Highlights from the past couple months...

In November, Emma was a turkey in the Thanksgiving play. Thanks to my friend, Melanie, I was able to come up with a costume that somewhat resembled a turkey. I think Emma was embarrassed, but she didn't say anything to me and wore it anyway, not wanting to hurt her mommy's feelings. :)



Also, in November, we celebrated Emma's 6th birthday. She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop party. My friend, Becky, graciously took on the task of making Emma's cake with only a napkin to look at. She did a GREAT job. It tasted just as good as it looked!




Emma was in the Christmas play at church, "Cookin Up Christmas". It was so cute! She had her famous one liner again this year. She said, "It makes me want to love and serve Him more. It makes me ask myself what gift can I bring Him? What can I offer Him now?"



Myah had a busy month too. She celebrated parties at school and really enjoyed going to see sissy in all her fun plays. Emma was a mule in the Christmas play at school. She had quite a few lines. It was an adorable play. I'll post pictures of that later. I ended up using another camera and do not have access to those pictures as of now.

Emma's baptism

What a sweet moment when you start to see your children begin to understand their faith and take hold of it. Emma has been wanting to get baptized for quite some time now, but we have been hesitant, not wanting her to rush into something she didn't understand. Last Wednesday night at church she saw Pastor David and wanted to go say hi to him, or that is what she told me. When we got over to him she said, "Pastor David I understand about baptism now and I'm ready to be baptized Sunday morning". How can you argue with that? She understands that being baptized does not make you a christian, it is just a public profession of the faith you have already trusted in. We are so proud of her. She is a blessing from above. What is even more special is her daddy is the one who baptized her. :)

Smiles

So I am not doing very good at these moments of joy and grace...but here are a couple moments that made me smile this week.

While driving home from school yesterday Emma says, "Mommy, can we just stop and pray. I feel like praying." I respond, "well, of course". So, here is Emma's prayer,

"Dear Jesus, I just want to thank you for forgiving my sins. I just feel like
telling you that. I love you Jesus. Amen".

Here is a Myah moment:

I am sitting in my bedroom and she is singing Waves of Mercy over and over and over again. I finally say, Myah that is beautiful singing. Mommy loves to hear you sing. Here is how Myah responds, "I know Mom, I just LOVE to hear myself sing!"

Hope those made you smile.:)

ROXY

Here is our new addition. Roxy Ann Peterson. She is so much fun...but I forgot how much work puppies are and how much they like to chew on things. She is just like a baby in that, she will pick out the one toy that is not hers, and want it more than the six toys that are hers, that are lying on the floor. What a mess! Emma and Myah are doing good with her. Emma hides and jumps from chair to couch when Roxy is in a playful mood. She doesn't like Roxy to jump on her or bite her. (I don't blame her). But, when Roxy is calm or asleep Emma with not leave her alone. She carries her around like a baby using words like, "oh sweetheart" and " that 'a' girl!". As of right now, Roxy is a good fit, but only time will tell. :) If you have any dog advice, let me know!

The Month of July

We had a lot of fun this summer and stayed very busy. My sister came down from Maryland with her three boys and they stayed for a couple weeks. We took the kids to the pocket and had a picnic. While wading in the creek we saw two copperheads. YIKES! We got out right away! We also took a vacation to Myrtle Beach with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister and her kiddos. The kids had a wonderful time. Zac, Jacob, and Emma really took to body surfing this year. Especially Emma and Jacob. They just kept on getting hit by waves and they just kept getting up. On the last day Emma got knocked down pretty hard and had finally had enough. It was so much fun to see my dad and mom out in the ocean with their grandkids. It was also a lot of fun to have my brother and Rochelle there. The kids love their Aunt Ro and Uncle Jeff! Happy had to fly out of the Myrtle Beach airport on our last night to attend Student Leadership 201 in Washington DC. He returned on his birthday and then the next day he and I left to take a group to Student Leadership 101 in Orlando FL. When we got home we went and picked up a new addition to our family. Her name is Roxy and she is half bulldog and half collie. She is the sweetest little thing. The girls are enjoying her and it's helping Emma with her fear of dogs. And that completes the month of July. Emma will be starting Kindergarten soon and Myah preschool, three mornings a week. Our schedule will change. I'm looking forward to structure, but not looking forward to 6am. alarm clocks!!

Cave Spring Fun Run and 5K

Happy, Emma, my brother, and myself ran a race today! Happy ran the one mile with Emma. She did soooo good! I really did not think she could run the whole thing, but she did! She told me later, "Mommy, I was hurting a little and tired, but I just kept going". We were all so proud of her. My brother, Jeff, did amazing. He finished it in 22min. Me, on the other hand, well, I decided to take an alternate route that deviated from the main route. I told Happy, this was the first time following the pack, didn't work out so well for me. :) I think I was on track to finish in 29, maybe even 28, but followed a couple runners, who were wearing numbers, around a big building and through a field. (It's OK you can laugh. I can laugh about it now.) There were workers RIGHT THERE who just let me follow them. When I discovered no one was behind me I yelled to the guys in front, "Hey! ARE YOU RUNNING THE RACE?" ( Yes, you can laugh again at the sight of me yelling my head off at two guys as we were running through a field.) They said they were doing their cool down and apologized for being on the course. I couldn't believe it! HA! Only I would get lost on a 5k! I turned around and when I saw those workers again, I told them what had happened and one worker said, rather too cheerfully, "I saw you, but I thought you were just out for a joy run." OH PLEASE!!! It was a fun time though. Emma wants to run another race. We might sign her up for clock tower in August. Don't worry, I've done clock tower before and won't get lost!

Preschool Graduate

Emma graduated from preschool last week. It was a sweet ceremony and even got captured in the paper. She is so excited about starting Unity Christian School next year. She keeps telling people she's going on "spring break" and when she comes back she'll go to kindergarten. She is a sponge right now...what precious times!!