Friday, April 6, 2012

Christmas 2011, little late in adding this one

 HAPPY HAPPY SEASON!! For some reason, my pictures uploaded before my paragraph...bare with me!

This year Daddy and I chose to really surprise you guys. Mady-you woke first at about 4:30 am and you kept saying, "Momma, I think he came, come down the hall and check with me!" This momma responded, "just 30 more minutes...like 3 times! They walked down the hall and found this:
No, not the usually WOW factor under this tree. But Santa's letter hepled explain...
Santa's letter spoke highly of the girls' desire to serve the Lord and how proud he was when he saw their good choices through the 'good behavior radar.' He asked them to continue to make the Lord and their parents smile. His last instruction was to close their eyes and listen for mom and dad to yell, "Come find us!" So they did and this is what they found:


But 1st, our gingerbread house tradition

Mady's piece of the roof

Mika's piece of the roof

collapse of the house w/in seconds of building it...

You guys really don't seem to mind!

Me and my little loves!

Me and my big love!

rushed to Dardanelle from a well, wore out....

someone is enthralled with baby Jesus;)

Got to LOVE Papaw David!

Kevin Kisses!

YOUR FACES WILL FOREVER BE ENGRAVED IN MY HEART WHEN YOU SAW YOUR BIG GIFT

JUMPING FOR ABSOLUTE JOY! holding hands, never forget this...

Mika-sis was having eye issues all morning!

Those sweet happy girls melt me!

I must say, this is a girls dream bed, I would have loved it! Heck, I do love it:)






















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Go Mika! Your 1st T-ball practice was a blast!

Momma recorded  lots of practice for Daddy!! He wishes he was there and I know Nana and Pops will appreciate these shots too!

I seriously love this shot, your helmet is as big as you!

You were excited for awhile, but that bobble head got hard to carry;)

I love how your pony-tail looks and that you knew how to stand just by watching  Sissy play.

Oh gracious, your 1st attempt at batting in a practice setting has me rolling. You look so cute as you bat and especially when you take off running the bases. Also, you decided to skip 3rd and run to momma instead. You tickled me a lot this evening.


You seriously cracked me up by the way you "touched" third base, too funny! I love you, my sweet t-baller!

Heavenly Father, thank You for this precious four year old you've given us!


Thursday, April 5, 2012

1st plane ride/trip to PA


take-off! Mady bracing herself...

Mika already out, didn't even feel her first take-off

Happy girls! Sweet Beary in the background goes on every trip with Mady (from Papaw/Mamaw)

Momma's 1st flight too!

Headed to Philly from Charlotte

And they're both out;)

I seriously could not get enough of this silly face, I know you will demand that I delete it before too long!

Well, sisters....our first flight happened together. We had to leave Greenbrier at 3:30 am on a Sunday morning and head to Little Rock. From Little Rock we went to Charlotte and from Charlotte we went to Philly where Daddy was excitedly waiting for us! You guys were amazing and I was so proud of you the entire time!!



You guys spent loads of time in the hotel pool, snuggling with poppa bear, and house hunting with Momma. We chose this rental property because despite the old exterior, the inside was completely remodeled minus its original hardwoods. We fell in love with the place and felt it'd be great to start here and move to a place with land once we discovered where we want to end up!
Nana and Poppi video, weird layout, sorry! 1st rent house in PA!

God Opened a Door!

Mady drawing objects based on out 5 senses

Mika drawing a chocolate chip cookie for the sense 'taste'

1st science review

I just got a kick out of this smile, she did it on purpose and wouldn't stop! lol!

Mika using her gold pointer to show her handwriting by mine

More science;)

I don't have the exact prayer that I wrote in my prayer journal last November, but I'll add a picture of it at a later date. Basically, I began to beg God to deliver me from teaching in the public school and open a door for me to homeschool. I remember being in the shower and praying over this again and I decided to just say to God, I know it is done. I know it is provided. I will wait for you to show me when, but I know it will happen. One evening late at night, after Daddy and I read a little of Radical, I decided to share with him that I finally knew what my purpose was...I was made to serve you guys, my family. See, Momma never really felt called to anything careerwise, but because I became a Mommy before I was married, I felt that I had to prove to the world that I was SOMEBODY. I felt I had to prove that a baby would not stop me from becoming something, instead a baby would make me more motivated to get that degree. Little did I know, I hadn't really sought God in my endeavors. I believe God would have shown me what I see now, and I wasn't ready for it. Now I see, that for me, you are the only investment worthy of my time. You belong to me for such a tiny moment and the reason I never felt fulfilled or even happy when working outside of home is because you take the cake for me! I am best at being your Mom! If I'd have been honest with myself, when Mady was born, I'd have said, "This baby is mine for just a moment, I do not care about a career, I care about being with this baby, I have forever to decide on a career." Sheesh, just getting honest with myself could have saved us a lot of money from my student loans! Anyhow, I began to see a change in my mommyhood with the birth of Mika. I flat out refused to return to class. It was the semester before  student teaching and I went in to take a mid-term, and then finals. I mentally could not part with you, Mika. I wanted to quit then, but Daddy knew I was so close to being done that he "made" me finish. Back to the point, I shared all this with Daddy and explained that I knew I was called to homeschool you guys and that I'd known it for 3 years, I just wasn't ready to share it (Daddy has never liked homeschooling after seeing how his cousins "turned out":/) That night Daddy asked me to work for two more years and said that after that I was free to belong to you, I said I can definietly do that! After all, I was made to help Daddy. I continued to pray for deliverance from teaching and often cried because I missed you girls. Well, one day I got a call from Daddy on my way to eat lunch with Mady in the cafeteria. He was at the airport headed to Pennsylvania to do a couple of wells. Little did we know, God was busy at work. He was ready for my purpose to be fulfilled also;) I believe God was simply waiting for Daddy and me to have that late-night conversation where we came face to face with reality and our desires. When we both showed submission to each other, the door came wide open. Daddy ended up being promoted to a tool-hand, we have since made PA 'home,' and the three of us girls are homeschooling. Thank you, Father, You placed this desire in my heart, You opened up Chris's heart to a new way of thinking, and revealed to me my purpose at this time,  You opened the door to this opportunity, and I simply cry out in praise. You are the almighty allknowing God and I submit to Your will for me. Thanks be unto You and the precious blood of Jesus. Amen.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Thankful for Daddy!

As you know Daddy has been growing in his faith a lot lately. There were desires on my heart long ago that I could not share with him because he would not have understood why I desired such things: for example staying home and working for you guys=no paycheck! or homes schooling= no friend no sports!,  adopting a baby=$$$$, and it don't grow on trees. LOL, of couse that is not the case, but from Daddy's perspective, that was all she wrote...I'd like to take a moment and praise Daddy for the man he is, and is becoming: your Daddy is learning to love me the way Christ loved the church. He constantly sacrifices for me and takes on more work so that I can fully belong to you and our home. As we read (I read to him, because he HATES reading) books about childhood and raising daughters, becoming radical for Jesus, life as a 1st century Christian, he takes it to heart and allows himself to be moved and changed...just like God calls us to. I'd like to paint a picture of a day in your Daddy's shoes. Alarm goes off at 4:00 am, it is still dark and he gets up, showers, slips on his gear, kisses us each goodbye, and sets off to location (sometimes an hour and a half away) from 6:00 am-6:00pm Daddy is on location working with the coil crew and setting up his tools, looking at pressures and monitoring the speed of the drill. Can you imagine having to do all that math, so many formulas involving volume and barrels per minute, I mean what does that even mean?! Usually, he leaves there at 6:30 pm if he is working days, drives to the shop and reloads his tools, and hopefully gets home  around 9:00pm. What a day!! Think about those hours, girls 4:00am-9:00pm. He then comes home to 2 little rowdy girls ready to wrestle and before he can kick off his boots, you both are latched onto him! And guess what? He loves every minute of it. He totally knows how to make you feel special; on his days off, its all about you! We play softball, go to the movies, play at Hoopla's, or he works on crafts with you! It is too sweet. Check out a couple of moment's with him:






 We are so blessed to have such a GREAT Daddy, I totally adore this man:)