:: joyful hearts ::

We have had several conversations with Vivi and Max about what is going on in Haiti and they have been praying for Haiti every night. On the news, Vivi saw a baby that was hurt in the earthquake and her little heart is so burdened for this baby....every night when she prays for Haiti she specifically prays for the baby to get better and when it is my turn to pray, if I forget to pray for the baby she scolds me and I have to pray again :-).

Sunday morning before we left for church, Paul pulled out the kids money, it's a big jar, with a lot of coins and bills mixed in, Paul told them that they can take as much of their money as they wanted and give it to help Haiti, they were pulling out so much money that we had to get them a baggie to hold it all. They were so proud that they were doing something to help. When church was over the ushers stood at the doors with the offering plates, Vivi and Max RAN to the ushers, they didn't lay their baggies in the plates but opened them and with much excitement they dumped all their money from their bags in the plates. Can you imagine how happy that must have made God, not because they gave their own money but because they gave it so joyfully and with so much excitement. Our children continually teach us......God wants us to give with that kind of heart.

The other night, Vivi Jo and Max took their pillow out of their pillow case and started filling them up with toys and things from their room. Paul walked in as saw what they were doing and ask them why they were doing that and Max said, " we're going to have a rummage sale (where in the world he got rummage I will never know...LOL.....I never call it that...I always say garage sale or yard sale)". then Paul ask him why they were going to sale all their stuff and he said, "to get money." Paul ask, "why do you need money?"....and Max said, "to give to Haiti."

I think that giving their money must have felt pretty good, for them to start gathering items to have a rummage sale....I pray this taste of giving gets sweeter and sweeter and their compassionate hearts grow larger and larger.

got milk?

this would be viv's drink of choice! oh how my girl LOVES MILK!!! she makes sure we always have atleast two cartons in the fridge....and is quick to let us know when we need to restock.

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milk makes her happy and giggly....but what doesn't. :-)

instant art.

(the view when you walk down my hall)

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i have never like bathrooms....how do you even decorate a bathroom?....so i haven't in the 4 years we have lived here. until last weekend....i had a ton of frames that were taking up space in our storage building, some were black and several weren't....i sweet talked my hubs into spray painting them all black. then i hung them randomly. who would have ever thought that my bathroom would be one of my favorite rooms. working on the master bath right now, again from "junk" i found in our storage bldg....i will share once completed.

camping in the great INDOORS!

roasting marshmallows.

cooling them off.

the makings of smores.


the mini smore.


ahhhhh....life is good....camping under the quilt!

let's try this again!

black & white wednesday

my bloggy friend lisa is hosting black & white wednesday. it's still wednesday so go visit her HERE , add your photo and join in on the fun!

i heart faces ::best face photo::

happy birthday i heart faces. go here to see other beautiful faces.

this picture was from last summer. max was enjoying his first sno-cone but if you remember, he didn't enjoy it near as much as his sister :-). go here to recap that sweet treat afternoon.

vivian is 6.

on december 29th our little miss vivian turned 6 years old. we had a birthday dinner for her. she and daddy made her birthday cake together....it was *DELICIOUS*! in a year, our girl has grown like a weed, she has gained 4 pounds and now weighs a whoppin 39 pounds, she has grown 3 inches taller and is now 46 inches tall, and has gone from a size 11 shoe to a 13. at the moment she is going through another growth spurt because the last few days I noticed that her pants were much shorter. i'm having a hard time keeping my long legged girl in pants and shoes :-).

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we love you so much our 6 year old bundle of joy!

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okay, i must share so maybe knowing this, you bargain hunters might get just as good a deal as i did. viv kept looking at the loving family doll house by fisher price in a catalog we got in the mail. they are pretty expensive when you start adding the people. furniture and accessories. i got hers on eBay packed full of accessories, for a song :-), way before the Christmas shopping season began, i just put it back for her birthday. it is not the newest model and you can see on the roof that it's faded from the sun a little but other than that it is like new and as you can tell from the pictures our birthday girl loves it!

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sssshhhhhh....the family is sleeping.

four word wednesday.....

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baby, it's cold outside!

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(he didn't sleep with the beanie on all night....he wanted wear it and feel asleep with it on :-)

tuesday tickler

i admit, while the BIGS were home...more specifically the boy BIGS (britney is a health NUT), i have not focused on healthy eating nor had healthy foods in the house because they don't particularly like nutritious healthy foods. they don't get to come home that often so when they do, i want them to enjoy mamas comfort food cookin. i stocked the pantry with their favorite junky snack foods...not the norm at our house. well, viv and max got a good taste of JUNK and of course they loved it. there was still a bag of "bad" chips (like the baked ones aren't bad...HA) in the pantry, max walks in with them wanting some, vivi (the little mama...and apparently wasn't craving them at the moment) says, "no max that is not good for our bodies". max's response was, "well, it is good for my neck!". i ask him, "how is it good for your neck"? he said, "well it's good when i swallow them!"...LOL! i can't argue with that :-).

motion picture monday

these two make me laugh! in these videos, vivi and max are singing the B.I.B.L.E, but there is more silliness going on than anything. max learned this song in his choir but vivi didn't, so max was teaching her. in case you are wondering why vivi keeps putting her two fingers up it is because i was doing that as a sign for them to begin. max choir teacher had them start off softly and then get louder and louder but as you can see in the video max wants to do his own thing and viv tries to give him direction. she is such a little mama, he leaned back and barely bumped his head on the back of the sofa, she noticed instantly and told him, "now watch out your gonna hurt your head". i love watching them interact with each other.

:: be sure and turn the music off on my sidebar ::

celebrating 365

today begins a new year. i am going to attempt to take atleast one picture of vivi and max each day this year, some days it might be several photos and other days it may only be one. i love the thought of having a years worth of pictures of them to look back on. go HERE to join me at celebrating 365.

HAPPY 2010!!!

Well, I rang in the New Year alone tonight....just me and my lil ole pot and spoon...hehehe...actually, we went over to our friends that live next door and had a snack supper, visited and let the kids play. We left early to put the kids to bed, the bank was so crazy busy today that Paul was exhausted so he went on to bed.....I have a tradition that I have done for many many years, starting when I was a little girl with my Nanny. I would spend the night with her on New Years Eve and when it turned midnight she and I would stand on her front porch with a cooking pot in one hand and a spoon in another and we would bang and bang and shout HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! So tonight I stood on my little porch all by myself and banged and shouted and thought of my Nanny that is now walking with Jesus, thought of my boys waiting for me in China....and praised God for His goodness!

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

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I love you my bloggy friends!