Encouragement, Pass It On!!

This week was extremely busy as usual which is a good thing but it definitely had its rough moments. G, A, and I got a big kick out of the clip above!! A loose quote from part of the clip above is . . . "Your momma and daddy are behind you, God is behind you, I'm behind you!" He is quite motivational. I like the sports commentator at the end saying he felt like maybe he could go run through a brick wall!! :-) Encouragement--pass it on!!!

This was a big week. R and Big C started wrestling. The club they joined is supposed to be REALLY good and that was evident from their first night. They will have made A LOT of progress in wrestling by the end of the year if they work hard. Their coach seems to be GREAT and what an example he is of fortitude with 2 prosthetic legs.

G had a rougher week in school but it was NOT because he doesn't like school. In fact, he REALLY enjoys school. He got far enough into the year that the work was coming fast and heavy and he started to drown with his organizational skills not holding up. I expected this but I expected it earlier in the year like the first week or two. He is revamping his organizational system and Babe is really stepping in to mentor him through it. G is a hard worker with the STRONG desire to do things right and with God's help he'll fall into stride. I am thrilled he is learning this in Jr. High.

"A" has been working really hard on piano. She finds she enjoys playing and has really hit it off with her teacher. Her teacher has really motivated her a lot. I see "A" responding to her like an athlete does a inspirational coach. But she told me the other day she misses Mrs. W (her teacher in CO). "A" has a great attitude of enjoying the new but appreciating and missing her old teacher.

"A" has been working SOOOO much on her piano. Her teacher has been coming to our house apart from lessons to work with her on finger strength and technique on Tuesday afternoons and she has extended "A's" lesson times out on Thursdays for awhile to work more with her. "A" is really learning a lot and has a smile on her face after lessons. We are very thankful for a teacher so generous with her time.

Funny story from today . . . Babe and I spent the day unpacking and sorting in the garage. As we would finish a box it would be broken down and laid in the stack of other boxes. At the end of the day I was carrying "J" around and I was talking and said "I need kids to come out here and carry the boxes away." Little "J" replied "Not I." Too funny, he is a book fanatic and probably took that line out of the Golden Book about the Little Red Hen that planted the grain of wheat.:-)

Anyway, the clip above is so true no matter what in life is challenging us whether academics, music, athletics, etc. What a blessing to know you've got a Mommy and Daddy behind you and God is behind you along with some other family. What a blessing.

G's School Retreat

"G" took this picture for his Mommy:-) Very Sweet. That is my G.

The camp in PA where the retreat was. 

G really enjoyed the activities.

"G" had a super retreat. He said that after listening to the devotionals he was so thrilled with them he would have been willing to pay his own tuition to keep hearing devotionals like that.

He really got to know the kids in the school so much better on the retreat

and had a blast playing fun games and doing activities. Ok, so he only showered once while he was gone. . . he'll learn. He did go swimming one day so that helped I'm sure!

Lancaster, PA is Amish country and G came back so excited to tell us

what he saw in the shops and that Grandma and Mommy would have loved it.:-)

He took A LOT of pictures of the shops so thankfully we 

know what he saw:-) I picked some of the pictures to post.

Showing us how things were displayed:-)

I LOVE my "G".

We really missed him while he was gone but

am so thankful he was able to go.

Daddy like peanut butter cookies.

Maybe next time we need to tell him he can use the 

money we send with him:-)

He enjoyed this scenery.

Amish Country.

R's 8th Birthday

 "R" requested for his 8th Birthday dinner spaghetti and meatballs!

He REALLY enjoyed that!!

 He requested carrot cake for his birthday cake!

It looked yum yum good and I heard that it was very good!

He was excited that we bought the cake at Mommy's favorite grocery store:-) We took him the night before his birthday to Virginia Beach and went to Whole Foods to pick out his cake. I buy very little there because Whole Foods is a WHOLE LOT of money but it is fun to go look and get something special. They do a GREAT job marketing because you just want to eat when there!! We also got some cupcakes because there are some kiddos that don't care for carrot cake and R wants everyone to enjoy cake time.

R wanted G there for his birthday dinner but G's retreat bus got held up in DC traffic so we had dinner and then waited until he got home to open presents and have cake:-)

Big C spent A LOT of time on this card for R's birthday. They spent time talking about it too!!

A two-headed dragon from Grandma and Grandpa for his warrior toy figurines.

R talking to Grandpa J on the phone about his birthday.

A made a VERY SWEET card for R.

"A" also made "R" a little house for his stuffed "pet" turtle!!!

Babe with two of his 4 warriors.

R was OVER JOYED that we got him the Navy uniform he had seen and the exchange and loved. Above you can see him hugging it and he said I believe "i love it. just what I wanted." His birthday present was going deep sea fishing but his daddy felt so badly for him since he spent so much of the time sick and that he didn't complain that he wanted to get him a gift too. We were SOOO glad we did because he really was over joyed and that filled our hearts with joy. Babe and I were blessed watching R go through his birthday party. He was so happy and kind and grateful to everyone.

I was NOT including "A" in the warrior count but she went and got 

dressed for the occasion!:-) She was the only sister in a boy household for almost 10 years so these things come somewhat naturally to her.

R has really done some maturing this year. He has worked on his skills meeting people and worked on his character. I am really pleased to see how God is working in him.

End of Story: R HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY AND 

WE ARE BLESSED TO HAVE HIM AS A SON.

Family Time at the Air Show

I was soooo excited that there was going to be a Blue Angel Air Show at NAS Oceana on Saturday. I used to go to their air shows just about every year when I lived in Pensacola, FL and I loved it. I knew the young ones could not make a full day venture out so we decided to leave early (or so we thought) enough to let the kids see some stuff but not to long for the little ones. Unfortunately, "G" got pretty sick on his retreat this past week (that didn't stop his fun there though!! He came home one tired out but thrilled kiddo) and really needed to stay home with grandma and rest. Well, a 25 minute trip or so to the base took about 2 hours and 15 minutes!! The cool part was some how we ended up in just about the best spot you could be! We only got to see a few manuevers and then the weather caused the show to get cancelled. We still had a really fun time hanging out as a family and getting to see the little we did. J could tell about seeing the airplanes and what they sounded like.:-) I am glad we went. Also, we figured out how we would do it differently another year.

There are some clips below of the show and then after the show got cancelled we got a fly by of the cutest angel of all (see below)!:-)                       

Tailgating in the rain to see the Blue Angels.

Nice and cozy and DRY!

R enjoying the rainy outdoors.

Baby B waiting happily for traffic to go down before we leave.

Babe took turns holding the girls outside watching the lines of cars go down.

The girls LOVED it!!

Jamestown!!!

Our little clan enjoying a day of sight seeing!
The weather has cooled down which allows time outside to be more pleasant!

It was such a treat for us to be able to go out sight seeing as a family. We didn't know what exactly what to expect and were maybe a tad bit hesitant when it looked like it was mostly a fancy indoor museum which isn't what we had in mind for the twins and J. We LOVE museums but we were looking forward to a day out. We ended up not disappointed! There was so much hands-on things to do and soooo much to see.

As we got to the boats, everyone headed up the plank to the boat and somehow I got talking to an older lady sitting on a bench. She was a friendly lady and we had a nice chat. Toward the end she said "Are you Christian?" She said it in an unusual way NOT saying she was one too but inquisitive). I said "Yes" She said "How did I know?" and then said that it was because "You have a nice family." Praise the Lord. How strange that someone that did not seem to identify with Christ should recognize His children in a positive light?

 Replica of a Powhatan Village

Big C with a fish net in the making at the indian village.

 "J" told me he was "making peanut butter and jelly":-)

Lady making a basket with a bone needle at the indian village.

 Jamestown Fort

 The kids got to play colonial games.

 Baby C with Daddy just outside the Fort

 The kids really enjoyed the hands on things. They got a kick out of this way of carrying water!! The buckets did have water in them!

Ready for an attack on Jamestown! 

 Ready, Aim, Fire!! The Lysne troops are ready!

 "R" preaching at the Jamestown Church!!:-)

 The kids really enjoyed watching the shooting of a matchlock gun!!

This was a highlight for the kids. I was very surprised that the twins weren't bothered by the noise!

 The lady in the background is smiling on as "R" helps

Big C put on the water buckets!

"A" now has an iPad (from Grandma and Grandpa J) to take pictures and video with!

The boys also really enjoyed exploring the ship. Ross maybe a bit to much as you see below:-)

 Boys:-)

Boys again . . . J making shooting noises.

Big C standing with the statue of Captain John Smith that he had just learned about in school!!!

 This is from Historic Jamestown which is the actual location of Jamestown.

Historic Jamestown

Historic Jamestown

Historic Jamestown. Beautiful.

 Baby B really enjoyed being carried by big sister like this!!

Big C wanted me to take a picture of where Jamestown was which is the picture above. We also learned 

about Jamestown in Kindergarten recently. He has the most amazing Kindergarten social studies book. It is very old. I'll have to blog on that another time. Big C has continued to be so excited about school. Friday night as he was about to get ready for bed he asked me "was my outfit nice for school?" He had picked out a very plain pair of cotton shorts and on ordinary t-shirt but he was wanting to look nice. I assured him that he did look nice:-) He wants to see the pictures taken at Jamestown tomorrow during school time:-) Passion for learning is so important. I am thankful  He has that!