VBS

Just poppin in to say that we are half way through VBS and it's has been a great week so far. We have had over 400 kids each day and today we had many many children accept Christ as their savior!

Madison has loved going each day and of course she is a little over stimulated once she gets home:(
We have all been very tired once we get home..even Morgan has taken a nap a few days this week.

Riding the "coaster"!

Happy Wednesday!

Melissa

ONE OF THOSE WEEKS

Have you ever just had one of those weeks where everything starts to break down? Well that has been our week. In the last 8 days my transmission went out in my SUV and was in the shop for 7 days, we had a carpenter ant infestation  problem so we had to pay a couple hundred to get that taken care of ....and then the week ended on Thursday with our air conditioner going out and we were told we need a WHOLE NEW UNIT! yep, that's been my week!

But the Lord has taken pity on us and right now as I am typing this something miraculous is happening in my house...ALL THREE OF MY CHILDREN ARE TAKING A NAP.... that's right, even Morgan!

David & I have been able to have an actual conversation for almost an hour without one person interrupting, asking for something, or saying the word "mommy". It has been heavenly!

Tomorrow starts our VBS and this year we have over 456 kids already registered! This is by far the biggest attendance we've ever had. So feel free to say a little prayer for me this week:) and for our Church and all the children who will be hearing about God's love this week. We are expecting God to do big things this week.


Happy Sunday!
Melissa

youth Camp 2013

Morgan left for middle school camp this morning. Praying she has an amazing encounter with God!

 Horrible picture, I know:( Only had my phone & there was a huge tree shading half the group!

Happy Father's Day!

To the BEST father in the world!

Your not only a great dad but an awesome paw paw as well!


DAVID- Thank you for being an amazing father to our three girls. I know its not easy living in a house with 4 girls:) But you are the best "girl dad" there is!

I love you babe!

GATOR BOYS

I know that I have talked a lot about Duck Dynasty on my blog but also really love to watch Gator Boys. These guys get in the lakes, ponds, or swimming pools and wrangle the gators with their bare hands. They are based out of Ft. Lauderdale and since we were there anyway for the concert we thought we would surprise the girls and go to the Everglades Holiday park.

We had a lot of fun on the air boat tour & got up close to some of the gators.

My favorite pic was this one of Morgan with the gator right behind her.

Then after the boat tour we went to the gator show. I was really hoping that Jimmie was going to be the one doing the show but he wasn't:( However we did get to see Paul (my Favorite) and Ashley from the show & she even offered to get her picture with my crew.

Look how short she is compared to Morgan:)

We had a fun day and I think Madison enjoyed it.

Look at that face...She wasn't so sure about the guy sitting on top of the gator trying to open his mouth:)

We even ate some gator!

It was a nice little get away for the weekend.

I SURVIVED!

Back in April for Morgan's 13th birthday we got her tickets to see 1-Direction in concert. Well, Thursday was the big day so we all loaded up & drove to Ft. Lauderdale. David & the girls came along too because, to be honest, I am directionally challenged and neither myself nor David thought I could actually get us there and back, and boy am I glad he came because that place was pure chaos.

The concert was sold out, it started at 7:30, but my girl wanted to get there at 5 so she could possibly, just maybe see the 1D tour bus pull up:)  So, being the great mom that I am I went...2.5 hours BEFORE the concert....1.5 hours BEFORE the doors opened...in the 95 degree humidity and heat!

There were thousands of teenage girls and a few guys waiting outside the BB&T center.

As you can see Morgan was all decked out from her finger nails to her toes:)

Quick story...I had my camera with my big lens and a special SD card for recording HD video and after waiting in line for 2 hours to get in, the security guard working the metal detectors at the entrance started searching my things and told me that I couldn't take my camera in because it had a detachable lens...OK no problem, I will leave it with security and pick it up after right? NO! She told me that they would not hold it and I could not bring it in...then she said you can take it to your car, which would be a pain since the parking lot it forever a way but the big kicker is I DIDN'T DRIVE. We took a shuttle from our hotel so I had no car to put it in. Now surely after finding out that piece of info she would say "oh OK ma'am" but NO. She said "oh well sorry".... She said I would have to leave my camera bag..with my Cannon T3i and 3 lenses outside for anyone to steal. REALLY? Long story short I had to leave my camera bag sitting by a trash can as I watched it from a distance and called David to come get it...GRRRR

Morgan had a great time & I survived however, I'm pretty sure my hearing will never be the same.

9 months home

Madison has been home for 9 months!

She says she loves me a lot, which I love to hear.
almost everyday she will come up to me & say "mama I love my house" "mama I love my swimming pool" .
Her new thing is when I give her food she will say "thank you mama for food me" so cute!

Morgan did a little face painting & took some pics:)

Some new things she is saying-"wait a minute", "I show you something","What you say" (she says this all the time), "it not funny"

She still loves to eat all the time. She has gained 5 pounds since September.
Madison may be a hand full but she is one of the most polite children you will ever meet, she says please and thank you for everything!

Madison will be starting Junior Kindergarten next year, I don't think she will be ready for regular K and the girls school has a pre- kindergarten class so I think that will be the best fit. I cant wait to see how much progress she makes.

Happy 9 Months, Madison!

VPK Graduation!

Madison had her VPK graduation tonight. I was SO excited to see her get up with her class & sing.
She new that the day was "all about her" and she LOVED that!

I will admit I was very nervous because I had no idea how Madison would react once up on stage. There were about 70 people and so I was planning how I would get to the stage to grab her if she started freaking out...But praise the Lord, she did great!

Madison & Ms. Gini

It was a great night & after it was over we took her to Sonic to get a late night ice cream, perfect way to end her day!

And in other news, McKinley lost a tooth yesterday and then ANOTHER one today. I am beginning to think there will never be another photo of her with a full mouth of teeth. Seriously, It has been over a year since she has had all her teeth in.

I love that face, but come on, enough is enough:)


Happy Thursday!
Melissa

Strep, parents/ teachers conference , a tea party & Down Town Disney!

The first week of summer didn't really start off as I had envisioned it. The day after Morgan's mouth surgery I woke up with a killer sore throat which only got worse, so after 2 days I went to the Dr. and was diagnosed with Strep. We had had plans for months to meet my sister & her family at Downtown Disney for dinner on Friday night and since the girls had been cooped up in the house all week and didn't want to disappointment them, we went ahead and went.

Uncle David & Cason

 Chandler & Morgan

We spent the night at the Hilton, this was our first time staying in a hotel with Madison since being home from China. We really weren't sure how it was going to go but I am happy to report she did really well and slept through the night (she woke up crying once but it didn't last long).

Now let me back up to Thursday when we had our parent/teacher meeting with Madison's VPK teacher. She told us Madison was behind in almost everything, which we really already knew. The teacher said Madison could only count to 13 and that was the only thing that I didn't agree with because she counts to 27 at home, however, she does skip the number 13 for some reason (bad luck I guess). Madison also failed the oral language test which is understandable. I knew that she wouldn't be ready for Kindergarten next year so we are putting her in Jr. K at the same school where Morgan and McKinley go. I am glad they will all be at the same school next year and I'm sure that will Madison adjust as well.

Madison loves to draw, here is a picture she drew the other day:

Now for the tea party. A little back story on this is that each year at the girls school they have a big fundraiser called the spring jubilee. As a part of it, each teacher donates either a gift, their time, or something they have made for parents to bid on. This year a little girl in McKinley's class mom bought the tea party with Mrs. Brightwell. The little girl could pick 6 friends to invite and McKinley was invited to go. The mom even rented a limo to take the girls to the tea party!

To say she was a little excited to ride in a limo was an understatement!

My sister asked her what her favorite part was and she said "getting to ride without a car seat" Ha! She has been asking me a lot lately when she can stop using her car seat:)

So if you are still actually reading this, that pretty much sums up our last few days. I am hoping next week is a little better :).


Hope you all have a great Sunday tomorrow!
MELISSA