15 Years Old

We celebrated Sarah's birthday this past weekend with grandparents! On Friday Bryan's parents (Pop and Gigi) came up and Gigi brought us some delicious lasagna and butterfinger cake! YUMMY! Then Pop, Gigi, Bryan, Elijah, Timothy, and Joanna went to watch Sarah in the play she was in (more about that later). Then on Saturday my parents came up and we all celebrated Sarah's birthday at lunch. I fixed some of her favorite foods. She and I made a cheesecake for us to enjoy. On Saturday night my parents stayed and was able to attend the play that night. 

 Pop and Gigi got Sarah a set of luggage for her birthday. She had asked for this because she is always ready to go somewhere. She was able to pack the biggest suitcase and take it to 4-H Round Up...perfect timing!

 My parents got her clothes, which she asked for and needed. She took these to 4-H Round Up.

 Sarah was playing the piano while Bryan and Gigi sang along. It was very special!

 Here is the cheesecake we made for Sarah's birthday! It was a caramel pecan cheesecake and very delicious!

Here is Sarah with Pop and Gigi. We are very blessed to have the grandparents come up for birthdays and celebrate with us!

Sarah is one special young lady! I know God has something special for her and He is going to use her to do great things for His Glory! She loves an adventure and a good book. Sarah is such a blessing to me and a great help around the house. She is learning to care for others and one day care for her own family. I love this girl and very thankful that God made me her mother.

2018 Tennessee 4-H Congress (Part 1)

On Wednesday Isaac, Sarah and I returned from a 4-H Congress trip. It was a great experience! I have lots of pictures! I will do my best to recap each day and all that we got to do. I will start by telling that Isaac was a regional speech winner, so that means he would be one of six 10th graders competing at the State level. Being a finalist meant he had to go up a day earlier than everyone else. He had to arrive at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. The rest of us along with grandparents packed up and headed to our destination. We dropped him off and did some sight seeing. We went to the Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, TN. If you know anything about our family you know we really enjoy this kind of stuff! We enjoyed our visit there.

 We were able to see them shoot off the cannon! Pretty loud!

 Here is Elijah with my dad waiting for the cannon to fire. Not the one they are standing in front of
:-). LOL!

 Then we walked through the grave yard. There was around 24,000 soldiers either injured or killed during this battle.

 Checking out one of the cannons that were on display.

 Here is Sarah posing with my parents and being a silly girl. :)

 Timothy gets a ride from his dad. Bryan wearing Timothy's hat. Love these two!

Actually I love this whole crew!! After checking into our hotel we went to eat dinner. It was great to spend some time together!

Our Oldest is Driving!!

It has come quicker than I ever imagined, we have a child that can drive! In August we celebrated Isaac's 16th birthday! He is growing into a young man and I am excited to see what God has planned for him.

 Here he is with a deer he killed at the beginning of hunting season this year. Isaac enjoys hunting and fishing.

 We celebrated with grandparents at the river. We had lots of fun!

Here he is in his truck. This was my dad's truck and now it belongs to Isaac. He is a very responsible young man and it has been a blessing for him to be able to drive to places he needs to get to.

I really had no idea that he would grow up so fast. Isaac is a blessing, fun, and full of laughter. We love him more than he will ever know! 

Joanna Looses Two Teeth

One night while Joanna was playing a basketball game she got knocked in the mouth. One of her front top teeth became really loose and she got a busted lip. Both top teeth were a little loose but this made one of them get pushed back and was really uncomfortable for her. We knew she would end up loosing it but didn't know when.

 On Monday this week she finally asked me to see if I could pull her tooth. It came right out! That afternoon she was playing with Elijah and Timothy, Elijah came to me and said "Mom, we playing and Joanna's tooth came out." He handed me her tooth. Then she came to me and sure enough that other top tooth came out. She lost two teeth in one day!

Here is our girl with her new "toothless" smile. :)

Isaac is 12!

 This young man turned 12 today! I get very emotional thinking about all our kiddos and how blessed we are to have them, but with Isaac I remember how much we wanted a baby but couldn't get pregnant. Then when we did find out we were expecting (5 years after marriage) we were very surprised. You can read about our struggle with infertility here. Yes it is so hard to believe he is 12!

 Our precious Sarah just had to buy Isaac something with her own money. She picked him out a Lego set. The Lego set can be made into an eagle, beaver, or scorpion. Isaac was so excited!

 Remember we got him his new puppy for his birthday. To open for his birthday we got him a toy for his dog and some dog food. Isaac and Old Dan have had fun today playing with the puppy's new toy. :)

 I tried to make a few of Isaac's favorite things today for his birthday. For lunch I made sloppy joes, for supper we had fish and carrot souffle', and instead of a cake I made theses yummy chocolate chocolate chip cookies. We sang Happy Birthday and ate a couple of cookies tonight! :) (I need to post this cookie recipe soon.)

Here he is after a good shower and warm cookies with a glass of milk! It has been a great day! Of coarse there is more to come for this young man...I will be posting as we continue to celebrate!

Race Day 2013

 This past Saturday the 3 older children were in a 1 mile race in Anniston. This is Isaac's 3rd race, Sarah's 2nd race, and Elijah's 1st race. They have been training for a month. Isaac and Sarah's goal was to beat their times from last year.

One of the highlights of going to the race is we get to spend time with family (we stayed with my parents and then we went to a birthday party for our nephew and got to see some of Bryan's family!) and getting to see friends! We were able to se lots of people at the race that we haven't seen in years! :)

 Last year Isaac finished in 7:06 and this year he finished in 6:40!! So proud of him!! He placed 7th out of 28 boys aged 9-11. Yes, that is his coach (dad) running with him. :)

 Sarah's time last year was 7:25 and this year she finished in 6:44!! Go girl!! She placed 1st out of 14 girls aged 9-11!

 Elijah ran his mile in 8:27! He did so well! Yes, that is mom (me) running with him. :)

 Love doing things like this with the kids!! Here are the runners with their coach (dad) and their cheerleader (mom).

Here is Sarah receiving her award (girl on the right). Not the greatest picture. :(

Here is Sarah with her trophy! We are so proud of all of them and look forward to next year's race!

Look who is 10!!

Our Sarah has turned 10 this week! She is an amazing girl! Grandparents came up this weekend for a "party"! My parents had her a little surprise...two of her best friends from Alabama!! We were all so excited to see Eliana and Hannah! These girls had so much fun together!! :)

Here is a picture of Sarah's cake I made her. It is the cover of a book. She loves to read and I thought this was just perfect for her 10th birthday!

Here she is opening her presents! She got "BabyCakes" items. Now she can do lots of coking! :)

The Word of God says in Proverbs 31 that Charm is deceitful and Beauty if fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.

Sarah is a BEAUTIFUL girl! When I look at her each day I realize that she is very beautiful...her eyes, her hair, her complection, etc. As I looked at her one day last week I knew that it wasn’t anything we have done, added, put on, or taken off that makes her so beautiful, it is what JESUS is doing in her heart that makes her such a beautiful young lady!! God is at work in Sarah’s heart. She is such a blessing to all those who cross her path, she thinks of others before herself, she desires the things of God, and she has a heart for seeing Jesus change other peoples lives! I love her for all those things and more!

Happy Birthday Sarah!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

A Party for Joanna!!

 We had a birthday party for Joanna on the 19th. Both sets of Grandparents came to help us celebrate!! :)

 Joanna was so blessed with gifts and lots of love and attention.

 We originally were going to do a "monkey" themed party, but she has been crazy about "Minnie Mouse" lately. Joanna says "Minnie Mouse" so well...its cute!

 I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing. (You can get the recipe here.) Then Sarah and I decorated them with candy pearls and "Minnie Mouse" stickers on toothpicks. (Very easy decorations! I just  took Minnie Mouse stickers and placed them on pink and black card stock paper. Placed a toothpick under one of the stickers.)

 She was so excited!!

She loved blowing out the candles....I think she had to do it twice or three times. :) The little boys even took a turn blowing out candles.

Joanna had a great birthday and we all enjoyed every minute with the grandparents!!

Joanna Turns 2!

Joanna turned TWO today! She has grown so much in the past year. We celebrated with her today and I will share those pictures tomorrow. Today I wanted to give some pictures of this past year. Some of them you may have seen before but some I think I have never posted. Enjoy as you see how big our BIG girl has grown!!

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012