Mama's 39th Birthday

"Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her:"

Proverbs 31:28

Our wonderful Mama turned 39 on December 16th.  We celebrated by letting her sleep in, take a shower, do 30 minutes of Bible time (she was excited about that), and just relax.  She came downstairs, when breakfast was ready, as we sang "Happy Birthday."  We then sat down to breakfast...eggs, biscuits, and fruit!  Mama opened her few presents from us (we gave her some later but we were not prepared!) while we ate.

The breakfast table.

We were really enjoying Daddy's eggs since our chickens have stopped producing abundantly (plus we've lost a couple) and we hardly get 5 eggs, I think, a day.  We eat 2-3 dozen in one breakfast, so 5 a day doesn't work!

Reading her card.

Lexi made her initial "M" from a book she has on rainbow painting.  She did a really beautiful job!

After breakfast and everything, Mama took Alexis, Eden, Josiah, and I to the store.  So, her birthday was sort of "over" until Thursday.  Thursday night we went and celebrated her birthday with her family at Friendly's!  Mama loves Friendly's ice cream so that was the restuarant she picked.

Uncle Kevin and his family, Aunt T.C. and her children, and Na-naw and Paw-paw came! 

My adorable cousin, Justus, playing with some glasses.

Cadence - another of my adorable cousins!

(Lexi took the 2 above pictures!)

Cadence was sitting by Alexis and I during dinner...she would laugh and smile at practically everything!

Now back to Mommy!

After we finished eating dinner, Mama opened her presents while we waited for ice cream.

From Uncle Kevin, Aunt Mae-Mae, Cadence, and Justus she got the book The Vision by Debi Pearl.  She was excited to get it because Aunt Mae-Mae and other people had been talking about it and said it was a wonderful book. 

From Na-naw and Paw-paw she got a Pampered Chef stone muffin pan!

She was also excited about that because we don't like using Teflon because of the harmful phfalates that leak out into your food.  (So we've been wanting to switch more and more to glass and stone instead of plastic and Teflon.)

Aunt T.C., Uncle Chris, Collin, and Mason got Mama a wonderfully smelling candle.

Mama loves smelly candles!

Sometime during the night, Uncle Kevin put his hat on Justus.  As I took pictures of him, Justus just sat there in a daze.  It was so cute!

After the presents were opened we ate Friendly's wonderful ice cream.  Everybody got something different (to some degree) and all of it was yummy!

Josiah laughing at something.

Daddy

Na-naw eating a make-your-own sundae.

Lexi immersing herself in all of that hot fudge!  I think she enjoyed it! :)

Today Daddy gave Mama a bread cutter!  Ever since we went to the Whitsons and used theirs we've wanted one.  We can't wait to use the one Daddy got for us!

Thus, ended our wonderful Mama's birthday!  I'm so thankful for all that Mommy is, and continues to be, to us - she really is a gift from God!

All for Jesus,
Kimber :)

End-of-the-Year Homeschool Report Night

"The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, And a good report makes the bones healthy."

Proverbs 15:30

I'll get to the homeschool night in a second but first of all here's a picture that has nothing to do with homeschool night:

Seth made a huge pancake for Daddy for breakfast the other day and he wanted me to take a picture of his masterpiece.  There you go!

Now, to the homeschool night that occured last Thursday.

We have a homeschool night about every 2-3 months.  Since the end of 2009 is approaching we decided to do another homeschool night, including our folders, with Daddy and Mama.  "Our folders" consist of our school records for the year.  Everyone gets about 30 minutes of special time with Mama and Daddy talking about school that year and the things we would like to add to our school schedule.  We also get to talk to them about our goals for the year or whatever.  It's a special time together!

But, before we did that we did our group reports with everyone.

Seth, Eden, and Josiah were the first to give us their report.  They had made some crafts with leftover Christmas cards that went along with the account of Jesus' birth found in Luke.  Mama would read the Bible and each of them would hold up their paper with some card pictures describing what Mama was reading.

Seth

Mama reading Luke's account with Caleb looking on.  :)

Josiah showing off his paper.

Lydia being silly.

(She stayed in Hannah's lap 3/4 of the time and did fairly well!)

Eden's paper.

I just love how sweet Josiah looks when he's tired! :)

Daddy looking at one of the projects Seth, Eden, and Josiah made.   (Mama told them to go make a craft so she could get the Christmas letters done :-D)

After Eden, Josiah, and Seth were done their little show then Seth read us some of his Bible verses.

Caleb was next up...playing his guitar for us.

Yes, that was his attempt at a smile! :)

Playing one of his beautiful Christmas songs.

Lydia "reading" a Christmas book.

Watching Lexi read her report.

(Sorry - the picture of Lexi was on the "Coming soon" post)

After Lexi finished reading her WriteShop paper I read mine...

...and then Hannah read hers.

Since Hannah was the last person to be reporting, we all headed upstairs and watched a Veggie Tales video along with some others while the individual special time with Mama and Daddy began.  We did youngest to oldest again so Seth (I think) was the first to get his time with them. 

Before we went upstairs I managed to get a picture of our principal and teacher, along with our mascot...

Mascot

Principal and teacher.

After Lexi had her special time with Mama and Daddy we ate some yummy homemade coffee ice cream       ( thanks Whitsons)  before going to bed.  (If you're wondering, Hannah and I got our special time with them later on another night).

Thus, ended our end-of-the-year homeschool report night!  School is over for all of us now so we're busy making presents, signing cards, etc.

Today we occupied ourselves with rearranging our fridge and freezers along with our computer desks, books, etc.  It was a very dusty process.  I helped Daddy with moving the appliances and underneath all of them were loads of dust and stains.  Yum! 

Anyways, tonight Mama and Daddy are going on a date for Mama's birthday (December 16th).  We'll be watching the younger ones and right now we have no plan, but I guess we'll think of something soon!

All for Jesus,

Kimber :)

Kimber's Birthday! And a Surprise!?

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBER!

Before I say anything I want to tell you all just how much Kimber means to all of us.  Most of you know her personally and know her as a sweet girl, with a "gentle and quiet spirit" as 1 Peter 3:4 tells us.  She's also more, she's a follower, a seeker of Jesus Christ and what His will is for her life.  She's dedicated to waiting for the Lord's timing in regard to a spouse and in the meantime is serving her family in preparation for marriage if that be the Lord's will.  She's my (Hannah) best friend and counselor and often who I look up to.  All this to say, no one could ever replace the very special and important part she plays in this family and in the world around her.  How very glad I am and the rest of my family are, to have her for another year!  And now to the main reason of this post... 

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PART 1: PRESENTS

Kimber's birthday was on December 5 and she turned 14 years old! She slept in 'till 9:30-Which I am sure she enjoyed :)-and then we told her to awaken from her beauty sleep, and come downstairs.

The very "well wrapped" present!  Obviously a little tall for the bag. ☺

I was photographer for the morning (although Lexi took these first three pictures).  Definitely not my gifting. ☺☺☺☺

This is where the birthday girl was to arrive.

The birthday girl!  Beautiful smiles in the morning!

Opening her HUGE present.

Very happy over the gift, all 28 Time Life Civil War Books (we got one from our great grandma and she loved it so we looked them up on ebay, since they aren't printed any more, and daddy won the bid).

Three of the books.

The breakfast table.  On the menu was eggs, cream of wheat, fruit bowl, and pop-tarts (a special treat!).  During breakfast she also opened a couple of cards and individual presents from all of us.

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PART 2: THE SURPRISE!

Well, Kimber had been thinking for a while of cutting her hair and was finally persuaded to do it on her 14th birthday as a memoir.

Her beautiful golden locks.  I've always been jealous! ☺

She decided to give her hair to "Locks of Love" (http://www.locksoflove.org/). 

The shortest you could give was 10 inches so Mama cut off about 12.  You had to braid it then cut it at the top of the second pony-tail.

Kimber tried not to think about it too much.

So it was a little tearful but hey, hair grows back.  I think she's beginning to enjoy the ease of it more now.

Kimber and her new due.  I curled it for her...hoping to make her feel better.

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PART 3: DINNER, CAKE, AND A MOVIE

A family picture before dinner.

Pizza was Kimber's choice of food, along with some yummy punch.

My lovely sister.

The cake.  It was an ice-cream cake with vanilla ice-cream, oreo's, oreo ice-cream, cool-whip and m&m's on top.  Extremely good!

We only did 6 candels since daddy didn't feel like lighting all 14.

Kimber blowing them out.  Lydia looks terrified!

Kimber and her ice-cream cake.

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We watched "Ben-Hur" for the movie, which is a little over 3 hours long, so we had to watch it during dinner and cake.  I hope Kimber had a fantastic birthday and will forever be remembered!  We love you!

After Jesus' Heart,

Hannah

P.S. Lexi did most of the pictures.  She did a great job!

End of the Year Homeschool Report Night

Tonight we did our end-of-the-year homeschool report night.  More pictures and information will be coming soon but I thought I might as well update you on what we've been doing when I had a second! :-D

All for Jesus,

Kimber

Daddy and His First Kill of the Year

"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD."

Genesis 10:9

Daddy has been inspired to go hunting after Mr. Williams came out to our property and saw some deer and shot 2 squirrels.  Currently, Daddy's hunting somewhere on our property.

Yesterday he shot his first game ever.  A squirrel!!! :-D  He was up in the crook of a tree eating a nut and no deer were showing up and Dad had to go to the bathroom, so he decided that he would try and shoot it before going back up to the house.  Well, to make the story short...he got it.  I heard the shot go off while we were getting ready for History and then one of the boys yelled that Daddy had got something as he reappeared at the edge of our woodline.

There you go...Mr. Squirrel.

Daddy will definitely get the first bite of squirrel steak...and it better be good!

All for Jesus,
Kimber

P.S. - The squirrel has been the first live thing that Daddy has ever shot.  He was very excited! :)