Casting Crowns Glorious Day - Easter Crucifixion Resurrection video

Gifts for Jesus

Every year on New Year's Eve I talk to the kids about what they want to give to Jesus this year. It's a way of starting the new year fresh but at the same time focusing on Jesus & his birthday. I always enjoy seeing what is on their hearts. This year instead of just talking about their gifts I thought it would be fun to have a physical reminder. The choices were a Christmas tree, a birthday cake (for Jesus) or a manger. Two of the kids voted for the manger barely squeaking it out as the winner. They were all pleased in the end.

Jesus in the manger & His birthday gifts.

Elvis' gift. Love for Jesus & for others.

Sweet Pea's say,
"To: Jesus - I give you my time."
"To: Jesus - I give you all I own."


Bugsy's says: "Happy Cake!" (Totally him! Lol!)
He decided his gift would be kindness.

Boo Bear's says: "I will give a blanket of love."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What will you give Him?

Special Celebration

This month we had little Princess dedicated to the Lord. This has always been an important tradition & celebration for Dave and I. It means that we are promising that we will raise our child(ren) to follow the Lord. We promise to teach them about Jesus & the Bible. We also promise to guide them to their own relationship with Jesus and to grow in their relationship. Doing this before others holds us accountable to this promise. It also is a time where our church family also promises to help teach & guide our child(ren) in the ways of Jesus. It is a very, very special time to us. This was Princess's turn and though we are in a new church it was still extremely special. What made it even more so was that her dedication happened on Mother's Day. I loved that this happened. I wish our families & close friends could have been with us to celebrate this special day and witness her dedication but it was not to be this time. But we did have all of our children with us and that made it precious.


There were 15 families dedicating their children on Mother's Day evening. We all stood in a line in front of the stage & waited for our names to be called.



Princess cried through almost the entire dedication. I decided to see the humor in it. It was either that or cry, right? Lol.

Praying for our precious child & her future.

Our oldest & our youngest.

Mama & Her Chicks on Mother's Day

It's hard to get 5 children to all look at the camera & smile at once. Lol.

My darling youngest child.

Mama & Princess

Proud Parents

Thank you, Lord for the privilege of raising & loving this precious priceless little girl.

Keeping Busy

Some snapshots of school this week & last. Sweet Pea also started her Apologia CD-Rom. She loves it! I'm very pleased with this as it not only makes things easier for me but it motivates her to complete her science assignments. Definitely worth every penny. I didn't get shots of Biology or the many baking projects the kids completed. They made muffins, cupcakes, cake & cookies. Sweet Pea also made dinner for us many times this week. But here is proof that we ARE doing school! LOL! =)

Bugs works on some puzzles while I do math & Explode the Code with Boo & Elvis.



Explode the Code.........he is motivated to finish Book 3 and move on to Book 4. Love this program!



I wrote lesson plans for Sweet Pea in between helping Boo & Elvis. I found she works best if I give her specific assignments and specific days.

Coloring Time!

We started reading & discussing The Light & The Glory. While I read & we talked the kids colored pictures I had printed off the Internet. Hopefully our scanner will be working soon & I can use the pics from the Light & Glory coloring book.

Bugs joined in for a few minutes at least. =)

One of their completed pics.

I had to crop it as I forgot they had written their names on the front of their papers. I was impressed on all that they remembered from our discussion & reading even the next day.

Bugs wanted to show his off too.

Math Time

Our counting blocks are still packed away somewhere. But the beauty of it is that we can use pretty much anything to count, right? We grabbed some matchbox cars and were back in business!

Elvis used these cars to do some abstract math. He really got it seeing the numbers come to life.

He did almost all of it on his own. I was impressed! I think he is ready for some tougher math but I don't want to skip the in between parts. We'll just work a little faster to catch up from the time we took off for our move & illnesses.

The three younger kids went to AWANA again this week & Sweet Pea went to youth group. They were all so excited when they returned home. Boo & Bugs had successfully recited their memory verses to their teachers. I was proud of both of them. This is the first time Bugs has ever done anything like that! Elvis had lost his paper so he didn't have his verse memorized. His teacher was very understanding as this was only his 2nd time there. He did however have a blast during game time. Sweet Pea came home all pumped up from the message her youth pastor had preached. She has a real heart to win those she loves to Christ. She even made her own t-shirt last week and it declares, "Will you fight for Christ with me?" I love seeing her heart on fire for the Lord. The kids are all having a great time in their Sunday school, AWANA & youth group classes.