AWANA

 Over the past few weeks, we have had the joy of attending Antioch Baptist Church, where our friends Jonathan and Chelsea Turner are serving in ministry. One of the ministries they have at Antioch that are girls have been most excited about is AWANA. Our girls loved the AWANA ministry with our church family in Virginia in FBC Grottoes. We still miss our AWANA friends there in VA, but our girls are excited to be back in AWANA here in NC and making new friends here.
Bethany is in the Puggles group, the 2 to 3 year old age, here at Antioch. Here she is on the playground with some of her new Puggles friends.

 Rebekah, with her start in 1st grade, has moved into the Sparks group and Rachel is now in T&T. Here they are with our new AWANA commander, Ms. Mandy. She does a great job with all the kids!

 Rachel was very excited to finish her first small book and say her verses to earn her T&T shirt and backpack the first week we were there.

Yesterday brought us to our 2nd week to attend AWANAs and our first theme night: Crazy Hair Night...yes, I think these girls were ready!!

 Here is Bethany with her new friend and fellow Puggle, Hadley. Bethany loves her new Puggles backpack too!

 Here is the Crazy Hair Crew from AWANAs last night!

Rebekah also finished her small book this week and received her Sparks vest, book and bag.  Here she is with her leader, Ms. Bonnie. This was a very excited crazy haired girl to get her new vest!

 They were excited to tell Pastor Jonathan what they had learned and Bekah was able to say her full verse (John 3:16) for him.

 Here are all our happy AWANA girls with Ms.
 Mandy last night. They loved crazy hair night and learning new verses and they are all very excited for what is to come this year in AWANA!

Happy 6th Birthday, Rebekah Faith!

Rebekah Faith is now 6 years old!! She arrived in a hurry in 3.5 hours 6 years ago at 9:15 am. Six years has certainly flown by!!

We had a busy and fun day celebrating with Bekah! We started the day early with balloons and streamers. This has become a fun part of our birthdays for our family over the past couple of years. Brent just kind of gave me a smile when I started decorating the girl's bed the morning before  they woke up on their birthday a few years ago. Now he is even better at it than I am.  This decorating was all him!  I wrote out the list of what we needed but he woke up ahead of me and blew up a bunch of balloons to go with her streamers. This was what she woke up to this morning and she LOVED it!

 We had a photography event today so we had a pretty early start to the day. She liked her strawberry waffle with her 6 year old candle!

Here are Allie and I with the birthday girl this afternoon.

 She requested Cracker Barrel for her birthday supper. We were actually outside of Charlotte today and the closest Cracker Barrel to us was actually just over the state line in South Carolina, not North Carolina. We told Bekah that she actually got to go into a different state to eat her birthday supper!

 She requested breakfast for supper. All our girls love to eat breakfast at supper sometimes. She finished her meal off with chocolate birthday cake that Cracker Barrel brought her and a surprise new stuffed puppy from her sisters. This was definitely a happy face!

We enjoyed Bekah's special day with her and she has more birthday fun coming up ahead with special birthday trip she has chosen.
Rebekah, we are so proud of you! You love to take care of and love on those around you. You are a great little sister and big big sister. Your hugs and laughs make us smile. God has blessed our family greatly with you and we are very thankful for you! Happy 6th Birthday, Rebekah!  We love you!

Happy 5 Months, Allie Grace!

September 13, 2017

 This growing girl turned 5 months old on September 13th. She is full of smiles and lots of giggles and laughs these days.

 She has also started since she turned 5 months old to roll from her tummy to her back and even back to tummy a few times in the past couple of days. She is now also recognizing her name and looking at us when we call her name too!

It is hard to believe this little one will be 6 months old next month! We are so thankful for the fun and love you bring to our family. We love you, Allie♡

School Days 2017

 We started school earlier in September, right after Labor Day and then I forgot to add these . These are actually 2nd day of school pictures as we got rained out from getting any pictures the first day of school.

               Just like that we have a 3rd grader

A 1st grader

And a Preschooler!

Time flies by! Looking forward to a good school year, full of learning, with these little ladies!

Haircuts by Bethany

 Last week, all 3 big girls got beautiful new shorter haircuts. For Bethany, it was her first real haircut, other than having her ends trimmed, since she was born.

 She has now had her 2nd MAJOR haircut, this one by her own hands...
Yes, last night after her sisters fell asleep and while we thought she was already asleep, she found the small child scissors that Rachel and Bekah have put away in their room and gave herself a new haircut.

 She now has a very short front to her hair and a little less on the right side. We have also had the discussion...now, after her attempt at haircutting, that only the hairdresser cuts our hair and that we/she are NOT to cut our own hair!!!

Thankful that a little ponytail and a big bow cover most of her self-given "haircut" and that eventually  her hair will grow back out and that thankfully, she is our only child who has given herself a "haircut" so far!

Dance Days are Here Again!

 This past week, all of our big girls began dance classes again. This is one of the things they have most looked forward to getting back to since our move to North Carolina. They all were fitted for new ballet shoes this week.

 Rachel started off on Wednesday observing a musical theatre class. Here she is with Ms. Alicia,who is the director of their new studio.

 Her sisters were excited about getting ready to start dance this week also. Their classes were scheduled for Thursday.

 This little lady was too sleepy to be excited about ballet just yet, but it won't be long till she is all about dance too!

 Bethany Ballerina is so excited about being back in ballet. She will be in the 3 to 4 year old ballet class this year. Here she is showing me her passe'

 She was in a hurry to get to her new class-she barely gave me time to get a quick picture.

Here she is with Ms. Marilyn, her new ballet teacher.

 We had just enough time to eat supper and get Bekah ready in between the classes Bethany and Bekah were trying out this week.

 Bekah was excited about her class. With our new studio, they teach a combination ballet, tap and jazz class, so Bekah will get to take all 3 styles of dance in one class. Bekah's class had a open door so her sisters were able to watch her dance a bit.

 Next thing I know, Rachel decides she wants to try a ballet, tap and jazz class too! So somehow, we have managed to get all 3 big girls classes in 1 day! Dance Days are going to be SO busy and so much fun!

Here are all the girls with their teacher, Ms. Marilyn.
I am so glad that our girls enjoy dance so much and I am so excited for them for all the new skills they are going to learn in dance this year♡

Rebekah ' s Checkup

 With school getting ready to start back and Bekah 's birthday coming up, it was time for a checkup for her as well.

 I knew she seemed a lot taller to me recently, but she has really grown a lot. The PA was looking at her growth charts and she has gone from the 11th percentile in height when she was 2 to the 51st percentile at 5 years old. She and Bethany also also exactly 13 pounds apart to the ounce!
Weight: 40 pounds, 9.6 ounces
Height: 45 inches

Bekah also had her vision and hearing screen. She did well on both!

 She went first for her checkup and got a great report.

 She got her flu shot and one other shot at her checkup and I smiled when I looked closely at this picture. She is showing me her leg where she had to get the shot.

Bekah Faith, we are thankful for how well you are growing and what a beautiful young lady you are becoming, inside and out!