The Greatest Gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!



Below are part 1 and part 2 of the play the kids were in at our new church in New Braunfels!

It's about 53 minutes total with the two parts. I hope you enjoy it! The kids did wonderful considering that they really only had 2 practices before the performance!

I had to compress them in order to upload them here...but they should still look okay!

Many blessings to you and your family for the coming year!





The Greatest Gift - part 1





The Greatest Gift - part 2

The Gift of Eternal Life

1 John 5:11
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (NIV)

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NASB)

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

Titus 3:4-7
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (NKJV)

John 10:27-28
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. (NLT)

Christmas Barge Caroling Tradition

This evening we went as a family with our homeschool group to ride barges downtown along the Riverwalk and sing Christmas Carols.

This is an event we always look forward to and it is usually interesting to see how it will turn out as we end up being with different families each year and we do not practice ahead of time!

It was a fun evening and went really quickly! We stopped by Starbucks to get drinks before boarding the barges...another tradition over the past few years. We all got cold drinks though...it just wasn't cold enough for hot drinks this time!

Here are some pictures from our visit downtown tonight! We didn't make it to the Christmas tree by the Alamo tonight, but we will probably do so in a couple of weeks when relatives are in town visiting!

I also have a lot of other pictures to post and stories to tell...hope to get to back-tracking and posting a lot of fun things on this blog and my other blog at: www.tiwacademy.wordpress.com



Ok, it takes forever to upload a lot of pictures! So, the rest are in the fun slideshow below! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Summer Fun!

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted....I guess I seem to say that a lot recently! I am going to work on getting a number of posts added today on my various blogs, so make sure to check the older posts for new things!

I wanted to post a few pictures from today of what is going on as we have 4 additional children in the house all day! My best friend Sarah is out of town and her kids are visiting with us today!

Hope you like the pictures Sarah! These were all taken just after lunch as the kids divided up to do various activities.

The boys with their favorite pastime....playing PlayStation!

My oldest two playing Monopoly again!

Miss Serious showing me her nails. My youngest daughter is painting the two little girls nails.

So cute!

They were looking at the little battery-powered fan that they were using to help "dry" their nails.

Very focused.....!

Kids are such fun and do come up with great things to do in their free time! What a blessing to have such good friends and kids who love to play together!

The 7th of July

My kids have decided that we must have a new tradition for every 7th of July. Wondering why?

Today we ended up sleeping in late (instead of getting up to do some school work) and then I remembered that one of the homeschool groups we are a part of was planning to go bowling today. So, considering how late in the day it already was and that I was feeling somewhat out of sorts, I decided, "Hey kids, we are going to go bowling today!". They, of course, were thrilled!

The bowling alley closest to use offers a Homeschool Day every Monday from 1pm -3pm. It is a special price for 3 games of bowling plus you can purchase drinks and some food items for way less than their normal prices (which are really HIGH!). I didn't realize they were continuing through the summer until a fellow mom posted about our group going.

Anyway, we headed to the bowling alley, and had a blast. It was pouring down rain by the time we left though. We, of course, really need the rain and we didn't mind at all! (I forgot to take the camera...)

We came home and my oldest daugther asked if they could make a cake. I said sure. So they baked the cake, then I made dinner.

While the cake was baking and while I made dinner, the kids decided to play Monopoly which they haven't played in a long time! It is so wonderful when all four of your kids decide to play together and do so nicely for an extended period of time!




Once dinner was completed, as I was preparing to leave to go help a friend with her homeschool planning, they called me down to see how they had decorated the cake.




My oldest announced to me that from now on we had to celebrate the 7th of July with going bowling, playing Monopoly and eating cake! So, I guess we have a new tradition to uphold.....! Kids are so creative!

They obviously had a great day and I was very happy about that! We will get back to our schedule in the coming days as much as we can! :)

It has been interesting to see how the kids are adjusting to mom not being so stressed after I quit working outside the home recently. The effects of my stress was apparently affecting the rest of the family more than I realized! I thank God that He loves us and works all things out for our good. He knows what we need, when we need it and will make it clear when it is time for a change...even if that change is hard.

Way too long.....

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted! I have a ton of pictures and stories to share!!

It is amazing to me that it is already March 16th!

The past few days have been very busy with celebrating my oldest and my youngest children's birthdays! They are 6 years and 2 days apart! My oldest will actually have her party this coming Friday, buy my youngest had his yesterday.

This is my oldest daughter (on the right) and her best friend when we took them out to dinner.

This is my youngest son--holding the sword at his party! They actually do cut the cake with the sword! I have recently started working at a martial arts studio and my son is taking classes there. It has been great for both of us! The instructor behind my son is also a good friend of ours! He is great with my son in class and out!

What is even more amazing is that my oldest is now 14 and my youngest is now 8!!! Thankfully, I guess, most people see my husband and I and can't believe that we are old enough to have a 14 year old daughter!! So funny!

It has been a fun but very busy few days!! I hope to be able to get caught up on my blogging and go back to post/share some of the things that have been happening the last few months!

Have a blessed week! :)

Christmas Celebrations!

We had a wonderful Christmas with many get togethers with family and friends. Here are a few pictures from Christmas day with just our immediate family.




My youngest received a Transformer set that he really wanted for Christmas. You can see that he can't even take his eyes off it!
















Daddy gave all the kids a special gift this year---the all received a "Petey" in their own special colors. Even mommy got one! This is my oldest with hers.


















Daddy gave my oldest son his "old" Playstation 2, so for Christmas he received several new games for the system. He has liked them all so far!
















My youngest daughter also received a "Petey". The hat "Petey" is wearing is a gift from my Dad, her Poppa. She loves both!







We had a wonderful time getting together with all our extended family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The Lord is wonderful and faithful to His children! We are so blessed to have so many family members close by, not to mention all the wonderful friends we have in our lives right now!

Friendship Bags

A fellow blogger recently reminded me of something we had done about a year ago. We often see people at the intersections of the highways near us asking for money, etc. I don't like to just give out money but I came across this idea in an email newletter I receive. The information is now posted here. When we first did the bags, we followed most of what was listed at that site.

I decided we needed to make more bags to have on hand to give out as we are driving around. So, today the kids and I worked on getting 12 bags ready to hand out. Below is the list of what we included this time around.

Card about Forgiveness found in Christ
Card with info on contacting our church
fruit cup (peel top)
raisin pack
2 pks of cheese crackers
granola bar
bottle of water
beef jerky/beef stick
hand wipes
tooth towels
pack of gum
chapstick
tooth flossers
spoon
napkin
(gallon size ziploc bags)

We assembled all the items in each gallon size ziploc bag. I think these bags will hold up better than the paper bags we used last time.

Below are some pictures of what we included and of the kids working on assembling them.

The boys wanted to build with the items before packing them into the bags!

Sweet Kids

I just have to share that my two youngest children have been playing so well together for almost the last week! Not that they don't usually, but they have been preferring to play with each other exclusively.

They have had a lot of fun with Barbie's and Barbie cars, making up and acting out stories, playing in creative ways with their stuffed animals, etc. It is so awesome to see their imaginations at work!

I have just been very thankful that the youngest has been happily occupied with fun play, rather than wanting to watch TV. He tends to really get "attached" to certain things if we let him! That is something we are working on in a big way!

I will post some pictures when I can "catch" them at play again! I forgot to do it earlier!

Have a blessed day!

This is my youngest son. His sister didn't want to be in the picture for some reason!

"One Word Game"

My friend posted this on her blog and now I am doing the same. Here's what I want you to do. Describe me in ONE WORD... just one word! Reply in comments section. Then you can email it to your friends or post on your blog to see what your friends say about you. I tag anyone who happens to read this blog!

Try to be nice though! :)

My Blessings!

Here are a few of the blessings I have received from the Lord!

1. The Lord Himself!
2. My wonderful, caring husband.
3. My four wonderful children who make each day an exciting adventure (to say the least!).
4. The new home we have now been in for 7 months--hard to believe!
5. Wonderful friends who are encouraging, good listeners and helpful for teaching me new things!
6. Rain for my yard--I don't have to water for a few days!
7. Great extended family who want to be involved with our kids!
8. Godly leaders who hear from the Lord and want to share the truth of God's Word.
9. The freedom to teach my children at home as the Lord leads!
10. A Heavenly Father who is right here with me at all times--I just have to remember it!

That's all for today..... I will try to share more and other specific blessings as they come up!

A New Pet!

"Mr." Pounce

I meant to post this last week, but we have been very busy!

My youngest son just received his first pet! He now has a rabbit that he named Pounce (because he pounces when we runs in the back yard!).

He is so excited to have his very own pet to take care of and is so cute with him!

Pounce is a very friendly little guy. He likes his cage but doesn't really like hopping on the kitchen floor! Zachary takes him outside in the back yard on a harness and leash (just so he is easier to catch) every day. Pounce loves running in the grass in the back yard. After a time of "pouncing" through our (currently very tall) grass, he will stop to rest and eat some of the grass.

We are enjoying him so far!