Rappelling!

Yesterday a couple of good friends took a group of us first timers rappelling at Palisades Park. We had a blast! Here are a few photo's:

Out of the newbies, Hannah went first.

Then comes Sidney. In this shot she had actually just recovered from being turned upside down!

Laura Beth did it too!

Here I am with Philip trying to talk me down

And now I am at the bottom with Nick and LB!

Buuuuut.... I didn't do it. I just hiked down :)

I spent most of my time doing this:

:)

Here's Nick trying to coach Maggie. She has done it before but ended up not doing it this time. She's such a good sport!

And now- our fearless (okay- they were scared too) leaders!.... Minus Lisa:

Nick had to go down first, without anyone belaying below, because he's the one that set everything up this time. And that's the rule- you set it up, you go down first. Philip did it the other time.

And lastly- here's Philip being a showoff :) I think he pushed off the rock only once, maybe twice, going down. Impressive!

All in all, it was a fabulous day!!

Good Friday.

‎"For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”"

Mark 9:31 ESV

"And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”"

Mark 10:34 ESV

I am pondering these verses today as we mourn and celebrate what we call "Good Friday". I know we are supposed to be celebrating Good Friday but at the same time I find myself saddened at all that Jesus went through to cover sins that he never committed. Praise be to Jesus Christ!

 "HE IS NOT DEAD! HE IS RISEN!".

Ladies Day Out

Today Kylee and I had our very own Ladies Day Out! My grandmother used to take me and Hannah out every couple of months for Ladies Day Out. I remember enjoying it very much and wanted to do the same with Kylee. Ladies Day Out consists of doing..... whatever the lady you are taking out wants to do :) So, this is what we did:

We went to Chick-Fil-A first. This is actually her eating after we left Chick-Fil-A.

She spent most of her time at Chick-Fil-A playing on the play place. I got that from my very good friend and mentor, Mrs. Paula. Let the kid play if they want to play... they can burn calories and eat later :)

Then, I just happened to spot a place to get some girl scout cookies:

Then we went to see Hannah and Dad:

And my dad riding his bike INSIDE!

And, finally, we headed to the park! We did lots of running and sliding and swinging...

she talked me in to doing all of those things with her.

And I did not mind one bit. It gave me an excuse to swing and slide down the slides ;)

She called the foot/handholds "little piggy's".

Sadly- she did not make it up. She tried very hard though!

We had to, of course, go to the other playground.. hehe.

 

Trying to smile with the sun in her eyes.. she is such a good sport!

"Rachel, help me! I can't do it!".

 And back to the other side. I stopped running at this point..

Kylee kept going...

And going...

"Ah! I've been captured!"

The End

I, for one, had a great time!

Cheers to passing on the tradition of Ladies Day Out!

Next time it will be just Nathan and I... I have yet to come up with a name. There's Nathan and Rachel Day but that just doesn't sound like much fun.

Rocks, Balancing, and Storms.

A few days before the storms and tornadoes came through we went across the street and threw rocks in the creek (Nathans favorite)

and balanced on the rocks around the used-to-be-flower-bed (Kylee's favorite)

Its amazing how one day everything seems almost perfect and then the next day houses are obliterated, lives are lost, and neighborhoods are destroyed. I don't have any pictures of the tornadoes path or of the houses it demolished. But I do have one thing- thankfulness to God for sparing the lives of hundreds of other people that, from the looks of their houses, should not be here today. And from keeping the path of the tornadoes much smaller than that of the ones in April. That is not to belittle what happened to countless family members and neighbors in our community who were hit by the tornadoes. The destruction is devastating. But...

Even in the midst of the storms and destruction, God is good.

Ahhhh, memories!

I just found this old picture of Kylee, Nathan, and I:

Look how little they were! And how short my hair was! Sigh... :) Oh my goodness.

Nathan's little belly and Kylee's little pig tails. I definitely remember both of the onesie's they were wearing. hehe. 

One Haircut and A Yummy Dinner!

I took Nathan to get a haircut today. He did amazingly great! He even sat patiently and waited for thirty minutes, which is no small feat for him! Of course, he always gets a sucker during his haircut if he is good. Having a sticky  four year old beats holding a kicking and screaming four year old. I could do that when he was two or three years old but it gets harder every year. And, somehow, having a sucker makes all the difference! We always get his hair scissor cut as short as it will go so we don't have to go back for a while.

Here is are before and after photo's:

(Before.. the pictures were taken from my phone so they are a little blurry)

(After... He always has a cow lick on one side that we can't get rid of :)

And he actually let me take his picture without crying!

And then............ Hannah made this for supper:

All in all a GREAT day!!

November

Okay, since I have blogged since November 5th, I will post about everything that happened in November. Well, almost everything. I'm sure you don't want to hear about what I had for lunch everyday :)

I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I have a picture but I am NOT going to post it ;)

Nathan got very sick with the stomach bug the weekend before Thanksgiving and, therefore, I did too. Thankfully I was better by Thanksgiving, which was spent at the Ledbetter house.

Thursday night/Friday morning after Thankgiving dinner and a few card games, Alyson, Hannah, Josey, and I went to Old Navy for black Friday. Josey and I had never been before and it was quite an experience!

Then Friday morning (about 5 hours after going black Friday shopping), Hannah, Judah, my mom, and I went to Camden, AL to see my moms side of the family. Here is a picture of me and my great uncle who, in his 80s, still runs a farm with the help of his wife, my granny's sister:

And here are pictures of my Grann Ann (great aunt) and Granny. We had to sneak them because neither one likes have their picture taken:

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to the Christmas tree farm with the Ledbetters, Hicks, and McConnells. It was tons of fun! And I would post a picture except that Alyson took the pictures and we don't have them yet. It was quite funny trying to get a picture of all of us (kids included). It went something like this "Addie Beth, get your thumb out your mouth". "Will, you can cry after the photo, just smile.... okay, don't smile. Just look at the camera" "Everyone squeeze in tighter". "Anna take you sunglasses off". "Gabe, smile just ONE time and then we can be done". Very funny!

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree.... leaning and not in too good of shape at the time :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and November!

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18