Happy 16th Birthday Matthew!

You always hear mothers say, "I don't know where the time has gone." It is so true though. Childhood is fleeting, and before you know it they go from being a chubby little baby to a teenager that is taller than you!
This is one of my favorite pictures of Matthew as a baby. He was such a fat and happy baby! :o)

I was looking through some old picture files and found this one of Matthew and Mariah about four years ago. Matthew was born on New Year's Eve and seven years later Mariah was born just after midnight on New Years Day!

I asked Matthew what he wanted to do for his 16th birthday and he said he wanted to have some of his friends over to shoot air soft guns. Here he is with two of his closest friends from church. They are all within a few months of each other. I will post more pictures from his party later.

Matthew has been a joy to raise. Raising teenagers is definitely hard work, but it hasn't been the nightmare that people told me it would be. I am very grateful for the Godly young man he is growing up to be.

Our charge to you Matthew is that you continue to grow in faithfulness according to God's word so that He will preserve you and plentifully reward you.

"O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." Psalms 31:23

Please pray...

On the morning of December 23rd my dad fell outside by his pool and broke his hip. He had surgery on Christmas Eve morning and is still in the hospital. He has had some setbacks but today seemed to be doing better. He is 86 years old and has never been in the hospital- not even for his own birth! He has always been in good health and in excellent shape, so this has been very hard on him. Please pray for him! My mom (who is 18 years younger than him) has lots of health issues. The whole thing has been hard for both of them as they are very dependent on each other.

Only a week before his accident he and my mom came down to visit to celebrate his birthday. I am so glad that McKenzie did a "photo shoot" with him outside and got some great pictures of him.
He grew up on a farm and enjoys coming to our house to see all of the animals.

Romping in the woods with the kids and seeing Matt's "fort".

I love this picture of him with all of my children!

Happy Birthday Mamma

Happy Birthday to Mama! We love you so much and we hope you have the best birthday one could ever have!

Happy Birthday Mama!

Below are a few things I love about you

1: You are faithful in keeping this house in orderly shape
2: You are faithful to dad in all you do
3: You desire to keep us healthy by not letting us eat too much sugar
4: Your health shakes :)
5: When we need help with a science project you always join in to make it fun

6: When we are hurt or sick you always try to make us as comfortable as possible
7: When we are having an argument or a fight of some sort you always make things come out right.
8: When our rooms are messy you always remind us to clean it up as part of our training for our own houses one day.
9: When we neglected to do a jurisdiction we were suppose to do you always make sure you tell us to do it (8: above)
10: For just being you and for loving us the way we do.
I love you soooooooo much Mama! I just want you to know that you are very important to each one of us.

Happy
Birthday
Mama!
Love your daughter

~Madeline~

Mary and Joseph

Can you tell what they had been watching?

" The Nativity". :o) Last night Mariah talked Malachi into being "Joseph". This morning she wanted to play it again and Malachi wouldn't cooperate.

Myles loves Mariah, and was a willing participant! :o)

Adoration......

Malachi said he was a Roman soldier. :o)

More Christmas happenings...

The Christmas season is going by so fast! We have been busy with lots of different things. A couple of weeks ago we had our church Christmas party. The church looked so pretty!

Madeline with one of her sweet friends and her baby sister.



Mariah with two of her sweet friends. Emma Kate was being bashful. :o)

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The next day we headed to town for the Christmas parade. It is a small town but the parade was pretty cute.

Only in a small southern town does the public school band play Christmas hymns! I loved it!

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Last week Marc took a few of us on a business trip with him. The hotel was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

Madeline and Mariah both enjoyed the ice skating. I skated with them once, but I decided not to post a picture of me! :o)

They enjoyed the indoor pool. I was glad to see that Myles still remembered how to swim too.

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McKenzie took her piano students to a nursing home to perform and pass out cookies and cards. I think it blessed us even more than it did the residents. Our family plans to go back next week.
Madeline and Mariah aren't McKenzie's students but they played too.McKenzie with one of her youngest students.

Hope you all are having a blessed Christmas season!

Christmas Shopping With Mariah

Yesterday I was driving the girls home from their piano lesson. Madeline was discussing her Christmas shopping and the fact that she hadn't gotten McKenzie anything yet. I asked her if she had any ideas and Mariah spoke up and said, "I am getting her toilet water." I thought she was being silly and I laughed and said, "Well, that is really nice Mariah." She said, "She likes toilet water." I told her to quit being silly. She very indignantly said, "The stuff she sprays on. She told me it is toilet water." I told her that McKenzie was pulling her leg and she kept on saying that it really was toilet water. When we got home she marched upstairs and brought me a bottle of perfume that said "Eau de toilette". I will never convince her otherwise!

This evening I took Mariah out to get her shopping done. Last year she did her shopping at Kohls and it got pretty expensive for me, and I am not sure she ever really worked her debt off! :o) I decided to take her to Dollar General to shop this year. She got her little basket and set off to find the perfect gifts. She grabbed an item and put it in her basket for Madeline and then it was off to find something for Matthew. She picked up a UGA coffee thermos. I told her that Matthew doesn't drink coffee so something else might be better. She said, "Ok, how about this?" as she tossed a mug into her basket. I suggested a ball cap for her daddy. She looked at the price tag and said, "Oh, $8 is way too much!" Next on her list was McKenzie. She came to a big bin of really colorful socks. She grabbed two pair really fast and threw them in her basket. She said, "McKenzie will really make a fool out of them." (Still not sure exactly what she meant by that.) She found a couple of things for the little boys and then it was just me she had left. She was seriously considering a pack of paper towels for me when McKenzie stepped in to help out. I was waiting at the front of the store. She came up there and I told her I would help her check out. She quickly said, "You can help me, but I don't want you to see the bracelet." I started laughing and she never did get it!
Yes, shopping with Mariah this year was a memory I won't forget!

These are a few pictures that McKenzie took of her the other day. The third one really shows her personality!

*Oh, and thanks Doris from Holland for leaving the comment. That was pretty neat to hear from someone so far away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it is already Thanksgiving. Time goes by like a freight train! I thought I would share some things that I am thankful for.

I am thankful for:

-my salvation
-God's mercy and forgiveness
- my husband who is a faithful man and a hard worker
-my six children. I am thankful for each one of them and what they bring to the family. Each one is so very different and very special!
-that my parents and Marc's parents are all still alive and my children can be a part of their lives.
-living out in the country
-animals that provide for our family (and some that contribute nothing but eating up our money! :o)
-my bed, nothing like laying in my bed reading after a long day!
-the beautiful weather we have been having. I do NOT enjoy cold weather!
-the privilege to home school my children. Some days I don't act like it is a privilege, but I can't imagine them being anywhere else but here with me.
-our church, I am thankful for our pastor who reinforces the things that we are teaching our children at home. I am thankful for good friends that my children have, and that they are being raised in a similar way.
-for God's protection over my family two years ago in the car accident.
-for God's protection over Mariah when she was kicked by one of our horses.
-laughter that my children (two in particular! :o) bring to our home.

Well I guess I could go on and on but I will end it there. Tonight during our family Bible time (Madeline posted about it here) Marc asked us to all name two things that we were thankful for. Everyone said things like "salvation, family, finishing the chicken pen, being together with family etc. It came time for Malachi and he said, "My toys and playing with my G.I.Joe" I kind of chuckled and said, "Wow that was deep." Matthew said, "He is only five. How deep do you think he can go?" Just sitting and listening to my children talk is such entertainment! :o)

Hope you all (if you live in the United States) have a Happy Thanksgiving! (Which makes me think....... I noticed some really interesting places on the blog map of people reading from other countries. I would love to get a comment from you and how in the world (ha ha no pun intended!) you found my little ole blog! :o)



Psalm 100



Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness:come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God:it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,and into his courts with praise:be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good;his mercy is everlasting;and his truth endureth to all generations.

Cleansing the Home

Last Sunday our pastor preached on cleansing your home from things that could bring spiritual harm to your family. We have heard him teach on this before but it is always good to be reminded of the things that we often let our guard down on. He talked about fear, anxiety, anger, lust, even health problems and how it can be directly related to things in your home. As parents we should be constantly going through books, movies, magazines, and even objects that could invite demons into our homes. We have always tried to be careful of what kinds of things come into our home even to the point that we throw sales papers and catalogs away when they come in the mail. Can you believe the pornography that comes even in a department store ad!? Anyway, one area that we have dropped the ball on and were convicted in was books. Our pastor said if a book contradicts scripture it should be burned! How many seemingly innocent books contradict scripture? Truth.... it is a word that keeps popping up around here. I want my children immersed in God's truth! Here are some quotes we have heard just in the last week that I have been pondering....



"Truth without love is harshness. Love without truth is compromise."



"Truth doesn't change just because it is uncomfortable."



"Truth without application is useless."

Here is our little Myles Truth. :o)

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Here are some funny pictures that McKenzie took of Mariah and Malachi the other day. It has been like spring lately and the kids are loving it! Malachi drives us crazy until Mariah is finished with school and can go out to play with him.

Basha has put up with so much nonsense over the years. :o)

Pioneers driving their wagon. :o)

A fall day...

I rarely take pictures because McKenzie does a better job, but the other day I went camera crazy! It has been unseasonably (even for the south!) warm lately and yesterday a storm was brewing. The children went outside and played in the leaves and it just looked like good lighting to snap some fun pictures of them! :o)

Well, actually this is one that McKenzie took of Madeline after she got 9 inches cut off her hair. She donated it to Locks of Love. My girls have always talked about doing that so it was pretty neat to finally get to!

This cozy coupe was McKenzie's. Little Tikes is tough stuff!

McKenzie works two afternoons a week at a music studio teaching piano. We all hate the days that she is gone!

These two little guys are FULL of energy!

Don't feel too bad for Myles, he holds his own! :o)

Mariah had about 6 inches cut off of hers. You have to have at least 8 inches to donate. You can't tell with her hair in a braid, but it does look shorter!

Jumping pictures are always fun!

Worn out...

Happy Fall!