Burney Falls Day!!!

I LOVE my life!!!!

Thank you Lord,
I have the best family, the coolest kids!!!! The most amazing husband ever, who loves and care for me perfectly and takes beautiful care of my girls. He blesses me everyday and I can't put into words how happy and honored I feel to be his wife! I have a beautiful home that makes me feel happy and relaxed. I have a healthy body that allows me to keep up with my babies, and that I feel good about, my girls and husband are healthy and happy. I have a reliable car that is safe. I have amazing friends that care for my physical and spiritual well being, and with out a doubt are at my side during any crisis big or small. I have 2!!!!! wonderful moms who love me and give me wonderful advise and that have shown me what a "woman of God looks like. My Dad has been and will always be my "Daddy", who's shown me how to be responsible and kind and showed me what a good husband looks like...(which I found). I have 5 siblings that a happy and close to me and are all happy.
I have a very supportive home church that cares for my family and uplifts my relationship with God. I have a Pastor that encourages my spiritual walk. Our church has a great childrens ministries that has peaked my girls desire to know and love Jesus. And they have the most loving teachers ever....Grandma Renee and Grandpa Blake!!!! Thank you!!!!
I have food in my fridge so I can feed my children everyday, and make my husband dinner after a long day at work. My husband HAS a job that is reliable and supportive of our families needs. And I never worry if were going to be able to pay our bills or not. Thank you Ryan for supporting us.
I live in a beautiful town, and have park right the street for the girls to run and play!!! The weather here is amazing.....it's always a "nice day" in Redding!!!

I know sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the things we don't have and forget how blessed we really are.....it feels good to look around and see how much my Heaven Father has blessed me and makes me see realize how little I "want" for. Thank you Lord.

Philippians 4:19

¹⁹And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:22

²²If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Proverbs 18:24

²⁴ A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Psalm 23:6

⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Jeremiah 31:14

¹⁴ I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,"
declares the LORD.

Not Ready to Let Satan In!!!!

Ryan and I have been in a season of "lessons" and I have to admit it hasn't been easy. But our God is an awesome God and I praise him. A month ago both Ryan and I both found ourselves in a awesome growing stage of our relationship with the Lord...we both found ourselves so hungry and wanting to give so much more of ourselves to our Lord. I've seen Ryan taking his roll as spiritual leader seriously and seeing him disciple his family made me eager for that same fire. It's been an awesome adventure and I've learned so much about my God, His desires for my life, His Love for me, His desire for my prayer life.. and a few very interesting lessons on obedience and the blessing that come from that obedience.
So here we are now a few weeks later amazed and in awe the Lord... We've made a few changes in our life that we know are important and we know were called to do them and we ready, and Satan has taken notice.......Dang it!!! I'm putting this down in a blog so I can out it out there, it's in the acknowledged....I'm not about to let Satan sneak in here noticed. Ryan and I are finally on the same page and growing together and taking steps forward together as a married couple who love the Lord and ready to give EVERY part of our life to the Lord not holding any part back!! And if Satan thinks he can walk right in here and distract us from what an awesome God we have....boy is he mistaken!!!!! So I'm going to confess my frustrations Lord and ask you take these doubts away.
Has anyone noticed that it seems like everyone was doing really good a few months ago...people were growing, relationships were blossoming, marriages were strong.... but this is life people no were in the Bible does it say ..."As soon as you become a Christian life is going to get easier." In fact it quit the opposite. We live in a crappy world.....cars break down, people fail you, money gets tight, people get sick and suffer, BUT we don't have to stay here forever!!!! Our Lord is coming for us, He's prepared a perfect home for us...and He's given us a Helper and Comforter. We have to have faith and know that His will for our life is perfectly planned out, but we can't hear His will if we're sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves.....seek Him and He will sustain you, comfort you and heal you. It wasn't any accident we all felt a need to seek Him so strongly, God is an all knowing God and he LOVES us so much, and I feel so comforted that He knew we'd be coming on a time of trial and we'd need Him close by. Thank you Lord for loving me, caring for me, and for pulling me close for this rough patch.
I also want you all to know I've felt a very strong conviction to pray not for myself and my struggles (Ryan does that for me) but to pray for you. My relationship with Him is not only for my self but for others... I want to pray for you, but I also need to pray for you....God's changed my heart from myself and turned it outward.....I don't want to lose that.
If you read this and have prayer needs please please e-mail me.....ryanandrachael@hotmail.com.

Friends you are not alone...were all right there with you....we're all hurting, being discouraged and tested....but I know and trust our heavenly Father. He IS an awesome, lovely Father and He has not abandoned me or you...... don't let Satan in unnoticed!

2 Timothy 1:7

⁷For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Psalm 55:22

²² Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

Philippians 4:6

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Psalm 27:14

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Isaiah 40:31

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Psalm 56:11

¹¹ in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comfort ed, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

My Table....(sad face)

My table broke......very sad. I loved sitting out side...reading my Bible and sipping coffee. Last weekend Ryan and I went to the coast for our 6 year anniversary (very fun), but when we came home our patio table was shattered and in a million pieces. Took me forever to clean up but I knew it had to be a very thorough job...too many kiddies playing back there.
Soooooo if any one has an old patio table they wanna see go...call me...i need one.

Young and Beautiful!!!!

I was doing my makeup yesterday getting ready to go in town. Madison as usual was sitting on the toilet tank watching me. This is the conversation we had.....
Madison-" Mommy can I wear some make up too?"
Me-"No honey this is for mommy."
Madison- "Why?"
Me-"Because your young and beautiful and you don't need make up"
Madison- (long pause) "But mommy your young and beautiful too."
I love being a mommy!!!!

So Much......

I know I know it's been literly forever since my last "real" blog...and so much has been going on I'm going to have to try and squeeze it all in one blog because I'm wanting to get back on track with this thingy..... Ok here it goes.

1. My oldest daughter turned 3 on may 4th we had a great birthday party with lots of our friends. She grown so much in the last 6 months....she's like a little companion for me. She helps with Morgan a ton! She my informer "Mom Morgan's playing in the potty!!!" And I'm not sure what took place but she's turned into this sensitive child that feels grief when she knows I'm upset with her....6 months ago she was giving dirty looks and throwing nasty tantrums, now we have full on conversations about how our actions effect everyone and how we need to ask for forgiveness when we've hurt someone....And she DOES!!! Crazy hu? So if you know me you know that Madison and I Share the same birthday. Which brings me to point 2.

2. My birthday wasn't great I was planning Madison birthday and cleaning my house like crazy. I tried to have a little girls night with my friends but that didn't go great either we couldn't find anywhere to go after dinner...everywhere in Redding after 8 on a Tuesday is lame!!!
So crazy thing few days later a dear friend of mine tells me "We need to talk" Yikes!!! It didn't sound good...OK so it wasn't any big deal she just wanted to get me out of the house so all my friends and family could show up to my house for my surprise party!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never been so surprised in my life!!!!! It was great!!!!! Cakes, pizza and presents all for ME!! It's been well..3 years since my birthday was about me. I felt so loved and special!!!








3. So even cooler then the party, my 3 dear friends Jess Johnson, Becky Moseley and Candace Peacut pulled me in my room during the party and said they have another gift for me........a weekend trip to San Jose that started....NOW!!! They quickly helped me pack my bags and threw me in Jess' car and we headed to San Jose at 8:30 pm which got us there around 1:30am!!! It was so awesome just us 4 girls got to shop (with all my birthday money!!) lay out by the pool(at Becky's in-laws house,where we stayed) and went to a very cool club after dinner!!! This trip meant so much to me having friends that care about me enough to want me to feel special and do something about it!!! Thank you Lord for putting these women in my life blessing me so richly!!









4. The very next weekend I had my churches woman's retreat!!! (my poor kids think mommy's never home) This was a very different experience for me. I learned alot of really great things from our speaker and got to spend alot of great one on one time with our Father, but this retreat has also pushes me in a way I didn't expect. I has forced me take a hard look at myself and evaluate the way I view things. It's been a good thing because it's cause me to seek a deep relationship on only with my heavenly Father but also his Holy Spirit. I've found myself spending more time in my Bible tearing it apart searching for more and more on the Spirit seeking to understand his ways and desires for me. I pray this takes me to a new peek in my ever growing relationship with the Lord.
So I also want to share an awesome experience I had during this weekend aways with my sisters in Christ......I was given an awesome gift. On the last day a group of about 20 women hiked to the top of a creek where we found water fall and larger pool area. It was in this pool area that Jess Johnson and myself had the privilege of baptizing 4 women in to our family under Christ!!! This was such an honor and blessing to me personally. This experience refocused my eyes as to what our purpose is here in the world to which we are aliens. Thank you Father for loving me and knowing my heart..only you knew how much this would encourage me.






5. So Ok we got home from the retreat on Sunday night...I had to immediately had to do laundry and repack for me and Ryan's week long trip to Washington DC!!!! We've had this trip planned for months and it was finally here!!!! My big brother lives over in DC and had been wanting us to come visit forever!! My parents got to my house on Tuesday (they stayed with the kids here at my house) and Ryan and I took the "red eye" to DC, we arrived at 11am ...and our week on DC officially began!!! We saw everything and had a great time!!!! My brother and his wife both had to work during the days so Ryan and I quickly learned how navigate our way through DC on the Metro (subway). It was a little nerve racking at first but once we got the hang of it we were pros! We saw all the major sites Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam War wall of names, The Capitol and all it's cool tunnels, most of the Smithsonian Museums, Arlington Cemetery and the changing of the guards(very cool), we ate tons of cool foods snails, baby octopus, Lebanese, Ti and Asian Bistro all very good!! Needless to say we had an amazing time... great for our marriage but our patriotism as well, being in our states capoital gives you a true sense of natioal pride! Very cool!











So What's next?
NOTHING!!!!! We have no major plans for awhile now it's time to chill, hang with friends, play with our kids(let them know were home for a while) and enjoy home!!! Ryan's birthday and our 6 year annivary is in June but I think we might just stay home for those:) OK so now I'm caught up no reason to not blog!!!! Love ya all ...Rachael

Girls Night Pictures!!!

Girls desperately need a night away sometimes.......so thats what we did!!! Dang it!! And oh did it feel good. Maybe too good...take a look.