The Graduations

I'm going to go back a few months in time to share this monumental occasion. All three of my oldest children graduated!

• Olivia:  Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education
• Julie:  Associate of Arts Degree in English
• Clay:  High School Homeschool

Olivia's and Julie's ceremonies were on the same day in the same facility, but at different times. Julie graduated at 3:00 and Olivia graduated at 7:30. Here are some pictures from the big day.

 my parents with Olivia and Julie

 Me, Julie, and Jimmy

 Mims, Julie, and Pops

 Jimmy, Olivia, and Me

Mims, Olivia, and Pops

 Our whole family with Olivia later that night. 

Clay and Parker (who is the son of my best friend, Lynn) graduated homeschool Kindergarten together. I found this precious picture, and asked them to recreate it on their high school graduation night!

 Clay and Parker, at age 6

 Clay and Parker at age 18

 Mims, Clay, and Pops

 proud parents of homeschool graduate #3

(Yes, I am wearing the same dress I wore to the girls' graduation.....I called it my graduation dress!)

 my grown-up children!

one more family photo

The end of April began months of exciting times and major changes for our family of seven. So much has happened since these photographs were taken, and most of it is just a blur! 

Our 26th Wedding Anniversary

Well. I decided to share some new and never seen before pictures of our big day from 1991!

Jimmy looks like a baby!

Here is a full view of my magnificent dress!  Isn't my headdress the best ever? (Julie carefully cut lace off my dress to trim her wedding dress....and there is enough lace left for a few more wedding dresses.)

Here are my bridesmaids....They are all so pretty!

Stephanie, Jennifer, Geri, Kristi, Me, Sharon, Kim, Jenny, and Lori. Lovely ladies!

It's been a nice day.....Jimmy had to work until about 7:45, and I spent my day cleaning and doing laundry.  But all of my children are here at home (all 6 of them!), and I could not be happier with my life, my marriage, and my family.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Last week we celebrated Sam's 9th birthday.  My youngest child is 9!

We had a nice day celebrating.  The day began with present opening followed by Sam's request for breakfast:  bacon, scrambled eggs, grits, and biscuits.  

I decorated our kitchen table using Sam's collection of Lamborghinis and one of his favorite candies, Twix. 

Julie crocheted Sam a Baymax.  And I don't even know what that is.

Sam spent the day building all his new Lego sets, and then we enjoyed a late lunch at Abner's.

For dessert later that night, we had a fruit pizza with 9 candles on top!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Oodles of Poodles!

Leah has been celebrating her 11th birthday for almost two weeks now! Her actual birthday was while we were at Disney World, so that was fun of course.  Then we had our full day family celebration the day after we got home from Disney.  And her final celebration was today.

My mother, the ultimate party planning extraordinaire, enthusiastically planned a 50's Themed party for Leah.  She carefully attended to every detail….all I did was send the invitations and purchase the party food.  She and my daddy came last night and began the set-up.  We did most of it this morning, and here is the result…...

 This life sized stuffed poodle was the centerpiece of the "photo-op" area.  I took a picture of each guest as they arrived by this little set-up.

Here are a few pictures of the fantastic table setting.  The girls just oohed and ahhhed as they saw how cute everything was!

 The placemats are records with pink labels glued on the center.

 My mama and Leah

(She made Leah's new poodle skirt too, and also brought her a pair of saddle oxfords to wear).

 All of the girls

except two who were running a little bit late

 The party menu:

pink lemonade, cupcakes with pink icing, chips and dip, and ice cream sundaes.

 the girls enjoying their party food

 Mims and Pops

The girls played charades for a little while in our den followed by holding a hula-hooping contest.  One of the girls hula-hooped for over two minutes without dropping the hula-hoop.

Then they moved outside to play with the jump-ropes my mother gave them. Their party favors were part of the table decor and included a pink jump rope, a slinky, and a bottle of pink fingernail polish.  

 some of the girls posing

Here are some of them again.

They played tag and on our playground before coming back indoors to watch Leah open her gifts.

We were so fortunate to have pretty weather today.

A big thank you to my mama for planning and executing such a fabulous party.  Leah talked about it all day….right up until the time she finally went to bed.

It was a good day.

It's My Birthday!

Today I turn 45.  I am sure that I look 45, but I don't feel 45.  Most days I still feel like I am 25, until about 3:00 PM, and then I lose steam…..if I get a cup of coffee, that perks me up, but then I cannot sleep at night, and then I am tired in the morning when the alarm goes off at 5:00 AM, and so the cycle goes….

Anyway.

Today is going to be a fabulous day!

We actually began our celebration last night after supper. Jimmy and the children presented me with two beautifully wrapped gifts with instructions to open them "right now". So I did.  And I was given marvelous presents:  a huge bag of M&Ms, a bag of Hershey Kisses, and the movie Moms' Night Out.  Fun!  Our whole family (minus our college student) gathered in our den to eat chocolate and watch the movie.  Even the third time, that movie is hilarious!  Jimmy and the boys had never seen it, so it was fun to hear them laugh too.  Jimmy even stayed awake for the entire movie!

Today we will celebrate with a birthday lunch at a Japanese restaurant, and then this afternoon we will be watching Julie and Clay run in their first cross country meet of the season.  I slept in this morning, and I don't plan to run or do (much) laundry today.  My children and husband are so sweet to make this day special for me.  I intend to enjoy every bit of it.  Sam and Julie are in the kitchen right now preparing breakfast.

I read the book of Philippians this morning.  This verse stood out:

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Philippians 2:3-4

I think this verse can apply to numerous areas of my life.  From my service to God to my relationships with my husband, my children, and my family and friends.  Dying to self is difficult.  Yet Jesus commands it.

For this my 45th year and for all the remaining years of my life, I aim to keep the following verse in the forefront of my mind:

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:14

Our 23rd Anniversary

Then….

And now!

I have been happily married for 23 years today.  I could not have asked for a better partner in life.  Jimmy is so good to me, and I do not deserve all of his loving care and compassion.

We celebrated today by taking all of our children (plus Olivia's friend) to the Thai Garden restaurant for lunch after our church service.  Our afternoon has been spent resting, and Jimmy has been doing some garden and other yard work.  I have spent almost 2 hours looking at and typing up marathon plans!  

Tonight after our evening church service we may go out for coffee.  :)  Jimmy is off all this week, and we plan to spend the week doing home improvement projects and just all being together.

I spent last week at Rustic Youth Camp, and I have over 100 pictures from the fun and exciting week.  I promised some of the other counselors at RYC that I would blog about the week, and I plan to start on that tomorrow.

Our Valentine's Day

Our family had a fun time celebrating Valentine's Day.  We all love each other very much, so it was nice to show that to one another.

We have a few Valentine's Day traditions...nothing fancy or Pinterest-worthy, but it's what we do.  Jimmy gives each child a large heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates (which they love!), and I buy them something practical or educational (which they pretend that they like.)  I like to think that they like my gift as much as that chocolate!  Even if it is new running socks or underwear.  (Yes,  I gave the children underwear for Valentine's Day one year…I noticed while folding clothes that everyone needed some, so I that's what I added to the fun gift of chocolate!)  

This year I went the educational route.   Julie received a new cookbook; Clay a book with 101 knife-making designs; Leah a Fancy Nancy book; and Sam, a Pete the Cat book.  The children all made Valentine's for each other, and I bought pretty Valentine's for them.

Jimmy took them Valentine's shopping earlier in the week, and the children bought some candy for Jimmy and me too.  Julie lovingly made homemade gummy squares for her siblings and the very best ever homemade chocolate peanut butter cups for me.  They are so delicious! 

 My Valentine's Day gifts from my sweet family.

 A heart-shaped chocolate pancake I made for our breakfast--Leah and I cut only two pancakes into heart shapes, the rest we just left as circles.  

My sweet gift from my dear husband:

My favorite candy of all inside my favorite drink (empty bottle) of all!

Yummy!

And now after all of this wonderful, delicious chocolate, I have got to make sure that I exercise every day!

As usual, the only sad part of the day was not being able to share it with sweet Olivia!  But when we visited her a couple of weeks ago, Jimmy took her a heart-shaped box of chocolate.  She was so excited, and did not eat it until Valentine's Day.  I sent her several Valentines in the mail along with some heart-shaped cookies (I did not bake them. I ordered them from Cheryl's--on sale, with a coupon and free shipping!)  We talked to her on Valentine's Day, and she reported that she had had such a fun week receiving packages.

Our family ended our special day by dining at Chick-Fil-A.  All together.  It really was nice.  

Sam's 8th Birthday

About three weeks ago, we celebrated Sam's 8th birthday. We began the day like we always do for birthdays, with a special breakfast and present opening.  Julie crocheted Sam a red hat, and Clay made him a knife.  He spent the day playing with his new toys, and enjoying his siblings doing his chores for him!  We ate his birthday lunch at Abner's, and then he had a few little boys over to play and eat birthday cake.

It was a very cold day, but Sam insisted on the boys playing outside!  So I asked all of the Mamas to make sure they brought warm clothes for their sons.  I let them play outside 40 minutes, and then I rung the dinner bell for them all to come inside for cake and snacks.  I think it was 23 degrees that day!

I think Sam had a super day!  

 Sam and Leah

 The birthday boy

Sam and Julie

 Sam and Clay

 Blowing out the candles

Julie made his delicious cake.

 The little boys, all dressed in their coveralls and ready to play in the woods.

The birthday table

No, it's not Pinterest worthy--but Sam liked it!

Leah's 10th Birthday

Yesterday Leah turned 10.  I think she had a great day!  Before we went to our church services, we enjoyed a special breakfast together at the decorated table.  The theme was notebooks and special pens.  Leah loves to write, and she is always jotting down things in notebooks and on paper.  Also, she asked for a set of Frixion erasable markers at least once a day for the past month!

 the table

 The markers that she asked for!!

 Waiting for her breakfast--hash brown casserole and coffee.

Leah opened one present before we left for church--a handmade gift from Julie!  Inside was a handmade wallet with some money inside.  Julie wanted her to be able to buy something at our trip to the mall later that afternoon.

 the cute, cute owl purse lovingly made by Julie

The pictures from the mall are after these….but after church we went to eat at Kyoto's (Japanese hibachi!).  Next we went to the mall for part of Leah's birthday present.

These pictures are from when we got home.  Time to open presents!

 so excited!

 pajamas for her doll, Molly

 "Is it really Molly's bed??"

 "Wow!  Look at this box of clothes from Mims and Pops!"

 Leah (with her new purse) and Julie

One very fun part of the day was going to the mall to get her ears pierced!!

Avery talked her parents (Kelly and Lynn) into getting her ears pierced too!

 Before:

"Oh!  We are so scared!"

 "But look at our matching outfits!"

 getting the holes marked

a little scared…...

 The Piercing!

(holding a stuffed animal for moral support)

 How pretty!

 Now it's Avery's turn….and she is not so sure either!

 After:

Whew!  Glad that's over.

It wasn't so bad!

"I'm so glad we did it!"

Leah used the money Julie gave her to buy a few pairs of earrings to wear when she can change them out, in 6-8 weeks.

Leah's birthday cake was cream cheese swirl brownies.  She blew out all 10 candles, and we enjoyed a yummy dessert.

It was a delightful birthday!