"I Simply Think of My Favorite Things...

"And Then I Don't Feel So Bad!"


I think that pretty much one of the boys favorite things to do is...

"Play Ball!"

They are both on a team in our community and they both REALLY enjoy it!

Buddy is all time pitcher with a fast ball at 50MPH.
Not counting the 2 games Buddy's team played this week, he has had 70 strike outs!!
He also is an AWESOME 3rd basemen when he is having to let his arm rest from a previous game.

Little Man is either short stop, left field or pitcher.
He says that he enjoys short stop the most because there is a lot of action there and he jumps right in the middle of it and has hardly missed any balls this season at all!!!
One night he had to play left field and was bored to death.
It was really funny to watch him dance around in the field but pay attention at the same time!

"Hit it boy!!"

"Did you see me?"
How couldn't we you were awesome!

"MAKE 'EM SWING BUDDY!"

Notice the brown blob on the left hand side of the picture.

Look at me Buddy!
"What'd ya say?"

THANK YOU LORD FOR MY LITTLE BROTHERS!!
THEY ARE SO AWESOME AND SO MUCH FUN!!

Many of you may already know about this but if you don't, I know that it is kind of long but please read and keep this family in your prayers as they go through this time of suffering.

According to the Tennessean, Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Singer/songwriter Chapman, who recently was inducted into Music City Walk of Fame, is one of contemporary Christian music’s most recognizable and most awarded names.

He and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest.
The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.

With his latest music tour, which came through Nashville in November, Chapman started a campaign called “Change for Orphans”. He asked audience members at each stop to bring spare change to the concert, where it was counted and given to a local family to aid in their adoption process.

“I don’t know of anybody who loves his children more than he does and is so committed to the adoption concept, and to lose one, no matter what the circumstances, is heartbreaking beyond all comprehension,” said John Styll, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association.

“He talks about his kids all the time. That’s his life. His kids are more important to him than music, that’s for sure.”

The tragedy was announced during Wednesday-night services at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ, which the family attends. Maria had just graduated from the church preschool.

And word spread throughout the tight-knit Christian music community on Wednesday evening.

Styll got the news not long after Maria’s death.

“I’m confident I can speak for everyone in the community to say we will do everything we can to support this family, as we would do at any time, but especially at a time like this,” he said.

Most of the Chapman family was at Vanderbilt children’s hospital after the accident and could not be contacted. The long, gravel driveway leading to the home west of Franklin was blocked off by Williamson County sheriff’s deputies.



Please pray for this family and especially the brother that was driving the vehicle.

A Blessed Last Day of School!

We had a very blessed last day of school at the
Tennessee Aquarium!

"I got you wet!"
"I can do this!"

"Get it Deboo!"It was really cool to see the sting ray eat a piece of shrimp!

"Smile!"
Baby Girl and Sunshine!

M.T. was so good!

I bet he was thinking,
"I'm gonna get you wet!"

Sunshine LOVED the penguins!

"Look Mama!"

Me and my AWESOME Mama!!

"My muscle's bigger then yours!"

"Can I please just get in?!"

More Pictures From our Last Day of School

Sunshine wanted to touch the sting rays but was not quite as daring as some! ;)

This little fella wasn't scared of anything!

Little Mister was so good the whole time!

"I've got to touch it just one more time!"

Down the escalator!

"Boys, wait for us!"

You Know Your Family is Special When...

Your little brothers get excited because they get to ride in the back of a charter bus!And everyone gets VERY EXCITED about going to McDonald's!

For the "Buy a drink get a free chicken sandwich!"

I just thought you might like to hear about these HILARIOUS happenings Noel!
I have never seen Lacie laugh as hard as she did when Doodle Bug came in and said that we were going to go to McDonald's and we all got SO EXCITED because we were going to get to go out to eat!!!
Then when Doodle Bug said that we were going because if you bought a drink
you could get a free chicken sandwich,
we laughed until we cried!
The Lord had blessed us with the coolest family EVER!!!
Some people think we are kind of funny, err, strange, but most of the time we are laughing and happy to be around each other!
Have you ever met a family that was big enough to play telephone in the car and the line was long enough for what ever was said to get messed up?
That is what we did on the way home!
It was a blast! Thanks for hangin' in there with us Lacie!

A Sanctuary

In the right of the image below you can see a Sanctuary,
a Place of Worship and a House of God.
This is the church that we worked on last summer.
Earlier this evening we got a phone call from a man who is like part of our family from the church we worked two years ago.
What he had to say was very sad.
As I tried listen to him and ignore the noise in the background,
I heard loud and clear what he had to say.
The roof of their Sanctuary had been ripped off by a tornado, there was also four inches of water in the sanctuary and,
the tornado also damaged a smaller building on the church campus.
Later on I found out that the noise I heard in the background was men working on the church already!
As bad as I wanted to jump in a car and go help them,
he asked me to pray that God might keep the men working on the building safe as they worked into the night.
Please keep this church in your prayers and that they will have the strength to finish the roof.

Carpenters For CHRIST will be traveling to this church in the second week in June but not because of the damage done by the tornado.
The reason that we are going is that the building we helped them build in the past is to small!
PRAISE GOD!
Please keep this church in your prayers as they go through this time of reconstruction!

They are a faithful body of believers and this will not keep them from praising our Father in
heaven!

This church building looks much like the one that's roofs been destroyed.
Please keep them in your prayers!

Thank you all very much!

Children are a blessing from the Lord!

It is so awesome to see the energy that a happy little child can bring into ones life!

They are all so sweet and happy and just can make one glow when they walk into a room!
I think that one of the most AWESOME things in life is when
you walk into a room and a little one runs up to you and says
"Hey, hehehe."

And they remember you and wrap their arms around your legs or hold up their arms for you to pick them up!

Thank you Lord for blessing us with little ones to raise for you!
Thank you for letting us be a part of their lives!

They are cheerful,

they bring a smile to your face,

they are walking miracles,

they are creative even at so young an age,

and they are all just downright precious!

"Hey Ma'am..."

Sunday morning, Daddy came up stairs,
asked us to all come in Noel's room and told us that a dear friend, fellow brother in Christ and
church choir director had been found lying in his pasture and wasn't doing well.
We then prayed for Mr. Nathan and when about our usual Sunday morning habits.
Then we got a phone call.
Somewhere around 8:00 or 8:30 on Sunday morning,
this dear man passed away into glory.
It has been a long time since someone we knew and dearly loved, has passed away.

We went to church that morning and I have never had a harder time singing praises
to our Lord.
The hardest one was,
"I'll fly Away."

In our church there was the strangest emptiness there.
Mr. Nathan wasn't standing up there with his bright smile, red socks and white hair leading the music.
I think one of the hardest things was he met, it seemed like everyone when they came in the door of the church and if you were a lady he would say,
"Hey Ma'am."
And then give you a peppermint.
I don't know how his pockets never bulged with all those peppermints in them.


The receiving friends was on Tuesday evening and I have never cried like that.
I was just barely able to tell his wife,
one of the sweetest little lady's you will ever meet that I loved her.

Then, all of us sisters were asked to do the hardest thing any of us have ever done.
We sang at his funeral.
It was an old Negro spiritual called,
"Wayfaring Stranger."
But it was so amazing because it like God gave me the greatest peace I have ever had I think.
As we were singing, in the middle of the first verse I almost started crying then I looked out the big window in our church and the most AWESOME peace flowed over me.
Right then I knew that people were praying for us and that it was going to be okay and it was!

Thank you Lord for that wonderful peace!

We then went to the grave site and it was not your normal burial.
Both his son's brought their guitars and many other men did and it was an ol' gospel singin'.
It was so wonderful.
Not only was it wonderful, it was amazing, everyone there wanted to be there and they were sad but they were happy at the same time because we all knew that Mr. Nathan would want us to be happy.
And then we sang,
"I'll Fly Away."

As we were singing this wonderful old hymn the biggest breeze came up into that tent!
It was amazing.
If you had witnessed that, there would be no way you could say that there is no God.
He gave us all the most peaceful reassurance that when we all get to Heaven not only what glorious day that will be but Mr. Nathan will be there with a peppermint in his hand welcoming us, with his big smile, saying,
"Hey Ma'am."

Thank You Lord for my mama!!

She has taught me to love being outside,
she has taught to support our servicemen,

she has taught me to cherish friends and family,

she has taught me to love to read and learn,

and much more!

Yesterday I was taking a wee babe from the nursery down to the gym so his mother wouldn't have to walk all the way up to the church building where the nursery is. Another mother had come and got her baby and I was walking with her. As we were walking she said that she didn't see how my aunt (who does the nursery every Wed. and Sun. during Sun. school) had the patience that she did to be with babies that much! Well, in reply I simply said, "She's just Aunt Carol." And then she went on to say that she didn't know how my mama did it with seven when she only had three and at times she felt as though she could just pull her hair out and that we were all just so well mannered and that it seemed as though Mama never got mad. And I just told her that we all have our days and that the worst was when Mama would tell us to go sit in the bathroom while she drank a cup of coffee and then she came in there to talk to us and a little more! And when I told her that the look on her face was worth a million dollars!

She said, "Ya'll got spanked?"

"Oh yeah." I said in reply.

And I went on to tell her that I had a mouth and she was like,

"You? But you're just so sweet and nice."

So I said,

"Maybe I am, but I am like that because my mama did spank me."

And then she asked if spanking me finally cured my mouth and

I said, "Oh no. Liquid soap was what did it!"

The look on her face was priceless!

My mama knew that if she didn't do that, then I would grow to be one the rudest people you ever met because I wasn't afraid to say or tell anyone anything! And because of my mama and the Lord I am not like that. But, like I said above we all have our days and she is always there to help me through those days!

Dear Lord,
Thank you for my mama!
A woman who was not afraid to discipline her child!
Thank you for giving me the mother that I have so that she could help mold me
into who I am today!
She is not only a dear friend but she is a awesome mother!