Springtime!

Springtime is my very favorite season!  I love the warmer temps, the green grass, the trees and flowers blooming and just the reminder of new life everywhere!

As I'm writing this post, I realize Spring is almost over and we are heading quickly into the summer season.  It's been a busy springtime for us and thankfully has included many good times.  So I wanted to post a few pictures for future documentation of what we've been doing.

The middle of April, Jeff realized that his beloved cat of over 16 years, Rascal, was dying.  The vet had diagnosed throat cancer.  So Andy, Carman, Laine and Rachel came up to visit and see the family cat one more time. 

Here is a picture of Laine and Rascal on the day of their visit......

I had bought this cute little TuTu outfit for Laine, so we had to try it on

Papa and Dede with their girl

Papa reading to the Bug

One more pic of the outfit and her other Easter gifts from us

On the following Monday, Jeff did take Rascal to the vet to have him put to sleep.  It was a tough day for my hubby.

Two weeks later, we celebrated Laine's first birthday.  Such fun!!  Laine with Mom and Dad...

These pictures aren't in order...sorry.......she loved her cake.  It was her first bite of something sweet!

This was a little chair we got her.

And another toy that we thought would help her in her walking progress.

It looks like she is saying, I'm "1"......

Erika had found a kitten for Jeff and so the kids presented it to him at Laine's birthday party.  The kitty has settled in quickly in our home.  His name is "Tiger"

I love this picture of Aunt Ray Ray and Laine

The next weekend was Mother's Day.  Rachel has always made a special effort all these years to spend the weekend with me, which I'm so appreciative.  Our church hosted it's annual Mother's Day Banquet.  Was so glad to have Mom and Rachel with me.

And also my cousin Holly and my Aunt Freda

And then the next week, Mom and I went to NWA.  She joined Kaye & Rob at the Lakehouse to celebrate the graduation activities of Matt (Kaye's son).

I stayed with Andy & Carman and watched Laine while Carman prepared for a garage sale that she and Rachel had on Saturday.  It was crazy weather for May - cold and rainy.  But they still had a pretty good sale!

BRRR

We also attended the cookout to celebrate Matt graduating.

Today was predicted by some guy to be the day that Jesus would rapture Christians from the earth. It has been quite the topic of conversation on the news, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Well, as much as I would love for that to be true, I must stand on God's Word and it says "no man knows the day or hour" (Matt. 24 and Mark 13).  I am ready whenever that moment comes and I pray that you are too!  Please click on this link to Jeff's website with step by step instructions on how to be ready!  It will be the very best decision you ever make!!

http://www.jeffswart.com/Christian.aspx

Happy Springtime to each of you!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

On this Mother's Day 2011, I wanted to post a special tribute to my Mom, Dorothy Boore.  Mom, thank you for being such a wonderful mother and grandmother!!  Almost daily, I thank the Lord for my godly heritage.  I am so blessed to have had a Father and a Mother who loved the Lord and loved each other for over 50 years until God took Dad home.  Thank you for taking me to church every week and setting the right example of love and commitment in our home.  I am forever grateful!!  Thought I would do a little photo journey down through the years.........

Mom and Dad on their wedding day, June 26, 1949 at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, rural Girard, where Mom is still an active member.

Sadly, their first child, a son, Dewayne Edward, died just a few hours after birth (in 1951).  Then I was born in 1953:

 Boy, Mom, what a skinny waisteline you had!!

Then there were two.....Beverly Jean was born in 1956

 And then there was three and we were complete....Kaye Lynn was born in 1961.

Not sure of the year of this family photo - maybe 1971

This was taken at Mom and Dad's 25th Wedding anniversary in 1974.  Yes Jeff was a part of the family then.

 I'm not sure of this one either - possibly late 70's or early 80's.

And then our family grew as we married and had children of our own.....Kaye had 2; Beverly had 2 and I had 3.

This family picture was taken in 1999 when we all gathered in Girard for Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary (our last family picture before Dad passed away in 2000).

In the past 11 years, we have grown and grown.  This was one of the rare times that WE were all together - 2007 in Bella Vista, Arkansas at the lakehouse for Christmas.

This was in 2009, but some of the family was missing.

And now Mom is a great grandmother to 6 little ones -- with one more on the way in the fall of 2011!  And so, we continue to grow and grow and grow :-) !!  Mom has been a wonderful grandma and now great grandma to all of our kiddos!

Bev, Kaye & I (and our husbands) have been especially blessed with several wonderful family trips that Mom has provided for us.  The first was a 10 day, 5 island Hawaiian Cruise in May of 2002.  Don and Jeff as well as Don's parents, Peggy & Wesley Ferrell joined us on this cruise.  Hawaii is beautiful!

Didn't get a group picture, but here is one of Mom and us girls......

Then in 2004, we took my favorite of all trips - a 12 day whirlwind Trafalgar Bus Tour of Europe.  My aunt and uncle, Marvin and Judy Boore and Don's mother, Peggy Ferrell also joined us.  Kaye had married Rob Harkness earlier that year and we loved having him now as part of our family.

We visited Rome,Venice, and Italian Lakes District in Italy; Lucerne, Switzerland; Paris and London, England.  It was so neat watching the Royal Wedding this week and remembering we were there!  Mom in front of the Eiffel Tower (we all loved the Tower!)

 The only group picture we got this whole trip (doggone it!).....on the veranda of a church in Rome.

Then in 2007, we took a 12 day Northen European Cruise.  Don's folks, Peggy & Wesley Ferrell joined us for this trip too (wonderful Christian people who make great traveling companions!).  We made stops at the ports of each of these cities:  Amsterdam, Holland, Copenhagen, Denmark, Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland, St. Petersburg, Russia, Tallinn, Estonia, and Klapieda, Lithuania.

Here we are on the deck of our beautiful cruise ship:

A picture of Mom with us girls and our spouses:

For Mom's 80th birthday in 2009, she wanted to go to Pennsylvania to see "Behold The Lamb" at the original Sight and Sound Theatre in Strasburg, PA.  While there, we visited the Amish country around Lancaster, PA and did some touring of our American heritage in Philadelphia.

In front of Besty Ross's home.  Rob took the picture..........

Our last family trip was this past October, 2010.  We did a 10 day Fall Foliage Northeast Trip.  Wow, did we ever see some beautiful scenery.  We began in Boston, Massachusetts where we toured the city where our country began, then traveled thru Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and ending the trip with 4 days in New York City!  Loved it all!  Here is a pic of the family at the beautiful Mt. Washington Hotel/Resort in New Hampshire. 

And here is one of us getting ready to board a ferry to go out to see the Statue of Liberty in New York. 

I've told you before, Mom - but THANK YOU over and over for the wonderful memories we have created on all these trips!

Two final pictures....Mom and her girls, again at the Mt. Washington Hotel last fall.....

And my most recent picture of Mom holding Lainey-Bug (my granddaughter) last Saturday at Laine's 1st birthday party!

I LOVE YOU, MOM!! 

HAPPY, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lainey-Bug

Twelve months ago today, we were blessed with one of life's greatest gifts!! A grandchild!! We had waited a long time to become grandparents and yes, we are very much your typical grandparents: "head over heels in love" with this granddaughter! Laine Virginia Swart was born to our middle child, Andy & wife Carman on April 26, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. weighing 7 lbs, 6 ozs., and was 19" long. Hearing that first cry outside the hospital door brought tears to our eyes and it was a very long 45+ minutes until we finally got to see her and hold her. Here is Papa and DeDe and that precious bundle of joy a short time after birth! Some friends of the kids brought this bunny to her at the hospital and I tried to get monthly pictures with it, but didn't do a real good job. But here she is about 18 hours old.

And an hour or so later when we dressed her all up :-)

Her momma, Carman, has done a great job of getting monthly pictures of her and writing monthly posts on her blog (http://carmanandandy.blogspot.com/). The following pictures are ones that Carman used for her blog:

Last month for the sign :-)

Nine Months......
Ten Months......
Eleven Months.......
And One Year Old!!! (doesn't seem possible!)
We are celebrating with a family birthday party on the 30th. Can't wait to see her reaction to her first bite of cake and ice cream!

Thank you, Lord, for giving us this precious little girl to love and watch grow. Our daily prayer is that she will bring joy to all who know her, that she will grow healthy and normal, that she will be protected from harm and evil people and most importantly that she will trust Jesus as her Savior at an early age!

WE LOVE YOU, SWEET LAINEY-BUG!!! HAPPY, HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, BABY DOLL!!

Holy Land 2011

It seems the days have been so busy since returning from Israel two weeks ago tomorrow and I apologize for being so slow in blogging about it. Today is Good Friday and two weeks ago today, we were right there at Calvary and in the Garden Tomb, where Jesus was crucified and then buried. WOW!

Jeff with Golgotha/Calvary in the background: Jeff & I at the tomb of Jesus. This is the caption I put on the picture of the tomb on Facebook:

After General Gordan called attention to the rocky hill he thought was Calvary, excavations were made nearby and a garden was discovered and a tomb in the garden (1867). It is believed by many that this garden tomb is the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, where Christ was buried (Mt. 27:57-60; Mk. 15:42-46, etc.). After its discovery, the Garden Tomb was carefully excavated and all material collected was shipped to the Scientific Association of Great Britian. Every part of the debris in the tomb has been analyzed and NO trace of human remains were discovered (because our Savior didn't decay there - HE AROSE three days later!). Praise the Lord!
It was another amazing trip and such a joy to travel with this great group of folks. We laughed together, we learned together, and at times we cried together as we pondered all that occurred in this Holy Land!! Since the majority of my blog readers are also my Facebook friends, you have seen my "hundreds" of pictures, so I will take a shortcut here and just post the one group picture and maybe if life so slows down some, I will get additional postings written.

Thank you to each one that traveled with us, for being such a joy to get to know and for your positive attitude and encouragement along the journey!!

Jeff hopes to take another group in a couple of years, so if you are interested, please let us know! There are not words to describe what it is like to be in the land where Jesus walked, taught, lived, and died! It is an incredible experience and one you will never forget!

Yes, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming - Hallelujah!!



HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

Goodness, time sure passes us by quickly. It's been almost two months since I last posted. And it's been almost a month since I've seen this baby girl. We are looking forward to a visit early next week! This was a very cute photo shoot that Carman, Andy & Laine did recently, so am posting 3 of my favorites. There were many other great ones.

This picture was from my last visit which was the end of February.

And I love this video of her laughing. She was actually laughing a lot more prior to the start of the video, but seeing Momma and the video camera caused her to become distracted.

We will be celebrating a first birthday very soon. Just doesn't seem possible. What joy this precious baby girl has brought to us!