It's official

It's official--Seviann is taller than me. Can you believe it?
Happy New Year everyone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS. YOU ARE THE LORD OF LORDS AND THE KING OF KINGS. ALL PRAISE AND HONOR AND GLORY BELONG TO YOU.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GIFT OF SALVATION

House pictures

I know I promised to post these pictures months ago, so please forgive me. Unfortunately, it is not nearly as pretty now that all the trees have lost their leaves, but we are still enjoying the views.

This is a picture looking out of our front door--that little bit of water is the pond, which is actually much better to look at in person than the picture I took. It will make you sigh a breath of serenity to watch the water gently moving.





This a slightly different angle to show the dock.

This is the pond. The house is to the right of this picture. Aren't the ducks beautiful?

OOPS--same picture as above

The front yard, again the house is to the right.

Looking at the house from the pond.

The back of the house/ Ya'll know that I miss my screen porch, so in the future that open patio area to the right will become a screen porch--God willing.

The wooded acreage. The kids and I have plans to build a shanty town out here with the downed trees complete with little roadways, a store, a church, and a house for each child. This may be a hefty endeavor. They also want a tall tree house as a lookout with a slide.?!

This house has so much potential and we have already put a big dent on the projects inside. If the house was clean, I would have posted pictures on what we have done to the inside, so stay tuned. Some of the projects have turned out really great, some are still under construction, and others ---well, lets just say that we have learned a lot along the way.

I am just thankful that my husband still looks at me and smiles after the year that we have been through. We could have been one of the statistics facing divorce after unemployment, a move, and a remodel in one year. But, praise God, Jesus is in our lives and we have only grown closer and more thankful for God's mercy and grace when we have fallen short. I have seen great courage and strength in Mark. He has been loving and gracious, even in the 18 hour remodel days when he was still fixing the same electrical problem he started that morning. (I would have had to throw something across the room after the first couple of hours and scream really loud, but he was composed and patient.) He never lost his faith that God would provide for our family in His perfect timing and His perfect way. He was always gentle and hardworking and most importantly, he was standing up as the head of our household by bending down on his knees to pray. I have a wonderful husband and I am so blessed to be his help meet.

Cowboy Briley

Love notes

We all love to feel special and be told that we are special. I have on all too rare occasions written notes to my children to let them know how much they mean to me and how much I love them; but today I was blessed to find a note left in the kitchen for me. My cup runneth over.

Christmas goodies

This is the plate of goodies the kids and I made for the neighbors. That ugly looking cake thing in the corner is Paula Dean's cake that we have renamed "Skor cake", then there is banana bread, chocolate covered pretzels, and a mini cheeseball with crackers. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly easy to make this. So I am blogging about it so that next year I will remember what we did and repeat it.

I love things that are fun and EASY.

Christmas party

Let's get this party started!

Peek-a-boo!

The girls

The boys

The moms

Briley made a new friend. I wish I had caught the picture where he was pulling her up to sit in his lap--precious. He loves little ones.

Sabree's gift

The infamous "stealing" of the gifts

More stealing

Seviann's gift

Briley's gift

The delectable delicacies

Enjoying a successful party and fun time with friends.

Queen Ester

Our beautiful neighbor came over to bake cookies with us a few weekends ago. She is such a precious lady and we have so enjoyed getting to know her. Her husband went to be with the Lord about a month ago and she has blessed us so much with her stories of their lovely marriage. Apparently, they were both quite mischievous and had a lot of fun together. What wonderful memories to carry her through this.

Basketball season starts

Seviann is playing basketball this year with a wonderful Christian organization called SOAR. It has been a wonderful transition from playing ball with the public school system in VA. We thought that it would not be very competitive, but let me tell ya, these girls know how to play some ball. And they play with such grace and good sportsmanship. We are also a little partial to the coach, she just happens to be in our co-op and the mother to some pretty fantastic kids.





The beautiful fans.

Savior

Today we baked cakes and made cheese balls for the neighbors as Christmas treats, it was a fun time. It dawned on me as we were preparing these gifts at how long and how perfect was the gift that God prepared for us. He knew before the creation of the world that He would send us a gift. He knew that He would be giving the gift to an ungrateful, unloving, selfish, self-righteous, sinful and unthankful people. Yet, He did not skimp on the beauty of His gift. He was not resentful, nor was He angry. He took thousands of years to not only prepare the perfect gift for us, but also to prepare us to receive this perfect gift.
Can you imagine putting that much thought, effort, and time into giving a gift that required your life? Can you further imagine giving such a precious gift to someone who did not appreciate it? Can you imagine doing so without resentment or hostility?
I can't!
Praise God who has blessed us with the birth of his perfect son. Remember this Christmas season that Jesus is the true meaning for the season. Make a point to glorify him through the way you celebrate Christmas this year. Rejoice that it is not by anything that we could or have ever done, but only by the grace of God that we are offered such a beautiful and perfect gift. And again I say rejoice!

Phase 3 of the root canal

Many of you will remember this Spring when Sabree went down a slide head first and knocked out her two front permanent teeth. The dentist told us that the root would probably die and she would have to have a root canal, but that hopefully would not happen for several years.

Well, day one of unloading the PODS and moving into our new house, Sabree started complaining of excruciating pain in her front teeth and after the 4th referral, she ended up in the chair of the wonderful Dr. Patel. The first surgery was very painful for her and that is when he realized that it takes 4 times the dose of anesthetic that he originally gave her to get her numb.
She is now on phase 3 of 7 or 8 surgeries to complete a root canal, but as you can see from her smiling face, Dr. Patel really is a wonderful surgeon and praise God, she is not afraid to go and see him.

Basketball Stars

Basketball season has arrived and we have a new up and coming star. Seviann is good, but the real super star is... Gunnar! Just how does he do it?

He grabs 'em...
He pulls 'em...

He will even bite if neccessary...

and eventually, he is able to head 'em off and steal the ball.

Holiday Baking

We should be eating more of this...



But on a cold rainy Saturday, it is much more fun to stay in your jammies all day and bake these...

our family in gingerbread form

The chef

and his faithful assistant