Springtime!!

Time to...

Pose in front of the dogwood and azalea trees

 Enjoy the pog (term coined by Daniel for pollen fog)

  We've had extraordinary amounts of yellow pollen this year. It has often looked like yellow snow coming down and coating everything.

Play with water

 notice the yellow running water (from the pog)

Of course, some water babies must submerge themselves whenever possible

Hoola Hoop

...sort of

Play in the sandbox

...until one of them pours sand on the other and looses sandbox privileges.

 "But, that's ok, Abbey, I don't mind a sand bath!"

Springtime = Funtime

Caught, not taught

I've often heard that values are "caught" by children not "taught". That can be a little intimidating, to say the least. Lots of times I'll see or hear one of my kids do or say something that isn't quite lovely, and I'll think, "Ok, where did they see or hear that?" I wish I could point the bony finger at someone else, but often it is the other three pointing back that are correct.  Then there are the good times when I see something and think, "Wow, we've done something right."  The other day at dinner time was one of those times.

When we sat down to dinner, Elijah had his hands over his eyes.

We stopped to look at him and he was mumbling away. Then he took his hands away and shouted,"Ahmun!". He was saying the blessing. Of course, we all made a big deal out of it, so Abbey had to get her attention. She began doing the same thing he had done and I had to take her picture also.

She's been saying the blessing for some time, but just needed some extra acknowledgment.

This also brings to mind another quote that I try to be mindful of,

"Don't be too concerned that your children don't do everything you say, but be very mindful that they see everything you do." 

I forgot where I heard/saw it, but it is so very true!

Speaking of dinner, look where our two dogs camp out every meal..

Can you guess why??

Easter!

 In their Easter outfits Nana bought

Cool duo

We had a wonderful, relaxing Easter.  After church, Anna and I went to see the movie, Last Song. It was pretty good, but it made me cry. Anyone who knows me knows I don't like sad books, movies or songs. Life can be sad enough, I want my entertainment to make me happy. But, Anna wanted to go. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be, and I enjoyed the time with Anna.

When we got home we had the traditional Easter Egg Hunt with Abbey and Elijah. It took Elijah a little bit to figure out what he needed to do,

but Abbey jumped in, as Abbey always does, with both feet.

Of course, the best part is eating the candy.

With the master egg hider

The rest of the afternoon the kids played outside.

Of course, we missed our other two kids, but it was a low key, fun day.

Anna's now 19! April 2

My middle baby girl is now 19 years old! Her celebration started in the morning with the traditional breakfast:

 Chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream, yum, yum!

Sharing some whip cream with her sister

She had requested crab legs and asparagus for her birthday dinner.

Beth came home last weekend for Anna's birthday. She knew she wouldn't be able to get any cheap flights on Easter weekend. The girls spent some time together over the weekend. They had some silly moments:

My Mom and Dad came again this weekend.

  Mom made a cute cake.

It had Peeps around chocolate chips to look like a sunflower. Anna loves Peeps.

John, Jr. wanted to celebrate with his sister. But, when he got here, I took one look at him and knew something wasn't right. He looked really sick. He told me that his throat was killing him. I looked at his throat and felt his lymph nodes. I thought he had strep throat,  and told him to go to the Minute Clinic. He went, but it didn't do any good. The person there told him his throat didn't look that bad and he needed to go to an urgent care for blood work. So, after sitting for 2 hours in an urgent care, he was told he had strep throat!

Obviously, we aren't real pleased with the Minute Clinic. By the time he got done, he just wanted to go to his own bed. So, he drove back to his home. Poor baby. It made me so sad for him.

Before we left we took some pictures of him and the birthday girl:

Notice the weak eyes?

Here are some more pictures of Anna's special day:

We discovered that Elijah absolutely loves chocolate cake and ice cream.

He even picked up his plate and began to lick it!

And we've known that Abbey is a icing freak (she left the cake).

Anna is getting ready to graduate from high school. At this time, she wants to go to cosmetology school to learn to do hair. As I've stated before, she is a very diligent worker. As she gets ready for the next phase in her life, it will be interesting to see where the Lord takes her. On one hand, it's hard for me to see any of my kids grow up and leave me, but on the other hand, it is wonderful to see them become adults. Very bittersweet job, this mama thing. I'm proud of Anna and love to talk with her. (When I get a chance and she isn't working). 

Happy Birthday, my precious Anna, I love you very much!!

Hey, we have friends in high places...

We are related to ....

The Easter Bunny!!

Seriously. The Easter Bunny at our local mall is our own...

Anna

It just proves that this teenager will do just about anything to earn some money. I'm very proud of her work ethic. The suit was very hot and, when she began, she had a horrible cold. Imagine sneezing and you can't get to your nose, no fun at all. 

I took Abbey and Elijah to see her. As you can tell by the picture up at the top, Abbey understood it was Anna. But not Elijah. Even when Anna lifted up the head to show him;

He sees his sister and smiles at her

But, then when she puts the mask back on...

The thumb goes into the mouth, and he backs away as if to say, "Help that Bunny just ate my sister, and I'm next!"

Happy with the ears, but he's on the lookout for that people eating bunny!

Elijah's Dedication- March 28

This past Sunday, John and I stood in front of our church family and promised to do all we can to raise Elijah under the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The congregation then promised to help us in this endeavor. At our church, we call this baby dedication. It is important to us for several reasons:

• First of all we are publically saying that we are going to try to lead lives that will point our kids to the Lord.
• We are saying that we are giving them to the Lord, and trusting in His will for their lives.
•  We are asking and they are promising to give us assistance as we raise our children.
• It gives us a specific time to reference to Elijah when he gets older. We can tell him that on this day we promised to raise him to know the Lord and trusted God to take care of all aspects of his life.

For this occasion we were given the task of picking a life verse for Elijah. We picked:

Psalm 27:1

 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
       whom shall I fear?
       The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
       of whom shall I be afraid?

 On stage, I was holding Abbey in this picture. 

We picked this verse especially for Elijah because he is afraid of so many things. Also, our grandest wish is that he will know the salvation of God that comes from Christ Jesus.

Beth was home this weekend. My parents came for the dedication. This gave us an opportunity for taking pictures. We tried to get a combination of everyone.

I love this little one!

I love this little one also!

I also love these two big ones!

The girls

Just me and my eldest

My Mom and Dad with Elijah

All of the girls (except for Abbey, she was too busy running around)

All of the grandkids except for John

Me and my partner for life

I don't remember what precipitated this, but it's cute anyway!