another artist among us??

Julia brought this to me tonight. She did it all by herself and didn't ask how to spell a single word. hmmm -Could she rival Savannah some day? I might add that I have 0 artistic talent or creativity.

When Andy can't sleep...

He might write something like this...

God / Hope of Glory

In my lover's eyes, the beautiful intricacies of composition beyond random chance

In human life born from love given by grace held by unworthy hands, loved with a corrupt heart

In an infant boy swimming alone, but not alone and back home safe

A smile with freckles and dimples and charm with a soft voice whispering, "I love you"

In a perfect flight, a perfect group, squeaky shoes, a tight grip of my finger

In a premature baptism in Hefei, a glimpse of the hope of salvation, a glimpse of His heart for the orphans

Orphans no more, though without a father, not without the Father, heirs to the Hope of Glory!

the Hope of Glory!

Guess who got a new smile today...

before

after

and he got these a few weeks ago

After 26 months Zachary got his braces removed. He was given a gift from his orthodontist - a mug full of those treats that had been forbidden. Zach also got to write on a ceiling tile for the office. How cool is that?! His "before" picture was actually taken several weeks ago - before the winter storm. He was scheduled to have his braces off, but only his bottom teeth were cleared. Zach had a pretty stubborn tooth that would not budge on top, so the top removal had to be postponed until today.

We don't ever see him wear his glasses because they are only needed for board work at school. He tells us that he does wear them there.

a day of celebration for Wyatt and Julia

Yesterday was the last day of Bitty Basketball for Wyatt and the day that Julia had a gymnastics performance, so we were busy, busy, busy.

Wyatt
Basketball hasn't exactly been the best experience for Wyatt. As the season concluded, Andy was given the job of handing out the trophies and saying something about each member of the team. I was unable to attend this little ceremony because basketball overlaps gymnastics on Saturday mornings. However, Andy did tell me what he said about Wyatt. He chose a person from the Bible to represent each of the kids and explained how that child was like the person from the Bible. For Wyatt, he chose Jacob (you might remember that Jacob's name means trickster, and it was a fitting name for him). Andy explained that Wyatt was like Jacob in that he was chosen by God. Of course God changed Jacob's name to Israel, and we know about Israel's (the nation) struggle. Andy pointed out that just as Israel did a lot of wandering about, Wyatt also did a lot of wandering about on the basketball court. He said Wyatt was beaming over the special attention paid to him.
Wyatt received a trophy for basketball, and it is actually a little picture of Wyatt. He was thrilled with his trophy and with the pictures that he received. He was very excited to come to gymnastics and show them to me.
As an incentive to end on a high note, we promised Wyatt a trip to McDonald's (or "Old MacDonalds" as he and Julia call it) if he would behave at practice. He was much improved and the family enjoyed dinner out.

Julia
Julia's performance at gymnastics was an exta event at extra expense. I had no intention of participating in this, but Julia's teacher talked it up, and Julia begged to do it. In the end she won her dad over. Julia was so excited about this performance. She told every family member that she saw between the date she registered and the event date and invited them to come and watch. Yesterday, she had me call and confirm the time for all of them and counted the number of people she expected to be there. When the number reached 10 (quite a fan club- Grandma, Aunt Tiffany, Aunt Tessa, Austin and Logan as well as the five of us - however, Zach did not make it home from wrestling on time), she got embarrassed.
The gym was packed and we found a decent enough place to watch. Julia did very well, and I was shocked to discover that my camera did not have a memory card in it (I am almost OCD about checking that before leaving the house- UGH!). I set it to allow pictures without the memory card only to come home and find out that it does not record them. It is for demonstration only. I had at least one great picture of Julia with her trophy :(
While Julia waited for the trophy and in between events, her aunts and grandma (okay, me too) would wave to her. She would duck her head in embarrassment. Who knows what to make of Julia? One minute she is charismatic and outgoing, and the next she is shy and hiding. It was fun to watch her enjoy this event and probably worth the 30 bucks.

I don't want this to sound like bragging but...

I was headed in to school one day this week to pick up the girls. Mr. Morgan, Savannah's teacher, stopped to tell me a story about Savannah as I headed toward the gym to retrieve her. For those of you unfamiliar with our school, I must give a little background. Almost every year, the classroom teacher gives out biblical awards to the students based on their observations of that student throughout the year...some examples include the "Paul" award for perserverance or the "Abraham" award for obedience. For his fifth grade class, Mr. Morgan had his students choose four awards for themselves. He asked them what they would like their legacy to be and to choose those awards that they like. Now, I have no idea what Savannah chose. After this part of the assignment, they were to take the list of awards and match them up with their classmates. Savannah and only one other student were in the classroom one afternoon while Mr. Morgan was looking over these classmate awards, and he was finding that the students were overwhelmingly choosing Savannah for the awards which he believes are the top biblical awards. So...he called Savannah to his desk and shared this with her (reading off what the class had written), and her response amazed him. She blushed and said, "it's nice of them to say that." In Mr. Morgan's opinion this was the perfect response. "She's perfect." - he says.
Savannah is certainly not perfect, and I could end this post by pointing out some of her flaws, but she is a sweetheart, and this kind of information makes a mama proud.
--and I almost forgot, that very night I went home and found an e-mail from one of Savannah's classmates' moms...she said that her daughter really struggled with choosing the right award for Savannah because so many of them fit. WOW! -Often when people compliment my kids and say things like they are sweet, I will jokingly respond that "of course they are, they take after their mom." I can't do that on this one. Savannah did not get this from me.

Valentine's Day Page style

The final product - I forgot that the pictures load backwords. I feel that I must explain Julia's attire. I do not know how the sundress did not get into the summer clothes bin, but Julia changes her clothes at least once a day and almost always changes into this. Normally on a Saturday, she is reluctant to take off her gymnastics leotard, so this is actually unusual attire for today.

Happy Valentine's Day! Having Valentine's day on a Saturday is a nice change because other than basketball, gymnastics, and wrestling in the morning, we have nothing planned for the day. Our tradition is to bake a cake and let the kids decorate it. Hopefully, this will be a fond childhood memory for them and will take away the sting when they are teenagers if they should find themselves "dateless" for the big day of love. Following are the highlights of Valentine's day 2009.

On Thursday night as I was getting ready for bed, I mentioned that I had a load of laundry in the washer that would have to be dried because it contained a uniform for Wyatt. Andy offered to stay up to put the load in the dryer, and a little light bulb lit in my head. hmm, I thought to myself, he must be off work tomorrow. You see, Andy has worked nonstop since winter storm 2009 disrupted our lives. He has been exhausted, so an offer to stay up to take care of laundry seemed strange. So... I asked him, and he admitted that his plan was to surprise me by staying home and cleaning the house. Now, as embarrassing as this is to admit, this would be no small feat. Our house, at that point, was at its worse (in my opinion) in 15+ years of marriage. We were gone for days during the weather event that took away our electricity and came back to a very busy schedule, so catching up seemed impossible unless someone stayed home from work. A valient effort was made, and the house (-the kids's rooms) is definitely on the mend, so we are slowly recovering. I love that man!!!

Today, we have relaxed. Savannah and Julia have cleaned, massaged our feet and combed our hair and left us to take a long Saturday afternoon nap. WOW! What a treat!

Andy brought me flowers and turtle candies, and the family enjoyed a candlelit lemon, capor chicken dinner. If those boys would just get the table manners down, we would be over the moon enjoying such a treat. Did I mention that I love my man?!

In the past week, Andy has been on three dates with Savannah. They have had a great time. Valentine's day in our city is not a good time for a date because every restaurant is booked, but my gift to Andy is a date night, so that is coming soon. Happy Valentine's Day to all as we celebrate God's greatest gift - LOVE!

more art...as promised

This orange flower was actually done shortly after we painted Savannah's room which has been almost two years ago. The fuschia surrounding it is actually the color of her walls, and at that time, most of our walls were nuetral, so I did a double take every time I caught her room out of the corner of my eye. This self portrait was actually displayed in a Starbucks in a nearby county before we ever saw it. The picture of it does not really do it justice. It has more sparkle in real life. If you click on it, it opens the picture up bigger, and you get a better idea of the texture.

The piece of pottery on the right was actually done by Savannah's granny, but Savannah painted it and added the embellishments.

This is paint on fabric, and like the self-portrait, it is sparkly. It hangs in our kitchen and is also one of Savannah's older pieces.

This is my personal favorite. It is a crayon drawing, but I love the vibrant colors and layering.

I did say that I would share more of Savannah's art, and as things are slowly returning to normal here, I am taking a little time to blog today.

Yes, that fuschia around the orange flower is the color of Savannah's room walls. Julia now shares that room and is anxious for her own personalization. I am looking for some "art" for Julia - hopefully something with her name and my favorite scripture for her.