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Monday, July 7, 2014

Pictures and more pictures.

I know, I know. I stink. I just haven't been good at sitting down to blog. I do want to do better. Honestly, our life is pretty entertaining, lol. I have some posts, and thoughts churning in my mind, but not sure I'm ready to share those thoughts just yet. Today, I'll just mostly do pics again. That's what everybody likes best anyway.

And my phone it's not working! And I hadn't backed it up in forever. Ahhh.... so a 6 weeks of pics or so, are probably gone. Which includes 4! birthdays. Trying not to panic or cry.  It's ok, it will be ok.

Olivia and my niece, Megan at Acquire the Fire. It was an awesome weekend. I went too, and loved it.

Our whole group.


The tested for their green belt/green stripe for Vivian. So proud of them!

Facepainting for Cubbies. I think it turned out pretty good.



Poor Calvin had an octupus, but decided he needed to wet his hair to comb it right before we had to leave. No time to fix it. He seemed happy anyway, whew.

Olivia at a local girls group for Christian young ladies. She signed a song this night. I'll see if I can add the video.

Sweetness getting her go juice (blood).





Memorial day was an awesome day at our youth pastor's house/pool. We are blessed to have a large population of Chinese students nearby, and many came. We are blessed to have them as friends. This is Jake.

Keano has been our friend for almost 2 years now! I've posted about him before. He and Georgia share their hometown, and when we went to bring her home, his sweet girlfriend Agnes, spent several days with us. Showing us around Jinan, taking us to the best places to eat. It was so special. He will be finished with his studies soon, and we will be so sad to see him go home. Although, I know he misses his family.

This is a new friend, Leo. He'd only been in the U.S. about a month and was glad to practice his English, and we were happy to help. He and Michael made a great connection.

Olivia recently went on a mission trip with Mission Serve. She had a great time, and grew in the Lord, and was blessed to serve others. I'm so glad, but I missed her terribly.
Big boy!

Vivian at the hospital coffee shop rocking her Beads of Courage! It's a wonderful program for kids with serious health issues.

Abram came with us this day at the hospital. The special in the cafeteria was Chinese food. He's a cool dude, lol.

My little pirate. This was a local kid's festival, with free facepainting! No pic of Vivian since she was at choir practice this morning with all the "big" kids.

Calvin didn't want it on his face, so he went with a dragon on the arm.

Georgia had to have a Minnie face :)

We spent a morning at the local splash fountains.


My bunch plus my niece and nephew.

Just after she finally had her ears pierced. She so wanted them done, but panicked at the last second. It was loud but we got it done, lol. And she was glad.

Five!

John-Michael throwing Olivia in class. They love this! He tries not to let me take his picture much otherwise. Sigh, preteen boys.

Family fun night at church. This was part of a chaotic relay race, and John-Michael gets the flour!

Vivian's last transfusion, cuddled up with two brothers, watching
Frozen. Life is good.

Hanging out in the Tim Tebow playroom while we wait.

The kids love this huge fish tank at the hospital. It's maintained by Sea World.



Olivia signing One Less by Matthew West.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter. It is really the most wonderful holiday. Christmas is my favorite with the decorations, and music and family traditions, but Easter is so special. Jesus was born and we celebrate the gift that his birth was to us at Christmas, but Easter, Easter is when we remember he willingly suffered and died a brutal undeserved death for us. He took our blame. But! he didn't stay in that tomb, he rose again, and he LIVES! I know it in my very soul. And because of that, we can be adopted into God's family, and live with him forever, forgiven. New life. It's about Jesus, not the bunny ;) 

So the past couple of weeks, we've had a lot of sickness. First, a miserable cold/bronchitis type thing. The coughing was awful! Then this past week, we started down the strep throat road. In our family, it's like dominoes. And we ended up with 8 out of 10 of us on antibiotics. Olivia ended up with an allergic reaction to hers, and had a rash head to toe. It was pretty awful looking, but thankfully, it didn't itch.  We were all able to enjoy our Easter weekend though. We started off on Thursday night at our good friend's church celebrating Seder dinner for passover. It's really beautiful way to start the Easter celebrations. Saturday morning we had a egg hunt/bbq with all the Sunday school classes at the park. The early morning was rainy, but the weather cleared, and it was perfect! Saturday night week went to my parents, and my brother's family. We had appetizers for dinner. Yum! and hunted eggs. This morning was church. Beautiful worship, and not a traditional sermon but and excellent word from our pastor. We chose this year to participate in Forget the Frock . Growing up in the south, new dresses, purses, hairbows, ties, etc were something we often do for Easter. Dressing up is fun, but when we watched the video, it made sense. What were we really doing and was it truly honoring the one who gave everything for us? So this year, it was different. It felt a little weird walking in a t-shirt, but it was kinda exciting too, and when people asked, we were able to share a little so that was good. It also sparked some good conversation here at home with our own children, and they were totally on board. Then we spent the afternoon at Michael's moms. Delicious lunch and Easter baskets. We had a low key evening tonight, just playing with new little toys, and snacking on leftovers.

Passover Seder

I forgot! Abram lost his front tooth!

A picture of Olivia's arm. She was spotted like this all over. Even her ears and feet!

Having our picnic at our Sunday school picnic

Olivia and one of her best friends.

Waiting for the Easter story and to hunt eggs!

Vivian found lots this year

Georgia too

Hunting eggs at Grandmama's on Saturday

Calvin discovered there were prizes in the eggs

Beautiful daughter and niece

our crew + 2 cousins :)


Our bunch in our forget the frock shirts today.








Hamilton working his puzzle.

She has style, lol.