Blessed to Be #5

Victoria has been asking to take her training wheels off for about a month. It's been so busy around here we just haven't stopped to do it. Today, we were all together for 3 hours raking leaves and cleaning up in the yard. After we put the last rake away Alex took the training wheels off for his little sister. I did the same thing I've done with each them, beginning with Madeline. I held on and tried to help teach balance while trying to judge when I can let go. Next thing I knew Mary Liz wanted to help teach her, just as Madeline had done for her several years earlier. Alex took over with his turn after awhile. Jacob cheered her on throughout the training. Victoria looked up at Alex at one point and told him, "This is the funnest day ever!" She seemed to be soaking in the lavish attention and care that was being poured on her by all. How truly blessed she is to have big brothers and sisters to help her in life today, and in the days to come.

Grand Memories

Mark and I were blessed with the opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon in May. Mark has a business trip to Las Vegas the first week of May each year. This year he really wanted me to go with him. I was thrilled when my parents happily agreed to keep all 6 kids! What a gift that was to us! The kids had a blast, and we enjoyed a much needed mini-vacation together. These are pictures of us in the indoor mall area at The Venetian, the hotel where we stayed.

Las Vegas was very different. The hotels are amazingly beautiful and luxurious. Walking down the street of the strip is difficult, since there are so many wrong places one can look. It was therapy sitting by the pool by myself one afternoon, just reading a book for leisure- not one for school. This is something every homeschooling mom should get to do from time to time!

When Mark's responsibilities in Las Vegas were completed we headed to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

We were able to see both the sunset on Thursday, and the sunrise on Friday morning at the Grand Canyon. We took the full moon ranger guided walk after sunset, too.

Looking at the Grand Canyon was an overwhelming experience. It made us want to sing hymns of praise to the Lord, our Creator. It's such a visible image of His greatness.

"The Mighty One, God, the Lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets." Psalm 50:1

"Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." Psalm 114:2-3

Ever since we've been home, I've thought back to how amazing the Grand Canyon was. We loved being there gazing at God's amazing work, and sharing such a special place together.

This is the view of Lake Mead at Hoover Dam. Below is a photo of Hoover Dam. We took these pictures during a short stop on the way to the Las Vegas airport.

When we got home, the kids were all so excited to have Daddy back! I think my parents, who took care of all of the kids all 5 days, may have been even happier to see us! I know they slept well that night!

You might be a homeschooler if...

...your 3 year old insists on being tucked in with his preschool math book.

...your 5 year old daughter would rather draw Egyptian hieroglyphics than play with dolls.

...date night with your husband involves school errands and grocery shopping.

...any given morning you can hear all of the following sounds going on simultaneously:

a kindergarten phonics song being sung by a 5 year old, an 8th grader thinking through a Biology question out loud, a 4th grader solving math word problems, a 2nd grader reading aloud his story for the day, and a 3 year old fending off some imaginary bad guys.

...your kids (and you) love to watch history documentaries while eating breakfast.

...you hear your kids playing Pharaoh, Israelite slaves, and taskmasters during recess.

...sometimes recess involves shadowing Mom in landscape architecture, child development, interior design and maintenance, or kitchen chemistry.

...your 3 year old is continually getting confused between the words "mummy" and "Mommy", but he identifies the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids at Giza. In fact you catch him playing put the mummy in the pyramid with his big brother and sisters' crafts when no one is looking.

...your 5 year old voluntarily asks if she may illustrate the 10 plagues of Egypt.

...you stay up into the wee hours of the morning to prepare co-op activities, and you love it!

...you’re always trying to work a good field trip into a family trip.

...you hear, "Mom, you're the best teacher in the world!" and you tuck that precious treasure into a little pocket of your heart to pull out whenever you hear the grumbles and moans of your little Israelites traveling through what seems like a vast desert.

My little group of pharoahs at our Friday afternoon co-op. They did a wonderful job using their fingerprints to paint jewels on their pectoral collars.

Mummies and sarcophaguses!

Scary animals of ancient Egypt. These became Victoria, Mary Liz, and Jacob's best friends as soon as they finished painting them.

Here's my co-op group of little artists painting and designing their serpent-headed throwing sticks like ancient Egyptian youngsters would have used to aim and throw.

We've had a great first month of school!

Our Singles Sensation

We have enjoyed watching Alex play both doubles and singles tennis matches for our neighborhood team. His skills have improved throughout the summer, which has been rewarding for him. It was so much fun going to his matches all together. Alex always has the biggest (and youngest) fan turnout. neighborhood team. His skills have improved throughout the summer. It was so much fun going This page was a free download called Template 15 by LI found at http://libeingcraft.blogspot.com.

Summer Fun

I've been working on digital scrapbooking our summer memories. I thought I'd share a few pages I've made so far. The first one is comprised of photos of the kids jumping and diving off our diving boards at the neighborhood pool.

This page layout is a Yin design. The download came from http://simplyyin.blogspot.com.

The next pages are from our family's vacation to Hilton Head Island, SC. We went the first week in July, making great memories. Here's a page of pictures from our bike riding expeditions. Samuel is sitting in my lap as I type this, saying "There's me riding my motorcycle!" That's what he called the bike he and I rode together. : ) I tried creating my own layout for this one, using on of our photos as the background.

The last three are pages of our pool pictures at the Marriott Barony Beach Club. Mom and Dad invited us to stay with them there, just as they have done for several years now. The kids love spending time with "Gran and Papa"! Given the choice they pick staying with Gran and Papa over staying home any day! Notice the fun pictures of them on this page!

Both of the above pages are made from the same free download template designed by Connie Prince, and available at http://scrapinfusions.blogspot.com.

There are a few beach pictures mixed into this page, too. We really did stay wet that week! What fun it was! This page layout is a free download from Carena at http://carenasextravagence.blogspot.com

The Boy Can Jump!

It has been so much fun watching Samuel's swimming and air to water acrobatics improve throughout the summer! He went from tentatively jumping into the 2 1/2 feet end in May to this...

For His Birthday

We surprised Mark with a birthday celebration on Wednesday, and here are a couple of pics.

Here V and S are hiding under the kitchen table, waiting for Dad to walk in. They're poised to yell "SURPRISE!" at the birthday boy! V looks a little scary, though!



Oops! I hope I haven't given Mr. Incredible's secret identity away with this pic!

Our celebration was a day early, because I needed to be out on Mark's actual birthday. Heather, a wonderfully gifted friend of mine, was teaching a Digital Scrapbooking Bootcamp at church, and he knew how very much I've wanted to learn how! My sweet husband stayed home with the kids and just did the dad thing on his birthday. He gave me the present- the night out to learn a new, much-needed skill!


Heather did a wonderful job teaching the class at an elementary level- just what I needed. Here are my first 2 digital scrapbook pages. I have so much to learn, but it will be fun!

Victoria's Little Victory

Victoria has been the first of our first 5 kids to be afraid of swimming in deep water at the age of 5. She was able to swim on her own, but was just simply fearful. She has been swimming on the neighborhood swim team for the past two months, and has improved dramatically. We are so proud of her! Today she came to me while Samuel and I were swimming with her in the shallow end. She announced, "Mom, I want to swim in the deep end." I was rather shocked, to be honest. I told her it would be hard for me to help her since I needed to watch Samuel. She replied, "No, I mean I want to swim all by myself." I promptly walked her over to the diving board. With very little hesitation she took her first jump into the 9 foot water!!! Swimming to the side all by herself, she grinned all the way! Once I knew she was okay swimming on her own, this proud mama went to get the camera!

Victoria diving off of the diving board!

Smiling after her victory dive!

After several jumps and dives she was so brave she started to do twisty jumps! Mark and I are so proud of our baby girl, and she just beams when any of us mention it!

Her "Little" Brother

Yesterday I happened to look over at Madeline (15, almost 16) and Alex (13) standing next to each other. I realized that Alex had suddenly caught up with her in height!!! I cried out, "Madeline, Alex, how did that happen?! Alex is just as tall as you are, Madeline!" He must have grown about an inch in just the last week. We had noticed him suddenly shooting up, but I didn't realize how much. I told Madeline, "I remember the day my little brother caught up with me, then he passed me. I've looked up to him ever since!" Brian was also 13 when that happened, and I was 16. Seems like just yesterday. My "little" brother is now 6"4", but forever my "little" brother!

Blessings from Blunders: Part 2

..We headed back to Montgomery first thing Monday morning, knowing we had to get our Suburban in the shop. We had no idea we wouldn’t get it back until 3 ½ days later. Aunt Annette and Unc took us in, and we gradually received worse and worse news about our vehicle. Each day we would hope to be able to head home, and each day we continued to be “stuck” in Montgomery.




















It’s hard to call it that, though, since we were receiving blessing after blessing from Aunt Annette, Unc, Kim, Brandt, Kevin (their son) and Penni (Kevin’s wife), and their wonderful children. The kids got some awesome cousin time in, really getting to bond with JD (Kevin and Penni’s 11 year old son) and Melison (Kim and Brandt’s 11 year old daughter). Those kids blessed our kids socks off. Mary Liz and Victoria savored that time with Melison. Alex and JD captured some great Lego building time together. All enjoyed quite a bit of backyard pool time in both of their pools, as well as a cookout at each! Aunt Annette and Unc just kept right on feeding us wonderful meal after wonderful meal, and we felt like we were staying in a resort home. Everyone was spoiled! You can see how our blessings poured forth from the blunders.














The promised Thursday at 1:00 completion turned in to 6:00. Aunt Corine and Uncle Elmo were our “meals on wheels” and arrived in Montgomery with a scrumptious fried chicken, butter beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, and rice supper while Mark and I were retrieving our greatly missed vehicle! We came back to spend dinner with these dear loved ones. Below is our group picture right before we finally pulled out, at 7:30 central time. We can’t thank our family enough for all the love and care they poured out on us. My children saw such a great example of sacrifice and giving, and for that we are eternally grateful. Like we told Brandt, they’ll have another jewel in their crowns when they get to heaven! If Grandmama Tate somehow knew about it, I know she was so proud. The family that the Tates, Jeters, and Graves all are today is a heritage from the prayers she prayed daily on her knees for each of us by name everyday while here on earth. I miss her, and I’m so grateful for each of her sweet prayers.


Thank you, Grandmama, for raising such loving children and grandchildren!