Saturday, July 19

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY LOVE, JEREMY

17 years married
  22 years together in all
(Our very first picture as Mr and Mrs Jeremy Lustig....I felt like the luckiest girl in the world that day.....little did I know how much more amazing my married life to my sweet Jeremy would become as the years went on....There is nothing that compares to this Christ Centered partnership.  I absolutely love being Jeremy's wife)
(Our first dance at our reception...Our song was "I Will Be Here", by Steven Curtis Chapman)

(Wow, these words ring truer today than I could have ever imagined at the time of our first dance as husband and wife)

"I Will Be Here"

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I... I will be here
If in the dark we lose sight of love
Hold my hand and have no fear
'Cause I... I will be here

I will be here
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to crying
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
'Cause I will be here

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I... I will be here
As sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I... I will be here

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here, hmmm

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

And just as sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I... I will be here
We'll be together
I will be here
Jeremy, We have officially been together, longer than we have been apart.  We passed the half way mark in our lives. I love you more today, than I EVER thought possible.....and I was pretty head over heals on our wedding day and I love you more and more each day, as we bond closer and closer with each passing minute and I don't want to waste even one of those precious minutes with anger or frustration.  I know that it is quite impossible to never disagree, but wouldn't that be awesome if we never did?!?!  I again, promise from the bottom of my heart, to love you forever and I promise that you will never be alone (remember when that priest said that when we heard him speak at that retreat?  Remember how powerful his words were?)...no matter what our future has in store.  Jesus has blessed us with struggles that have strengthened us tremendously.  For that, I am truly thankful.

Like I always say...I am the Kerry...of "Jeremy and Kerry"  I am one of the team members.....did you see that my NAME is in our title!!! I couldn't even imagine not experiencing life with you.  Sometimes I get a prickly ache in my heart, at the sheer thought of something happening to you and having to face ONE day without you.  We are blessed to have the same goal in life.....grow in holiness, raise our kids in holiness and one day, thanks to our Merciful Lord Jesus, enjoy Heaven together for all of eternity.

We now finally know what it means to truly commit our lives to each other.  You are my true best friend...you know me inside and out, and for some reason (by the Grace of Jesus) you keep me around, loving me in spite of all of my flaws

I love you Jeremy and I love our Lord for blessing me with you

Happy Anniversary

NICHOLAS'S 10th BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS
 
We couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate Nicholas's 10th birthday then at his FAVORITE place in the world...."Mountasia Golf and Games".  
The funniest part of that sentence, is that Nicholas has never been to "Mountasia" before.  He just always sees it from the car window as we pass by on our way home, and has ALWAYS DREAMED (those are his words) of having a birthday party there. So this year, that is just what we did!
Could it get any better?
Oh...yes it can!!  (Just because our Lord is so amazing) when I called Mountasia to schedule his party, the owner told me about their brand new GLOW IN THE DARK party room!!
This just has to be every 10 year old boy's dream!!  A glow in the dark birthday party with black lights.  Jeremy immediately went to work on having party t-shirts made in honor of Nicholas' special day that also glowed in the dark (the birthday party t-shirts is somewhat of a new tradition started this past year...not sure how long we will keep it up, but the kids absolutely love it)

Anyway, Nicholas and his friends played video games, drove Go-Carts, climbed a rock wall, drove bumper boats and ate LOTS and LOTS of pizza and cupcakes...all in all, it was a success because my sweet little Nicholas was grinning from ear to ear!!
 Cool room...right?!?! It's totally all about being 10 years old!!
 See the glow in the dark shirts on each chair....Jeremy had them say "Hangin' 10 with Nick" with a surfboard theme
 Taking pizza orders
 Group pick with the lights on!!
 Group pick with the lights off!!
 Singing "Happy Birthday to Nicholas"
 Blowing out his birthday candles
 Go-Carts with Daddy

 Savannah driving a Go-Cart
 Our little boy, who's age is "double digits" now!!
 Bumper Boat time
 I didn't realize it, but the main goal of the Bumper Boats is to get as wet as you can!! They were laughing so hard, while soaking each other!!

 Rock climbing
 Nicholas was so proud that he made it all of the way to the top!!

 Nicholas and his friend Will
 More Go-Carts
Grandma and Grandpa were there to celebrate too....what a great day.  Nicholas felt so special, he still talks about how much fun he had.....Victorious!!

Thank you Jesus, for my little Nick's smiles, his carefree laughter, and for feeling so special today.  We are ever so grateful to You for blessing us with Nicholas, on this very day, 10 years ago

Friday, July 4

ISSAC AND MOMMY SELFIE-SESSION

A hot  and sunny 4th of July summer day at the lake, is no place for a 3 month old baby boy, so while we were ALL truly enjoying our time at this beautiful Louisiana estate with our extended family, Isaac and I found ourselves in the house having lots of quiet time together.  This was such a gift, as our 3 older kids and Daddy could fully enjoy running around and kayaking Caddo Lake with their cousins. Isaac (still sleeping a lot of the day at this time in his new life) gave us the opportunity to just hang out together inside of the house.

Isaac was a little bit fussy, one afternoon, and running out of ideas, I laid him on the bed and took some selfies of us.  After the first couple of shots, I realized that getting Isaac to smile at the moment that I took the picture seemed next to impossible.  If you have ever done a photo shoot with a baby monkey (a cute one too), you know exactly what I am talking about.  Soon I gave into the fact, that  "getting Isaac settled", "positioning the camera", while "making sure that I was looking at the lens and not trying to find the button", was not gonna work.

So, I just decided to keep shooting pictures, as Isaac's mood fluctuated, from his "interest in reaching for the camera", "pulling my hair", "looking at me", or "looking at whatever happened to distract  him at that moment".  The only idea that I could muster up, was just to simply keep smiling no matter what Isaac was doing....in an attempt at "trusting the process"...surly I would capture at least ONE pic of him looking and maybe even smiling.

After many minutes of this, and after laughing a lot, I was realizing my own limitations when it came to dealing with the camera and with the baby at the same time. So, I decided that it might be funny to just go with whatever mood that Isaac chose.  I was going to go with the flow...Isaac's choice of mood...good or fussy.
Finally I victoriously got a really cute pic of both of us smiling!! Jeremy could NOT believe it when he came in to check on us.  He asked me how I got Isaac to smile for the picture.....I simply showed him my camera roll, and admitted that..."after 20 minutes and about 50 pictures, there was one where he and I were finally in sync.  Here are some of the 50 pics that we took.  This was SO MUCH FUN.  I truly relished in the sentiment
 Tester shot
 Oops...I am not looking at the camera and the camera is not looking at EITHER us...gotta re-adjust
 "Flailing of arms"
 Grabbing my nose
 Almost caught it...but he's distracted by "a noise in the hall"
 Almost caught it AGAIN.....but now there is a "noise out of the window"
 Closer...but he's now enamored with "watching the ceiling fan"
 Pretty much got it......but it's blurry : (
 WE GOT IT
 Trying for another, just in case I could be blessed enough to get 2 good pics, but Isaac has now decided that he is quite bored with this game
 Mood is changing so I am just going with it, like a true photographer and artist : )  I was living in the moment
Mood has officially changed.....we are finished with our selfies now.
WE ARE TIRED!!

Thank you for this special afternoon, dear Lord, where Isaac and I could just be together.  Sometimes seemingly random limitations, like inappropriate weather (for example) allows You, Lord, to bestow a wonderful gift of "a moment" upon me, by allowing us this rare chance to be together, intimately in the quietness of the afternoon, so that we could be totally silly
Wow, I am so blessed to be a mommy....it's my favorite thing in life, and being the mommy of Madison, Savannah, Nicholas and baby Isaac, and practicing true self-giving makes me to be a better version of myself.  
"Thank you, Dear Lord for loving me as I am, BUT TOO MUCH TO LEAVE ME THIS WAY"....Please continue to help me grow in purity and holiness and to truly delight You, as You are truly MY heart's Delight.
Not 5 minutes later....Isaac was snuggled up, fast asleep.  I already miss him

Thank you, Jesus, also for my sweet little Isaac's precious face.
I still cannot believe that You entrusted him to Jeremy and I and that he is really ours...we are in Awe of Your Greatness!!