Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Joshua is 13 today!! 

I can't believe it!  Our first born is officially a teenager.  WE are officially parents of a teenager.  Where has the time gone?  Happy Birthday, BossMan!  You are an awesome son and your dad and I are so very proud of you.  Who you are, and the young man that you are becoming!

Our prayer for you today is... 
that you will be a mighty warrior for Christ,
that you will be bold in standing up for what you know is right,
that you will continue to be you and not conform.


When he was a little guy...

P.S.  I'm posting this at 10:21 am, the exact time that this little one entered into our world!  Not to long after my dad nicknamed him "Boss" since everything revolved around him.  We started calling him BossMan not to long after that.  Here we are 13 years later and it still sticks.  Rylen even calls him Boss instead of calling him by his name!  We love you, BossMan!!

All I Want Is My Two Front Teeth...

But it's not Christmas so just a visit from the Tooth Fairy would have to do!

Brogan knocked out her two front teeth when she fell into a chair at Codey's basketball game.  Other than a bruised gum and a busted lip she is fine, just suffering from a little lisp.  She is cute though!  And, it always seems these things happen to our baby girl.  Oh well, at least the combination of the mishaps and her brothers will make her one tough cookie!

Upward Basketball

Codey is playing Upward Basketball this year and is super excited that it is back.  Last year there wasn't a church in our area that had the program so he had to sit out a year.  Now, here we go again this year...

#30's Got Game

Joshua made the junior high basketball team this year and has been playing well.  He is slowly getting more aggressive on the court and is always husseling.  He is a GREAT defensive player!!  I don't want to brag but, as a player from an opposing team put it..."That #30 has game!"  Here are some clips from a couple of the games from this year.

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Lovin' MY Kiddos!

I had to get a shot of me with my kiddos in this great shirt by Peace Love Mom.  "Major Mom" is definetly right around here.  My sister even kids my nephews that she is going to ship them off to military school at Aunt CiCi's.  Besides the shirt, I love this picture because I very rarely get a picture of me with the kids.  I love, LOVE, love them!!

Background Change

Changing the background today in honor of Joshua's upcoming birthday...He is going from tween to teen on Sunday!

Wooden-Man

Brogan and Christian were outside playing the other day and called me to come see what it was that they had been working on.  When I got out there this is what I found...

They had made a man out of two pieces of wood.  Later they turned the man into an old lady walking a dog but I didn't get a shot of that one.  They were having so much fun and were occupied with that one project for over an hour!  They were so cute working together and I was so very proud of how proud they felt by accomplishing it.  Funny the things they can come up with when A) we don't have any snow, and B) I won't give her a hammer and nails.  BTW:  She kept it together by winding her knitted scarf around it!

All A's

Joshua made all A's again for the second quarter of the school year.  He has always been very proud of his ribbons, showed thm to me as soon as he got home, and never balked at taking a picture with his ribbon.  This time I had to ask him about his award, which he pulled out of his pocket, and then he didn't want me to take a picture.  I finally got a good one from him...

Way to go Boss!!  So proud of you!!

Elpis Ministries

Elpis Ministries International provides education, medical care, food, clothing and housing support for more than 100 children at the Hope Ministries Orphanage in Iganga, Uganda.  Visit their website at http://elpisministries.org/ to learn more about the ministry or to help sponsor a child.

This is a great organization that was started by a former member of our church.  He sold all he had and moved to Uganda to help orphans and widows.  If you are looking for an organization to learn more about or for ways that you can help serve I would suggest that you simply check this one out.  They are doing great things!

KSTAR 99.7

Today we went on a fieldtrip to KSTAR Country 99.7 radio station to find out what disc jockeys really do and what it is like inside of a radio station.  We got to see Brave Dave and Lisa and they were very nice to let us sit in on them while they did their show.  We got to see how all of the equipment works and got a chance to pick the movie for the contest they were doing.  Brogan picked "High School Musical" but got vetoed for "Ice Age".   We even got to say "Hi" to all of their listeners.  Thanks KSTAR for letting us come hang out!  All in all it was a fun day!

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Camera Check

Brogan was posing for me as I was figuring out my new camera.  Christian and Rylen decided to join in and then Brogan decided she would try her hand at the picture taking.  Here is a collage of the random shots.

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Christmas Memories

I titled it that since it has taken me so long to get the post up but here they are...

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2010 School Goals

School has started back and while Jeremy and Joshua are back into the swing of things, we are still readjusting.  I have implimented a new schedule for the new year and hopefully it will be one that will work for us and that we can keep.  With that said, here are our school goals for 2010:

Momma- Set aside a time each night for grading.
Joshua- Study each subject 20 minutes each night.
Codey- Make all A's
Brogan- Do my work without complaining.
Christian- Learn my letter and numbers.


I have started what we are calling "Morning Moments", which is a circle time of sorts, where we all gather together to do the younger ones calendar lessons, Bible study, reading, songs, Geography and Science.  My goals is to work up to where we can all be together for 2 hours.  This will take some building up to as Rylen just can't sit that long.  I will be finding him some puzzles and silent activities that he can do while we are doing the Geography and Science but he will be expected to sit with us while we read, do Bible lessons and sing songs.  Yesterday we made it 45 minutes.  I will probably stick with this time limit for a week or so and slowly build up.  I am so excited to see all of the kids working together and to see what we can accomplish during this time!

2010 Family Goals

Resolutions Goals for 2010

I genuinely dislike that word and have never been one to make resolutions so we have renamed our list "Goals for 2010". 

That sounds so weird, 2010.  I think there was a point when I was younger that I never thought I would see 2010.  It seemed so far away and now here it is.  I was talking with my mom the other day and it hit me that when 2010 gets here I have just four, yes that is "4", more years with my oldest baby at home.  He will be graduating from high school in 2014.  I know there are so many more things in between those years that he has yet to accomplish:  turning 13, driver's ed, turning 16, driver's license, school dances, SATs, and so much more.  But just the thought of it seems unreal.  I know all parents must go through this but I just can't see him, or me, that old.  Then the thought of him graduating leads me to the thought of my baby baby being in Kindergarten at that time and that just makes it seem that much more disturbing.  Disturbing in a good way that is.  That would mean I officially have "big kids".  No more at home full-time if we don't continue to homeschool.  I used to tell Jeremy when he would talk about me staying home with the kids..."God didn't make me to stay home.  He made me to work outside of the home."  Now my thoughts are the opposite.  I mean, I tell Jeremy all the time that I will go back to work if need be but I truly don't know what I would do if I wasn't home with my kids.  THIS is what I have been made to do.  I may not always excel at it, I may be a work in progress, but THIS is my calling, my work, my love.  So, as I digress, this leads me to our goals for the new year. 

As a family we sat down and came up with three goals for ourselves and a goal for our family.  We wrote them down and are putting them up in our laundry hallway so they are always visible.  This way we can reevaluate monthly and track how we are coming along.  Our family motto for the year is "2010 A Year of Service".  Our goal: 2010 acts of service.  I am so excited to see what this year holds and to see how God uses each of us to serve others and glorify Him!

Here is one thing from each of our personal lists:

Jeremy- Work out at home and school.  Be positive when I come home.

Denise- Read my Bible daily.  Get upset less.  (Which means count more! =) )

Joshua- Read my Bible daily.

Codey- Use kinder words.

Brogan- Don't get mad at Codey.

Christian- Be nicer to Joshua.

Rylen- Um, I'm 2 so the list is endless!

I thought this was a great idea and the kids did a good job at coming up with their goals so I am going to incorporate it into our homeschool as well.  On Tuesday when we start back this is going to be the first thing we do.  I will put those in a seperate post once they are complete.

Headed Home

Jeremy's nephew, Brandon stopped by for a visit on his way home to Virginia.  He just got out of the Army and we were happy to have him for a couple of days before he is off to the North.  The kids loved having him around also, as usual!

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Posts Are A Coming!

Okay, so I know I have been slow to post but you see, I got this new camera (which is AWESOME!) for Christmas from my gorgeous family (which I absolutely LOVE!) and while I have figured out how to take pictures on it for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get them off of the camera and actually view them on the computer.  Well, now that I have figured out what the problem was I have 200 pictures that I have to convert from RAW files to JPEG files.  I have slowly started to do that but it does take some time which, I have to fit in between everything else.  So, with all of that said, posts are coming from Christmas up until now but they will be slow.  I will get caught up though!  And, now that I have changed the setting on my camera, I should be able to stay caught up.  Maybe!

Love all of you!  And stay tuned...

Brothers

I have seen such a change in Joshua over the last couple of months.  He has really started to mature and been such a great helper with his little brothers.  He has been playing with them more and really started to listen to what they are wanting and making sure that he is the first to step up and take care of it for them.  I caught this picture of them playing over the Christmas break.  Christian and Rylen were having so much fun hanging on him and trying to tackle him down!

Happy New Year!

New Year Greetings From Winston Manor!!

We hope you and your family have a great 2010 and look forward to what the year has to hold for us...and you!! 

Many blessings in 2010!!

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