Over Spring Break...

... we had some soccer games. Abby's team won 9-2. Abby scored 2 goals. Avery's team won 1-0. On a side/updated note, Avery's team remains undefeated and in the last game, Avery scored the first 3 goals in the first 5 minutes. Abby lost their first game. :(

... we had another successful Titus Project. The group I am working with is practicing puppet shows for our younger kid's classes.

...the girls went to spend the night with their good friend, Sybil.

...we went to dinner and then bowling with the Payne family. Eric is the assistant coach with Wes for Abby's soccer team. Their daughter, Reagan, is on Abby's team. They have two other daughters. Our girls all have a good time together.

...we went to church on Wednesday night, where I got to teach a sweet group of 5th graders. Can't wait to have them in our youth group!

... we went to the Dallas World Aquarium with several families from church. A good time was had by all, and we were blessed with a beautiful day to enjoy lunch outside after the DWA visit.

...we had Paislee and Preslee over for a sleepover. Our girls have been friends with them since birth and they always have a blast together.

... we had the Payne family over for dinner. We ate outside and played outside the whole time. The adults played washers. Thankfully, I got to be on Wes' team although, I don't know if he feels the same way.


It was a nice break! I am thankful I get to be off of work when the girls are out of school.

Book Character Day

Hyde Park Elementary always has Book Character Day where the students get to dress up like a character in a book and bring the book to school. Avery decided to be Fancy Nancy and Abby decided to be Pinkalicious. We went to get some ice cream after school, and we got some funny looks.

Happy Birthday to Avery!

Avery turned 8 today! Here are some things I always want to remember about our precious gift from God.

1. Avery is very creative. She can make something out of anything. She tapes paper together to make chairs, houses or other objects. She has made up several T.P. roll crafts all on her own. She also put together her very own scrapbook.

2. Going right along with her creativity, Avery is quite the artist. She loves to draw. She has accumulated many coloring books over the years, but she would much rather draw her own art. She has even won some art contests and recently some of her artwork was on display at the DISD administration building. It is humbling when your daughter is a better artist than than you. (It has been that way since she was about 5.)

3. Avery is thoughtful. She likes to make things or write notes or cards to people. A couple of months ago she even wrote a poem for my friend, Jennifer.

4. Avery can be shy at times. This is especially true if she doesn't know someone very well. Recently, Wes had taken her to the public library to get some resources for her gifted and talented class. He asked her to find out where something was from the librarian. She immediately began to well up with tears at the thought of having to do that.

5. Avery is a great reader. She can read on a 5th grade level and has won the award every year for having the most Accelerated Reader points in her grade. Sometimes she can be seen reading to Abby (who she helped learn to read) or even her dolls or stuffed animals. It is pretty cute to watch her really get into the story with voices and enthusiasm.

6. Avery can be sneaky. She likes to "spy" on people. She also was punished a few weeks ago for taking cookies and eating them behind a chair in the game room.

7. Avery is her sister's biggest fan and cheerleader. When Abby and her friends put on "shows" for us she encourages her and does all her introductions. Abby often likes to put on dance routines for her friends, family, or the youth group. Avery is always on the side encouraging her.

8. Avery can be motherly/bossy, which I suppose is part of being the first born child. She not only likes to tell Abby what to do, but I have heard her on occasion try to tell other little kids what to do. In fact, after a small group meeting at our house last year when we had over 40 people at our house she informed me that the next week she had a plan: the little kids would be separated into her and Abby's room, and she would read to them and play with them. If they were too loud or misbehaved then she would send them to time-out in the corner. Ha!

9. Avery enjoys playing soccer. She has been playing since Kindergarten on the same team, the Denison Ponies. They have held a great record. The first season they did not lose any games. Since then, they have only lost one game each season.

10. Speaking of her soccer playing ability, Avery is one competitive little girl. She's generally the smallest girl on the field, but that phrase, "it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog" totally applies to her. She'll get in there and mix it up with the biggest of players - bouncing up every time she's knocked down.

11. Avery understands technology. Laptops, iPods, video games, DVRs and more just come naturally to her, and she's been known to teach her sister or even other adults how to operate certain electronics.

12. Avery is a people pleaser. For the most part, she likes to please her friends, school teachers, Bible class teachers, and even Wes and I which makes life a lot easier.

13. Avery is sensitive. Sometimes all we have to do is look at her sternly and she changes her behavior. Other times when we are vocally correcting her, she will begin to cry out of remorse.

14. Avery is insightful. She picks up on things easily. She has often related something that Todd said in his sermon or something she learned at school or in Bible class and applied it to another situation.

15. Avery entertains herself well. She does not have to be entertained or played with all the time. She is happy playing by herself.

16. Avery is a great eater. She eats almost everything that is put on her plate. She understands that we can't always eat our favorite foods all the time, but that we need to eat certain things to keep us healthy.

We are so thankful for this precious gift. She is one of the greatest blessings God has gifted us with and our lives are touched daily by Avery Nicole.

Titus Project

The Titus project is a 12 week activity designed to teach service and leadership to our 3rd - 12th graders. It has been going on since the end of January and it has been amazing! My friend Nikki and I are huddle leaders for a group of 8th grade boys. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these young men even more. It has been a joy serving and learning along with these guys.

Each night begins with dinner and and ice breaker questions. We then move on to discussion questions regarding a certain Bible story. After that we move on to another activity. For the first four weeks the middle schoolers participated in different service projects. I especially enjoyed our trip to the local homeless shelter where we picked up kids and brought them back to our church to join us for our meal. After eating and hanging out with them for a bit we went back to the shelter where we learned more about the shelter itself. The next week we made baskets filled with games and toys to take to the shelter. It was heart warming to watch our teens love on the kids.

Zak and Nikki


Hunter and Brandon


Hunter, Hunter (who we have nicknamed Jorge), and Hayden.

These guys keep us on our toes, for sure, but I am really excited about the next several weeks. My prayer is that these young men will get a taste of how they can use their God-given talents to bless our church and community.

Birthday Celebrations!

Avery and Abby wanted to have a combined slumber party this year for their birthday. They each chose a friend to spend the night. We took the gang to Cheddar's for dinner. We ended our dinner with with Cookie Monsters complete with candles and a birthday song with some of the waiters and waitresses.
From there we headed to the movies to watch Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D. It was a pretty funny show and the girls really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it.
When we got home all the girls enjoyed playing with one another, and Avery and Abby opened their gifts. We sent them to bed at 11:00. They all wanted to sleep in Avery's room. I don't know why we always think they will sleep in longer if we let them stay up with friends, because the rarely do. This time was no exception. Sybil is used to getting up at 6:15, so sure enough at 6:15 they were all up. Thankfully, they watched some cartoons for a while before Wes went to get us all donuts for breakfast.
Soon after breakfast we broke out some jewelry making kits and made necklaces, rings, and bracelets.
Later in the morning they pretended to be spies and called themselves "The Black Cats". They dressed themselves in all black and spied on me. I didn't know I lead a life worth spying on, but whatever. Wes was their "director" and would send them on missions. He even helped them come up with a special written code to communicate with each other in secret.

Best Buds!


Friends forever!


Can you girls eat all of that?


Abby is licking her lips!


Super excited girls ready to see the movie!


We are sporting our 3D glasses.


The movie was a success!

A great time was had by all. The girls enjoyed an afternoon nap to help them catch up on their missed sleep.

The next weekend we celebrated their birthdays with our families. They also got to join us for the girls' first soccer games. Both teams tied. The cousins had fun playing outside where the weather was awesome! The girls requested pizza for the meal, so we had pizza, salad, and fruit followed by cupcakes, brownies, and ice cream. (Actually, Avery's first request was her favorite meal, beans and cornbread, but that is definitely not one of Abby's favorite meals so they compromised on pizza.)

Soccer players and their supportive fans!

Hanging out in the backyard.

Indoor fun!

Thanks everyone, for helping us celebrate these two precious girls!

Valentine Cookies and More Snow Days

A few weeks ago we had even more school cancellations due to the snow/ice making it a total of six days of missed school. That's alright, we enjoyed more free time together.

One of the things we did was make some Valentine cookies for friends and family.We decided to walk in the snow for over a mile to our friend Nikki's house to deliver some cookies to her and her neighbors, the Pughes. Nikki fixed us some yummy hot chocolate and we hung out for a while at her place before starting our trek home. The snow was really coming down hard, but it just made it more of adventure. Plus, we had been going stir crazy cooped up in the house. We witnessed a car wreck which made me even more thankful that I had stayed off the roads.








Yes, the girls wore their pajamas all day on most of those days! Why not? I am thankful that the girls had each other to play with during all these cooped up days. Thank you God for sisters!

Koality Celebration

Nope, that is not a typo. Koality Celebrations are what Hyde Park Elementary has twice a year to help celebrate the student's accomplishments and awards. This was Abby's first.

Avery and Abby received awards for being Koality Citizens, Koality Workers, A Honor Roll, and Koality Reader. Avery also got an award for attendance. She has not missed a day. Poor Abby was out sick for a couple of days.

On the day of the celebration they get to wear charm necklaces with all the charms that represent their awards. It really is pretty neat.

We are super proud of their hard work and great behavior!

Happy Birthday to Abby!

Today is Abby's 6th birthday! Yay! We are spending it snowed/iced in for the 3rd day in a row! It is neat that we get to spend the whole day together when normally she would have to go to school.

These are some things I want to remember at Abby at this fun age:

1. Abby is super cuddly. She loves to snuggle in church, while reading a book, while watching T.V. or just talking. I hope she never outgrows this.

2. Abby often volunteers to pray. She even volunteered to pray in front of several teens and other little kids at a church in Panama over Christmas break. One of the things she often says in her prayers is, "Please help the people who don't know about God to learn about God."

3. Abby is hilarious. She is our family clown, for sure. She keeps us laughing with her facial expressions, jokes (which she often makes up), her dancing and just her everyday comments.

4. Abby is spunky! Although her teachers at school don't always see this part of her, at home and around people she knows well, she does not mind being the center of attention.

5. Abby wants to be a missionary when she grows up. She even wrote about this on a school writing project a couple weeks ago. Our prayer for the girls is that they will do great things for God, even if it means they will be miles away from us.

6. We are told that Abby is often quiet and serious at school, which is hard for us to believe, because we don't see that side of her much at home.

7. Abby talks like a baby A LOT. This tends to drive us crazy.

8. Abby is pretty good about sharing. She does this better than her 7 year old sister. She will even share her new toys.

9. Abby is a good reader. She constantly surprises us with the words she can read. She has the most AR points out of all the kindergartners at school. She is supposed to read for 20 minutes each night. She brings 2 library books home every day that she has to read 3 times each. She usually chooses to read both books 3 times each, even though it might take her more than 20 minutes.

10. Abby cleans up well. She sometimes even cleans her room without being told.

11. Abby is a crazy dancer. Those of you who have seen her know what I mean. She has some funky moves that will keep you laughing.

12. Abby plays well by herself. She doesn't have to be entertained or played with. She is content to play by herself.

13. Abby is a picky eater. I must say she has gotten better about this, but it is still a struggle at times. She can be a very slow eater too. She is usually the last one at the table.

14. Abby's emotions are easily seen. They are written all over her face. While this can be cute and funny at times, at other times it can be down right frustrating! The worst is when she is pouting in public. Then everyone starts asking her what is wrong or they try to cheer her up. The best thing Wes and I have found to do in this situation is to just ignore her. She does not want people in her face. Eventually, she chooses to snap out of her attitude.

15. Abby is a girly girl but also doesn't mind getting dirty playing in some mud or sand.

16. Abby loves being in the water. I can't wait for warmer weather so we can go swimming.

17. Abby enjoys playing soccer. She may not score that many goals, but she can sure guard her goal with an intensity like you have never seen.

18. Abby loves the big kids (the youth group) and our small group. She gets super excited when she finds out either of these groups are coming to our house.

19. Abby is a thinker. She will often stop in the middle of a story or Little House on the Prairie show to ask about a certain situation.

20. She is a great artist. She enjoys drawing, painting, and other little crafty things. Her teacher has been teaching her to add details to her artwork. She also likes to give her artwork to other people which is nice, since we can't fit them all on our refrigerator or her bulletin board.

21. At times Abby can be a perfectionist. This is a good thing most of them time because she will try really hard to do things well, but it can sometimes lead to frustration which can be no fun at all.

22. Abby is a good student. (Or so we have been told... Don't you wish you could be a fly on the wall in your kid's classroom?) She has made all E's in all subjects and in citizenship. She is proud of herself when she does well. It is pretty cute to see her reaction to her grades or awards.

23. Abby can be a good helper. She helps dust, sweep, clean bathrooms, fold and put away laundry, clean away dishes and more. For the most part she doesn't complain when asked to help out.

24. Abby enjoys giving hugs. Whether it is a friend, cousin, big kid, or an elderly person at church, she is not afraid to share her hugs. Some of them can be sweet and gentle while some of them can knock you right off your feet.

I am so thankful for this gift that God has blessed us with. At times she has kept us on our knees praying, but I wouldn't trade her for anything. I can't wait to see what God has in store for her this year.


Six years ago, this little gal came into our lives and things have never been the same. Who would have thought this content, fairly easy baby would turn into the spunky girl she is today.

I love you bunches!


One of those big hugs!


Your sister loves you, too.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!