Switch Mystery Day 2012

 I can't say enough good things about our church!

My favorite part is the Children's and Youth Ministry!

Southcrest really goes above and beyond a typical children's program.

This past Friday night was a "lock in" called Mystery Day.

It was just for 4th and 5th graders.  There were almost 200 kids that attended!

Trey invited his friend Eric (they have been buddies since preschool).

Trey and Eric were on the blue team, and they had an absolute BLAST!l

We dropped them off on Friday evening and picked them up on Saturday evening.

They played games, they worshipped with a band, they had devotions,

they even tried to figure out which leader was the culprit

 in a real-life version of Guess Who?!!!

Through Switch (our church's program for 4th and 5th graders), Trey is making

such amazing friends, having the time of his life, and learning how much Jesus loves him!

I want to sign up to be a helper for next year's Mystery Day!!!

G-NO!

Our much needed GNO started out at La Parillia!

These are some of my favorite friends...

We had a couple of pitchers of margaritas, a pitcher of beer, and all the usual

mexican yummies... chips, salsa, fajitas, burritos, and fiesta salad!

We talked and laughed and couldn't wait to go see

"One For the Money", although we soon found out the book was 

much better than the movie!

Girlfriend time is so special and so precious...

That is, of course, unless you have a busy little one year old boy at home 

and one too many margaritas at dinner!

The people in front of us at the movie TURNED AROUND because she was

SNORING so loud!!!

We love you Kristin!!!  Next time we'll pick a more action packed film,

and maybe go see the matinee!  hee hee!

Grammy and Grumps!

Grammy and Grumps came to visit!!!

We had such a nice long weekend with our grands.

It was rainy all weekend, so we did some movie watching,

birthday celebrating (Grumps'), game playing, book reading, shopping, and even cooking (Grammy and Ambry).

I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were too 

busy enjoying each other!

Thank you G and G for spending time with us all.

We LOVE you both VERY much!!!

Trey's Olde Blacksmith Shoppe

Trey's class is studying the colonies this month, and he was given

an assignment to create a shop, out of a cardboard box, where a 

blacksmith from the New England colonies would work and sell his wares!

Oh my!  How I LOVE a school project!

However, I try very hard to just offer assistance and not completely

take over the creating!  Our friend Virginia Querry always says, 

"It's the PROCESS, not the product that is important".

Trey researched and typed and cut and glued and colored last night

until 11:00 pm!  Nothing like a little procrastination.

Here is what he took in to school this morning.  

He was so proud of his Olde Blacksmith Shoppe...

(Luke gave him some wrought iron tongs to show his class one of the tools a blacksmith uses!)

It was getting late last night, and 

Trey was still typing up his captions' and his Colonial story and report.  

He doesn't know how to type yet, so I told him I would

finish typing for him so he could go get ready for bed.  

I finished in just a few minutes. 

(Thank you LBHS 10th grade typing class!)

He looked at the finished paper and looked up at me and said, 

with true relief in his voice,

"GOSH, I love you Mom!"

He makes my heart smile!!!

Boys!

I started a new Bible study this week...

Our group met for the first time last night, and I think we 

mommas are going to have a BLAST together learning about

how to encourage our sons to be the men God wants them to be!

We laughed ALOT just going around the circle and introducing

ourselves to each other!  Mothers of sons have some crazy stories to tell!

This is going to be good for my soul!!!

Trey and Ambry have Kids Life at church on Wednesday nights 

while I have Bible study.  

Well, last night, after my first session of learning about 

preparing my son to be a man,

look who was waiting for me to pick him up!

HILARIOUS!  

Apparently, Trey was in the "stash" small group last night.

His leader, Ms. Kimmie, drew mustaches on all of the boys!

When we got home Lukey cracked up as well!

I love my goofy, wonderful boy!  I'm so proud to be his mom!

REF!

Could it be...

Guy Fieri?

Wait, is Randy Jackson back with a blonde crew cut?

NO!

It's Lukey, dressed up CRAZY to be a referee for our church's 

annual High School Dodgeball Tournament!

 This is our church's biggest outreach for high schoolers each year!

Every tournament is bigger than the last!

This year, there were over 40 teams registered to play 

with at least 7 kids per team.

I just found out that 99 students accepted Jesus tonight as their 

Lord and Savior!

I am so PUMPED that Lukey got to be a part of that!

Oh yes, the Welcome to Hollywood jeans are back!

I think this view is better than the one from the front!!!

Praise the Lord for crazy get-ups, open hearts, and changed eternities...

all made possible through Jesus' LOVE and Dodgeball!

Hogwart's Castle

Trey LOVES the Harry Potter books!

He is almost finished with book #5.

His Nana and Papaw gave him the Hogwart's Castle lego set 

back in August for his birthday.

He decided to start building it this Christmas vacation and today he finished it!

It's amazing.  So many little details to play with!!!

Thanks to help from Daddy and Declan 

and Mommy (the OCD sorter),

it's finally complete!

(It even has an invisibility cloak!)

The Light

Everyday, Luke's Aunt Kathy sends us an email from her pastor.

He sends out an uplifting email daily, and it is forwarded all over the world!

I wanted to share today's email.  I love it...

Every summer on the island of Crete Dr. Popaderos taught a class on ethics for two weeks. This particular summer just as he was getting ready to close the class, the last few minutes of the class, he said, “Now are there any questions before we go?” And just as he was getting ready to say, “OK then you’re dismissed,” a little man in the back of the room, a rather timid looking man, sort of carefully raised his hand and said, “Dr. Popaderos,” “Yes” “I have a question” “Yes, what is it?” He said, “I’d like to know, what is the meaning of life?”

As you can imagine, people were ready to go home, and they were very irritated by this little fellow’s heavy question!

Dr. Popaderos very quickly quieted the group, he said to the class, “You know, if you don’t mind I’d like to answer that question.” He reached into his back pocket, and took out his wallet. He took out of the wallet a little mirror about the size of a fifty-cent piece, honed down on the edges, kind of sparkling. And then he told this tale, he said, “When I was a child, I began to realize that I could have so much fun with that mirror. I would simply catch the glint of the Sun, and shine that mirror into an otherwise darkened place. As I grew older I began to learn that this is no child’s toy. This is really a metaphor for my life. Now I am not the light—I am not the source of the light. I am simply a broken mirror fragment. But if I allow the sun to shine on my mirror fragment, it is amazing what light I can bring into darkness.” Then he said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the meaning of life.”

Each of us is a mirror fragment. We are not the Light. We are not the source of the Light. We are simply a broken mirror fragment. But when we permit the SON to hit our mirror fragment, and then bounce off into the life of a darkened heart, there can be change, there can be illumination.

Let the light shine through!

Playdates!

(Ambry and Emmiline)
Getting to attend a birthday party at Jumpin' Jellybeans 
with one of your best girlfriends,
and a movie and lunch playdate 
full of lego building and a best buddy...
What more could two kids ask for!?

(Eric and Trey)

Home Sweet Home

It's a new year, and we have a few new pretties here at home!!!
Lukey got me this light for over our breakfast table.  He even took down the old one and 
hung this one all on his own!  I love my handy man!!!

Our big ceiling tiles got new frames!
Vick Vickery (Luke's college roommate and friend) started his own
woodworking business and we hired him 
to create these distressed pine frames for us!
He does an amazing job!!!

And finally, my favorite "pretty"... our new storm door!

Papaw and Nana gave us this storm door (installed too!) for Christmas this year!

I love opening our front door and letting in all the extra light everyday!

This is the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

We really enjoy our home sweet home!!!

Happy New Year!

Goodness!

2012 has already started off with a bang!

We have had several play dates, two date nights,

and today was just perfect...

I started my very first day of training to run a 5K with my friend Pam

and then our families took our bikes to Peachtree City

and rode around the lakes and trails all day!

We rode to Chik Fil A for lunch, then later to TCBY for a treat,

and finally after all of our riding and playing at the park

we headed over to La Hacienda for a Mexican supper.

All of us and our friend Will were packed into a booth, the Mexican

music was blaring, and we were laughing and dancing!

If the last week is any indication of how our year will go,

it's going to be a year full of friends and food and fun!

I definitely need to get back in the habit 

of taking pictures for our blog!

I ordered our 2011 blog to be printed into a book and I can't

wait for us to all sit down together and take a look back 

at all we did last year!

Happy New Year to all!!!