Happy Birthday

Nicole and Natalie had their birthday party at the skating rink with friends from school this Saturday. They had a great time and received lots of wonderful gifts. Nicole is 10 years old! WOW! Where does the time go?! In another ten years, she will be the same age as I was when I got married. (Don't want to think about that!) Natalie is 8 years old now. In another eight years, she'll be getting her drivers' license!




















Nicole had a Musical Musical Cake.


















Natalie had a Hannah Montana cake.
























Poor Jack was so tired after the party that he fell asleep in a buggy at Wal-Mart!

New Additions to the Family

Here are the newest members of our family. (Nope, no more children... chickens!)

A former student of Richard's brought him some yard eggs. He decided to try to hatch them in an incubator at home so the kids could see baby chickens hatch. They have been watching them every day. Finally, this morning at breakfast, the first one hatched out. So far we have six that have hatched. We are hoping that a couple more will hatch tonight or tomorrow. I've suggested that we name them KFC, Chic-Fil-A, Chicken Express, Nugget, etc... (Ha-ha!) The kids just whisper, "Shhh! NO food names. They'll hear you!"

CHICKEN POX!!!!!

Poor Miss Natalie! She had a couple of spot Thursday, but Friday morning she woke up covered in spots! Chicken Pox!!! The doctor gave her an anti-viral medicine and it is clearing them up quickly. She says they don't hurt or itch and hasn't scratched them at all. She has been such a trooper. Now we are just waiting to see if the others come down with them too.

Easter

Happy Easter!!!

















We took a few pictures today after sunrise services at church and later at the Azalea Trails.

Playing Outside in January!

The weather in Texas is so strange! Last year, we had snow at EASTER and this year we are playing outside in January.

















The girls all enjoyed the silly string, but I don't think Jack enjoyed it as much as they did! Dad always ran to Grandma saying, "Look what my brothers did to me!" Well, now Jack can say, "Look what my sisters did to me!"























Nicole showing off the silly string after she took it off of Jack's head.




















Natalie posing on the swing.






















Lauren making a silly face looking through a broken wagon wheel that she found outside.





















Jack sliding down the slide.

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe that it is already 2008! WOW! My oldest child will be 10 this year. It's amazing how fast time passes by! On New Year's Eve we had a family celebration at church. The kids played games on the Wii and board games (Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly, etc.) The adults played dominoes and 42. We had tons of food, food, and more food! We set off fireworks (see photos above - click to see a larger view) at about 11:30p.m., and shortly before midnight, we went into the sanctuary to have a prayer time and short devotional to welcome in the new year. We are also welcoming a new pastor. We are so glad to have Waylon, Geneva, and their sweet boys coming to be a part of our church. We are looking forward to the new year and all that the Lord has in store for us.

Christmas Activities

Every year there are certain traditions that we have for Christmas. I always buy the kids new pajamas and let them open them on Christmas Eve because by then, I've heard, "Can't we just open ONE?!?!" a million and one times! We also leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus. Usually it's a whole plate full, but this year I was able to convince the kids that Santa only needs a couple of cookies since lots of other kids will be leaving him cookies too. We also had to leave carrots for Santa's reindeer because that's what he told them when we saw him at the mall. He said to leave chocolate chip cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. (Thanks for being so picky Santa! ;-)


















Another tradition that we have is having a picture made with Santa. This year, no one was scared of Santa and everyone sat on his lap! The mall that we went to let me take my own pictures so I was able to get pictures of them talking to him and a group picture.
























We had a musical production at church this year. Nicole was Mary. Natalie and Lauren were angels. Jack was a shepard boy. He did good at practice, but the day of the performance he wouldn't get up there in front of everyone. A wonderful lady at church and her sister made all the costumes! They did a great job. Hopefully, we can make a Christmas performance an annual tradition.









































I hope everyone had a great Christmas!