All about Aaron

Aaron is our ball of fire. He goes to the extreme in everything. He is SO loving. He is very particular and precise and loves a challenge. Puzzles are a big deal to him. He will work on one until he gets it put together all by himself. He is loving preschool one day and crying not to go the next. The not wanting to go just started before Thanksgiving. I think all of those hours spent at school are starting to get to him. We have had a few "fun" days when he gets to stay home and hang out with Mom. I wanted to be able to do that with him but I knew better than to start it at the beginning of school. If I would have done that, he would NEVER want to go or ALWAYS expect me to pick him up early. He says he likes everything at school except naptime. When he is at home, he likes to play with his brothers and he also likes to do things on his own. Today, he played with beads for hours after school. The other boys went outside with dad and Aaron worked on his fish made of beads. He is so pleasant and fun. I laugh all the time with the things that he says. He has just figured out that Lauren will be a mom when she grows up. He doesn't mind playing with her "girl" stuff either. He is a sweet boy but loves to get stuff started with his brothers so they will chase him or wrestle with him. Always fun when Aaron's around.

Ethan's Post

Ethan is now 6 years old and in Kindergarten. He does not love school. He simply tolerates it. He does a good job on his papers. I think this year he has had more of a problem with his peers. We have noticed that all of a sudden it REALLY matters if his hair is laying down or if there is milk on his mouth. He only cares about this sort of stuff on school mornings. I don't know if someone is picking on him or what. I would think that kind of thing wouldn't bother him. His brothers joke around with him all the time. He has several friends that he really loves to play with and looks forward to seeing them at school. The work does not excite him. I hope we can continue to encourage him about his work. We keep telling him that he should be a good friend so the others can learn from his example. We are praying for him in this area.
Ethan loves hanging out with his Dad. It doesn't matter what he is doing--he just wants to watch or be there with him. I love to look out the window and see him "helping" Thad with the 4-wheeler or whatever he may be working on. He also spends time with his little sister. She LOVES him and he is so sweet to her. If he feels like being rough or wrestling, he goes to his brothers. They have such a good time wrestling and running. He has enjoyed duck and deer hunting this year. He hasn't killed anything yet and doesn't really feel a need to--he just likes to go.
He learned to ride his bike while we were in Michigan. He got a bigger one for his birthday and rides it all of the time.

Update on Brendan

I have decided that I should take a little extra time to post on each one of the kids to let everyone know what is going on in their lives. Brendan gets to go first. He is in the 4th grade and loves it. He has a small class and they have a lot of fun. His favorite thing is the Accelerated Reading Program. He has set some personal goals of how many books/points he wants to read/accumulate. He is doing great at it. He really likes the whole points system and I like it too because I know that he is really understanding what he reads if he makes 90/100% on his tests.
He has 120 points so far which put him in the 8th place in the whole school (3rd-12th grades). I am so proud. Can you tell? He is reading every night when the little ones get into bed.
He has just gotten the expanders removed from his mouth. Yippee! We go on Tuesday to the orthodontist to see what kind of gear will be put into that mouth next.
He shot his first duck this year and is looking forward to going hunting with his dad during the Christmas holidays. He wants to go deer hunting too.
He is growing so fast. I can't believe he is 9! Time sure does fly. So I thought I would include some pictures on this post.

All the Madness!! All the Fun!!

We are so enjoying this holiday season. We are officially finished with all of the shopping :) Now we are planning on enjoying each other and all of the fun things to do. Today, we stayed home all day and made Christmas trees and candy and a big mess. It was so much fun. Tomorrow we will go to the Christmas musical at church. The boys only have two more days of school and two half days. They are looking forward to their Christmas parties at school. Brendan's class is donating to a family that lost their home to a fire instead of exchanging gifts. Ethan and Aaron's class will have a book exchange. They get so excited about it! We hope to make it to a movie this week. It has been quite a while since we've been to the theater. We will be celebrating Meme's birthday at the end of the week and going to see the Christmas lights. The kids look forward to these special things we do as a family. I love that part of Christmas. I am always surprised at how much they remember about the meaning of Christmas. We talk about the meaning behind the lights, trees and gifts and why we celebrate. They have learned alot from each other and they continue to teach me more each day. I am so thankful that in all of this madness and fun, they still know that all of the excitement is about the birth of Jesus!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I know, it has been so long since I have posted. I love this time of year but we have so many things to do! We are trying to do the things that mean the most to us and say no to others. One thing we always do is go to our small town Christmas parade. This year Lauren and Aaron rode in the parade with my mom. They had the best time throwing candy. Brendan and Ethan wanted to catch the candy and that they did! We won't need candy for quite some time!


This year we decided to get a real tree. We had a great time at the Christmas tree farm. The kids could have stayed all day. They loved running through the trees and there were special kid areas for them to play in. Instead of a sand box, there was a box filled with corn. The kids loved it then got the great idea to bury Brendan in it.




The kids have two weeks left until Christmas break. We can't wait to enjoy that time together. We would love to hear from you so feel free to comment or email us to let us know how you are doing!!!!!!!!!!

God Bless!

Thanksgiving Holidays

We have had a wonderful week! The boys have enjoyed being out of school and Lauren has enjoyed them being at home too. The boys have been hunting with their Dad this week. Brendan shot his first duck, a pintail. He was so excited about that. I was proud too because I don't think that I could hit a moving target! We went to a movie, watched Uncle Ryan win at the drag races, and had a great time Thursday visiting with family. It is a little sad that we have to get back into the school routine on Monday. Lauren has been sleeping until 9 or 10am. She will not be happy when we have to wake her to take the boys to school. Lauren and I braved the mall today while the boys were hunting. The crowd wasn't bad and the prices weren't cheap. We didn't buy alot but we were happy to be out of the house and had a great time watching everyone else. I guess that's all I have to report this time. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. WE truly have so much to be thankful for!!!!!!!

Yep, its Thad!

Have you ever had a helicopter land in your front yard? Well, that happened to us this week. Thad is finishing up on his private helicopter license and he surprised the kids this week by landing in our yard. They loved it! I thought Aaron was gonna run right up to it but he stopped. I am posting several pictures so you can see what a small space he was flying in. (yes, he is proud of that)
Click on the last picture so you can see the helicopter!

Pacifier Substitute

Lauren has not ever really taken a pacifier. There were times when she was smaller that I wished she would have. As a newborn, we would give her one as we rocked her but other than that....nope, not interested. This week she has decided that pacifiers are really neat. Her baby has one. Her cousins have one and she does not so...........she has found her own pacifier and it is this little red cookie cutter. It is really funny to see her walk around with it in her mouth. She calls it a pacy and puts it in her purse when she is finished with it. We went in a store yesterday that had brightly colored pacifiers and she stood there for the longest looking at each one. I could tell she wanted one badly but I resisted. We will see how long this lasts.

Orphanage in Brazil

On our last day in Brazil, we had the opportunity to go to an orphanage in Anapolis. A sweet lady by the name of Haidi took us there. She teaches the young girls at the orphanage about the Bible. Most of the children there were older as you can tell by the pictures. They really enjoyed having their picture taken and then seeing the image on my camera. So I just kept taking pictures for them to see. I was very impressed by this orphanage.There was a room were the children made crafts and a pool. As we took a tour, Haidi pointed out the children's responsibilities. There rooms were kept SO clean and they took turns with other chores like hanging out clothes and feeding the smaller children. I can only guess that these responsibilities create a sense of self worth and shows the important role that each child has in this "family". The children seemed happy. We were told that this orphanage is run only by donations from area churches and anyone else willing to give. What a ministry for these kids- a safe place for them to be. I am not trying to say that this is a paradise but many of these kids came from awful abusive situations and I am thankful that they are being taken care of here.

Boxes, Boxes and More Boxes

Our stuff arrived from Michigan on Monday afternoon. The kids were running around like it was Christmas time. Aaron followed every box to see if there were toys in there. We only had two boxes of toys but....they were the BEST TOYS EVER! It seems that they forgot about the ones that mom purged before we left Michigan. I love to watch them get excited over the stuff that they forgot they had. Even Lauren grinned ear to ear as I pulled out stuffed animals that have been packed for months. Its like she really remembers them!
So today I have had the task of finding a place for all of these things that I didn't get rid of before we left. We have so many boxes everywhere. In fact, I have gotten SO many things put away but if you walked in our home, you wouldn't know it. Now I am sorting through the rest, trying to find homes for the stuff that we don't need. Lauren has been my helper since everyone else is gone for the day. You know, I don't think these boxes will go anywhere. We may just go for a car ride to get out of the chaos!

Brazil and the Ebersoles

I have so much to post about Brazil. I just couldn't do it in one post. Brazil was my first trip to a third world country. Thad has been to many and I have only heard about his trips. It is a completely different thing to experience it on my own. It is actually one of those things that you can't describe with words, pictures, or videos--but here I am trying to do it. Some of my first thoughts about Brazil was that we (in the states) have NO idea about how blessed we are. Even though I have heard this all my life, again, it was one of those things that I had to experience.

Our friends, the Ebersoles, have been in Brazil since June. They have a beautiful family with 3 children and one on the way! They were so great to let us stay in their home, taxi us around and translate whenever needed! We really got a taste of what life would be like there with kids and all. They are doing such an awesome job at transitioning to life in a new country. We were able to attend church with them (even though we didn't understand a thing) and meet their new friends from church. They had a Monday night meeting in their home where all the young couples from church came. We were really tired that night so we decided to go to bed. When I heard the music coming from the den, I just couldn't stay in bed. They had a wonderful time of praise and worship. I didn't know the words to the songs but it was so easy to see their hearts for God. It excited me that even though I was in a different country--these were my brothers and sisters in Christ! This was a very important experience for me. These christians welcomed me -the foreigner- with the love of God and that was just a life changing moment for me.

Ok, lots more to write but I will have to stop for now. If you would like to learn more about the Ebersoles, check out their website. www.ebersoleonline.com
Their journey is an amazing one!

Girls Nite Out!

My sister and I got the crazy idea that we needed to do something fun together so we had a night out. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It all started when we heard that one of our favorite singers was coming to Shreveport. We ended up getting the best seats for the Brad Paisley concert. We weren't right by the stage but we were oh so close. We had a great time. Taylor Swift and Rodney Atkins also performed. We had a great time people watching, listening to the music, and just hanging out. So I can't resist posting pictures from the concert. I've never seen or heard anyone play the guitar like this guy can!







And I didn't mean for this to turn out to be an "ode to Brad Paisley" but this video is worth watching!!!!!Ok, having trouble posting videos too. I'll figure this out sooner or later.

Trick my Trunk?!

Are you familiar with the CMT show, "Trick my Truck?" If not, it is a series where they take an 18 wheeler and deck it out. We are talking new interior- the works. I think I even saw one where there was a fish tank inside! So this year on Halloween our church had "Trick my Trunk." We were asked to decorate the inside of our trunks like a story from the Bible. We usually do not participate in Halloween but we loved this idea as an outreach and had alot of fun. Our class had two cars. One with Shadrach, Meshach, and Obednigo in the fiery furnace and the other was Jars of Clay. My kids had a blast handing out candy! I was so surprised that they liked it better than EATING the candy. We handed out tracs. One was a free ticket (to heaven) and the other was a huge one hundred dollar bill. I loved those. Talk about attention grabbers. We also had invitations to church on some of the candy. I hope we see some new faces on Sunday. My pictures will show how much fun the kids had--Lauren and Aaron in the bouncer--the boys giving out candy and Lauren eating it!

Brazil

We had a great trip to Brazil. It is a beautiful place and we met some wonderful people. However, we just did not feel God's peace that this was the place He would have us work. Yes, it is strange but we have prayed for a while that if this was the place, we would know it. We didn't have the certainty that we would need to move a family of six here. What now? We don't know. We do know that God has a plan for us!! Pray for us that we would draw close to HIM during this time of waiting. We want to be faithful, obedient servants. That is our hearts desire!!!!

We had a great time visiting with the Ebersoles. They have a beautiful family and are involved with a great organization!! We also met some wonderful people from the organization. They invested lots of time in us and we are certain that they have a heart to serve and are doing a wonderful job in Brazil.

I will try to include some pictures in this post but I am still having problems with adding captions to my pictures. If anyone would like to clue me in to that, feel free! So here goes the pics............

Made To Love TOBYMAC

If You Say Go

More To Life - Stacie Orrico

I am just one of those people who LOVE music. I am completely encouraged and inspired by it. I can find a song that speaks to me and for me at the same time. God speaks to me through music. I just love to have the radio on all of the time. When I don't have it on, I definitely have a song in my head and my heart. I often pick a theme song that reflects the season of my life. I have decided to share some of my theme songs over the past few years. I hope they inspire and challenge you like they have me!

ok, so i am new at this and didn't post the videos like i wanted. Be patient.

Just Pictures!

Ethan giving Jewel a shower. She loved it!



Lauren was tickled at the cat.



Aaron felt so bad yesterday. He went to sleep on the swing outside.




"Karate cat" taking a break from all the activity.



Brendan was nice enough to give Lauren a ride on the four wheeler.

I hate to even post this but it is what is going on in our lives right now. We are sick AGAIN!!! This time Lauren had blisters in her mouth and was absolutely miserable. The dr told us it was coxsachie virus. After a few days, she is back to her old self. Today, Aaron has the blisters and his seem even worse. His throat is so sore that he doesn't even move his mouth when he talks...poor guy! A chocolate shake did the trick tonite. What are we going to feed him tomorrow? "Everything hurts" he says. So, we are trying to get everyone well before we leave on Friday. Our house is being attacked by the enemy and it is no fun. Please pray for our children. I want things to be easy for everyone taking care of them while we are gone.

Thad has been flying a helicopter this week and it enjoying every minute of it. He can't wait to solo so he can land one in out front yard. The boys are waiting for their turn to take a ride with Daddy but they will probably have to wait until we get back from our trip.

I hope to have more pictures up soon!

Everyone is well again at our house. Thanks for praying for our family. The boys were able to attend a full week of school this week. It was homecoming week so they enjoyed getting to "dress-up" each day this week. We are looking forward to relaxing this weekend and getting to be outside doing the things we love!

I finally got to attend the Bible study that I signed up for weeks ago. It was so refreshing and was reinforcing the lesson that I am to learn at this point in my life. You can call it selflessness, humility, unselfishness, etc. Get the picture? I am thankful and at the same time saying "no" to the flesh is not easy. I am also reading a great book by Joyce Meyer, Reduce Me to Love. God has truly used it to change my heart. It is full of scripture and practical, everyday ways to show His love. One of my favorite verses:


Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not[merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others.

Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility].
Phillipians 2:4-5 (amplified)

This isn't a sermon. I really am excited that God has opened my eyes to these scriptures even more. I love that you can read a scripture all your life and when He gets ready to show you something new, He does.

As for our adventure, Thad and I will be leaving on October 19th for S.America. We are so excited and nervous. It will be such an experience. We are believing that God is going to show us where He wants us. We will be sharing more info as we can. Pray for the kiddos as we are gone. I know they will be well taken care of but they seem a little anxious about Mom AND Dad being gone for so long.

Oh yeah, since I am learning this lesson of humbleness, I feel that I need to change the name of my blog. My sis and I came up with something quick because we were so anxious to see if we could actually get it all set up. Now that it is up and going, I need suggestions for a name. Just remember that I don't want to include our last name or any specific countries. Can't wait to see what you come up with.
God Bless!!!!

We are still hanging out at home. Our days our filled with movies, makeup work, puzzles, computer games and anything else I can think of that keeps them still. Brendan and Aaron went for a check on their spleens yesterday. They seem to not have the virus as bad as Ethan but we are still ordered to stay home for the rest of the week as we are highly contagious. We have enjoyed sleeping late and not being so busy. In fact, I am thankful for this week of rest. We can be miserable being away from everyone or we can enjoy it and we have chosen to cherish our time together all by ourselves. Does that sound nuts? :)

Our kittens (Tom and Jerry last time I checked) are still needing to be fed by syringe. The kids have enjoyed taking care of them but the boys won't let me get a picture of them with the kittens yet. So I am going to post some pictures of us hanging out this week. Thank you for your prayers!

The last picture is one of Thad using his "smat" skills. He has been painting the wheel covers on the airplane this week and they really look good!

This is my first official post. We have had a crazy week. It started out with a birthday party as our important event of the week. Ethan turned 6 this week! He had lots of neat surprises this week. First of all, we had a visitor show up at our house after school on Tuesday--Mr. Nevin. We were so excited to see him before his big trip across the pond. His second surprise was two small kittens that Papaw found in a truck at the farm. He has been asking for a kitten. Then we had a small family gathering. We had supper together and then cookie cake and presents! We spent Wednesday in the doctor's office getting the news that he has mono. On Thursday, Brendan woke up with a sore throat and on Friday, it was Aaron's turn. So here we are, all of us at home for a week until our symptoms ease up. The hardest part of it all is the no wrestling, riding bikes, or sports. What are little boys to do? The movies are not as entertaining as the other outside stuff. We have played with legos and aqua dots and made a short visit to Meme's next door. What will we do for the rest of the week? At least they don't feel too bad. Our next task will be to tackle all of the makeup work we are missing at school. Say a prayer for our family this week. I pray it will be a week of bonding and not driving each other crazy :)