Tire Swing

It's the simple things in life ...

Avalon

Savanna with her two BFF's, Elizabeth and Kayleigh,

ready to go into the Avalon concert last night.

We got there WAY early because there were no assigned seats ~first come, first serve. The kids wanted to sit up front which meant we spent 45 minutes in line waiting for the doors to open.

It was all worth it though because sitting on the 5th row at an Avalon concert ~ I mean, it just doesn't get much better than that!

Here's me with two of MY BFF's, Lana and Stephanie!

God has truly blessed us all with precious friends.

The girls rocked out without any reservation! It was such a beautiful thing especially when most girls their age are screaming their lungs out for the newest pop boy band ~ our girls are screaming, swaying, clapping, and jumping for Jesus! Watching them was every bit as entertaining as watching what was going on on the stage!

Operation Christmas Child

We delivered our Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes to Lifeway today. Micah was so cute because he is convinced that one of the children in the promotional poster is holding the box that he packaged last year! Who knows?!
May the Lord bless the recipients of these boxes.
May they know that someone, somewhere cares.
May they ultimately come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior through the gospel message packaged in each box.

Isn't it amazing to think that you can help make an impact on eternity by spending $15 at the Dollar Store and filling a shoebox?

This is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It helps us all come back to the spirit of true thankfulness by realizing how richly blessed we are! Lots of good teachable moments along the way too.

I love this ministry and am so thankful for Franklin Graham and his obedience to fulfill the vision the Lord gave to him 16 years ago.

Welcome Home!

Welcome Home Uncle Brad!

We were all so excited to FINALLY get to spend some time with Uncle Brad. His business trip to New York was extended to twice it's originally scheduled amount of time ~so it has been TWO months since we've gotten to see him. I was starting to get lots tearful questions like "Is Uncle Brad EVER going to come home?"

He brought lots of fun 'I love New York' and Yankees World Series Souvenirs home for the kiddos ~but the best gift of all was just having him home!

Thanks to Hurricane Ida, we have a few unexpected days off of school so we were able to stay up extra late and enjoy some family fun.

Corn Maze

A group of friends met at the Sweet Season's Farm and Corn Maze after church today for a family field trip.

I love the rules ~ especially the one that says "No Bad Language - our corn has very tender ears."

Instead of a sand box they had a CORN box. The kids had so much fun playing in it and rolling around in all the corn. Later, when we got done with the evening worship service, Micah found a piece of corn safely tucked away in his shirt pocket!

Here's most of the "gang" ready to get lost in the corn maze.Brian thought it was so funny that I would actually use the "POT-O-GOLD" before starting the maze ~ He knows I ONLY use these things in an ABSOLUTE emergency. I was afraid I would truly get lost in the corn and not be able to get to a bathroom if need be. I must say, in terms of port-a-potties, this was definitely a deluxe model. It was overall pretty clean (at least as clean as a plastic outhouse can be) and would you believe there was actually a MIRROR in this thing?
Brian, Russell, and Jeff ~ our faithful leaders in the corn maze trying to decide which way to go.

Brandon and Heath were so proud of the dried corn they found along the way.

Micah rang the bell to let everyone know that we finally found our way out.

The cow barrel train was a fun, but BUMPY ride!

Heath helped take care of baby Gage all afternoon.

Then we all headed over to the playground, corn cannon, and hayride.

All of the equipment in the playground area was just made of basic farm equipment, but the kids had the best time playing on it all afternoon!

I just love this chick! Isn't she the cutest thing ~ especially in her cheetah print flats?! Crack me up! Probably not exactly the proper footwear one needs while riding on a tractor (or running through a corn maze for that matter), but she sure looks cute!Giddy up Cowboy!

Gulf Coast Arts Festival

Savanna's artwork was chosen to be in the Gulf Coast Arts Festival!
Savanna sporting the famous "Vanna" pose while showing off her beautimous artwork!
We had a blast looking at the HUNDREDS of art vendors and booths. I could have spent ALL DAY there! Two hours is NO WHERE near enough time to see the entire festival. There were so many fun hands on activities for the children too. They made model airplanes out of balsa wood, origami, puppets, sand art, tissue paper flowers, and glittery magic wands. And best of all, it was FREE FREE FREE! How cool is that?!
Some of the artwork was super unique and fun - like this funky horse. Unfortunately, the horse did not come home with us. He was adorable, but since he also came with a $3,500.00 price tag, we opted just for a photo of our friend. YIKES ~ like, for REAL? ~ $3,500.00?

Fall-tastic Carnival

We had an awesome FALL-TASTIC SCHOOL CARNIVAL complete with petting zoo, pony rides, bounce house, TONS of game booths, vendors, auction, concert, bingo, chili cook off, cake walk, snow cones, cotton candy, fire baton twirlers, face painters, fire trucks, etc...

Everyone said it was the best carnival they can remember!

Brayden is Micah's new buddy at school. Brayden transferred to our school this year, and these two formed an instant friendship. Every day for the entire first week of school, Micah came home with a new story about his "new best friend ~ Hayden." It was a week later when he came home and said "I found out today my new best friend's name is BRAYDEN not HAYDEN."

Minor detail.

Micah and Mitchell loved trying to guess which coconut had the ball under it after they were all shuffled around. It was so funny watching them keep their eyes glued to the coconuts.
Savanna and Brianna couldn't decide if they wanted hot dogs, chili, pizza, or nachos. They obviously settled on the nachos - good choice girls!
Savanna's teacher, Ms. Collier, all geared up and ready to be the next victim of the PIE IN YOUR EYE booth. Only SHE could wear a garbage bag, shower cap, and goggles and still somehow manage to look adorable! Go figure?!

Poor Mrs. Hatch, another 5th grade teacher, had to work double duty in the PIE IN YOUR EYE booth! At least she still had a smile at the end of the night!

Then came Brian's turn! One of the teacher's told us she was reading out the list of people that would be in the pie booth, and when she got to Brian's name , all the children CHEERED! How funny! I told him we should make a scrapbook with all the crazy pics of him doing things like this or when he kissed the pig when we met our VBS goal. And then he should take it back to seminary to warn all those young, naive boys about what is REALLY involved in ministry!

Ready...

Aim...

FIRE!

What a good sport! Way to support the school, baby!

A super special thank you to Candy and Tina for all of their hard work and endless hours they put in to make our school carnival such a success! It was wonderful girls and we are all so grateful!

Harvest

The fields are white

for the harvest

"Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields;
for they are white and ready to harvest."
John 4:35

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few;
Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest,
that He will send forth laborers into His harvest."
Matthew 9:37-38
Can you believe that we get to pass this beautiful field every day on our way to and from school?

Every year when the cotton is in bloom I want to take a picture, but of course, something always comes up and I miss my window of opportunity. Today, it was just by the grace of God that we didn't miss the opportunity ~ yet again!

On our way home from school, I saw the big tractor-thingy{all my country friends are just going to LOVE that} picking up all the cotton.

HALF THE FIELD WAS ALREADY HARVESTED!

We rushed home, found white shirts & blue jeans, grabbed a snack and sunglasses (I had planned on doing pics at sunset, not when the sun is right in your eye - we are all TERRIBLE squinters) and hurried back out to the field.

Have I told you lately that I LOVE living in the country?

Maybe that should be a blog post all it's own...
{to be continued at a later date}

Report Cards

The first report cards of the year came home today

and we are proud to say...

we have

TWO ALL "A" HONOR STUDENTS!!!

More importantly, they both got the Award of Excellence for good citizenship too!

You don't get to choose whether or not you are smart, but we all get to choose whether or not we obey the rules.

Way to go Savanna and Micah!

I hope and pray you always give God the glory for everything good that comes your way. The Lord has blessed you both and we pray that you will continue to be good stewards with whatever He provides.