Rose Bushes

It was Abraham Lincoln who said “we can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”  You know this is right up my alley! We have had a few thorns lately, those dumb things that are poking us and causing a little pain. And I have to admit I have found myself complaining about those thorns in the last two weeks. So I definitely needed a perspective change because I sure love those roses! Their beauty makes it much easier to overlook those thorns and we definitely have an amazing array of beautiful roses in our garden! 

Superstars Baseball is definitely a beautiful rose in our garden!!

Time with sweet friends has definitely been a beautiful rose in our garden! The girls had fun play dates at home, great times with friends at school and and I’ve had time with friends too especially because Jenn is in town! 








Celebrating the people we love birthdays has been huge roses! Monday night we went with the French’s and Fosters to Cheescake Factory to celebrate Taryn’s birthday. Then I hosted a friend’s lunch for her at Black Walnut the next day. On Sunday we got to join the Cooks for a joint family party for Jenn and then Taryn and I took her on quite an adventurous dinner last night! 

General Confrence was definitely a huge beautiful rose! Hearing the messages straight from the Lord thru His servants filled my cup! My favorites were hearing from the prophet, a great talk from Peter M Johnson and the newly revised Young Women’s theme! Keagan was in charge of our speaker by speaker activity set up this time and she did amazing! I guess the quiet time and all that listening on Sunday did Riley in and she took a 3 hour Conference nap! Saturday night we watched the Women’s session at the French’s with Taryn and Reagan which was wonderful! The cherry on top was Keagan and Reagan performing for us! 

Saturday morning we got an awesome chance to help in a really cool service project! Some friends from Keagans pre-k days started a local chapter of an amazing organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace. They build beds for children otherwise sleeping on the floor and we loved getting to be a small help on a bed building day! Keagan was thrilled to use power tools like the sander and help brand the beds! Riley and I took care of prepping a ton of screws and washers, sharpened the dowels and helped dip the wood. It was a really great experience and fun that old friends like the Moss’s, the Quinn’s, and the Skidmore’s were there too. 

Another beautiful rose in our garden has been the super fun Activity Days and our time together doing Come Follow Me at home! The girls loved playing Jeopardy with all the AD girls and then these Keags and Rys look alike paper dolls that we put the armor of God on! 

So many roses in between. We went to spirit night, had picture day at school and took our annual pictures in a gorgeous Forrest in Conroe. Riley has an especially fun day in primary and Keagan and I went to a fun chocolate Laurels activity and stayed up late watching the Astros! 












And finally today was a day full of gorgeous rose bushes! The girls and I spent a great day together doing nothing really out of the ordinary that’s not typical Saturday errands and chores besides decorating for fall and enjoying the cooler temps that have finally found us! But then tonight was Keagans first performance with her show choir Ovation from DPAC Texas! The group of 10 talented and sweet kiddos performed at Zoomball in Tomball which is a big Halloween fesitival. They have been working hard but we’re all very nervous. After Mrs Shea worked her magic in the last two days they did a phenomenal job! I am beyond proud of Keagan as she found out last night she would be singing a solo tonight! She worked all day and did an incredible job singing “Popular” from Wicked despite using a different track then what she had practiced all day! I’m incredibly proud she worked so hard, was so brave and willing to put herself out there! She also loved doing her stunt with her partner Michael. It was just so fun to watch and they all did amazing! We are so thankful Sa, Todd, Kellie and Justin came to support her and of course Riley is her sisters biggest cheerleader! And only the best cheerleaders dress up like the group of course! We finished off with dinner with the Reeves for such an amazing night! 

After all that how could I possibly complain about thorn bushes?! I mean I have got one gorgeous view of a beautiful garden from where I sit! And I hope I will spend the rest of my life smelling each rose! May my girls and I forever shrug off each thorn stick and be captured instead by the beauty of the roses is my wish. My wish forever, forget about the thorns and smell the roses. Yes, every last one.