Day 47 of 365

Happy Halloween Ya'll!

Well I has decided early in the month that we wouldn't be celebrating Halloween this year. J is just too old (in my opinion) and T is just difficult when it comes to decisions!

The kids obviously won this battle. The final decision was made at 2:30 when Jose told me it was just wrong. That it is nothing but a fun holiday for the kids that I just needed to lighten up! So here are their last minute costumes (they decided on)!

Day 46 or 365

Never know who you will run into in downtown Savannah. Walking around City Market today Jose pointed out a NASCAR Driver to us and we were all in disbelief. Google on the phone is wonderful!
Jackson with Boris Said!

Day 45 of 365

Todays the big day!!! Whoop whoop!! Let's go GATORS!!!!!!!!

Day 44 of 365

Tristan representing at school today! Needless to say, her teacher might not be too happy with her today, seeing how she pulls for that rivalry team! HA!

(notice the Gator earings!!)

GO GATORS!

Love to all,

Day 43 of 365

Tristan came home from school today missing another tooth! WOW - Look at this mess! My Poor Baby Girl - SHE'S STILL BEAUTIFUL - but my goodness at these teeth! I pray her grown up teeth come in quickly!

Love to all,

Day 42 of 365

Tristan is still losing her baby teeth. Yesterday, she was happy that she lost another one, but WAS NOT happy at the fact that the Tooth Fairy only left her $1.00!! Can you say SPOILED!!?

Kids these days!

I see braces in the near future!

Love to all,

Day 41 of 365

Ok - WOW! I've made it to 41 days - unbelievable that I've found extra time for this! But I love it! I actually realized yesterday that I skipped a day, but I figured that will happen!! I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as me!!!!

Well not only do we have a Police Officer in our family - we now have the 'Official Gator Hunter' of Effingham County!!!

No just kidding - Jose did not actually kill this Gator. Do you really think Jose would actually harm a Gator!? Heck No! Someone else killed this BIG BOY and the boys just thought it was the best thing ever seen - so they all had to have their pictures taken with it! LOL

Love to all,

Day 40 of 365

Well today started a new adventure for my boy! He has always wanted to play the guitar...so today was his first lesson! One day he might be good!! Good luck Jackson!

Day 39 of 365

So Jackson needed some new school uniform pants cause his ones from last winter were about 4 inches too short. Needless to say him and Jose will never be able to wear the same size pants!!!!

Day 38 of 365

Two of my favorite, smart, beautiful, adopted daughters going to the Homecoming Dance.
Love these two! Praying the Lord watches over them and protects them tonight!

Day 37 of 365

Me and my mini me soccer pro!!

Day 36 of 365

As most of you know I run on a, some what, regular basis. All depending on my mood, the weather outside, or how lazy I'm feeling that particular day. Today a co-worker brought me a box of 'Women's Ultra Mega Active' Vitamins. She stated that she couldn't take them because they made her feel too jittery. Well knowing how jittery I am on a daily basis, I'm not sure that I need supplements. Also, knowing that I already take plenty of other supplements for all of my wonderful aliments. I'm kind of leery about this.

So I'm asking all of my 'Health Fanatic' Friends to give me some advice on this? Well these vitamins miracly make me feel better on a daily basis?

Will I have more energy - but still be able to sleep at night?

HELP!

Love to all,

Day 35 of 365

The note I found on T's dry-erase board in her room!
Love this girls heart!

Day 34 of 365

Well we had our family church picture taken for the church directory the other day. It was such chaos I'm surprised by the outcome!

I think its a great picture but Jose seems to think only Tristan and myself look good!

Judge for yourself!!!!!

Love to all,

Carrie

Day 33 of 365

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week! It usually consists of a long Sunday nap after church - which are the best- but today was different! I had the honor if hosting a first time mom (first shower) baby shower for a young friend of mine today! The preparing and planning is always fun....but by the end you are wore slap out!
Good thing I had Tristan home helping me prepare! Here she is 'shredding' the chicken for chicken salad!

Good Luck Monica....we can't wait to meet baby Ansleigh!

Love to all,
Carrie

Day 32 of 365

WOW!!! Casting Crowns is amazing! You can feel Jesus working and opening hearts in here tonight! If you don't know Jesus...you don't know what your missing! He can change you and it can be today!

I'm so thankful we came to this tonight! And I am so proud to say that I LOVE JESUS AND I WILL LIVE MY LIFE FOR HIM!

Love to all,
Carrie

Day 31 of 365

Fall festival at school!

Tristan with her BFF Skylar!

Love to all,
Carrie

When God Made You

My new FAVORITE SONG!!!



Love to all,
Carrie

Day 30 of 365

I'm so excited Jose brought us Casting Crown tickets home! Can't wait!

Day 29 of 365

My fears are overflowing tonight along with my tears. It's like someone has opened the flood gates and the tears won't stop.

Today I have to express how Thankful I am for my husband. I am so proud of him and all the hard work he does everyday. No one will fully understand how much I love him. No our life nor marriage has been perfect but where it is right now its perfect in my eyes! My love grows and grows everyday for him!

People always ask me "how I do it" how do I sleep at night being married to a cop. I've always been then type to make jokes out of it or just pushed my fears away.  But tonight - after seeing his video on the news - I'm scared to death. These fears are real. Some of you might not ever understand.

I just come to all tonight for prayers. Someday I pray so much I feel God gets tired of hearing me. Please pray for my husbands (and the brothers in blue) safety! Also,  please pray for my fears to subside and for me to fully trust in God in protecting him! Honestly I'm scared to death...I'm so scared of losing him!

I LOVE THIS MAN!!! GOD PLEASE PROTECT HIM!

Field of Faith

TONIGHT 7:00 pm

South Effingham High School

Field of Faith

Come to SEHS to hear students share their testimonies, and challenge each other to read the Bible and grow in their faith.

Field of Faith is sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes BUT you DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN ATHLETE TO ATTEND THIS EVENT. EVERY, student, parent and community member is invited to come and rally together. A rally that can change our culture and impact you and your students life!

This is something our Students, Parents and COMMUNITY NEEDS RIGHT NOW! Let's come together AS ONE! Come tonight and see God work!

I hope to see some of ya'll there!

Love to all,

Carrie

Day 28 of 365

A VERY rare occasion caught on film! My kids actually getting along (don't hold your breath it won't last long) and playing UNO.

Love these rare moments!

Day 27 of 365

Happy Columbus Day! It's always great to have a holiday from work! Seeing how it was such a rainy and gloomy day...we spent our day inside watching movies and napping.

In fact I caught Jackson....

(with Zoe and Jake)!!!!

God Bless,

Carrie

Day 26 of 365

Yesterday's post failed and for some reason didn't publish! So this was Sundays project.

I hate carving pumpkins....too messy and they mold too fast. So we painted some pumpkins this year!

Juliet (T's friend) - painted a pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness
Tristan - a great big smiley face
Jackson - a baseball with L6S in the middle to represent Logan Shelton
Me - a ghost and a pumpkin "R"

We had fun!

God Bless,

Carrie

Day 25 of 365

My project for the day!

With the help of by 12 year old neighbor and Tristan we completed MY first diaper cake. Not so bad for a first timer!

God Bless,

Carrie

Day 24 of 365

Our very own SWAT team! Watch out criminals!!

God Bless,

Carrie

Day 23 of 365

The sweetest lil face.......

Love my Bella girl!

God Bless,
Carrie

Day 22 of 365

Dinner date night at The Rusty Pig, in Rincon. If you haven't eaten there, its YUMMY!

Don't try to get one of his ribs....he will bite!

Day 21 of 365

God's beautiful creation!

What a weekend

(The 'Chalet' where our room was located)

Boy I don't even know where to begin. As you are aware, Jose and I (with our dear friends Dan & Dana Flood) went to a marriage retreat this past weekend in Mt. Berry, Georgia. It was a true experience! We got to spend our time "together" with no distractions, no negativity and no media clutter! Winshape Retreat was an amazing experience. They make it a place for a couple to unwind and to reconnect your love for each other and with God. The ministers Jeff & Debby McElroy where absolutely amazing. They shared visions of marriage that were very down to earth. You think your marriage is different, weird or falling apart - well actually it's not - it's just a normal marriage!

(in the Dining Hall waiting on dinner)

If only, Jose and I would have known about this place a couple of years back when our marriage was on the rocks and when we didn't center it around The Good Lord. We've learned that it takes more than just the 2 of us to make this marriage work. IT TAKES GOD! And without God in our marriage it was a big mess and nothing but battle after battle or struggle after struggle! Of course, we still have those struggles, but now we know how to get through them together by handing them over to God! No our marriage is not perfect, there is not a perfect marriage, but the more and more we grow closer to the Lord the more our marriage gets stronger!

Not only did we learn how love each other, we also learned how to be better Christian parents. WOW, now that was a real eye opener! Parenting is not an easy job. Our kids did not actually come with instruction manual, but if you read the Bible and follow God's word on how to raise HIS children it should make it a lot easier! We are starting off by trying some new tactics that were taught to us this weekend! Hopefully, we can now put all of our learnings to the test and become better Lovers, better Christians, and better Parents!

(at the TOP of the mountain - after a 2 hour bike ride getting there)

A verse the McElroy's left us with is......

Philippians 4:8

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

They told us to apply this verse to our marriage every day. Dwell on this verse and your mind shape shall change to loving and respecting your spouse the way God tells us to!

Love to all,

Carrie

P.S. If you ever get a change to attend a retreat at Winshape - let me just tell you IT IS WORTH IT!

Day 20 of 365

Fall has arrived in Savannah and hopefully it's here to stay! While Jose and I were on our mini trip the kids stayed with my Mom and Dad and had a good time (as always)! They obviously had a little arts & crafts day, because the kids came home with some adorable candle/pumpkin deocrations. They look so cute and the kids are so proud of them!

HAPPY FALL YA'LL!

Love to all,

Carrie

Day 19 of 365

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY TO THE PRINCESS OF THE RAMIREZ FAMILY!

God has blessed us with such a fun loving, creative, beautiful, God Loving daughter! We adore every minute we have with her! Thank you God for Trusting us to raise your beautiful child! Happy Birthday Tristan Abigail Ramirez!
We LOVE you so very very much!!!!

Love to all,

Carrie

Day 18 of 365

WOW what an amazing weekend. So very sad tomorrow is the last day of our marriage retreat. Winshape Retreat in Mt. Berry Georgia is beautiful! If your marriage needs some encouragement....understanding...communication skills....or some spiritual healing I highly recommend this!

Walking all over the campus is natural beauty and wildlife. Jose wishes he could hunt here...HA!

Love to all,
Carrie