a year in pictures

This might be long.  I apologize in advance.  Here we go!

January found us homeschooling four boys!  It was a very cold winter month, too.

We spent a lot of time going to Johnson park so the boys could play on their turf fields.

I committed to memorizing Scripture for the year 2013...here's the notebook I bought and received in the mail to record all my verses.  

 In February, I took an unusual interest in baking and made tons of goodies for the family.  We all might or might not have gained five or so pounds.  :/

These little beauts are called "Oh My Ganache Cupcakes".

This was just a boxed cake mix and homemade icing.  

We spent time with Pappaw and on the trampoline.

March is birthday month around here.

The older the boys get, the less they want to have a party.  Graham and Drew always opt to go out with just Todd and me.

March also found us on a camping trip with our friends, the Corley's.

April is Drew's month.  ;)

Jonah, Noah and I got baptized on Easter morning!

We dyed a TON of eggs.  :)  Our favorite activity.  

In April, this little cutie was born.

May found us finishing up our school year and doing LOTS of science experiments.  It was a fun month.

We also went strawberry-picking for the first time.

In this month, the boys did their garden boxes that Mr. Paul alone for the first time.  He passed away in September of 2012.

Bittersweet.

June found us spending lots of time with Myles, Zander and Alex, the neighborhood kiddos.

We had VBS at church and came home and messed around on the trampoline every day that week.

Graham and Drew went to Street Reach, and the Lord made me start to fall in love with the teenagers at our church.

We went to baseball games!

In July, we did lots of these.

I got some fun, new nail polish.

We had kids camp!

In August, Graham became the newest employee at Chick Fil A, and I committed to co-teaching the tenth grade girls Bible fellowship class.  

We were so sad to say goodbye to the summer interns at our church...see?

This was the day our beloved Sarah left.

September came and we went to Williamsburg, Virginia and Washington D.C. for vacation!

So fun!

October arrived with cooler temps...finally!  We did some fun things with the youth at church.

And we had bonfires.

In November we had more fun times with the youth at church...I've mentioned that I love these kids, right?  They're awesome.  On this night, we talked about dating and marriage on the way to a bonfire.  

We enjoyed the Veteran's day parade with Dad and Trish.

And all of a sudden, here came December and the end of the year.

I got to meet one of my best friend's babies, Annalise Grace.

And enjoyed catching up with her mommy.

I celebrated my birthday for a full week!

And we had a blast with our traditions.

It's been a wonderful year~one filled with times of joy, sorrow, excitement, worry of the unknown, health, sickness, good days and bad days.  Through it all, God has been faithful to us, and He alone has carried us through.  I cannot WAIT to see what He has in store for 2014.  God bless you all and Happy New Year!

one of two posts for the last day of the year

This day is huge~it's the last day of 2013!  I cannot believe how fast a year flies by, but it has indeed flown.  Even my kids say that...I asked them the other day if it was the same for them.  I was thinking maybe it was age that made it seem like it went by so fast, but that is not the case.  Anyway, this day is worthy of two blog posts.  I'm going to start working on the second post when I'm done with this one.

Before that, I thought I would share with you a little of what yesterday was like for me.

On Sunday afternoon, I posted these two pictures on Instagram:

About them, I said that one day in Sunday school a few weeks ago, the girls and I finally got around to brightening up our room.  Some of the rooms around us are really cute and nicely decorated, but ours was plain and boring.  Partly because neither my friend or I wanted to spend money on the room~neither one of us have loads of extra.  ;)  I finally got the idea to do this~I had tons of card stock laying around my house and a mason jar full of Sharpies, so I took all the tools and this was what we did.  We adorned all our walls with drawings like the one above, or our favorite Bible verses.

I love it!  Some of these girls are crazy talented!  We did this as a surprise for Scottie, who had to take off a couple weeks because of some family and health issues.  She loved it when she saw it for the first time on Sunday!

On Sunday night, I got this picture below from my friend Sunny:

Jonah and Noah spent Sunday and Monday night at her house with her son, Andy.  Is this picture not hilarious?!  I love these kids...they'll all be here in a few minutes.  I can't wait to see my littles!

Because of them being gone, and the fact that Drew's friend spent the night with him here Sunday night and last night, I spent lots of yesterday alone.  Graham was asked to work last night, and Drew and Tom were at Tom's house for a long time yesterday afternoon.  It was a strange and lovely afternoon and evening.

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

Two of my favorite movies!  I watched New Years Eve last night.  So good!!!

Well, that was about all I did yesterday.  I hope your day was good!  I'm going to get dressed and get started on some goodie-making, then I'm going to start working on the second post.  Love to all!

pictures from Christmas

These pictures were taken from a REAL camera, and not a smart phone.  I thought I'd share.  Photo credits go to my awesome step-dad, Bill Garrison.

Thanks, Big Daddy!  (I did "edit" the one of me.")

I am SO GLAD Jonah got these football gloves!  This kid has wanted some for months, now, and he will FINALLY stop talking about them!  Thanks to Aunt Lisa for these.

Sweetest picture ever.  When asked what he wanted from Aunt Lisa, he said, "My very own football."  How could anyone resist that precious face?!

I look absolutely ridiculous, but the picture of my face cracked me up!  I didn't even ask for this, and my mom got it for me.  I am pretty sure that it was meant to replace the other Gap one I've been wearing for the past seventeen years.  (But I'm not getting rid of it~it's still in great condition!)

They got lots of other goodies, too many to list.  To all who gave to them~thank you!  You all made me cry with your generosity.  Seriously, I boohooed.  God has been so good to us, and He uses you to bless our family.  I love all of you.  :)

Hope your weekend is going great!  Love to all.