Hannah's first book... that she wrote!

This is a book by Hannah. For school time today we were working on writing and making stories and I asked Hannah what story she would like to tell. She said she would like to tell the story of "Jesus goes to Heaven." I was like, yeah! So in order to keep her attention longer I decided to write her words for her and then she illustrated it. One page had an object that looked like circle type thing... I don't know... I asked her what it was and she said it was the Holy Spirit. If you were ever wondering what the Holy Spirit looked like, now you know. :) I asked her to write Holy Spirit there so we would know what it was. I think we should publish this masterpiece!!! (*** All words are Hannah's with NO prompting.)

iTunes

What’s in your iTunes podcast?

Here is my list:
ABC News Ahead of the Curve
ABC World News
Best of YouTube
commandN h.264
CreativePastors Blog & Podcast
Cross Timbers Community Church
Discovery Channel Video Podcasts
DragenflyTV PBS Kids
FamilyFun TV
Fielder Road Baptist Church
First Baptist Grapevine
Focus on the Family
GeekBrief.TV
MobuzzTV
Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram
National Geographic Video Shorts
NBC Nightly News
Revive Out Hearts
TED Talks
UpWords with Max Lucado
Winning Steps with Dr. Ed Young

(Joshua got me hooked on the tech ones, what can I say)

Do you have any neat podcasts you’d like to share?

Cubby Award Night

Hannah has completed one year of Awans. She has had so much fun going to church every weeks and playing with friends. Best of all she has memorized a verse from the Bible every week. WOW. She has a great memory, and even has some still memorized. (They didn't all just get memorized for one week.) Her fav and the one all the kids
memorized is Luke 24:34 "The Lord has risen." (Awana Kid memorizing friendly version.) Around Easter time they would walk (ok, more like run) around the house saying, "The Lord has risen!" Very cute.

Tonight was the award ceremony for the Awans. Hannah being in Cubbies for one year earned the Cubby Bear pin. She also received a certificate and ribbon. (Not sure why, the certificate was made out to Joshua and I, for faithfully bringing her to Cubbies and the ribbon has nothing on it to say what it was for...) Hannah walked on the stage, shook the Pastors hand, walked across the stage to accept her award and then sat on the steps with her group. I am more proud of her for doing that then getting the award! She is such a shy girl.

(Hannah was not cut and pasted into this picture. I didn't want a bunch of kids on the internet without parent permission, so I blurred them.)


We took pictures with our big girl.



We gave Hannah a choice after the ceremony. She could either go home or play with her friends on the church playground. What do you think she choose? :) We got the other kids from childcare and had some fun playing together. Sijah and I took pictures and I fed him a bottle, a couple (or several) more months till he can join in on the fun!








(I just have to say here, I did not match those shorts with her pants - they are extra shorts the church has in case of accidents... just don't want any of you thinking I thought the stripes all went together) :)



We had a fun evening and toped it off with Pizza. Hannah was very excited about her Cubbie Bear and we'll see what next year holds. She'll be a Sparky next year. Maybe Caleb will do Cubbies?
Good Times, Good Times!

Sijah is getting so BIG!

Ear of corn

This was not staged... Joshua looked at Caleb and saw a "picture perfect" moment.

You'll miss it when they're older...

As I was changing my oldest child's diaper at church (this would have been 4 years ago, when she was 8m old) I happened to say how much I really dislike diaper changing. A well meaning lady promptly offered me this advise, "Enjoy it now, you'll miss it when she's older." I can honestly say, I do not miss changing her diaper!
I was thinking about this yesterday while I was cleaning Abrianna's snot for the 10th time that day. I thought, someone might tell me I'll miss this when she's older. I do not agree!

I do not believe I'll ever miss:
changing diapers, cleaning noses, potty training (and all that goes with it), washing them down after a good messy dinner, hearing the screems of a sibling fight, listening to the whine of a toddler not getting thier way, spilled drinks on the floor (to either stain carpet or make the hard floor sticky), dealing with diaper rash, or yeast, being spit up on by a formula drinking baby (that stuff is the worst), cleaning food off the table... again, cleaning the car out... again, washing hair full of dinner, hearing the door slam 50 times a day while kids are in and out of the house, wiping your potty going boy's bum and buttoning his pants (this just now happened), the endless washing of my hands, filling drink cups over and over x5, being asked the same question over and over even after you've given the answer... etc.

However there are things I will miss:
The sweet breath of a breast feed baby, the stretch that newborns have, kissing my newborns chin, hearing the fist coo's from your baby, seeing the first smile from your baby, watching your baby play with toys that dangle over head, the first kisses your toddler tries to give you, hugs from our Abrianna (just thinking of it makes me smile), playing with my hair that Caleb does (a weird habit he has), listening to the girls play sweetly with each other, watching Caleb play with the girls in a very boy way (crash, boom, explode!), reading books with all 5 on and around my lap, my one year old trying to knock me down as she sees the older ones wrestle with daddy, clean baby bodies getting rubbed with lotion, brushing my girls hair after a bath and no tangles, getting my girls ready for church in dresses and bows, Caleb telling me what he likes, young minds trying to figure out how things work, watching young ones learn to count/abc's/colors/shapes and light up when they answer your questions correctly, Caleb asking, "you wanta watcha mome?," children spontaneously saying, "I love you," saying the Lord's Prayer and listing to them say it by memory.
These among many others I will miss!

Couzin Ethan's Birthday

A child's imagination

A child's imagination is a great thing. This is some imagination in action.

Here we have the bear fight. My 3 strong defenders of the house are 'killing' the big daddy bear. (a little violent I know, but how silly!)


Caleb is so strong he thinks he can take down our tree. Good try! :)



Hannah made a swing for her stick baby. She had fun helping her stick have fun. :)


Oh the things that bring joy to a child. And what do we adults do? Well, I don't know about you but I blog. :)

Just Sarah

I've noticed Sarah hasn't been in many pictures lately. Here is a blog just for her!
Joshua was mowing the lawn and decided to leave a patch of flowers (weeds) for Sarah to enjoy. She did enjoy them. She loves flowers almost as much as bears. She ran in the long dandelions and she sat in the purple ones. Such a beautiful princess (her name meaning - Sarah Belle)