No new pictures......
Still having computer trouble! They called from Best Buy tonight and said that they now believe that it is a software problem! We're not sure what we are going to do, but I miss my computer! Fortunately, we have access to e-mail and internet, but can't do all of the fun stuff like pictures! Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update. We are headed to the mountains tomorrow for a weekend at a cabin with the Harper clan. It snowed about 4-6 inches there yesterday, so we are hoping to get to see and maybe play in the snow! Beckett gets very disappointed when we have snow flurries, but no accumulation! I don't think he has ever gotten to play in more than one inch of snow! I take that back! We were in Colorado in May of 2003 when he was just a little guy and he saw tons of snow. We have pics to prove it since he doesn't remember! So.......lots coming up and hopefully I'll be able to share pictures of it all. Beckett has his first loose tooth, so I'm looking forward to pictures of that first hole in his mouth! And he turns 6 years old next Wednesday! I can't believe it! I'll check back in after our weekend in the mountains!

I'd like to ask you all to remember some dear friends at a very sad time in the life of their family. Sean's cousin, Dale and his wife Anita are grieving the loss of her son/his step-son, Corey. He died on Saturday night in a car accident. Corey was a student in my Reading class when he was in first grade and Sean had him as a student in the youth group at church. Corey was a fun-loving and kind-hearted guy who loved the out-doors! When I think about Corey, I remember how he loved hunting and riding four wheelers with his family and friends. Although I had not seen him much in the last 3 years, I have many good memories of him as a child and through his middle school years! He was 20 years old when his life was tragically cut short Saturday night. Please remember the Kollock/Bryant family in your prayers. His funeral is tonight and the graveside service is tomorrow afternoon. I want to share a portion of Psalm 71 that brings comfort at this time and I pray that it will to this dear family as well.

20 You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.
22 Also with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.

My prayer for this family is that they will be "increased in greatness and comforted on every side" through this great and severe trouble and that they will experience the love and comfort of our Heavenly Father in many ways!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for their family!

Weekend Fun with Friends!

We are having a good weekend! Our friends Abbey, Matt, Nathan and Tyler are staying with us while their mom and dad take a class at church! They came last night for a few hours and they came back this morning! They had breakfast with us and we all loaded up and went to Beckett's basketball game! (Obviously, they loaned us their Suburban so we could all ride together!) That was fun! Anyway, the kids are having fun playing and I thought I would post a picture of them all together!

We are taking our computer back to Best Buy this afternoon and will hopefully get it fixed! They evidently didn't fix it properly last time because we are having trouble again! So, you might not see a post for several days and that is why! Take care! I'll update as soon as I can!

Weekend with the Harper's!
We had a good weekend and I have a few pictures to share. On Saturday night, we went to dinner at The Stanifer's home and had a great time! Beckett and Chase met in their class at church almost 2 years ago when we first started visiting Two Rivers and they became good friends! Our families have talked about getting together for a long time and we finally did on Saturday night! Beckett and Chase are both in Kindergarten and Helen and Carlee are both 3 years old, (well, Carlee's birthday is just days away) so everyone plays so well together! We had a great time and thanks again, Shane and Tammy, for a great evening!

After Beckett's basketball game on Saturday morning, we went to Lifeway to look for a few books! They had this display up for this summer's VBS and the kids posed for a picture!

Surf's Up!

Just a couple of pictures of Helen and her "students"! She lined everyone up on Friday afternoon and read them a story!

Valentine's Day Party!

On Thursday, we invited several of our friends over to our house for a Valentine's day party! We had a great time eating pizza for lunch, making "mailbox" bags, delivering and opening Valentine cards, and eating yummy treats! We read some Valentine stories, graphed conversation hearts and even estimated how many red and pink candy corns were in a glass jar! (Can you tell Valentine's day is one of my favorites?) We hope that you all enjoyed Valentine's day with your friends and loved ones! We had a fun day!

The whole gang!

Reading "The Valentine Bears"

Wheat and Lake estimating candy corn pieces!

Abbey and Helen with their "mailbox" bags!

Wyatt decorating his bag!

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

Creative Discovery Museum

We drove to Chattanooga this morning and met Kathy, Ty and Marley at the Creative Discovery Museum for a fun day of play and learning! We had a great time and I would recommend this museum to everyone! We will definitely go back! Thanks, Kathy, for inviting us to come and for sharing some free passes! Beckett and Helen had a great time playing with Ty, as you will see in the following pics! My only regret is that I didn't get any pictures of baby Marley! She has beautiful smiles!

Creating Valentines!

The harp playing Harper cousins!












Beckett creating a movie!













Digging up dinosaur bones!

Before we left Chattanooga, we stopped by the cemetery where my grandparents are buried and left some flowers. I had not been there in almost five years since my grandfather died, so I really wanted to stop especially since it was such a beautiful day. Mickey and Paw were very special to me and I miss them. I enjoyed telling Beckett and Helen about them as we drove home!

Zoo Trip!

On Tuesday, before Beckett's cold got pretty bad and before both of them ended up with pink eye, we took an afternoon and went to the Knoxville Zoo! With temps in the upper 60's, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get out and enjoy the warm weather at one of our favorite places! Sean took off half of a day and went with us! We had a great afternoon!

Both Beckett and Helen are feeling much better! Helen doesn't care much for eye drops. You'd be amazed at how strong a 30 pound child can be when she doesn't want you to put a drop of medicine in her eye! It takes both Sean and me to hold her down! But the drops are doing the trick and both of the kids are doing much better! Beckett and Sean are going hiking today with several other dads and their sons and Helen and I are going shopping! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

It is great to be blogging again! We finally got our computer back this afternoon, so I wanted to update the Harper Hullabaloo and let you know what's been happening here! Unfortunately, we've had some sickness. Helen had a 24 hour virus about a week ago. She is doing much better, but she still throws up at least once a day! It is a reflux issue that happens each time she has a stomach bug. Our pediatrician prescribed her some medicine to try to help sooth her reflux issues, but it hasn't slowed down yet. I'm just washing lots of clothes, sheets and towels! In the middle of all of that, Beckett has gotten a pretty rotten cold. I took him to the pediatrician today and he tested negative for strep and the flu, but does have pink eye along with a sore throat and a runny nose! No fun! The worst part was that he had to miss our service project and the virtue of the month celebration called "Riversplash" at church tonight! He was pretty bummed out! And if you happen to see me, you might notice that I turn my head kind of funny. One of those turns where your whole upper body moves instead of your neck/head? Anyway, I've pulled a muscle or something in my neck and shoulder and it has been driving me crazy for several days now! So, if you think about it, please pray for healing in the Harper household! Sean has stayed healthy through it all and is a champ at cleaning up puke while I clean up Helen! Oh well, on to other much more exciting things.......

The 100th Day of School!

Beckett celebrated his 100th day of Kindergarten on Monday. We had a great day doing everything 100! Of course, Beckett and Helen's favorite activities had to do with food, so I've included pictures of them getting ready to make their 100 piece snack mix. They took 10 pieces of 10 different snacks and made a snack with 100 pieces! They made necklaces out of 100 cheerios, too! Beckett did everything from counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's, filling in a 100 number chart, writing in his journal about what he would do with 100 dollars, singing songs and reading stories about the 100th day of school, learning how to make tally marks and guessing how many times a penny would turn up heads and tails if you flipped it 100 times, to even doing 100 exercises! (You'll have to ask Beckett how he did with the sit-ups!) Anyway, enjoy the pictures! It was a fun day! It is hard to believe we've been home-schooling for 100 days! It seems like just yesterday I was taking the pictures of Beckett's first day of school! We are experiencing such blessings being home together!