Wordless Wednesday

Luke being held hostage on his Birthday with his own weapons!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Two boys and their dog. The little bit of blurriness you see at the left of the picture is the cat's whiskers. He was being nosy and wanted to investigate what we were doing. 

 

I am still here!

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted a regular post here. The summer brought about a great deal of activity and kept us pretty busy.

The activity started in May. The Children's Pastor from our church was co-writer/ co-director of a movie that will probably come out next year. It was filmed in Kentucky and my kids had a chance to participate.

First, our six youngest and I were extras in a wedding scene. We had to wake up really early and drive about an hour away to get to the filming location. It was an incredibly long day. Being an extra calls for sitting around  for a lot of hours and having a great deal of patience. Our son Josh was an intern on the set, so it gave him wonderful experience for his future. Josh is going to school studying Media Communications and plans to make movies. Josh's fiance, Jillian, joined us that day and sure made they day a whole lot more fun!

The following week we spent three days at a school so the kids could be extras in scenes there.They were long days, but the kids enjoyed having their chance of being in a movie. I think it can be more tiring just sitting around not doing much than actually spending you time doing something.

This is a Christian Movie and I really believe that it is really going to be awesome! I cannot wait until it comes out. My children will probably been seen a little bit. Micah was in a classroom scene and I think that there will be a shot of him sitting at a desk.  He and the rest of the kids also participated in hallway scenes and on the playground. It will be fun to see if we will see them.

June rolled around and that started Musical rehearsals at our Church. This was the sixth Summer our kids spent a great deal of their summer doing a  musical. Our Children's pastor was responsible for this as well. He wrote the script with his sister. Each year the musical is about a character from the Bible.

Micah is a tourist in this scene. He is the one with the blue visor.

Here is Micah in the basic costume, singing and dancing.

This is the only picture I have of Anna right now. She took this with her ipod. I hope that someone else has pictures of here that they can share with me.

Each year the musicals have grown and grown and so many kids have become involved that they had to make two musicals. One for the older kids (7th -12th grade) and one for the younger kids ( K-6th grade). This year was Ruth for the younger kids and Rahab for the older kids. This year brought on a new adventure because so many kids were participating. They divided the older kids into two different casts! It turned out well because it allowed so many more kids to get parts.

Since I had 2 kids in Ruth and 3 in Rahab, this required a lot of back and forth to our church which happens to be about a 45 minute drive. Yes, it was crazy, but it was worth it in the long run.  The performances started about mid August. Ruth gave two performances and each Rahab cast gave 2 performances. We had to be at every performance since Tori had to sing in both casts and Matthew helped with the Lights during the other cast's performances.

Matthew and Samuel are in the Roman Guard Costumes. They are characters named Diamedes and Ulysses.

Matthew by his "drum". This year they did a really cool stomp routine using buckets, trash cans and some other things! It was really cool! They did an amazing job!

Tori's character was a set builder. She's too pretty to be a guy, don't you think?

Here is Tori with some of her good friends.

Samuel with our Children's Pastor.

I must share that these are not just any ole church plays. There is tremendous quality associated with them. From the writing, acting, to the singing, to the choreography, to set design. Everything is truly amazing!.

On a somewhat sad note, our Children's Pastor has since resigned to take a job to make more Christian movies full time! He is such a talented man and I pray that God will use him mightily for His Kingdom! We are going to miss him terribly but at the same time, we are excited to see what God is going to do through him.

In July, we did mange to sneak in a visit to visit my mom and extended family in Virginia. It was so great to spend time with family and I wish we could visit there more often.

The public schools in our area started in mid August. We did not end up starting until the day after labor day. We had spent so many evenings at church for dress rehearsals and performances that it just made more sense to wait. We are finally falling back into  the groove of things. It kind of feels good to be back into a regular routine, but Summer is always welcome back any time!


Well, that is all for now. I hope to be back real soon with more!

Have an Awesome Monday!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Micah on his recent Birthday. Glasses and hat were a present from his big brother Jeremy. Coconut was a last minute present. When he woke up that morning, he said, "I really hope I get a coconut for my Birthday!" Rebekah was out that day, so I called her to pick up a coconut. How could I refuse?

 

Wordless Wednesday

Luke and Micah dressing up for the camera.  I did a little playing around with Picasa!

This is what the original looked like.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Anna, Luke,Micah and Samuel at the Pinewood Derby 2012!

 

Show Us Your Life: Mom Of Boys

Mother Karen has seven sons, seven sons has Mother Karen...

Welcome to you who are visiting from Kelly's Korner!  I am Karen and I am mom to 10 living children total! Seven which happen to be boys!

Today Kelly is having a link up on Mom's of Boys. I think I qualify since I have seven! I just happen to have three girls as well!

Let me introduce you to my sons.

Jeremy is our oldest at 25

Jeremy recently visiting with my Mom

Tim is second at 23. He has been married to Naomi since January 2010.

Tim and Naomi

Josh comes in 3rd at 20. He just recently got engaged to Jillian. A June 2013 Wedding is planned.

Josh and Jillian on Easter 2012

So you can see, my three oldest are boys! Next came two girls. Rebekah and Victoria.

Matthew is next in line at 14.

Matthew on Easter 2012

Up next is Samuel at 12.

Samuel on Easter 2012

After Samuel we had a little break from boys and had another girl, Anna.

Then came Luke who is now 8.

Luke on Easter 2012

And Coming in last, but most definitely not least is Micah at age 6!

Micah on Easter 2012

Being a mom to boys can be challenging, but it is also a joy! It is fun to see life from their perspective. It is also so sweet how much they love their Mom! I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world!

 

Our Trip to the Creation Museum ~ October 2011

I have missed blogging through the past several months. I had pictures ready and waiting to be posted to a blog post, so now I am trying to catch up. So here is the first post playing catch up!

In October I took several of the children to the Creation Museum. It was a beautiful, warm, Fall day.

We tried to make the most out of our trip and see as much as we could.We walked through the whole museum and saw most of the movies and visited the planetarium. We enjoyed walking through the beautiful gardens and the petting zoo. We were quite tired when we were finished.

This first picture is of Samuel, standing in front of Adam in the Garden, with some animals.

Samuel

 

I believe that the dinosaur display was a favorite of most of the boys.

These silly boys decided they had to have a break while walking through the museum.

Samuel, Matthew and Luke

We stopped for a lunch break at the Noah's Cafe.

Micah, Matthew, Luke, Anna, Rebekah, and Samuel

I love the beautiful Fall Colors. We walked around for quite a long time.

We saw this pretty little guy on our walk to the petting zoo.

The four youngest enjoyed the petting zoo quite a bit. This guy was very eager to be fed!

I thought this guy was quite pretty.

Micah was trying to feed this guy but he was a little intimidated by him!

Micah

This is a Zedonk.

This is a Zorse.

Meet Gomer. The kids enjoyed having a ride on him!.

Anna and Gomer

Luke and Gomer

Micah and Gomer

Samuel and Gomer

While walking through the Gardens we encountered this bridge. The kids had a lot of fun going back and forth. I personally was glad to get off!

Luke and Anna

Micah, Luke and Matthew

Luke, Micah and Samuel

After walking around for quite some time in the warm weather, we found this gazebo and enjoyed the shade as well as the fish we were able to feed.

Micah and Luke

Micah

I pretty much had to pry Luke and Micah away from the Fish!

And this is as we were leaving and were pretty worn out!

Samuel, Micah, Rebekah, Luke, Matthew and Anna

We had a wonderful day at the Creation Museum! Now I would love to see the Spring foliage.I know it must be beautiful!

 

Wordless Wednesday

The kids adore their older sister! Micah is the only one still small enough to get on her shoulders!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Micah fell asleep on the couch the other night with his furry friend!

 

Spring Has Sprung, The Grass Has Ris...

Or Has it?

The past few days have been just beautiful around here. The feeling that Spring is in the air is bringing relief that Winter is about over.  I am reminded of this little poem that my Mom would recite! Looking all over the Internet I found a few different versions.

The  version I remember most went like this:

Spring has sprung. The grass is ris. I wonder where the flowers is?”

Bad grammar, I know! I do not remember if there was more to it or not.

Here is another version I found:

It has been pretty warm here, mostly in the 70's. Today has been warm again, but a cold front is moving in and with it Thunderstorms are expected this evening. We are in a Tornado watch until tonight.  The next few days are supposed to be in the 40's. It was nice while it lasted!

Here is a reading from the Thermometer in Rebekah's car showing the outside temperature taken yesterday.

I walked around the yard to see if I could find any sign of life. I was a bit surprised to see that my Rhododendrons are going to bloom in the near future.




If you have any clue why there are spots on the leaves and what I can do about it, please let me know!

 


I found many dandelions. You know a lot of  people spend a lot of time trying to get rid of these, but there is something about the pretty yellow flowers that I really like!

After taking these pictures, I realized that we have a lot of weeds in our backyard! But some of them are so pretty!




Are they weeds or wild flowers?

 





Growing up, I called these violets. I have no idea what they are really called.

 




Here they are a little closer up. My pictures are not showing their beautiful blue color!

 




Here is some wild onion growing amongst some of the pretty purple flowers weeds! Our backyard has a ton of wild onions growing this year! 

 

As I was walking along, I also found some really cute kids playing!




Micah on the swing

 




Luke

 
Upon further inspection, I found the turtles are coming out of hibernation. Four of the five have been spotted. The smallest one named April has yet to be seen. Of course Zach was the first to be seen. He is the most outgoing turtle and he has personality! Last week, he had just his head sticking out of the ground!



Here's Mr Zach!



I believe that Spring is my favorite time of the year! As the weather grows warmer and new life is starting to sprout, it makes me feel as though I can break out of my shell and out of hibernation! There just seems to be a new hope and a new promise. It makes me feel like I have a fresh new start!




Picture Credit



For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Happy Almost Spring Everyone!