Big Boy!

This is our handsome little boy Daniel. Isn't he sweet? But our little Daniel is growing up so fast! He is involved in preschool choir at church and just finished Mother's Day Out/Preschool 2 days a week at our church to help prepare him for Kindergarten next year.....well, August. Two months and my oldest child will be in KINDERGARTEN! I can't believe it! Anyway...his preschool choir just preformed for the church a couple of Sunday nights ago. Here are a few pictures of Daniel singing.

We were really proud of him! I love watching the kids choirs sing....especially when my child is involved. :) So the Thursday following this little program, his Mother's Day Out had their end of the year program. This one was really cute too. Here he is getting ready to start.And singing...In between each of the songs, the older kids took turns saying what they wanted to be when they grow up. Here Daniel is waiting in line for his turn.But, the poor little guy choked. I guess he just couldn't bring himself to speak in front of all those people.Bless his heart. So his teacher stood up and saved him and told everyone that Daniel wanted to be a baseball player when he grows up. After they finished singing, the teachers called each child and presented them with their little diploma. So our little Daniel has officially graduated preschool and is ready to head to Kindergarten! I can't believe it! We are so proud of him!

Thomas the Train

Each year, this event called "A Day out with Thomas" comes to the Tennessee Valley Railroad in Chattanooga. We went a couple years ago, but didn't get to go last year. This year, with Austin being a little older and extremely in love with trains, we thought the kids might really enjoy it. We were right. It really is a lot of fun. They have a tent with a little play station with train tables for the kids to play, a petting zoo, putt-putt, a moon bounce, and many other things for the kids to play on before or after their 20 minute train ride on none other than Thomas himself! Here is Thomas railing by while we are doing some of the other activities.Here the kids are showing off their tattoos. Daniel got Harold the Helicopter, Lily got Rosie and Austin got James.Then it was time for a little bouncy in the Thomas moon bounce.Then we decided to play a game of putt-putt. I think this is the first time the kids have ever played putt-putt. We will definately have to do this again soon...they really enjoyed it, and Daniel was really good!

Then we headed over to the petting zoo. That one wasn't as much of a hit for the kids. They went in there and all, but as you can see...Daddy is the one feeding them.We also let the kids play around on the other trains and train tracks while we were waiting our turn for the train ride. They really had fun doing this.

And here we are....riding on Thomas! I just couldn't resist this picture. I mean really...how can you not want to just kiss those cheeks!And a picture of me and my wonderful husband on the train ride. The kids wanted to sit on one side of the isle with Grandmaw...so we were stuck sitting by ourselves on the other side....bummer. :)All in all, it was a really fun day! I love doing fun things with the kids!

~Kammy~

Party Night.....Date Night.

Hello blog friends! It has been some time since I have blogged. And...I still have no pictures for you! BUT...hopefully tonight I will get to blog some about the fun things we've done the last few weeks since I am going to my inlaws (where there is high speed internet). BUT, the most exciting thing about me going to my inlaws this evening is that...........we are leaving our children there! See, my mother-in-law and my kids have these "parties" occasionally. They pretty much consist of them spending the night with her, eating endless amounts of sugar and popcorn, and having no bedtime....pretty much every kid's dream. They get soooo excited when it's time for a sleepover at Grandmaw's (or as Lily has begun to call them...party-overs). So anyway, last night when Grandmaw invited them to spend the night, of course they screamed "YEAH!" And then they proceded to tell Jason and I that we were not allowed to come; and that we had to go to bed early. Needless to say, we are devestated. We may even punish ourselves more and sleep in tomorrow morning. So really, the more I am thinking about it...I may not be blogging til tomorrow morning (or lunchtime.....or afternoon) when we pick the kids up. I think we may be out of there before I'll have time to blog. Date night has been waiting for us for far too long this time. We usually try to have a date night fairly regularly, but lately we have been so busy that we haven't. So, all you couples out there....send your kids to their grandparents and go out on a date! It's fun for everyone!

~Kammy~

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!!!!