Playing the Course

Chris took the boys to the Creek golf course on Tuesday since it was the only day during the spring break week that it did not rain. The weather did not cooperate for spring break. The whole week was unseasonably cold and rainy. Jonathan and Nicholas love to play to get out and play golf at the big course and they are able to play at the junior course for free. They really enjoyed their new clubs too.

Adopted!!!

I am so glad that I am adopted into the family of God! The Bible says in Romans 8:15, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'". I love this verse and this verse is being used to help some friends of mine with their fourth adoption! They are selling Tshirts with the reference to this verse on them to help raise money for the adoption costs. I wanted to help them out so I bought a Tshirt, but I also love the fact that it allows me to make a bold statement without saying a word. I hope and pray that I have the opportunity to share the gospel because of this Tshirt! Here is what it looks like (Nicholas was my photographer):

Some Spring Cleaning and Rearranging

Recently, I bought the children some new bedding. The boys had used theirs for quite a while and Laurie was using some that my MIL sent over. Nicholas and Jonathan decided that they wanted some with a sports theme...which is appropriate since they both enjoy lots of sports. I also changed up their decorations so that they would match the new bedding. The bedding is beautiful in tones of red, blue, and brown and I think it will grow with them for several years. Laurie Grace however didn't have much of a preferance as long as it was pink and had princesses or fairies. I have never been a big fan of character specific clothes or bedding, however we I went looking for her bedding I actually liked the character bedding better than I did the generic stuff....go figure! I could not find what I really wanted which was a beautiful generic fairy bedding. But I did find and buy a princess bedding with soft pinks, blues, and purples. Laurie loved it and it is starting to grow on me too. Since I was in the redecorating mood, I went ahead and did the main bathroom too. I went with more neutrals in that room though...chocolate brown and blue. The shower curtain doors finally got covered up too! I am posting some pictures so that you visual people can get a better picture.

Making Valentines

This year we did valentines for both of the boys' classes and the kids in Laurie Grace's class....53 valentines in all including the teachers!!! Nicholas wanted to hand write all of his cards. It took him about 3 days to do so but he finished and addressed all 17 by himself! He gave valentines with friendly looking monsters on them and Jonathan gave race car valentines out. Jonathan, however, did not address his own cards, his mother did...all 22 of them. We attached little bags with hersheys kisses to the boys' valentines and sent them to the school on Friday. The boys had a great time at their parties and brought home alot of candy!

Teachers' valentines

Jonathan's valentines

Nicholas' valentines

Laurie Grace has her party on Monday. She currently has some kind of random virus and so we are hoping that she will be better by Monday so she can go to her party. For the girls in her class, we made little barrettes and for the boys we did matchbox cars. The teachers were not left out either. We made some cute valentines for them too...using hand sanitizer!

I am also planning to give my kids a little something special on Monday including some homemade valentine cupcakes. I hope everyone has a great day celebrating the greatest of these...LOVE!

Running

Since all of my family was near by this past year, my brothers, Dad and I decided to run a race together. We decided to run one in Columbia called the Shandon Turkey Trot. It was an 8k race and everyone except for Ryan, who got sick, was able to run in it. My Dad did not run but he did race walk and he is fast! I started running with Dad but was moving faster than he was and so I went on. Unfortunately, I followed a neighborhood runner and off course for about 1/2 mile before I realized my mistake. Still, I managed to get back on course and beat Dad and Nathan! My time was 57 mins. and after Chris calculated in my mistake, he said that I had run about a 10 minute mile and that was my goal for this race. I was pleased to have met my goal!! I am going to try the 10k this year and then who knows from there. At least now, I have a good running partner that is helping me to consistently run.

January Blues

Every year I get the blues in the month of January. I honestly think I have that seasonal affective disorder sometimes. It has hit late this year though. I think that is because I have had family around me to encourage me until about a week ago. My parents left to go back to SA on the 18th and then my brother and sister in law left for some training in VA on Monday. Life is back to just me, the kids, and Chris. I am trying to stay busy but there is just an emptiness that I am praying the Lord will fill for me. Maybe I should take up crafting like Laurie Grace. I bought her some water paints today at Target and her cousin, Beth left her lots of other crafting items from stickers to stamps and she is going to town. I think she is currently working on project number three or four.

Just for YOU!

As many of you have noticed, I have not written anything on the blog for several months now. The reason for that is that I mainly used the blog for my parents and they have been in the country for the past six months....so since the 'bridegroom' was with us there was no need to blog. But my parents left yesterday to go back to SA and so it is time to start writing again. I will try to go back and hit a few of the many highlights from these past months, but for now I just wanted to catch everyone up on things and post a picture of Laurie Grace on crazy sock day!