Gotcha Day 2016

We almost forgot about our Gotcha Day anniversary today. Life is flying by right now and without the reminders from Facebook and the painting we made in the foyer I would have completely forgotten! But we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for. So much in those 3 littles bodies to love on and learn from.

We have been really diving deep into God's word and his promises lately as life has thrown some curve balls. Fluffly, Ribbit's chicken laid its first egg on Sunday. On Monday it was killed by a hawk and Ribbit was devastated. Adam and I teared up just at the thought of having to tell our sensitive, animal loving daughter. She was quickly reminded of God's goodness though when a package showed up on our doorstep that was addressed to her. She hardly ever gets things addressed to just her. She opened it up and it was precious jewelry that my Aunt Robin made her. She was in love with it and instantly her mood was changed. We kept repeating that God knew she would need some extra love that day and he used another believer to do just that.

We have also been talking a lot about purpose with the boys. Our pastor is doing a wonderful series on "Better Together" and how the body of Christ is better when we are together. He has covered how we are commanded to come together in scripture. We are commanded to not forsake the meeting and encouragement of one another. He spoke on Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching". This reminds us that as the day of Christ draws near people will become more isolated. They will not see a need for a church family and even the family unit will began to break down. We have seen Satan use isolation before to take down family members and friends and make them think that there is no place for them in church. 

My favorite sermon though was this past Sunday when he spoke on the different excuses people use to not attend church. They talk about the pain that church has caused them....the pace of life that keeps them from attending...the pride they have that keeps them from admitting they need others. It really spoke to my kids and it was a good reminder for all that not pouring into the body of Christ is a lack of love on our part. Its a lack of trusting God with our time, emotions, pain, suffering. I don't want my children to be little legalists, but I do want them to know the importance and STRENGTH found in the family of God. I have seen it time and time again..I have lived and breathed a strong dependence in the church family. 

So HAPPY GOTCHA DAY TO MY 3 BIGGEST BLESSINGS. YOU ARE LOVED, ADORED, WANTED and more than that you are adopted by the Father God. 

A huge painting that the two art teachers painted while our headmaster preached on being ROOTED in Christ!

This big man was invited to receive a medal from the Mayor for all of his summer reading minutes.

My kiddos are blessed to go to Cougar Club when Adam and I have inservice. It wore him out and this is what I saw at 4:45!!

Teachers kids have all the fun. This was their reward for unpacking and putting away all of my art supplies. They turned the whole room into a fort!

My AWESOME dinner before the Dixie Chicks concert. I only ate 1/2 and was stuffed!!

My awesome date for the Dixie Chicks concert..my bestie Leianne.

LOVING THE CHICKS!!!

Soooooo many high school and college memories!

Lots of political puns!

Beautiful backgrounds

The Finale!

Big girl got a mermaid outfit from Lolly and Captain and an art kit from Aunt Micah and Uncle Chris. She woke up early on Saturday and put them both to good use!

Receiving his medal!

The mayor told him that he was the best dressed!!!

Swimming with Annalei...they both had mermaid outfits. Annalei is Leianne's (in above picture) daughter

Driving Mr. Reeder's boat on Lake Granbury! We love our Connect Group at church!

Little Man's turn!

I asked Ribbit to put her thank you notes in the mail and make sure the flag was up so the mailman would take them. 20 minutes later this is what I found! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

August 2016

Making apple chips with momma!

 The first week of school was great, no big hiccups. This week though has been full of them.
Little Man is having a hard time obeying and is really testing his teacher. He has lost some privileges at both home and school. Its getting better but I don’t like starting out my year with lots of teacher conferences!

Then, Ribbit got sick right when we got to school on Tuesday morning. She was constipated …and was straining so hard that she caused her nose to start bleeding and had blood in her stool. Since, she had surgery at age 1 to remove her small intestine from her large we have to watch for blood in her stool which would be a sign of another complication. The poor girl didn’t feel well for almost an hour. Adam ran home and got her digestive oil and we rubbed her down. 20 minutes later she pooped and her nose stopped bleeding. She stayed in my room and colored for an hour and then she was happy and felt well enough to go back to school. Her teacher let her take it easy the rest of the day and she spent most of the day in the rocking chair, reading.

Goober has had a pretty solid year. Some little mis-steps here and there. He is all of sudden the center of attention with his new hair do and I’m not sure he knows what to do with his new popularity. He keeps forgetting that we see all and hear all from our friends and he needs to choose his peers wisely. I am proud of him though for reaching out to a new kid and completely taking him in….He has also stepped up his game in violin and is doing quite well!

We are starting back to church tonight so our Wednesdays are long…with teacher devotionals starting at 7:15 am, and then not getting home until 8 pm from church. Ribbit starts attending church on Wednesdays this year and therefore Adam and I can head to some bible studies as they all have somewhere they can be. Goober is officially in the youth group and I love that our church is really into peer mentoring. I think he will be challenged in his faith this year and I am excited to see him become a leader, the leader that we all know he can be!!

I miss these afternoons at the library, sitting in the warm windows.

They loved throwing pottery. In fact, we emptied the kiln yesterday and Ribbit gave her teacher a pretty pot this morning!

Our favorite sitter Miss Tootie took the kids swimming. I am a nut when it comes to my kids and water so I made them wear floaties. She will still able to get some great pictures though! We are sad though, Miss Tootie left for college on Tuesday.

The last weekend before school started we let them each pick a friend to stay the night. Ribbit chose her fried from church and they had fun being artsy and girly.

Both boys chose our neighbor, surprise surprise and they  had fun playing ping pong and camping out in the playroom!

We had a good looking group ready for church the next morning!

We LOVE our connect group and we love that our pastor is doing a whole sermon series on how we are all BETTER TOGETHER. Isolation is the biggest tool that Satan can use. He tells us we don't need a church family and that we can do life in isolation....That could not be farther from the truth!

A little modeling before church!

School Days

Its school time, again! We are all settling in rather nicely I think. Its not too big a difference in our schedules as we are up early and down early every night anyways. Its also not a shock for us to be on our campus either, we live here in the summer, being a part of camps, riding bikes, playing basketball, meeting up with friends. The kids have done great, no crying, no whining. In fact, quite the opposite. Ribbit desperately wanted to come to school on Saturday and asked about 300 times when she could return. We adore her teacher and her classroom discipline plan...in fact, she is writing a book about how science and scripture align to give us the very past forms of discipline and praise. I want her to come do a "super-nanny" style observance of us at home and help us implement her awesome strategies....eh, maybe I want her too...maybe I want to try to become more consistent myself first!

Little Man has already forgotten his nap mat and water bottle. His behavior has also required a special little one on one with his teacher. Apparently he does not like to be touched, told what to do or asked to be quiet. He also does not say "yes mam", he says "capiesh". Capiesh!!!!! We assured her to physically move him into line, to take away part of recess, to do whatever necessary so he is reminded of who is boss....I even told her to spank him..hehe, she wouldn't but dag nabbit, spanking is biblical!!!

Goober loves all of 6th grade. He loves that lunch is after PE now, instead of before it. He loves that he is taking classes in the high school building and has even asked his teachers if he could come see me...they said No :). He loves that he can get a hall pass and go the bathroom without having to ask. He loves being with all his friends again and talking about basketball, the Olympics, the latest shoes (which change daily) and what dance move is in style. He is now the kid with the cool hair do..that flat top is earning him lots of cool points. We even got an email from one of his teachers, who he had last year, saying how great he was doing, paying attention, and really focusing....hmm, could be because he is seated in the front row, or because he is putting his "focus" blend on or because he is tired of being on restriction from TV during the school year :).

Adam was out the first Monday of school with awful sinus pressure and dizziness. He felt better using frankencinse for dizziness and we diffused rosemary and cardamom in our room to help hi recoop. He came back strong and has been checking things off his list like crazy. His new assistant is wonderful and the two get along great!!!

I am loving my classes so far, the 7th graders look tiny to me, the 8th grade girls are already loud to me :), and my high schoolers are so easy to love...maybe because for some of them this is our 3rd year together, or maybe because they show me how much they love art. I literally had high schoolers gasping when I uncovered the pottery wheels yesterday...they got anxious and started saying how much they had missed throwing..that is why I teach right there, that love of learning! I have 17 students in Ceramics class this year..MY BIGGEST EVER..and 7 of those are returning to be in Ceramics 2...AWESOME!!!

She was so excited to have a painting/cupcake party!

We turned the playroom into a princess painting studio.

Ribbit wanted everyone to paint butterflies.

The chickens and trampoline were a big hit too!

Cupcake decorating ...we made lions and chickens..just like on our cruise!

The girls loved it..and I love that you can see Little Man inhaling icing by the spoonful in this picture!

Showing off his lion!

Singing Happy Birthday to our big girl....she was so happy to make her own cake and show it to her friends! IT was sooo tasty too...dark chocolate with peppermint!

Making a wish!

Opening all of her gifts!

Fluffy got lots of attention that day!

Showing off their creations!

She wanted to put large flowers and balloons on the mailbox so everyone would know where to come!

Later on that night we cooked the turnips and turnip greens from our garden!

Oh the sweetness. This was her birthday outfit from her bubbas. I can barely handle the toothless grin!

Last day of Summer

Today is our official last day of summer. We are going to spend it at the Dallas Arboretum with friends and then some last minute errands for school.

We have been glued to the Olympics for the last two days so that will be hard to tear ourselves away from. I LOVE that my kids got to see Boudani and Johnson give all the glory to God after winning a silver medal in diving. They did such a great job at putting God in the spotlight rather than themselves and it made me cringe a little less at their very small swim suits.

We have also been spending a lot of time with some of my high school students. I LOVE when the kids start coming back to school and then when they want to come to my house...they get to see the real deal and they get to see that teachers have lives outside of the classroom and that we too FAIL miserably. What I mean by FAILING is that I learned the most from teachers who showed me that they were real, that they made mistakes and that they didn't have it all together. They were people and I loved them for that. I think as teachers we have to show kids how to not have it all together but how to fail and become better. We need to show them we too are desperate for God and for 2nd, 3rd, 4th chances. I let two students (one a senior, one who just graduated) come over and I NEVER CLEANED A THING. They sat in my dirty kitchen, with crumbs literally encircling them...as my kids literally threw a baseball from one side of the living room to the other before crashing into some artwork...while my other kid spilled 5 different colors of glitter on to the floor and into her brand new bookbag. There was a pile of dishes, including some burnt easy bake oven cookies, 2 huge mounds of laundry on the sofa and all of my lesson plans, curriculum and doTerra papers literally covered the island. It was so awful that it was funny.....but it was so real and I was so glad that we got that time together before school started and before one of them leaves for college tomorrow.

We went to Meet the Teacher on Monday night and my kids were giddy when they saw their friends. Its so sweet to see little girls run and squeal after they haven't seen each other in a whole summer or just 2 weeks (so many summer birthday parties). I also loved that Baby Boy and is bestie, Collins are in the same class again..I was shocked at HOW BIG they both are compared to the other 4 year olds. She was in a cute pink dress and he was "dressed' up, meaning he matched and didn' t have on a cut off shirt and they literally tackled each other and then played together for the next 30 minutes. I LOVE IT. I think their teacher got a glimpse of their activity level too!!!! PRAY FOR HER!!! Ribbit loved her teacher and loved that she has birds all over her room, just like in our home. She wanted to go back and tell her bye multiple times. I have no clue what happened at Goober's orientation...I spent the first 10 minutes gushing with the other moms about how we cannot believe we have 6th graders and then I was given the "you can go now" look and so I did. He owns that campus anyways and he knows to always come back to my room or his dad's office...or go shoot hoops in the high school gym...teachers kids think they run they school :).

Baby Boy went rock climbing with his bud Kason! LOVED IT

This right here was fantastic...grass bed beef, spinach, brussel sprouts with lots of curry and tumeric!!

We got one of those huge melon slicers and not only does it work but it take all the seeds out too!!

Mr. Yard man right here. He took over the lawn maintenance this summer and even got paid for mowing our neighbors yard too!

Waterpark day with the Eberts!

LOVE my new car diffuser from my in-laws. The kids love it too and like to guess what oil I have in!!

Making her own birthday cake, using the same doll mold that my mom and grandma used to make cakes!

Some rock climbing buddy love!

Pretty awesome for a 4 and 5 year old!

Putting on some final touches!

Her 7th birthday cake. She chose to do a mermaid. She looks so big in this picture!!! The cake was so stinking good to..dark chocolate mint!! It was gooey in the middle while made it even better!