Strawberry Day!

Every year in May we have the Strawberry Festival here in Dayton. A carnival comes to town for the week; and towards the end of the week various venders and booths set up around the courthouse and sell homemade goodies and all that wonderful carnival food we all love to indulge in. It's great! They usually put up the signs through town advertising it...and every time the kids would see them they'd say..."When is Strawberry Day?" The Saturday of the festival is when they have the big Strawberry Parade. This year our youth group decided to ask for donations to park in our church parking lot to raise money for their youth camp. So the kids and I loaded up on Saturday morning and decided to go hang out with Jason and the youth until the parade started. The boys decided to play some football.Lily just watched...mostly. I decided that I needed a full length picture of her outfit. Last year we looked for a whole month before the festival trying to find her a strawberry outfit and couldn't. So needless to say when Grandmaw found this outfit and the oh-so-loved-but-very-expensive Gymboree, she got it for Lily. I am in love with it.It wasn't long before we filled up the parking lot; so then we decided to go on down to the parade. This is Austin's favorite spot.When the fire engines and ambulances come by, they are many times honking their horns and running the sirens. The kiddos aren't very fond of loud noises.I had so much fun getting pictures of them that day. They also had some really big moon bounces that the kids got to bounce around in for awhile. Although Lily didn't get to bounce much because she didn't have any socks and they were too hot on her feet.

And what's a festival and a carnival without cotton candy?

We had to take a little ride on the choo choo....a few times actually. The kids decided that Daddy and Pappy need to build us our own train like this.All in all it was so much fun. The kids had a blast looking around at everything and playing around. We actually went to the carnival twice that week because the kids loved it so much. And can you believe I have no pictures of them at the carnival....I forgot my camera the first time and it was out of battery the second time. Oh well....but every night since, Lily's prayer request during our family prayer time has been that the carnival would come back. By the way...the Tidwell strawberries (a big local strawberry farm) are DELICIOUS! Happy Strawberry Day! (a month late)

~Kammy~

Colossians 3:12

For the last...well...long time...I've been going through the book of Colossians in my quiet time. For those of you who know me well, since I had all my kids I have had a very hard time keeping a consistent quiet time. But, especially lately, I have felt very convicted about not having consistent time every day with the Lord. I know my life is very busy; but lets face it....if I can make time to sit back and relax to a favorite tv show every night; I can make time for quality time in God's Word!

Anyway...lately I have been sitting down to do my quiet time with a dictionary. I LOVE it! I am constantly amazed at what a greater understanding I have of God's word when I fully understand the meanings of the words I'm reading. I have even started looking up words that I pretty much know what they mean; because I've noticed that sometimes I learn a new meaning...or just gain more insight on it.

Well....today I sat down and read Colossians 3:12-17. I spent the remainder of my time looking up words in Colossians 3:12. This is what it reads:

"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Beautiful scripture....that says so much more than what I am going to share now. But these are the two words I want to point out for now.

gentleness (gentle): well-born; refined in manners; mild; not rough, violent, or wild; soothing
patience (patient): enduring without murmuring; not easily provoked (or irritated); preserving; not hasty

For some time; I have been disappointed in christians and their manners. Just simple things like: how waiters say their least favorite day to work is Sundays because the church people are so rude and don't tip....or how a christian in a workplace doesn't have good work ethic....or how we don't help the elderly because it slows us down....you know...basic manners that even non-christians seem to have, but many of us "christians" don't. I'm sure we are all guilty of doing these things at some time or another (we're all sinners); but some make all too much of a habit of it. But until today, I did not realize how directly scripture deals with having bad manners. Having good manners is part of gentleness! One of the fruits of the Spirit! And patience....I think we all would agree we need more patience...but if any of you know me well; you know that...especially when it comes to my wonderful 3 children...I can definately be easily irritated. And enduring without murmuring....I think all of our churches could stand for us to be a little more like that! Well, anyway...just looking up those simple words was really enlightnening to me. It again, gave me a better understanding of what those words mean; and how often I really do fall short of God's command to "put on a heart" of these things. May the Lord help us all to be more compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. And may He help us to make a conscious effort to "put on" these things....they don't come naturally in our sinful flesh!

Kammy

Our Tuesday

Hello blog friends...all of you. How about this cold weather?! I, for one, am NOT a fan! I've been wanting for about a month now, to plant a few flowers and a few herbs in some baskets over our porches. I really loved doing a full-fledged garden last year, but since we live in an apartment this year, it is obviously not possible. Anyway, I finally got to buy the stuff Monday night, so yesterday afternoon we planted it. I never expected, in the middle of May, to be planting flowers and herbs with long pants on...and a long sleeved shirt.....AND a jacket. It was so cold!

Anyway....Jason took his day off yesterday; and we felt like doing something fun with the kids. So after Daniel got done with school and we finished planting; we decided to pack the kids up and go down to the aquaruim. The kids had a blast! And since it costs $25 per adult and $15 per child (3 and above)....meaning it would cost us $80 to go....and the 1 year membership is only $115, we decided to buy the membership! Soooo....we now can go to the aquarium ANY time we want...for free (kinda)! I am super excited about that! I told the kids that they could ask me anytime to go see the fish; and as long as we didn't have plans, we would go. They asked today if we could go. I think we are going to get our money's worth. Anyway...I don't have any pictures because I keep forgetting to charge our camera! But now, I'll have all year to take pictures of them there! Anyway...Happy COLD Wednesday! I think it's finally supposed to warm up tomorrow!

Lily's First Ballet Recital

On Thursday night, April 21st....Lily had her first dance recital. Pitiful really, that I am just now blogging about it, but better late than never, right? Anyway...it was simply precious. I may have even shed a little tear.

To say that Lily co-operated with the whole getting on stage thing would be an understatement. The child was made for the stage. You see, during practice....Lily definately liked ballet ok, but she was never the most enthusiastic child in there. It's almost like she acted shy or embarassed the whole time. She didn't sit on the floor and do nothing, but she definately didn't do each and every move the teachers told her to. And then came recital week. They had a spacing rehearsal, dress rehearsal, and a recital. I have never seen the child do ballet so perfectly. She did each and every move precisely....and she LOVED it.

And if I may say so myself....she looked absolutely adorable. Their costumes were so cute! Btw...getting her hair into a ballerina bun was an awesome experience.

When the recital was over, she was sooo excited to get to take her purple tutu home. We asked Lily if she wanted to do dance class again next year. Her reply was, "I just want to do the recital." And there you have it! Love her!!!!

Meet Austin...

This is Austin. 23 pounds of utter cuteness. This little 2-year-old has the most awesome little personality. He is sweet and funny and outgoing....never meets a stranger. And he gives the tightest hugs with those sweet little arms. One might think with a personality and demeanor like him, that he would be classified as a very easy child. But, au contraire.....this child may be cute and fun......but he is also IN TO EVERYTHING. This child was climbing on top of the kitchen table before he could walk. He has taken a dozen eggs and dropped them all over the floor (twice I might add). He has taken vaseline and rubbed it all over the bunk beds. He has opened the refrigerator, reached onto the top shelf, taken his almost full bottle of antibiotics, opened it (getting past the "child proof" top), and drank the whole thing. He has (if you have a weak stomach skip these next 2 things) reached into the toilet that his brother had earlier gone #2 in...and not flushed...and eaten the toilet paper out of it. And also, has reached his hand into the stream of urine that his older brother was shooting into the potty, and then proceeded to put his hand in his mouth. And I can't count the number of times I have come into the kitchen and found a whole box of cereal on the floor....or walked in the bathroom and found a whole roll of toilet paper un-rolled.....or found a hershey kiss...foil paper and all...in his little mouth. I'm sure there are many more of his little incidents that have (possibly traumatically) slipped my mind at the moment....but you get the idea. So needless to say, when I went into my room a couple of weeks ago and found this.....And this..........I shouldn't have been surprised. Granted....this was definately not one of his biggest messes...he only got a few drops on the floor...but the best part, was that at the time of the incident, I had no finger nail polish remover. And since, I have been finding random splotches of fingernail polish on random toys. He's a mess...literally. But, then....who can resist this face....
You've gotta love him!
p.s. On a positive note, this same adorable little boy is, at this very moment, wearing big boy underwear, and has been since 9:00 this morning. And he has yet to have an accident! He is also dehydrated.....(just kidding). He has "pee-peed" in the potty 2 times since! Maybe, just MAYBE, I will soon be free from changing diapers for the first time in 5 and 1/2 years! Whoo hoo!!

Tonsils and Adnoids

Well, today is approximately one week from my last post and I have yet to post anything that I mentioned posting about in my previous post...(could I say "post" one more time, please?). I still have yet to retrieve my camera bag (which I have been without for approximately 2 weeks now). But, to my defense, I have at least called and tried to catch the nice people who have our bag at home, and haven't yet.

But, as also mentioned in my last blog, our little Daniel did undergo surgery to get his tonsils and adnoids out last Friday. Friday was great. I did not quite make it out of there tear free, but it was much better than I imagined it (as always). He got me all teary-eyed several times when he said things like..."I want to go home" and "I don't want to do this." But he also did not cry when they took him away from us. He got to help push his little bed back to the room. (And he did have to wear a little hospital gown). My parents and Jason's mom came with us to the procedure, which was nice. And we had none other than the Royal Wedding (live...I might add) to keep us occupied while he was in surgery. But all in all, we were out of there by about 9 am. Not too bad at all....and he seemed to feel GREAT....Friday. And then we had Friday night-Sunday. It seems that he caught some sort of coughing virus at some point (probably just before his surgery) causing him to run a fever of 103 and the worst part....to cough constantly through the night. Yes, I said cough constantly...with an already sore throat. I felt so bad for him. But I will say...during the days...he still was quite a little trooper....barely even complaining much of his throat hurting. We went back to the doctor Monday for his post-op appt, and the doc said he looked good....and gave us some cough medicine. It has been a life saver....and a sleep saver! Anyway...I could go on and on about the lack of sleep we all experienced and the crazy amount of medicine cups that have run through our dishwasher (thankfully we have a dishwasher) the last few days, but I won't bore you....all of you...with all the details. Now we just have to make it through the next few days stuck in the house. The doctor doesn't want us going anywhere in case he catches something (like maybe a virus) from other kids.....imagine that. And we have to keep the crazy energetic 5 year old...who has 2 even crazier more energetic siblings...from doing anything energetic for the next 3 weeks. Fun! Wish us luck!