Father Daughter Pictures

These are some pictures that were taken by Sarah Rogers, our Children's Minister, at the Father Daughter Banquet. Thanks to everyone who put so much hard work into it to make it a fun evening for the girls and dads!!

Battle of the Brothers

Okay, so we have two boys and two teams in the same league, there has gotta be some conflict at some time right? Well, the last two nights have been the Diamondbacks (Joshua) vs. the Astros (Codey) and boy has it been nerve-racking for Mom! Joshua's team won the the first game on Friday night with a score of 9 to 8. It was a good game all around and everyone played hard to the end. The game was won by a call by the umpire at first base...Since he called the runner safe the winning run came in to the plate. VERY controversial when you have two brothers playing each other. But, like I told them...The call was good for Joshua's team and bad for Codey's.

Now on to Saturday. I guess you can imagine all of the talking that was going on all day so here are the results...Codey's team won the second game Saturday night with a score of 8 to 7. Once again, it was a good game all around and everyone played hard to the end. Here is the kicker' and the way the game ended Saturday night...Bottom of the 4th inning and Joshua is pitching, bases are loaded with two outs, the first pitch to the batter was a strike right down the middle, the second pitch was the same exact pitch and the batter nailed a line-drive past second base and the winning run came in to the plate. Game over. Want to know the kicker'? The batter that drove in the winning run off of Joshua was none other than his little brother Codey! At least now they are even at one win each! It was a great two nights of baseball!!

Father Daughter Banquet

Our church hosted a Father Daughter Banquet on Saturday evening. Jeremy accompanied Brogan and Allie since Kirk is working in Iraq. Brogan was looking forward to everything about the evening except wearing a dress. I think Allie felt the same way. I had Dana make sure that Jeremy took some pictures. The girls looked great, and Jeremy did too!

At the dinner they had a slideshow of pictures of the girls with their dads, by themselves and with their friends, a list of questions for each to do about the other (Jeremy and Brogan definetly need some work! Jeremy said Allie did great on hers.), and the girls all got a corsage and took home a cd of the music they played. At the end of the night everyone danced to "Butterfly Kisses". It was a great evening for all.

For Kirk

Allie & Zachary came to hang out today...the kids had fun like always. Here are a few pictures.

Boys will be boys! Video games and a little baseball.

The girls trying to dress up Goliath! It didn't work very well.

They had fun playing in the woods also...must be the brother influence!

Chess Tourney

Joshua had a chess tournament today, his first in a loooong time. He did good considering Mom has been horrible about taking him to practice. He placed 10th with 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw (tie). He was happy and had fun so that is all that matters!

Making a move.

Contemplating his next move.

Joshua with his friend, Ryan.

A winner every time!

Horticulture & Art Classes

Friday we covered our horticulture and art classes by decorating pots and then planting flowers in them. The kids each had their own pot and, with their own styles, decorated them and picked what flowers they wanted to grow. When we finished with that we took a look at the garden to see how it was doing and planted some sunflowers in it to make it look pretty. Thank goodness for the rain! It is watering our sunflowers for us!!

Codey & Joshua decorating their pots.

Christian didn't want any help putting the soil or the seeds in.

Brogan did everything by herself also. Isn't she dressed for gardening with those shoes?!

Game Ball

Brogan's team is 6-0 this season! She is still not able to play but she will be there every game cheering them on. We were at her first game with her hurt hand and she was a good sport with not being able to play. She has the sweetest & best coaches. They gave her one of the gameballs for being such a great sport. She was surprised and excited that she got one and her friends were happy she got it also. Thanks guys!

Our Stop in San Antonio

From Austin we went to spend a long weekend with my parents in San Antonio. My sister and her family were there also and we all got to spend Easter weekend together. It was raining in San Antonio so the Easter bunny hid 84 eggs in Nonna & Poppy's hotel room!

We made a long weekend a history-filled lesson for the kids by stopping by the Alamo.

It just so happened that my good friend Simeon was in San Antonio with her kids so we made a point to visit and let the kids get some swimming and fun in.

We had to cover Brogan's hand with plastic bags.

She hated it but eventually she was having fun!

Rylen wasn't to sure about the water... ...But he loved the sand!

We visited Oak Hills Church where Max Lucado preaches on Sunday for Easter services.

Talk about a great teacher! History, government and time for family and friends? I think my kids would say "Thanks Mom! You're the best!"

Our Visit to the Capitol

The kids had a government class in Austin on Friday with a group called TeenPACT. It is a political action group for youth that teaches about government from a Christian perspective. The kids did not like the idea of going and doing schoolwork while we sere supposed to be "on a break" but once they got started they had fun. The whole family was able to go since Jeremy had off for Good Friday and we were even able to spend some time with some of our dearest friends since they came in from Louisiana to join us. It was a real neat experience and the entire thing was lead by high school homeschooled students. The poise and confidence these kids had was amazing! I would have never known they were in high school how professional they were. The boys had LOTS of homework for the class before we even went. We had to find out who our Congressmen and Senators were and write them a letter of encouragement and pray for them, by name, daily for two weeks. They also had to read a book and do the assignments at the end of the chapters. Some of the assignments were lengthy and I couldn't believe they had assigned them for 8-12 year olds. One of the chapters required Codey to take a spiritual gifts test, which took us about 2 1/2 hours. On that same day Joshua had to read 36 chapters from the Bible about Esther, Joseph and Daniel. It was a lot but the boys really learned a lot about themselves and how our beliefs tie into our government involvment through the process. After reading the book and doing those assignements each of the boys had to write a bill that they thought they could get passed. It was really neat to see what they came up with, especially at their ages. Joshua wanted to put a youth recreation centers in each city. They would be free of charge and promote physical activity and community service. Codey wanted to provide free swimming lessons free of charge for youth ages 6-12 years old three months out of the year to prevent drownings. They had to know why they wanted to do it, who it was for, how it would be paid for and who would pay for it, when it would operate and how, and write it just as a bill that goes through Congress would be written. It was really neat to see the, work through the process and to see what the other kids came up with. They did a great job!

Walking up to the state capitol. During the morning class Jeremy stayed with Joshua, Codey and Brogan while I walked around whith Christian and Rylen. Christian loved being outside and looking at all of the statues! Mainly it was because there were a lot of cowboys and horses, but I still got to read him the plaques and explain why the statues were there. The amazing thing to me was that he wanted me to read them to him and know what they said. We walked all the way around the capitol twice looking at the statues and reading the plaques. It was a beautiful day to do it! We also toured the inside of the building. Mainly Christian just wanted to see the "cowboys police officers" and their hats but I got to see some neat stuff that I hadn't seen in a long time. Rylen was just amazed at everything (for a little while anyway!). A view from inside. Looking up! Did you know that our state capitol is the tallest in the nation? It is 14 feet taller than our nations capitol in Washington D.C. Everything really is bigger in Texas! The star on top of the ceiling is 8 feet from point to point! Looking down! Senate Chambers...where voting takes place.

Praying for our state, Senators, Congressmen, and government in general inside Senate Chambers. They split the students and parents up in groups and walked the capitol building praying inside of the rooms and in front of offices of our elected officials. They had 10 students pray at each stop!

A picnic on the capitol lawn for lunch.

We took this picture of Joshua while he was waiting for lunch. Think he is contemplating his next bill to get passed or his next vote?

Future Senator?

Learning how the process of getting a bill heard works and then getting passed. They were in the actual room that our Congressmen, Senators and Governor work in for the same process. They thought it was really cool that the Governor probably sat in one of the chairs that was on the same stage they were presenting on.

Waiting to present their bills.

Presenting their bills so they can get assigned to a committee.

It was a long day but we sure had fun and learned a lot!