We made it!!!

Thanks to all of our wonderful church family in Balch Springs for you prayers as we travelled today!  We had a wonderfully uneventful road trip, and we are now atGrandmama's.  We are staying at a State Park as there aren't many other hotel options available.  It's really nice and peaceful out here and I am so happy that they have high speed Internet.  We actually joked about them having it since our cell phones aren't even working, and what do you know they do!!! Tomorrow we have some things to get done for the big Party coming up on Saturday.  My grandparent were always a big part of the city and all it's goings on. Just a bit of trivia knowledge, my grandfather was the mayor of the city for several years. So the city has been invited. My mom and her sister had an invitation put in the paper to invite everyone.  I hope all of her friends can stop by for at least a few minutes.  She is a wonderful lady with a really big heart, and I am thrilled that have her around to celebrate 80 years of life!!! Well as is usually the case with my family we must arise early in the morning for a home cooked breakfast, this means I need to retire quickly so I can make it.

Whew that was a lot of babbling!!! Sorry! However I do feel closer to sleep than when Istarted. Thank you for listening/reading!

Ashlyn's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday to You...Happy Birthday Dear Ashlyn...to you.


What a wonderful little lady and what a wonderful day. Ashlyn in really two years old I can't hardly believe it. She is so much fun and a true joy to be around. Most of you who know me very well know that Birthday a re a really big deal to me. My mother always made my birthdays extra special and I loved it, so in turn I love to have wonderful birthdays for my girls. My philosophy when it comes to birthday parties are the bigger the better. Thank the Lord for a husband who helps to temper this. LOL Well he really does try to anyway. He had said on more than one occasion do we really need that, to which I quickly reply YES!!! LOL
Ashlyn's birthday falling so close to Christmas makes me want to be sure and make her birthday special. It's so easy when you have a child so close to such a big holiday to not do so much for them. They just recieved there wish list for Christmas and pretty much we are tired of partying by the time Christmas is over. So once again I tried really hard to put all that out of my mind and make sure she had a party as if her birthday was in June!
We had a such a great party with all of our wonderful friends and family. We were so happy to have both of our parents here for all the fun. With the way our lives all are I really wasn't expecting it but I was soooooo happy they were here. Ashlyn didn't really know how to act when all the attention came to her and we all sang Happy Birthday, but with a little coaxing she blew her candles out like a pro. Since Christmas is so close she did great tearing through the gifts. I actually had to re-tape one of them she found a day too early, lol she really like opening them.
Ashlyn recieved all kinds of presents and wonderful wishes for her birthday. Thank you all who shared in the occasion. Today we opened all the boxes and played with all the toys for quite sometime, she really enjoyed everything. She got a magnet set for the fridge that she puts animals into and they sing and talk, we played this for a few minutes and then I was going to show her how it went on the refridgerator, she had a melt down. "Mine, mine" she said over and over as shee pulled at to get it from the door. I suppose the whole sharing thing really comes into to play at this age.
Now it's on to potty training. She's doing really well. If we could stay at home for longer intervals I think she'd be done in a few days. Oh, well she will be potty trained and life will go on.
I have some pictures for you all to enjoy of the day.

Once again and for the last time until next year...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear Ashlyn...to you

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

I just want to wish my sweet little 2 year old a Happy Birthday! It seems only yesterday you were born. Tomorrow will be all the festivities and pictures, but I didn't want to let today get away without saying it (although since it is 1:20am I guess it did get away from me). Oh well I'm still up so it's still today! Happy Birthday and I hope your party is wonderful tomorrow. You are such a sweet and funny little girl. You bring lots of joy and laughter into our home! I feel so blessed that God trusted me and your daddy with such a precious girl! We love you and wish you many many many more happy years!

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers!!!

A couple of nights ago my husband ans Alayna were playing a boxing game together and as they would knock someone down the "10" count would start. Ashlyn and I were in the other room and she began to count to 10 with the referee. It caught me so off guard. I had been working with her but we had only gotten to 4 and that was leaving out 3 quite often. We couldn't believe it when she got all the way to 10 all by herself. I grabbed my camera real quick and got a video of it. I hope you enjoy seeing our almost 2 year old count to 10.

This is a 5th grade math problem. This is not a trick question. This is a real math problem so don't say that a bus has no legs. There is no bus driver either so don't worry about counting those legs! That's all the help you get.

There are 7 girls in a bus.

Each girl has 7 backpacks.

In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.

For every big cat there are 7 little cats.

Question: How many legs are there in the bus?

It took me a little while to get the answer But I finally got it. Give it a try! Post your answers and I'll do the big reveal in a day or so!

Oops!!!

Yesterday was Alayna's first day back to school, and you guessed it overslept... I don't know if I turned off the alarm or if it never went off or what happened. None the less, we didn't wake up in time. So when I did wake up at 8:05 (5 minutes after school has already started) I was really in a panic. I rushed Alayna through the dressing process, tried to cram some food down her and hurriedly put her and her dad out the door. When the door shut I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back into my room to lay down. In about 15 minutes I heard my husband come back in, and then I heard little giggles. I thought this a little odd of my husband, but then just realized that the morning does weird things to people. LOL! It was Alayna laughing her little head off as quietly as possible as not to wake up baby sis. We had sent her back from Christmas break one day early!!! She thought this was the funniest thing ever. She said "Mom, only the teachers were there". Anyway she just headed out the door again, and now dad has returned without her so I suppose that we got it right today! It was fun having one more day it was like our last big surprise for the holidays!


These are just a couple of random pictures I found on my husbands computer. We were at a youth event in Wichita Falls, and Bro Eddie was there doing the lawn one night. So someone decided to let him use the blower on their face and see what it would look like. Here are just a couple of the results. It was hilarious!!!! These two are bother and sister you can really see the family resemblance in the gum-line...LOL

"Firsts"

Welcome to the New Sunday School Department at Greater Apostolic Tabernacle, Balch Springs Texas. We are Open for Business!!!!!
Sunday was the day of many firsts. First it was the first Sunday of the new year, and the first Sunday of the month, the first Sunday of our NEW SUNDAY SCHOOL!!!!!! It was our first Sunday to take an official role, and the first Sunday for many of our children to ever attend a Sunday School class.

Let me just say...It was wonderful on all accounts. Our church has worked all week to get Sunday School going. With the time of year we are just coming out of being so busy for everyone, we didn't actually get started decorating the rooms until last Monday night. Wow it was a blur of action. All of the rooms look wonderful The Teachers and all their help worked so hard to make it happen on this Sunday. More than one night this past week there were people here until 3am or 4am in the morning working. I will say that the rooms couldn't have looked any better had they had a lifetime to work on them!! They did an awesome job!!!! May I pause to say, I mean SHOUT, "GOOD JOB EVERYBODY!!!!"We had 75 in Sunday School, then we counted 8 - 10 regulars who were out due to sickness or out of town, etc. All of the children were excited and totally loved their Sunday School class. I got some pictures but I didn't take as many as I would have like out of fear of disturbing them all. I am soooooo excited about all the things that are happening. I know God is directing us and will help to meet any challenges that arrive. Here are some of the pictures from our first Sunday!



I must say that we had another first as well but I forgot to snap a picture...Bro Joseph Ouellette from Wichita Falls was in service with us. We really enjoyed having him. It's wonderful to be with old friends and talk about all the great memories that we've made!!!

The Sun is Rising on a New Year

Well as you can see if you check the post time it's late or early however you'd like to put it. I just came in with the girls from the gym, and we had a blast! Don't worry Ashlyn was asleep a little before we came home. Anyway I wanted to take just a minute and tell you all that we had an awesome service! It was the first Watch night service for our church in a few years so it was extra special. God moved in a mighty way. My husband spoke a little about communion and the sanctity of it before we all partook and then afterwards he cast a vision of what God had given him for this new year! He summed it all up in one Big word, Restoration. He felt that God had put that in his heart for this church and for this year! Talk about getting excited.....WE DID! After this we watch the past three months in slides and it was great! I am so happy for what has happened in just the few short months we have been here but I can't hardly contain what I feel when I think about what is going to happen in the next few months!!!! I hope and pray that all of you had a blessed and safe New Year! I love you all and I expect great things in 2009.