Benjamin is FIVE!!!!!

My sweet baby Benjamin turned 5 on March 27th. I wanted to have a birthday party that was inexpensive yet the kids would enjoy. A friend of mine told me about having a birthday party with the Fire Department. She explained that they gave the kids a tour of the Fire Station and let them look at and play on a truck. I thought it was a good idea and decided to give the Fire Department a call. It turned out it was a go and they ended up having a wonderful time.

Here is a picture of the group in front of one of the Fire Trucks.

Here is a picture of the Fire Fighter talking to the group about the new Fire Truck. I think John was having just as much fun if not more that the kids were.
After the talk the Fire Fighter took the kids around the truck and showed them the things that they have on the truck such as the "JAWS OF LIFE" and some really big scissors that are used to rescue people who get stuck in car accidents. Then they let the kids climb in the cab of the truck to try on the headsets and sit in the seats to pretend they were going to go fight a fire. They had a blast.

Finally they let the kids try on the outfit and try to walk around.

When we left the Fire Station we went to Heritage Park for cake and the playground. On the way to the Fire Station I realized, the good picture taking mom that I am, that I forgot a camera. I used my cell phone to take pictures at the Fire Department and by the time we got to the park, my cell phone battery died and I was unable to take a picture of his fire birthday cake. Everyone had a good time and the party only cost me the cost of the cake. Pretty good don't you think?

Bible Quizzing at Cornerstone

I have noticed that it has been over 2 months since I last posted. I am so embarrassed!!!! I have not been the good mother that takes pictures of everything lately. I have been the busy mother that just wants to rest when she gets home. Anyways, Last month I was able to go with the quizzers to the tournament in Bessemer, Al. and had a great time. I have since been recruited to help, thanks Sis. Kimmie. I am really proud of both the Junior quizzers, of whom Jacob is a part of, and the Senior Quizzers.
The junior quizzers had two teams, Cornerstone 1 and Cornerstone 2.
Cornerstone 2 took Second place, this team included Michayla, Austin, Jacob, Brookelyn, and Makinzie:

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Cornerstone 1 took First place, this team included Tyler, Garrett, Anthony, and Tommy:

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The Senior Quizzers also did a fantastic job taking First Place. This team included Rebekah, Drake, Louis, Preston, Caila, and Brittany.


We were not able to participate in this months tournament but are looking forward to the next one. GO CORNERSTONE!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Morning

Just thought I would post a couple of pictures from Christmas morning.
The boys (all THREE of them) actually talked me into letting them open up the Wii on Christmas Eve. Last year we started a new tradition by letting the boys open up one present (which will always happen to be PJs). So here is a picture of that.

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This next one is when they woke up that morning. I thought they would sleep late because I let them open and play with the Wii, the one thing they knew about and were dying to play. I asked John if we should put things out before we went to sleep or just wait until he woke up to do it (he usually wakes up about 4:30am). He said to just wait, we were tired. To our surprise, at 5:10am, we were still in bed, Jacob was awake and asking if he could come sleep with us. We told him no and sent him to his bedroom to go back to sleep. John went into the room with him to let me start putting things out, after about 10 min, John said Jacob was not going back to sleep and we just had to hurry and put everything out. We did have to wake up Benjamin.

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The last two pictures are reactions from opening presents. Jacob had just opened a Diego game for his DS (he just got the DS that morning). Benjamin had just pulled out a tube of mini M&M's from his stocking.

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By 7:00am Everyone was fed and ready to play. We spent the evening with a lot of our Church Family and had a wonderful time. We had a Blessed Christmas!

Making COOKIES!!!

Today I decided to give cookie making with the boys a try. I bought a gingerbread cake mix that had directions for turning it into cookie dough also on it. I do not think the actual cookie tastes to great but the boys did a good job decorating them. We had a lot of fun. I even went out on a limb and let them form the little men. Here are some of the pictures.

Christmas Card Pictures

I had been worried that I would not be able to get a good picture to send out with Christmas cards but while we were in Oklahoma the boys got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time. We do not really try to make the boys think Santa is real. With Jacob, we explained that a long time ago there was a guy that wanted to do something nice for children that did not have anything and people today still like to carry on the tradition of kindness and thinking of others, using Santa, a guy in a red suit, who they say is magical and has reindeer that fly. We also explained that Christmas is really about Jesus and even though we should want to be kind and think of others, we should want to be more like Jesus and do it all year long like Jesus did, not just at Christmas time with Santa. Jacob was very accepting and we also told him that if a child thinks that Santa is real, he was not to tell them he was not. Well, long story even longer, when it came time to do all of this with Benjamin, it did not work. He is so convinced that since he sees pictures and toys of Santa that he is most certainly real. We finally had to tell him "That even though Santa is NOT real, if he wanted to believe that he is, then he could." Sooooo, while shopping in Bass Pro Shop in OKC, they had free pictures with Santa. John said we could do it so we did. Benjamin was ELATED, not to mention I got some good shots. Since we were in Oklahoma visiting with family, I could not let the opportunity of getting all the boys together for a picture with Santa. The store was open on Thanksgiving so while my mom, sisters, and I cooked, John took the boys by to get one taken. So when Christmas cards go out, the pic inside will probably be of the boys with Santa.

Here are a few of them:

LET IT SNOW!!!!

What a wonderful way to start off the month of December! It has snowed all day long. The kids at school had sooo much fun. It almost seemed mean to make them do any work. We did let them have a little extra free time to have a good snowball fight. Benjamin and Jacob were so excited. When it stopped for a while Ben asked me why it had stopped. I told him that God decided it had snowed enough and he said "Mommy, please tell God it needs to snow some more." About an hour later it started to snow again. The flakes were so big and fluffy, they made great snowballs. The boys were grateful for what snow came but were disappointed that there was not enough to make a snowman.

Here are some shots of the boys at school having the time of their lives.



While the kids were having a snowball fight outside from the snow that had accumulated on the cars tables and whatever else, the teachers were inside watching them.



It was a wonderful day and we hope it is a sign of maybe having a White Christmas this year!!!

Family Update

I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have updated my blog!!! It has been a very busy last couple of weeks. I have joined face book (like I need something else to take up my time!) so if I get the chance to get on the computer, I have been trying to figure my way around that site. It has been real fun. I have been able to talk to a lot of friends that I have not seen or spoken to in a very long time. I have been kidnapped a couple of times, and I have kidnapped a few people myself. I have set up a virtual Christmas tree so people can send me ornaments and wrapped presents. Like I said I have been having fun with it.

The boys have been real busy also. Along with school, Jacob has joined the Bible Quiz team at church. He has to learn 2 verses everyday. The children have been staying after church on Sunday morning with Sis Kimmie, Sis Camille, and Sis Jessica, (bless their souls), and practicing. Sis Jessica, has picked up Jacob once a week to work one on one with helping him learn his verses. Jacob really likes it, except the studying part... ha ha.

Benjamin had a "Visitor" at school the other day come to tell his class a story. Her name was "Mrs. Esmeralda". The boys, Benjamin, Elijah, And Tyler, had a blast. They had sliced apples and peanut butter to eat while she told them a story about "Grumpy Gracie". Here are a couple of pics of Mrs. Esmeralda and the boys, and Jacob and his teacher SIS I.



We are also getting ready to go to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. We are all real excited. The boys and I have not been there for a year and a half, it has been longer for John. We are also taking Granny O. with us. The boys cannot wait to see their cousins, Zach and Alex, and their Nanny and Papaw. We are planning to take the video camera, if I remember, so hopefully we can get some good stuff on it. I will definitely have some pictures to post. Maybe it will not take me too long to get them up.