Week in Review {Feb. 5-12}

Last Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  Some of you may remember that. :)  But... since we had been going busy leading up to it, we decided to stay in and just watch it as a family.

After I finished up posting last Sunday, I made JR his own batch of hot wings.  He didn't have to share them with anyone!

 

JR was really the only one watching the game.  And I didn't even watch the commercials.  Pretty perfect if you ask me.

Monday we got a special treat!  We met up with "Ms. Elizabeth" (Elizabeth Harville) and Easton at Chick-fil-A.  The kids have loved Elizabeth since we first moved to Memphis.  It was great catching up with her and getting to meet Easton.  He's a hugga bunch!

Tuesday, G was running a fever and well... I couldn't take N to school because I was pretty tied to the toilet myself. :(

Both of the kids were so disappointed to miss their out-of-the-home school.  I took the extra uninterrupted time at home to finish painting Naomi's new foot-locker from Keith.  We all LOVE the way it turned out.

Here are the close-ups of the name plates:

(You can't tell it from this shot because of my amber lighting in the dining room, but this plate is nickel.)

 I picked up about 50 paint swatches the other day and had Naomi pick out a color to go on the inside of her box.  She narrowed it down to a pale blue, funky purple, and a bubble gum green.  Since the blue on our walls was really close to the blue she picked out, I went with the paint I already had.

She always talks about how "beautiful" the foot-locker is.

We loaded it up with her toys.  I don't know if it's because the foot-locker is new or if this is just a better way to put away toys, but she and G have been really good about keeping their room clean this week.  (Let's pray THAT continues.)

Over the summer (in Scotland) I mentioned to my friend, Deborah, that people were charging a fortune for Waldorf dolls.  Well... Deborah made one.  And then fell in love with making them.

Out of the blue we got a package from her...

Naomi loves her!  She loves all the little handmade clothes.

The doll's name is "Joy-Anna".  This is perfect because one of Deborah's daughters close in age to Naomi is Anna Jane.

Every Sunday after church this summer, Naomi and Anna Jane were thick as thieves.

Now she has a little doll to remind her of her friend!


Thanks, Debs, for putting such love and attention into this doll!

Friday night I hosted a Shaklee party.  But... just to make it more of a Par-tay... I fixed dinner and we had a game night after the presentation.

We had over 20 people in our (packed) apartment.  I served Tortilla Soup and veggies and tortilla chips.

Gerilyn made glutten-free chocolate chip cookies.

Laura and Jared gave their schpeal on supplements, and then we played games.

(Did you know that for every $1 you spend on a nutrition supplement you are saving yourself $28 in medical expenses later on?  If you'd like a link to great supplements,  CLICK HERE.  For every $25 you spend, we get $25 to spend.  You will be saving yourself $700 in future health care expenses, and saving us $700!  Pretty sweet, right?)

Yesterday we made into an impromptu Family Day.

First off... this is one of the ways I always find my kids.

They play the Leapster together.  My mother-in-law asked if I wanted her to get us a second one so the kids would each have one.  And I told her that I LOVE that they have to share one.  Here are my reasons:
1.  Because they have to share, they have to work out HOW they are going to share.
2.  Having only one that is split between them means that they have less time to play on it.
3.  Having only one lets them work together on the games as well.  Gideon is able to help Naomi on some of the harder parts which pushes her ability level.  But this reinforces his knowledge as well as reminds him that he is an important part of our family.

This is one of my new soap-boxes, but... We have been blessed by having less.  We have been blessed by not having what other people in our "station of life" may have.  We know that in relationship to most people in the world, we are rich as Midas.  We have food, a roof over our head, clothing, beds, air-conditioning, heat... we even have TV, computers, iTouches, cell-phones (they don't get reception, but we have them)...  We are learning the lesson of focusing on what we DO have... not what we don't.

Ok, soap-box ended...

Family Day:  We headed out to Garibaldi's Pizza for lunch.  Gideon inhales the supreme pizza. :)


 In the restaurant, they have pinball machines.  I happened to have some quarters on me.

 Next we stopped by Walgreens to get the Valentine's the kids will hand out at school.  When we got home they both started on them.

Gideon did GREAT! Without complaining once! He addressed and signed all of his Valentines! I'm so proud of him. He DOES NOT like handwriting. And it's usually a struggle for us. But he was independent and great.

Naomi signed all her cards by herself.  I love seeing her cute handwriting.

By evening we decided to play a game.  The kids chose "Very Silly Sentences".  (The kids LOVE this game.)

 This is what a finished game board looks like.  It happens to be N's.  The kids have fun reading the cards and learning the parts of speech.  (Actually... since JR didn't pay attention in high school... he's learning the parts of speech too.) :P

 (Do you see where N has been biting her top and bottom lip?  I cannot keep enough cream on it to let the skin heal.  She's still stinkin' adorable, though.)

Well... that wraps up our week.  Coming up on Monday we have a web-cam chat with one of the churches we are hoping to partner with so that we can return to Peterhead.  Please continue to pray that the Lord works His mighty hand to bring glory to His Name as we seek to follow where He leads.
~Daisha

Weekly Review {Jan. 29-Feb.5}

What a big week.  It's currently Super Bowl Sunday, and our family is so wiped out we have turned down the multitude of party plans in favor of hole-ing up in our home. ;)

This is a picture Naomi drew for me at the beginning of the week.

I am continually stunned by her attention to details.

The picture is me taking a dog to an ice cream shop.

Would you notice the hand?!  The proportions of the hand are almost identical to my hands!

I also noticed that her facial features in her drawings are becoming more symmetrical.

We encourage her artistic ability every chance we get.

(You can also see where she's signed her name.  Plus she likes to play with the letters in her name to "write" other things too.)

Tuesday evening we had a couple over who has just moved onto campus over for dinner.  We had a great time getting to know Clint and Gerilyn Burnett. 

For Naomi's 4th birthday, JR's dad, Keith, made and mailed a foot-locker/toy chest.  It is amazing!  

 Naomi had no clue what was in the huge box that Bob Turner carried over to our apartment from the library.

We began the task of unpacking it.

The pink packing peanuts were a big hit with Naomi.

She kept exclaiming, "I got peanuts! They are so fun!"

 Once we got the box out and unwrapped, she loved it!  She also loved the LaLaLoopsy paperdoll card Grandpa sent with the gift.

This footlocker/toy box/hope chest is a real treasure.  The details in the special name plates just make it even more special.  This will be something that we do take anywhere in the world, and I'm sure Naomi will treasure this her whole life.

For Naomi's 4th birthday JR and I got her a bike, and Gideon was very excited about the gift he got her.  After she went to bed for the last time as a 3 year old, JR and I put her bike together and set up her gifts to greet her when she walked downstairs on her birthday morning.

Well... apparently she heard us putting together the bike.  So in the middle of the night she sneaked downstairs while everyone else was sleeping and took a peak at her new gifts.

When I went in to wake her up Thursday morning, I cuddled up to her, sang "Happy Birthday" and she said to me, "I liked the bike you hid for me." :)

Here are some shots of when she did come down.  I didn't capture her surprised face, though. :(

She said that "Blanket" did. (the cheek on that girl!)

Gideon was finally able to give her the gift he picked out for her.

"Friends" Legos.

She LOVES them!

 Then they sat and ate their waffles as we got ready for school.

After they got dressed (in a hurry I might add) they opened up the Legos and wasted no time in getting a few moments of play-time before we left for school.

 

This is the first year that Naomi has really had a group of kids her age that she knew.  She was super-excited to take cupcakes to school on her birthday!

The cake I have made every year for her birthday has been strawberry cake with lemon icing.  But this year she wanted pink and purple, so I just put some dye into the lemon icing.  She also wanted Littlest Pet Shop.  I thought cupcake liners would be easy to find.  Ha!  So, I made "flags" with LPS stickers on them.

I love this cake/icing combo!  And there's even fresh strawberries in the cake!  YUMMM!

I headed back to Naomi's school to take photos of her with her class.

 Here are her classmates.  It was so fun watching her enjoy her new friends!

After I picked the kids up from school, we spent some time out and about on our campus.  She's got many friends here too.

 (an impromptu snack/picnic and LPS play time)

 

 The big girl on her new bike.  She learned to turn and take the corners like a champ.  And she's even learning to keep up with Gideon. ;)

 (some movie-time over at the Hallett's)

Daddy's girl... all the way!

We got ready for dinner.  Naomi chose to go to Pei Wei for dinner.  But when we got there, we discovered it was closed. :(  She was devastated.  But, we ended up going to Chick-fil-A, and she was happy.

 She has been asking (about every other day) when we get to go back to the Amazone (the indoor play-place in Peterhead).  Well... the Chick-fil-A is the closest thing we have.

We headed back home for cuddle time.

And then Naomi's newest obsession:  auditioning for American Idol. :)

That's a pretty full day for a 4 year old.  (I think she loved every minute of it... except when we found out about PeiWei.)

In her birthday card from MY grandparents (the kid's "GB's"), Naomi got a hand-drawn paper doll of herself.  Great Grandma Betty (Stockstill) is where we get our artistic genes.

Friday morning we tried to web-cam with Claudia, Ryan, and Kaden.  Our side didn't get the video (internet problems all over campus), but they got to see N open her gift from them.  It's the coolest back-pack that turns into a portable play castle for all of Naomi's little toys.  She LOVES it. (for some reason, I haven't snapped a photo of her playing with it)

Then we tried to web-cam with Kelli, Simon, and Rachel.  (again, the video didn't work on our end) But it was great being sung to in 2 languages.  For the rest of the day, G kept singing Happy Birthday in Polish.

When I asked Naomi what kind of cake she wanted for her Littlest Pet Shop party, she said, "I want Ms. Jessi to help us make a cake."  (This means fondant and tiers people!)  So I told her that if it was important to her, she needed to be the one to talk to Jessi about it.  And she did.  Luckily, Jessi has a soft-spot for Naomi, and readily agreed to help out.

Naomi designed her cake and I baked the 3 8 in. cakes and 3 10 in. cakes Thursday night so they'd be ready for fondant-making on Friday. :)

Jessi came over at 12:45 Friday.

Naomi got ready in a borrowed apron. :)  We made our own fondant from marshmallows.  I made up 6 batches of blueberry butter cream.

Jessi got her arm work-outs with stirring.  

And by 5 o'clock... we had a cake! (I've never doing fondant again!) :)

JR and John ran together and then we decided to do dinner together.  

After dinner, Jessi helped me put the final touches on the decorating for the party while the men-folk played chess.

Jessi did so much to help me with this party.  She is a blessing to me. :)

Saturday:  The day of the party...

My parents came up early for the party and took us out to lunch.

Can you tell what a great time they have together? :)

We had a good visit.  And I'm glad they came up early, because once the party started... I didn't really see them through the crowd of people at the house. ;)

After we ate we returned to the house.  Naomi opened the present from my parents.

This is my parent's dog, Tassie.  She "sings" Happy Birthday.

 

Here's the set-up for the party:

 The Cake

The Game and the fruit.  The purple stuff is the left-over Lemon icing from the school cupcakes.  It makes a fantastic fruit dip.

Eventually the party started:

We had about 30 people at the party.  (and we only ate the top layer of the cake!)

After Naomi's party, we headed to one of the small group get-togehers associated with HST.  We were there for several hours of fellowship and then we came home and crashed.  This week has been a long, but great week!

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to raise funding for returning to Peterhead, Scotland long-term.  For more information about this, head to Mission Scotland.

~Daisha