Swine Flu

This article is well worth your time.  It's on the swine flu.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

It sure has been B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L here at the beach.  And really warm for April!

Pipes is burying her foot.  So proud of that....

The waterbug.  The water wasn't even that cold today.  It has really warmed up since Saturday.
The girls dug a hole for Zander and Connor to play in


Lovin the water!!
At one point Piper came up to me and said, "Ummm, Mommy, the water keeps chasing me"
Then she got over it:)

  We have the privilege of being at the beach with our dear friends the Balts this week.  We are having a ball!  

  

Gone Fishin

Uncle Chris took the girls fishing on Sunday....

Gracie was pretty into it
Piper kept saying, "I can't wait for my fish, I can't wait for my fish,"  We told her patience is part of fishing.  She didn't seem to get that 
They fished for about an hour but there weren't any bites.  They did lose their bait a few times to some nibblers.  Chris said the water was too cold for the fish to bite.  Bummer
Uncle Chris with the Barbie pole.  Nice.

6 months

Six months!!!

There she is....love how the belly is blurry but the background is clear

Proud biggest sister
Do forgive me.  I can't believe I let Lauren take pics of me in the raw:)  No shower even.

Piper loves to kiss my belly

She's Scrumptious!

How does your garden grow?

We got our garden planted last week.  Tracie and I usually do one together, but we weren't able to the past two years.  So we were eager to get started this year.  But, boy it was some serious work this time!  With all the rain we had, we had to keep putting it off.  So the first sunny day we had, we jumped on it.  But that meant the ground was still wet and very muddy, which makes it quite difficult to rake and plant.  Jeremy tilled the garden for us, but we had to make the rows ourselves.  It was tough!

The kids were all excited to help us.  But...you know how long that lasted.  They were off playing before we knew it.

Whew!  Are we done yet???
Nice boots
Planting peppers
And zucchini
Beautiful;)
Weren't we a motley crew???
Pictures are courtesy of Kim.  She enjoyed watching us toil in the soil:)

So we have peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, melons, okra, tomatoes, beans.  I think that's it.

We will see how our garden grows...

Easter

This is a LONG Easter post.  All the festivities in one post!

First, and the one thing I don't have pictures of, are the Resurrection Eggs.  The girls loved them this year.  And we had a great talk about the gospel.  Music to my ears.  Gracie can tell the whole Easter story with the eggs.

I uploaded the pictures from Easter morning to the egg hunts backwards.  So first up is Easter morning...

We woke up and got ready for church first and then listened to the Veggie Tales Easter CD while we ate breakfast.  Then they got their Easter Baskets.

Notice the scabs on Gracie's face.  She has them all down her cheek and nose.

After church we went to Nanny and Papaw's for lunch and a huge egg hunt.  100+ eggs for three little girls!
Gracie was into it:)
And Piper and Aunt Abbie were having some fun too:)

"Let me help you reach it"
Thrilled with her yellow egg...
Nanny had to assist on this one...

Papaw is telling them that he hid a special egg for them...They walked past it several times so they needed some serious hints.  It had $20 in it!!

Tristen found it!
Going through the loot...

We dyed Easter eggs at La La's house earlier in the week....

Two weeks ago we went to our friends the Davidson's for an egg hunt too:)

This is Anna Grace. She even had a tail:)
This is Cathy, the hostess
The kids played games...
Decorated cookies...
Piper immediately ate hers....
Then it was time for the big egg hunt, relay race style....

This worked really well since there were big and little kids.  Everyone got 10 eggs.
This is Noah...(I think)
And Bo and Ms. Christy...Love this picture

Look Mom!
One, two, free, four, five, six!

Now let me see what's in them....
Ewwwhhhh, an eraser! and candy, and some of them even had money!!

We have hidden and hidden and hidden eggs this year.  They think that is so much fun!  But most of all, as eggs mean new birth, we are so very grateful for the new birth we have in Christ.  And we celebrate Easter all year long.  Because we can't live our lives without the light of the Cross.  Christ is everything to us.  And we want Him to become everything to our girls.

Happy Easter

CC Carnival

Last Wednesday was our final co-op day for the year.  We ended with a carnival called the Oregon Trail Amazing Race since we studied American History this year.  Each mom paired up with someone to set up a booth.  The kids rotated through each booth where they played a game that involved their memory work from this year.  Despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing cold, the kids had a ball.

 I was part of the obstacle course so that is what most of the pictures are from...

 Here is the obstacle course....the amazing race, oregon trail style...

There were several different obstacles in the course, and they all involved stops along the Oregon Trail, of course;)  This is Windlass Hill-the kids had to climb up the slide. It was pretty funny watching them try to do this, they had a really hard time getting up it.
Here they are at the starting line getting instructions from Ms. Lucas, who by the way did an awesome job taking the reigns on the course.
They had to get their wagons around to Ft. Laramie...
Where they loaded up with supplies for their journey....
Then on to Council Bluffs to see if the Indians were going to let them pass....
Then to Devils Pass....
Before going up Windlass Hill which took them up to Independence Rock where they signed their names....
Then on to 3 Island Crossing where they had to build a bridge out of the leftover boards from their wagon....
Don't step in the water...
And the last stop was Apple Bobbing Oregon...

My favorite part:)

This is Anna Grace
And Will

This was the three-legged race station, one of Gracie's favorites
Here is Kiffer (as Piper calls him) getting his "apple"

This is another station where they were panning for gold, I think

And Pipes, doing what she loves...having her snack:)

What a fun day!  It is so amazing what the kids can remember from what they learned this year!

Guess what your Red Envelope Did....

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94142

Thanks Shawnda for posting it and big thanks to Kelly for letting me know about it in the first place:)

40 Days for Life

Sunday concluded the spring 40 Days for life campaign.  Guess what, so far there were 421 babies saved!!!!!  421!! Hooray!!!  AND 41 of those were from Charlotte:))  Go God!!

Keep praying friends!  The fall campaign starts in September and it's getting bigger and bigger each time.  And planned parenthood (the largest abortion chain in America) hates us more and more!  That's a good thing.  God hears our prayers.

Chris Tomlin

  Last Thursday was one of those days that I looked forward to for a long time, for more than a year actually.  We got to go to another Chris Tomlin concert!  I had been looking forward to it since November of 2007, when we went to the last Tomlin concert.  There's just nothing like it friends.  Worshipping God all night, praising His holy name with tons of other believers.  Sheer joy!

  For this concert, I got a special offer in the CD case when Tomlin's Hello Love CD came out last fall.  There was this code in it that you could use to go online and order your tickets.  Like super early-7 months in advance.  You didn't know where your seats would be, but they ensured you they would be good ones.  So I did it!  I would never do this for anything else, too much of a risk, but hey, for Chris, I'm in!  So to my delight, my tickets came in the mail in December and what do you know...front row baby!!  I couldn't believe it!  They definitely delivered on their promise!

  Israel Houghton and New Breed opened the concert for Tomlin.  Jeremy really enjoyed them.  Lisa and I were too busy wondering how long it would be till Chris came out:)  After about 45 mins and a 20 min intermission, he finally got the show on the road.  We heard all the awesome songs we were hoping for and then some.  Amazing Grace, my chains are gone, Jesus Messiah, I will rise, your grace is enough, how great is our God...

The one that really spoke to me this time was 

  Here are the lyrics:

         God Of This City lyrics

Verse1
You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

Verse2
You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Chorus
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

Verse1

Verse2

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Chorus

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God

Chorus

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come

And greater things are still to be done here     

Amen!!  It was a sweet reminder from the Lord that He is totally in control of what is going on around us.  He cares for us and greater things have yet to come!  He is Lord of us!

Chris spoke about a project they are doing called One Million Can   They are reaching out to minister to those in need all across the world through this project, knowing that one million people, pulling together can help make a difference.   There are several projects within this large one.  Building houses for rescued child soldiers, building villages for refugees, building a life and a future for rescued sex slaves, and providing life saving surgeries for children.  These are just a few of them.  Go check it out and see how God can use you and your family.

ps.  I don't have any pictures cause I was too lazy to lug my camera to the concert.

Gracie Girl

Got glasses.

When she went for her five year check-up in December, she couldn't pass the vision test.  So they sent us to a pediatric opthamologist but she's been on maternity leave until last week.  On Friday I took Gracie in and sure enough, the girl can't see!  She is nearsighted and has an astigmatism.  I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would be this soon.  I was almost legally blind before having laser surgery and well, you know Jeremy's history.  So all of our girls are doomed.

I took her on Sunday to pick out her glasses and these are the ones she liked.  She didn't like any other pair.  A girl who knows what she wants:)

She was very excited about them for the first two days.  She even asked me if she needed to take them off to get in the shower!  Then yesterday, they were no longer cool and she told me she looked silly in them.  Daddy helped work that through, and we are wearing our glasses again:)

21 weeks!

 So here we are, over half way there to meeting Baby G #3!  I can't believe it's going by so very fast.

 Baby is doing well and moving a lot now.  I love that feeling.  Sometimes it makes me jump cause I forget she's in there:)  

  I am doing really well!  Praise God and thank you friends so very much for each and every prayer on my behalf!!  I haven't had a migraine in about three weeks!!!!!!  And the last one only lasted for four hours!!  Can you believe that???  Our God is so very kind.

So I have been thinking a lot about what it means to have another girl....

  1.  Tons more sisterly lovin and bonding (my very fav reason this is our third girl)

  2.  Like mother, like daughter (I am one of three girls, this saying makes me chuckle)

  3. More of the same, which is A-okay with me

  4. I don't have to think up a new blog title

  5.  I don't have to paint anything

  6. Even though everyone tells me girls are harder, I really love it this way.  I feel a calling to                 raise them. I've never felt that way about boys.

  7.  God knows what He is doing.  He is giving us the perfect child for our family.

  There is progress being made on the name front.  I have several that I really like and Jeremy does too.  But we still have to have a few pow-wows about it.  The middle name is mostly chosen, which makes some of the first names I really like null and void.  But the name I am most rooting for-love the meaning of it!!  So we will see, there will probably be a poll coming soon.  

  As you can tell, we aren't discussing the names we like yet.  It's just really not fun when people wrinkle their noses up at your choices.  Plus, we want this to be from the Lord.  So I am researching names and trusting God to reveal the right one.  I think He already has....but J has to agree:)