30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge

I love this man!

I do! I love him!

 I adore him, I am thankful for him, but yet I fail to always show that! 

A friend and I are taking the 30-Day Challenge, the Husband Encouragement Challenge

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/pdf/30DayChallenge.pdf

Will you seek to honor the head of your household, not for 30 days but for long as you both shall live? 

I do!

Pray for me, if you decide to join in, let me know so I can pray for you!

30th | Us

Here is our family for 3 celebrating Justin's 30th Birthday! 

Thank you Lord for giving me such an awesome man! May he continue to be used to bring you glory!

30 Years

Today  I shocked the daylights out of my husband by throwing him a surprise birthday party! He had no clue, probably because his birthday isn't for another 12 days or so... and I am pretty sly! 

I am thankful for an easy going husband who doesn't ask to many questions :) we celebrated with lunch at a local restaurant and cake at our place. It was family and friends that are like family!  

I am so thankful for the man that God gave me. Truly he balances me out, he keeps me on the straight and always points me to the narrow. I am thankful for a man who loves God above all and seeks to lead his family in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. For the husband God gave me I rejoice! 

Happy 30th Birthday Baby!

Update...

goodness, it has been awhile.

and man have things changed!

I was reading through my last post, the book list. I read a lot more the rest of the year but forgot most of them, that is pretty sad huh :) I can say hands down the best book I read of 2009 was

"The Gospel for Real Life" by Jerry Bridges

in a very close second was

"Becoming God's True Woman" edited by Nancy Leigh Demoss

and an awesome parenting book

"Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman

2010 has started with a bang! I am currently enjoying my Bible Reading Plan!! Woo whoo, I am on it! So far so good! I am also reading "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael" by Elisabeth Elliot and "Because He Loves" My by Elyse Fitzpatrick

I have a reading list about a mile long for 2010 but I am excited to grow in grace!

I am not even sure where to start with and update... well how about this...

We are Ozarkians :) we live in SW MO and have since the beginning of October!

God mowed down a path and called Justin as a senior pastor. We are enjoying our new church family and feel OVERLY blessed to be a part of God's work here. Ministry is never easy but Christ is sufficient!

Kyla is 2.5, wowza! She will be three in May! I cannot believe it. I am getting paid for my raising... this girl talks from the moment she gets happy in the morning (slow riser like her mamma) to the time she closes her eyes to go to sleep! It is unbelievable. I look at her and am feel the goodness of God in my life, she is such a gift. Now don't get me wrong, she is a toddler, and a two year old at that! But I am thankful for this grace in my life!

Look forward to getting into the swing of things again!!

He Loves Me

This afternoon I was sitting at the computer and Kyla was playing and I heard someone trying to get in the door. It took me a second to realize they were using a key!!! Justin was suppose to be at work and he never comes home so I wasn't sure what was going on. I peeked out the window and saw Justin's truck and decided to let him in. When I open the door he is standing there looking handsome like his normal self and has a DOZEN roses in his hands. I repeat dozen! I was shocked and not really sure what to say!

He was out running and errand and decided to take a break and buy my flowers and deliver them! Now this might be normal for most of you ladies out there but I RARELY get flowers. I think maybe 4-5 times in the 7 years we have been together. Her pretty much caught me off gaurd! Needless to say I had to go buy a vase! I wish I could send smells over the internet because they are lovely!

Here are a few pics I snapped of the beautiful red roses! I am a lucky girl (not just because of the roses!!)

KY STATE FAIR

Well we had a wonderful day at the KY state fair! We enjoyed the indoor displays in the air conditioning and made our rounds outdoors when it got a little cooler. I love fair food so I had a footlong corndog and Justin and I split a funnel cake! It was a great time! Kyla did great! Here are some photos of our fun day!

A little bit of an update!

Well I have been so wrapped up in this whole photography thing I haven't written much else!

Justin has started classes. He has Biblical Counseling and a New Testament Class! He is going to enjoy both classes. It is hard to believe that school is starting again. I finally miss school. Not so much the work as the stimulating lectures. I realie that I do not challenge myself as my classes did. That is probably something I need to work on!

Justin bought Kyla a Bible. He bought her the Jesus Storybook Bible
It is really great! Every story points to Jesus. Reading it to her is going to teach us so much about the WHOLE story! I love the illustrations aswell! She likes it for oh about 5 minutes!

The photography things is going really well. I enjoy it so much! I am learning all about my camera and shooting primarily in Manual. This weekend I have a maternity shoot, family shoot, and engagements pictures. I am still building up my portfolio so I am not charging yet. I am contemplating on the name still and trying to figure out the best options for going online! Thanks for your support and encouragement friends!

I pray all is going well in your worlds! please let me know how I can be praying for you!
~ Kara

Sunday, Father's Day!!

We are so blessed by our church family! I truly look forward to Sundays and spending time with my brothers and sisters in Christ. We have some great people at our church and God continues to bring more people! It is great!! This past week at our VBS we had an average of 64 kids there! That is incredible! We had a mission team from Missouri there who did a lot of the work. It was great! The best thing is that God is raising up people to take over ministries at our church. It is so exciting to be a part of the body of Christ where people genuinly love the Lord!!


Today is Father's Day! Justin's first as a daddy and he is soaking it up! We tried a photo shoot but that didn't work out so well! Here is one good one! Maybe more later when she is happy! What a blessing I have! A Godly husband and an amazing daughter!!

What a mistake!

Going to bed at 2:00 am was a bad idea.

I went to bed thinking "Kyla will be up soon!" so I laid there and read and tossed and turned... low and behold she decides to sleep until 4:00 am. Which was great! Would of been even better if I would of got the 6 hour stretch of sleep! Oh well, I took a nap this evening while Kyla spent time with daddy!

Tomorrow is fathers day! It is hard to believe that Justin is a father! He is a great daddy! He is completely wrapped up in his daughter! He loves spending time with her and she loves her daddy!

We are leaving on Friday to go on vacation. We are going to travel to IL on Friday night and drive to OK on Saturday. Justin is going to the Founders Conference and I am going to hang out at home with my folks and friends. It will be great fun! My mom is going to treat me to a pedicure and one day we are going to go to the zoo!!! YEA! I am looking forward to relaxing! Then we are going to Branson for a few days with Justins folks. Needless to say I am counting down the days!!!

Why am I awake!

After much time I have decided I am going to try my hand at blogging, once again!! I am going to strive to keep this going! It is 1:00 am and my daughter is asleep upstairs and has been since 10:00 pm and my husband is asleep on the couch and here I sit at the computer! Why oh why I need to be sleeping right?!? To make matters worse the tv is on a silly infomercial and I am to lazy to get up and turn it off!!!!!! This is madness!

Recently I have been challenged to become the wife that God created me to be. I realized that I was not loving my husband enough and I wasn't getting close to honoring him like I should. Conviction sunk in and I have been really challenged to shut my mouth and to be a joy to be around. (I mean who wants to be the nagging wife on the corner of the roof!!) It has been a challenge but I find myself saying much less. I am still working on the joy to be around... not to blame it on post partum hormones, but I do not feel like myself yet! Nonetheless my joy is or should be in the Lord and not my feelings!

Speaking of feelings it is amazing how much you can love someone you have known for so little time. My heart swells when I look at my daughter. I cannot believe God has given us such a precious gift! Oh how I adore the little moments with her. The laying in bed in the mornings, the funny faces she makes when she doesn't like something. It is so sweet!! Praise God for such a precious gift!