Just a quick little plug...

For those of you who don't know...my dad & mom both have blogs.  For the most part they tend to write about things of a spiritual nature.  I am proud of them and thought I'd pass on the links for those who are interested.    Very insightful posts!  Please check them out and say hello...tell them Gina sent ya.  ;)

My dad's:  The Watchman Chronicles

My mom's:  Moments with Meanma

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Eden Portraits: Five Years Old

Yesterday I took Eden's annual birthday portraits.  She wasn't in much of a cooperative mood but I got a few good ones in spite of her complaints...Click HERE to view full album.

Before & After: Garden help

Pixel Perfect Blog

SOOC (Before):

After:

Taken with Canon Rebel XT  & edited in Paint Shop Pro.

Eden...my "delight"

My little Eden is five today!  At 1:40pm, five years ago...I became a mom.  We had a little party with family & friends yesterday afternoon.  I made her a castle cake; served punch & she got a few presents.  Today she had a special daddy-daughter birthday lunch with Russ at Dairy Queen.  We have spent this afternoon in our basement watching Hannah Montana & Dora the Explorer amidst thunderstorm & tornado warnings.  It is amazing how quickly she went from my baby to my big girl.  I am so proud of her...I just love her sooo much!  Happy birthday, my darling,  I hope you enjoyed your day.

Random thoughts on Personality/Temperament Profiles

So lately (in my circles) there has been a lot of personality/temperament profiling going on.  I find it all extremely fascinating & useful.  A few weeks ago my parents went to a thing at their church and took two different tests which they then brought home and had my siblings & me take.  The first of which was the Four Temperaments test.  This week, Ramee over at Raising Redheads has been talking about a personality test she took at her church that categorizes into four personality types named for colors. I took this test, too, and can see how closely these personalities types parallel each other.  From my perspective Yellow=Sanguine; Blue=Melancholic; Red=Choleric; & Green=Phlegmatic.  This week Ramee has gone through what each of these types are like in gereral terms and I wanted to link you up in case any of you were interested in such things.  Just click on the colors to go to her blog post on that type.

I am a Blue-Green (and/or) a Melancholic-Phlegmatic. (When I took the 4 temperaments test, my scores were dead even...on the color test blue was my dominate).   My Mom is a Red/Choleric.  My Dad & Sister are both Green/Phlegmatic.   Russ is a little harder to pin down...he is a fairly well balanced person, apparently, because in nearly all the tests I've had him take, (Temperaments, Love languages, etc) his scores are usually pretty evenly distributed amongst the categories.  It fascinates me.  When he took Ramee's test the other night he came out as a Green-Blue but there was only a 2pt difference between the two with Yellow coming in third, only 14pts behind blue.  He's clearly not a Red, however.

I have also within the last year re-read Kevin Lehman's Birth Order Book.  In one of her posts Ramee said that Blue is the most common type with Green coming in at a close second and I wondered if this has something to do with birth order.   It would seem as if firstborns/onlys are more likely to be Reds & Blues; Middle born children would be made up of more Greens & Blues; Last borns with more Yellows & Greens.  Thus--a higher percentage of Blues & Greens.  That is totally based on my own speculations though. I have no evidence for it.

I think that becoming more aware of your temperament/personality/giftings is a great way to be able to appreciate the differences in people and to make allowances for each other.  We tend to view other people's behavior through the lens of our own personalities/temperaments but other people do not see the world just like we do and so what works for us isn't necessarily going to work for someone else;  what offends us may not offend someone else; what pleases us may not please someone else; what God leads us to do may not be what he leads someone else to do...Understanding this is a freeing thing.  God designed us all differently and for varying purposes and we need to learn to embrace this as we work side by side for His Kingdom.

What temperament/personality type are you?  First born? Middle? Last? Only?  I'd love to hear and get to know you better through this.

I Heart Faces: "Faces & Flowers"

 

It's been 4 years!

I just wanted to mark the occasion...four years ago today (May 17, 2006), Russ & I closed on our house!!  We now have four years of home ownership behind us and many more to come!

(That's Eden in the photos!  1 year old!)

Mom & Me Monday: Mother's Day

Link

For Mother's Day we grabbed some Subway sandwiches and went to the park and had a little picnic & then I watched the girls play...very relaxing & nice.  I made sure to have Russ take some photos of me with the girls before they scampered off.

Momentous Monday

A Moment Cherished

My little Eden-girl is turning 5 in a week.  Yesterday as we sat together on the recliner we discussed what she wants her birthday cakes to be "themed" in the coming years.  This year she wants a castle cake.  Then she says, "When I turn six I want a monkey cake; when I turn seven I want a cupcake cake like Jasmine is having when she turns three, when I turn eight I want a flower cake, when I turn nine I want a butterfly cake....when I turn thirteen I want a phone cake..."  And as she went year by year, I could almost see her growing up before my very eyes...my little girl slowly becoming a young woman.  It was humbling because I know that it really will pass almost that quickly.  Already I have blinked and my 5lb 14oz baby is about to turn 5!!  I smiled at her as she talked of all the birthdays to come with a little lump in my throat and I squeezed her a little tighter and kissed her cheek a little more deliberately...soaking up her *still* four year old sweetness while I still can. 

"Your life is like the morning fog--it's here a little while, then it's gone."

James 4:14  NLT


Isn't she beautiful?

April Showers

At the end of April, I took some photos of my girls in the hats that my grandma crocheted for them, sweaters and a bubble umbrella...hoping to capture some cute "April Showers" themed pictures of them.  Because of all the photo shoots I've been doing for other people lately I hadn't had a chance to edit them until yesterday.  Here are a few from that session.  Click HERE to see more.

Even more cute things my kids have said

April 15, 2010:  I said something about going to see Seattle & Eden said, "Is that a little girl?"

April 15, 2010: Jasmine was in the van with Daddy & said "The van smells like toot."  He asked her, "Did you toot?"  "No."  "Did Acacia toot?"  "No."   "Did Woobie (her stuffed "lovey"-half bear, half blanket) toot?"  She answers, "No, Woobie isn't big [enough] to toot!"

April 17, 2010:  Eden & I were talking about how caterpillars become butterflies and I went into detail explaining that God created it that way as a metaphor for how we change from yucky sinners and are born again so that we look as beautiful to God as a butterfly looks to us because we become more like Jesus.  At that point Eden speaks up and says, "Yeah...except Jesus can't fly."  

April 22, 2010:  Jasmine said about the thunderstorm: "It just keeps laughing at me."

April 25, 2010:  Partly cloudy night...Jasmine observed, "The moon is soft."

April 26, 2010:  Jasmine was so excited to get her first pair of pink "flippy flops".

May 3, 2010:  Jasmine: "I'm not tall enough to reach the sky."

May 5, 2010:  Eden: "Our baby is cuter than other mamas babies." :)

May 7, 2010:  Jasmine: "See, Mom? The trees are naked."

May 8, 2010:  Acacia's first word-- 'Daddy' !  :)

May 9, 2010:  I kept trying to get Acacia to say "Mama" but she'd just smile at me and say, "Dada"...little stink! :)

May 11, 2010:  Eden & Jasmine came out wearing crowns and Eden told me "They gave us crowns for killing the bope." Me: "For what?" Eden: "For killing the bope." Me: "What's a bope?" Eden: "It's kind of a cow...I mean..a moose."  I was then informed that the full name of this cow-moose-like monster is a "Bope Shock" and that "they are so hard to kill!"

May 12, 2010:  Eden wasn't obeying me so (in the way of mommies) I asked her "How many times do I have to tell you?" She replied, "Two."

Before & After--"Marbles"

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Before (SOOC):

After (Edited):

I have a Canon Rebel XT and edit using Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9.

One Year Portraits: L.

I took this sweetheart's one year portraits on her birthday and she was soo cooperative.  Isn't she a sweetie? 

Senior Portraits: Tasha

A few photos from my first senior portrait session!  I had so much fun...thanks Tasha!

To see full gallery--Click HERE.

I Heart Faces: "Celebrating Moms"

To my favorite moms...

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mom--

My Mother-in-law--

My Sister-in-law, Sarah--

My Sister-in-law, Jeni--

My best friend--

And my Grandmothers--

I love you...I'm so lucky to have so many great mothers in my life!