a trip to the zoo

19 pictures!!! thats what youre about to look at if you proceed. the kids stayed in houston with mimi over the weekend so i could participate in disciple now at church. i headed to houston monday afternoon, stayed the night, and tuesday morning we got up and went to the zoo. the weather was perfect, and the animals were super active. it was the first time i really had a chance to play around with my new camera, and i got some great zoomed in animal shots im proud of. i figured rather than post a ridiculous amount of extra pictures with 365 this weekend, i'd give tuesday at the zoo its very own post. enjoy!

my sweet molly girl

i was trying to get a cute picture of them together. they just wanted to be silly.

more sillies.

were happy to have mimi go with us.

turtle sandwich!

"its eating my arm!!!"

playing the bongos in africa

i loved this chimp hiding under his blanket.

zoomed in a little closer.

this one kept making faces at us.

i think this was the 'grandpa'. he was unfazed by the whole thing. 

allens favorite. i always take a picture of the rhinos for him.

a ride on the carousel 

using my zoom. i love owls.

another great shot with my zoom.

for $5 we were able to feed the giraffes! pretty cool!

we couldnt touch them though. that was a bummer.

this one we could touch, but its just not the same. :-)

we had a great time. the houston zoo is fabulous if you ever have the chance to go!!

see you back here for P365 on saturday!!

project 365, week 5

we are in the thick of disciple now weekend at our church, along with 5 other churched in the area. i came home between mission project and dinner to post my blog take a shower. ;-)

really quickly before i get onto my pictures, i need to clear something up. i think the name of my blog must be confusing. a lot of ya'll think my name is fran. understandable mistake. i'm actually amy. my last name is frans, hence "the frans clan." just thought i'd throw that out there. its been a common occurrence with several people that follow the blog or participate in P365, but dont actually know me, so there you have it. :-) no worries.

ok, pictures!

sunday

the kids and i were at my parents last weekend, so we got to go to their church on sunday. i hadnt heard my dad lead worship in about 5 months, so it was great to have that opportunity. i even got to sing with the praise band, because his background vocalist got sick saturday night.

monday
my sweet boy reading at bedtime.  ive always envied his eyelashes. they go on for miles. he doesnt get that from me, unfortunately.

tuesday
allen is the speaker at a youth camp this summer, and the camp sent him a publicity poster in the mail to have. he's so handsome. :-)

wednesday
disciple now kick-off was tonight at church. all the students found out what homes they'll be staying in, who their leaders are, etc. this is on the stage as part of the 'decor'.

thursday
ugh, im so mad. the picture i wanted to post accidentally got deleted (by me). tonight we celebrated colbys 1 year salvation birthday. we gave him a max lucado devotional book for kids, which i took his photo with, but its gone. forever. we also went and got dessert. colby wanted a smoothie, and i got a shot of wheatgrass juice; bleh. so good for you, though.

friday
disciple now is under way!! we ended up with about 170 students signed up from our church, with a total of approximately 600 from all 6 churches combined, plus adults, leaders, etc. overall there are roughly 1,000 people involved in the event this weekend. pretty awesome.
this is the tshirt from the weekend. its....different.

saturday

on saturday afternoons, the groups scatter all over the round rock area and do service projects in the homes of those in need. this is dolores. we completed a very long list of tasks at her house that she's unable to do herself. she's precious lady, and we loved visting with her and hearing her story.

i really am about to take a shower, and then head to dinner at the home i'm helping, and then worship tonight with all the other groups. i hope you're having a great weekend, and enjoying the beautiful weather if you happen to be in this area. if you're not having beautiful weather where you are, i'll try to send some your way. :-)
be blessed!

P365, week 4

sorry i'm getting this up a little late. we went to my parents' for the weekend, and just rolled back into town.

we had kind of a crummy week. colby came in at about 6am monday morning with a high fever, and was a lump on the couch for the next 72 hours, give or take. it wasnt the flu (he was tested), but a virus that mimics the flu, so all the same symptoms, just a shorter duration. molly and i both got it on wednesday, but ours didnt last quite as long. we were ok by friday morning, though still tired. we had been looking forward to going to see grammie and papaw, and were thankfully well enough to do so.

heres our week.

sunday

colby had a huge bowl of lima beans for dinner. he loves them. he can put away almost a whole bag of the frozen ones.

monday

this is what i did most of monday.

tuesday
monday night we finally told the kids that santa isnt real. it was just time. they had a lot of questions, but took it surprisingly well. of course our elf, Ace, was a part of that conversation too, so we brought him out so they could see that hes not real, and its ok to touch him, etc, etc. molly played with him for a little bit on tuesday. it'll be interesting to see how much they still want to do at the santa stuff next Christmas.

wednesday
i made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tuesday night, and had some chocolate chips left over, so i made muffins for breakfast wednesday morning. thats the last thing i made for the week. i went downhill fast after that.

thursday
a sweet friend of mine got wind that we were not feeling great, and offered to bring us dinner. we had cowboy stew with the trimmings, and red velvet cookies. yum! so thankful for good friends!!!

friday
we got to mom and dads around 3 o'clock friday. the kids played a couple hours, then we went to pick up my grandparents and all go to dinner. molly fell asleep on the way to their apartment. after laying around all week, a full day can really take it out of you! she and colby could barely keep their eyes open to get home, and were both asleep before 8:00.

saturday
mom and dads dog, bliss, had to be put down right before christmas. they still have nellie, but wanted her to have a friend, so they got daisy mae from the animal shelter a couple weeks ago. shes a 7 month old rat terrier, and shes precious. i love her ears.

we'll try to cram a whole lot of school into this week since we didnt get much done last week. the kids will be at my in-laws friday afternoon until i go get them monday, and we're going to the houston zoo on tuesday, so we wont get a whole lot done next week either. we have our big youth event, Disciple Now, this coming weekend (Feb. 1,2, and 3). its city wide this year, and we're hoping for anywhere between 600 and 800 students to attend. pray that all goes well, and lives will be changed.

have a great week!!

p365 will be a little late this week

hi all, we'll be hitting the road shortly to go see my parents for the weekend. molly and i are getting over a short but nasty virus that colby so kindly shared with us. we're well enough to go lay around at someone else's house though. :-) all thats to say, i'll be posting 365 sunday night when we get home. my parents dont have internet (they do everything on their phones. cool for them, not for me. or you.) so i can do it while i'm there. i'll get it up as soon as i can! have a great weekend!

Project 365, week 3

greetings friends! another week has gone by, and i mostly past the whole "organize everything in my house" kick, but mostly because i actually have organized pretty much everything in my house; pretty much being the operative. its definitely not Better Homes and Gardens worthy, but if there was an Above Average Homes and Gardens, i like to think i'd be a decent candidate for a photo spread.

sunday

i painted my door black! i just said, what the heck it cant look any worse than the builders grade white one. although i did tell allen, "if i ruin this door, we have to buy a new one." he quickly shot that down, so i'm really glad it turned out awesome!

monday
my mom came in town sunday evening and stayed thru tuesday morning. monday she treated us to a trip to the bob bullock museum. texas history at its finest. on the way home mom asked colby what he learned. he said "i learned where the alamo is!" i said, "where is it?" and he loudly and proudly answers, "Houston!!!" so not quite as successful a trip as it could have been.

tuesday
our big youth event, disciple now, is just around the corner. allen is neck deep in preparations. we had a giant cutout of a salt shaker and lightbulb delivered to the house tuesday afternoon along with a bunch of letters that spell out "SALT & LIGHT" the theme for this year.

wednesday
more organizing. molly wanted one thing changed in her room, and that started the domino effect. 2 hours later i had a garbage bag full of stuff for goodwill, her closet clean and, wait for it....organized, and her room rearranged a bit. we moved the bed and some of her bigger toys around. i almost posted the closet picture i took, which im extremely proud of, but i thought this was a little more interesting, granted only slightly.

thursday
colby LOVES the song 10,000 reasons. loves isnt even strong enough of a word. when it comes on everyone must stop what theyre doing and sing it in its entirety and with feeling. it inevitably comes on every night shortly after the kids go to bed (they both have radios in their rooms). when this happens colby yells "daddy, come here, quick!!" usually just he and allen will lay there together and sing it, and then when its over he goes back to falling asleep. the last few times, though, we all go in there together. i took this picture after one such mini worship service, before we sent molly back to her room and left colby to sleep.

friday
allen is speaking at another church's disciple now event this weekend, and he had a friend of mine deliver this to me as a gift to let me know he loves me and is thinking about me while hes gone. so sweet.

saturday
the kids and i on a whim went to an animal shelter in austin. we spent some time in the kitty room, and this one took a liking to molly.

i hope you all had a great week!!! 

link up below and share it with us!

Project 365, week 2

i seriously dont know whats come over me lately, but ive been organizing my house like nobody's business. maybe its the new year, or maybe ive been spending too much time on pinterest. its probably a little of both. at any rate, my house looks pretty awesome. 

sunday

a group of us went out for my friend katie's birthday. we had dinner at a little mexican food place in austin, then we went to a coffee shop of sorts downtown where their "thing" is making smores at your table. thats our set-up on the table to the left. they were yummy, but nothing beats a campfire in my opinion.

monday
my beautifully organized pantry. im embarrassed to share how much expired stuff i threw away. from now on if i have to buy a whole bottle of something for a recipe, i'll find other ways to use that ingredient so that it doesnt go to waste.

tuesday
allen surprised me with flowers this evening when he came home from work. he's wonderful.

wednesday
another organizing project; my bathroom. i had a 3-drawer thing here on my counter, but the bottom drawer was empty and the other 2 were just junkie, so i got this big box for my makeup and the smaller 2 have little hair clips and things. allen asked, "so, how long will it stay this way?" and i said, "who knows, but lets enjoy it while it lasts."

thursday
i made pork chops and veggies in my dutch oven for dinner, but for some reason it didnt cook fast enough, so we had to go to schlotzky's, which was not what my tastebuds were ready for. i hate messing up dinner! when we got home the pork chops were ready, and soooo tasty. i'm reheating it for dinner tonight.

friday
ive been wanting a pair of victorias secret sweatpants for a while, and allen got me a pair for christmas. ive been pretty much living in them, so when i saw that they were on sale this week, i asked him if i could get another pair. he acquiesced, and when they showed up in the mail friday, i put them on immediately. they're the absolute softest and most comfortable things ive ever worn. hes going to get tired of seeing them on me, so i guess its a good thing i have two pair in two different colors. hmmm, maybe a third pair is an order. ;-)

saturday
colby and molly wanted to dance for us this morning. i took several pictures, hoping to get a few good ones. i love colbys face in this one. hes serious about his dancing.

ive got a few other little projects on my list of things to do around here this week. i need to work a little more on my kitchen cabinets, and i think im going to paint the inside of my back door black if the weather will cooperate to let me have it open for awhile so the fumes dont kill us all.
link up at the bottom and share your pictures with us this week!
we had a couple of new faces last week. its never too late to start!!

be blessed!

Project 365, week 1; HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

happy new year, friends!! 

we just rolled into town mere minutes ago from a wedding allen did just south of houston. but i'm hosting project 365 this year, so i HAD to make sure i got this up tonight!!

im so excited to be hosting! sara has been doing it for the last 4 years, but with her new empty nest season of life, she was looking for someone to pass the baton to, and i volunteered!

i'll try to get the link up on saturday evening, but a lot of times it'll be sunday morning before i'm able to, just depending on what our saturday holds. i promise to always make sure it gets up, though, or to let you know if i'll be later than sunday for some reason.

for those of you saying "whats project 365 exactly?" you basically take at least one picture each day to document your year. it can be anything from a trip to an amusement park with your kids, to what you had for dinner. anything goes. on saturday (or sunday) you'll post your pictures from the last week and then link your blog entry up here at the bottom of my weekly post. that way everyone who participates can read each others entries and see their pictures. there are several of us that have been in it from the beginning, and we've kind of become a little community of friends. its something i look forward to each week. i'm not always great about getting to read other peoples entries, but im going to try to be better about that this year!!! 

so if youve never done p365, i encourage you to give it a try. theres no shame in popping in every now and then. ease your way into it if you need to.

here are mine for the week....

sunday

i started working on my scrapbook while i had a kid-free house for a few days. i finished it and got it ordered on wednesday!! yay! (if you need a good digital scrapbooking website, mixbook is great, and really easy to use. i have some user tips if you decide to go with them though.)

monday

we started the year with our friends the lamberts and barners, as we've done every NYE since 2004. the brownings joined up with us later at the lamberts house for games and a lot of laughter.

tuesday
i got my kids back tuesday afternoon!! so good to see their sweet little faces again!

wednesday
we had a very lego christmas this year, so of course thats all they've been doing since they got home; building. colbys ninjago legos paid a visit to mollys riding camp, and toasted marshmallows around the campfire. they play so well together; the kids, not the legos.

thursday

molly got a new game for christmas, and we were finally able to crack it open and play before dinner thursday evening. i love it because its a cooperative game, meaning you all play together rather than against each other. we're trying to collect keys and make a path to the treasure before the ogre can get there. pretty cool.

friday
we headed down for shayne and kaysie's wedding festivities friday afternoon. i mention shayne on here every year when he and his sister kristen come and pray over the kids for the new year. shayne and kristen are a brother and sister duo we have seen grow up and admired the relationship they've had thru the years, and we want that for colby and molly. they're both adults now, out of college and starting their "grown-up lives".

saturday
it was shayne's wedding that allen did this weekend. we've gotten to know his sweet new wife kaysie over the last several months as we've done their pre-marital counseling, and they've been over a few times for dinner and hung out with the kiddos. they are precious and we're so excited for them!!!
shaynes eyes are closed in this picture, but its the best i could get!
their wedding was supposed to be outside in a little meadow, and the reception would be held in a barn just next to it. however, the weather had other ideas, so an hour before go time when it was 45 degrees and raining, they had to move everything into the barn. it was still beautiful!!

we start school back up on monday, and im not even remotely ready. guess thats what i'll be doing tomorrow afternoon. :-/
have a blessed week!!!


link up and share your pictures!!
maybe i'll give away a little gift-y at the end of the year for the most faithful linker-upper. :-)