School’s Out!

Can’t believe that I’m already saying that summer break is officially here.  This school year went by super-dee-duper fast… geez!  The boys had a fantastic year and great teachers.  I’ll start with Carter & his teacher Mrs. Triplett.

She has been fantastic for Carter!  He loved her & his class and never wanted to miss school or leave early.  He told me all year long that Mrs. Triplett is one of the best teachers he’s ever had. 

Mrs. Bowen was his assistant teacher and he loves her too!  Couldn’t have asked for better teachers for his 3rd grade year. 

He also had a really great group of kids in his class this year too.  His best friend Jack was in his class and these 4 I called the “Quad Squad”… they were inseparable… always together, all the time. 

Megan Kinmon, Gracie Patrick, Jack Blanton & Carter.  (PS… Carter says that Gracie is his girlfriend )

Chandler finished up his last year of elementary school…sigh.  I remember like yesterday when he started Kindergarten… and now he’s on to middle school. 

His teacher was Mrs. Kinmon…

She did a great job preparing her class for middle school & Chandler grew by leaps & bounds this year in class. 

The day before the last day of school the entire 5th grade had a cookout & awards ceremony. 

Chandler won an award for the A & B Honor Roll and his class award was the “Milky Way Award” for class daydreamer.  It’s supposed to be funny….

Here is Chandler & his best bud Caleb… they’ve been together since they were in preschool… in class together every year except for Kindergarten and 2nd grade. 

My how they’ve grown!

On to 4th grade & middle school now! 

The Boys New Room

 

For the boys birthday this year we redecorated their room.  It got a fresh coat of paint… used to be stripes on the walls…we rid the room of 2 large, black garbage bags full of toys, clean out & reorganized.  We also got them new dressers… each.  Sharing a dresser was becoming quite a challenge as it was very small and only had 5 tiny drawers.  I found these dressers at IKEA for a fabulous price!  I bought 2 dressers for the price of one that I have looked at other stores. 

This wall is going to get a big UNC logo… when we get around to it. 

Happy Birthday Chandler & Carter!

Motorcycles & Cute Babies

We spent the weekend in Statesville with the family.  All of the men & boy cousins were planning a camp out for Friday night.  Well, the weather wasn’t so cooperative, so they had to pitch a tent on the back porch of Amanda & Aaron’s house.  Which was fine… except these boys were in & out, in & out, in & out… until well after midnight.  I think they finally settled down around 1 or 1:30 am.  The girls were going to have a girls night too… and we did, just with quite a few interruptions since the boys were not back in the depths of the woods somewhere.  ha! 

Saturday panned out much better with plenty of sunshine & plenty of mud.  Cousin Preston & Uncle Aaron have lots of cool toys at their house… including a dune buggy and motorcycles.  So that’s what the boys did.  All. Day. Long. 

And plenty of muddy they all got! 

While the boys were outside playing, I was inside playing with my twin nieces who I adore!  They are so cute & so much fun right now. 

Kathryn

Norah Beth

I told them I wanted to eat them for breakfast, lunch & supper and they just smiled at me.  Yes, I think they know I love them! 

Blessings

All around me I am hearing story after story of a situation where people are hurt, families are broken, tragedy has struck, someone has passed away and on and on. It's kind of got me down in the dumps a little. If' I'm discouraged just by hearing these stories, I can't even imagine how the ones who are living it must feel. I heard this song a couple weeks ago and wanted to share it with you. It spoke much encouragement to me. Even when we don't know or realize it, God shows his mercies and blessings to us in ways we will never understand.

Prayer

We had prayer conference recently at our church and the speaker share with us something that I have never really thought about before. Yes, I know God knows all of our requests before we bring them to Him. Still, I always feel the need to ask. But it's about intercessory prayer...with the Holy Spirit. If we will allow him, He will show us how to pray and what to pray for. This verse spoke to me in a profound way...

Romans 8:26 in The Message says this "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans."

I don't think this is an excuse to not pray, it's just when we are stuck... not sure... empty.... broken... hurt and there are feelings but no words, the Holy Spirit steps in for us. God knows our hearts and knows our innermost being and that kind of intercessory prayer can be the most powerful sometimes.

Happy Birthday Chandler!

Today is Chandler’s 11th birthday.  He is growing up to be such a young man.  He’s almost as tall as me and we can wear the same size shoe! 

I am so proud of him.  He is smart, funny, creative and kind-hearted.  He is a huge help around the house.  Give him a task and he’s on it!  Right now his dream is to be a fireman someday…because he’s been fascinated by them since he was 3.  All he talks about is getting old enough to be a volunteer firefighter.

He goes to middle school next school year and that’s gonna be a huge step for both of us.  My, how time flies by. 

We love you “Chan-the-man” and can’t wait to see what God has in store for you! 

Self Portrait

“Hey look Mom… I drawed a picture of me.  See I’ve got my hands on my hips and you see that big bump right there (pointing to the thing under her right arm in the picture)… that’s my booty.  You know, when I put my hands on my hips and stick it out to the side like this (and she impersonates for me)”.  --Kensley, 4 1/2 years old