On May 8th, Evie, Samuel, and Ezra wrapped up another year of Awana. Grace is pictured here too.
Zoom of the boys.
Good job Samuel. He improved a lot this year.
Ezra did well too.
It was Evie's very last year of Awana.
She is an excellent memorizer. She and Noah have both been and it just blows my mind how easy it is for them.
Additionally Evie received an extra special honor as the girl Leader's Choice award. Noah won the same thing back in 2013 and though Evie wouldn't actually say it, she was really hoping to win. Like I said, she truly did a great job.
Already it doesn't seem possible Noah was ever this small.
January was a crazy month with the new flooring going down. I keep saying that. Here is a video to prove what work we did.
Beyond that we pretty much lived our normal lives. School, weekend, repeat. One particular day, January 30th, Evie decided she'd recite her poem in an unorthodox way, while performing jumping jacks to the rhythm.
When the new year began Terry started a New Testament reading plan with the youth and Samuel had wanted to take part. He brought home one of the schedules and searched high and low for a little Gideon bible so he could start reading.
He did it all on his own! It was so darn sweet and heart warming. I pray he will keep it up, but after the first chapter of Matthew, which is all "names," he got a little bored. We did get him his own Bible for his eighth birthday.
Evie is often surrounded by the pets...and her brothers.
On February 8th, Samuel lost the one front tooth that was still hanging in there.
Mandatory mommy and kitty snuggling for Ezra on February 10th.
Boring grammar with Noah on February 12th. I never learned anything more than the very basics. It's quite challenging for me but Noah picks it up quickly.
The day before Valentines Day Terry and I went out to Qdoba for an quick mini lunch date. While out I got the kids Valentines Day balloons for the following day. Samuel had to hang onto his while doing his reading lesson. We were almost done with his entire book! Look at those big long words!
Just a week later he completed the very last lesson, #231, of his phonics book! That felt like such an accomplishment. When he was two and three, he could barely talk. We called it caveman talk. Then he went to communication preschool which helped a bit. They discouraged me from homeschooling him, citing that he'd need more help. Kindergarten was a challenge after the lessons got a little more difficult, but we back off, and after that summer, he came back very strong in first grade. This year for second grade he's done just amazing! He apparently taught himself a great deal while "reading" and pondering over books during the summer. I'm so proud of him.
Here's his very last lesson.
Meanwhile, the cat was saying, "I am life."
Evie has always been a voracious reader and had the ambition to be an author. She took a big step in that direction with her first book. It has to do with magical unicorns. I think she was heavily influenced by her friend Jillian's unicorn birthday party and the show My Little Pony. Plus, the girl likes to read and write.
On February 20th we had Abigail and Julia over while Noah went to their house with Moses and then to the church with Terry to help set up for youth group. I made my very first meal with my replacement Instant Pot (the one I received at Christmas was faulty and I had just that day got the new one in the mail).
That night at Awana was "Dress Like a Mess" night. Evie had come home the previous week and set out her best-worst clothes for the occasion (notice the volleyball knee pads). She also painted everyone's face ridiculously with her Christmas watercolor pencils. Terry had the best idea though; for Ezra to simply drape his favorite baby blanket around his shoulders. Yeahhhhh, that thing is toast. My sister made it for him and because it was more knobbly than the others and he liked to roll the strings between his fingers as he sucked his thumb to sleep and he pretty much destroyed it.
See what I mean?
Saturday, February 23rd, was a very big day. Terry and Noah were on a mall mission trip trying to have spiritual conversations and share the gospel, while Evie and I were reading through the Dinner Theater script for this upcoming May (a fundraiser). The four of us are planning on going on Terry's Mexico/L.A. mission trip in June. After the read through we had to set up for the chili cook off the following day (another fundraiser). So I treated us to some cheap Burger King ice cream on the way home.
The following day, after the chili cook off, we were all pretty worn out. We let the kids eat their usual cereal and watch a movie while Terry and I went on a date at Longhorn and bummed around Target afterwards.
The next night, February 25th, I caught Trouncer trying to eat a bit of pillow fluff. I pulled on it to take it away and this giant string of it came out out. I'm pointing at the part I could see when I started pulling. The rest was in his throat!
We had some good laughs on February 28th. Terry had been swinging Samuel around with his two legs stuck through one pajama pants leg. We were calling him a Mer-man, from Zoolander. Then Evie randomly told Terry to "bray like a donkey." 😂
For the last couple months or weeks I had been reading the Wingfeather Saga. They are amazing. Written by the Christian singer and songwriter Andrew Peterson, who I have a great regard and interest in now. This is what I wrote on facebook about them, "Oh, my heart. These books, people. These books are amazing. I’ve been wanting to share some kind of deep, poetic, beautiful words but I’m not a poet or a book reviewer. These books take me back to my first love, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. When I finished LOTR I was depressed for a week. I didn’t want the magic and beauty to be over. These books are the same but perhaps more poignant. Magical. Beautiful. Truthful. Deep. The Kingdom! Bible verses kept coming to mind. Relatable moments and characters. These books have and will continue to shape how I see the world and what Jesus did for us."
Last weekend was severly cold and terrible. We spent a good amount of time laying around, watching movies, and mandatory snuggling with mommy. Notice his hand flapping around indicating how he was trying to get away. He's not very compliant.
Eating peanuts with a very captive audience.
We were so bored so we decided to finally read Evie's book, which she had just finished laminating. It took 45 minutes!
She did not want her picture taken.
Offering a critique of how daddy was reading it.
A short sample of her book.
A hilarious note Evie wrote to herself in her completed Cursive writing book. "Thank you myself. See you always!"
Wednesday May 2 was the final day of Awana for the year and Terry stepped in and out of youth group to watch the Awana Awards.
Ezra graduated from Cubbies. Wow, from now on none of our kids will be in Cubbies! That is kind of sad isn't it?!
Ezra walking up to get his certificate and badge.
Cute little guy.
Here's their whole crew. What great leaders they are.
He was so proud of all his apples and badges.
I love his side eye expression. We put that picture of him up on our fridge.
Samuel was up next. He has one more book to finish so it'll be fun for Samuel and Ezra to be Sparkies together next year.
He's squished next to Norah.
There were a lot of Sparkies!
This upcoming year will be Evie's last of Awana and then I really might cry...or at least tear up since I don't cry too often. She looks so proud to have her little certificate.
A boy and girl get it every year. Secretly Evie is hoping to get a special award next year though we always talk about how everyone works very hard every year.
Way to go Grace!
The Saturday before, April 28th, was an apologetic event hosted at our church with Sean McDowell as the speaker! It was super neat to hear him in person since his dad, Josh, was responsible for helping me defend my faith against the most unpleasant and challenging atheist lawyer that I worked for during my gap year before starting at SDSU in 2000 to 2001. I especially appreciated his little book, More Than a Carpenter, that Sean has recently re-edited along with his father.
I was familiar with much that he spoke on but it was a great introduction to apologetics, or defending the faith, especially this chart. How can all faiths be true simultaneously when they are completely different at every core belief?
Noah attended with Terry and I and he enjoyed it too. I liked his little list of notes.
After moving away from home in 2007, I became weary of emailing recent photos of our kids to the grandparents. So I started a blog. And even though we moved back home in 2012, I still really enjoy keeping track of our lives!
