Sophia's Spring Program

Sophia's 1st grade class did a music program on songs about America. For weeks we heard the national anthem and other patriotic tunes. Here is Sophia in all her enthusiasm about singing in front of people. Enjoy!

Brandon and Amanda's Spring Break with MY camera

While Brandon and Amanda were here on Spring Break, Brandon's camera broke. So my camera got to go with them wherever they went during their time here. So here is your look into Brandon and Amanda's Spring Break in the Nashville area. I know you are super excited. The pictures are backwards in order of occurance because blogger is not cooperating with me on re-arranging my pictures. Grrrr!
Brandon and Amanda took in the Preds and downtown Nashville.Soccer Saturday pictures . . . At Sophia's school program . . . Warming up for leading worship at Collide . . .The zoo . . . When they were leaving for the zoo, we had a conversation where I told them how wierd I thought it was when people took pictures of the animals at the zoo. I get the pictures with someone else in it to say "hey look at us we went to the zoo". But if I want to see a picture of an animal I can google it and see a picture of an animal. Guess what I have on my camera? Tons of pictures of animals. It appears that Brandon might be an elephant stalker as there were quite a few pics of the elephants.

Dear Aunt Joyce

Dear Aunt Joyce,

I hear you have been checking here to find out what is going on in our crazy house. And I am very sorry that we have been gone so long. Like I said CRAZY house. Let me catch you (and any other folks out there) up on what has been going on in our home.

Brandon was home for Christmas (duh that is what the last post was about), and then he and Amanda were just home for their Spring Break. We had a great time together. While in college over the last several months, Brandon has found that he can sing and play guitar and is very good at it. He has been leading worship in several areas at college, and when he was home on break he actually led worship for our middle school kiddos at our church. WOW how he has grown and matured. We also found out that he will be working at a mission camp for the summer as a counselor and worship lead. We continue to be very proud of the young man he is turning into (even if we never ever get to see him).

Dawson is just starting back up in spring soccer. I am very excited for this as this will get him back out interacting with the real world again. For Christmas, he recieved a PS3, therefore his days are spent on the PS3. He is joined quite a bit by his dad who is also a 'gamer' and plays with his friends online. One day he and a friend were out running the hood and decided to each go home and play PS3 online together. UGH!

Sophia . . . ah Sophia. . . she is always cracking us up, and everyone around here. We are actually in process of trying to harness some of it however. She has decided to take the young boys mentality on of all jokes and comments having to do with our body functions are hilarious. When talking about talents the other night at church . . . she said hers was farting. While that is a funny response, we are the mean parents who are trying to train her in the art of appropriate-ness . . . and that just was not it. She got a reward at school today for her Math skills! That is pretty cool! She is also out there playing spring soccer, and is starting softball this year as well.

Gracie is still 3 going on 16 most of the time. She is becoming quite the smart child and can identify most of her letters and numbers, and seems to understand way more than we would like her to most of the time. She is still all about all things girlie, yet will enjoy the time in the dirt and mud right next to Sophia. They are becoming good sister friends these days.

Let's see what else . . . Dawson and I are planning a mission trip to Mazatlan this summer. You will be hearing more about that soon. We are very excited to get to be a part of a summer camp for kids who normally would not have that opportunity. Dawson will be part of the 'techie' team while we are there running lights, sound, and computer stuff. He is really becoming interested in all that.

Not too much else to tell. I will try to keep up better on the blogging. I hate to disappoint my aunt (and any other fans out there).

December Sightings

This past weekend Brandon returned home from college. And he brought Amanda home to meet the family. We loved her! And for an only child she seemed to be okay with the chaos that is our home.

Here they are making cinnamon decorations . . .

The girls looking all cute and stuff. Rumor is that Amanda even got a braid in Sophia's hair.WrestleMania2010 broke out with dad and his younger kiddos . . . We braved it and went out for dinner one night . . . it went fairly well. Gracie wasn't quite feeling 100% but still was able to entertain with her olive hand trick . . .
And we constructed our 2010 Gingerbread Houses . . .
It has been a busy few days here. And there are more busy times ahead. Cookie baking and decorating. I need some Christmas fudge. Christmas cards have been sent. Wrapping presents. Shopping is finished. Opening presents with the Boro Stahly's. Packing clothes for trip to Nebraska to see Grandpa and Grandma Hornsing and Matt,Mary, Cole, and Reese!! Woo hoo! And through it all we must remember that the TRUE reason for this season is that Jesus was born!!!! All the gifts and gadgets can not compare with the greatest gift of all, Jesus! May your CHRISTMAS be blessed with joy, peace, hope, love, and friends and family!

Snow Day TN Style, and Famous Sayings from Sophia

Sunday and Monday were snow days here in TN. Monday the kids had a blast out in the snow.

Famous Sayings from Sophia. . .

Saturday we were on our way to look at furniture. I was giving the good behavior speech "I want the very behavior you have!" I said. Sophia's response . . .

"I don't think I have one of those!"

From the mouth of the diva

( insert photo of Grace with eye roll, hand on hip, and total whatever duh Mom expression on her face)

No, I did not forget to insert the picture . . . I am not allowed to take pictures of Grace. My three year old is a diva! I thought I wanted a girlie-girl, I really did. Now??? Not so sure I will survive. I think I have mentioned that Grace has two styles of dress : Pretty and Awesome. Pretty is tights,flats,skirt/dress, bows, sparkle, glitter, SHINE! Awesome is jeans and tennis shoes with accessories. Today she decided to be awesome.

It started with a Barbie sweatshirt where Barbie is a ballerina and her skirt is a bit of tulle. Then the jeans . . . she had to lay all her jeans out to pick just the right pair.

Then the socks (did I mention that she had a sock thing for about 6 months and would buy a pair of $1 socks every time we walked into Target, so we have ALOT of socks). The pink Sleeping Beauty ones won today.

Then on to the shoes. "No not pretty shoes Mom, awesome shoes!" (DUH!). That would be the Tinkerbell pink tennis shoes that light up.

Now for accessories. This is where I was getting exhausted and she was pulling out belts and hats. To which as she found the perfect ones, I heard "BAM!" I said "what was that about?" . . . "I am ready to get dressed now" . . . "Good about time" . . . and what response did I get . . . "Stop being so sassy at me Mom!".

So once we were properly assembled, I asked if I could take her awesome picture to show Daddy how pretty she looked . . . "Mom I am awesome today not pretty!" . . . but I want to take your picture . . . and you get the eye roll, hand on hip, DUH photo I described above that was never actually taken with a camera in this house.

I will survive . . . I will survive . . . I will survive . . . God blessed me with my girlie girl . . . now I need the . . . dare I say it . . . patience to endure!

I heart Traditions!

I really do love traditions! I like having those familiar things each year that make the holidays so special! Thanksgiving comes with many standard traditions - turkey, big Thursday meal, Black Friday, etc. Thanksgiving in our house comes with a HUGE meal with family and friends. This year our good friend Mr Tim joined us from Florida. He used to live here and would join us for holidays, so it was great to have that tradition even with him living so far away now. After eating and scouring the ads for anything worth staying up all night for (which by the way this year I found nothing worth losing sleep over), we played cards and watched football.

Friday Brandon and I held on to our tradition of seeing the Harry Potter movies in the theatres. It was great to have him home for a few days and get to spend some time with ever changing and maturing oldest child. He is one awesome man! (I also heart him!)

Saturday the whole family hit the movie theatre for Tangled. Way cute! It was great to sit there with all my kids watching a movie and laughing together. I would definately recommend this movie. Gracie is in love with Rapunzel . . . now if only she would stop twirling her own hair into knots and pulling it out . . . she too could have long flowing blonde hair.

Saturday evening we did one of my favorite traditions of this long weekend. We opened our new ornaments from Grandpa and Grandma "Hornsing" and put all the decorations on the tree. The pics are from that time together. I love watching the kids put all their ornaments on the tree and talk about what each one means and when they got it. And then to actually see them all work together to spread the ornaments out so they are not a bunched up mess. Ah, does my heart good?

We completed the weekend with one more tradition . . . Griswalding up the outside of the house for Christmas. We actually are pretty low key this year but it still looks great. After spending four hours outside we decided that was long enough and it looked good so we were done. We however are missing some inflatables that died at the end of the season last year. So maybe just maybe I can convince Jeff that I can get just one new inflatable . . . or maybe a nativity scene?!?!

How was your weekend? Full of traditions and family and friends that you HEART I hope! I pray you really enjoy this Christmas season and slow down to remember that Jesus is the true reason for the season!