happy birthday gracie!

today my sweet girl turns 9. that's almost a decade! the joy and fullness that this young lady has brought to our lives is immeasurable. i am so humbled that God saw fit to bless us with her. She is forever amazing us with her knowledge, making us laugh with her silliness, frustrating us with her stubbornness, and keeping us on top of things. :) i don't know where we would be without little gracie. (who i probably need to stop calling little!) today we praise jesus and celebrate the life of gracie!

a reason to celebrate!

the end of summer vacation for us was marked by all kinds of excitement.  an earthquake, a hurricane and a brand new family member! our sweet niece and cousin mia came into the world born to my brother matt and his dear wife carly. we could not have been more excited! they live deep in the heart of texas, and we weren't sure we were going to be able to make the long trip but the Lord saw fit for us to go! what a blessing!
gracie was a proud cousin and so sweet and gentle with mia. jack wasn't sure what to think. :) we spent precious time together, eating, laughing, getting to know little mia, eating some more, and relaxing together. it was good.  we miss her already!

summer vacation!

a few weeks ago we took a jaunt to the low country... south carolina ya'll! ever since gracie was a wee one my mom and i have tried to make the trip down to visit family.  it had been 3 years since we were last there to spend some quality time with the great-grands and other sweet family members. gracie and jack were so excited to get back to charleston and to aunt debbie's pool! in the south, life moves at a slower pace, the food tastes better and tea is served extra sweet. :)how could a kid not resist that!


highlights of our trip involved staying in charleston with one set of grandparents and meeting all their friends whose faces would light up at the sight of my two kiddos, getting sprayed by water during the 4D planet earth film at the south carolina aquarium, watching jack guzzle down 3 glasses of sweet tea like nobody's business, walking on the beach at isle of palms, butter beans and rice at browns bbq, trying to catch lizards by the pool, eating a big juicy watermelon with my sweet grandpa gordon, watching grace in all her glory riding a horse named jet, catching up with my aunt debbie and savoring all her hospitality.it was a blessing to spend time with those we love but don't get to see very often. memories were made and gracie and jack are ready to become low country bumpkins.

catch up!

they say a picture is worth a thousand words. here is what we have been up to since i last posted...

gracie and i spent an evening out with friends at a secret keeper girl event!

jack fell out of bed and got a black eye. poor kid.

we were slap happy and made a kabillion mustaches on a stick to sell at the salisbury festival!

we finished our geography homeschool co-op class with a 'food from many nations' party! we studied japan and made candy sushi! it was a hit! (and we also cleared peoples nasal passages with wasabi peas!)

we blinked and summer was here! goggles + blow up pool = endless summer fun!

 and most recently, gracie showed us her moves at her dance recital. what a beauty!

 we are glad for a break in our schooling and looking forward to a busy summer. life is good. Jesus is better!

cha-ching!

back in the fall chris brought home this great tall vase/jar thingy and it inspired us to start an everyday change savings for something fun. the kids had been eyeing a big lego set that cost upwards of $100! gasp!! i could never in my right mind plunk down that kind of dough for toys. especially those that more often than not get eaten by the dog. so- we made a deal. all of our change would go in the big jar until we had saved enough for legos.
this time of year it takes a bit more effort to get through our school day.  some of our typical weekly activities with friends are still on break until the spring- so finding something different and interesting to do seems to be the challenge every week. last week i noticed our jar was mighty full and thought that counting all those abe's and george's would make for a fun math lesson! we poured the whole jar out on the coffee table and started sorting. the kids loved it! jack counted piles of ten pennies and grace went hard to work putting all the quarters in stacks of four. once everything was sorted and counted we had saved up $116 dollars!  it was quite a fun afternoon project and much better than multiplication worksheets. :)

cookies and milk. and babies.

today i had the honor of throwing a dear friend a baby shower for her 4th bitty baby boy! what fun! our humble abode is quite humble and this momma has LOTS who love her! but we made it work and had an open house, cookies & milk themed shower. plenty of yummy goodies, and a stocked milk bar made for a fun day! the momma of 4-to-be was pampered with a manicure (thanks sherry! did you miss your calling!?), surprised by a far away friend, and showered with so many cute things for baby. thank you to all those who gave, helped bake and to those who came to show some love. we love you nancy and can't wait to meet #4!

the many faces of jack avery

seriously, what is better than a cute kid fresh from a bath? jack is now tall enough to see himself in the bathroom mirror and this is what happens. not just after bath. all. the. time. when left to his own devices, our silly kid entertains himself. he brings much joy to our life. it sure would be boring without him!

the class clown and the book worm.

the christmas season is over and we are back to work. as thankful as i am for a break, this year, the return of our home school routine was welcome. it is so funny and quite interesting to experience being a parent, especially a home school one. these two little people growing up before my eyes are so funny, serious, insightful, smart, weird, innocent, loving, crazy, i could go on and on.  the older they get the more we realize how different they are from eachother! god has given them each individual personalities and it is a blessing to get to know them.  after recieving a new 50mm lens for my camera these were some of the first shots i captured. a true picture of their absolute different personalities. my class clown and my book worm. love.