Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Salt dough...

This week was my cousin Fletcher's birthday, my parent's anniversary, and my grandmother's birthday is tomorrow! It's been a crazy week. So, we are headed to Alabama tomorrow to celebrate with everyone. It's going to be a big surprise for my grandmother, but it will be wonderful to see family we haven't see in a while.

So, this week we have been working on some salt dough crafts to give my grandmother for her birthday. It is really meaningful to give her something her great-grandchildren made for her! My mom taught me how to make this very simple craft medium and once it is baked and sealed...it will last! We made our dough and spent one night making lots of fun crafts to give Honey (what we call my grandmother). It was very simply and VERY fun!

We used a set of fall cookie cutters to make some really cute leaves, pumpkins and acorns. Then we baked them in a 200 degree oven for about an hour. We then let them sit overnight to make sure they were nice and hard...and ready for...PAINT! We painted them with watercolors so that you could still see the markings we made and they turned our really cute!

Anli made an angel and the cutest cornucopia and fruit I have ever seen! I am so jealous Honey gets that one. She has to make me one next week for sure!!

See! I told you it was the cutest thing in the world! Do you see the squash? The leaves? The little grapes in the back? It is pure love that I am letting this jewel get away from me! I'm so getting one of these babies next week for MY table!!!

Virginia made this precious little caterpillar! I love the the fact that she has a true rainbow going on here. ROYGBIV! Red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo (or violet!). This little buddy is also going to my grandmother...oh the agony!

I made a few leaves that I wanted to hang around the house. I needed a little fall touch for a vase that is on my table centerpiece, so I used a little raffia and made this leaf. That is an apple from our picking adventures last weekend! We have soooo many apples!

My gift for my grandmom is a pumpkin candle holder. It turned out pretty cute. My grandmother will love it!

OK, just a few more precious Hans Bronson photos! Those cutie pie country girls. I could eat them up!Virginia and Lily getting ready for their solos! They did awesome!

Tomorrow we are gone for the weekend to celebrate with our family. I know we're going to surprise my grandmother and I can't wait to celebrate another year. I also can't wait to see all of my family too!

A Little Bit of Heaven...hotdogs that is!

On Saturday we explored a new lunch place for our family in downtown Woodstock. It's called Hotdog Heaven...and it is that!

It was a wonderfully cool fall day and we were looking for something new to do before the Auburn game that night. So, we were sick of all our normal places to eat...and we wanted to sit outside and enjoy the day. Well, we headed downtown to see what struck our fancy and this was that place!! Anli and Virginia got the mini dogs with smiley fries (so cute!) and a drink. YUMMY!
Jay went with the JUMBO Chicago dog...now that's a lot of heaven there!
Afterwards we just HAD to get a cool treat and these M&M pops hit the spot. Jay is a huge fan of the blue M&M...so the girls surprised him by bringing him one.
I love M&M's as much as the rest...but nothing can beat a drumstick for me! I would always get them at school on those beloved days mom would put a little money on my lunch ticket!

It was a great lunch and now is on our list to hit often. We then went to the church and spent some time decorating for Hans Bronson and had a great time. The girls had friends up there to run around and play with...and we had fun setting everything up!

That night was a sad time as our Auburn Tigers lost by a mere point. But, I enjoyed hanging out with some ladies in our apartment complex as our kids played outside. I really liked meeting them and hearing their stories. I pray God will give me a chance to share His love with them! Exciting!

More good resources!

I have yet another resource to share about today that I find wonderful for daily devotional time with the girls and for myself. I was searching for a daily scripture for the girls to memorize and then have just a very simple explanation and application. That is hard to find! There are lots of devotionals, but they are either too fluff or too long or too little scripture!

So, I finally found this little book called "Jesus Wants All of Me." It is based on the daily writings of "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. It has a scripture for the girls to memorize and think on all day long...while giving just a very simple application or explanation.

Now for the coolest part of all...it coincides directly with the adult version "My Utmost for His Highest"! Our verses are the same, yet our thoughts are a bit deeper...obviously. But, it is a great way to get the family on the same page studying the same scriptures and helping each other to remember it all day long! I love it!

So, if you are looking for a VERY simple, yet scripture based daily devotion for your young children (like 5-8) then this is research. I also am glad that it is by a trusted source for me. When it comes to my kids...I'm pretty picky!

Just a thought to share...and for me to remember what we were doing daily at this age.

Random cool things...

Yesterday was filled with some really cool moments...God moments! The first one was truly just awesome!! Several months ago I shared that we had ordered the Kids on Mission DVDs for our family to watch each week. These DVDs share what God is doing in different parts of the world and the missionary families that are serving there. They always try to focus on the missionary kids since the audience are young people.


Well, last night our video segment was called "For Russia with Love." I was excited because now since Women of Hope I actually KNOW people who have and are now still serving God in Russia. So, we all gather on the bottom bunk of the girls' beds and start the video. As we get further into the video I am truly thrilled to be sharing a little bit of what I saw and heard with my girls.


Then, they spotlight a family...and it is the leader of the Russia portion of the team I just went with!!! I saw the mom and KNEW it must be Robin! So, I could scarcely watch the rest of the video at all because I was freaking out that her sweet family was our Kids on Mission video. I emailed her last night for confirmation (it was filmed when her kids were teens...now one is 27) and she emailed back that it was! How cool is God? I love moments like that!!!

***Note: Robin is the last one on the right standing***

Then last night, Jay and I started a new couple's devotion book called "Tying the Knot Tighter: Because Marriage Last a Lifetime." We got our cups of steaming hot tea, curled up on the couch, and read our book. It's set up to read a very short chapter and then questions to talk about at the end. It was awesome! I highly recommend it to any couple desiring to grow and share together.

The first chapter was basic about putting God first in your life...so that it fills your marriage, so I though we might not have that much to discuss since it was pretty straightforward. But, we talked for almost an hour over the questions. We also worked to keep it focused on our marriage and not about the kids...that's for Tuesday nights when we work through Shepherding a Child's Heart. We had the Bible study version with a little workbook, so we are working through this book again.

It's really more about making time each day to really talk together a priority. We discussed how 45 minutes a day together is just a must. We need scheduled focused time to really turn everything off and just talk...and have the "talk" centered around God. We want to invest in our marriage so that it will daily be more of a picture of Christ and His relationship with His Church.

You don't have to get a babysitter, spend lots of money, or even get dressed up! After your kids go to bed...make spending just a few minutes together a priority...we are being blessed by it and so will you!

And finally, yesterday my husband printed out and brought home the tickets to Wicked! I can't wait...it's only about 2 1/2 more weeks until we will be there! I am so looking forward to a night out with my hubby.

Hans Bronson!

Yesterday we presented Hans Bronson children's musical at church! It was amazing and the children did an amazing job! I have been blessed for the past year to be working with the children each week to present 2 musicals. They always seem to pull it all together on the day of performance...and it ROCKED!

The story is of an Olympic athlete (with a Finish accent no less) who comes to do a rally put on by community children. They ask some tough questions about his relationship with God and share the Gospel with him using the colors of the Olympic flag.

It was a great way to share the Gospel with adults and children! All of them did wonderful and you see Steve our music pastor played Hans! Those are fake muscles...

Virginia had a song about the colors of God's love. Her solo was about the color gold to remind us that heaven will be a wonderful place full of God's love for us...and streets of gold:) She did a perfect job and has such a wonderful voice. She sang out and was confident! I was SO proud of her!

OK, I was not a part of Anli's audition because I work with the kids. We don't want any mommy involvement! So, I had no idea what she auditioned for or if she would get it. She tried out for this country song called "I is me". And she rocked the house! Her solo was like the WHOLE song...super long and lots of words to remember. But, she charmed the socks off everyone and made us all laugh with her twangy accent! She was her precious, lovable, energetic, and funny self. Jay and I were beaming with love and pride as she sang her heart out! My girls are awesome!!

They practiced for weeks and worked so hard!

How cute are these little country girls? Melt my heart...

Thanks Cindy for sending these precious memories my way. Jay was busy with the video camera and I was helping direct up front so I am grateful to those friends who knew how much I would want these photos. My friend Mary said she had some video of Anli's solo, so I may get that up tomorrow along with a few more photos that I had of the group and the kids backstage.

What a day...filled with God's love, blessings, and grace to sinners like me! Thank you Jesus!

Fall Fun!

Well, the air is getting cooler and we are in full fall fun here at our house! It started about 2 weeks ago with decorating and making caramel apples...a sure sign fall has arrived at our home.

Living in an apartment means I only have the little space outside my door to decorate. But, you know our apartment when you walk up! We love to decorate and welcome people in! We ALL love caramel apples! They are so good made at home too!

We have been busy in school and it's been a challenge for Anli this year as she is in 3rd grade this year. She has to work on all 6 subjects every single day! That means she is in health/PE every day. I don't mean playing games...I mean learning about health, exercises, diet, etc. She even has tests! In Bible she is learning about Roman history surrounding Christ's time. She is learning things most seasoned Christians don't know! I just learned some of this last year in my History of Christianity course!

Virginia works on flash cards for her spelling words in English. She likes to work in the sun room.

Anli works at the desk in our room. Here she is listening to a DVD video in math! We love this curriculum!

Fall also bring with it AUBURN FOOTBALL! We have already enjoyed several games (some more than others!) and we are so looking forward to homecoming! It is our family tradition to go every year. Virginia was only about 9 months old when she went to her first homecoming game. She went to the University when she was only 3 months old...but her first football season was when she was 9 months...and we were there and have been every year since! We can't wait!

Here is a cute photo of the girls with our niece Emma and nephew Parker. Aren't they cute...look at that little jersey! He's gonna have to be tough with all those girls around!

This weekend we went on our first trip apple picking in Ellijay! It was wonderful and we had the place all to ourselves. Since the apple festival is next weekend (we're going to be out of town or we would have gone) I guess everyone is waiting on that to go. But, we had so much fun and enjoyed something new as a family. None of us had every gone apple picking before!

Anli is our apple lover...though we all like apples...this girls devours them like candy! They are her favorite food she always tells us! This picture reminds me how "grownie" she is getting, and how beautiful she is! Notice that she has a beloved apple on her shirt...and I bought that last year since she LOVES them so much!Virginia picks a perfect Mustu apple!
A Rome beauty picked by my beauties!
Daddy is the perfect size to pick the perfect apple!
Yummy!
Anli's basketful!
Apples anyone?

What a fun day together!

Because I am a outdoor fanatic...one adventure wasn't enough for me! After all we had the rest of the day to go. So, I found out online that Amicalola Falls is very close, and though we have been there before, the weather was gorgeous and we were up for a pre-picnic hike up the falls!

We made it to the top!

After our hike, we found a wonderful spot right be a stream to have our picnic lunch! The day was perfect and only about 71 degrees. We gathered fall leaves for a project in school next week too!Jay bites into a fresh apple pie we bought at the apple farm...yummy!

We had a great time and then...we're headed across the street to Burt's Pumpkin Farm!

These pumpkins are HUGE...and gorgeous!

My favorite people!

Daddy takes the girls on a ride in the wheelbarrows!

They have over 20 kinds of pumpkins! This one reminded Virginia of a hat!

The hayride was wonderful because it would wind through the trees and we even got a glimpse of the falls we hiked.

Our girls had a "hay" day this weekend...I know it's bad!