Happy Valentine's Day!

 We spread most of our Valentine's Day celebrating into two days. We started Saturday afternoon with making the girls' Valentine's cards. This year their cards said "Bee Mine" with little handprint bees. This little one is going to like crafts like her big sisters. She kept handing me her thumb and trying to press in onto the paper even when she didn't have any paint left on her finger.

 Rachel made her bees almost totally on her own this year. I offered to help but she wanted to try it herself. As you can see from the covered table, we had lots of handprint bees this year!

 Bekah wrote her own name this year and I showed her how to write the word "Love" then I had to go help Bethany and when I came back she had written it completely by herself with upper and lower case letters.

 Here are our finished "Bees" this year from Rachel, Bethany and Bekah. Bethany only let me do 3 of her hand so we used her thumb instead.
 
 We had our family Valentine's supper on Saturday night too. Of course, the girls wanted us all to dress up for this special supper.

 

After supper, the big girls and I made cupcakes for them to take to church for their Sunday School classes.

 Here are the big girls enjoying the fruits (umm, cupcakes) of their efforts.

 

 They helped frost and decorate them all too.

 They ended up with some very fully sprinkled cupcakes!

 Everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes at church on Sunday.

 The kids also sang "Jesus Loves Me" in the worship service.

 They also made Valentines flowers using celery.

 Here is Bekah with her painted celery and flowers

 Mrs. Debbie also brought them cookies for Valentine's Day and they all exchanged Valentine cards with each other as well.
 
 Brent preached a good sermon on loving God with all of your heart.

 After church, we got a sweet surprise Valentine's gift from our friend Joy. She offered to feed the girls lunch and keep them for a little while for Brent and I to go on a date! What a great gift to us!

 We had a great lunch date and time to just catch up for a little while just the two of us, which was very needed especially after the past few busy weeks. So thankful for this time with my handsome husband!

 We did manage to get one family picture today with everyone awake and looking at the camera. This is no small task these days, especially now that Bethany is mobile. She will just walk out of the picture!

 Few pictures of my favorite Valentines along with my most favorite, their Daddy.

 We had planned to take the girls out for a family time this evening but had a definite change in plans as we prepared to go. Yes, our snow began around 6:30 here instead of the 10 pm or so start time we had heard.
 
 So we had a good family evening at home. The girls had fun skyping the grandparents and opening their Valentine's candy and mail from the grandparents too.

 

 Thankful for each of my Valentines today and every day! Thankful most of all, that Jesus loves us each so much and that His love is the greatest gift of all!
                          "We love because He first loved us"
                                      1 John 4:19

Christmas with Aunt Ashelyn

                                         
 Yes, we just finally finished up our Christmas celebrations this past weekend. Aunt Ashelyn was attending a missions conference the week after Christmas while we went home to visit the family in NC so we did not get to see her then. She asked if we could wait and all exchange presents the next time we got together so that is what we did. We had been trying for over a month to figure out a time that worked for us all to get together with no success. Aunt Ashelyn did some checking and realized that meeting in Roanoke last weekend for lunch could work for all of us. Great plan!

 We were sitting in the restaurant waiting for our food and all visiting and a gentleman we didn't know stopped by the booth and asked what the occasion was. We answered "Christmas" and he just looked at us sort of stunned and then said "Um, ok" before he walked off!

 
Aunt Ashelyn made all the girls big fleece blankets for Christmas. They loved them! Bethany just wanted to sit on Aunt Ashelyn's lap and hold her blanket.

Aunt Ashelyn was creative with the boxes she used so Rachel got a toaster at first...

Then she loved her blanket too!

Ashelyn had never been to "The Great Star of Roanoke" as our girls call it so we headed up to Mill Mountain before she had to go back to Greensboro. We were there just as the lights came on as well so she got to see it all lit up too.

 Thanks to some kind passerbys we got lots of family photos with the star.

 Bekah and Ashelyn got a selfie in also.

 Thanks, Ash for sending me all the great pictures you got at the star.
We had a great visit with Aunt Ashelyn at our Christmas in February. It also worked great for us all to meet in Roanoke to visit. I have a feeling we will definitely be meeting there again to get together in the future. Great to see you, Aunt Ashelyn! We love you!

Super Superbowl Party at FMBC

 

Yesterday marked our 3rd annual FMBC Superbowl Party. We had a great group this year. We had to use the wide-angle lens to take the group picture this year. We had around 40 people come to be a part of the fun!

 This girl needed a little nap to be ready for all the Superbowl fun ahead. The big girls were all ready. The big screen was already set up and Christian music playing when we arrived and the girls had a blast creating dancing shadows on the wall1
 
 At 5 pm, it was time for the annual flag football game before the big game. Here are all the players, cheerleaders, and spectators this year. They were kind to call a quick time out from a close game to let me snap a group picture this year.

 Brent on kickoff return

 

 We were treated to a beautiful sunset during the game.


 The girls watched the flag football game for awhile.
 
 Then these littles decided they were tired of watching the big people play and went and found a ball with Mrs. Tamara's help so they could play their own game.

 This is one of the last pictures I could get outside. They played till was absolutely so dark that I don't think they could even see the ball in front of them! It was much darker even than this.

 Thanks to all who worked on the setup, food prep and decorating, planning and clean up too!

 

  Bekah and Jason had lemonade and punch after the

big football game while they waited for the blessing and time for food. We even had Panther (blue) and Bronco (orange) punch Mrs. Judith made and Rachel tried a giant sub! I think it took both hands for her to hold that piece of sub!

 My girl woke up and decided she was ready for some food and fun. Yes, that is a BBQ chicken nugget in her hand.

 Everyone got their food just as the game started. We had so much food this year! Everyone enjoyed watching the big game too.

 My favorite part of the Superbowl Party: Dessert! Andi's cheesecake, Christy's football brownie and key lime pie! Yum!
                              

All the kids had fun playing together too. They "cooked" some meals for each other with the play kitchen food.

 and played a little ball in the hallway.

 

 Bekah had fun playing with Mr. Tim too.

 Brent did the halftime devotional.

 Rachel got to help Mr. Joey hand out the door prizes that were donated for the Superbowl party.

 This girl liked sitting with her Daddy to watch the game. You can tell he played hard in the flag football game by the mud stains on the knees.

 The youth played great with our girls too. They were helping them build towers here.

 Rachel even got Ms. Emily, one of our VMI cadets, to color with her and Bethany.

 We had a great 3rd Annual FMBC Superbowl Party this year. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such fun. Thank you also to all the planners, set up and clean up crew too! Looking forward a super Superbowl party at FMBC again next year!

Just a fun picture with the whole group too!