Friday Family Funnies - Life Without Faith

Those who know her, know that Faith is our funny little girl. She doesn't try to be funny, she just is; she never misses a beat.

The other day I had the vent down in the house changing the air filter and vaccuming around it. Faith came along and stopped and look and said:

"I don't want to fall down there, then you wouldn't have a Faith and what would you do?"

And then she just walked away.

Funny, funny little girl! I don't know what I would do without a Faith - not laugh as much I guess!

Have a great week-end!

Thing 1

Today was Hannah Grace's day to be the line leader and to take snack to school. They are celebrating Dr. Sesus' birthday so we made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cookies for her class. Here she is ready to go share them.

We had a great week-end this past week-end. Aunt Kendra come up to visit and go to the kids Upward game and she and I went to paint pottery after the game. It was so much fun - although it took us longer to pick out what we were going to paint as it did for us to paint. I will share the finished project with you when I go pick them up.

I still have lots of Upward picture to share with you, hopefully this week...

Friday Family Funnies - Hidden Eggs

Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are my favorite candy! But, everyone in my family loves them too; so yesterday I went to the grocery store before work and I bought a pack. I took them into work and "hid" them in my desk. Shhh...this is our secret, don't tell my kids!

Anyway, during the day when I was enjoying one of the eggs as my morning snack, I remembered that hiding Peanut Butter Eggs is not something new. I remember Mama hiding them in the van around Easter time when we were growing up. Remember Kendra, we would find Peanut Butter Eggs in the glove-compartment of the van.

I thought is was funny that what my Mom used to do, I am now doing without even thinking about it.

Now, Mama, don't deny it...

Good Morning!

Well, we are all where we are suppose to be this morning. Everyone seems to be feeling better for now and we are praising God for that. We had a good restful week-end. I have a few picture to share and hope that do that tomorrow, but for now I want to share this cool picture of Memama and Granddaddy with the Daytona 500 trophy. We are praying for another win today if the race in California ever gets to start and finish...

Thanks for your prayers!!!!

Not Really A Funny Week

Our house has not really been a funny house this past week, it pretty much has been a sick house. Last Saturday, I came down with flu and Hannah Grace was sick on Sunday and Monday. I returned to the land of the living long enough to get a call from Hannah Grace's school that she was not feeling well and I needed to come get her. The sickness continued when Travis came home from work early coughing, snezzing and a sore throat. He is back at work this morning, but I have the girl's with me because Aunt Amanda was in the doctor's office yesterday. So I don't have anything funny to share - although if I step back, my life is pretty funny right now. I pray next week is better.

We hope you are your families are well and that you have a great week-end!

**By the way, Samuel and Faith have been spared the sickness for now - Praise the Lord!

Granddaddy's Motor

Granddaddy's motor won!

We want to tell Granddaddy and Memama congratulations for winning the Daytona 500. It was a pretty exciting evening at our house on the last few laps. Hannah Grace and I are sick with the flu, but the excitment of the last lap, brought me off the couch, for a few moments.

Friday Family Funnies - Big Hand

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. The five us celebrated together last night eating Mexican - a favorite of the whole family.

The kids each got a small gift yesterday; the girls each got a soft-ball glove and ball and Samuel got the new Dale Jr. race cars. Last night we were talking with Hannah Grace and how she need to call Jaba and tell him about her gift. She started looking around the living room and said - "Daddy get up, your sitting on my big hand!"

We hope you have a great week-end!

Friday Family Blessings

Travis and I both said that this morning instead of our Friday Family Funny we need to give praise and glory to our Lord for the blessings he has given us over the past couple of days.

Tuesday night at Upward we were given order forms for pictures that will be taken tomorrow. This week is what we call a "non-pay week" which means that I only got paid this week and I wasn't sure how we were going to afford pictures for three kids on Saturday. Travis called Wednesday morning and said, "The Lord is good, He has provided our yearly bonus this morning and I wanted to let you know so you wouldn't worry about the pictures on Saturday." So that was our first blessing.

With that bonus we were also able to get a new living room suit - that was much needed. We are all very excited about new couch and love seat!

I will tell you a funny story about putting the couch together. Once the couch was delievered, Travis had to go back to work for a meeting and I was left with the old couch in the garage and the new set on it's side, without feet, in the living room. So, I decided, I could put the feet on - my Dad and Step-Dad are both very "handy men" and I was by their sides growing up. I was using the electric screwdriver to put the screws in each of the feet. After I put the first screw in, with a big smile on his face Samuel said - "Mommy you are your Daddy's daughter - you can use tools!"

So, we are very thankful for our new couch and loveseat and tables!

Our second and third blessings came this morning.

One of the tires on the van has seemed to be slowly leaking during the week, but we couldn't fine anything in the tire, so we just kept putting air in it and checking it. On the way out the door this morning, Samuel informed me that he needed make-up sponges for drama class today and we were rushing out the door and yep - a flat tire on the van. We jumped in the car - which had NO gas - and headed to the store to get make-up sponges and a gas card. As we were heading back to the car, a van stopped to let us cross the parking lot. In that van was our neighbors (we pick each other's kids up sometimes). I asked her if she could take Samuel to school and told her that the Lord has sent her our way.

As I was heading back to the house, Travis was pulling out of the neighborhood to see if the tire store up the road was open yet. I followed him to the tire store to find that they didn't open until 9am - it was 7:30am. We were getting ready to put fix-a-flat in the tire and what did the Lord send? He sent a man who works at the store who was coming in early! Praise the Lord!

By this time we had found a screw in the tire. He was able to patch the tire right then and only charged us $10.

So today we are thanking God for the blessings He has sent our way in the forms of meeting financial needs, neighbors and a man at a tire store!

The Greatest Show On Earth

I know, three post in one day...I'm at home today and just sitting here listening and watching the girls sing and dance in their princess outfits. I had to take Faith to the doctor yesterday and she has strep throat and I had to take Hannah Grace for her five-year-old well check-up this morning. Faith is feeling much better and Hannah Grace's check-up was fine. I'm just using this time to play catch-up; I don't know when I will have the time to post again.

This past Saturday night we went to "The Greatest Show On Earth" - the circus. I'm not sure it is the Greatest Show On Earth, but it was fun! It is a pretty well known fact that my tall, handsome, manly-man is not too fond of clowns - so that made it a pretty good "show"! At one point when a group of clowns came out on the floor he leaned over to me and said, "I think that might be the scariest thing I've ever seen!"

We had a great time. It was nice to do something that all three kids enjoyed. So much of the time now days, it is either something the girls want to do or something that Samuel wants to do; so it was nice that all three of them enjoyed it, not to mention, Mom and Dad too!

Upward Basketball and Cheerleading - So Far...

Here are my photo's of the Upward Basketball and Cheerleading year so far, enjoy!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

The Lord Has Done Great Things!

I am doing Beth Moore's new Bible Study, Stepping Up, and last week we studied Psalm 126; verse 3 says, "The Lord had done great things for us; we were joyful" (HCSB). The Message says, "God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people."

We were asked to share something wonderful and great things that God has done for us. I want to take this chance to share something great and wonderful that God did for us this past week-end.

You know that we have been attending New Prospect Baptist Chruch and have been able to jump right into the ministries there and are kids are enjoying Awana and Sunday School and we are able to play Upward there.

This past Friday evening, we had the music minister, his wife and their three kids over for supper. From the very beginning we all "hit it off". Their oldest son is 10 years old (the same as Samuel) and they have twin boys that are four. Samuel and their oldest son have become great friends and our girls love playing with their twins.

After supper Samuel and Micheal went into Samuel's room and we didn't know they were in the house and we were graced by a "show" by the other four kids. As we sat and watch them I was "one happy person". I have great childhood memories of Steven, Miranda, Amy, Laura, Kendra, Tara and I putting on shows for our parents - we charged them a penny each to come. I have desired that for my children. It was a great night and I praise God that He led us to a church where our children are happy and have such great fun and friends.

Friday Family Funnies - Cute Upward Kids

Not much funny going on in our house this week. Hannah Grace has not felt well again this week. She goes for a "well" check-up on Tuesday, so please pray that we can figure out what is going on with her. Travis is preparing to start traveling in about month with work. Samuel is busy with school work, he had two projects due this week. Faith is as spunky as ever. I have been fighting a cold for about two weeks and my work load at the church has doubled. So as you can tell, we are a busy family.

We have been having fun at Upward on Saturday's and I just wanted to share with you a couple of pictures of my cute kids for today's "funny".

I know the quality of this picture is not good, but I love it!

I can not promise that I will get more pictures posted next week, but I will try my best. Have a great week-end!

Friday family Funnies - I Don't Know English

Alright, Aunt Cindy - I know I didn't get you a Friday Family Funny, but maybe you need a funny on Monday morning!

Last night we were sitting at the table having supper and Hannah Grace started counting and I was helping her count up to fifty and then Faith started counting, uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, seis... I said, "that is great Faith, now can you count in English?" She looked up from her bowl of soup and said, "I don't know English - I'm only learning Spanish at school!"

A "somewhat" Friday Family Funny is coming, please be patience with me...

Friday Family Funnies - This is what I think of the snow!

We have been bringing Cassie in some during the cold and rainy weather. We let her in and she gets warm and then she sleeps in the garage. Wednesday night was no different. Yesterday morning, Samuel tired to get her to go out just for a little while, be she was having no part of the snow and rain. She stayed in the garage most of the morning and after we played outside, we made her go out. I was watching her in the backyard just to see what she would do in the snow. Apparently, this is what she thought of the snow...

SnOw Much Fun!

The kids and I had a fun, restful day at home today because of the snow. Daddy had to go on to work, but the kids and I stayed in our PJ's till lunch and then went outside to play in the snow.

Who's Next?

This is my favorite picture from the day...

*I know I haven't posted about our first day of Upward, but I have had a very busy week, plus we didn't get a family picture. I will try to share pictures from both weeks on Monday.

Friday Family Funnies - I want the pink team to win

Sorry I haven't posted this week, I have spent most of my week at home with Hannah Grace. I had to go pick up her from school early on Tuesday; she wasn't eating, running a fever and just didn't feel well. I took her to the doctor that afternoon. I couldn't see our regular doctor, so I saw her husband. He listen to her breathing and said there was squeaking and rattling in both lungs, but he didn't think is was pneumonia yet. We were sent home with a inhaler and told to watch her and if she didn't get any better by the end of the week to bring her back. I didn't leave there very happy. Since then I have talked to other mom's and nurses and have read some and from what I read and what they have told me, I believe she did have pneumonia. She was having fever and chills, not eating, very, very tired, coughing, breathing hard, wheezing. Anyway, as of this morning she is finally starting to feel some better. She hasn't gone to school any this week and Travis and I have been taking turns taking off of work. We have out first Upward game tomorrow, so we have been praying that she would feel better by then. As of right now, it looks like we will make it.

Anyway, on Tuesday night the girls and I were home watching The Biggest Loser. They were doing a challenge to win phone cards to call their families. Once the game was over the most of the teams were crying, either because they won a phone call or because the didn't win a phone call. I was crying right along with them. Faith turned to me, with big tears in her eyes, and I said, "I wanted the pink team to win, I don't want to watch this anymore!". Funny...to see her (and me) crying over The Biggest Loser and sweet...to see her heart be so tender. Later in the show when the teams were making their phone calls, and crying again, she climbed back in my arms sobbing, and yes I was sobbing right along with her!

Have a great week-end and I can't wait to show you pictures from our first Upward game; all five of us will be in our Upward gear!

Friday Family Funnies - Look What I Got For Christmas

The sixth member of our family is our dog, Cassie and we couldn't leave her out of the gift getting this Christmas. One of the kids gave her the candy cane chew dog you see in the picture, another gave her a candy cane full of dog treats and another gave her a baseball toy.

Our backyard is surrounded by dogs (and goats and chickens) on all three sides and lots of days all the dogs "meet" in the back corner.

On Christmas morning, Cassie was given her baseball toy. She didn't stick around the back door long, she ran to the back corner fence, with toy in mouth and stood there until her "friends" came and then she shook her toy with all her might. It was so funny! I guess she was saying, "Look what I got for Christmas".

Later in the day she got her Christmas present from me - A HAM BONE!

2008 has been going great for us so far, we are finally back to school, work, and play and back to as normal as our family can get...

Have a great week-end!

The boys are in the living room watching Clemson in the Chick-fil-a Bowl, the girls are now all tucked away "snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug", as Ashley would say, after a fun night of snuggle time in bed with Mommy, so I decided to try to wrap up our Christmas pictures before 2008.

One of our Christmas gifts was Season Passes to Dollywood for the 2008 season; if you ordered next year,s passes you got this Christmas Season free so on Saturday, December 22 we enjoyed a fun day at Dollywood. On December 22, 1996 Travis and I had been at Dollywood on our honeymoon, so it was fun to walk around eleven years later - things were a little different this time, we had three kids with us this time!

We finally arrived home late Saturday night (December 22) and we all were ready to be home and enjoy the rest of the Christmas Fun.

We enjoyed a great day of worship at church on Sunday. That evening the youth at church presented a Christmas program and at the end our Youth Pastor said something that stuck with me the rest of the week-end. He said, "We can't get caught up in the greatness and how amazing Christ coming as a Baby and forget that He only came as a Baby to die." Wow! Travis and I tried very hard this Christmas Season to find the balance of the fun of Christmas (Santa, presents, parties etc) and celebrating the Birthday of Jesus, but were we remembering and teaching our kids that we only have Christmas to have Easter? I thank God that He used Big Dave to teach me and remind me of something this year.

We celebrated with The Sparks on Sunday evening with great food and fellowship.

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a fun day together - we even got out in the madness of shopping on Christmas Eve.

That evening we went to Ben Avon for a Christmas Eve candlelight service.

One of my favorite things we did this Christmas Season was go to the Sheriff's office after the service at Ben Avon to deliver goodies to those away from their families protecting us. There weren't many officers there, but there were a few that the kids were able to "thank" for serving us during Christmas. I hope this is something we can do every year.

After delivering the goodies and having supper with Grammy and Big Daddy, Amanda, Les, and Seth we headed home to make our cookies for Santa and hurry to bed.

Santa brought each thing the kids wanted and we enjoyed our morning home playing with our new stuff and a Christmas breakfast where we shared the story of our last Christmas box and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Grammy and Big Daddy and Eric and Kristi and the kids came over for Christmas lunch; We loved having them in our home.

After a wonderful Christmas afternoon nap we headed back to Ben Avon to celebrate with The Ford's. Instead of drawing names this years, each person was to bring a $15-$20 gift card and we played a fun Christmas game. We had so much fun! I was nice to do something different.

After the Ford's we went over to Grammy and Big Daddy's to celebrate Christmas with them, Eric and Kristi, Amanda and Les and all the kids.

This picture of Steven is the only picture I have of our final Christmas celebration, we were all pretty tired, but my greatest Christmas 2007 memory came at Grammy and Big Daddy's. Grammy had handed out all the gifts and the kids had opened all their presents and I looked up from all the boxes and wrapping paper and saw that the girls were sitting at Grammy's feet and Samuel was beside Big Daddy and they were anxiously watching them open the gifts each of the had got and wrapped for them. I was so glad to see them be excited about giving a gift instead and just getting them. Samuel is old enough to understand and know the true meaning of Christmas; but the girls are still at the age where the fun and excitement of Santa and presents can come quickly take center stage - it was wonderful to see and hear them understand the Birth of Christ and demonstrate His love in their tiny hearts in their childlike faith.

So that's it - we are ready for 2008. We thank God for the wonderful Christmas He gave us and the things He taught us.

Each of us have a few goals and we look forward to the fun of the coming year.

Thank you for joining us in 2007 and we hope that you will continue with us in 2008.

Happy New Year!