Sad day...

Today I spent some time working in Caroline's room-cleaning out things that didn't belong, things that didn't have a matching pair and things that sadly were too young for her...one of those being this large bin of board books.  As I packed them, I thought about the fun nights that we rocked and read each of these books.  I think about her wanting to hear the same books every single night for weeks on end...and I also thought about the book "Let Me Hold You Longer" by Karens Kingsbury.  This book talks about all the lasts...the last rock good night, the last midnight feeding, etc.  In this case, had I know these books would have been packed up so soon, I might have read them one more time...

Here's to hoping one day our dreams will come true and Caroline will finally get her baby brother and we can pull them out again...until then, in the attic they go...

First Game of the Season

No better way to enjoy the first game of the season that to be with friends!  Our good friends Ashley and Brandon invited us over to watch the game.  The hubs was SUPER happy given that we don't have cable this year...what a fun game it was.  The kids played so well together and the adults got to enjoy hanging out.  Who could ask for anything better?

Fun at Church

This past Wednesday we had our back to school festival at church.  The weather was great and the kids had so much fun!

 

snowcones

 relaxing listening to music

 blessed with amazing talent at our church

 Mr. George remodeled this old A-Model, so pretty

 the older kids hanging out

 Caroline and Jude were stuck together like glue!!

5K Classroom Visit

We had a very last classroom visit at Calvary this morning.  Can't believe it's been 3 years since I very first visit in 2k.  Here is 3k and 4k.  Caroline was excited to pick out her outfit and insisted that she needed to take her book bag with her this morning.  Daddy met her at school and they had a wonderful time playing together and seeing many of her friends.

Prayers for my Uncle Lee

If you click on the above picture, you will see a very  faint rainbow...As I have been praying for my uncle, I loved that God sent a rainbow to remind me of his faithfulness in ALL things.

*Please forgive me, these details may be a little off but this is the best I have understood.*

Monday evening my mother's youngest sibling and only brother had a seizure, his first seizure.  He was immediately taken to the hospital where they later realized that he had a spot on his brain.  He was then transferred to MUSC for further testing.  It was discovered that he has a small tumor on the right front side of his brain.  The DR's rate the tumors 1-4 and believe that his is between and 1-2.  They will know for sure what they are dealing with after surgery today.

I don't know what time surgery is scheduled for but would you please join me in prayer for Uncle Lee and his family.  Pray that the Dr's hands would be steady and precise.  Pray for wisdom as they progress through the surgery.  Most of all, please pray for those family members who are waiting...waiting was always the hardest part when daddy had surgery.

Will update you all when I know more.

Do a Good Turn Daily

For years, I always heard my dad say "do a good turn daily" aka a special act of kindness. I knew that it meant to do something nice and it was related to boy scouts but I wasn't exactly sure what it meant.  I heard Daddy use it a lot during his battle with cancer.  Friends from all over volunteered to drive him over an hour for radiation, sit for an hour or so and then drive him back home.  He was humbled by their kindness...he said, you never know how others may repay you for your kindness. 

I had a situation yesterday that made me think of my daddy...couldn't help but think he was smiling.  I have a sweet friend that is starting something new and is pretty overwhelmed by all that there is to do.  She  asked me for help and I have been more than happy to help.  Yesterday I was rewarded for my help although I never expected any reward for it. 

I guess you never know who is watching and observing your good turn daily or "a special act of kindness."

Good Morning

Don't you all wish you got to wake up to this bunch every morning!  Happy Tuesday!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

How many of you are singing "there will be parties for hosting, marshmallows for roasting and caroling out in the snow..."  Oh wishful thinking right?  Well in my 4 year's heart, today just might be the happiest day...her first day back at dance!  She was thrilled!  When we put her tights on, she said "Man these feel so nice and cozy!"  (don't know where she gets it from?)  She had a wonderful time!  Andy and I enjoyed having our weekly hour date back.  Although it's gonna be tough getting use to Monday dates instead of Thursday dates...

 

posing

 wanted to take a picture with her little bunny

 ready and waiting

Thankful once again for the Lord's provision in my summer job in order for Caroline to be able to take and enjoy dance another year.

Sweet Little Lulu

Earlier today I was working on lunch when Caroline calls me to hurry in the bedroom.  She sounded panicked so I stopped what I was doing and rushed in.  When I got to the door, she was smiling and said "Mommy get a picture of me and sweet little Lulu."  Seriously is that all??  Love her!

Bowling

As a sort of end of the summer celebration, Andy took Caroline and I on a date bowling.  Caroline was so excited and couldn't wait to go.  She has only been bowling once and it was for a birthday party.  She was thrilled and honestly, so was I!  We had a wonderful time, lots of laughs and plenty of smiles!  So thankful for sweet memories with my family.

 

first time up-she let go of the ball and turned around...crazy kid didn't want to see what was happening...

 curiosity got the best of her...she couldn't stand not knowing

 pretty excited

 looks happy to me!

 she didn't think the ramp was such a good idea so she asked her daddy to help her roll it

 There were a few league bowlers practicing.  They never asked us to join their team...wonder why?

Another sign...

My cell phone decided it wanted to die a very slow, painful death of "old age" disease.  (Did I mention that Verizon sent me an email that said "your life isn't basic and your phone shouldn't be either????)  Anyway, today it decided to end the whole process rather quickly.  Received a text, responded and then boom, GONE!

Anyway, my sweet hubs offer to go to the Verizon store to get things straightened out for me.  He took one of our old phones and had it reactivated.  I asked that they transfer as much stuff over as possible.  The hubs did that but sadly the only thing they transferred over was my contacts...All my pictures gone...all my saved text messages gone!

But the saddest of all was my baby girls voice.  She has just turned two when we got the phones.  It has a neat recording feature where we were able to record her singing "Jesus Loves Me" as well as saying "You've got a message mommy" every time I got a text message.  Well Andy's old phone had the same feature so I had her record it again.  But guess what, the baby voice was gone and somehow there was a little girls voice on there now...every time I hear it, it makes me sad...Oh how I wish I could get her precious "little" voice back...Another sign...she's growing up!

Chess Passes

I walked into "Caroline's room the other day and she was packing her book bag.  She said "Mommy, I got bears lots of chess passes for the park today."  I said "You have what?"  She said "Chess passes, so they can all get in free and ride as much stuff as they want."  Then it dawned on me, she meant guest passes! 

A few days later, I walked into my bed room and found this.  She said "We used our chess passes and we all got to come into the movie for free!"

Andrews Baptism

 Late last Thursday night, I got a text from this sweet boy.  He said "Hey it's Andrew, I am being baptized on Saturday.  Let me know if you want to come."  Did I want to come...of course I did.  Would I let the two other items planned for that same exact time stop me, oh no I wouldn't!  You see Andrew was born the day I moved in for college.  I knew that I would be helping my cousin Richard and his wife with the new baby but had no clue what the Lord had in store for us. 

Andrew was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, aka OI or brittle bone disease.  For the first few months of this little guys life he was only held on a pillow.  When he was just 4 months old, he had one of his first major breaks and was in a spika cast-a cast from his waste to the tips of his toes.  At just 4 months old, he didn't let the circumstances of his life effect his outlook, he kept smiling!  Andrew has this smile...a smile that could light up a room!  He is always happy, always smiling.  On a side note, this handsome young man was the ring bearer in our wedding.  He had a child size walker, that we attached the pillow to, and he slowly made his way down the aisle.  There wasn't a dry eye in the place...He has undergone several surgeries, had many falls or breaks and is confined to a wheel chair most of the time.  But just like many years ago, he continues to smile!!  What a privilege it was to be invited to his special day.  The day in his life that he made a public confession of his faith!

 Andrew and his youth pastor

 listening very closely

 notice that sweet smile!!

Aunt Etoile and Mollie came in town for the special occasion.  Caroline LOVES sitting with Aunt Etoile.

So very thankful for Andrews' life and the way he lives it.  What an example he is to so many of us!!

Bears Adoption Party

During our fun day on Friday, Caroline said something that made my heart smile.  I walked into her room and she said "Mommy today is bears adoption party.  I adopted them from China to live with me.  Shhh be quiet because they are sleepy."  Then she called me back in there and said "Will you take a picture of bears at their party with their momma?"

This made my heart smile because we are using the word adoption freely in our vocabulary these days.  Whenever it comes up, we talk about how beautiful it is and what a precious gift it is, especially to our family!  As you might remember, Caroline didn't say a whole lot or have a lot of questions when we had our adoption day party for her.  But I can see the wheels turning in her little brain as she acts this our with bears.

I pray that she will always see what a beautiful gift adoption is.  I also pray that she realizes the Lord was at work in her little life very early on...Thank you Jesus!

happy 6th birthday Catherine!

 We just had the MOST fun at Catherine's 6th birthday Tea Party.  There were so many beautiful little princesses roaming around and having a blast!  My friend Charissa did a great job planning fun things for the girls to enjoy. 

They started by coloring this cool house.

 Next they moved into the dinning room and started painting sun catchers and magnets.

 I was pretty impressed with my girl, she was the last to finish and wasn't too worried about it.  She was taking care of every little detail. 

 Mrs. Charissa let the girls make their own sandwich, pick out the cookie cutter shape they wanted their sandwich in as well as dip fruit in chocolate.  The girls also got to decorate their own cupcake.  She served the meal in the dinning room with her very nice dishes.  The girls loved it!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl, we LOVE you bunches!!



Mommy/Daughter Day

A few days ago Caroline and I were talking about her new school year.  She was so excited about being back at school with her friends.  Somehow the conversation started about her going to school every day.  She said "You mean I will go to school without you?  What will you do without ME?"  So that got me thinking...without her I will actually clean and get stuff done during the day.  ha  Therefore we declared today Mommy/Daughter day.  No cleaning, no working on school stuff, just me and Caroline having fun together. 

 

Of course she woke up early, which meant I didn't get as much of my work done before the day started.  We had breakfast and then started working on her birthday invitations.  The controlling nut in me had to let it go.  She wanted to cut the paper, stuff the envelopes and put the stamps on.  The paper may or may not be cut in a straight line and the stamp may or may not be upside down. I did show her how to place the picture on the inside so that her feet her down...she LOVED it!



 

Then we moved onto setting up her doll house.  It's funny that she wanted me to help her yet she changed everything I set up.  Go figure!  I just happened to have an extra piece that I bought on clearance at Toys R Us.  I told her it was in honor of Mommy/Daughter day and she was THRILLED!!!! 

Sadly the pictures stop here but our day didn't.  She wanted soup for lunch since it was only about 70 degree's today and it was raining.  So we made some yummy potato soup and watched "Bambi." (I may have thrown a little tantrum when she would watch "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.")   We made cookies for dessert and then Daddy came home.

Someone's love tank was filled today...not sure whose was filled more-mine or hers!

Bears Birthday

The other night Caroline said "Hey Mommy can you take a picture of bear for his birthday invitation?  You know he has a birthday and needs an invitation picture right?"  Can you tell we are currently working on her 5th birthday?

Fun with Friends

My sweet friend Sage was in town to say her goodbyes to our friends Courtney and Jeremy, who will be leaving in a couple of months to enter the mission field.  They  wanted to take the kids swimming today and asked if Caroline and I would like to join them.  Of course WE SAID YES!!!  Not sure exactly what we were thinking as there were 12 kids and 3 adults...needless to say there wasn't a whole lot of relaxing and chatting going on but we did enjoy the few small conversations we had.

our picnic lunch went well

 popsicles for dessert :-)

Fun at the Y

Caroline, Tyler and I enjoyed a WoNdErFuL day at the YMCA pool today.  It was pretty warm and I might have gotten just a little red but oh well, first burn of the summer isn't too bad I guess.  The kids played for almost 3 hours only stopping when they had to get out for the lifeguards breaks. 

 

racing towards the torpedo's

 here she comes...

 Tyler was right behind her

 enjoying ice cream on our last break