So thankful for our kids and the love they share....

I could look at these photos all day.

They exemplify a very special bond between a brother and a sister. I pray for them that they remain best friends and love each other every day....
It makes me smile because Kaylee "requested" these pictures! I count my blessings daily that I have such a compassionate, caring and loving little girl. She truly loves and know what it means to love! It makes my heart smile!
Of course I pray that the three of them stay close and love each other always! Camden and Kinston are just as close! Its exciting to see Kinston growing and finally realizing that these guys are fun to play with...sometimes Joey and I just watch them run the hallways, laughing and playing.
God is so good, we are so blessed and so thankful!

Meet Rapunzel...

Rapunzel Maddison Reams

Yeah, thats exactly what Kalee named her! Ha! =) She joined the family on Saturday night. Kaylee has done such a GREAT job being a student we thought she deserved a really special prize!

Kaylee really thinks its neat to have a new pet! She has her hermit crab too which she really loves!

Mommy's Best Friends

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
"Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.


Let me take a minute and introduce you to my best friends! On the bottom from left to right, of course Im the first one, then Liz, Christy and Rebecca and on the top left to right is Jen, Brittney, Ginny, Kat and Sarah.

As I begin to write, I feel my eyes well with tears and my heart becomes a little overwhelmed when I think about each and every one of these girls. They are my lifeline, they are my listeners, they are my encouragers and best of all, they are my sisters in Christ.

About a year ago, we decided that we should join a bible fellowship class at our church. After attending for about 7 years we decided we had better delve in and find our home. Never in a million years would I have thought that in a year I would have 8 best friends that I could never imagine my future without. God has given me these girls, each and everyone unique and so important in their own ways. When I need a laugh, there is always one to make that happen. When I need encouragement, there is always one to encourage. When I need to pray, there is always someone there to pray. When I need a verse, there is always someone there to share. When I need to cry, they'd cry with me too. When I need a push, they're right behind me. In fiftenn years, theyre the ones I imagine right beside me when my babies are graduating highschool. In twenty five years, theyre the ones I imagine right beside me as my babies begin to get married. In fourty, theyre the ones I imagine myself becomming a grandma with. In fifty years, they're the ones I imagine I'll be going through sad times with and growing old with. I pray that wherever God leads us in our lives that He always leads us together and that our heartstrings are always tied closely.

With thanksgiving coming up, I could not help but think about how important it is to tell you about my best friends. Because to God be the glory for each and everyone of them! I love them just as if they're my sisters, they are the sisters I never had. Growing up I always wished I would have one sister, waiting certainly pays off because now I have 8.

We are the family that we have chosen for ourselves. Together, we strive to be godly women with a godly purpose, through Him We are victorious, together we are victorious!

Life as a revolving door - a personal blog from Mommy

Over the past five years, I think about how many people have walked in and out of my life....just like a revolving door.

revolving door: "Used to refer to a situation in which the same events or problems recur in a continuous cycle."

I could fill a page with a list, I can't really say that its my favorite thing to think about - however when I looked at life's past experience that have been handed to me, I have learned a tremendous amount about being a:

1. daughter
2. a sister
3. a wife
4. a mother
5. an aunt
6. a sister in law
7. a daughter in law
8. a cousin
9. a neice
10. a grandaughter
11. a friend
12. and most importantly a Christian.

Its hard to believe that every single one of these relationships have been effected...some in more than one way. Some in a postive way and some in a way that if I used negatively it wouldn't even begin to accurately describe it.

From these experiences I have learned that Jesus Christ is my Rock, the only one in the entire universe that will constantly remain consistent and offer an exuberant love for me and everything about my life.

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.The cords of death encompassed me,And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me;The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple,And my cry for help before Him came into His ears." Psalm 18:2-6

I have to admit that this encourages me to daily strive to be more like Him. What an amazing "reputation" He has.

In the pain, the hurt and the trials of life - I praise the maker of the universe, because these times in my life is where I'm forced to trust Him, He knows that and I know that this is His purpose. He is the ONLY one who knows the true desires of hearts, sees where repair, restoration and revitalization can take place.

I'll continue to wait on Him. Knowing that each night I lay my head on the pillow, I'm at peace and in complete understanding and obedience to my Savior....because everything in life has one purpose, to bring God the greatest glory and I do not want to miss any opportunity to give God the greatest glory, what he deserves and requires of us as His children.

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. " Isaiah 40:31

A day to enjoy playing pretend and collecting candy!

When I was a kid, I have no memory of going door to door trick or treating or dressing up as anything other than maybe a bible character or a lamb for a fall festival at church. I have to say that its a pretty good memory to have an absence of events in my life. Joey, on the other hand dressed up every year and went door to door....so, when you have two different traditions and you have children what do you do?

Come to an agreement as to what is best for OUR kids, not what was best for us as kids!

Last night, we dressed the kids up and headed to the fall festival. I am happy that Joey and I agree to protect our children from "ugly and scary" things of the world. We want our children to always understand that halloween is NOT a day that we "celebrate" but I day that we take advantage of dressing up, playing pretend and getting treats and prizes! Its a fun day with absolutely no meaning for our family!

I'm constantly reminded of the verse, Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. " Its perfect when trying to "figure out" what is best for your children, God gave us an instruction book - its really not that difficult!

Hope you all had a fun evening, despite the rain =)

Cam goes to the dentist!

Camden went to the dentist for the first time, Tuesday! He did fantastic! =) He even did x-rays! What a big boy he's growing up to be!

Recovering perfectly!

Kinston is sleeping the day away and recovering just great! Thank you so much for praying! He loves all of you so much, as do we! :)

He holds our hand and guides each step....

"For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your

right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. "

Isaiah 41:13

Letting go and trusting God is hard to do, especially hard when you're a Mommy and you've blamed yourself for an accident. An accident that you knew that you could have prevented if you would have been just a little more careful. The bottom line is that God knew, God planned and God will take care of our every need. He will hold our hand through the trial and the glory will be His!

Understanding that Jesus Christ guides EVERY single step is difficult, even more difficult when it means leading my sweet little baby boy right into pain and heartache. But I've learned a huge lesson over the past few days, I've been praying hard and open to the word of God and what he is teaching. I blamed myself and felt very guilty leading up to the surgery this morning, kinston having to undergo surgery because Mommy broke something and didn't get it cleaned up all of the way. But, God tells us “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 And because we understand that ALL things have a purpose - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 - I have conceeded to the fact that it wasn't my fault, but Jesus Christ purposed this very event into our lives to bring glory to Him, because we have been called according to his purpose! So, he holds my hand and says do not fear....and be still!

A friend of mine said this week. "I am blessed to have a friend that is so connected to our heavenly father that He chose her to go through something so that it may bring glory to His name!" Wow! That spoke volumes to me.....Sometimes we may not understand why "bad" things happen to us in our lives, but walking away from this situation with this HUGE new perspective, I actually have to say that I'm thankful. Thankful that God teaches in the way that He does!

_________________________________________________________________

So, on to the details about the little guy! Wednesday we visted the pediatrician after Kinston had stepped on a piece of glass. They couldn't see it, but sent us for x-rays anyway. The x-ray showed clearly a piece of glass in his foot, the shape of a triangle about a 1/4-1/2 in in radius. (VERY big, the Dr. showed us after it had been removed). Thursday, 8am we visted Dr. Kim at West End Ortho - he immediately said he'd have to perform surgery to remove the glass. Friday, 5:45am we arrived at Chippenham hospital. Everything about the entire situatioin has been a blessing. First of all, Mom's good friend Faye "just so happens to work" in the hospital and talked to everyone about Kinston and made sure they all took good care of him. Second, our friend Jason "just to happens to work" at the hospital (His family brought us dinner the night before! So sweet) came to see Kinston and he ran to him and loved on him, wanting to leave the room with him (he doesn't work in surgery, just so happened to be coming in at the same time we were there) Thirdly, one of my very best friends works at the hospital too. She "just so happened" to be getting off of work at 7:30 - the exact time Kinston's surgery was to began. She came to see us and stayed the entire time of the surgery.....Now tell me it wasn't orchestrated by our heavenly father? We do not believe in this "just so happens" theory...we believe that all the glory is due to the almighty God who took complete care of us at every single moment.

Kinston did wonderful during the surgery, it was only 8 minutes long! Believe that? On the way back to the room he managed to pull out his IV so that was a little mess, but the wonderful nurses got that all taken care of. He settled down and all of his vitals were perfect and we were released! Through much anxiety and many tears, we had made it!!!!!!

I cannot begin to imagine the people that were praying for this baby and the rest of the family. I got so many phone calls, so many texts, so many messages on facebook.....the love is endless. I am amazed and in awe....thankful for each and every step guided by our heavenly father as he holds our hand....

Its the boys turn to grow up...

Seem like it has been so long since Kaylee has grown into a "big girl".....things like sleeping in a crib and potty training seem so far in the past that they're almost a blur. Its amazing to look back and think about all about all of the exciting changes that Kaylee has soared through and is now just on the path of growing up!

Now, its the boys turn for all of the big milestones! I was unsure and was never really pressing Camden to potty train because I knew that when he was ready it would happen, I was being smart and listening to all of the advice from my friends that were Moms of boys! Well, we hit that landmark last week and it continued into this week. Camden wasn't doing that well telling us last week, we had to ask him and then he would go ahead and go potty. This week, entire different story! He is telling us as well as taking himself to the potty! Last night he even woke up to tell us that he had to potty! We are diaper free....3 1/2 years of diapers was long enough for him! Also, as most of you know that are reading this....Camden has liked thomas the train "just a little" for about 2 years....well, big changes are coming where his favorite toys are concerned! Just since this whole potty training excitement has been taking place, he has really started liking transformers! He loves watching the 1980 version of the show as well as playing with the toys! Last night, Joey took Kaylee and Camden to chick fila for dinner and he saw a yellow car and started shouting that it was bumblebee because it was a yellow car! haha!

As for Kinston, yesterday we said Goodbye to the crib! It was bittersweet. We've had that crib in our home for the better part of the last six years. Each time, moving someone out of it to move in someone new. Not this time, the crib was disassembled and sent to the attic! We are searching for something really crafty to do with it! We'll keep you posted on the project we decide for the crib! =) Kinston loves the toddler bed, he went to sleep around 8:30pm last night and slept a good 12 hours in his bed! He plays in his room a lot during the day and its very cute to walk by and see him sitting on his bed playing trucks or watching the tv! He is very happy to be out of the crib!

Praying about potty training?

You bet!

God tell us to bring everything to Him in prayer, right? (Phil 4:6) So...I'm surely doing it!

This week has been full of wonderful accomplishmesnts for Camden! As most Moms with boys know that potty trainging a boy can be difficult! I am here to testify that as truth. Throughout the past months we have tried different methods to encourage him to potty, learning the phrase "potty goes straight down" - it was the consistent theme while trying to help him learn this new concept!

Well, this is the way the story goes...Monday, Camden ran into our room and said "Mommy, I poop" So...like every other day I prepared to change a diaper (a yucky big kid one for that matter) and noticed there was notihng there...so, I said Camden do you have to go potty? He replied with a very excited YES! So....on to the potty we went! And as the story ends with a success story....Camden was right!!!! He did have to go to the potty just like a big boy!

Today makes day 3 and we are so happy about it....understanding completely what "when he's ready it'll click and he'll potty on his own" is all about!

And yes, we are praying for Camden as he learns a new step about growing up! Praising God that we've finally hit a GREAT milestone! Saying goodby to diapers!!!!

Yay Camden!

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart"

Yes, you could definetly say that is exactly how I felt yesterday as we were driving down the road and I heard these words coming out of my sweet little boy's mouth yesterday! As my eyes welled up with tears, I smiled and nudged Joey to listen...sure enough, it was Camden and he was singing right along with the cd we were listening to! Coming from a Mom and Dad who longed for him to speak and be able to talk to us, he has made incredibly GREAT strides with words! But to hear him sing a song makes my heart explode, I'm so incredibly thankful that God has answered our prayers and helped Camden be able to express himself through words and song!

Daniel 6:22

This week our Bible story is Daniel and the Lions Den! We started this morning like we always do, learning our bible verse for the week. Instead of Mommy having to read it to her, Kaylee read "most" of it to me! I was so proud of her! She is doing wonderful with reading, it warms my heart when I hear her sounding out letters instead of just assuming that she doesn't know them!!!!

Her verse for the week is:

“My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions.
They have not hurt me” Daniel 6:22

There are so many of her word wall words in the verse that she was able to recognize those right away and only needed help on a few words! I cannot wait for the moment when she reads an entire book to me!

Kaylee the big kindergartener

Kaylee was reluctant but agreed to do some Kindergarten photos in MOMMY's dress from when she was a little girl =)

I promised her a prize and removed the enourmous white eyelet collar off!! Ha...

Our first week in homeschool

On the other side of the first week of homeschool I can sit back in my chair, take a deep breath and relax! I had just about as much anxiety about the first day of school as if I was to actually send her into a classroom setting! We made it! And boy did we ever have so much fun. The intimate time with Kaylee is irreplaceable. I have probably never been so thankful for an opportunity other than this one, the chance to be the sole influence on my child in her education (with some help from Daddy of course - he stands in when I need a potty break! haha). I found my self praising God and thanking Him many times during the week, I just feel so incredibly fortunate and blessed to be able to homeschool Kaylee.

I've had many people ask questions about homeschooling and I'm okay with that! I expect for friends and family members to be curious about my "method of education".

*First question is how do you homeschool? What does your daily schedule look like?

First and foremost, our classroom is set up very much like a "real" school. She has a desk, I have mine. We have chalkboards, dry eraseboards, bookshelves, art supplies and most importantly text books and workbooks! I even have lesson plans....we are very organized and keep a consitant schedule!

Most mornings, we begin school at 9:00. We have our morning time in our daily center. We're learning the calendar (the date, the months and days of the week) as well as the weather! We have a few songs during this time as well as Kaylee's favorite part - gettting to use the "pointer"

Next we have with Bible. During Bible we do many activites. Each week we have a bible verse, this week we actually have 2! Kaylee has a Bible journal and write her verse each week and draws a picture about the verse. Each day Kaylee is doing activities and art projects centered around the verse and theme that I've chosen from the Bible.

Transitioning into phonics/reading, I've planned each letter to be related to the bible. Along with common words that relate to the letter of the week. For 26 weeks we will focus on 1 letter a week. For example, the first week was A for Ark, we studied Noahs ark. B is for Bible, C is for creation, D is for Daniel, etc. We're focusing on sounds and words for the letter each week. There are very fun songs to learn sounds that Kaylee loves, we do those often! We have a set of 25 books that Kaylee is working on each week. They are first reader books that are simple and fun for Kaylee. The first day of kindergarten, she read the first one to me without any help!

Next, we head into math. We save Math for last because it is Kaylee's favorite subject. She is great at Math and is soaring through the workbooks perfectly. We are using manipulitives and games to learn about numbers and shapes.

At the end of the day we focus on our word wall. Kaylee loves learning word wall words! She started Kindergarten knowing 12 words out of around 30. I tested her this morning and she had already increased that number to 19. She is working on reading the words, using them in sentances as well as recognizing them all day in instructions, bible verses and stories.

Typically our day last about 2 1/2 hours and we're doing school 5 days a week! The best part about it is no homework! We do all of our school work together and have time to be a kid the rest of the day! However, all day is learning for us. Each opportunity that arises I take complete advantage to relating it to school. The advantage of being her teacher is always knowing where she is and what she is working on, I know what she needs to focus on and what she does best. So, weather we are outside and relating something to the weather or at the store buying items that are green, red and orange or an lemon that is a circle. Kaylee is a great learner and loves to learn all of the time, there have already been days when she is sad that school is already over!

We also make trips to the library and take field trips along with playdates with friends to the park!

*Another question: What do you do with your other kids?

Well, anyone who knows me or knows my kids know that they are very independany and self sufficient. They are great at keeping themselves busy, entertaining themselves and playing with their toys. Considering that we do not have a very long day, the other children do not have to do "without me" for very long. I also make it possible for Camden to interact with us if he wants to. I have purchased workbooks for him as well as offer him coloring time if he shows interest. Of course, he is only three so its not time for him to be in school - so, its only if he wants to. Which he has showed interest and last week he colored with us and did a few workbook pages! Kinston still takes a nap and spend a lot of time in his room playing!

*The famous question: What about solicialization?

I am holding fast to the verse "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 This is a promise from my Father. So, having my children at home training them in the way they should go is what I've been commanded to do.

Socialization was one of the very reasons why we decided to homeschool our children. We are very aware of the times that we are living in and the secular world is nowhere close to what we want our children influenced by. This is no direct reflection on the school system, because I am a firm believer that there are wonderful christian people who are great influences on the children. Our concern lies with the peers that our children would be surrounded by in the school systems, those from different upbringings and those who have different morals and values. Although, in this day in society we do have concerns with some curriculum that is forced to be learned.

Our desire is to raise our children in the light of the Lord and when we feel the appropriate time has come to place our children in the classroom setting in private school or public school we will do that. We know that we have three very different children and they all may be very different scenarios. We are willing to evaluate each child individually and take each step according to their needs, seeking the Lords direction and following His lead.

We feel very blessed to be a part of Colonial Heights Baptist Church, a place where our "socialization problem" is solved! The kids have so many friends and different activities and opportunities that they'll never feel "different" from the other kids! We thank God for such a large church and thank God for the wonderful christian people who are investing their lives for our children daily! We are reaping the blessings from what they sew!

Its been a couponing frenzy

Next thing, couponing....

All of my friends always ask me, "Jennifer what in the world are you going to do next" - I just have to laugh because I love to dabble my hands in anything I can teach myself. So...its been mary kay, its been bracelets, its been bows, tutus and everything cute, its been wreaths and decorating and babysitting kids....and wow, the list goes on! So...here we are learning the "art of couponing" - aka saving major bucks!!!

I've started clipping, organizing and using coupons! I'm excited and ready to go above and beyond the stuffing them in the side of my purse and using them by chance if I see something that I happen to have a coupon for! I'm going to shop for what I've got coupons for...save and stockpile! haha....Definetly have no intentions of becomming an addict like the extreme couponers. Just a few papers a week for me will do!

Kaylee and Camden are thrilled by it too. They have helped clip coupons with Momma and Kaylee likes to take care of the binder when we're in the store! Pretty funny, but hey....teaching kids to save money is never a bad thing!

Camden's 3rd Birthday

We spent the entire day before Cam's birthday at Busch Gardens! He really loved Elmo so we thought what better place to take him to see Elmo for real ;) However....He isn't fond of the "characters" so he wouldn't come anywhere close to them! Haha...Kaylee loved the characters! We rode rides, ate yummy food and played fun games! Most importantly we spent the whole day with family! Camden really loves his family =)

Sunday, the actual day of his birthday we went to church in the morning and then the airport for lunch. Camden loves the airport a whole lot! When we pulled into the parking lot he said "The Airport, yay!!!" After lunch, we went to Gee and Papa's house were his cake and presents were! Then, he got to stay all afternoon and evening playing with Sterling! He loved that!

Camden has had an incredible year. We cannot wait and see what is in store for him until his 4th. We noticed that Camden seemed to be behind in his speach around last fall, so we started getting him evaluated. At this point he could not make more than a two word sentance, tell us needs or wants and wasn't very frustrated when he couldn't communicate with us. Evaluation continued for a couple of months. During this time, he was going to a friend's house for daycare, soley for interaction. There, the teacher said that she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and that he was just a little behind, whereas the school system was trying to diagnose him with multiple things. I was always willing to accept a disabled child, if I had one, but so many others were telling me that they didn't feel like he had a learning disability. During this time, we did a lot of praying and searching and decided that we were going to homeschool our children, basically the evaluating ended there. We have worked with Camden, things as simple as every day language...he knows his numbers, can say them and recognize them. He knows a lot of colors as well as the alphabet. He has learned songs and can finally carry on a conversation with us. We are persistant about getting him to tell us his needs and wants. Its been a huge learning process for us all but I see God's hand in the entire situation - he puts us exactly where we need to be and teaches us exactly what we need to learn at the perfect time. We are blessed with women at the church who love him unconditionally and are patient with him, we know that God is in control of our little boy and we'll learn right along with him and take as much time as he needs!

As far as fun and play time, Camden absolutely still LOVES his trains. He loves cars 2, also and cannot wait for the new movie to come out! He loves Elmos and Toy Story as well. He will play outside ALL day and loves the sandbox! He loves to play with Kaylee and they communicate and play so well. Kaylee is a perfect big sister, she loves him and takes care of him. Its adorable!

Camden is certainly a light of our lives, we strive hard to avoid that "middle kid" stuff. We love all of our kiddos exactly the same...

On Camden's birthday busch gardens day, Kaylee rode her very first roller coaster!!!! She loved it, shes a little dare devil just like her Daddy!!

Kinston took his first couple of steps with....

Anna!!!!! Too funny! Joey and I took the kids to a squirrels game and Anna and the kids came over to play with Kinston while we were gone. I get this text "Please dont be too upset, Kinston just took three steps" =) I was so incredibly excited, not upset! We have been working with him for weeks trying to teach him how to walk and I guess he just wanted to walk for Anna! =) He took those steps on May 12th and has been doing lots and lots more walking since. Still crawling a lot, he realizes it gets him where he wants to go faster! hehe...

The Garden

Above is a picture of the garden, two weeks after it was planted!

Well, a couple of Saturdays ago....Anna and I stood in the driveway saying we'd love to have a garden! Gardening would be so much fun and we'd love to have lots of veggies, about 2 minutes later they husbands are on the phones calling around about renting a tiller. Within 2 hours.....the backyard, a 20x16 ft section to be exact, was being tilled! Eric, was the man behind the tiller. Praise God for him...that was some hard work!

Not once, not twice but three times over he tilled the area up for the garden! The kids loved helping, they weeded and did their share of digging the garden! Brittany and Tyler joined us in the afternoon, we enjoyed a great time of friends and fellowship and as always, good food! Then later that evening, the boys went to return the tiller! The girls had a great time again, of fellowship.....meanwhile the boys decided to buy all of the plants and seeds we needed for the garden and surprised us with all of them when they came back! So....the next day, Mother's Day, we all planted everything! It is a Mother's Day I'll remember forever.

So, as friends and family for the past two weeks we've been watering and caring for this garden. Giving it a lot of attention..we've even prayed for it! <3 We're excited to see what God does with our garden, we of course pray that its plentiful and helps save as much as our coupons at the grocery!

6.5 lbs

And this is the secret recipe to weight loss!!!

http://www.idiet4u.com/diets/sacredheart.html

Thanks to the sacred heart diet, these are my results. 6.5 total lbs in one week.

However, the true weight loss stands at 4.5 after stopping the diet and eating normal for the weekend.

I'm happy 4.5, thats alot more weight that the "normal" diet can produce in 1 week. It was tough, but this week I find myself less hungry and not craving anything bad.

Today, I'm picking back up on the weight watchers diet as well as the treadmill to try and acheive more weight loss. I started with about 30 lbs in mind to lose. So, I'm going to continue until I reach my goal. Changing diets and weight loss methods so I dont get bored!

Kinston's 1st Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday to Kinston! What an exciting couple of days we've had! Kinston's birthday started last Friday when Gee, Papa, Uncle Jeremy, Stina, Sterling, Mommy, Daddy, Sissy and Bubba took Kinston to the beach! We stayed in a house on the beach for the night! We had pizza and celebrated with cake and presents! Then on Saturday we spent the entire day at the aquarium! Mommy figured that it was a perfect place to bring Kinston because of all of the things he could enjoy to look at! The big kids all thought it was great! We even saw an Imax movie! The day was full of fun and family! Then, on Kinston's real birthday Mommy, Daddy, Sissy and Bubba and Kinston went to build a bear workshop, that was so fun! We all three picked out a bear and and made them, washed them and dressed them! On the night of Kinston's birthday Gee, Papa, Uncle Jeremy and Stina came over and we had hotdogs! Kinston had his very first hotdog on his birthday! ha! Sissy and Daddy had made Kinston cupcakes and Kinston's cake that morning! Kinston loved to make a mess and eat cake! What a perfect couple of days for Kinston's first birthday! Lots of memories were made! Thank you to everyone who made Kinstons birthday so special!

One of the days we've feared most....wasn't scary at all!

Today came and went just as any other normal day. A day that, as parents, we were a little frightened by....Kindergarten Registration day, April 7th.

When you can't sleep at night, when you can't stop thinking about something....you can't help but seek God and ask "whats your will, Lord" ~ When the peace overcomes your body, when things fall into place....you can't help but seek God and tell Him "Thank you Jesus for showing me your exact will for our lives"

"Train up a child in the way that he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

After much, much prayer and consideration, Joey and I have decided that we are going to keep Kaylee in the home for her education. Joey and I have always given all that we have to our children, sacrificed and made sure that they are our absolute first priority! God blessed us with three beautiful children, but we can't just look at it as a blessing - we have to look at it as God gave us three full time jobs! We are soley responsible for these three little human beings who are absolutely depend! We absolutely do not take this responsibility for granted. We understand that we are purposed in this life to lead, guide, direct and protect our children. We are not choosing to expose our children to what todays society has to offer! We are just not ready to hand our big girl over to the world, we want to do our best to lead her in learning to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We want her to learn to be a christian girl, shes already asked Jesus to come into oher heart - this past year. She is very interested in her Bible, loves daily devotions and talks about Jesus all of the time. I ask that you would pray for Joey and I, we know that at times it may get difficulty and adversity is out there - but we just pray that Jesus Christ would continue to be our guide us and we would be completely in his will through all of this. We know that Satan will try to attack, but just as Kaylee and Camden so often remind us in their precious song....

"My God is so big, so stron and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do"

Joey and I are so incredibly excited as this opportunity unfolds, we're constantly meeting people and learning about their experience with home schooling! We can't wait to learn together as a family! There is a huge Home School Convention in June that we'll be attending, we've heard that it offers an abundance of information and is so beneficial. Of course, right now we're looking to anyone that can give us advice and we're thankful for excellent Christian leadership at our church that can provide such great information and encouragement!

Promising that they'll be much more blogging where this came from! Sorry its been so, so long!

This is Kaylee's new desk! How fun is it? Joey went to donate at the Rock Thrift store one day and came home with it! So excited, it was priced $35 and they gave it to him for $25. Kaylee thinks its great! She'll be doing a lot of learning here! =)