Splash in the Rain Puddles

This is the time of year when our church participates in the wonderful program of Operation Christmas Child.  It's always interesting to see the response of my boys when I remind them of why we do this and how blessed we are to have so much.  One of my strongest hopes and prayers for my children is that they would understand true and humble kindness.....(just ask my hubby).  I pray that they would have kind hearts and show love the way Jesus did.  That they would have a desire to show kindness to people from every walk of life, every social class.  oops I'm just a step away from my soapbox. :)  ok, i'm back on track......we picked up our empty shoe boxes at church on Sunday and I told them to be thinking about what they want to put in their boxes.....that we would make a trip to the store this week to fill them up.  Oh Jack....my always thinking, always practical, the world is black and white child.  He came to me yesterday and told me he had deci...

We have a one year old!  It's hard to believe that a year has passed.  What a blessing.....this little boy....this little boy who we never could have imagined would be here....who we now cannot imagine being without....this little boy who loves his daddy to pieces, is already trying to do everything his brothers do, and can melt his mommy's heart into a puddle with one little smile.What a gift you are to our family Luke Vernon!  Celebrating 1 year.... balloon fascination!! he quite enjoyed his cake!   What a fun night we had celebrating with Jack and Luke!  Thanks to grandma for making yet another amazing cake!! And a few pics from Chase's class trip to the firehouse yesterday.  One of his favorite places to visit! first in line to climb into the truck intently watching the fireman get into all of his gear the whole Pre-K crew.  love those kiddos! 

We now have a 7 year old in the house!  We celebrated Jack's birthday on a very rainy Saturday but had a fun day filled with donuts, presents, football, pizza, and cupcakes.  Certainly not a low calorie day :)  It's a wonderful thing to watch your children grow.  I'm amazed as I watch Jack develop into the young man God has created him to be.  As I've mentioned before, he loves school....loves to learn new things.  Reading and spelling are of course two huge parts of 1st grade.  I can see the pride in his eyes each time he brings home his perfect test scores.  And he has been using his new found knowledge in very practical ways.  He has been saying things like, "Mommy, I have a P-L-A-N.", spelling out the letters of the words he has learned.  Some of the latest...."Mommy, when are you going to make some  P-I-E?"..... "can I have some M-I-L-K?".... "did you know the sun is H-O-T?" ... Look at that huge P-U-M-P-K-I-N!"...a bonu...