New York!

Two weeks before Christmas, my sister in law called me & said they were thinking about taking their daughter Mia to NY for a Rockette show & they wondered if Emma could go with them. Of course I wanted her to go but I didn't want her to experience NYC for the 1st time without me! Literally, the week before my sister in law called me, Emma had created a bucket list on Pinterest & one of the things she'd pinned was 'experience Christmas in NY', and we'd talked about how maybe we could do it someday! So that's why I wanted to go with them. Fortunately, my brother was able to use his skymiles & get tickets for the 5 of us. The plan was to fly up on the Tues before Christmas, see the show on Tues. night & fly back on Wed.
So on the Sunday before, we told Emma that we had an early Christmas gift for her. I had bought her a new winter coat specifically for this trip.When she opened it, her face revealed that she was less than thrilled with the coat, because, we live in south Ga. You don't really need a winter coat down here! But then Steven said, "we know you didn't really want a new coat but we thought you'd need one in NY." She looked at us in disbelief and asked, "I'm going to NY??" We shook our heads & said, "yes, we're going Tuesday." By this point, she was jumping up and down and yelling and crying, "I'm going to NY!!!!!"
It was such a priceless memory!
A funny side story, the boys were watching as this all took place & they were all excited for Emma. But after a few moments, when Caleb realized he wasn't getting to go, he got mad at Emma, looked at her and said, "that's not fair, you....you....Lottie Moon!" (Can you guess what we'd been talking about at church earlier that day!)
So on the Monday before Christmas, we all packed up & headed to ATL for the week.

To be continued.....

First Day of School...

Today was the first day of school for Emma & Dougie. Emma is starting to 8th grade and Dougie is starting 5th grade. Would someone please tell me how we went from this~
2007 4th grade & 1st grade

to this 2011, 8th grade & 5th

What's even scarier, this time next year Emma will be starting HIGH SCHOOL! OMW!!

If you need me, I'll be on the couch in the fetal position!!

Love y'all dearly.

Another 1st....

When Emma started 3rd grade at the private school, which she still attends, we began hearing about "social" classes. I was completely uneducated about this but after asking around I found out that it didn't start until middle school. But I can honestly say that by the end of their 4th grade year, Emma and Landon had already committed to being social partners!

In 6th grade, they offer a manners class and at the end of the year, they have a formal dinner, where they get to put into practice everything they've learned.

But in 7th grade, you get to go to "social". Twice a month, you attend a class where you learn different dances, hence the need for a partner. In December, there is a Christmas dance but it's just your age group. Then there's a Father/Daughter dance in February. But in May, it's the grandaddy of them all, Spring Formal. And it's some 2000 students, from 7th grade up to 12th grade, from all over the Augusta area! Since this was our 1st time, we weren't really sure what to expect. We were blown away! It was so much fun! We were thrilled that my Mom & Dad drove down for this event. It really was nice having another female to oooohhh and ahhh over all the different dresses with me!

Before the dance~



Emma and her brothers, who stayed with friends, which I'm so grateful!
With Grandma & Paps right before going in.



The Grand March~ in my simple-mindedness, I thought they would just march around the outside of the floor. But no, they did this weaving in and out pattern, which really enhanced the dress watching! :)




The next few shots are of Emma dancing. From the blurriness of the photos, you will see that my camera stinks, or it could be my lack of skills but whatever.


And finally, a picture of Emma & Landon after the dance!



Here's a video of part of one of the dances. It was so neat seeing the whole group move!

Untitled from Cheryl A on Vimeo.

She's got her Momma's smarts, NOT!

Tomorrow, something big is happening at our house. Well, actually, it's not taking place at our house but anyway.
Emma is taking the SAT.
Yes, you read that right. My 13 yr old, who's in 7th grade, is taking THE SAT, at Georgia Southern, with high schoolers!
What in the world, you ask?
Back in the Fall, you received a letter that stated because of her scores on a standardized test, she qualified for the Duke TIP Program. Part of this program gives 7th graders the opportunity to take the SAT. Her scores won't count for anything, it's just the experience of it all. Being part of this program may or may not lead to some scholarships & other educational benefits. Emma's response to all was, "I'm not going to some smart kid camp in the summer." So you can see, she's really into it all! ha!
And we've taken the no pressure approach to it all too. We are soooo proud of Emma. She is one smart chick.

Cheerleading 2010

Emma has just wrapped up the 2010 football season. Here are some photos of her cheering.

This was their first pep-rally, or as Caleb says, pep-A-rally! Emma is a base for the middle group, she has her back to the camera.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. About an hour before this game, we had a huge rain. But amazingly, the rain stopped about 15 minutes before gametime. So all the cheerleaders cheered in their rainboots! I wish I would have gotten a picture of the whole squad. It was too cute!

Don't be jealous of my awsome photography skills. But if you squint your eyes it doesn't look blurry at all!! This is a picture of the banner that Emma helped design. The opponent was the Crusaders and instead of using the typical "Crush the Crusaders", they came up with "Sack the 'Saders."

It was a great season and we look forward to many more to come!

The Newest Food Stars!

Emma and Dougie have always loved helping out in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, Emma and I were talking about the duty joy of cooking supper. I shared with her that some friends of ours have each of their teenage children be responsible for one supper a week. Well, Emma thought that was a great idea and asked if we could do that, to which I responded, "SURE!"

So this past Saturday, we were doing basically nothing. I was napping in my our room and Emma came in and asked what we were having for supper. I think I mumbled something like, "I have no clue." and then rolled over. Then she asked if she and Dougie could cook something and again I mumbled, "sure."

After a few minutes (I think), they came back to tell me what they had chosen. They would be making Parmesan chicken, spaghetti and a fruit dessert. At this point, I realized that they were serious about this so I gave a quick lesson on cooking with chicken safety. They informed me that they had the chicken thawing and everything was under control. I went into the kitchen to make sure they had enough chicken for all of us. Once I heard them put the chicken in the oven, I peeked in to see how things were going. Emma was opening some packages of ramen noodles. When I asked why, she informed me that we didn't have any kind of spaghetti noodles or pasta, so they were going to use the ramen noodles without the seasoning. I thought that was pretty inventive! After that I was banned from the kitchen, which you can see from the sign on the door.

Within an hour, dinner was served!

Parmesan Chicken (that's a tomato on top. Notice the noodles!)
Garlic breadsticks!!!
They even went out in the yard and got some fresh flowers! So sweet!

Everything was so good! The chicken was cooked to perfection and tasted so good. Emma told us that the recipe called for italian bread crumbs but we had plain bread crumbs. So she just took some different spices and seasoned the bread crumbs. My girl is definitely not afraid to cook!

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert. We were all given a choice: blueberry, peach or strawberry. (Because that's what we had in the freezer.) They took your choice of fruit, put it in the blender with a little bit of sugar and blended it. They placed it in a bowl and put it back in the freezer. It was soooo yummy, light and refreshing!

It was a wonderful evening and I was so proud of Emma and Dougie. We will definitely be letting them cook dinner again, soon!

Here's the recipe for the Parmesan chicken:

4 chicken breast

4 tsp. Italian bread crumbs (not sure what spices Emma used)

1/2 c mayo

1/4 c parmesan cheese

Combine mayo and cheese and spread on chicken. Then sprinkle on bread crumbs. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

First Day of School 2010-2011

Emma and Dougie started back to school today. Emma is going into the 7th grade (I can't believe I just typed that!!) and Dougie is going into 4th. They were both a little nervous this morning. Emma was nervous about being in the "high school" hall. At our school, 7th -12th are on the same hall. Dougie was nervous about having the "meanest" teacher in the whole school! ; )

Dougie wasn't happy that I made him take a picture without his cap!

But Emma helped him turn his frown upside down!!
Hope you have a great day!!!

G-D-O!!!!

Last Tuesday, while we were visiting for Christmas, my sister in law, Skye, wanted to take Emma, Mia and myself to the American Girl Store and Bistro. Apparently, you need to make lunch reservations waaaay in advance so we decided to take our chances in hopes that someone had cancelled. Emma and I had never been to the store before and to be honest, I wasn't sure if she would still be 'into' it. Can I just say, whoever thought of the concept of the American Girl dolls is a genius!! I couldn't believe the things they have in this store. Anything you would want for your doll or your daughter, they have it! The longer we walked around, the more Emma seemed to enjoy it. Of course Emma and Mia brought their Julie dolls, so we had to look at all the accessories you can buy for her. Then we let the girls get their dolls hair styled Yes, you can get your doll's hair done and here's a little secret for you~ They use a toothbrush, not the official American Girl brush, to style the hair! They want us to buy a $7 hairbrush yet they use a 50 cent toothbrush! Anyway, back to the day....we checked to see if they had any cancellations and we were told that we could eat in the restaurant but that it would be an hour and a half wait. We opted to eat at Chick-fil-a and then did a little shopping in the mall. Then we headed back to the American Girl store and decided to eat dessert. We sat up at the bar and they put the dolls in little chairs. When they gave us the dessert menu, they placed a menu in front of the dolls too!

Emma ordered the fudge brownie sundae. It was A-mazing! As if the brownie, ice cream, chocolate syrup and whip cream weren't enough, they put some rice crispy treat bits in it too!

Mia ordered the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. It was sooo big but that didn't stop Mia from attempting to eat it all. That girl loves her some ice cream and chocolate!When I ordered, I told the server, "I just want a chocolate chip cookie." They were baking them when we sat down and they smelled sooooo good. Well, I got my cookie but it wasn't a plain old cookie~

Skye didn't order a dessert but she did have the rasberry spritzer drink and it was very good too! If the desserts were this good, I can only imagine that the food is outstanding!

I don't know how I missed it but at some point even Julie ordered dessert. ;) She ordered a blueberry muffin.
We had such a good time together. I'm so glad we were able to go. Thank you Skye for treating us! As we said that day, "good times, good times...."

1st day of school

I can't believe that it's the first day of school!!! Just like everyone else is saying, "where did summer go?"
Emma is an official middle schooler (6th grade) and Dougie is starting 3rd grade!
It doesn't seem possible but it is....
I knew they would give me a hard time about taking their picture this morning so I gave them a choice, you can let me take your picture at home or I will take it at school.

Guess what they chose?

I'm such a mean ol' momma! ;~)

Happy Monday!

Love Y'all,

May 26, 2004- Emma's story

May 26, 2004 was a warm day and Dougie, Emma and I were looking forward to spending the day at the pool. This was during my single mom days and I was trying to get both kids ready to go. Emma was dressed and was waiting downstairs while Dougie and I were upstairs. As I did often (and still do), I had praise music playing on the computer and had it turned loud enough to hear it throughout the house.
As Dougie and I headed down the stairs, Emma was standing at the bottom of the stairs and I will never forget the look on her sweet 6 year old face. It was a mixture of fear and excitement. She had her little hand on her chest and I immediately asked her, "what's wrong?" She looked at me wide-eyed and said, "I just asked Jesus into my heart!"
I took her in my arms and wanting to hear it in her own words, I asked her to tell me what happened. This is what she told me, " I was listening to the song and I knew in my heart that I had sinned. So I said, "God and Jesus, I'm sorry and I want you to come into my heart."

I know with all my heart that at the tender age of six, Emma had a life changing encounter with her Savior. She didn't need an adult to tell her how to surrender her life to Him, she just followed the leading of her heavenly Father.

Happy 5th 'birthday' Emma. My prayer is that you will always follow God's leading in your life.

I love you so much!
Momma

This is the song that was playing:

Well................................. as Caleb says.....................................

"He flipped like a pancake!!"

Thank you Jesus, now let's just pray he stays that way. Although I think he will, the Dr. said his head is pretty low and I'm 50% effaced and 1cm dialated. So all systems are on go!!!

On another note, Emma didn't make the squad. She was pretty upset but her attitude is amazing. We all want our kids to learn these kind of life lessons, it just stinks that it has to hurt them.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Love y'all so much!

Well, tomorrow is the day. When I go to the Dr., if Asher hasn't gotten back into position, then she wants to schedule a c-section. We'll still be looking at delivery around April 16th. Please be praying......I'm coming to grips with this.

This morning Caleb asked me, "Did Asher flip yet?" When I told him no, he responded by saying, "He needs to flip like a pancake!"

Where does he come up with this stuff!?!?

On another note, my baby girl is trying out for the middle school cheerleading squad tomorrow! MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!! This is the first time she has actually had to try out and face the possibility of not making the squad. There are 19 girls trying out and 12 can make the squad. She's nervous but I think she's got a great attitude about it all. She's been praying about it and asking God to help her. If you think about it, say a little prayer for her tomorrow.

Well, I'm going to bed. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to share with you all tomorrow!

Love y'all!



Don't forget to mail your Red Envelopes tomorrow!!!!!!

1 Timothy 4:12

Early last week, I encouraged y'all to visit Kaylan's blog and read a post she had written. I thought maybe some of you could offer her some advice on the situation. It a was a couple of days later before I realized that MY Emma had written this post on her blog (I'd give you the link but we keep her blog private for family and friends only), this is what she wrote~

Hey everyone! My cousin Kaylan, http://kakeeter.blogspot.com/ is having
a little of a tough time. Would you please pray for her she's having a
little bit of trouble. You can click on that link to go to her blog and read
it for yourself. The title of the post is Thought for the Day: Burn and
Learn. Plz plz plz PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ pray for her because I love her dearly
and to make the right decisions and make it thru this all right. Thank you
and be sure to leave a comment.

When I read her post, I was so proud of her. She knew that the best thing she could ask you to do for her cousin was to PRAY!! This momma's heart was about to bust! After reading this, I went back to Kaylan's blog to see if anyone had left her any comments and I was AMAZED at the comments Emma left to encourage her cousin!

Hey KK! Sounds to me like you are having a rough time!! I wish I could help
but the only thing I can think of to do is pray for you and this situation and
let GOD take care of everything!! I will pray for you and always remember that I
LOVE you!!! And nothing ABSALOUTLY NOTHING can change that!!! Just pray and let God handle the rest and if you feel like he's leading you to do something, pray
about it one more time and if you keep feeling that urge that's what GOD wants
YOU to do!! I LOVE YOU KK!!!!! Miss you & I am & will pray for you
whenever I get a chance! Remember to pray & let GOD handle it! Don't try to
handle it on your own because we are nothing without GOD!1 Corinthians 14:31For
you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.I
love you and here's anotherPhilippians 1:3-4I thank my GOD upon every
remembrance of you,always in every prayer of mine making request for you be with
joy.I love you!! Miss you!! Talk to you later KK! Be sure to check out my
blog!Miss you lots and love you lots and lots more!!
January 30, 2009 7:45 PM

And then she left this comment:

Here's a few more that talks about letting GOD handle it:Philippians 4:13I can
do all things thru Christ who strengthens me.Proverbs 3:5-6Trust in the LORD
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.In all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.I love you and I hope these
words of encouragement help!! And if you need any more encouragement all you
have to do is say so! I'm happy to help!!
January 30, 2009 7:57 PM

I was so blessed by Emma's comments. Not only did she encourage Kaylan to pray but she directed her to God's word as a source of strength, comfort and direction! WOW! Y'all she's only ELEVEN! When Emma was in Kindergarten her teachers gave each student a "Most Likely To.." award, guess what they said about Emma~

Most Likely to be a Woman's Christian Motivational Speaker!

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

Emma

My baby girl is 11 years old today. 11 years ago, I was due on Thanksgiving day but because she was considerate even before her birth, Emma allowed her mommy to enjoy Thanksgiving and came on Saturday, November 29, 1997.

Emma, you are growing into an amazing young woman. And even though I miss the days when you were younger, I wouldn't go back for anything in the world. I love the conversations that we have and I love seeing life through your eyes!

When you were in Kindergarten, you learned a scripture that you loved to say(sing) and now it is my prayer that you will follow this verse all the days of your life.

"Show me your ways O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God my Savior, and my hope is in you all the day long." Psalm 25:4-5



Happy Birthday, Emma.
I love you,
Mommy

Emma and Stickers

My little girl is growing up!
Emma has cheered for the last 3 years for her school's 3rd-5th football team. If she wants to cheer next year, she'll be cheering for the MIDDLE SCHOOL team! I can't believe I just typed that! Middle school, how is that possible??? I took some video of her cheering at her last game this past Tues. Their team went undefeated and had 2 ties! WOO HOO!

This morning, Steven was studying in his office and I was on the computer in the family room. Caleb was in the office, when I heard Steven say, "I knew you were being too quiet."

A moment later, they came out of the office and this is what I saw:

"Mommy, I got stickers!"

Have a great day!