a new(er) and final (hopefully) look

BJ says I'm moving backwards, not forwards. I fear he may be right--and yet, I'm so much happier with this look! It's so much more me. I guess I had to make the first one to end up at this one. Let's just pray along with BJ that this is the last one. I don't think my butt can handle sitting in the computer chair one more minute, I can't ask my sweet husband to watch our kids for one more hour and my brain can't come up with one more creative thing (in the next few hours, at least). Anyway, the website is up and going and the address is http://www.simplybyaubin.com/ I've asked for feedback and some have been so sweet to give it to me. I haven't made a lot of the changes, but I think if I don't just tell people to look at the site and get my name out there, well, I never will. Fear is overcoming me but I'm going to press through it (thanks to God and and some seriously encouraging family & friends). I am a mom, a wife, a christian, a lot of other things...but I am also a PHOTOGRAPHER! There, I said it. Now I'm signing off due to my lack of commitment (did this blog make sense? If not, comment--or if it did)

a new look

I've spent the last couple of days getting a new logo and I like the way it's turned out. Next up, my website. It should be ready in about a week and when it's ready, I'll post a link. Let me know what you think. I'm really praying this will be a way for me to bring in some extra money and grow in an area I really enjoy.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We stayed here in Kansas. We did lunch at my dad's and dinner at mom's. My aunt and uncle and cousins came in town and we played an awesome game of liverpool rummy and a vicious game of spoons! It was great.

This week, we are praying so hard that God would open the doors for us to move into this rental house we have been inquiring about. Please pray with us if you feel led! We so appreciate my dad's generosity, and yet we desperately want to be in our own place.

Hope your holiday was great.

Halloween

I thought I'd add some pictures of the kids from Halloween. We had a great time, and I loved how their costumes turned out. Shiloh was a butterfly, Judah was a surfer with a wave in his hair (and Cody Maverick in the barrel, thanks to Daddy. Zoe was a flower garden. You can't really see it here, but she had a fence in her hair and a butterfly and flowers all over. They are as I type this devouring their candy. My theory is let's have one major meltdown and get it over with. What do other people do? I'm sure good parents throw some away so they don't have the dentist bills later. I guess I'm not there yet. We're heading to Georgia next week to visit our family and friends thanks to the generosity of some amazing friends--it should be a lot of fun. Judah was just telling the drivers license lady how much he misses Georgia and all his friends, poor guy. Still praying about a house to rent--keep that in prayer for us.

I just wanted to add some pictures, mainly of Shiloh with her piggy tails! She's a riot, but this girl has "spirit" as we like to call it! I've heard people say that about the third and so far, she's proving them right. She climbed up a slide as tall as me and went down it all by herself at the park last week. She flew right off the end, landed on her butt, got up and went right back to do it again. It was great. She is definitely brave.

Zoe is loving school and is learning her letters. She's made friends there and we've entered that world where I know all the friends she has don't have Christian parents and we've got to teach her how to not judge her friends, how to share Christ with them and yet to also understand that she needs to surround herself with friends that know Jesus. Wow, I felt so overwhelmed at the thought of all we have to guide her in. Thank you God for the Holy Spirit who promises to do that because it would be way too much. I've met with some other moms who want to homeschool (one of them already does) and we're going to get a group together, so that is a huge answer to prayer.

Judah is very into "bunkin" bulls (aka bucking bulls from the rodeo!) so he's definitely embracing life on the farm. The other night for the first time since we left Georgia, he thanked God for bringing him to Kansas. Leaving Georgia has been the hardest for him and it has broken my heart. He misses being able to work with his Daddy whenever and I think change is just something he doesn't love.




BJ is liking his job a lot, thank God, because Kansas has been hard for him, too. Not Kansas itself, but leaving his own company and the freedom of it (although he totally appreciates the weekly check). It's just an adjustment. Pray for him if you think about it--he needs encouraged. But he'll be going with some guys from Georgia to Charleston, SC in a couple of weeks and he'll get some time at the beach and this is crucial for him! Hopefully he'll start seminary in January--keep praying about that too.

I'm loving being close to my family. Living with my dad has been great and it's strengthened a relationship with him that I wasn't always sure about. The kids spend a ton of time with Malachi, Ali's son. It's awesome. Grama Debi is right up the road. It's just what I've always wanted them to experience. Ali bought a house so everyone has been fixing that up together. I am also trying to get my photography/card design company going. It's slow with three little ones, but it would be such a great way to make some extra money.

As for our living situation, we feel that God is asking us to lay down the buying a house again. It's the hardest thing to do but we do feel that God has promised that to us, but just not for right now. We're actually going to look at a house to rent tonight, it's small, SMALL, but if we can get it for cheap and pay down some of our bills and have $ for seminary, who cares? People live in things way smaller than this and we'll manage--it'll just mean less stuff and "closer" family time (and you know I am giving double meaning for closer!)

so this ended up being a longer update than I thought. see ya!

embracing the grey

I had a funny thought the other day. So, I am all about embracing my grey hair. I feel like I just need to be cool with it (and for the most part I am). But what made me laugh was how I can totally embrace age and the greying of the hair, but I CANNOT embrace the darkening of my mustache!!! I bleach, I will continue to bleach and can't imagine being natural in this area. So, embrace the grey and not the black? Just brought a smile to my face.

On that note, you've asked, you will receive. Here are the bangs. Not as drastic as maybe it sounded, but choppier than most other times I've cut it--doesn't my sister do a great job? Watch for her, that girl (Ali), she's gonna be a famous designer someday!

Shiloh's birthday

So, we had an apple party for Shiloh. It was very low key, but still sooo cute. I love seeing her with the apples. It was great to have my side of the family be able to be a part of her party, but there was definitely a void without our Georgia family and friends. I guess you can't have it all (or you just have a bunch of different parties, right Chris?!) Here are some of the pictures from that day... Why is this in blue and underlined? I have no idea. Anyway...

the birthday girl (I made her little kimono...gotta brag on myself a little, you know)

three wild kiddos

Shi's apple cake

apples that I sewed for her

no broccoli cake for this little lady :)

We are starting to feel more and more settled every day. I think it's just hard to get our heads around that this is home. Which is strange because I'm from here. Who knows what that's all about. There is still a lot to figure out...exactly where we're going to live (we're living with my dad for now), when bj will start seminary, how long will we really be here, how are we going to be involved in this church (oh and friends, it's so different. I can't even begin to describe how different--but very biblical, and we love the pastor and his wife. We are fairly confident this is where God wants us).

So I guess that's it for tonight. I'll try to be better about more posts, but don't count on it. How's that for commitment?! I'm trying to get more pictures to load, but they won't, so I'm going to try later. See ya

fishing with daddy

here are some pictures of Judah & BJ fishing--Judah caught
his first catfish!

First day of preschool--I can't believe it!

I'm a walker now!

Look at my new shoes (thank you Wal-Mart, $10!) because I'm a walker!!

Shiloh started walking about a month ago, but now she's all over the place. I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but it's more like running at you than walking to you! It's so much fun. She's so great and we just enjoy her so much. Zoe & Judah are great with her, they get as excited over what she does as we do and she wants to be wherever they are. I love that. They are all great--how dull our life would be without them.

the oz arrival

I took this from my dad's deck a few weeks ago--what an

amazing reminder of God's promise and a reminder that

in the midst of everything, He is STILL and will ALWAYS

BE--GOD.

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Well, this started out as a "business" blog and the conclusion I've come to is this: I am much better at setting up all the details of businesses than I am at actually starting them :) But who knows, maybe this will be the launch of it all.

As much as I'd like to think I will e-mail everyone and let them know all about what is going on in our lives, I'm becoming more and more realistic so I decided maybe a blogspot would be the best. sidenote--I did once believe that blogspots, myspace, etc. would be something I'd NEVER do, why not just have a real conversation with someone and really enjoy one another? A husband, three kids, a move, a lost dog and much, much more later, I am a blogger.

So we're here in Kansas. It's been one heck of a ride, but we're surviving. I think we're on the brink of not only surviving but actually living. We came here to my dad's flooded house and it's so close to being put back together. We feel so blessed to be able to stay with him and cannot even imagine what it's like going from being the only people in the house to adding a family of five! BJ is loving his job and it's great being near our family. On the flipside, we so miss our family & friends in Georgia. We couldn't even have imagined the void that would be left. Well, we imagined it, it's just a lot greater than we'd thought. As I said to a couple of you, sometimes it's almost easier to not even think about it at all, it just hurts too much. But we have never once doubted or questioned our calling to come here so in the midst of the chaos we've had that to stand on. I don't know what we would've done otherwise.

So this is a short one, but it's better than nothing, right? Below are some pictures I thought would be fun.

not a great pic, but an example of bj's type of work

this is one of the kids on the drive here & if you can see in the truck, it's Rusty...man, we miss that guy

this is a picture of some of the flooding at my dad's...it's hard to picture it, but basically there is normally 8 feet or so below this deck and never any water on this side. You can see those vehicles in the far upper right...it was about halfway up them, halfway up the rails of the deck. Crazy

happy 5th birthday, Zigga!

yee-haw! We have most definitely arrived because we have attended the county fair & rodeo!! Zoe & Malachi were in the calf scramble (for all you city folk, picture an arena full of kids in their cowboy boots chasing a bunch of calves, the first one to pull a calves tail wins. yep, that's right, we let her run with calves-- next up Spain--with Uncle Dave!)