Happy Birthday, Joseph

 Today, all the girls had a fun new experience. They got to go to a karate studio for the first time. Our friend, Joseph, turned 5 today and he was having his birthday party there!

 Brent spent much time in a karate studio in NC when he was younger as he is a black belt. He seemed to remember everything very well! Here he is multitasking with Bethany as well since she wanted to try everything the big kids did also.

 Bethany trying her karate chop too.



 
  They got to see how high they could kick.
 They even got to break a board with their hand or foot. Here is the birthday guy breaking the board!

This girl had to try to break the board with her foot.

 Bekah took a turn breaking the board as well.

 

Joseph got to cut his birthday cake with a sword. This was definitely the coolest way I have ever seen to cut a birthday cake!
Happy 5th Birthday, Joseph! We hope you had a great day! Thanks so much for inviting us to your party! We all had a lot of fun!

A Day with the Doreys

 Earlier this fall, Brent and I had an event and the girls got a chance to spend a day with Mr. Tom, Mrs. Debbie and Kay Kay. They had so much fun. Debbie and Kaitlin had planned all kinds of fun things for them to do. They decorated princess faces.

Here are Princess Bekah and Princess Rachel.

They made little turtles and several other crafts.

They even got to help walk Miley a little bit.

They were absolutely thrilled that Mrs. Debbie braided their hair too. They love it when Mrs. Debbie does their hair! In fact, we were talking after we got home that night and they were quick to tell me that Mrs. Debbie had braided their hair so they could wear it like that for church the next day, and so they did.

Thank you Dorey Family for giving our girls such a fun day! You each are a blessing to all of us! Thanks for being family to us here!

Backpacks

 This year, instead of filling shoesboxes our church participated in filling backpacks for children in need. This was a part of the missions emphasis of the SBCV, which is the association of churches in our state that our church belongs too. Our backpacks were due at FMBC on November 1st.
There was a specific list given with groups of items that could be used to fill the backpacks such as a unbreakable toy, socks, hats, school supplies, combs, soap and so on. Each bag would also be labeled for a boy or girl and with an age range. We planned with each of our girls for each of them to do a backpack to give. Of course, each of the big girls wanted to do a backpack for a girl in their age range. Bethany, of course, needed a little help from her sisters so we did her backpack for a girl ages 2-4. Here are the big girls trying to decide which toy to get to put in their backpacks and Bethany holding the baby doll her sisters picked out for her backpack.

 Next, we packed. Here are the big girls fitting all their items in each of their backpacks.

 Bethany wanted to help too or at least crawl over the backpacks to see what her sister was working on!

 Here are all the backpacks that were given by our FMBC family.

 Here are the big girls along with their friend Curtis who helped carry the backpacks out from the sanctuary.

 I am not sure how Bekah could still walk with both these backpacks on but she did not want any help. I asked to help her but she was determined to carry them both!

 Here are the big girls with their finished backpacks. Bethany had already crawled out of the picture at this point. The big girls had the best time planning and packing their backpacks for this project. We pray for each child these backpacks go to that they will be a blessing and an encouragement and that they may come to know Jesus and how very much He loves them!

Fast Family Visit

 We were down in North Carolina the end of last week for less than 48 hours all together when we went down to NC to meet our new little niece, but we managed to pack every hour we weren't driving or sleeping with family visits. We met Aunt Ashelyn in Greensboro for supper on the way down. She took us to eat at the big girls very favorite restaurant ever and then to get some yummy dessert.

 Can you tell this girl enjoyed her dessert?! She was playing peek-a-boo with her chocolate covered hands. Yes, she definitely needed her bath that night!

 We spent the night at Nana's and got a little time to visit with her before we headed over to meet Cousin Saylor

 Bethany was trying out the big girl princess table at Nana's.

 

 Then we got to meet this sweet girl!

 It was good to have a visit with her mom and dad too!

We stopped by to see my Grams on our way back toward home. We had a really good visit with her too.

 Here are the girls coloring in their coloring books from Grams and here is Rebekah showing Rebecca (Grams) how she writes her name.

 Then we got to see this handsome little nephew! We spent the night at Jared and Brooke's house so we got some Inman time! It was great to see him! He has grown so much already! It was good to get to visit with his mom and dad too. Thanks for the great meals too!

 Look at that cute little face!

 Here are the little cousins together. 

 and the big girls with Cousin Inman and Uncle Jared and Aunt Brooke. We had a good visit with you all!

 We had one last stop on the way home. Papa was actually in Roanoke for the weekend so we met he and his friends for lunch.

 Here are Papa and the girls coloring and all 3 of our girls with Papa.

 It was a fast family trip for sure but filled with some good family time. We had some family that was out of town that we didn't get to see this quick trip. We are looking forward to getting to see even more family in just 2 weeks at Thanksgiving! We are very thankful for our family!