Galentines Prom Night

Madi was so excited about dressing up for "Prom Night" at our Galentine's weekend. (I was very excited that we found this dress at Uptown Cheapskate for less than $10!! #winning)

Each of the girls received an award for the evening, but there were 3 bigger gift card awards. Madi received one of those, for "Most Glamorous!" The girls called for a speech, so she thanked Uptown Cheapskate! LOL! 

It was fun to watch her feel beautiful and have such a great time dancing and laughing with her friends! We took tons of pictures, did a photo scavenger hunt (separate post), ate dinner, took more pictures, and the girls danced and sang karaoke. (And took more pictures!) Fun, fun times! 

It was fun to see all of the different styles these girls came up with! 

Madi and Evie

More beautiful and grown up every single day! Where did my baby girl go?! 

Madi & Buze

This was SO MUCH FUN! The moms and girls each did 4 or 5 different poses and then we had to replicate what our daughter/mom was doing and remake the picture. So funny! 

The Moms did a catwalk (is that what you call this?) too...which I was absolutely terrible at, but I couldn't be the only mom who didn't participate! =0)))

Then it was time for dinner!

Galentines Weekend

We had such a fun "Galentines" weekend at Lake Eufaula with the sweetest group of Freshman girls and their Mama's! I am so thankful for this community we get to do life with. I loved spending this time with my girl Madi and her friends! We laughed, we worshipped, we prayed, we talked about love, we painted, we ate so much food, we danced, and we laughed some more!

Honestly, we started to not do this weekend, because there was just a lot going on and Brian had just gotten back from Brazil. I could have come up with a lot of very valid and reasonable "excuses" not to go...but it was time invested and well spent with Madi and I'm so glad we did it! Not even a little sorry about it!

Madi,

May you always know how DEEP, and how HIGH, and how LONG, and how WIDE, the Father's love is for you! (And you're Momma's love too!) 

We had our own room and everything! 

It's hard being a teenage girl...we ran into our first really kind of hard thing a week or so before this, and Madi got grounded from her phone for 2 weeks...so this time away together was much needed.

This is where we stayed...it was perfect!

We may have gotten carried away with how many pairs of shoes we took...especially Madi! (3 of these are mine!)

Friday night devotion!

Saturday morning:

The gist of this...make sure to fill your cup with the right things! 

We did the cutest painting project on Saturday afternoon!

I had so much fun with this!

Soooo pretty! (The girl & the painting!)

I LOVED how everyone's turned out so different. All so beautiful, in their unique and special ways, just like each of these ladies are!

Poppa's Hat Buddy

Is this not the cutest thing ever?! Jack loves to play with Poppa's hat at Jonah's basketball games. Poppa always buys him Skittles and a Ring Pop too. I am so, so thankful that my kids get to be loved by their Great-Grandpa! So very special!

Middle of the Night Project Disaster

Oh man, I don't think I will ever forget this night...Mackenzie had this big project for her Calc/Trig class and she underestimated how long it would take. When I went to sleep around 11:00, she was going strong in the living room. Well, imagine my surprise when I woke up at 1:00 AM and the lights were still on and she was still working. I had no idea it was so extensive, and she learned a hard lesson on procrastination. But that's not the worst part---when she finished the words on the outside of the board, and she opened it up to show me the inside, she realized that she had done the whole thing upside down. OH. My. Word. I had to react quickly to avoid an absolute crying meltdown from her. She was so tired and she had worked so hard on this. The only choice we had was to fix it...so, we got busy, and finished a little after 2:00 AM. Poor girl! Sometimes we just make mistakes in life...but there's almost always something that can be done to fix it, even if it takes extra work on our part. 

I mean--that is some impressive lettering! No wonder it took her so long.

This was the finished product...everywhere you see a cut out piece of paper taped on, had to be fixed. Crazy town! 

Raising Teenagers Is Hard

Turns out, raising kids...especially teenagers...is really hard! (And we've got really great kids!) We ran into our first big teenage "issue" this past week, (which resulted in 2 weeks of phone grounding) and let me just tell you--it wasn't fun. I came across this article, and it is spot-on. I hope when our kids are grown and raising kids on their own, that they look back at things like this that I post, and realize how very much I love them and only want the best for them. 

God, help us through this season! Draw our kids close!

It's not the eye rolls or heavy sighs. Or even the annoyed grunts.

That's not the hardest part of parenting teenagers.

Sure, we laugh about it. We joke about messy rooms and empty pantries and missing phone chargers and horrible attitudes.

Then sometimes people jump in with advice about consequences or make comments about "kids these days." 

But it turns out, no one's talking about the REAL stuff. The hardest stuff.

And that's that my teenager is grown up enough to be living a REAL life. And for the most part, I can't control any of it.

Friend relationships and unfair coaches and unreasonable teachers (or reasonable teachers and pretty poor grades) and romantic endeavors and all the other drivers on the road at 11:25 pm five minutes before curfew. Plus, the snow! A little ice on the road has never been so terrifying!

Not to mention ACT tests and college applications and real, grown-up adult life right around the corner.

Sometimes I wish we could serve up a snack and turn on Wild Krats.

But it wouldn't help.

Really, there's almost nothing I can do. Except stand there. And BE there. Loving as hard as I can...from there. Hands entirely off the wheel.

I always thought the attitudes would be the hardest part.

But that's not it at all.

It's the LIFE part. My teenager is living a whole entire life.

And it's everything I've ever wanted for her!!

But standing beside her while she lives it out is the hardest thing I've ever had to never really do.