April Happenings

All sorts of fun things going on around our home this Spring.  Unfortunately, I'm not there for a lot of it because it's tax time!  This year was actually a great season for me, and I got to be at home a lot more than normal which I greatly appreciated.  Still, I relied on Ryan and others for a lot of these upcoming photos.

The girls look forward to the Booster-thon every year at school.  They love getting in the school spirit!

The girls with some friends before the race.

 I'm so glad Ryan went and snapped these pictures!

  Lily pretty much walked the whole race hand-in-hand with Avery.  :-) 

At home, the girls made a basketball court in the unfinished part of the basement.  They used sidewalk chalk to draw it out (including cheering sections) and then made baskets.  They are loving this part of the house, now that it's cleaned out!

Easter morning promised to be fun with baskets filled with flip-flops, Tic-Tacs, new shirts, Legos, books and sidewalk chalk.

 Ready to head out for church.

 Instead of going to Judy and Robert's house this afternoon, we headed over to Birmingham to meet our new nephew/cousin, Liam.  He surprised Josh and Amy by arriving about 6 weeks early, but he's doing great.  In fact, he is home now and super adorable!

 We didn't dye eggs until after tax season was over.  The girls didn't mind; they were excited to do it whenever it was possible.

We also had our Fellowship Group meeting on Good Friday.  We were so glad to have a couple of refugee families with us.  One husband and wife are here after facing severe persecution for their Christian faith in their home country.  We were glad they could be with a fellowship of believers as we all celebrated our risen Savior together.  Another family is from a war-torn country; they do not know Christ, but this was a great opportunity to once again plant seeds with them.  We told the Gospel story, prayed together, sang together and of course, enjoyed food together.  We pray they will come to understand why we celebrate Easter.

 We also later tried our hand at making spider hard-boiled eggs which was an experiment Lily saw.  They turned out pretty cool!

 A few random items...

Lily pulled several items out of the recycle bin to make this basketball court in her room one afternoon.  She is one of the craftiest and most creative kids I've seen!

 Mia enjoyed some ice cream while out with Daddy one afternoon.

 Lily enjoyed a playdate with Alyssa one beautiful day on Spring Break.

 Both girls enjoyed playing this one!

 I love my little inventor!

We were thrilled to have some international college students over for dinner one evening.  Did you know that almost 80% of international students won't be invited into an American home while they are here studying?  That's awful!  The Casey and Tyson families joined us in inviting 5 international students and our joint college friend to our home.  We had such a great time!  I loved learning more about them and their home country.  Unfortunately, these guys are returning home over the summer, so we won't see them again until the Fall; we're looking forward to next time!

 Ryan had the opportunity to present his thesis at a missions conference in NC in early April.  I'm so proud of him!

 Just a picture of Decker, 'cause he's cute.

 A few Cambridge House friends before the Poetry Competition.

 Lily thought it was super cool to explore owl pellets in science class one day!

 Ryan took the girls to the Braves' game recently which they enjoyed (even though the Braves lost...again).  They were excited to see a Toby Mac concert afterwords too.

 I'm down at the beach right now enjoying some time off after tax season.  Beautiful days and beautiful sunsets this week!

Happy Spring!

Mid February to Mid March

I couldn't figure out what to call this entry.  I guess it's technically still winter but it feels like spring.  There's hasn't been a specific event going on (other than the MOVE conference which was awesome, but we didn't take pictures of that).  So, I settled on the creative "where in the year we are" heading.  Here are a whole bunch of random pictures from things going on.

Lily has really become interested in cooking a lot recently.  She has gotten really good at making omelets; they taste great and she's improving each time with the presentation of it.  I let her make an entire meal one evening; each item was her choice.  She made: bulls-eye pizza (aka, pepperoni pizza), gold nuggets (chopped pears inside biscuits rolled in a sugar-cinnamon mix), bibbidi-bobbidi wands (baked tortillas with colored sugar) and dino juice (basically a fruit smoothie).  She did a great job with it.  I told her later that we'd work on planning out healthy meals and preparing them over the summer which she is very excited about.

 Most of the time, it cracks me up that I'll go into Mia's room to wake her in the morning and she'll be in some crazy position.  You never know what you'll find.  This particular morning though I actually became very nervous because I couldn't find her anywhere.  Do you see her???  After checking the side of her bed, the bathroom, living room and downstairs, I saw a little hand move in the fold near the foot of the bed! 

 Avery and Lily having fun in the snow flurries that happened at school one day.

 How sweet is this picture of Mia?  She hasn't taken a nap in years, but she was worn out after a long weekend recently.  I came upstairs and found her fast asleep.

 The girls and I went to visit Meme after school last week.  I told the girls it was their mission to learn some facts about Meme.  They asked her about what her favorite foods to cook were (chicken salad), favorite foods to eat (green beans - Mia's eyes became huge and she excitedly said "Me too!") and what her favorite games to play as a child were (Lily loved that it was making a "house" under a big tree with her best friend because she does that in our yard all the time).  Meme was in great spirits, and the hour we stayed flew by.  It was a wonderful visit.

 Mia is also getting in on the chef action.  She helped me make banana bread muffins the other day.  As we put them in the oven, she proudly proclaimed that she felt she was now ready for Chopped Jr or Master Chef Jr because "the judges always love muffins!"

 After school playground fun with Ryan one afternoon.

 And a frozen treat to go with that.  

 Decker has grown so much in the last few months!  The vet tells us he will be larger than we anticipated (it's a new breed, what can you do?).  He is doing really great with Ryan and Lily.  I'm simply not with him much this time of year though I love taking him on a walk whenever possible.  He still sees Mia as a playmate, so he often nips at her and tries to tackle her some.  We're working on it.  He's a pretty sweet dog though.

 Painting outside because the weather has been gorgeous recently!

 Mia's class recently went to the Carlos Museum to see the ancient Egyptian artifacts.  They all seemed to love it.  Here's a few of the kids gathered and waiting to leave.  Mia loves the all the sweet kids in her class.

 Ryan let the girls each have a friend over last week for a playdate after school.  Mia was thrilled Eliana could come and Lily was super excited to have Avery over.  They got their homework done first and then had lots of fun together.

 Ryan sent me this picture one evening while I was working late.  Love it.  Two of my favorite people right there.

 We had a great family fun night playing Trivia Pursuit Jr recently.

 Ryan sent me this picture to show me the girls had made their own dinner the other evening...cheese nachos and pinwheel cookies.  Again, it was enjoyable, but we need to work on the healthy aspect of dinner preparation!

 We went to see the Kurious performance of Cirque du Soleil today, and it was fantastic!  We all love these shows.  This one was very creative and upbeat.  They always have amazing costumes and incredible acrobats.  This was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

So that's it for the last month!

Daddy Daughter Dance

The girls were so excited to go to the Daddy Daughter dance with Ryan!  In the past they've gone to the one at church, but this year they decided to try the one at The Georgian Club. I heard all sorts of great reviews!  Other than the music selection (a little too modern pop for our tastes), everyone loved it. Brian and Macey attended, along with Brian's brother and daughter. It was a lovely evening!

First Snow Day of 2016

We got our first snow day of the year last Friday.  The kids were all super excited.  Adults though panicked after the craziness of a couple years ago.  Schools released early, so Ryan picked the girls up and met our friends, the Smith family, at Chick-fil-a for an ice cream treat.  They loved that!

 The snow didn't even start until bedtime, so the girls went to bed excited at the prospect of getting to play in it the next day.  We had less than an inch overall, but they were pumped!  They had a great time making snow angels.  Their attempt to build a snowman didn't work out so well, so they drew one instead.  We were all thankful for our new working fireplace to keep us warm inside!  It was a fun, relaxing day.

 Lily found a few minutes to draw on the whiteboard too.  She loves this creative outlet.

Mia's Surgery

On January 11, Mia had to have surgery to repair a hole in her eardrum.  This has been coming for months, and she was pretty nervous about it.  On the morning of the surgery, Ryan and I brought her to Childrens Hospital; of course Glowie came with us.

 It made me think back, 6 years to the day, when she had tubes put in her ears.  Glowie was there then too.

 Before the procedure started, Zoe the therapy dog came by for a visit which Mia absolutely loved.  She's a full-size Goldendoodle, and she is very well behaved.  We were glad to pet and love on her.

 The surgery took a couple of hours.  When they wheeled her back in, she was sound asleep.  She stayed asleep for about another hour.  When she woke up, she tried to drink a little slushy but really didn't feel well so they let her go back to sleep for another 30 minutes or so.  When she woke up again, she was able to sip a little Sprite.

 It's always hard to watch your baby at this point.  Ryan and I stayed right by her side both times.

At about 5 PM, they released her, so Ryan wheeled her out to the car.  She even managed a little smile as she held Glowie and Kevin the Minion.  Our friends, Brian Fox and Ron Hughes, had stopped by before the surgery to pray with us and encourage us; Ron brought Kevin as a sweet gift.  We are so thankful for great friends like this and the many countless others who were praying for our sweet girl that morning.  We received so many emails, texts and calls, and we are very grateful.

 It was a rough car ride home (5 PM coming around the perimeter), but we made it.  Mia was glad to see Lily and Granna.  Several friends from school had sent notes.  Lily had every 1st and 3rd grader sign a card for her.  Grandpops and Grandma Jan send these beautiful sunflowers.  Granna had taken Lily to Barnes & Noble to use her Christmas gift cards.  Lily bought herself a couple of books but also bought Mia two books to read while she recovered.  She read one of them to her that evening.  Mia enjoyed getting to recover in our bed for a few days.

 We are very thankful for God's provision of skilled doctors and nurses and for our wonderful friends and family.  We are praying for a complete recovery for Mia.  We won't know for awhile if the surgery has actually been successful in restoring her hearing or not.  If it's not, we'll go down that road with confidence that this will be used to glorify God at some point.  No matter, we will praise God for making Mia just the way she is.  She's incredible!

The Last Two Words

Lily and Mia both speak very well as they've learned the rules of grammar at Stonehaven.  However, I love that there are still two words which they say incorrectly.  "Concreek" for "concrete" and "pacifically" for "specifically."  I cannot bring myself to correct them, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.  I think it makes me believe I still have two little girls even though everything else tells me they are growing up.