Happy Birthday Harold!

Today is my little brother's 20th birthday! I am so thankful for him and our relationship. I know God has awesome plans for him and it's neat watching his future unfold.

We love you, Harold!!!!

Molly is 7 Months and growing

Molly turned 7 months the other day. My, my, where does time go? Seems like Mary Ellen should just be 7 months, little alone, Molly. She is learning to sit up on her own. She still falls backwards ever now and then. But she's getting there. She loves getting attention from anyone, but especially her sisters.

I took these pics, because I wanted to show everyone that she is able to sit up, but it took 3 pics before she looked at the camera.

Leah loves playing with Molly. Can't ya tell?

Mary Ellen likes to sneak and get in Molly's bed with her. I guess I need to start raising the bed-side up. Molly will be coming out herself, before too long!

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

We made homemade pizza a couple weeks ago. I'm just now posting the pics, but I thought they were worth sharing. The girls had lots of fun making the pizza and eating it too! And I will say, it was pretty yummy. We'll have to do again real soon.

Thankful again today...

I am once again, so very thankful for, well, just everything! I am so thankful for my salvation through Jesus Christ, God's Son. I am thankful for my family; my dear husband, my darling little Lexie, my active and compassionate Leah, my sweet Mary Ellen and my baby Molly. I am so thankful for my mom and dad. I see everyday, now that I am a parent, just what they went through as they raised me. I'll never be able to thank them enough. I am thankful for my little brother, Harold, who keeps me young and encouraged and helps me to be "random." I am thankful for Sharon, Bud, Scott, and Liz and all of our extended family. I am thankful for my church family, whom I live with and commune with everyday. I love sharing my life with these great people and "breaking bread" with them. I am learning what it means to be a member of the "Acts 2" church. I really want that! And I am thankful for good health. Don't get me wrong, I guess I could complain about some things, but all in all, I am very blessed and I am thankful.

"Father God, these are good days for us right now. Thank you. Help me to praise you in the good times and in the storms of life. Please be with my friends who are hurting and are discouraged. Please use me to encourage them and show them to You. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Please use me however you see fit. I am Yours. Amen."

The link below will take you to a Youtube video of a song that is my testimony.

I love this song and hope to sing it soon!

My favorite line is: "sin has lost it's grip on me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsgwfliQoqg

Lexie's Sunday School Promotion

Lexie has been in the same Sunday School class for the last 5 years. Ms. Sheila Hendley has been her teacher and she has done an outstanding job teaching God's Word. This last Sunday, Lexie was promoted to the Kindergarten class. Ms. Sheila gave Lexie a flower and a card. This was really special to Lexie. I am so proud of her and her love for God, the Church and Sunday School. I'm excited to see God's plan unfold for our little Lexie. God is already using her in amazing ways!

"Home's cool"

Today was Lexie's first day of Kindergarten and Leah's first day of Preschool. They were excited about all of their new school books and supplies. We started the day out with prayer, followed by calendar and weather time, then we started with the books; handwriting, art, phonics and math. That was today, tomorrow we'll switch some of the subjects and add some science. Leah is excited about science this year because it starts with Day 4 of Creation, when God created the planets. She wants to be an astronaut someday, among many other careers, and so she is very excited about science.

Enjoy the pics of their first day back to school!

My Little Brother is an Assistant Coach

I am so proud of my little brother, Harold. He'll be 20 this month, so he's really not so little anymore. But he is still my little brother.

He just recently took the responsibility of "Special Teams" football coach for our alma mater: Wayne County High School.

He is second from the left on the back row.

Click on the link below to see the team!

http://wayne.ky.schoolwebpages.com/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=116&

Blog Happy

For those of you who follow our blog regularly, you've probably noticed that I change it up quite a bit. Well, this is fun! There are so many options out there to design blogs. I just can't decide how I want it to look! But I do think I like this brown and pink background with the polka dots. Someday, I want to paint the girls room brown and pink! I think its sooo pretty!

Anyway...

Hard working Lexie

Lexie has been working hard this morning. She has decided that she wants to start saving money to purchase her own "Jesse" doll, from TOY STORY. So... I made her a little chart so she can keep up with how much money she has. This morning she earned her first dollar, the first of the thirty-five to be earned! Anyway... she cleaned up the living room, the school room, and the "reading area." This pic shows her resting and reading after working so hard to clean this morning. I know, I know, that was a lot of work for just one dollar. One down, thirty-four to go!

Molly

I finally found a walker for Molly. And she does seem to enjoy it! She is not walking in it yet. She only goes backwards because she pushes her back on the seat and therefore, pushes walker and all backwards.

She brings lots of joy to us every time she smiles. The girls are really taking to her and each girl is trying to be the best big sister. They each want to hold her, feed her, pack her around, etc. And I do try to let them help as much as possible.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Our girls are absolutely in love with the TOY STORY movies and toys. Leah, especially, loves her TOY STORY toys. She received some for her birthday and saved some money to purchase the BIG Buzz Lightyear. I tried to capture some of her imagination in these photos. She loves to change the face on Mr. Potato Head and she tries to act out different scenes from all 3 movies.

Buzzzzzzz Light year......... to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!

It is well...

Just wanted to write and say how thankful I am today.

I am so blessed with an amazing, loving husband, 4 beautiful little girls... of whom all are very healthy. I know that the Lord gives and takes away. I pray that if it is ever HIS plan to "take away," that I will trust Him. We don't always understand what God is doing or even what His Master plan is. But I do know that He can be trusted.

"Thank you, God, for today. Thank you for my family. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for your promises."

Home Sweet Home

It seems that I am always posting little trips that we take here and there. Well, today I thought I would post that we are enjoying being at home. We've been at home all week, since Tuesday anyway. It has been nice! Greg has been busy as Pastor, I've been busy with housework and getting the schoolroom ready, and the girls have enjoyed being at home.

That's all. Just wanted to share that we do spend time at home and enjoy it very much.

Mary Ellen's Good Report

Some of you have been praying for Mary Ellen's hip. Back in June she went for her well visit and her doctor felt "clicking" in her hip when he rotated her femur in her hip socket. There is not supposed to be any clicking at all when this is done. But since Mary Ellen had some clicking in her hip, he recommended that she see a specialist just to be safe. Two months later we were able to get in to see the specialist, which was this last Monday. The previous Sunday, Greg anointed Mary Ellen and our church family prayed for her. I can't describe to you the peace that we had through all of this. Even when we first found out that there might be something wrong, Greg and I both just completely trusted God to take care of her. We knew that HE would. And HE did! The specialist reported that her x-rays were perfect and that he did not feel any clicking when he examined her! His words were, "She's 100% normal." And thanks be to God!

So, this occasion deserved a little celebrating. Since we were in Columbia and we just happened to have some extra Chuck E. Cheese tokens, free drink cups and a good pizza coupon, we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a blast! Imagine that! I have lots of memories of going when I was a little girl. It's neat to take our girls to a place that I also loved to go to as a kid.

Thanks Mom and Dad for all of my Chuck E. Cheese memories!

MOCA Retreat... but no mocha : (

Our family is so very blessed in so many ways. I often feel, I don't know, guilty for posting all of our little trips on the blog. I know so many families that struggle to come up with enough gas money to make a trip to the grocery store, little alone, anything above and beyond that. So please understand, that I write all of these stories very humbly. I know that it is only by God's provision and Greg's hard work that make these things possible.

Greg serves on the Missouri Ozark Community Action (MOCA) board of directors. He attends monthly meetings and often attends other events that this board supports; preschool openings/remodelings, weatherization seminars, etc. And once a year, this board has a retreat at one of the resorts at the Lake Ozark area. There are several hours of meetings for Greg, but the girls and I are privileged to tag along and enjoy the nice meals and the indoor swimming pool. Oh, and the King suite for one night. So needless to say, we enjoy ourselves, well the girls and I do anyway. Greg has his meetings to attend, but afterwards he is free to do whatever.

Below are some pics of the girls enjoying the pool while we were there.