Please Pray...

Please pray for my Grandma J who's in her 90's and has been in the nursing home the last few weeks. She has some infections, fluid on her heart and in her lungs. They found her unresponsive this morning and have taken her to the hospital. We are praying for her peace and comfort in these last days. Thank you for your prayers. This is my mom's mother.

Congratulations Caleb!

We are still celebrating Caleb's big win this weekend in his first soccer tournament of the season. They played in Granite City and won first place in the championship game! It was hot, humid and their first time to play, yet they had no goals scored against them in all 4 games. That's pretty impressive! We now have a blog for his soccer team and you can find a link to it on the left side of my blog under favorite websites, for those who are interested.

Caleb loves soccer and it takes alot of his time to stay committed to it. The responsibility of this team has been good for him, teaching him to plan ahead in his homework and to organize his time better. Of course it helps keep him in shape physically and he has formed friendships with boys he would otherwise have never met. We are very proud of him and his hard work and look forward to watching him play a great season of soccer! Go ICE!!!

New Blog Title

Some of you may have noticed I changed the title of our blog. I'm still playing with this so it may change again, who knows! Our first title had our name in it and that made me a little nervous so I'm changing it to make us a little more anonymous. There, I already feel much more protected from internet weirdos!

This new title describes our life perfectly, especially now that we're back in school. Most days I feel like we live in our mini-van and when you peek inside it looks like it too! We drive to 3 schools, soccer training, tournaments, ballet, church, Bible Study, youth group events, Wal-Mart, and on and on and on.... But some of our best conversations with our kids happen in the van when they are buckled in and can't escape us! There's always great Christian music playing and I keep a snack and a Karen Kingsbury book in there for times when I have to wait!

Our life is crazy right now and will get even more busy I'm sure. But, I realize this phase of life in the mini-van is really just a moment in time. It will be over and gone before I know it so I am determined to just hang on and enjoy the ride!

"Footprints in the Sand" by Leona Lewis

Do you need a reminder that God is with you, no matter what you're going through today? Watch this... (pause my playlist first, though)

Lydia's Busy Schedule

Lydia started her first ballet/tap class last night. She couldn't wait to "twirl on her toes" and make her "shoes click"! These little girls looked adorable in the class. I'm used to being a "boy mom" so this world of dance and hair buns is a whole new thing for me! It's OK--I love it!


Today was her first day of Pre-K class, too! She's been begging to go back to school since she got out in May. It blows my mind that this is her last year home with me before Kindergarten. She had a great day!

Friday night, Sesame Street Live came to town and she and I had a date for the show. Lydia's not really an Elmo fan but you could never tell it from this picture! Miss Lydia's had a pretty busy schedule these last few days. Oh, I forgot--she's 4 now!

Back to School 2008

Levi started 4th grade and thinks he is "big man on campus" since this is his last year in elementary school!

Caleb started 7th grade--his first year of Jr. High! He just got his first cell phone too so he is loving his life right now!

We're Back!

Just a quick post to let you all know we're back from a five day trip to the hills of Branson! We had a great time with my family just being together and enjoying a break from life. I'll do a Branson post later with a few pictures but there's no time right now. The boys start school in 2 days and we are crazy busy getting their last-minute supplies and going to back-to-school meetings! We're off to Wal-Mart right now!

Baby Names

That title got your attention, didn't it? No, we are not looking for any new baby names and we will not be looking for baby names ever again, right Mark? Today I have been thinking about the names we gave our three kids because of the sermon we heard at church yesterday. Bro. Mark was preaching from Luke about the calling of Levi. I loved this because we have a Levi at our house! When we were naming our kids we always wanted Bible names and we always prayed about which specific name to give them because there are so many great Bible names it's hard to choose. In his sermon, he talked about how when Jesus told Levi to follow him Levi jumped up, dropped everything and ran to him. That's our Levi--he's always ready to drop what he's doing and head off for the next adventure! He doesn't care what he's leaving behind! In the Bible it says then Levi threw a party for Jesus and invited all kinds of different people. And if you know our Levi he's always surrounded by friends from all walks of life and is always ready for the next party! It's amazing how we are already seeing the traits of these Bible characters displayed in our own kids. Our Caleb loves to be a spy and figure things out and is very bold in his words to others. He's also a leader at church, home and school. And little Lydia loves Jesus and the color purple like Lydia in Acts who sold purple cloth! We are praying she'll learn her hospitality traits, too! We can't wait to see how God continues to develop these traits in our kids as they grow over the next few years. I have been reminded today what an honor Mark and I were given to be able to name our children from His word. I pray we never take that for granted.