vbt

VBT

this week is our church's VBT. the theme is Back to the Future. They had made a big time machine and each night a different Bible Character comes out and tells the kids their story.
on monday night I was Esther.

don't know why this picture is this way but I can seem to fix it, oh well, we are standing in front of the water falls they have inside this hotel...it was so cool and with the music in the background and the lights....so awesome, the kids loved it too!

in the hotel room...the one that is supposed to be very expensive...well besides the big flat screen TV, it looked like a regular hotel room...oh well, at least I can say I stayed at the Gaylord National now thanks to my aunt patti...or better thank the government for paying for her room that week :)


the cool water

aunt patti visit

Ok, Sarah and Mommy, here are new pictures for you since you guys keep bugging me about not having new ones up... :)

last thursday we all went up to meet my aunt Patti at the national habor for lunch. we decided to bring lunch to her since it is so expensive up there. so we brought up subway sandwiches. after her classes that day we went out to the airport and brett took her up as well as nathanael and madison on a airplane ride. that was madison's first flight and nathanael's second. The kids loved it...andrew is waiting for his turn to go up....but it will be a long time before mommy will let him go :)
the kids had to wear their sunglasses like daddy :)
after the plane ride Aunt patti treated us to On the Border...yummy!
These pictures were so good of the kids enjoying their visit by Aunt Patti...we should loved having you visit us aunt patti!
Andrew was being a ham that day....was trying to look the other way every time I tried taking his picture...

Ok, Sarah and Mommy, here are new pictures for you since you guys keep bugging me about not having new ones up... :)

well praise the Lord, my little Cailyn is feeling so much better. even took a nap this morning in her own crib...since Monday she has not wanted me to put her down, even when she is sleeping. I guess her ears were bothering her when she laid down. well today she is back to herself, smiling and being content by herself! Now mommy can get cleaning on this house which is soooo dirty.

andrew and cailyn swinging on the swings. Yesterday brett stayed home to help me out with the kids. They all have had colds all week and cailyn has an ear ache plus coughing. so mommy has been a little worn out since the little two especially have wanted mommy 24/7.
so yesterday brett took the two older children to Chick Fil A while I took the other two outdoors to play. Andrew loves swinging on the big swing. He points to Cailyn for the little swing...guess he is too big for it now...He's a big boy :)

Tonight I was sitting here at the computer after the kids had gone to bed, or so I thought they were in bed. Well ,I notice madison is standing beside me. I asked her what she was doing out of bed. She said she wanted to know "does nathanael have germs?" She had picked up that word from earlier when I told Nathanael to cover his mouth when he coughs so he wouldn't spread germs. Well, I told her yes he did but she would be OK. Well she then proceeds to tell me that she is going to face toward the crib(which is opposite of nathanael) so she wouldn't get his germs :) She was so cute! Just thought I would share....oh what goes on in their little heads...amazing!

This evening we had my Aunt Patti drop in for supper. (She is in the area all week for a conference.) so we had a good time with her this evening. I made chicken enchilladas and salad. Then we played a couple games of kerplunk( thanks shannon, the kids love playing that game), and then we finished the evening by eating chocolate cake...my favorite :) nathanael helped by putting the sprinkles on the cake. He said they made the cake look pretty :) So had a good night...looking forward to spending more time with my aunt later this week.

on friday I went to the thrift store to look for specific items the kids needed. Praise the Lord He provided everything I was looking for. I found some really nice jeans for nathanael, in fact 3 pairs. then I found several nice skirts for madison and I found shirts for all of them. I love andrew's shirt. It lights up :) now that shirt I found at Sears Essential on Saturday and that was on sale.
so anyway, the kids were so excited to get "new" clothes and mommy was too.

Nathanael being a great help to mommy this morning. Was running behind and he helped feed the baby so mommy could finish getting ready for church.
Madison posing while andrew was trying to hide from me. He was trying to get behind the couch before I could take his picture, but mommy got a picture :)

andrew and seth taking their nap on the couch
madison and matthew - the "love birds" :)

on the fourth of July I went over to Mary Bohac's house while our husbands went to a golf tournament(Brett had won 2 tickets to a tournament that was hosted by Tiger Woods). The kids loved playing in their pool. They were in it for several hours and they all played so well together.
we had great day on Friday! Thanks Mary for having us over :)

I know these pictures weren't the greatest but it was so cute. The other night we were playing hide and seek and I had put nathanael in this closet. Well when daddy walked by he saw his little toes sticking out then he saw his fingers. Poor nathanael, he is always giving himself away when we play this game.

july 4

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Most people in the United States celebrate the 4th of July, but do you know exactly why the holiday is so important to our country? Imagine how you would feel if someone older than you kept telling you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance. That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country.

The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee to write a formal document that would tell Great Britain that the Americans had decided to govern themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft of the document, so he worked for days, in absolute secret, until he had written a document that he thought said everything important that the committee had discussed. On June 28, 1776, the committee met to read Jefferson's "fair" copy (he put his best ideas together and wrote them neatly.) They revised the document and declared their independence on July 2, 1776. They officially adopted it on July 4, 1776. That is why we call it "Independence Day." Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration of Independence and they all began signing the "official" copy on August 2, 1776. In January of the next year, Congress sent signed copies to all of the states.

The Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country's independence and commitment to certain ideas. A symbol is something that stands for something else. Most people can look at a certain little "swoosh" and know that it stands for "Nike." Well, the signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to have a document that spelled out what was important to our leaders and citizens. They wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration of Independence and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime! So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right -- independence!

“If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.” Hamilton Fish

“It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.” - M Grundler

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” - Franklin D Roosevelt

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” - Elmer Davis

“We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.” - Robert McCracken

“And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” - Lee Greenwood


Thank you to all the men fighting for our freedom. Thank you Brandon, I love you and I am so proud of you!

baking with mommy

Tonight the kids helped me bake some peanut butter chocolate chunk brownies :) I have started buying the raw cane sugar and on the back of the bag was this recipe. It was sooo good. Hardly knew I had used different sugar.

bible verse

singing

the kids singing a song before bedtime

bowling

we went "bowling" this afternoon in our kitchen :) Andrew loves it since he loves throwing balls...he hasn't gotten the concept of "rolling" the ball instead of throwing yet but hey he gets a lot of the pins down anyway.

OK, Cailyn was far from being a happy camper for me as I tried taking a picture of her cute outfit. She was more concerned of her empty tummy then giving mommy a sweet smile...oh well, I got a picture whether she liked it or not :)

beach

Today we went to the beach with Michelle. It was the most perfect day. No humidity. Even Cailyn went and enjoyed her first day at the beach. Didn't like her feet getting wet but enjoyed laying out on a towel :) This first picture of andrew I played around with the colors using the new website Sarah found for me. Thanks sarah, I finally am getting the hang of it...it is so cool!

I found this crab in the water so brought it on the sand to show the kids. It was already dead. Andrew and Madison wanted to cover it up with sand then Nathanael came along and dug it back up and threw it back in the water. he said that was where they belonged :)


As you can see Nathanael is the only one that really loves the water! He was in it pretty much the whole time. Whereas andrew and madison enjoys playing in the sand. Andrew did put his feet in this time and seemed to enjoy it, except when he fell in the water. He came back up saying "cold, cold" :)