Family Pics

Here are some more pictures from our vacation to Florida in May. I hadn't seen this part of my family since I was about 8 or 9. This picture is of Nathan and his 15 yr. old cousin Rochelle. I hadn't even seen here since she's been born! Nathan fell in love with her! All he kept saying when we left was, "I miss my cousin, I miss my cousin!"
This is my grandmother's sister, who is 83. I loved getting pictures of the boys with her! She is so beautiful, and it was wonderful to get Samuel's picture with his great aunt!

Our Garden

Many of you have been asking how our garden is coming along. I am pleased to say, wonderfully! For the most part, everything has done extremely well. I lost my basil thanks to an ant farm, and we had to replant our zucchini, but other than that, God has been gracious to us! Here are some pictures of the yummy produce that we've picked!Here is a picture of our sunflowers. Now some of them are taller than Michael!
And here are a couple of pictures of the boys playing Ninja with their daddy ( on our bed I might add). Oh the joy of raising boys! sorry the picture is a little fuzzy. It was hard for them to stay still!
Well, off for now! I'm actually pretty awake at this hour so I'm feeling a housecleaning frenzy coming on....maybe?

Finally!!!!!!!!

OK! To all four of you who read our blog, here are some new photos, finally! Just taken tonight I might add! Things have been going pretty well here at the Lilly house. Tired of course, but I've come to realize that that is just a state of being at this stage in our life. Our 7 year anniversary is coming up on Monday, so we are excited to celebrate! It's amazing what all has changed and what all God has done in our lives the past 7 yrs. We have been through some trials and many,many blessings. And we have 2 sweet boys to prove it!
So off for now! Enjoy the photos miss tracee and jessie! I love ya'll!!!!
Here is one of our delicious cucumbers! I've already decided to plant more next year, the boys are eating them as fast as they're coming in!Here are some pictures of us fishing tonight. Mommy caught the biggest fish of the night!And here are some pictures of our sweet boys just having fun!

florida vacation

Here are my sweet boys all ready to get on the plane to go visit Mimi and Pap-Pap in Florida. This was their first time flying, so I was a little nervous about how they would do. Samuel didn't have a ticket, so he sat in our laps during the flight. Thankfully, we had a layover in Atlanta, so we had 2 short flights instead of 1 long one. The boys did so well!!! I couldn't have asked for anything better. Nathan even got to go into the cockpit after a couple of our flights and talk to the captain(you know he's so shy, hahaha). Here's a picture of him when we landed in Florida.
We had such a good time. I saw family that I hadn't seen since I was 7 or 8. Needless to say they were shocked when I walked through the door with my husband and 2 little boys! We ate some great seafood, went to the beach, and got to go to an awesome science museum that Nathan loved! Our time together flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to go home. But we made some memories that will last a lifetime! Here are some more pics of our vacation...to see all of our vacation pics , you can go to walmart.com and click on photo, email address michael.lilly@sebts.edu, password nathan, and it's the most recent photo album. Enjoy!

Summer here we come!

This is the time of year where I swear my children are going crazy. I don't know if it's something in the air or what, but they have so much(sometimes too much) energy. I love to watch how they discover things. Our garden is coming along, the boys have really enjoyed watching the plants come up every day. We always go out to see "what's new" in the garden. It's also been an awesome teaching tool, not only about patience and hard work, but also about God's creation. I love this time of year, everything seems so new and clean and beautiful. We've been going over God's creation in our family devotion time with the boys, it's amazing how much they remember! Even Samuel is picking it up a little. We'll say "Samuel, on the first day of creation, God said, 'Let there be...'"
and he will respond "Wite!!!"(light). It's so amazing watching them grow each day. Samuel was 2 years old on the 7th. How time flies. It seems like he was just born yesterday! I'm sure I'll still be saying that when they have children of their own!
Michael's last day of class was today. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Out for the summer! We always breathe a sigh of relief this time of year, and I know our boys look forward to seeing their Daddy more!
Well off for now, a new episode of Lost is about to come on (pathetic, I know, but I'm addicted).
Here are some pics of our garden and the boys picking strawberries a couple of weeks ago!
Enjoy!

Backyard Boys

Here's a quick update on our family. Our latest project we've been working on is our garden in our backyard. Here are some pictures that were taken last week. We're planting everything in a couple of days, we've had some rain this weekend, so the ground has just been tilled up now. The boys are currently using it as one big construction site with their excavators and dump trucks, so we're going to be having a big talk once everything has been planted!
They are getting so big. I love to watch them interact. They definitely have their moments, but for the most part they get along very well and love each other so much!
Michael is about to wrap up another semester at the seminary. The Lord has been so gracious to us, providing for our every need. We are continuing to pray about direction and guidance for when Michael graduates. It seems that the doors are opening up for us in the area of church planting out west. Michael is supposed to have a meeting with our pastor in a couple of weeks, and also a meeting with one of his professors. We've had more direction in the last month then we've had in the almost four years we've been down here. The Lord has perfect timing. The verse keeps coming to my mind about how the Lord directs our steps. He has a perfect plan for us and I'm so excited!
I'm still working a day or two a week in Labor and Delivery.As much as I hate to be away from my boys, I enjoy helping families welcome new life into the world. It is truly a miracle, and I'm so blessed to take part in it.
Well off for now, I need to go fix my hungry little men lunch!

God is Faithful

This has been one tough week. Last Monday Samuel and I came down with a nasty stomach virus, then Nathan got it, then Michael. I thought by Tuesday night that we were getting semi-well, but when Samuel woke up Wed. morning I knew things were different. The nurse and the mommy in me knew he was getting too dehydrated and something had to be done, so I took him to the ER where we spent 8 lovely hours getting him hydrated and waiting on him to pee. But despite all of this, God was/is faithful. Samuel was such a champ, things could have been so much worse. God also gave me the strength and stamina I needed to be there for Samuel, despite just getting over it the night before. There were so many people praying, and I could feel it! God's peace reigned over the entire day. God is faithful! We had so many plans for this week, but I'm reminded of the verse that says our plans are many, but the Lord directs our steps! He had a purpose for us to experience all this, and though we may never know it, His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We trust Him to take care of us! We are much better now, just still getting our strength back, and looking forward to jumping back into our schedule this week!