Our 4th of July Celebration

It has been a long two weeks at the O'Brien house.  Between camp, work, and just living life we have not spent an entire day "at home."  We decided that we would have a home celebration of the 4th of July and it ended up being everything we could have hoped for and more!!

To start off our celebration, we feasted on steak, shish-ka-bobs, corn on the cob, and grilled taters and onions.  I wish that I would have taken a picture of the feast, but I didn't think about that until later.  The steaks were a beautiful rare and all the veggies we grilled to perfection.  Chris is well on his way to becoming a "master griller!!"

After the feast we treated ourselves to something we give our girls every day......a nap.  So unusual for us to rest on a day off instead of trying to cram in an agenda loaded day!  Yesterday a nap was the greatest thing we could give ourselves.  It refreshed us for our night in of celebrating.

When the girls woke up we began the actual celebrating with a pool party!!!

What would a 4th of July party be without firecrackers?! Who better than "The Man" to provide that service?  I think that he had more fun than the girls seeing how high he could get things to blow up with the use of fire crackers!  He definitely provided us                      entertainment and thankfully remained safe!  

No pool party is ever complete without snacks and s'mores!! 

The little girls snacked until their tummies were full and swam until they were wrinkled and cold from the sun going down.  Then came the anticipated fireworks show!!

This was probably one of our "biggest" fireworks.  Although we have had some rain we weren't entirely comfortable with lighting things that went more than a few feet!!

The master of the show!!!

 

A tired little face!!!!

By the end of the day, my bathroom was littered with towels, swimming suits and dirty little foot prints.  My kitchen saw some effects but not many because we used our "outdoor" kitchen.  Most importantly, my heart was overflowing with joy and love for my family.  We had such a beautiful time together keeping it simple, enjoying each other's company, and logging this as a time to never forget.  Kind of a fun mixture of emotions on July 4, 2013 knowing that this chapter in our live's is closing and new one is beginning with the much anticipated birth of our little one!!!  

But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

~Colossians 3:14-17

Happy Father's Day!!!

               Happy Father's Day to the best daddy that I could ever have wished for my children!!!
                                         

No matter what you are doing, you always seem to make time for your kids

Even making time in your day for special fun time!

 Even when everyone doesn't want to join in!  You are still there for them letting them know you care!

You are all that I ever could have asked for in a husband and more than I ever could have dreamed you would be as a dad!!!

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. 

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

~Psalm 127:4-5

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!  

My first "mother's day" with Hannah

Stealing a kiss from my sleepy Jessa

Adelyn and Mom capturing a precious

new life story beginning

 

My little kids are one of the greatest gifts that God could have ever given to me.  It is such an honor to know that He feels I am just the one to take care of them.  What a blessing to have!  My kids are the greatest reflection of me in which my actions, words, and some times thoughts come zinging back to me.  Sometimes I am very pleased, other times I can see that God needs to spend time working on correcting me--His child--so that I can help mold Godly children.  I know that I have made, and will make, many mistakes along the way.  I pray that I learn from my mistakes and that my kids will accept my humanness when they get older.  

Life as a mom has been one of the greatest challenges and adventures I have had in my life.  I can't wait for the continuing expansion of our family and look forward to many, many more happy treasured times together.

I hope that this link works.  It is an awesome song that definitely is my prayer for my children! 

Easter at the O'Briens

It has been over 2 years since I last blogged!!! I swear each year that I am going to keep up with this and I never do.  I think it is because Facebook took over.  Let's give this year a chance and see how it goes because I no longer, due to an agreement between Chris and I, Facebook on a regular basis.  I will however post these to my profile because otherwise no one would know that I have posted anything.  :) 

Anyways, I wanted to make a post about Easter.  I was running behind getting our taxes prepared, so that took priority.  Now that is done, so I can post!

I think that Easter is a majorly over looked holiday.  It gets no where near the celebration that Christmas does, yet it is the cornerstone of our faith.  Yes, Christmas is important.  It is the birth of our Savior, but the important part of the life of Christ is that He fulfilled Old Testament prophecies by dying and raising again on the third day.   That my friend is EASTER!!!

To begin preparing our minds and hearts for the day, we started 12 days ahead of time with Resurrection Eggs.  Every morning, we hid an egg and the girls had to find it.  After a short Scripture reading, they could open the egg.  Inside the egg was an item that was significant to the Easter story to help little minds start forming and committing the Easter Story to their memory and hopefully someday to cherish in their hearts.  Here are what the eggs look like:

I am not sure who had more fun with the eggs, us or the girls.  I loved watching them hunt them down, how much fun they had learning "hot/cold", and most importantly how much the eggs helped them be able to tell the Easter story!

To go along with each egg, the girls colored a page from an Easter coloring book.  I am not sure what to do with all these, because they really spent a lot of time on them.  Something I will have to think about. 




Easter morning was something really special.  We woke up early to go in to a sunrise service at the river.  I wish that I could have taken pictures but, in my opinion, it would have ruined the serenity and beautiful atmosphere to hear my camera shutter clicking away.  

Use your imagination to see the picture.  There was a cross set up on the river bank, steam rising off the curvy, flowing river, water noises trickling, birds chirping, and the sun beginning to rise over a big hill.  Absolutely breath-taking!!!  The crowd gathered was small, the Scripture and message powerful, hymns sang were beautiful.  Could not have asked for a more picture perfect Easter service.  I hope it will become one of Mullen's traditions!

After church, we drove home to enjoy a hot egg casserole that had been place in the oven before we left.  Once breakfast was over, we did our final resurrection egg as well as a traditional Easter egg hunt and baskets.  (Our kids do get baskets, however it is with full understanding that they come from mom and dad!)  Pictures of "The Hunt."

 

For lunch, Chris' parents were able to take a small break in their day and join us.  (We didn't have a "whole family" Easter as Adelyn was recovering from the chicken pox.  YUCK!!)  After lunch the girls played outside and rode their horse.  Grandpa and Grandma couldn't stay long because cows do not recognize holidays and did not take a break from calving.  :)  Kiddos went to bed early and we finished our day with the Passion of the Christ movie.  This definitely was an Easter to remember!!  I hope that we can keep the traditions that we started this year and add to them as the years go by!

"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.  Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!  Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'" ~Luke 24:1-7 NKJV