Sunday, August 26, 2012

JUMP




Last weekend we celebrated the soon to be Brody Lowder. Our sweet friends Tab and Todd are expecting their first baby. We got all dolled and up thought we'd share our outfits of choice.

Shan Wore:


Top:  Target   Skirt: Thrifted (Banana Republic)  Gold Sparkly Shoes:  Target  Ginormous Ring: Brighton

Court Wore:


Bow Top:  Thrifted (Forever21)   Lacey Skirt:  Thrifted 
   

Keep Your Eye on the Prize:

 
The two of us, along with a few other friends, just finished a study on the book of Nehemiah. Good stuff! We got so much out of this book that we never expected.      One thing that stood out to us all was Nehemiah's response to distractions in chapter 6. His enemy's aim was to distract him from what God had called him to do. Attempting to lure him away they sent repeated requests for him to come to them. Nehemiah's bold response was this: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" 
We love how he does not seem to even be tempted to waver in his calling. We find that it is very easy to get distracted from the things God has placed in front of us to do. The enemy is constantly trying to lure our attention away so that we do not fulfill what God has given us to do. Instead we need to remember Nehemiah's bold response and not falter. When we stand firm and focused, God can do great things through us.



After many attempts, we successfully captured us airborne....we know how to have fun!
XOXO,
Court and Shan

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Grateful Gab

The few weeks have been a blur of busyness. I love that though I am physically and emotionally tired, god has sustained my spirit through it all. His love and gentleness get me through with a smile on my face and joy in my heart. It amazes me how He does this...when I feel like I have nothing left to offer anyone, and I no more motivation to work that all I have to do is say a simple prayer, or spend a moment in worship, or read some scripture and I am ready to get through the day. :) His grace and love are just so amazing.

In the midst of a busy few weeks at work, there has been quite a lot of fun going on outside of work! Here are a few snaps of things that have been going on:
 This girl had a birthday!! Danniegirl turned 21!! To celebrate in a sober way :) we got her free starbucks! AND we had a Pancake and Pedi party. :) The girls came over to have pancakes and lots of junk food while watching Pride and; Prejudice and painting our nails. It was fabulous!


 This weekend we also had a baby shower for a dear friend of ours! There were giraffes and baby onsies that needed to be painted (I painted a bow-tie! so cute!) and of course, coffee mugs with mustaches! Can you tell we had fun? :)

Finally I got to do one of my favortite things...hold babies and make them smile :) Aren't my friends' kids the cutest?!! Aleezah on the left and right is a little miracle baby. She was born at 25 weeks, and is so healthy and strong now! God is so good. Little Jackson in the middle is such a little character! Love him to pieces!


So these are the things I am thankful for this week (well, always really :) ):
~God's saving/sustaining grace, love and joy
~The company of amazing friends to innocently/soberly celebrate the 21 year of a beautiful friend.
~Celebrating the precious gift of a baby boy for Todd and Tab.
~And being able to hold little miracles of life and love on them! :) So much joy in these little ones!

Hope you are all having a beautiful week!


XOXO,
Court








Tuesday, August 14, 2012

"Come Walk with Me"

This is what God has laid on my heart for the past couple of weeks. For me, when God speaks, he tends to use several different circumstances to do so. For instance, I might wake up with a certain song in my head, having not heard it in a long time. Or perhaps the same point will be made in more than one sermon I'm listening to, be it at church or a podcast or whatnot. 

This week, I woke up with these words in my head. This song is by an amazing worship team called Frontline Worship. I highly suggest you check them out sometime. The Intro to the album entitled, "Come walk with Me", has this line in it... 

You're praying to a god who is far away in Heaven, but I'm the god who walks with you". 

This line always, always gets to me. Who is it that I pray to? Is it to some far off god sitting up in the sky somewhere? Or is it a god who walks with me? Who wants to be a part of every area of my life? My God is way too personal to watch from a distance. He wants to be a part of everything in my life. 

There is guy in the Bible who was known for walking with God. In Genesis 5:24, the Word says how Enoch longed to walk with God..to habitually walk with Him. God loved this so much that he desired to have Enoch home with him, so he took him home! No death for Enoch. He just got to go straight home to the Lord. How amazing is that? 

This challenged me to include God in every part of my life. He did after all create life, so why wouldn't He want to be a part of it? He created relationship, so why wouldn't He desire one with us? Just something to think about.

Hope you all have a blessed week :)

Much Love,
Shan





Thursday, August 9, 2012

"Depth Of My Heart"



The Outfit:

This is one of my favorite scarves of all times...I call it my "Old lady scarf"...or the one with the fringe. I picked it up at a thirft store a while back...I would pick it up and then put it back and walk around...then come back to it and do it all over again. Eventually I purchased...just didn't feel like walking away from it again. It is gold and has fringe and it makes me happy. :)


On to other things, more important things:


This morning my attention is captivated by an amazing love...
The Song "Rhythms of Grace" by Hillsong is playing over and over this morning as I reflect. 
 
My favorite lyrics from the song are:

"My life is a life for Your cause
My will laid aside for Your call
And reserved all the depth Of my heart
Only for You
You're there in the dark of the night
While holding the sun and its light
Through the triumph and trials alike
There's no one beside You"


No matter where we are, what struggle, what darkness there is...God is there with us. A comforting thought. His love is so so good...I can not help but desire to give Him mine in return. I reserve the depths of my heart only for You Lord...There is no one beside You"
 take a look and listen. :)





 
 XOXO,
C





Friday, August 3, 2012

Grateful Gab

 Grateful Gab for the week:

~I am thankful for friends that I can be myself around. The freedom to be silly is one of the best feelings I know...It is great to know that they will not think you're crazy and act like they don't know you in public when you start singing or dancing...they join right in :) Shan in particular puts up with my sillyness the most because she is my best friend AND has to live with me :) 

Now on to an outfit with a bit of my sillyness wrapped in one. 
The scoop: this particular evening there were people watching us take our pictures...awkward! So we were trying to keep ourselves from looking to serious and started making fun of ourselves. The first picture is me doing an awkward blogger pose...as you can see, it really works for me (not!).  Then came the awkward muscle pic in which Shan told me my "David" was coming ( I do not like the title of this video, but the video that inspired that comment is hilarious! Do watch!) ...I told her he was strong and handsome. It became quite the collection of silly pictures, but I'll spare myself the embarrassment of including anymore than these. :) Enjoy!



Polka-dot top: H & M      Red striped maxi skirt: Thrifted     Belt: Thrifted





And the more serious one :)


That's it for now!! Feel free to share what your Grateful Gab is!

XOXO
C