched, but wanted to make sure it was right for the shirt.  I planned to go back right when they opened Saturday morning with the blue shirt on.  Well,  Saturday it was pouring down rain.  We h