102nd Floor Please.

Our first "tourist" spot was the Empire State Building.  It ended up being just as helpful as our map.  We had a visual of how the city was laid out & which direction was North vs. South.  (But don't think the visual replaced our map the rest of the trip...bc the map was with us 24/7! :)

We stayed until just past sunset.  The wind was really strong & as soon as the sun went down so did the temperature...fast!  It was incredibly romantic & I was lucky to be there with the love of my life!

A view of Central Park.

Times Square.  (See the glowing pink ball?!?)

  Financial district &  Statue of Liberty off to the right.

Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.

A memory of a lifetime!  Tomorrow is Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island.

Rachel

New York, New York

Earlier this month Bferg had a business trip that had him directly across the Hudson River from NYC & the trip just happen to fall the week after my birthday.  So, we dropped the girls off at my parents & hit NYC the weekend before his meetings started.  It was SO much fun!  We had a blast & cannot wait to go back!  This post is from our first day in the city & some of the sights just from walking the streets.

Radio City.  Home to the Rockette's.

Rockefeller Center where the tree had literally JUST been delivered.   (The branches are still bound...those aren't gaping holes!)

Rockefeller Center.  (Iceskating Rink is right below us.)

A view of the tree & the actual Rockefeller building.

St. Patrick's Cathedral.  (The shadow was awful it hides the beauty of the church.)

More St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The New York Public Library.

 From here we headed to the Empire State Building where we stayed until sunset.  (Insert sigh...it was SO romantic!)  Pictures of that tomorrow!

Rachel

Psalm 118:1

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good & His love endures forever."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rachel

{give thanks}

Happy Thanksgiving!  I love Thanksgiving!  It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I am thankful for so very much this year, but today's post I would like to focus on my Bferg.  I love him with my whole heart!  He is my best friend & companion for life.  He leads our family spiritually, he is loyal to a fault, loves me unconditionally & is an amazing Daddy to our girls!  (And if I may say so...he is so very handsome!)

Bferg: Thank you for all that you do for our family.  Thank you for your devotion to God first & me second.  You are leading us on a path of life that will leave a deep and real spiritual heritage for our family.  I am so honored to be your wife!  I love you!

"Let your relationship with your spouse point you to what you really need most of all: God's love & active presence in your life."  G. Thomas


Rachel

PS.  The pictures are from our NYC trip last week.  A little sneak preview!!!!

~Tasty Tuesday~

When it comes to the Thanksgiving meal I like my cranberries straight up traditional.  I use the recipe straight from the back of the Ocean Spray bag of fresh cranberries.

Whole Cranberry Sauce
1 Cup of Water
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Package of Cranberries

Bring water & sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add cranberries & return to boil.  Reduce heat & boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour into a bowl, cover & cool completely at room temperature.  Refrigerate until time to serve.  

Enjoy & Happy Thanksgiving!
Rachel
   

Glorified Satisfaction!

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." ~John Piper

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday this week my heart is full of gratitude.  Gratitude to my GOD who has blessed me with more than I could ever hope or dream.  Deep seeded gratitude that points my whole being back to HIM.  

God receives the most glory from me when I am most satisfied in Him!  In John Piper's book, The Dangerous Duty of Delight, he words it perfectly by saying, "This is the best news in the world.  God's passion to be glorified & my passion to be satisfied are not at odds."  (Page 20.) 

Today I am using "satisfied" as a synonym to "thankful".  I am so very satisfied in the life that God has given me.  So very thankful.  My life, like most, has been marked with happiness, trials, joys, sufferings, blessings, growth points & more blessings full of joy.  (Not necessarily in that order.)  When we live a life that is marked by faith then we live it with risk & risk will almost always involve a trial (or twenty) but its in these "growth points" where we learn more about Christ than ever before.  It is where we begin to look & live more like Him!

Be satisfied in your life because when we are; we are most satisfied in Him.  When we say we are "very thankful for ______" we are essentially saying we are so very satisfied with God's blessings in our life.  James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father...."


Be Satisfied!
Rachel

{Sisters One Year Ago}

I love looking back at our old pictures.  LOVE it!  I stumbled across some taken almost a year ago to the date & thought I would share them.  My what changes come in a year's time....

Aubrielle Raye

Lily Katherine

 I am so blessed to call these precious girls my daughters.  They fill my heart & our home with so much joy & laughter.  They teach me & mold me more than they will ever know.  I love them to pieces!  My desire is for them to grow in the Lord, one day give their lives to Him fully, live for & love like Him.  I pray this for them daily.

Take the time to thank God for your little blessings!
 Rachel

A Little Catch Up

On October 19th little Miss Aubrielle said "GOODBYE" to her cast!  Goodbye baths in kitchen sink.  Goodbye press-n-seal & WalMart sacks.  Goodbye little pink weapon.  (She did manage to whack us all with it at least once.  And although we knew it was accidental, we did catch her choke holding Lily with it & we were pretty sure that was intentional!)  
She really was a trooper through the whole thing.  She only complained once that she didn't want it anymore & that statement came the last week she had to wear it.  She was put on restricted play for two weeks (no playgrounds, hanging, jumping off of objects, etc....) but that was up yesterday so she is back at it full swing!
I am trying not to be the token "Paranoid Mom"~ but thankfully the weather has turned colder so going to the playground isn't first on our list of things to do these days.  I do find myself saying, "Watch her arm" from time to time...but I think that is allowed.  After all, I am the Mom.
Here are some pictures from when we got home from getting her PINK accessory cut off.

All healed!

Guess who had to get in on the action!

The little grimace is coming from trying to straighten her arm.  It took almost 2 weeks to get full range of motion back.

 I am really thankful that it was only 4 weeks in a cast & that she did so well with it all.  She continues to teach me so much everyday!

Rachel

My Bug-A-BOOs!

 Happy Halloween!

I know that today is Tuesday...but I wasn't able to blog yesterday so Tasty Tuesday is getting replaced by our Halloween Weekend Festivities!  My two little bugs got to go to Aunt Lindsey's first grade class to start off Friday morning.  We ate, played games & successfully got a sugar high by 10 a.m. but it was SO much fun!

My Bugs~a little timid to get in on the action.

Aunt Lindsey was Dopey from Snow White.  (All the 1st Grade teachers were Snow White characters.)

 Later that afternoon I loaded up the bugs & buzzed off to Daddy's work to trick~or~treat & play more games.  Aubrielle had a blast & kept exclaiming, "This is awesome!"  Sugar high #2 was achieved but once again...it was a lot of fun.  (Plus Daddy liked showing off his little bugs!)

Waiting to ride the "al-igator" up to Daddy's office.

Pumpkin Bowling with AXE products.

Then on Sunday we met up with friends who have kids almost the same ages as our bugs & we trick~or~treated around the subdivision.  The kids had a blast & honestly us parents did too.  I love seeing my kids having fun & nothing beats ringing a doorbell just to be rewarded with candy in your bucket!  The smiles were huge & the buckets were full!

Ready to go....

Aubrie & Gabby...SO excited to get started!

Lily trying to figure out exactly how it all works.

Lily & Peter Michael resting their little legs for a while.

Home after the fun. (Please note: Lily has a sucker & Aubrielle has chocolate around her mouth!)

 Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  My two little bugs certainly did & they both slept like rocks that night!

Rachel