She's Growing Up On Me!!

Today is our youngest daughter Maddy's birthday!

I made her promise me when she was 4 that she

wouldn't get any bigger...

Well she has!! And I have to say that I am so very
proud of the lovely young woman she is becoming!

I am blessed to be able to be a stay at home Mom,
and have the privilege of homeschooling her.
She fills my days and my heart with delight just
being the beautiful girl God created her to be!!

Maddy has recently started a blog of her own,
which is really neat, and I think it would be great
if you guys popped over to Madcrafts to wish
her a Happy Birthday!!

It would be especially great if you became a
follower of her blog, too!!

I know she'll be thrilled!! Thank you ahead of
time for making her day even more special!
You all are the best!!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Love and Hugs,
Becky

JOY For Our Journey~SHOUT IT OUT!!!

HAPPEE MONDAY, SWEETIES!!

It is a gorgeous morning here in sunny Florida!!

And a great day to...

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God.

It is He who has made us,

and not we ourselves;

We are His people,

And the sheep of His pasture.

Psalm 100:1-3

We shout for all kinds of reasons, don't we?

We shout to cheer our kids on, we shout to one
end of the house from the other,
we shout to get someone's attention,

but when was the last time you shouted with
JOY to your Lord???

Have you ever shouted with JOY over the Lord??

If not, you really must!!!
I didn't say to, He did!!

Stand up in a room in your house, lift up
your hands and SHOUT ...

I LOVE YOU LORD!!

THANK YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE,

AND FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE!!!

I guarantee you will be flooded with exhilaration,
and more importantly,

YOU WILL BE MAGNIFYING YOUR FATHER
IN HEAVEN, AND HE WILL BE

DELIGHTED!!

May the words of our mouths and the meditations
of our hearts be pleasing to you, oh God.

HAVE A GLORIOUS WEEK, MY FRIENDS!!

HUGS,
BECKY

Move over Partridge Family...

As most of you know, my side of the family has a
week long family reunion every other year.

Well my awesome brother-in-law, Andy, has taken

on the task of loading all of my parents old slides
onto CD's and will be giving a full set to each of us
at reunion.

What a wonderful gift, Andy! Thank you so much
for your love and generosity in bringing these to us!

We also have a family website, and Andy has loaded
some of the pics on there. Here are some early years

photos of me and my sister (Andy's wife) and my

four brothers.

I'm the baby for awhile. The older boys are twins,
and my sis is just a little older than me.

Yeh, it seems that in several family photos I was
the one doing something tacky like sticking out my
tongue!!



Then along came Dougie!!
My brother Craig was the last born but isn't
pictured.






And now...are you ready for this??






Wait for it...






Wait for it...





MOVE OVER PARTTRIDGE FAMILY, BRADY BUNCH
AND ANYONE ELSE WHOSE BIG FAMILY THOUGHT
THEY WERE COOL!!!





MAKE WAY FOR THE ALLEN CLAN!!


Are we cool or what???!!!!




I absolutely loved the bell bottoms I had on.
I bought them with babysitting money, and wore
the tar out of them!! Did you you some fave bells??


Well, fast forward a bit, and here we are at Family
Reunion with Mom and Dad.




This is the last
reunion where my Mom had the presence of
mind to really enjoy herself.

The reunion coming up next month is our 3rd
without our parents who passed away in 2004.

Here is the shirt we wore for the first one we
had without them.

Our family is growing by leaps and bounds...so
many little ones will be there this year.

I know my parents would be so tickled to see
how much we all are anticipating reunion this
year. The painful grieving process has subsided,
and with all the youth, a freshness and
newness of life has been breathed into our
celebration of family!!

GOD IS SO GOOD!!

ALL THE TIME!!

GOD IS GOOD!!

Thank you for sharing these fun memories with me!!

Love and Hugs,
Becky