Sunday Snapshot - Happy Birthday Lizzie

My baby girl is 5 years old!!  I knew it was coming.  I mean we have been counting down the days until Lizzie is once again as old as her "big" sister but it came SO fast! 

Lizzie now has her very first loose tooth, has graduated from her self contained classroom to real Kindergarden next year AND is 5 years old!  Wow!  Things are happeninig, y'all and I am not sure that I am ready.  This is my baby girl, after all and while we try not to baby her and we try to make sure that she is "out there" and trying and doing and reaching her incredible potential, there is a place in my heart that just wants to scoop her up and hold her close and protect her from the world and there she goes growing up and all!

We started this day, her day with an unexpected meltdown.  She had been SO excited about this day and it really blindsided me a bit.  It was just one of those times that something triggered within my sweet girl and I lost her for a little while that morning.  She had to work hard to pull herself back from that place but she did and the celebration of the day, her day, got back on track. 

I don't know if it was her "one on one" with God (she will tell me to be quiet while she talks to God  - gotta love it) or the threat of loosing Ch*ck E Ch**se (a friend was having her bday party there that night) that pulled her back but I know which one I thanked!!

But after our rough start, all was forgotten and our little Lizzie was in full "Lizzie" form.  She took cookies to school to share with her class, got to go to her friend's party and the very next morning...

opened her gifts.

Lizzie has been talking a lot about her gifts - a lot and she was SO excited about each and every one of them

especially the one that was as big as she is!

Thanks Marney!

but do you know what her fav gift was, the gift that she has been asking for each and every day, the one gift that I knew, had it been forgotten...

I - would - be - living - hard!!!

That's right - bubble gum!!!

This girl LOVES her some bubble gum!!  LOL!

I am not complaining - except when I am picking gum off the carpet or out of hair!  Ugh!

We went to mom's to have her party, where we had cake

and swimming

and slip and slides

and one beautiful 5 year old birthday girl

who, while not growing much in stature

(her new bathing suit is a size 2T, sigh!)

has grown tremendously in every - other - way!

We love you precious little Lizzie!  Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

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Chchchchanges...

Our little Lizzie is growing up! 

Our little Lizzie has her first

LOOSE TOOTH!!!!

Honestly, y'all, I seriously just about burst into tears when we discovered this rebellious tooth! 

I mean she is too young to have a loose tooth and not just any ole tooth but one of her front teeth!  She is my baby.  I am NOT ready and...

neither is BIG sister Emmeline - the emphasis on "BIG."

Ya see, BIG sister, Emmeline hasn't had a loose tooth yet, nope, nary a one and in her 5 year old mind, this is just disrupting the natural order of things.

Em is the older sister (by 2 months) so she should have the first loose tooth, not her baby sister (by 2 months)! 

Nope, to my big girl, this just messes up the natural order of things, cause she is OLDER (by 2 months), by golly!

We - have - been - living - hard and...

eating lots of apples and corn!  Hehe!

As determined as my big girl is, I would not at all be surprised that the tooth fairely might get a 2fer!  Heh!

The other change around here is this

Yep, he did it again! 

He cut off all his hair!  Do you know how I would LOVE to have his thick, gorgeous hair and he just shaves it all off!  UGH!

I think he does it to torture me - or maybe because it is cooler in the summer??

Nah, defintitely to torture me!  Hehe!!

Oh well, he is so very handsome, with or without hair and it has already started to grow back!

SO not fair! 

Girls Rule

When it comes to soccer, my girls just don't mess around

I am telling ya, these girls just

take - no - prisoners!  Hehe!

It helps to have 3 big brothers who

on a weekly basis...

get 'er done!

The girls have their end of the season soccer party tomorrow and while I am glad for a little break, I would much rather see this...

than this...

I am SO not ready for that!!!  Hehe!!!

Summer is Almost Here and...

so are the creatures, the creepy, crawly, slithery creatures that only come out when the weather is warm enough to want to be outside...

So, why, why, why do they seem to want to be inside??!!

This is what I found when I opened the mudroom door the other day...

Yep, I screamed!  I screamed for Charlie who happened to be the eldest boy child with me at the time and BTW, an expert creepy, slimy creature getter outer boy child!  Have I told you how much I love having sons??  Hehe!

I wish I had thought to snap a pic of the thing when it was laying at the bottom of the mudroom stairs (IN MY HOUSE), but all I could think of was that I wanted it OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!

It was BIG, y'all!!

Really BIG

and slimy and just plain yucky!!!

I know they eat bugs and that is a good thing, a necessary thing round here, but Lord, couldn't you have made them just a bit cuter, cuddlier and just less gross????

You know, I can handle the cute little mouse that decided, for some insane reason, that he wanted to live in this house, this house with 5 kids, 4 dogs and one crazy cat!

I can handle (kind of) the coyote that showed up in our front yard.

I can even handle the gators. I grew up around gators. I looked at the laundry room window one day and saw a gator meandering across the street and thought, "Cool, I should go take pictures!"

But this thing, this thing that looks like it belongs in the Jurassic period, I cannot handle!!!!

Thank goodness I have my mighty creepy, crawly, slithery creature getter outers!

Thank goodness for BOYS!!!  Hehe!

Sunday Snapshot - Another Plea for Help

Last week, I posted about wonderful Peter who at the beginning of the month - aged out, Sunday Snaphot - Peter .  I was asking for donations toward a birthday gift for him.  There is now, no way to give him what he truly needs, a family, but at least we could send him a little something that helped him to know that there are families who do care and are thinking about him and praying for him. 

He wanted a Nintendo Game system and we were able to raise enough to buy him one along with 2 games!  Praise God!  A family who will be traveling over this week, will give it to him and I pray that he will understand the feeling behind it and I hope that it will somehow give him some comfort.

I wasn't going to post this next plea for help so soon after the plea for wonderful Peter.  Instead, I was going to post something about our home school trip to the Fireman's Museum and as great as it was, I just cannot bring myself to post about something like that, this Sunday. 

If you have been keeping up with sweet Stefanie's blog, Ni Hao Y'all, you have rejoiced in her wonderful news that not only were they bringing their sweet Poppy home, but the Lord had also led them to their beautiful Esther.

Sadly, beautiful Esther passed away this week.  While this precious child will never feel Stefanie's loving arms around her, she is most definitely wrapped in our Father's loving arms now and I know that will give Stefanie and her family great comfort.

So this week, I want to post about 2 beautiful children who need help, who need sponsors, who need some loving arms wrapped around them.  This is the email I received about these precious children:

Last summer my oldest daughter and I traveled to China with a mission group called Bring Me Hope, which runs summer camps for the orphans. That is where we met Ronny and Blossom.

They are currently living in a poor rural orphanage. They receive no medical care for their conditions and no schooling either. They get around on little toy push cars instead of a wheelchair. BMH staff have followed up and visited with the orphanage and reported back that it is a pretty sad place and Ronny and Blossom are the only 2 kids living there that are mentally sound. The rest are severely challenged both mentally and physically, as well as some young children.

They have been accepted by Dr. Moody, and like I said I am trying to raise support. Fund raising is not one of my gifts, but I have been working real hard on it and with the Lord's help we are at 24 sponsors. I am currently sending out another group of support letters in hopes of gathering the last 6 sponsors!
The orphanage is working on their adoption paper work as it had not been completed up to this point, that is very good news!

These precious children have been accepted into Shepherd's Field!!!  This is the wonderful care facility that provides for beautiful Noel, who has been on my advocacy site for SO long and still needs a family, BTW!
 

 
This is such a blessing for Ronny and Blossom!!
 
Here is the sponsor letter that Kim has sent out:
 
Dear Friends and Family,

I am writing to you today on behalf of two very special children that are in need of help. I had the privilege of meeting these children at the Bring Me Hope camp that Emily and I attended in China this past summer. Blossom is a beautiful and intelligent 12 year old girl with Spina Bifida and a left leg amputation. Ronny is sweet and loving 7 year old boy with what appears to be uncorrected clubbed feet. Both children are currently living in a very poor orphanage that can not provide them the necessary medical care they need, nor do they have the opportunity to attend school.

While in China, Emily and I stayed at a Christian orphanage run by an American Mission organization called the Philip Hayden Foundation. This orphanage currently cares for about 95 special needs orphans at their home called Shepherd’s Field Village (SFV). In addition to food, shelter and clothing SFV is able to provide the kids with on site medical care by a full time American doctor as well as an education by a full time Chinese teacher. It is a beautiful compound and we were blessed by the love and care the children receive every day.

We have inquired of the SFV and they have accepted both children to come and live there. In order for the kids to go to SFV, we must raise sponsorship for them to cover their medical care, schooling, and basic daily needs. I am so blessed to announce that I currently have 24 committed sponsors, though we are still in need of 6 more sponsors who would commit to a monthly sponsorship of $35. So I am asking you to prayerfully consider becoming a sponsor to these wonderful children, and dramatically improve the quality of their lives? With your sponsorship you would receive regular updates on Ronny & Blossom and their progress while living at SFV.

All contributions are tax deductible, and can easily be withdrawn automatically if you like, using the enclosed form. You can follow SFV on facebook or learn more about them at http://www.chinaorphans.org/  Feel free to e-mail me with any questions as well at dkgray92@comporium.net

Please consider sponsoring Ronny and Blossom (maybe even in honor of beautiful Esther) and help to transform their lives!!!
You can email me or just email Kim at dkgray92@comporium.net

Thank you!

To Stefanie and her sweet family, my thoughts and prayers are with you all!!!!
 
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Embrace the Creak!

Before we bought the brand new house that we live in now (with 5 kids, 4 dogs and one crazy cat, it ain't so new anymore - sigh), we lived in a 25 year old house that was full of creaks and crackles and groans and just the odd sounds of an old house settling in. 

Well, back then those creaks and crinkles just drove me bananas!!  Back then, I had little children/babies who needed their sleep, whose Momma needed them to sleep!  Hehe

So, I would (like the super genius that I am) shush my feet as soon as they misstepped and found themselves on the dreaded "creaky floor board!"

Times have changed and I no longer have little babies whose Momma needs them to sleep! Sigh!

So, I have come to appreciate the creaks and the crackles and the odd sounds that a house makes, that our house makes.

About a year ago, the same feet that I used to shush, stumbled upon the sweetest little creak upstairs right in front of the girls' room and I was SO excited!  No longer was I shushing my feet!  No, now I was learnig to appreciate the old, the worn in, the well loved!  Sort of like me, except worn out!!!  Hehe!

I know I talk a lot about my beloved front porch but we also have a back porch!  It is a tiny porch and I don't go out there much because I can't stand to look at my weed invested back yard but it is screened in and down here, that is a HUGE!

I happen to go out there the other day and opened the screened door to walk outside - to pull weeds!  Really!!

And low and behold, there it was

the creak of all creaks!  The creak that instantly transforms me back to my childhood and the long summer days spent at my grandparents' house.  I had heard it a thousand times before but this time, this day, it took me right back to my 9 year old self who would happily tromp through those weeds - barefoot

Maybe because my body is a little bit creakier (not creepier - creakier!), I have learned to appreciate our house's growing pains - growing old pains!

Maybe as you get older, you begin to embrace all that is - old??

I don't know! 

I do know however, that I hope our kids will remember the groan of the floor board upstairs and the creak of the screened door on the back porch and one day when they are old (yes kids it really DOES happen), their houses' creaky sounds will instantly transport them back to these days, these crazy days of flashlight tag after dark and roasting marshmellows in the fire pit, of flag football in the back yard and yes, occasionally pulling a weed or two!

Mother's Day 2011

So, wanna know what I did on Mother's Day this year?

The same thing I have done on Mother's Day for the last few years...

That's right!!!!

I spent my entire Mother's Day at the end of the season soccer tournament!

Now, I do LOVE watching my boys (and girls) play some good soccer...

but we had to be at the fields by 7:30 for an 8:00 game - all the way across town - wwaayy across town!

Ahem, we didn't make it at 7:30 but we were there with 5 minutes to spare

Did I mention that hubby is the assistant coach!  Hehe!

Well, for my gift, Charlie's team beat up on another team whose parents think that ringing a cow bell, a big, loud cow bell every time their boys' score somehow teaches them good sportsmanship???  They got to ring that bell once and then our boys put about 4 or 5 in, to win the game!  Clang, clang, clang!!!  Heh!

They came across the field arm in arm saying "Happy Mother's Day!"

Thank you boys!

Caleb decided that a good gift for me would be to win the championship!!!!!! 

Way to go boys!!!

The best presents of all, though, were those the kids made and gave from the heart.

Sweet Lizzie decided that she would give me all the money in her piggy bank, "cause I know you don't got no money, Momma!"   OK, we will work on her grammer AFTER I stop lovin' on her!!!!

Miss Em thought that she would give me one of my old stuffed animals that she had carefully smuggled  brought back from JuJu's house and had been sleeping with.  Sweet child!

And my sweet Caleb wrote a little book at school about me!  I have to say, it was wonderful!  At least this year, I am not 100 years old and 8 feet tall!!!  LOL!

Here are the highlights:

My fav thing to do - walk our dogs - yeah aren't your brothers suppossed to do this??? 

My fav food - salad - yeah buddy, those peanut M&M's are just for decoration, really!!!  Hehe!

My fav tv show - House Hunters - yep, it is just about the only show on tv with no violence, no s-x and no obsenity!!  Sigh!

In my spare time I like to do - yoga - with 5 kids, 4 dogs and one crazy cat, it is a necessity!!!

She gets upset with me when - I yell when she is on the phone - if he knows this then WHY do he and his siblings keep doing it????  Heh!

She loves it when - I get in the bed with her - oh yeah, gotta love Caleb snuggles!

The happiest I ever saw my Mom was - the day I was born - okedokey, no problem with Caleb's self esteem!!!  Hehe!

I love her because - she is the most nicest Mom in the world - Awwwwww!!!! - extra dessert for Caleb tonight!!!! 

I hope my Mom will always - Be beside me!!!!!!  ALWAYS sweet boy!

So what did the older 3 do?  You know, Christian, Charlie and Hubby! 

My favorite flavored water, Almond Joys and a Target Gift card!  They know me so well!!!  Hehe!

Yep, it was a good day, an early day but a good day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the great Moms out there and most especially MY great Mom!