My firstborn

There are days when my firstborn frustrates me because he has yet learned how to read my mind.
There are days he aggravates his little brothers til they cry.
There are days when if his shoes could reach out and bite him they would but he still can't find them.
Then there are days when he begrudgingly washes the dishes.
Then there are days when he carries his youngest brother across a creek so he doesn't fall in.
Then there are days when he chooses to do a writing assignment on Carl Lewis so he'll be able to do research before writing.
Then there's this moment at Walmart when my heart truly melts and I see how God is working in his life. I am able to witness Peter spontaneously and unprovoked (except from the children's sermon the day before)decide that he wants to spend all of his money to buy canned meat for the food drive our church is participating in. He spent every dime of his $8.00 and then apologized for taking so long to decide on what to get. I want to remember this moment for a long time.

The celebration

Ryan has known for a long time that all he wanted to do for his birthday was to have some friends over and ride horses. Although the afternoon ended up being dry, after a weekend of rain riding horses just wasn't in the cards. Thankfully, Ryan wasn't too disappointed. We celebrated with the occasion friends and family.It was such a blessing to have all of the Chryst cousins be able to join us for the day. I am so grateful to be close enough to family that we can celebrate these special times together.We just need to work on everyone looking at the camera at the same time!

Spring Break

After enduring 2 days of CAT testing for Peter and Emma, we are in the midst of spending five more days at the beach.I had no idea how beautiful of a week this would be. The kids have been very dissapointed that I didn't have them pack their swim suits.
Although, they have adapted to playing in the ocean with their clothes on.
I have to admit it has been a bit of a inconvience for them not to have their flip flops! Socks and tennis shoes are just not the shoe of choice for the beach. However, anything is better than testing!