sister cris

january 2011, was a family reunion in the name of tia cris, whom so many refer to as sister cris.  she is such a blessing to have in all of our lives and such a perfect example of how to live our lives.

we were all so thankful for our time together, especially with her, and to hear her advice

may God hear all of our prayers and bless her.  we pray for a miracle, may God's will be fulfilled through her.

the search for the troll under the bridge

we are stuck on bridges right now, even in school we are doing a big project on bridges, thanks to the initiation of mr. bishop lumpkin!

so when we went to the bank today and he saw this bridge, he said, "mom can we go to the bridge with noah?"

and so, we had a saturday outing at the bridges by our bank..........

run to the bridge.........

no signs of the troll!  everything looks pretty safe, we can cross the bridge!

"on your mark, get set, go!"

then the boys found rocks, and we sat for about 30 minutes throwing every rock we found in the water.  until there were no more rocks left!

this was the biggest rock we found!

"noah, look!  ducks!"

ahhhhhh, stretching out in the pretty weather!

here come the ducks, but we scared them away in no time ;0)

"mom! look, there is a hole in the tree!"

and for the finally of the outing, we used sticks as fishing poles and caught tons of algae!  we smelled so good once we left the pond ;0)

bishop and aven making art together for the first time

so bishop wanted paper across the whole floor, little did he know that his little sister was going to join in.........

aven has always seemed interested in markers and pens, but tonight we saw her interest in action!  she drew for about an hour!  she got busy coloring the bottom of bishop's snowman.........

this is the top of the snowman.......see his eyes, his nose is smack dab in the middle of his eyes! ;o)  and he has his arms sticking out!

and all the way at the bottom of the long piece of paper is his two, tiny little legs!

aven wanted to take over the bottom of the snowman!  she got right to work!

hmmmmmm which color should I use?????

nice looking snowman, hu?

we love her technique!

bishop started working on a bridge for the snowman with tape, aven was a little confused.........

mmmmm the blue marker tastes the best

bishop added buttons to the snowman, and it is now complete!

then, he wanted to make a snake.  see the eyes and the long tongue.......

he drew it and then wanted to put paint on "the lines" and tape on "the line".....

but as he was finishing his snake, he said, "aven, do you want your birthday party?"  we have been talking about how it is in 4 days.  he started draping the tape on the cabinets and telling her, "aven this is your party!"  "happy birthday"!  what a good big brother aven has (love him so much)

"okay aven, i made a bridge for you and now we can put paper under it and make some fish!"  he got to work on the fish, and then they got more interested in a nice warm cup of milk......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

i think we will just let bishop plan aven's birthday this year!

thanksgiving at aunt jo ann's (2010)