Moments That Matter

We're still alive...all 6 of us. Life is just busy...plain and simple.  Busyness was escalated last weekend when we decided spur of the moment to paint Avery's room.  It's what he wanted for his birthday...a new room...so we went from yellow to blue in an afternoon. Impressive, huh! I love to fill their rooms with pictures and I wanted a close up that I could enlarge for Avery's "new" room so I went through my recent ones and found this one from Christmas. I love it when a picture captures true personalities and this one did.  As I glanced from face to face, I realized how quickly this phase of life is passing.  18 years seems like forever when you are holding a newborn but look at Ryan.  The kid is almost a middle schooler! It also made me realize how I need to set serious boundaries to protect the precious moments I have with these kiddos and their dad. Outside distractions like my to-do list, email, texts, and phone calls are constant and always seem pressing.  However, nothing is as important as the time God has given me to invest in the lives of the ones He's placed in my care. Something we share with parents at church is that it doesn't matter so much what you leave FOR your children.  It's what you leave IN them that matters. There isn't a chance that life will slow down.  Nope.  Not a chance.  But God gives us those moments within our day-day that can make an INternal and eternal difference in our children if we are vigilant enough to recognize them and strong enough to say "no" to the outside world in the middle of those moments.

Hi, my name is Andrea. You might not remember me but I use to live here.

If my blog had arms, we'd be in the middle of a big, warm hug.  It's been a while.  I've missed my little corner of the internet.  We've been really busy in Kricketville.  Most of the craziness stems from my new job here...

and to be more specific, here...

 more on that some other day.  It's really exciting but so are my Krickets and we have some catchin' up to do!   I haven't taken many pictures since August but here is the first installment of Operation Catch-Up.

Caleb turns 8!  Daddy made him smiley face chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and a new wii game was waiting for some action.

Macy got her first hair cut.  Here she is with hair extraordinaire, Jessica Howard Cureton.

 

 Here is the finished product.

I geeked it up with the LHS alumni band.  

Ryan turned 11.  Yes.  I said 11.  I surprised him by picking up a couple of  

his friends for some play time.

Halloween was in there somewhere.  We enjoyed trick-or-treating with the Scott family again.  They are so sweet to invite us to their real neighborhood with lots of houses with lots of candy!

So that wraps it up for now.  Happy memories but boy is time flying!!!

Macy's First Day of School...ever! 3-K here we come!

Macy has been waiting her whole little life for this!  PRESCHOOL!  Her first sentence was probably, "Me go, too, Mommy?" as we dropped Avery off.  Well, today was the day that "me" could go, too!  She had a blast...

Playing Play-doh with a friend.  This little guy has a brother that was in Ave's class last year.  

Using a glue stick!  Whoa...mom usually says no to this one at home.  Macy's thinking about what all she could stick together with this thing!  Watch out friends!

I can tell we might have to straighten out some inaccurate story lines this year with Mrs. Dunlap and Mrs. Boyd.  Macy was going on and on about something that scared her at home.  Not sure what the whole story was there.  All I heard was Mrs. Dunlap saying, "Oh no, Macy....REALLY?"  Yikes. 

It was a good day for my lovely little lady.  Tomorrow is the first day without mama and I'm going to miss her so much!  She might hear me asking, "Me go, too, Macy?"

Out The Door!

There is nothing like the excitement level on the morning of the first day of school!  All three of my little guys are at the same school this year which totally EXCITES me!  It won't ever happen again and the mini-van will know it.   Ryan and Caleb love school and bond over school events.  They talk and talk about things they get to do, friends they make, who had what for lunch, and who was on their ball team at recess.  I'm so excited about Avery having that opportunity as well. 

We have wonderful teachers this year.  Avery has Ryan's teacher ffom 5-K.  Caleb has Ryan's teacher from 3rd grade.  Ryan has his teacher from last year who looped with their class.  We love these ladies so much and feel blessed that they are influencing our children.  

Ryan's First Days of School

 2-K

 3-K

4-K

 5-K

 1st Grade

 2nd Grade

 3rd Grade

 4th Grade

5th Grade

*Yes we have the same shirt on for the 4th and 5th grade pics.  Funny story...Caleb and Ryan came down for breakfast yesterday morning with the same shirt on.  Ryan quickly went back upstairs to change.  I guess my days of matching outfits are over!

Caleb's First Days of School

 3-K

 

4-K

 

5-K

 

1st Grade

 

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

Avery's First Days of School

 3-K

 4-K

5-K 

Summer Fun... Chapter 1

So I haven't blogged all summer.  It's been crazy.  It's been fun.  And sometimes it was crazy fun.  I'm just going to do a few quick posts about our summer.  The pictures say enough in most cases. 

VBS 2011

My favorite VBS pic from the week.

We had a great Clemson Reunion with our wonderful friends.

We had a few fun nights with the Dailey and Foster families.  I will never forget the CRAZY dance contest by the lake.

Lego MANIA all summer long.  I love it!

Kevin snuck this pic of me early one Saturday morning.  How dare him...but it does show me in one of my favorite places.  We grew flowers this summer.  Lots and lots of flowers.  Everyone pitched in and it was fun!

End of the year Awards

I honestly don't know what happened to all of my end of the year pictures. I took lots the last day of school and I can't find them. Hmmmm. We did have a few proud moments at the end of school. Both boys got awards for First in Math and Ryan has been chose for the new team. These boys love school and I am so glad!