AJ as The Miller's Daughter

My sweet girl is following in my footsteps starring in her 2nd grade musical "Character Matters" as the Miller's Daughter from Rumpelstiltskn. She was so very nervous about remembering all the words and had a bit of an opps on the actual performance day! ( She was so darling, I am not sure that anyone even noticed...) Anyhow, that is so like her grandmother and I during our first times on stage...scared to death! If you listen carefully you can hear me trying to help her out a bit! And you can hear Keenan singing a bit too since he seemed to know the words better than anyone! Above she is pictured with good friend Luna who played the Witch from Hansel and Gretel and also another dear friend Summer who played Little Red Riding Hood! This was such a special time for her and her friends! We look forward to seeing her enjoy the stage and grow through those jitters! (like we all had too!)

Keenan as The Hulk

This is our very sweet Keenan playing the Hulk very convincingly! Don had introduced the kids to original Incredible Hulk episodes a while ago but lately Keenan is really getting into it...so much so that I have to tell him not to throw his bike across the patio! My mom who was here for a month caught this on video for me while I was working with a client! So, so funny!

Blessings

Okay so I know it's been another long unexplained lapse for my little blog but man things have just been nuts around here! AJ started swim team and the Lord opened up a great opportunity for her to be a part of a dance team at church! So we have been really busy after school and at night I watch a show to relax, fall asleep on the couch and thus...no blogging happens! Anyway, let me just say it was so neat how the whole swim team thing happened. We met with her teacher back in January to discuss how she thought Alyssa was doing and just kind of put it out there that we were struggling with what would be an affordable way to do extracurricular activities since everything seems so pricy around here. Don and I both felt that it would be helpful for her to finally have something consistent to look forward to after school and to participate in with her peers. Dance is expensive, Gymnastics even more expensive and even the chorus at school is like $75 for just a few months! We had been really praying that God would show us what was right for her and our pocketbook!!! Her teacher blew me away when she suggested that she thought swim team would be great for AJ's needs in many ways! And it's only $4 for her to go twice a week for a 45 minute session! This was a total confirmation as it was an idea I had been bugging Don about for months! She is swimming so beautifully and recently had a mock swim meet where she did all four strokes back to back and came in 2nd! We are really proud of her! Not long after that...our answering God provided the dance ministry and she will be performing her first lyrical interpretative worship dance to My Redeemer Lives by Nicole C. Mullen on Easter at church! She really loves it and the girls in the class are all so sweet! I couldn't be happier...but like I said we have definitely been busy. SO...the photos above are yet another fun blessing from God. We went to the park to meet friends and while we were waiting this sweet Pepperdine student was looking for a family of kids to photograph as instructed by her mentor and so my three obliged...they had a lot of fun having someone be their "celebrity" photographer for an hour! I say "celebrity" cause that's what it seemed like for them. They were so happy that someone was so interested in catching their every moment that wasn't "just mom!" Even amidst the busyness of life, I continue to feel very blessed that the Lord fills me with so much love for each of the kids, no matter how nuts I feel most days!