On My Way- EP Chris & Tara

Hello everyone!! I'm sitting here anxiously watching this...

Yep waiting for that little plane to land. As I wait I have something I'm excited to share! After 13+ yrs of singing and writing with my husband we FINALLY have something to put up online of our music and say, "Here! Listen and check this out!" Our friend Dale offered his studio and time as a birthday present for my husband and I am now there forever, family photographer. :) We titled the EP On My Way. Since Chris and Taylor can say "I'm on my way to Africa" it's fitting.

First track is:

On My Way- Our friends Jason (electric), Mark (cello) and Andy (drums) do such a wonderful job adding to Chris and I's guitar/piano tracks. In hindsight we kind of wish we would've played it a little faster but it gets there in the bridge section. It's a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head. Lexie walks around sing/saying "On My Way"

Not Ours To Keep- Features Taylor! I started writing this song after reading Kisses from Katie. A outstanding and inspiring book! Taylor read it as well and wrote the second verse to this song. She did a great job singing lead on this song! It almost didn't make it on the album as we were running out of time. You should know she did her vocal at 11:30pm in about one take. That's not easy for an adult, trust me I know, let alone a 11yr old! Good job Tay!

Look Up- I wrote this last spring in thinking about my mom. I actually wrote it about a week before she went in the hospital and almost died. It was looking like their house that they bought (two doors down) was going to fall through and I was despairing in the waiting. Little did I know that God would use this song over and over again to keep reminding me to "look up" and remember his goodness as I would wait to see if she would live or die. Kind of what I'm having to do now as I wait for Chris & Tay to land, minister, and return. I am so honored to have Mark (cello) play on this song too. He did a fabulous job and really makes it!

So I invite you to download this music FOR FREE. Just take the tip button and scroll it all the way down to 0! Put in your e-mail. They in return give it to me so I can contact you with future music we post. Then you'll get a activation code to download and you are done. That's it! If you however want to tip, awesome! Thanks! All funds go towards paying for this trip. But honestly we are just honored if you'd download and give it a listen it's only taken us 13 years to do something like this. Pretty please. Now. Seeing how many downloads we have gives me something to obsess about other then watching a plane fly on my computer over the Mediterranean Sea :)

Chris & Tara Artist Page


or go directly to the EP



Enjoy!

Swimwear...

It's that time of year again! One I despise almost every summer... trying to find a swimsuit. Ugh. Just when I found the perfect suit I get pregnant and my whole body changes on me :)

Well, this new site I found won't exactly help me this year but it might be of help to some of my friends and I most definitely will be checking it out for next year!

Check out some of these super cute Tankini Tops!





For more suits & prices go to Lime Ricki.

Andrea Party

We had our last official Gilbert date night tuesday night and it's only appropriate that our last sitter would be Andrea. She was also our first 4 1/2 years ago. Taylor was 2 and I was just barely pregnant with Trevor. Andrea had a chance to watch Taylor grow up over the years. She was Trevor's first sitter. And was the first one to get him to go to bed without him totally losing it. There was lots of leaving Trevor with him crying for us and Andrea pushing us towards the door saying "he'll be just fine". And he always was :) She welcomed in Rylee and walked her around in the bjorn & slings while getting the others to bed. All the while bringing movies, things to bake with the kids, books and a joyful servants heart. So as we neared our last night we prepared a suprise Andrea party. Taylor worked on making Thank You signs and even made this acrostic for her.


One of her favorite colors is green so the kids & I baked her a green cake. And I do mean the kids... the put in the drops and frosted it! Ok so she's not Mrs. Boomsma quite yet... but what engaged girl doesn't like seeing her new last name on a cake :)


The kids waited by the door with a green rose...

SURPRISE!!


Then she came in and made me cry and off we went on our date :)



Andrea we love you & are indebted to your faithful, joyful serving of our family for these past four years. Not only are we thankful but our marriage is stronger because of the date nights you gave us. Thank you for giving of your time, your creativity with our children and for being our friend. I'll miss our times coming home from dates and sitting on our couch talking "guy" issues and other fun things going on in your life. We are excited for this upcoming new chapter in your life!

Roots Run Deep

I recently downloaded Jadon Lavik's album Roots Run Deep: A Collection of Hymns. I'm a sucker for well done classic hymns. I love his acoustic takes on Tis' So Sweet & I Surrender All!

Check it out here.

Family Friendly Community Theatre

Some friends of ours at church have started an acting company called Command Performers. They are some of the most gifted people I know and also happen to be in the upcoming movie "Come What May". This is produced by the same company who made Fireproof. Their company's first performance, Little Women, is in a few weeks and I would highly encourage any who live in AZ to consider attending. I know I'm excited to see the play with Taylor!

For more information on Command Performers and what they are about as well as purchasing tickets for Little Women, check out their website: Command Performers

Boot Camp Results

Ok so not to brag or anything but boot camp is over and the results are in... I scored in the top five of most inches lost! WOOT! Of course I gained a pound... go figure :)

All I have to say is "who's the cheater now?!"

*picture taken by my 6yr old :)

Super Bowl Joys & Sorrows

We made signs...


We cheered for our team...

Father's bonded with sons...

We thought we were going to win...

Oh no...


Suddenly, it was over :(


What do you think owen? 2010?


Well AZ cardinals we truly are proud of you! It was quite the game. And let's face it we weren't really sure we would ever see you in the super bowl. At least not in our lifetime. Here's hoping we'll get to see you there again!

Money Saving Moms

My friend Megan is going to be doing a series on coupons/money saving tips over at her blog. Admitedly this is never been a strength of mine. I like Megan, have clipped coupons only to put them in baggies and either forget about them or when it comes time to actually using them, they've expired. I've even gotten as far as bringing them to the store only to check out in a hurry with the kids, completely forgetting I had them in my purse. So, being a poor example, I'm happy to point you to others :) Thanks for doing this Megan!

You can read the introduction here & part 1 here.

A Prayer For America

I like, millions of others today, have voted. And now I wait. Wait to see what God has in store for the next four years and pray that God would have mercy on us as a country. I read this over at Al Mohler's site and thought it was an outstanding guide as to how to direct my prayers today.

A Prayer for America on Election Day

A good laugh

I realize I've turned into a weekend blogger. The weeks are so busy trying to do school with the kids, keep up on house and just in general things have been super crazy around here for us. I can hardly believe September is almost over!!

Well apparently I'm not busy enough. Somehow I found time to do this tonight:




Wow, I have not laughed that hard in a long time! If you need a good laugh definitely check out their website.

The newest member of our house

While we were out with our friends last week we had a special delivery. A parlor grand piano! It's beautiful. Back when we were planning on moving into the Dublin house we had arranged for our friend Luz to come and live with us. During that time she asked if she could have her piano, which was housed at her parents house, moved in too. I of course said yes! I've been dreaming and scheming for some time as to how I could get a piano back into my life as a keyboard is just not the same. So when Dublin fell apart Luz asked if we would still take her piano. As crazy as it seemed, being we are already busting at the seams in our house, my heart was set on having a piano again. I'm so glad we said yes and moved some things around. I have been so blessed by it's presence over the past week.

Almost immediately I began lessons with Taylor. Per her constant begging. She's done quite well thus far!

Thanks Luz for trusting us with your piano! And for what it's worth I'd rather have had you live with us than your piano... but your piano will do for now :-)

I'm Melting!!

Recently Girl Talk posted a list of summer activities for kids. It was filled of wonderful creative ideas and I'm excited to file them away for the fall. That's right, fall, winter or spring- In AZ it's kind of one in the same. Most of the ideas were just not "AZ friendly". Take for example one suggestion that I thought was super cute, creating a popsicle tree for the kids. But what those who don't live in AZ might not know is that by the time you braved the 117 degree heat and hung your second popsicle, the first popsicle would be melted along with the box on the ground. I can just see my kids excitement when they saw a popsicle tree outside only to try to get one down and find one big melted, gooey, mess! Another idea on the list was cloud watching,

"Lay on your backs and look up at the clouds on a
day when they are making interesting formation. Give everyone 30
seconds to decide what the cloud looks like !"

It's a little well known fact that you just don't "lay" on the AZ ground in the summer unless of course you enjoy second degree burns and 30 seconds is about all one could stand in 117 degrees. All this to say I'm trying hard to keep my three activive children from going crazy indoors but I confess it's been a challenging few weeks. We are doing weekly library trips at 9 am where they are earning prizes for reading books and that has already been a highlight of the summer. But most errands, particularly when I have to take them with me, should be done after the sun goes down or before it comes up. Now the way to survive in AZ is to have a pool. We don't have one. My parents do but it still involves hot cars, seat belts and I'm finding that from 11:00-4:30pm it's best for everyone's sanity and skin to stay indoors. Those in the east coast will say, It's a dry heat. And it's true, I personally would prefer a dry heat over humidity but as the saying goes... It may be a dry heat, but so is an oven!

So what does one do indoors all morning & afternoon with little kids? That has been my dilemma. Today at the library I picked out a "What to do on rainy days with kids" book- minus all the ideas about running around outdoors catching rain and counting seconds in between lightning & thunder, I think I might've found a few but I'd love some more! Anyone have any AZ summer activities for kids you'd like to suggest? Maybe my East Coast friends can give me their rainy day suggestions. In the meantime I await cooler days where we can again be outdoors playing, having picnics & watching clouds. Thankful that God has brought another hot summer to AZ where it can again reveal all the sin that is in my heart and my need for a Savior :-)

Here are a few AZ hot jokes that I found on a website for your entertainment. They made me laugh!

It's so hot in Arizona that...
*the cows are giving evaporated milk.
*you no longer associate bridges (or rivers) with water.
*you learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron.
*the temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.
*you can attend any function wearing shorts and a tank top.
*you discover that in July, it takes only 2 fingers to drive your car.
*you discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window.
*you notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
*the birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.
*the potatoes cook underground, and all you have to do to have lunch is to pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper.

Songs From New Attitude

By far my favorite night of worship at New Attitude was when they included a string section. It was amazing! I have often thought back to that night as I've listened to Looked Upon and wished there was a way to get a copy of the songs done live with the strings. Well now there is, at least one song. On Bob Kauflin's blog you can download one of the songs we sang live with the strings! He also put up two of the prophetic songs he did. Both great songs however I was particularly ministered to by the last one on chronic pain. My back continues to be a chronic problem and although so small in comparison to other chronic problems out there, it has been a trial for me. Thank you Bob for making these songs available to us all!

Click Here for the songs.

Homeschooling Restricted?

I found this news to be very disturbing.

Fun With The Suns

For Christmas Chris & I received four tickets to the Suns game last night. Not just any kind of ticket either. Our seats were in the sixth row! We shared the wealth my brother Ryan and his wife Danae.

It was a great game. Much closer than it should've been considering who they were playing. But in typical suns fashion it came down to the last few minutes.



There was this referee last night that was just horrible. Not only was he making awful calls but he called a foul against the clippers with 1.8 seconds left. The suns at this point were up by 8 or 10 so it was just a crazy time to call a foul. You could see a few of the players mouthing, "there's only 1.8 seconds left!" Anyway Ryan had no problem yelling at the referee. And really you have to when your in the sixth row :-) I wonder how Danae felt about this...



Ryan actually had us laughing a couple of times. We had the most annoying fans sitting in the row behind us and a few seats over. I don't want to sound mean but there really is no other way to describe them. Not Suns fans either, clipper fans. College aged, girl clipper fans, with the high piercing screams and all. They yelled at everything! From the beginning of the game all the way to the end. At one point Ryan turns to us and said, "They do realize who it is there cheering for right? It's the CLIPPERS, they've done nothing all year." That's probably one of those, you have to be there to think it's funny, but it had us laughing! And hey we won after all... they weren't yelling then :-) Thanks twentyfour:seven creative team for great gift!

For your consideration

Recently I've been reading a book on Hilary Clinton, A Woman in Charge. Why in the world would I do that you ask? The upcoming election has peaked my interest and well so has she. I've found the book very intriguing and it's helped to remind me that she is a human being with real emotions and cares even if I disagree with her political stance. I must admit I haven't finished the book. It honestly peaked my interest so much so that I found myself wanting to read that before other books that I should be reading. At this point I just don't have time for both. So I've put it aside for awhile. But I read enough to know that Hillary is a brilliant women and she has just a chance as any to win next year. It has also put fear in me as to what could possibly happen if she is elected. Particularly with her support of the UNCRC. It comes off as a wonderful protect the children treaty that many nations have adopted but in reality does not take into account parents knowing what's best for their children. Now I'm not against the ways it seeks to protect children from abuse, violence, drugs, child labor etc. However it can go much farther than that.

Here's an excerpt from an article I read recently:
"If this treaty becomes binding on the United States, the government would have the power to intervene in a child's life “for the best interest of the child.” Currently, the government can intervene in this fashion only by going to court and proving that parents have been abusive or have neglected their children. (This standard also applies in divorce cases on the presumption that the family unit has been broken.) This means that whenever the UN-dominated social services system thought that your parental choices were not the best, the government would have the power to override your choices and protect your child from you. If this treaty becomes binding, all parents would have the same legal status as abusive parents, because the government would have the right to override every parental decision if it deemed the parent's choice contrary to the child's best interest"

You can read the full article here:

and another:
"Parents would be in specific violation of the treaty if they were to restrict their child from watching a pornographic video or from reading a book with objectionable content" (Article 17).

the incredible shrinking parent

also check out this news report my husband sent over to me today:

Parenting while poor, you might lose your kids

I guess in the end it's about who really knows best for children, their parents or the government?

Early Christmas

My husband got me an early Christmas gift. Ok so I kind of called him at worked and asked (begged) him if he could get this for me now as an early gift because he loves me so much... but that's beside the point. I downloaded Sara Groves new cd, Tell Me What You Know, on ITunes. Only $7.99! As has been true of all her albums this is full of wonderful melodies with creative, rich lyrics. The video to the song, Saw what I saw, on her myspace is worth a look too. It gives some background to the song that will make it come alive. It's beautiful and brought tears to my eyes. Listening to her always leaves me longing to be locked in my bedroom playing piano, singing and writing songs. Ah one day I might have time again :- ) But even if I did... I'm no Sara Groves. Check her out!

Children's Books

Shawnda tagged me to list 7+ of my favorite Children's books. This kind of coincides with a post I've been wanting to do about Taylor. She is my reader for sure. The teacher assessed her last week and she tested at a little over the middle of first grade. She is constantly reading to me, her brother or sister (if they'll sit still) and to herself.

So here are some of Taylor's favorite books to read:

Minnie & Moo go dancing (the whole Minnie and Moo series is wonderful)
Owl+ At Home- We were laughing so hard together at this book, we pretended to make our own tear-water tea. I love this author in general.
Amelia Bedelia series- again she thought this was the funniest thing ever
The Big Picture Story Bible ( she will sit and read that to herself every morning. She calls it her devotions)
My ABC Bible Verses -she will occasionally need help decoding a word but can read it herself for the most part. I love this book- it's so Gospel centered!

The three she likes to read to her siblings are:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, too?
Three Little Kittens

I'm thankful for how easy reading has come to her, it is such a joy to see her love books! I know from others experience not to expect that from all my children :-)

I'd like to tag two other mom's:
Meg and Heather

Sewing Project

Ruth and I finshed my sewing project last night. We stayed away from the sewing machine this time and she taught me the back stitch. Which surprisingly I caught on quickly and was able to contribute quite a bit to finishing it off. I loved hand sewing... I felt so feminine :-) Going to bed last night I kept dreaming of stiching front, back, front, back. The finished project looks great and I can't wait to show it off weds. night! The only problem is the subject HATES her hat. I tried it on her this morning and she cried like it was just absolutely killing her to wear it... so we'll have to see about that!





I'm already dreaming of my next project... I'm thinking possibly a personalized purse for Taylor.

Thanks so much Ruth for all your help and patience in teaching me!

Birthday, Costume's and more

Last night we went out with a group of friends to celebrate Jason's b-day. Sitting there last night I could not remember the last time we had got a babysitter to go out to dinner with friends! We have consistent date nights, and lots of ministry mtgs. but last night was a rarity. We had a lot of fun and it made me so thankful for the friends God has given us. Jason is sitting in the back right in blue.

Also this weekend I sewed for the first time in 15 years! My friend Ruth has been so kind as to help and re-teach me how to sew. Our project- a costume for Rylee. I'll save the details for when it's all finished. But here's a sneak peak. Let's just say as cute as the fabric looks it makes a mess! We were literally covered in fuzz Sunday night while sewing! I'm hoping it will stop shedding once it's all done.





I've been battling a cold for the past week and I think it's a sinus infection now. My clue was this morning as I ate breakfast I could feel my sinuses sink in for a few moments with every bite. Ouch. So after a week of trying to fight it "naturally", I'm off to to the doctor in hopes to resume normal life here soon!