Art Show

Alex had his art show last night at his PreK school. They displayed all of the children's art work from throughout the year. Alex was very proud. As I love art, this time is so precious to me. Audrey had the same event when she was there. It was so sweet to see the difference in each of my children and the way their art turned out. He did a great job!!!

Here they painted with their toes

They are learning about caterpillars and how they turn into beautiful butterflies. They have some caterpillars in their classroom right now that have formed their cocoons and will soon see them turn into butterflies and will release them as a class. :)

The teacher put a vase of flowers in front of them and asked them to paint it. This is what Alex came up with.

They read the story Rainbow Fish and then painted her.

Here they made flowers with their fingerprints and at the bottom they painted with rubber worms. :)

Audrey had Rock N Read at her school last night. They have rocking chairs set up around the cafeteria, where the children are encouraged to rock and read. She received a free book of her choice for going last night. It was really cute! She is my little reader. She loves books!!!

Kathryn is on her 2nd round of antibiotics for double ear infections. So, hopefully, this round will knock them out. She seems to be back to my Little Kathryn already.

I'm working on lots of crafty things and will be posting them shortly!

3rd annual Ladies Luncheon

What a huge success in the name of Jesus! Praise God!!! We had an amazing time! Our speaker, Pat Domangue, did an incredible job. What a living sacrifice she is!!! You can visit her blog here. It was such a wonderful time of fellowship and encouragement. She encouraged us to Live Outloud, that is, our Christian walk. Here is a picture of some of my wonderful friends from church, who enjoyed the luncheon with me. I love this event and I'm already excited about next year!!!! :)

Well, my mom is coming today and I'm so excited. I love when she visits and the kids do too! She will be here to give me some rest and much needed help! My foot seems so much better, but I think I have pushed myself too much this week. So, it will be nice to have my mom here for some good visiting and for the support. My mom is so awesome and I so treasure the relationship we have. I am so incredibly blessed to have a mom like her. She is the best!!! I hope I can be to my kids what she has been to me. :) I have Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants from Netflix, so we'll try and fit that in sometime this weekend too. Our Ladies Luncheon is at church tomorrow and we've been planning for awhile. I'm going to attend for part of the day. I think as long as I can elevate my foot, I will be okay. :)

Here are some pics from Alex's birthday night. He opened up his gifts from us and he was quite happy with his Star Wars ships and legos. We've had a ball playing with his legos. Yesterday, he and I sat and built lots of things. I realized how big he had gotten when he was actually looking at the instructions and finding the pieces and putting the truck and house together. WOW!!! I was so amazed. I enjoyed that time we had together. With 3 kids it's definitely a challenge to ensure that one on one time with each of them. I do my very best~I hope they know that! :)

I hope this Friday finds everyone happy and doing well! I will end with an excerpt from my pastor's (Jeff Smart) sermon on Christmas Eve 2006. Are you prepared for Jesus? The bible talks about 3 ways we can be prepared for Jesus through Fear, Fellowship and Faith.

PSALM 2:11-12

Psalm 2:11 "Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling" Our fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. We must recognize God as the source of all wisdom, no number of life experiences or education will make us wise without God at the certain of the learning experience. All wisdom comes from Him.

Psalm 2:12 "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way" Fellowship with the LORD, Embrace Him and surrender completely. To be ready for his coming, we must submit to his leadership every single day. The phrase "Kiss the Son" actually means to surrender fully to Christ, he is the king of our Hearts and Lives. "for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." Now for faith in the LORD, we must have it and use it. This requires believing in what you cannot see.

These things will prepare us for Christ's return. Fear, Faith and Fellowship. Do you have it? Are you close? Do you find yourself closer, then slip back? Be encouraged today to take that step and surrender fully to the LORD! It's worth every second of it. Do you know Christ as your personal savior? I do and I know where my eternal life will be. ahhhh.........in Heaven eternally with my maker, my best friend, my healer, my refuge, the lover of my soul,............If you do not know the LORD, don't wait another second. Ask him into your heart!!!

Let's encourage each other and lift each other up! Take up the cross daily and be a living sacrifice for God. Share your testimony with someone who doesn't know the LORD, encourage them to find him. Help lead them there. :)

May God be with you and bless you fully!!!

I Love you all!

5.

My middle child and only boy turned 5 today. It's funny how we look at things.........Things we want to move slow always go by so fast and things we want to move fast seem to creep. Or is it just me? I guess what I'm trying to say is that my little boy is 5 and the time has gone by so fast. I feel like I just blinked and there he was so grown up. I feel so incredibly blessed to have a little boy and to experience him, I grew up in a house with all girls. So, having a son has added a whole new twist to life. And I love it!!!



I love that Alex

1) could care less if he is covered in dirt from head to toe

2) is not a perfectionist

3) wants to figure out the when, where, why and how of everything

4) has as much energy as the energizer bunny..........he just goes and goes and goes

5) has a heart like a big teddy bear

6) runs in the room and says, "where is baby, i need to kiss her", he finds and kisses her, then goes on about his business

7) wants to know if his video games will be in heaven

8) wanted to know if we would know him in heaven

9) has allowed me to view life differently and appreciate the small things, with his life threatening food allergy

10) loves to color and write his name and adding numbers

11) says free instead of three

12) loves the outdoors and will try anything

13) looks like his daddy

14) when noone is looking he is singing hannah montana or high school musical

15) OH and that he is so rough and tough and ALL boy, but he does not like bugs. LOL



We started his day with homemade waffles, his favorite. I didn't have any candles so we used a match and we sang happy birthday to him this morning. He thought that was pretty special. He chose McDonalds for his birthday supper and we opened gifts this evening, when Jim got home. He was quite thrilled over his Star Wars ships. :) We will celebrate his birthday with friends in a few weeks.



Once I'm healed from my broken foot...........I will be in better condition for planning a birthday party! NO SURGERY! I was so relieved to hear that my recovery would not be quite what I was anticipating. I can actually walk on it, to my tolerance level. I am more comfortable in my own tennis shoes than in that walker boot. :S



Hope everyone is having a fabulous week. Check out Jim's blog if you have a chance. He actually posted about my injury and I really appreciated his view on things. :)

First digital page from scratch

Thanks to Jessica Sprague, I'm a little bit smarter in the digital scrapbooking world. You can check out her blog here and sign up for her newsletter. Tons of free info on her blog, it's GREAT.

I completed this page with Jacque Larson's Good Day Sunshine Full Kit from The Lilypad. I love her stuff! It's so fun, funky and full of life! Not to mention, she is a super sweet lady! She sent me a personal email thanking me for purchasing her designs.

Broken Foot?

Yep, that's right! I broke my foot. Yesterday morning I was stepping down into the family room and slipped on a baby toy. Yep, that one that Jim has been fussing about..........He always says, "someone is going to hurt theirself on one of these toys". Boy, was he right! It hurt so bad, I think I cried for 20 minutes. I kept praying it would go away, but it just didnt. I laid in bed all day with it propped up, iced down. This morning I knew I had to go to the dr, because the pain was just too intense. I could not step down on it for the life of me. So, according to Xray, I broke the Fifth Metatarsal and will most likely require surgery. I have an appt with an ortho on Monday and will find out then. My dr. today told me that surgery, in his opinion, was my best option. It will increase the speed of recovery. And being the mom of 3, I'd say I need the speediest recovery and healing! After wrecking Jim's car, losing my wedding ring and now this...........I definitely believe a dark cloud is looming over me. But, my dad assured me that when the sun does come out it's going to shine brightly! Thank you dad for sending such warm feelings of reassurance to me. I needed that! He is right.....the sun will shine soon enough.

I want to talk about how wonderful Jim has been. Last night, he got the kids all their supper, ready for bed, medicine, cleaned up the whole house and got everyone to bed. He even woke up with Kathryn at 2:30am and again with Alex at 4 am. Alex has the croup. Jim was so tired this morning and didn't complain a bit. He woke Audrey up got all of her stuff ready for school and took her without waking me up. He cleaned up the house again today and took Alex to the dr. for me and went to the grocery store and pharmacy. Thank you Honey! I love you so much! You are an amazing husband and terrific father. Oh yeah! and he went to Audrey's school today to watch her perform in her reader's theater program. I mean, was he Mr. Mom today or what? I have to say, he did a superb job!

My MIL kept Kathryn all day yesterday and picked her up tonight to keep her through Sunday. That is a huge help! She always comes to my rescue and that means the world to me. :) I feel so blessed to have a MIL like her. She is amazing!

Audrey came in from school today and cleaned up my bedroom, made my bed all cozy, brought me flowers, swept the playroom and loaded my MIL's car with Kathryn's bags. She did all that with noone ever asking.......... She has such a HUGE heart and just wanted to help out. I love her so much and I'm so proud of the young lady she is becoming. :)

As for Alex, well, he's been a big help too. Yesterday he took as much care of me as he could. He said, "mommy I'm not a very good doctor, but I'll try." Well, enough said...........my heart melted, of course. God bless him, he sat in the bed next to me eating his lunch and got BBQ chips all over my bed. I didn't even care! Seriously, I can't think of anything I would have loved more than my greasy BBQ flavored bag of ice(from his greasy little fingers icing down my foot). And chip sprinkles all over me and my bed, of course. The perfect recipe for taking my mind off my aching foot.

Stay tuned for an update.

A special person

There is a young man who was paralyzed in an ATV accident. He happens to be the son of some of my in-law's very dear friends. His name is Matt Courson. Jim sang in a benefit concert for Matt last night. Jim said he is an amazing guy and a true testimony to God's miracles. I wanted to share his website with you. Doctors told Matt he would never walk again, it just was not very likely, due to the injury he sustained. Since then Matt has shown what a difference one's mere attitude can have. He told his mom and dad in the emergency room, "I will not let this beat me." Since then, he has made progress doctors didn't deem likely. He is such an inspiration, so I wanted to share him with you today. Check out his website and be encouraged.

Here is a beautiful verse to hold close to your heart!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Be encouraged today and encourage others!!! :)

Happy 6 Months, Baby!

My baby is already 6 months old. WoW! My heart is softening as I think of all the precious memories she has already made for us and added to our family. What a blessing she has been. Having a 3rd child, for me, is like getting an opportunity to really absorb this special time. With my 1st child, I was so anxious and worried about everything being perfect, reading every book out there to see that I was doing it just right. No wonder she is a perfectionist!?* My 2nd child, I was more laid back and certainly not worrying about things being "just so". Now with my 3rd one, I realize none of that even matters. She will be just fine even if I don't follow the book and the biggest one of all, NO 2 kids are the same. They are all made to their own individuality. How amazing that every single human God created/creates is different. What an awesome thought!

Kathryn is eating solids now. She loves them! She naps twice a day, if she can. Between preschool and grade school, picking up Alex and Audrey she is lucky to get one good nap in. Then there is tball practice, dance, girl scouts and church. She lives in her car seat while I taxi everyone around. :) She is such a super great baby! She has been waking a bit in the past week. I think she is cutting her first tooth, due to the buckets of drool she stays soaked in. :} She is sitting up and rolling over! She squeals with delight now. She has discovered this high pitched squeal and loves to make it, much to my dismay. HA!