Friday, March 27, 2009

School Art Show

This week at the girls school they had an art show that displayed tons of art by the students. I didn't know what to expect, but should have know that it would be amazing and it was! Each and every class was represented and each and every student was represented. In addition they had some of the middle school work on display and some art that parents have done. There was a ton of talent being displayed. They had one entire area dedicated to crafts that the kids could do and throughout the show the middle school kids were walking around with trays of all kinds of pastries, cookies and treats.



Here is Syrah pointing out her leaf water color on display. The board in her hand was a scaventure hunt the kids could participate in if they would like. The questions on the scaventure hunt were geared towards having the kids really look for things within all the art (find an painting that uses waves, find a sculpture that has circles in it, find something that makes you smile, find a piece of art that makes you feel calm, etc).


These are the fifth grade dogs - I had to take a picture of both sides of the tables. They created these out of clay and because they have a kiln in the middle school they are able to do these type of projects. They painted and glazed them, drew a picture of their dog and named it!

Each dog had variations on their tails, heads, eyes, shapes, etc... it was very fun to see each child's creation.

Sadie with her Blue Dog which was one of the very first pieces of art she did at the school.

They had a parent who works with pottery wheels doing demonstrations... there was always a crowd around her and the kids loved asking questions about the process. I watched and it brought back memories of the strength it takes in your arms and hands. It sure appears more "simple" than it is!
I captured many more pictures of art that stood out to me, but since it isn't our children's we don't' feel right posting it. We got some great ideas for some fun art projects for the summer and beyond and really enjoyed seeing so much work put into the subject of art which is sadly turning into a "special" in many schools that is being removed. I am so grateful that the girls get to do be a part of all of this at their new school!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Another prayer request...

I came across this blog by chance yesterday or maybe it was as a friend told me, maybe it was because I was meant to pray for this baby all day. I did pray and thought of him all day, but not until this morning did I see the updates which included some amazing testimony to prayer (as did the update for little Ellie May yesterday).

Prayers for Stellan


I ask that you be praying for Stellan too; you can read his story and what is going on each day by clicking on his picture above. This guys is so tiny, yet so strong. The Lord is good and merciful and gracious and He has a plan for this little one. Please add him and his family to your prayers.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Please be praying...

Our family has been praying for Ellie May now for awhile. Ellie May is the daughter of a co-worker of Bill's and on November 28 she was diagnosed with Pre B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

They took her to the doctor not because they knew something was horribly wrong, but because she had been bruising more than normal! Ellie May started the third phase of treatment yesterday and they have warned her mom and dad that his could be the most difficult phase for Ellie May. I ask that you lift up this family in prayer; please let the Holy Spirit make his presence known to them clearly. Let the Lord's merciful hand be placed on Ellie May, that she may endure no negative effects of treatment, but that the treatment can be successful in the restoration of Ellie May's health.

To read more about Ellie May's journey thus far click here

Friday, March 20, 2009

what could it be?????

Last night Syrah was playing and suddenly she came running to us to tell us that something wasn't right with her hand. She said "my hand is glowing!". Looking at her hand in the light I could see nothing, but when we took her to the closet (huh, that sounds weird) this is what we saw:


with limited light.


In the dark.

She wasn't hurting in anyway, but not sure what to make of it we ran to the Internet and did some research.... come to find out that she has SPRING FEVER! Luckily, the cure is the arrival of the first day of Spring, so by this morning she was cured!

Obviously this is all in fun; Syrah was actually playing with a glow stick that sprung a leak and left a mess all over her hands.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING 2009

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Debt Solution

Found this on another site today and thought it was great! Enjoy!

By the way: We ordered the book!

Weekend Update

I am so excited about the first part of this blog. For my birthday, my Dad and Kelly got me a cookbook. It was a good book, but had a lot to do with the history of why we eat the foods we eat and less recipes. So, I exchanged it (with their blessing) and got this amazing cook book!

Do you see that???? 1,400 recipes!!!! I am thrilled about this and the best part is that every one I read before selecting this was fairly easy (not like one of those cook books that I thing "hmmmm, I don't' know where I would buy that ingredient).


Every single page has FIVE recipes... I can not wait to start trying these out!

This morning our entire family slept in and when we woke up we found this...

More SNOW!!
In the morning is wasn't sticking to the roads, but before long we had this...
This is a MAJOR road and to not see anyone there at 10:00 seemed itself weird. Especially since after all the snow we have had people should be use to driving in it! The good news... it was GONE by the afternoon. I surely am excited for 4:44 on Friday morning, the start of SPRING!

For Christmas the girls Grandma gave them both tickets to see the Lion King.

Today was the day of the show and both girls were very excited. Sadie had seen the show about 2 years ago when it came to town, but this was the first time for Syrah.

The Lion King Group: Syrah, Great-Grandma Connie, Cousin Jesse, Sadie & Grandma Valerie

Bill and I had the afternoon together - we had a nice lunch together, ran some errands and took a nice walk. Although we missed the girls, it was nice to spend the afternoon with my man!


Warning: I usually make fun of people who take things as follows to this extreme, but here I am... that person.


We have had Ava for a two and a half weeks and today was her first birthday. Ava is a very good dog and we were excited to be able to celebrate the gift of having her in our lives.

There are four cupcakes from our fav cupcake place: Cupcake Royal and the one in the front is a doggy cupcake from Muddy Paws. We thought it was a cute little treat for her birthday.


As you can see Ava enjoyed her treat - she gobbled this down in NO time!!!

We hope all who are reading this had a great week. May the week ahead be filled with God's blessings!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Catching up

We have had a busy week since Ava arrived, but she is adjusting well, the cat is adjusting and everyone is settling into a routine!

So, lets get through last week first and then go from there. Wednesday Sadie started a second session of Art class; due to some of the medical stuff going on she missed a few weeks in the last session, but she is excited that she was invited to attend again. I wanted to share one of her pieces from last session.
This is a still life and was drawn with chalk.

Last Thursday was Syrah's first Kindergarten concert. I took a good balance of pictures to video, but picking one song to share it hard.


Syrah on stage before the performance started.

Do I post the video of one of the cutest songs or the one where when we watched it we realized Syrah and her friend Lexi kept holding hands (which we didn't notice during the concert).

In the end I choose the one where Syrah and Lexi kept holding hands... it is a super cute song too. The kids sang about 9 songs which was a lot to remember for those little ones and they all did a great job!

Of course with the addition of Ava to the family we have to share a picture of her week here:


Ava all tuckered out. No pictures of Ava and Molly together just yet, but we are approaching the days of them having a lifelong friendship.

We have had some questions on details about Ava. Ava was in a home situation where their dynamic changed and they could no longer care for her. She we be a year old on March 15th and she is part mini-pincher, schnauzer and chihuahua. The only chihuahua is her ears... she has a very spunky personality and is very well trained (all ready house broken, can sit, stay and sometimes lay-down). Billy has been working hard on getting her more lease trained - she pulls pretty good for such a tiny one, but all ready she is doing much better on the leash then when we first got her. Being that she is approaching her first birthday we must say she still has quite a bit of puppy in her, but it is fun that we get some puppy with the perks of a year old dog. The girls love her! Ava sleeps in Sadie's room and greets both girls with exuberant joy in the mornings. Ava and Molly have even been playing a bit here and there and are almost always in each others company (at a distance, Molly requests her space).


On Sunday Billy's Aunt Tracy came over with her family for dinner as payment to cut our hair (and it is super fun to catch up with her and her family!). The big surprise was that Syrah really wanted to cut her hair short... so we said sure.



Look at all the hair she is holding!


Syrah with her new hair cut!

And this only gets us through Sunday of last week. Since that time I celebrated a birthday, had a great lunch with my Dad, Kelly and my Grandma. Enjoyed a super fun, full of laughter dinner with my family, Mom, brother and Lauren.


We also had the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of our dear friends and amazing young man Micah.

Micah blowing out the candle!!! Happy Birthday Micah, we love you!

It has been a full few weeks! Thanks for letting us catch up!!