5 Generations!

Five generations! That's right, five!!

Karissa, Lorelei and I made a quick overnight trip to Port St. Lucie to visit Great Grandma and Great-Great Grandma!

From left to right and from baby Lorelei's perspective:

Mom Karissa(23 on Christmas Day), Great-Great Grandma Mary(96), Lorelei(2 1/2 months), Great Grandma Jackie(69), Grandma Mary(43)

New Lorelei Pics

This is the first picture of 4 generations!

Mom and baby.

Grandma Gail and Grandpa.

pucker upper

Just too much...10 pounds now...6 weeks and 1 day old!

Baby Basket

My Tuesday morning Moms get-together called "Moms In Christ" put together this basket of baby things for Karissa. I was blown away....so much stuff. They're awesome.

The "Crafty Ladies" from Cornerstone made this beautiful prayer blanket. Isn't it adorable?!

We made this pretty little craft today also. I decided to add this to Karissa's basket so she could paint Lorelei on the top.

Check out the blog I'm keeping up at http://www.momsinchristcbc.blogspot.com/

A great day with Lorelei

Wow. It's been a busy day...week...uh, month. Karissa and Chris were here today with Lorelei getting lots of love from friends and Great Grandmas. So far, I love this Grandma job. I know it's going to look different as things move along, but so far so good.

It's been quite a while but it all came back to me.
Ethan thought she would love this little bear.
Check out the doggy nose.

Feed me! Now!
What more can I say.

Lorelei

Dunkin' Daniel

A big day for Daniel! We realized later that he became the first person to be baptized in our new building! Cool...

more FB

I know...I already have a football picture posted. But I can't help thinking that this is the cutest thing in the world. Just the back, the Gandee and the number. I never realized how impossible it is to get a good shot of football action! This is the greatest shot you're ever gonna get. I just love it.

For the record...Jaret is the first Gandee to ever receive a pass and run! Daddy was offensive guard so he never got to catch a pass!

Oh....and the Inverness Storm PeeWees tore through the Hernando Leopard PeeWees!(Daddy's Alma Mater!)

Football...

...I guess I have to learn to love it. Jaret sure does!

1st week of Football!

Drills, drills and more drills...4 days and they haven't touched a football yet! It's grueling but Jaret's really loving it.

Mom's best friend

Doggie-sitting a big Black Lab named George W. He has been my best buddy today. Ben Stein has some words of wisdom about the love of a dog.

He is Good

I just feel like rambling....God is good.

What an incredible day so far. I have witnessed what God can do in the midst of unsure circumstances. Unsure from my standpoint, anyway. He sees everything in its entirety and I do not need to worry. How blessed we are that He lets us rest in His arms and be secure, knowing that He has it all under control.

I have recently heard these words...obey now, find out why later. These words ring true today. I can only see what He allows me to see, but I am so thankful that He gives me these little glimpses into what he's doing. My deepest longing is to obey Him and rest in His love for me.

He is good.

Gettin' a little crazy.

http://www.chiaobama.com/

Sing!!

Going home...

Off to Key Biscayne for the Fourth of July!!! Can't wait!

My favorite things about KB...

The Beach

The Critters

The Fancy Cars
The Lighthouse

The Friends

The Parade

The Fireworks
The Bay...

Civil Air Patrol Promotions

Last night Daniel and Dan were promoted at CAP. Daniel to Senior Airman...lots of tests!

...and Dan made it through his first phase as a Senior member.

what's been going on

Finally calling the school year complete as of yesterday! Yippee! We were just waiting on Daniel to finish up his English 1 on Florida Virtual School. Overall, we had a good experience with it. We really loved the teacher, she was wonderful.
I've got the declutter bug so I've been going through closets and shelves to clear out the old to make room for the new. I've got quite a load to take to take to the donation drop off. I love when the house feels lighter!
We are anxiously awaiting my Mom-in-laws arrival this week. She's been in WV for nearly a year taking care of Grandpa. He passed away a couple of weeks ago so now she's headed back home. We miss her so much! If you knew her, you would know why I'm making such a fuss!
Gotta get those homeschool portfolios together!!

It's a tragic event that took place in Wichita. Entirely wrong.
But I still can't help but see the irony in this statement from the White House.

"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

Parrot Flower

These pics made their way into my inbox. They are so incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I had to look it up to see if they really exist. As far as I can tell, from my limited research, they do! The only place these flowers grow are in Thailand & East India. It is illegal to export the seeds or plants. They are very rare.

They call it the Parrot Flower(Impatiens psittacina) for obvious reasons. I just love it...

Ethan loves AWANA

Last night Ethan won 2 awards at AWANA! One was for finishing the first book in TNT(Truth & Training) and the other was for memorizing more Bible verses than anyone else for throughout the year! Yippee, Ethan!

Cutter's snoozing on the big, old weight machine out on the back porch...since no one else is ever using it!

Slow Loris?

The cutest nocturnal primate somewhere in Asia!

How cool is this?!

This is a picture of some of the kids on Daniel's Track and Field team from Citrus High School at their awards banquet last night(not the whole team, but a large number of them) They're a pretty tight group, but not just because they're on the same team! What bonds them together even more, is the fact that they all worship together at Cornerstone Baptist Church! That's cool.

Daniel lettered this year and he is 4th from the right.

Powerful

Blue Ribbon awards!

Daniel and Jaret worked hard and earned a Blue Ribbon at 4H District Events last Saturday. Daniel goes on to the State Competition at UF in July! (must be 15 to go to state).
Daniel's speech was about Claymation and Jaret's was about skyscrapers. Here they are with the Dovi boys who also won all Blue Ribbons! This has turned into a fun annual tradition!

Claymation short

Added sound effects!

Claymation by Daniel...:) He's using this one as an example for his 4H District Events speech(about Claymation) on Saturday.

Ethan is 9!

Click here to for Ethan's birthday...I put it on my running blog by accident and I'm too lazy right now to do it all over again!

Final Lap

Here's Daniel on the final stretch of his last race of the track season. This was at the district meet in the Villages where he ran the mile and the two mile. His best mile time was 5:05 and that placed him around 5th in the county. Not too bad for a freshman! :) We're so proud-he works hard.One could click here to see most of his stats...if one were so inclined.

Good Friday

It was a beautiful day today. We spent our Good Friday with some friends hearing the Easter story told through "Resurrection Eggs", colored some eggs and feasted on macaroni and cheese! Here's Sully guiding the kids through the story...

12 Plastic Eggs...in each egg is something that reminds us of what happened from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Day! See the donkey, the coins(Judas), the praying hands(Jesus in the Garden), the whip, the crown of thorns...I think I've found my new Easter tradition!

Time to get messy...

Lisa, Tina and some of the crew.

Isn't Joy the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Fireproof Your Marriage

Dan and I had a nice little get-away to Daytona this past Friday and Saturday. We went with 10 other couples from our church to the "Fireproof Your Marriage" Conference. The speakers were Gary Smalley, Ted Cunningham and the team from Sherwood Baptist Church (Alex and Stephen Kenrick, Michael Catt) These are the guys that produced the movies "Fireproof" and "Facing the Giants". It was great!

Some pics...

Dan with Alex Kendrick(The coach from "Facing the Giants")

Do you remember the opposing coach, Bobby Lee? He's actually one of the pastors at Sherwood! Here we are with Gary Smalley. He and Ted Cunningham wrote a book about (shhh...(sex))