a look back on 2015

Wow...I have a lot of pictures, so forgive the length of this post, but there were so many highlights!  I'm going to be few on words and heavy on pictures...here goes.

January.

This month brought new beginnings and new traditions that we got started with the new year.  There were days when the boys were able to go to work with Todd, like on this day, when Jonah's day was made over getting to try on a real air force air traffic controller helmet.

I hit one of my best friend's car in the parking lots at church.  :(

There was hours and hours of bible study.

And unseasonably warm nights that found us eating dinner on the back porch.

February.

Teenagers were the theme for this month.  This was on the night of the super bowl, and I promise you, never have I laughed so hard at somebody.

Pranks were played and tennis shoe laces were tied into little bitty balls of tangles and fun times ensued.  

We got a tire swing for our backyard!

We had our first snow of the year.

On this night, my friend Missy and I picked up some girls and went and played pranks on some boys.  Things ended badly when shaving cream found its way on the girls (instead of the boys) and on Missy's van.  The night ended with us having to wash it all off with hot water, while trying not to kill ourselves on the ice that was everywhere.

We had an amazing weekend at DNow (Disciple Now) at church, and I ended the weekend with both types of flu, asthma, bronchitis and all kinds of problems that kept me down for the next two weeks.

March.

The first day I felt better, we had more snow predicted and my best friend made an unexpected trip to Memphis.

We celebrated Graham's sixteenth birthday and Jonah's and Noah's twelfth, and we put Graham and Drew on a plane to Guatemala for a mission trip.

While they were gone, Jonah and Noah had their party over Spring break with their best friends.  They had a major air soft gun war at my dad's house and it was so much fun!

Graham and Drew made it safely home and shared all their fun stories of their trip.  The night after they returned, Missy and I took a group of teenagers downtown for Winter Jam.

April.

I had a fun night out with some lifelong girlfriends, which was one of the highlights of this year for me.  We don't see one another often, but when we do, it's like a day was never spent apart.

Left to right are Tammy, Rene and myself.

We celebrated Drew's fifteenth birthday.

I spent tons of time with this sweet lady and we had our first road trip together, to Dallas, for a youth leadership conference.  We shared a room and we sang our favorite Christmas songs the whole time back.  We never even listened to the radio and we never ran out of things to talk about.  I adore her!  This trip together cemented our friendship, but I already knew I loved her and would forever.

We celebrated Resurrection Sunday.

And we took some teenagers to see an amazing movie~Cinderella!  I don't have that pictured, though.  Missy and I cried our way through the entire movie, and I saw spiritual pictures galore in the movie.  (How funny that tomorrow night those same girls are coming over to watch the movie again.)

May.

Drew finally owned up to the fact that he liked Emma and he asked her to be his girlfriend.

These girls started the new habit of stealing my phone and taking pictures with it.

I spent time with my sweet sister and mom on a fun day out.

Todd and I made a one night trip to St. Louis to surprise his brother for his forty first birthday, but I didn't save a picture for that either.

We laid to rest the best dog ever to have lived, Andy the Wonder Dog.

Our dear friends and neighbors made the move from here to Murfreesboro and I cried for days.

And we had camp.  Jonah and Noah had their first beach camp, and the high school went to North Carolina.

June.

We spent a good amount of time at my mom-in-love's pool.

Graham started citizen's police academy for the summer.

And we went to Street Reach!

July.

We celebrated the fourth!

We had fun as a family with four boys and a bonus.

We worked at kids camp as counselors.

And my best friend made another visit to Memphis!

Oh, and we made a trip to Murfreesboro to visit our old neighbors and dear friends.

August.

I spent some more time with teenagers, and I invited some girls over for a High School Musical movie marathon.

We went to a concert with a bunch of people performing, like Francesca Battistelli, Lauren Daigle, and Kari Jobe.  We went through Compassion International and worked.

It was hotter than Hades, but Emma and I glued our faces together for this picture.

School started back for us.

We also had some family visit from Chicago and spent a whole weekend with them.

Also in this month, I started back to choir!  That's been a major highlight of this year, too.  I've enjoyed being back and my friend Abbey joined at the same time I did.  :)

September.

My boys asked some sweet girlies to their homecoming.  We had a really fun church picnic at a park.

 I flew to Denver for my niece's wedding.

We added a new member to our family, Callie.

The older boys played on a coed soccer team from church.

And Graham and Drew attended Collierville High's homecoming.

October.

We went to a really fun concert with my sister (Toby Mac, Colton Dixon and Britt Nicole), we celebrated our nineteenth anniversary, we had a huge fabulous 50's event at church...

We went on a camping trip over Fall break...

We went glamping with our friends, Tiffany and Jeremy and the boys met the guys from Dude Perfect.  Whew!  Not to mention Halloween.

November.

There was a huge color war at church, for the youth.

Graham started courting this sweet girl, Rachel.  :)

We spent time with friends, we decorated my dad's house with Christmas lights...

We celebrated Veteran's day by going to the parade downtown.

There was a youth girl's retreat and I fractured my foot.

We celebrated thanksgiving and I saw my best friend.

And Christmas everything!

December.

Our traditions got started!  I was slowed down by being in a boot for my fractured foot, but we still enjoyed all our favorite things.  We attended the parade, had coffee house for youth at church, there was a huge choir production and we spent tons and tons of time with friends.

It's been a fun and amazing year.  I love doing these type posts, because it's a good excuse to look back on all God has done and how He has provided for us.  I look forward to a new year, though.  I always do....it's exciting, setting goals and making a fresh start.  I'm excited to start some new things with this blog in the coming year...hopefully, you'll be excited, too.

Thanks for reading my blog!  My prayer for you and your family is that your love for God abounds more and more each day and that you grow closer to Him and to those around you.

Love to all.