Play with your Veggies and Soccer Ball

Last Thursday Grandma got us tickets to go see Veggie Tales Live! The girls, Grandma, and I went and had a great time! Here is our first glimpse of Bob, Larry, and Archibald (I think) with their friend Suzy. Suzy had on a sparkly fun jacket and was really happy and had lots of big blonde hair . . . Gracie loved her and she was Gracie's favorite Veggie character . . . even though she wasn't a veggie. Girls just wanna have fun . . . or was it gourds just wanna have fun? Oh where is my hairbrush? The classic!!! I remember singing this with Brandon when he was a wee lad watching Veggies on VHS. Thank you Grandma for taking us to Veggies!

After the show, Grandma had gotten us special tickets that allowed us to meet Bob and Larry. We had to wait a bit in line while Bob and Larry changed into their special costumes that had hands. It was way past our bedtime and we were getting crazy!And then the moment finally came where we got to tackle . . . should have been gently hug . . . Larry. Sophia went at the poor pickle (cucumber) full force and about knocked the guy over.And the final picture with Bob and Larry . . . and then a stop at Culvers for fries and cheese curds and home in bed by 10 or so.Friday was Dawson's final game as an HMS Hornet (for this season hopefully). And I remembered to take my camera . . . or maybe it just happened to still be in the truck from not unloading it the night before . . . but who is to say??? Look for #15 or the hair on the field and that is Dawson playing his favorite sport!Dawson came out of the game for a bit, and Grace thought she could just go sit with him. Because yes she is even princess of the soccer field, just try and tell her what to do.

If you remember from previous post, our local highschool was performing Beauty and the Beast. Grace, Sophia and I went to it on Sunday. It was AMAZING!!! Grace and her friend Mary Claire were in love with the Beast by the end! It was sweet. Here is a picture of Sophia, Grace, and Mary Claire. Grace dressed up as Little Mermaid , and Mary Claire was Belle. Sophia went as the best Sophia there is!

(this photo was taken by my Iphone . . . why is it blurry . . . last night on Hawaii FiveO . . . DanO took a picture with his and it was clear as can be . . . what up with that? They could even photo fingerprints and ID the bad guys.)

My Little Missionary

Sophia is 6 years old and in the first grade at a public school. She is a very smart and inquisitive child. She loves Jesus with all her heart, and has a passion to help others. Each week they are given a writing prompt. The page above came to her with just the four leaf flower type shape. When I asked her what other kids did, she said most of them made into a flower. Sophia, she made it into the cross and put Jesus on it. Next to it she put an angel and a guard. And what did my sweet amazing 6 year old right about? Nothing less than the story of what Jesus has done for us . . . in case you can't see it . . .

When Jesus dide on the cros for our sens. It was ranig and God had a plan he let the bad gise tack him they put him on a cros then. On agole came to the bad gise they were scard of the agole. Then they put him in a thig for three days. And he rose up from the ded!

I think Sophia just found her first mission field in her first grade class. I am so proud of her for not even thinking twice about making the story of Jesus something she wanted to write about in class. For seeing something with four leafs and thinking of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. If only we as adults could see Jesus in everything, and proclaim Him without a second thought in our daily mission fields? I am so blessed to call Sophia my daughter!

Aren't They Cute???

Gracie is number four . . . last child . . you know the one who doesn't get all the pretty photos taken because mom and dad are too busy running all the other kids around. Brandon and Dawson had pics taken every three months probably until they were two. When Sophia came home, we had photos done then and probably every 6 months for some time. Gracie . . . well we try to make sure we get her around her birthday . . . in May . . . well, these are her three year photos taken in October. Just a few months late. I decided we would do it big and get all four of them taken together. So we took off with my friend Sonya and she did a bang up drive with them. So enjoy them as we are . . .

Happy 15th Anniversary to me!

November 4, 1995 in a small town in southeast Nebraska, Mr. Jeff actually said I Do when the pastor asked him if he wanted to be my husband. And here we are 15 years later, another state, four kids, different jobs, different bodies (hee hee) . . . and for some reason he still loves me and puts up with all of my craziness!
Here we are so many years ago . . .
We celebrated our anniversary at the Melting Pot. Here we are enjoying are first bites of the goodness.WWe didn't get a lovey dovey shot that evening. But here is proof that we did go out together. :-)

Princess Tea

Our local high school is getting ready to do a performance of The Beauty and the Beast. As a fundraiser, they held a Princess Team on Saturday where young girls (and boys) could meet the characters of the play in full costume, have lunch, and see the Be Our Guest scene from the production. And considering that Gracie is currently all things princess, we made it a must do. We joined up with our friends Mary Claire and Ella and had a great time!

All three of the girls had a great time and were very excited to get to see the whole production . . . they just have to wait two weeks. :-)

Must Post Post after Holiday Involving Picture Taking

This week has potential to see a lot of blogs finally change as us parents who have been running crazy from soccer to football to cheerleading to McDonalds and Sonic to band to here and there and everywhere . . . have pictures that we must post from last night Halloween cuteness! Whew! And then we will be off and running and probably not post again until we have our Christmas cards ready to post on our blog because we ran out of time to mail them. Although this year I have professional photos on my Christmas cards which cost me some real cash so I will for sure be sending them out . . .even if they are late and end up being Happy Valentines Day cards. Anywhoooo . . . on to the Halloween cuteness...
Our house produced Princess Tiana, Burger King, and Dr Sophia. What a trio! (Brandon said he dressed up as Hercules, the picture I saw was him in a white tshirt with a gold band around his neck . . . not really dressing up!) The Princess and the King had a fine time dancing the night away. Until the King fell ill and had to call in Dr Sophia. "Oh my," said sweet Princess Tiana. "Is he going to be alright?" And then just as fast as she could say it, she also fell ill. Could it be what her and the King had for dinner? Or could it simply be the fact that their Dr was just plain silly.

Oh October where have you gone???

It has been a crazy October. We have been going, going, going, gone it seems all month. So here is our chaos in pictures . . .

Sophia participated in Spirit Days at school . . . this is Crazy Day!!

Dawson found a recipe for goo on the internet . . . and a YouTube video on everything cool you can do with it . . . so he made up a batch for he and his sisters to play with.Brandon is loving college life and really spreading his wings so to speak. He has on occasion been leading worship for small groups. His roomie (and Gracie's future husband she says) Keegan sent me this photo in a text one night . . . can I say I cried?So when he was home for Fall Break, he received his early Christmas present.And played it for us . . . and I cried again. To say I am proud of this young man would be an understatement. He is quite amazing and we are very blessed to call him our son.

Dawson made the middle school soccer team this year. This involves daily practice and 2-3 games per week. The girls and I are having a great time following the team around and catching their games. The games are in the afternoon so Jeff meets us as he can. Dawson plays his little heart out and is a good defensive player. We are proud of his attitude on the field, and off. Soccer is a pretty regular Saturday event around here in the fall and spring. Here is Sophia on and off the field.

I spent a weekend at 'camp' with a great group of high school girls. I really do enjoy working with the youth at our church. They are an amazing group of teens!
Brandon's fall break was at the same time as ours so we were able to spend some days together all of us hanging out. I had all four of the kids' pictures taken by my friend Sonya (and I will show those here soon). And for a reward, we went and played at the home of the mouse, no not Mickey, it was just Chuck E.Gracie continues to develop her own personality. She currently has two styles of dress: Awesome and Pretty. Most days she goes for pretty and it is dresses, ribbon, tights, shoes, and the works. She loves to 'discuss' (polite term for argue) with us about what she should wear. She even looked at Jeff the other day and said "Shh, Shh, Shh, I don't want to hear it." Unfortunately, he laughed. The phrase is now a permanent part of her sassy attitude. She has also decided that she does not like her picture taken even when she is pretty.Summer has stayed around quite a while here in TN. Fall has been very warm and dry. Until the other day when we had storms and the temps dropped. That was when the girls decided that they wanted to try out their new bubble sets from their friend Brittany.And with fall and October almost to an end, it is time to look forward . . . to Christmas. This means the Toys R Us Wish Book arriving and we all write our names next to what we want. Here is Sophia hard at work . . .

Whew, just relaying the last few weeks in pictures has exhausted me. We are in for a busy November also. Finish up rec soccer, and Sophia will start rec basketball. Dawson plays Middle School Soccer through November. Thanksgiving with family and friends. Whew, good thing I am young and all so that I can keep up with all of it. I am young, right? Right?