Christmas Eve

In an effort to get my blog caught up, these next few posts will be mostly pictures.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve Service at our Church. 

Mike Routledge-  Amazing Vocals.

After we spent Christmas Eve with my parents.  

The kids were spoiled!!

BB Guns.......

I'll let you know if they shoot their eyes out!

Nadya was Happy with her new coat and Sweater!

Aunt Misty and Uncle Aaron gave the boys Pogo Sticks.  

I can't believe how quickly Alex picked it up!  

He's really good!

Afterwards we came home and Hallie came over.

We opened our Christmas Eve jammies.

Our cute pre-teen girls did their hair in a messy bun so they would 

look acceptable in the morning for pictures. 

It was one of those "Yup, they are growing up" moments.

And we sprinkled Reindeer food outside to ensure that Santa's Reindeer would come quickly. (Thanks Kris!)

(Except the kids really didn't go to bed so well.) It was more like a slumber party downstairs but they kept the downstairs door shut just incase Santa came. (Which he did, but that's another post!)

Palm Sunday

Carter's school performs in the Palm Sunday Service every year.

This year, he was the soldier and a great one too!

He is very dramatic and took his job very seriously.

He did a great job singing too, as always.

They each took turns at the Microphone and Carter's part was in reference

 to Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. 

Everyone got a good laugh out of Carter's line....

Towards the end of the play, the soldier and Jesus acted out their part while

the kids told the story.  Carter was great! 

 Great Job Carter Jay!!!!!!!!

You are such a great actor!!!!!

My First Photography Gig.....

My Church has an amazing website and does a great job of documenting each Sunday.  If for some reason you can't attend you can go to their website, hear the message, stay connected and see pics from the actual service.  So, they have volunteer photographers take pictures each week for their website.  One of their photographers saw some of my pics on facebook and asked if I would be interested in helping out as they perhaps needed an additional person to add to the rotation.  (I am not a photographer, but just love to take pics of my kids and have been learning all I can to get better pics) This is the second time I've taken pics for them, and taking photos there definitely presents some challenges.  Like, you are not allowed to use your flash! (Which, I generally try not to use my camera's flash anyways, but it can be quite dark in certain areas of the church and a flash would come in handy)  Argh!  But, it has forced me to learn more, so that is great!  I  still serve in the coffee bar once a month and really love it, but I will also take pics once a month as well.  Here are a few of my favorites-

You can see them all by clicking here by Monday February 8th.  (New pics are uploaded each week so mine will disappear after this week.)

Worship

Nursery- "The Nest"  

(Doug thinks I need to serve here to get rid of my baby hungriness!)

Twos-

Preschool- "Adventure Canyon"

The Message-

 

 Fellowship

 

And- this did not go on the website- but my favorite part is that I get to take pics of my own kids--- 

Would you just look at how Alex is praying....  

Love that boy!

*horrible lighting- the lights were way down and remember the no flash rule......  But, it does the job of remembering this stage.  
I love how Alex prays with his entire body.

Singing at School

09.20.2009

The boys sang this morning at their school.  Please excuse my bad picture, the lighting was horrible and I didn't want to play around with my camera too much because I wanted to see them sing.  They both did a fantastic job.  They have both adjusted well to their new classes. Carter has made huge progress with his handwriting skills and in such a short amount of time.  He is working on sight words and is currently studying the "AT" family.  He can read basic words such as cat, sat, pat, rat, fat, etc from this family.   He is struggling a little bit with Pre K because they only have a 30 minute rest time.  Which can make for some fun challenging evenings.  We are learning to start bedtime earlier and to absolutely  be home by seven.  No late night errands unless you don't mind a meltdown by a very tired 4 year old.  Alex is loving Kindergarten and is doing well.  He has homework each night which consists of practicing his memory verse, reading atleast 10 minutes and we do some basic number sense concepts together.  He is currently reading grade level 2 books and taking AR tests.  He has earned 100% on every test so far and is very proud of his accomplishments.  He loves to read.  I let him read at night and usually there is a bit of whining when I tell him it is lights out.  ;)  Fun stuff. 

Here they are singing

When we got home,  I realized they were dressed too cutely to let this photo opportunity pass us by.  They were really not that cooperative.......  but I got a few good shots.

Fire Trucks

06.10.2009

We just joined a new small group called Proverbs in the park.
First one we've been able to go to since school let out.
They try and plan an activity for the kids and then the kids play while the adults
do their bible study.

We went to the fire station and toured it.
Of course though, as we finished our tour it started raining so we left and went home.
I think we moved to Seattle, but only no one told us.