Sweet Girl, I love you so much. I love your excitement for life and your passion. It has been a very exciting past few months watching you come into your own at school. You are growing up much faster than I am prepared yet I dare not interfere with God's perfect plan for you. He is molding you and shaping you; he is growing you into a big girl. I continue to pray, let your heart, Anna Grace, therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments as at this day. (I Kings 8:61)
Anna Grace had a fun little party for her birthday. It was a celebration with girls, giggles, nail polish, make-up and tutus...what more could a 6 year old want! (And contrary to popular belief Neal makes an excellent tutu maker at 1am!)
It is not everyday that we get to witness instant love, excitement or passion for anything. However this past fall Neal and I got to see such a thing take place with Dean. From the moment he tried t-ball for the first time he was fired up. - Sorry for those of you that thought this was going to be about something deep and spiritual...just 4 year old t-ball. - Here are some pictures of the relaxed, teaching atmosphere of fall ball.
I can only assume that I was like this before starting Kindergarten but Anna Grace cracks me up. She has planned all of her outfits for a week. Relished the school supply shopping making sure each item was accounted for. The excitement level is at an all time premium around here. We have seen the classroom, met our teacher and even made a new friend while seeing the classroom.
My Sweet Girl, we are excited with you. I am confident you are going to have a wonderful year and the school is probably not completely prepared for your love, heart and spirit. I pray that you will be a light to your class and that your heart to serve will only grow as you have opportunities to serve your teacher and develop new friendships. As for my exact feelings, I am thankful that I have little Hudson to keep me busy today while you are exploring your new world because when I stop and ponder how fast you are growing I am quickly overwhelmed. So know that while you are learning, playing and eating lunch in the lunchroom using your new lunch number I will be here counting down the minutes until I get to pick you up and find out all about your day...and changing Hudson's diapers!
Pretty sure you had a wonderful day and loved every second of Kindergarten. We are going to have to work on learning your new friends' names but we have all year for that. I hid a camera while you were telling me about your day. Here is what you thought you had to say...
**Please don't get too excited that more posts are coming within minutes. This post has been ready since August just waiting on the pictures to be added and the video embedded...pathetic I know.**
Alligator Slippy Boy Spiderman, Butterfly Princess Slippy Girl and Cool Tornado Slippy Boy
(what you can't see is they all have on socks so they can slip around on the hardwood floors while undoing the evil deeds of Dump Truck Man who oddly enough is sound asleep in his bed)
There are mixed stories regarding their exact intent. I originally heard they were ridding the world of bad mice so the good mice would be okay. Then I later heard they needed guns so they would all be prepared to get The Joker should he appear. Either way I am thankful they are playing well together and that Anna Grace - I mean Butterfly Princess Slippy Girl - is feeling better. Technically she is home sick today...can't go back to school until you have been fever free for 24 hours per the school rule and the good doctor's orders.
And yes I am aware that it has been 9 months since my last post. Things have been busy around here. However here is a list of things to come (maybe in the near future)...
Anna Grace's 1st day of school
Dean's Fall T-ball
Anna Grace's 6th Birthday
Christmas
Hudson's 1st Birthday
Hudson Walking
Dean's Spring T-ball
Anna Grace's Ballet
Caleb's 3rd Birthday (Not until next week but lets face it if I haven't posted in 9 months what makes me think I will successfully make 8 posts before his birthday.)
Hudson is growing so fast and before we knew what hit us it was time for his baptism and family brunch honoring him. This has been one of my favorite days for each of our children. It is always refreshing to admit before the church body, "Yes, I know that my child is sinful and needs a Savior. And further, yes I will do all I can to teach and lead him in the admonition of the Lord but yes I ask that the church body surrounding us do the same by praying for him (and us as a family), teaching his class and encouraging us along the way." (For those of you not familiar with the covenant of infant baptism you can read the detailed explanation I wrote in Caleb's baptism post.)
The blessing that Neal chose for Hudson:
Hudson Knox, your mother and I love you very much. Our prayer for you is that you'll be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies...that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. (1 Kings 2:2-3)
(Dean was there, promise. He was standing behind Anna Grace and
beside me. If you look really hard you can see his shoe.)
a picture with Honey & Big Daddy
Caleb was ready amid the chaos.
a picture with Juju & Ottie
What a sweet day for Hudson as well as our family. We are richly blessed.
We were invited to go with the Josh Huff family for a long weekend at the beach this past July. It was going to be our family vacation, and their's too. But when an unnamed family member allowed our condo to sell out from under us (I hold no grudge, promise!) we had to come up with an alternative to Sandestin. The only logical thing to do was to pack up the families and head to Lake Martin. Here we go...1 house, 1 lake, 8 children, 4 parents with 4 full days on our hands...
We filled our days with basically three things: 1. swim, 2. tube and 3. ski. We successfully taught Cameron, the triplets (Abby, Caroline and Logan) as well as Anna Grace to ski. They all learned in a day and once they learned that is all the children wanted to do (with the exception of a little swimming, tubing and sea-doo riding). We had a great time and I don't think anyone in the bunch wished we had gone to the beach.
tubing
(Caleb loves tubing but we failed to get his picture.
Holt...well...Holt gave it one try and we failed to get a picture of it too.)
Abby and Caroline
Anna Grace and Caroline
Dean and Logan
Hudson's first boat ride.
little faces
one happy crew
(During the above picture I was holding Hudson up front and
Caleb had plans of his own...)
skiing
Abby
Caroline
Logan
Anna Grace
extra shots
And when they were relaxing from water sports
they were plugged in.
one last photo before ending our vacation
Neal and I choose to believe that Anna Grace is trying to express
her feelings about the end of the vacation and not her disgust
at posing for pictures in 100 degree heat.
And finally Anna Grace's video of her learning to ski.
If you want to watch it, here is the video of her first long ski; she is a natural.
a picture with Honey & Big Daddy
