The Cross

Came across this verse the other day, and it struck me....

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat;this is My body which is broken for YOU."

I know I've read it before, but this time it hit me.  His body was broken for me..... 

We celebrate Easter because of Him.

We have life because of Him.

We have hope because of Him.

He went to the cross on that dreadful Friday, endured more than we can imagine, gave himself up, and died. 

For You. For me.

It hit me hard; my sinful self, and he did it for me. Why?

On that glorious morning, He arose.  The sacrifice was accepted.  My sins have been paid in full.  

For You. For me. 

Humbled and thankful this Easter. 

Good Friday Fishing

The Holik Cousin Annual "Good Friday" Fishing Trip was this morning.  The big kids got to go with Jason; they could hardly go to sleep the night before from excitement.  They both got new fishing poles from Aunt Hay Hay, and they both actually caught fish!! 

While looking through the Pottery Barn magazine the other day, Kylee saw a sail boat in one picture, and decided it would be fun to make a sail boat to take on their fishing trip, and try it out in the water.  

I quickly got on pinterest for a easy and quick way to make one.  We painted empty egg cartons, and painted our sail as well.  I hot glued a mast in the middle and then again underneath, and then tied string from the center to both ends.  I haven't heard how the held up; I'm thinking probably not to good. Oh well, it was fun to make anyways.

Mags and I attended a Good Friday Service at our church. Looking forward to celebrating this weekend.  

My First Tattoo

I forgot to tell you I got my eye liner tattooed on!!

Over Spring Break, I made a fairly quick decision to go to Lubbock with my mom and a friend (who had been to this place before) to get our eye liner tattooed on.  This place in Lubbock was about 1/4 of the cost of the Waterford. 

A couple days before I asked Jason if he could watch the kids while I went to get my eyes done.  He said "yeah."  We never discussed it again, and he never asked about it. 

When we got there to this "hole in the wall joint", I was scared, but I was with my mom, so what could go wrong. :)  The lady that does the tattooing was extremely nice, and it ended up not being scary at all. 

We first had to look through a book, and pick a color.  I did NOT pick the Kelly Green color like in the photo, mine was called "Sienna Taupe", stays a medium to dark brown color, and told her "thin".

They put some cream on your eyes for about 10 minutes to numb them, and then wipe it all off, and start the tattooing.  It really did not hurt as bad as I was expecting; it just felt very uncomfortable, dull pain. 

The top right photo is when I was immediately finished and just stood up!! I liked it immediately, and thought it looked good. 

The pain was worse that day and the following 3 days.  They just hurt to the touch and were red, swollen, and tender. 

The bottom two pictures are on the way home that same day, and the middle picture is what it looks like now, after 2 weeks. 

The worse part was coming home to Jason. Remember we barely discussed it, and he had no clue what all this meant.  He would not look at me, and kept saying he didn't like it, and said he really didn't think I was going to do it. 

I was so upset. I really thought I ruined our marriage. 

I know, a little dramatic, but I was really upset that I went and did it so quickly, and didn't think about the permanence of it. 

It is a little thicker at the beginning, and slowly flakes off sort of.  Now, he likes it, and doesn't even realize I have it on.  

I am still getting used to it, but I hope it's going to be okay.

My New Box

I happened upon a blog called thehouseofsmiths.com, and she has some fabulous ideas for decorating.  She made these wooden boxes with the help of her husband....

So, I showed them to Jason on Friday night, and he said he could make those in like 5 minutes. :) 

But, then I remembered I had this other box, that I really liked a long time ago pinned on Houzz.  They are from Serena & Lily. 

So, Jason combined the two ideas and made me a box.  

I really like it.  It's pretty big, but I think I will use it as a sort of toy box in Jaxon's room.  

I'm trying to find more ideas I might want him to do!!

Park Playdates

We got to enjoy a fun day at the park last week.  The wind blew terrible, but my kids love the park, and beg to go there, every time we go to town so it didn't bother them at all.  

We weren't there a real long time; just enough time to eat a little lunch, see some ground squirrels, and of course, hunt Easter eggs.

Kylee was so sweet, and offered to give a little friend a few of her eggs. Jaxon on the other hand, considers everything to be "mine", and I do not want to share, or give you anything I have.  We'll get there though.

It's funny to me to see a blonde in the middle here!! :)

Me No Savy

Sometimes I act like a blonde, and things just kind of you know fly over my head.

But, you guys, already knew that. 

Remember, when I told you about VERA JANE. 

Well, it's not vera jane, and I just discovered that on my own.

I feel like a dumb dumb.

It's VERY JANE.

What does that even mean?

I like the name VERA better. 

Anyways, just wanted to clarify myself.

Cousins Sleepover Minus 1

We enjoyed Spring Break last week as much as real school kids!! Because the cousins were free to play with all day long!! 

Addi and Karter came over and spent the night last Monday.  Now, I'm thinking we should of invited Lexi. She was the only one missing out!!

Kylee and Jaxon love it when they come over, and we always are loud, and make big messes!!

We ate homemade pizzas!!

Everyone got to do their own sauce and toppings!!

Hamburger, Pepperoni, pineapples, 2 different cheeses, and black olives to choose from.  Jason always goes over the top on the cheese. He kept telling everyone to add more cheese!!

YUMMY!!

We played outside, and of course they convinced Jason to start a fire and roast marshmallows!! All 4 of them got to hold their own roasting stick and roast their own marshmallows.  ALOT fell off in the fire. Oh well, we had pink ones left over from Mag's party, that no one liked anyways. 

We stayed outside until we were all filthy dirty and then came inside, split up, and took baths!! Jaxon loved having another boy around.  Them too are really starting to bond.  Love them.

Then came the issue of MILKSHAKES!! I had told them they could have a small milkshake during the movie; they were all looking forward to it.  

UNTIL, Jason played a little game of "fumble" with them. Basically, everyone gets in the living room floor and Jason knocks these 2 footballs around on the floor with his hands and feet yelling "fumble" and all the kids are trying to get one of the footballs. A lot of tackling is going on too. He does it a lot with Kylee and Jaxon.  And, you know, Jason he loves to AGGRAVATE them to tears, so he finally shouted "whoever gets the football gets a milkshake", well, Addi and Jaxon ended up with them. Kylee and Karter were crying their eyeballs out on the couch because they didn't think they were going to get one, and Jason's on the other couch laughing!!

Needless to say, everyone ended up with a milkshake and the flavor they wanted. 

And the straw they wanted.

Lastly, to make everyone cry some more. Jason got out a notepad, and had everyone say a movie they wanted to watch: 

Addi said a dog movie

Kylee said a princess movie

Jaxon said Dora

Karter said a superhero movie (can't remember the word he said)

No one agreed.  

So everyone got to vote. 

Obviously not good.

After more crying, they ended up watching The Lorax.

It was a fun night even with all of Jason's crazy antics. 

Nose Picker

Same and Different Game

What is the same about ALL 3 pictures??

Why, yes!! Jaxon has his finger up his nose in all the pictures. Very good!!

Ack! Why does he do this??

Mom was wanting a family picture to send to her kin folk for the extended Ruffin family book.  We had one from Christmas that we all thought looked GREAT!! BUT, she didn't like the big picture on the wall behind us. 

So, she suggested, we take a real quick picture one morning, while we are at church.  

Two weeks ago, I grabbed one of the boys in the youth group, and he took our pictures.  He literally only took 4 pictures; the first one was blurry, and the last 3 pictures, well, Jaxon was picking his nose in ALL of them!! 

I think she will just have to be happy with one of them.  But, we are so smart over here you know. We finally figured out that there are 6 adults, and 6 kids, so next family picture everybody is responsible for ONE child, to make sure they are smiling and looking in the right direction, and 

WITH NO FINGERS IN THEIR NOSE!!

JBF

Mom and I have been digging through boxes, sorting through them, washing, drying, ironing, hanging, re-sorting, entering the item in the computer, and we have NOT tagged anything yet... All to sale at the JBF sale.  It's our first time to sale anything.  It's kind of fun and a lot of work at the same time. 

THE PARTAY

Maggie's 1st Birthday Party was so FUN!!!! We sure enjoyed our time celebrating her with our family and good friends!!

The Cake Table

"Be a wise owl and read a book!!" The kids took home a book and some bird food (gummy worms)!!

The kids sat at a short table outside.  I nearly have to say Jason did more work than me for the party. He went to their field nearby and chain sawed some old trees that were down, brought them home, and whitewashed them for me. The kids looked really cute sitting on them!!

Thankful for good friends to celebrate our babies birthdays together; you guys bless me more than you know.

We ate fajitas and fruit; then we sang "Happy Birthday", cousin Karter blew out her candle, and she grabbed the owl topper from the cake and chowed down. It was made out of a rice krispie treat, and she barely ate any of it.  She thought she was "big britches" though getting to hold onto that BIG owl!! 

Maggie wandered around and played, but has really enjoyed her gifts from her friends these past few days at home!!

It was a fun party!!

One Year

My precious Maggie Kate. You are one year old today.

Back in July of 2011, we found out I was pregnant with you; Jaxon had yet to turn one. I remember people thinking, "Y'all are crazy?" I would agree 100% with them. 

 But, God is not crazy.  God is good.  And He was so good to us a year ago when you were born and joined our family, healthy, perfect, and looking exactly like Jaxon did. And as in love I am with you, God loves you so much more. 

God knit you in my womb, and still knows more about you than I do.  God, not I, knows your days ahead and your dreams.  We are faithfully trusting in Him to do a mighty work in your life.

He has blessed us so.

As time goes on, you have changed your looks, and you have shown us your true personality. You are so strong willed; as difficult as it is for me now, I don't mind it.  I pray you are just as determined in school, learning to read, learning to be nice to others, and to be a giving person. I pray you use that passion to one day love Jesus, to love life, and to influence others.  

But, please, never ever leave home.

Happy Birthday Maggie Kate!!

Mama Mary

Tonight was Bible Heroes Night at AWANA's!! It actually turned out to be a fun night.  

Kylee dressed up as Mary. For a week, she knew she wanted to be Mary; for a week, she's been telling all of us that she was going to be Mary. 

I wanted her to be the little boy with the fish and bread that shared his lunch with Jesus, but she was not having any of that because "He is a boy, mama."

Decked out in our homemade Mary costume with strappy sandals and all!!

At Cubbies with her sweet friend in her class. 

I should have known Kylee would have been so passionate about being Mary.  It fits her well, especially the carrying around a baby part.  She loves playing with babies, and being a mama.

So sweet. 

Look Alikes?

What do you think?? I think not so much anymore....

vera jane

No, it's not the name of our next baby girl..... :)

I came across this site the other day...... WOW!! I'm in love!! Am I the last person to know about this site!! It's awesome!! 

verajane.com

Like too awesome!! They have new deals everyday that I'm in love with.  And a ton of CHEVRON stuff, everyday!! And you know how I am about CHEVRON!!

They have cute stuff, like this....

or these snack cups....

or these bracelets or earrings... That I love!

And I may or may not have ordered one of these for the summer!!

This is a deal today. I've been looking on the internet for big wooden letters.  These are 18" tall; I think one painted on our front door might be pretty!!

Country Life

If you live in the country, bath time is a NECESSITY!! E.V.E.R.Y day!!

You know.... digging holes, checking on Paw-Paw's calves, running through the field, picking up sticks, and helping Daddy in the barn.  

I stand back and watch, with a thankful heart and a love for their innocence.