Investing in Eternity: February 2013

My life is SO rich because 1st of all the Daddy that Jesus gave me! Long before I knew who I was, Jesus chose to put me in the Edgar A. Bryan family. I'm eternally grateful!

I love your laugh!

Thank you Daddy for loving Jesus first
Thank you Daddy for loving our Moma as close to 1st as you can get and still keep God 1st!=)
Thank you for loving we kids ALL THE SAME, never playing favorites and doing an amazing job at loving us for who we are in spite of our strengths and weaknesses, not because of them
Thank you for loving our mates just like your own kids
Thank you for loving serving Jesus and making wanting to serve God CONTAGIOUS
Thank you for your humble spirit, never being too big to back up and ask our forgiveness.
Thank you for your knowledge. (In spite of how we like to tease you about all the details=)
Thank you for your giving spirit!
Thank you for standing up for Holiness and never being wishy-washy!

I'm soooooo blessed!

Then over 22 years now, Jesus brought this most wonderful man into my life! I couldn't ever have asked for better. When we said, "For better for worse"... I've only ever gotten the "FOR BETTER" PART!

Sweets, I love you!

Thank you for loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!
Thank you for loving me so close to 2nd after God that you can still make me feel like I'm 1st!!! =)
Thank you for loving our kids and being the most.amazing.father.EVER!
Thank you for all your wisdom. I'm constantly impressed and amazed!
Thank you for your leadership in our home
Thank you for your quiet confidence
Thank you for being YOU and allowing us to be US and loving us still
Thank you for always standing up for God wherever you find yourself serving Him

Again, I say, I am sooooo blessed!

Some years ago a Southern Gospel song came out entitled, "We Just Need a Few Good Men" Though some would agree with me that the words would not all be very deep, the thought has blessed me often for how thankful I am for the Godly men that God has placed in my life.

And these two special men God has placed in my life, share a birthday each year!
Happy Birthday to you both!!!! Thanks Daddy for allowing us to share your birthday's together a few weeks back! Sorry, I only have this poor pic to prove it!

Dinner out at a Chinese Restaurant!

We like to jokingly say they are "twins" separated by only Twenty-Six years. =)
Daryl has gotten to have a birthday ~~week~~... uh make that WEEKS!!!! Life was too busy and our schedules going in too many different directions to make things all happen on his actual B-day, so we're still dragging things out and it's FUN!


Heart-Shaped Brownies!

The Flings, missionaries to Peru home on furlough, stopped by the night of Daryl's actual B-Day and sang a Spanish birthday song to him... so sweet but I failed to get the pic!
The following Thursday our dear friends came over to work on helping lay tile.

"U.Daryl's little helper"

The sweet story is this. Sean got a ratchet tool set for Christmas earlier this year, when he opened it, his 1st reaction was, "Oh Good, Now I can go help U. Daryl fix up his house!" Too sweet! we were just able to finally make it happen a couple wks back. When he got here though, he was sad b/c he had forgotten his tools. But U. Daryl had a solution to that problem and told him he could borrow his tools. Here they are laying the last bit of tile in our kitchen area! Sean is a good little worker!

Here's a couple other "helpers" that wanted to get in on the work!

Served a simple Chicken Taco Salad and then this yummy dessert since it was Valentine's Day too! =)

Long story, but having work done in our Haus so needed to keep supper as simple as possible, (since I don't have a kitchen right now)... but with it being Valentine's Day I had to do something! =) This is a dud of a pic, but it was all we had.
I served this Creamy Strawberry dessert made with Ice Cream and then took a 100% Mocha Dark Choc candy bar that was sent as a gift from www.dickinsonfam.blogspot.com (my sister Heather!) mixed it with some milk chocolate that I had, melted them together and then cut out these Lil hearts with my smallest cookie cutter. Chilled my crystal dessert dishes and we had a fancy Valentine's Treat that made my heart smile at least! It was sure yummy!=)

Daryl was also given a YUMMY Sunday dinner, one of his fave's! Company Chicken and trimmings... completed with PB Pie! And we STILL hadn't opened his gifts yet!!! Lol!=)
He s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d this B-day out as long as he possibly could and it was FUN for all of us!

He's on spring break this week... and already we've gotten to enjoy a concert at downtown Music hall! And have gift cards to go on another date! I don't even "need" to have a birthday celebration when it's my turn, I'm having too much fun helping him celebrate his birthday MONTH!!!!

So this post is for every family that has done this year after year... searching for that best-pose-ever! Usually in our case we are pushed for time and running 90-2-nothin and this year was no exception... only had less than an hour to run to beach on our visit to FL for that wedding and get these shots done. The result we'll never forget... but as for that "perfect shot"... I'll let you be the judge! =)