Peter Pan

 

 This past weekend, we took the girls to see The Rockbridge Ballet's performance of Peter Pan. The Rockbridge Ballet is connected with The Studio, where our girls take ballet classes. Several of the dancers in Peter Pan were helpers in either Rachel or Bekah's ballet classes. So our girls have been excited for weeks about getting see these ballerinas in Peter Pan.

All the cast and crew did a great job and our girls loved the show. Bethany even kicked her little feet like she wanted to dance. Peter Pan was also followed by some stories written by students in the area and then choreographed into dances. These were neat to see also. We had a fun evening at the ballet.

                                                 

Thanksgiving Eve

 Well, this is not usually a sight we see the day before Thanksgiving, but here it was! By 7:30 at our house, the ground was very nearly covered. Brent is estimating that we got around 5 inches here at our house. The snow fell steadily most of the day and the girls and I never left home today. In fact, the girls and I didn't even go outside until late afternoon once the snow stopped

 We did bundle up in many layers and run Bethany outside long enough to get a picture of her first snow.

Bethany's first snow    November 26, 2014

 Photo by Rachel and photobombed by Bekah

 The big girls threw a couple of snowballs and made their snow angels and they were ready to head back into the house for pocorn and hot chocolate.

 We apparently have a new tradition for Thanksgiving Eve as well. Lasagna has long been a tradition in Brent's family growing up on Christmas Eve. We have brought this to our family as well for Christmas Eve.

 It looks like we may have Thanksgiving Eve lasagna now as well!

 Brent didn't get to go out with the big girls earlier so after supper, they all bundled back into their many layers and headed out for a few minutes of after supper snow fun. Meet Daisy, our snowy addition.

What a way to nearly finish up November with several inches of snow! Looking forward to Thanksgiving finally getting here and time to celebrate with our family!

FMBC Parents' Night Out

                                  


 Thanks to our College and Cadet Ministry at FMBC, we were blessed to enjoy a Parents' Night Out this past Friday evening. All the girls, even the smallest one, stayed and enjoyed the fun. Their Mom and Dad got to go out a date to Staunton. We had also been blessed with a gift card so we headed to Red Lobster.

 I snapped a few pictures before we left to go and a few when we got back. We were even sent pictures of the girls on our phone while we were eating. That was great to see how they were doing!

They had a game time, pizza and a movie. All of their favorite things...

 Here were Mr. Joey and Bethany. Here are Bekah and Amaya watching the movie. Can you tell Bekah didn't want to stop watching the movie to look at me?

 One of the pictures we got by text was of Bethany asleep on Cadet Walker's shoulder. Here they are together after we got back when she was awake from her nap.

Thanks to Joey Jones,our College and Cadet ministry, Molly Kay, and others for planning, organizing and leading this great event for our parents and kids at FMBC. Our girls had a wonderful time and their parents certainly appreciate your willingness to serve!

A Visit with Papa

Last weekend, we enjoyed a quick visit with Papa (Brent's Dad). He and a few friends come to Roanoke several times a year and usually, if we can, we try to meet them for a meal and quick visit. We had a birthday party later in the afternoon, so this trip they came to meet us in Lexington. They met us at church first and then we headed to lunch together.

Bekah talking to Nana on Papa's phone

 Both girls wanted Papa and his friends their Sunday School classes (both girls have moved up to new Sunday School classes since Papa visited last)

Then we enjoyed a very good lunch at Foothill Mamas. Thanks Papa for coming up to visit us while you were close by. Looking forward to visiting with all our family this coming week at Thanksgiving!

4 Month Checkup

 Today, we had Bethany's 4 month checkup. She will officially be 4.5 months old tomorrow. I had to include this picture of her in her hat. The past few days as we have been putting a hat on her she has given us a look like"what is this thing on my head?" So I was glad to catch a picture of her happy in her hat.
I was guessing that her weight would be around 12 pounds because she had just recently gone up a diaper size.
 
 November 19, 2014
Weight: 12 pounds and 1/2 ounce
Height: 23 and 1/4 inches

 Later in the day, she decided to show us how big she is getting. I put a few toys on the tray of the swing in front of her for her to look at.  A few minutes later, I noticed that she had one of the bigger ones in her lap.  I thought she had just managed to knock it down with her hands, so I put it on the tray again.  This time I watched a little more closely, and saw her reach out and grab the toy!

We are thankful for Bethany's good check-up today and are amazed at how quickly she is growing up!

Date Night

Last week, we had the blessing of enjoying a date night just the two of us! I think it had been about 4 months since we had been able to go out on a date together (yes, I realize Bethany is just about 4 months old). Though we weren't able to be gone very long, it was very very nice to get sit still and talk to each other through an entire meal!  We ate at Foothill Mama's, which is always good. We love their Chippers and Ranch Dip.

 

" Where were the girls?" you ask. They were having an absolute blast at the Doreys. Kaitlin (also known as Kay Kay to our girls) offered to babysit for us to go on a date night for Brent's birthday. Bethany has now gotten old enough that I can be gone for 1 to 2 hours so we were blessed to enjoy a date night. Thanks Kaitlin, Debbie and Tom for taking such good care of our girls and blessing Brent and me!

SBCV Annual Homecoming

At the beginning of this past week, we attended the SBCV Annual Homecoming in Colonial Heights. It is always a great couple of days of preaching and meetings that are held each year in early November.  It was also neat because we lived in this area before we moved to Lexington so it was fun to bring the girls back and see friends and co-workers while we were in town and at the meetings.

Monday night, we had the blessing of hearing Alistair Begg preach and also again on Tuesday morning. What a great sense of humor he displayed along with solid Biblical preaching!

Bethany's first SBCV meeting

 We enjoyed getting to meet some old friends from Swift Creek while we were in town. 
  We met the Lees' for a meal when we arrived.

Rachel and Mr. Chris deciding that they didn't want to look at the camera for this picture...

 Thank you to LB for keeping the big girls while we attended one of the sessions. They had a great time with you!

 On Tuesday, they attended the session with us.

 While we were there, we saw a former deacon from SCBC, "Grandpa James" and introduced him to Bethany. We also enjoyed getting to see the Felkers, Kidds, Bobos and  several others while we were at the SBCV meetings.

It was also good to get to see Mrs. Anne and Mrs. Kathy and several from the Ladies Sunday School class while we were there.

We even ran by for just a few minutes to see some of my former co-workers in Colonial Heights before heading back to the mountains. This was where I worked full-time before having Rachel. Good to catch up with you all!

Happy Birthday, Brent!

 On Saturday November 8th, Brent celebrated his birthday. We celebrated as a family on Friday night by taking him out to supper. Here he is getting ready to enjoy his birthday sundae at the restaurant.

 We are so blessed to have Brent leading our family. He blesses me daily as my husband in the ways he loves me, takes care of me and serves me! He is awesome dad to these three little ladies too! He does a great job showing them what to look for in a godly husband one day.

He also blesses our family as he loves and serves God's people. We are blessed to be able to serve Jesus with him!
Happy Birthday, Brent! We Love You and we are blessed to be loved by you!

"For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield."
                        Psalm 5:12

4 Months Old!

 On November 6th, we celebrated Bethany turning 4 months old. She continues to be her sweet smiley self. She is cooing and "talking" to us more and more. Sometimes now as she coos she sounds like she is singing and she has one particular sound she makes that sounds just like she is saying "HEY"

 Her big milestone so far during her 4th month has been rolling from her back to her tummy! The top picture was the middle of last week as she rolled for the first time completely on her own! She has not been a big fan of tummy time since she was born but since rolling over began, she seems to be getting more used to it. Here she is practicing her rolling again.
Bethany is scheduled for her 4 month checkup this week so we will be getting ready for other milestones like first food soon!
We love you Bethany Joy! Thank you for singing, smiling and brightening our days with joy!

Election Day 2014

 This morning, Brent and I enjoyed the privilege of being able to vote. Of course, the girls went with us. This was Bethany's first election day. Bekah was a little more interested this year in what was going on as she had just turned one the last time we voted.

 Rachel, of course, was very interested this year. After the discussion between the two sisters of who was going to go with Mom and who with Dad to each booth (Bethany went with Dad too), we had a great opportunity for a Civics lesson. We learned about the 3 branches of government and about how we live in a type of government where we have the opportunity to vote for our leaders. We also talked about how important it is to exercise the privilege we have to vote.

The smallest helper with her "I voted" sticker

I am so thankful for the opportunity to live in a free country where we are blessed to have the chance to vote and elect leaders. I am also thankful for the chance to teach our girls what a great country we live in and about how our government works and the importance and responsibility of voting!