Sunday, July 22, 2012

Happiness is Hugs and Hilarious Friends!

My Barretts!!! This family means so very much to me. I LOVE to spend time with them and just LIVE. :)
 
My Missouri Momma, TAMMY! =)
 
My sweet little cousin, (left) two adorable nieces (middle and right), and the one, the only McKenna!!
Funny kiddos. HOT HATS which they played with outside on a HOT DAY!!!
The MOST ADORABLE tiger you ever did see-- Thank you, Aunt Kelly and Jill!
Pulling out Kaylee's 1st tooth! She was a brave and awesome girl!
McKenna and Madison on Madison's 5th birthday after going to see BRAVE. (Which I LOVED! -- especially because I got to hold Lucy the ENTIRE time and sit by Ash and Carter. GOOD TIMES!)
Miss Lucy Kay!
Madison in her new birthday dress!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADISON!!! (Uncle Josh is pretty funny, huh?)
I LOVE this little girl!!! 
She is SO cute! I got to sit by her, and we had tacos. 
Yummm!
Some of the sweetest, best, most adorable, funny, pretty girls right there-- 
I am so blessed to know them all! 

"When I count my blessings, I always count you TWICE!"

Summer Roadtrip!!!

 It's always fun to see a friends... at home... on trips... during school... at night... =) Friends just make up a huge and wonderful part of life!! On this grand trip, I was able to see MANY friends and family!  

It was so awesome to get to catch up with Lauren Rutherford for several hours as I began my journey. She is such a sweet and encouraging homeschool friend. I love that girl! :)
My adorable Aunt Polly! It was a DREAM COME TRUE to be in go to the farm and see the Lights in Indiana. =)
4 of the 7 INCREDIBLE Light boys!
One of the BEST and SWEEEEEETEST weddings of all time. My beautiful, sweet sister, Hannah Hoyt, and my fantastic, talented brother, Brandyn Graves. I enjoyed hearing about them meeting, watching them date, knowing when they got engaged, the 4 years at Freed for Hannah and time together at the end of school, and then!
A wonderful few days spent being goofy, eating fantastic food, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, singing, laughing, crying. Just being a FAMILY. It was P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!!!!!!!!!
My Miss Pam, my Second Mom. She is SO beautiful!
Meeting Shannon and worshiping at Towne Aches, staying with my SC/Indy Momma, Mindy, and seeing the Lights, adding a new state to my list of ones I've visited, and lots of phone calls... YEP!!! A great first leg!
Norman and Debbie. I LOVE THEM!!!
Spent a great Sunday morning with friends in person, talked to friends all afternoon on the phone on the way to Cordova, and then got to spend a wonderful Monday morning with my sweet, sweet Owens girls! I adore their family and always love to spend time with them, even if just a few minutes. They are such GOOD girls. They encourage me to be the very best that I can be-- and they make me laugh. They are superrrrrrr cool! While in the Memphis area, I met up with one of my Memphis families, the Mangrums, and had PIZZA and got to visit. How could it get better than that?! Life is just GREAT with friends around, I'm tellin' you!
Next stop was Mississippi-- to see my Julie and her family-- and to meet the newest member, Jasper!

I LOVED playing with my nephew, Cole, too! It's a pretty awesome thing to be called "Aunt KaraBoo." We played with legos and went to the park, we raced and watched movies, talking, and ate lots of food. It was a GREAT few days just being a part of the family and enjoying a few slow days to watch a small baby and a cool boy grow. It thrills me every time to be with them and see how a family should look who obeys God.

My sis, Julie, and my nephew, Jasper. =)

Visiting with my dear "heroes," my preachers' family, was, as always, enriching and fun. I adore them!!
The last leg of my trip was not planned 100% of the way when I left Missouri... Somehow, I was gonna see my Shonie. And, I'm soo thankful that it did work out to do just that! We met at Gran and Grandad's- right in the middle of where the two of us had been. She is such an encouragement in my life. I learn a lot from her and love to talk to her. Patrick, her husband, is fantastic and funny. It was incredible just to be back in TN and see my grandparents again. I love going home to TN! Rachel Kee was able to swing by, also totally unplanned. SO AWESOME. 

This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. BIG life events... and it was 
AMAZING. 
So blessed to have a job where I could do this, friends to talk to while on this trip both where I was visiting and so many other places, and a fantastic home to come to at the end-- spent the night with my Barretts in Higginsville and loved every minute of that! :-)

LIFE IS GOOD! 
AND SO IS TRAVELING!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Pretty Preciousness!

 
  My precious, precious little Carter boy. =) He gives the very best hugs. I love his sweet kisses, too!
 
 "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me!!"
  
  Wonderful little girlies!! Aubrie, Rylee, and McKenna We had an awesome lunch together with the WHOLE family for Father's Day. We are blessed with many great fathers in this family!
  "There is sunshine in my soul today! And hope and praise and love!"
 
  The perfect smile of a perfect little girl! How I love this little ball of sunshine!! She makes you feel so very important!
 "It is well with my soul!"
 
  Hallie, the cutie. How I love this smile!!! 
Her first words to me normally are, "Can I have some gum? Can I have chapstick?"
 "I love my Savior, too! " 
 Two precious people. My beautiful MM and my sweet Lucy Kay! <3 <3

"Count your blessings, name them one by one. 
Count your blessings see what God has done. 
Count your blessings, name them one by one. 
Count your many blessings see what God has done."


Thursday, June 28, 2012

My Sunshine's 6th Birthday!

McKenna Anne Heck is now 6! We had a super fun birthday party for her, Aubrie and Rylee! They are 11 and 9! How the time does fly!!!
It was a JUSTIN BIEBER day!!! =)
Adorable girl in CUTE new clothes from her aunts!
HAPPPPPPY BIRTHDAY, MCKENNA! 
Jill made her a cute birthday cake which we ate for breakfast!
6 years old!!!! June 22nd!!! It was a FUN day!!
~Dear McKenna, Precious girl, I am so thankful to be able to spend so many hours with you every day. You teach me so much. The fun times of singing and dancing together, hearing you laugh with your head thrown back, waking up to kiss you every morning... you make life so wonderfully happy. You are a crack up, girlfriend, and I can't ever see your tiny teeth, your curly hair, or feel one of your hugs without thanking GOD that I have you in my arms today. Your Bible knowledge is great, your love and care for others in very noticeable, you are able of so many things without help now. You are tall, dark, and GORGEOUS! You care about GOD. And that is the sweet little heart that I just love. Thank you for being amazing! I love you forever, Your Kara :) ~
CUTE siblings!!
Look at that stylin' dude!!!
Princess McKenna!!! Now 6 years old!!! A whole new year begins!!
COOL kiddos outside the pet store. We all LOVE sunglasses!
Here are our new fishy friends! Happy Birthday, sweethearts!!
McKenna got lots of nice cards from friends-- this one is from my family in GA. We are looking forward to going to see them in less than 2 weeks.
At breakfast and lunch I had little presents waiting for our girl. Cake for breakfast, pizza for lunch, then Dad took her out for Chinese for supper and swimmin' in the afternoon. SHE was a blessed, happy, perfectly-spoiled princess--we all LOVE her!!
POPSICLES!!
Tina made our Kenna brownies~ soooo cute and sweet! We sang Happy Birthday and played, played, played. It was girls' night at Aunt Tammy's, so McKenna got to play with a bunch of her friends on her birthday, too. Jill took her shoppin' for her birthday the next morning, and then they went to see the new movie, Brave. It was a wonderful weekend for our girl. She blesses us every day. Every day we get to spend with her is like a PARRRRRTY! =) 

<3 LIFE IS GOOD! <3 

American Girl Camp

 We love little girls. 
We love cooking. 
We love dressing up. 
We love history.
We love crafts. 
We love reading. 
We love snacks.
We love playing games...
 Therefore, WE LOVE AMERICAN GIRL CAMP!
 Miss Debbie is soooo nice to let us use her house and fill it with little sweethearts!
 Aren't they just TOOO cute?!?! 12 precious little princesses!
 I LoVe my Abby and my CanCan!! Aren't the dresses great, too!? These two were the biggest helps, we had the best time, and just totally enjoyed being together. 
Yay for best friends!!
 This little man was SO good during the camp-- he played with the boys and tried out a few things about camp with us girls. He is precious and good. This is him writing with quill and ink.
 Lunch was a FUN time of day. 
Ok, who am I kidding?! ALL TIMES OF THE DAY were fun times of day!
The lovely Candice and sweet Aubrie! Aubrie is wearing Candice's dress. Little Candice wore that dress years ago at Roundhouse... *I. love. memories!*
Here is BOB. He dressed us to show the girls a DUDE during Felicity's time. It was greeted with LOADS of squeals! I love happiness and funny times and love!

Camp was super busy, so fun, and over too quickly! 
 Lookin' forward to next year already! =)