Happy 4th of July !!

"Land of the Free"Waiting for the big parade to come.

Ballet and The Outer Banks

Pictures from Gracie's BEAUTIFUL ballet recital.


My little ballerina is very serious about her dance. She's the second from the left in the front (right smack in the middle of this picture) The entire ballet recital was done to worship music with the finale being "Shout to the Lord". It was beautiful.


























































Indulgent moms take a lot of pictures.


Keep reading...the next post goes with this one. I was having trouble getting everything into the same post so I had to split it.

What a blessing...

We were so blessed last week to spend the week with our loved ones on the Outer Banks. The kids asked me, "What was your favorite thing?" and I said, "Having nothing to do." We biked and hung out on the beach and just enjoyed being together. I am so thankful for family!





















The biking trails were wonderful and we all put lots of miles on our bikes.






























We think Faith could have entertained herself for days on end in the sand. And having the cousins bury her was great fun!



















Then....there was this guy who showed up in our house...anyone recognize him??

Seriously, these silhouettes were painted on the wall in the game room and this one looks EXACTLY like Matthew!!! Even Matthew thought so. "I noticed it right away," he said.



And last, but not least, our beautiful house...and the beautiful family that occupied it.

We are calling it the first of a yearly tradition. I am so thankful to God for allowing us this blessed time.





Just an interesting tidbit: While we were touring down in Kitty Hawk, Faith told my dad, "I'm afraid of planes...planes take me back to China." Interesting huh?
It made me think about the time I wrote about her being alone in the world.

She's certainly not alone in the world anymore :)


And so today I have a grateful heart for my family, who cares for me with a sincere Christ-like love, for rest and refreshment, for my beautiful daughters and my awesomely cool sons, for my husband who works tirelessly to care for this brood, for parents who love me, and most of all for God... Who restores my soul.

Love to you all.

Let's talk about boys and girls

It's been forever since I've posted. Oh, I spend lots of time reading everyone else's blogs and then I'm too sleepy to write anything on mine. So tonight I limited myself to reading only two other blogs.

So...since I have this time, let's talk. I thought today we'd talk about boys and girls. Two entirely, completely, totally different species. One physically active and vocally inactive, the other physically not-as-active and vocally much too active. Let's take a moment to assess which species momma prefers transporting in the family vehicle...

Yesterday momma transported several young members of the male species to a neighboring town. Each male, though he was quite alert, traveled in a mostly quiet state. Each conversing a bit, each enjoying the transport, but none infusing the vehicle's interior with excessive levels of noise. ie: momma arrives in peace.
Just hours later, however, momma transports several young members of the female species to..you guessed it...a neighboring town. Each female, obviously quite alert, traveled in a state quite unlike that of the opposite gender. Two girls both talking at the same time, each trying to speak more loudly than the other. Two girls both singing...each at the top of her lungs singing a DIFFERENT song more loudly than the other and each yelling "BE QUIET, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SING!" at the other. Both inflicting great pain on the eardrums of said momma. Both ensuring a blissful state of ceaseless noise during the entire transport. ie: momma does NOT arrive in peace.
Ahh, the norm. Yes, what would we do with out the normal everyday things that are so predictable about those we love.
I love these kiddos with all my heart.

Cherie

Tiffany McBryde, if you're reading this... POST girl...I'm checking.

Spring has Sprung

Oh, it has been so long since I've posted. We went from snow to spring. (Wasn't it just snowing like 3 weeks ago though!!)
Pappy and the Girls!

And Christian finished well in this, his last derby car race. Next year he'll be too old. He's had a great track record with either a first or second place finish every year. He took 2nd place this year.


Well we spent all day Sunday clearing out the flower beds and washing windows and getting ready for SPRING! Lo and Behold, there under all those leaves were...TULIPS!! Oh, how welcome. The boys loved these pictures of Faith, she's such a ham. She had a ball with all the long grasses we were cutting.



Then there was a job for our resident pyrotechnic. Mitchell and I argued over how short he had to cut the grasses down before he burned them. He thought he should be permitted to let them standing seven feet in the air and just torch them. Stating that he "could handle it" and I should "just stay out of it." I WON. (Cuz I'm the MOM you know). And so, he drenched the ground around them (it was already muddy wet from lots of rain) and cut them to no more than about 8 inches high. Then he told me to "Stay back." So here he is in his glory. And...
And...
And...OHHH...I wasn't going to, probably shouldn't, really shouldn't post these...BUT..Oh...should I or shouldn't I?...Wanna see them??...You know those times when you don't know what you've captured on your camera until after the fact...Oh, man, they're just too priceless not to post... Oh, here goes...

































And about this time, my lovely, organized, on-top-of-things neighbor (who surely must think I'm a few bananas short of a fruit basket anyways) walked by (love you Niki) and said, "Is this a controlled burn?"

Yes, I seem to be losing a grape here and there as time goes by.

...Maybe I'll go read up on what the Scriptures have to say about fruit.

Ok, Is it just me?

Is it just me...
Faith wrote (she writes on everything) on a snow tube the other day. I want to show you what her writing looks like....nuff said!

Winter Wonderland

Well, we certainly got our fair share of snow, and here are a few photos to prove it.


Everyone enjoyed it!






























Matthew and Christian built "recliners"!






But the highlight came after dark when Mitchell (17) announced that he was going outside to "JUMP OFF STUFF". All the boys got into the act.

I must admit I was a bit nervous when they decided the snow was deep enough to jump off the top of the swingset. It's about 10 feet. However, as a mom of boys, I know that when there is not a terrible threat of danger, it's important to let boys be daring! The only casualty was when Christian didn't jump high enough off the shed roof and ended up pinned inside the raspberry bushes and had to be rescued by Mitchell.


And this is how Mitchell landed...in a poof of snow with only his head sticking out! The boys wanted me to video them jumping off the swingset, but they were unimpressed with the results seeing as how the jump lasted about one second.