Happy Birthday Helen!

Helen turns three years old today! We celebrated her birthday last Thursday night with a "Strawberry Shortcake" birthday party! Helen had fun eating pizza and cake with her family and friends! The last three years have flown by! She is changing and growing SO much! We are so thankful that God has blessed our family with Helen Elizabeth!

Belly Dancing Princess!

This outfit was one of Helen's
favorite gifts! She
tried it on and danced
for everyone at the
birthday party!

Beckett played his first basketball game this past Saturday morning! His team is named the "Flash"! He had quite a cheering section with all of his grandparents present for the big event! It was fun to watch his team (who had practiced together two times and none had played basketball before) as they tried to figure out what to do! Beckett actually scored two points! We are so proud!

On Sunday, we went to hear the Oak Ridge Symphony. They had a special family concert. There were opportunities for the kids to make their own instruments as well as try out some of the real ones! Here are pictures of Helen making sounds on the violin and Beckett making a jingle bell paint stirrer thingy! :) We all had a great time!

Christmas 2007 Memories....

Leaving cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve!

Wearing their new toboggans and sweat-bands from Toby Mac!

Aren't they cool?

A new baby and stroller for Helen and a DJ machine for Beckett. He can really mix the beats!

Welcome to Who-ville!

Just before Christmas, we made a trip to Brentwood to see Granbob and Grankaki. They took us to see "The Grinch" created out of ICE! The kids had a blast! It was 8 degrees in the building which explains the blue coats that they gave us to wear in there! All of the Grinch characters and scenes from the book/cartoon were carved out of ice! Beckett especially enjoyed the ice slides!

Happy New Year!

It has been a busy Christmas season and I fully intend to share a few Christmas pictures, but this is all I have time for today! I need to get Christmas decorations put away so we can begin school on Thursday! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends! Have a blessed 2008!

Congratulations Beckett!

We have found many incredible web sites to assist us as we homeschool Beckett this year and one of those sites is "Book Adventure"! Beckett earned 900 points by reading books and taking tests on them. He redeemed his points on a candy bar! It would have been so easy to go to any local store and get him a candy bar, but this had to be the one that was offered on the web site by one of their sponsors! We wanted to honor Beckett's efforts, so I called the 1-800 number to find the closest location of "The Rocky Mountain Candy Factory" and it was in Lebanon, TN! (2 hours away!) Fortunately, we were headed to Brentwood to visit Grankaki and Granbob, so we made a quick stop to redeem his points! I don't think he ever enjoyed a candy bar so much! It was well earned! Good job Beckett!

Don't worry, Helen got a cookie for all of Beckett's efforts! She just isn't holding it in the picture!

My "Willow Tree" nativity scene will never be the same! Not long after I had every piece placed "just so", action figures and dinosaurs started to arrive to see the baby Jesus! Even the Nutcracker left his post to check him out! Did you know that Buzz, Woody, Spidey and Sandman were there, too?

When we arrived home from church on Sunday, we found a new friend had arrived in the yard! He has been affectionately named "Prancer" by Beckett. Helen wanted to name him Rudolph, but of course, there is no red nose! The clues are beginning to come together, but still no clear cut answers as to how Prancer decided to make our front yard his new home! Beckett is just glad to have "an outside decoration"! The lights on our tree and in the windows just aren't enough for him! At least now, we have a lone reindeer to spruce up our yard for the holidays!

Merry

Christmas!

Quilts and Babies

Some of you have asked, "What does Helen do while you are teaching Beckett?" Well, here is what she did yesterday! She loves to play with her babies and yesterday she spread out all of our quilts from Auntie Mame and Grankaki and had quiet time with her babies! It was too cute! By the way, I figured out the "edit" thing! Shouldn't be a problem anymore! :) Thanks, Kathy!