mission conference 2007...

The kids had a blast at the mission conference last week. They enjoyed getting their passports stamped in each "continent." They particularly had fun fishing off the bridge in Asia, riding the bull in Texas, and scoring soccer goals in South America. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the "working" oil well...I thought that was the most amazing part. The mission conference is an awesome time for the kids, but the goal is to make them aware of the world out there and their need for the Lord. I don't know what God has in store for our kids' lives, but I think our job as parents is to teach them to be sensitive to His leading. Here is a glimpse of the fun...

Click on one of the three boxes for a larger version...


I hope to post again in a few days with pictures from our fun family night out the other day. See you later!

falling leaves...

Here are a few snapshots I took last week while the kids had fun in the leaves. I've had fun putting them into collages with this program I found on my computer. :) We spent one day after school raking up the leaves and then taking turns jumping on them. Sweet memories for the kids. I'm glad they had the opportunity because not only were we busy with mission conference, it also rained a lot this week. Now the trees are starting to look more barren, but on the other hand...there are tons more leaves on the ground and it's supposed to be really nice out tomorrow!



In other news, we finally got some grass seed planted! I can't wait to see green instead of brown...and I think I will be grateful next summer every time I look out and notice that the grass needs cut! It has been a turturous summer, for us and our neighbors!

Ringo's soccer season is over now. They were to have their last game tomorrow but that was cancelled, so I guess we have a free Saturday for the first time in two months...YAY! I hardly took any pictures at all, but if I can get a team picture I will post it sometime...at least our nieces Ashlyn and Nikki might enjoy seeing the middle school boys! :D

I hope all of you enjoy a great weekend. See you later!

busyness...

Ringo threatened me this morning about updating this blog. I say this all the time, but where does the time go? I did do a little blog-hopping and now I don't feel so bad because it looks like everyone else is lagging too. I just haven't been on the computer much this past week.

Our mission conference is going on right now, so trying to cram everything into each day is challenging. The mission conference is a BIG deal for the kids in our church. I don't think the pictures we've taken will do it justice, but if we have any good ones, we'll post them later. The Great Hall at Crown College is literally turned into the world! The International Village is just too amazing to describe (at least for me). The children's choirs have been singing each evening...Braden and Bella will both be singing tonight with the academy elementary choir. It's a little late notice, but you can view the service live at 7:30 EST at faithforthefamily.com.

The kids are about to walk in the door from school, so gotta go get them in the tub and ready for church tonight! Here's a picture I took of the kids playing in the leaves the other day...more to come on that another time. Enjoy...



Check back again in a few days...I promise to TRY to post more pics! Enjoy the rest of your week!

ap

the GAP...

The big news from the weekend is that Bella lost her first tooth. That's big stuff for a kindergartner who has seen her big brother lose all of his, and whose friends are all losing theirs. Ringo finally convinced her to let him pull it since it was basically just hanging anyway. She was very brave about it. The tooth next to it is also very loose, so it won't be long before we get to do this again. All she could talk about last night was getting money under her pillow...that and, "The tooth fairy isn't real, it's you and Daddy who put the money under the pillow." This is what she's been hearing Braden say since he lost his first tooth. So much for childlike wonder! :o)

For your viewing pleasure (ha!), here is a pic of snaggle-tooth Bella...


Hope you all have a great week...hope to see you again in a few days!

ap

finally feeling fall...

...thought I'd throw in a tongue-twister as a bonus for reading my blog today. =0) With the exception of the Howells who have moved off to Montana and are already enjoying snow, the rest of us thought summer would never end...seriously. To me, there is just nothing like the feel of the sun; I love it. But enough is enough. I mean, here we are decorating for autumn, and the kids are playing on the slip 'n slide!!! But today...it's FALL! It was a beautiful blue-sky, big fluffy-cloud kind of day, but quite chilly.

Braden had his first elementary soccer game (for grades 3-5). He was so excited to be playing again. Our team lost. :( I've heard four different scores, so I don't know what the actual score was. (Not that it matters; we still lost!) Oh well, a lot more games to come. They play on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the last hour of school. It's a lot of fun for the kids!

Here is an action shot of Braden playing today...


I hope you appreciate my attempt at brevity. In looking back over a year of blogging, I realized that I've gotten more and more long-winded. =} Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for stopping by...

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a year of blogging...

I cannot believe we have officially been bloggers for a whole year! As I mentioned a few posts ago, we have published over 100 posts now, and this month marks one year of blogging. Obviously news is slow this week...I'm blogging about blogging. :o) Anyway, in honor of this glorious occasion (ha!) I went back and looked through my first attempts at posting, thinking how humorous it would be...but instead I was amazed at the memories that have been documented here. Other than birthdays and such, none of these things would have been recorded without the world of blogging. A lot of blogging is about the trivial stuff in our lives, but those are the moments we would never remember. And most of the "moments" in our lives are NOT the big moments, but the everyday happenings!

If you look back at my first post, you will see that I was not at all excited about blogging...didn't take me long to get over that though! It started out as Ringo's thing, but now it's "my blog" and he has the privilege of getting to look at the blog from work. ;o) (By the way, this Mac is mine too...you know that, right?)

We have many readers who check our blog faithfully. It is so encouraging to hear from people, and to stay in touch this way. I love that our friends and family from far away can keep up with us. My favorite comments about the blog are: "I feel like I'm a part of what's going on in your lives" and "It's like having you here with us for Sunday lunch." That just makes my day! I know most people don't comment, but we would love to hear from you if you're keeping up. To those of you who are regular commenters, thank you for the encouragement...and I hope the blog will remind you to pray for us.

I also made my first attempt at photography (before we had a digital camera!) about this time last year and I thought I would re-post some of the pictures of my sister's kids Ashlyn and Kyler. These were taken at my parent's farm in Searcy, Arkansas, when we were home last year in September. Enjoy (again)! ;o)

Click on the photos for the larger version.





Thank you again for checking in...we appreciate your love and prayers. Have a great weekend!

ap

dollywood...

Here are some pictures from our trip to Dollywood last week when the kids were off from school. It was a beautiful autumn day, no lines...couldn't have been better. We were able to ride many more rides than usual, plus several rides we haven't ridden before. Evan has grown enough since the beginning of the summer that he can now ride some things he has never been big enough for...now there are some rides the whole family can get on! It's hard to believe that Bella is tall enough to ride the big coasters. She rode the Mystery Mine a few weeks ago, but this time she wasn't interested. She's TALL enough, I just don't think she's OLD enough! I'm thankful the Lord allowed us a great day together as a family! :)

These are not the greatest pictures in the history of the world, but you can see a glimpse of the fun...

Evan would not cooperate, so this was the best we could get of all the kids. :) One of their favorite things is going into the "mine" store and looking at all the rocks. If they behave really well, we let them get one (for $.69!) :o)



This was Braden's first time on the bumper cars...he was never tall enough to ride alone (Ringo and I refuse to ride!) so he was thrilled to ride. It was also the first time Bella was able to ride the swings without an adult. I love to watch their faces when they ride the SkyRider...it takes them up and comes straight back down, bouncing several times before stopping. I rode this once and that was all I needed...I'll take a roller coaster any day!