Wee Praise

Abigail had her end of year school performance today -- it's PK-2 (Wee Praise.) We watched it this morning and then we went back for the evening service. It was awesome. They were so cute that I had tears from laughing. It was nice to witness their focus on glorifying God -- both in prayers and song. It made me thankful, again, that Abigail goes to school there. I was struck by the confidence of the children -- every one of them really sang (and danced) out -- wish everyone could have seen the first grade boys playing the blues on their guitar hero guitars. You will see that Abigail was particularly "feeling" it and not the least bit self-conscience. Maybe song is her strength. Regardless, she'll probably be like Jason -- he feels worship most strongly through song (we should have bought stock in i-tunes.) Even as a baby she would stop throwing a fit long enough to dance. Love, love, love this girl!

Mikaela's New Skill

Tonight Mikaela learned how to do the monkey bars -- way to go!!! She started slowly but within a few minutes she had it down. She's super excited and would love to show everyone.
Luke can do it, too -- as long as I get him to the top bar. He still needs my hand on his back for moral support -- but still, he's not even four yet.
Abigail is my daughter -- she's too scared to try. She's still practicing on jumping from the platform next to the monkey bars to assure herself that if she falls that it won't hurt. She got a little distracted by the sound she makes when she hits the ground and has decided to work on landing silently. I hope it works out for her. I never learned how to do it (monkey bars) 'cause I was too scared. I think I might have done it once but was too afraid to try again the next time we were at the park. I know how she feels. Sweet girl!

Abigail's Poem

A True Poem About Me
I'm different in many ways,
but I'm still me.
It doesn't matter if your hair is brown or blonde
or in between.
Whoever you are;
You are always you.

My baby has glasses

Here is a picture of Abigail in her new glasses. She is near-sighted (thank you Grandma.) She's very proud of them and has cleaned them 5 or 6 times today. Doesn't she look pretty. Mikaela and Luke are jealous -- I've warned them to never touch her glasses. I could see it now . . .

Love you all,

mickie

A Passover to Remember

Last week (Tuesday night) we celebrated Passover with the Heggan family (they are so gracious to include us!) Since this was our second Passover to celebrate we were looking forward to actually knowing what was going on. Leading up to the day, we got all of the nice clothing ready (Luke wore a vest, tie -- so cute! Thanks Laney), the kids decorated the house with pictures, and we read Passover stories. The big day came and Jason was even able to find me a wine with only 6% alcohol (you drink a lot of wine.) The Heggan family is large so it definitely lends itself to to a party type of atmosphere -- plus, our kids love theirs (and vice versa) so we were set for an awesome evening of celebrating our Lord's deliverance.

As we sat down to eat, Chloe started going nuts (it was late and she was hungry and tired.) So, I had to leave the room to calm her down. Things went well for a few minutes upon our return. Luke was looking so cute in his outfit and he was resting his head on the table -- sleepy (we thought.) Then he moved to Jason's lap -- still a sweet, sleepy boy. Then as Jason was about to read Luke threw-up all over Jason. I was shocked -- it took me a few seconds to move. During those seconds Luke managed to empty the contents of his stomach all over himself, Jason, and the floor. Wow. (Apparently, while I was gone taking care of Chloe he had told Jason that he needed a sack but poor Jason didn't understand what that meant. I don't think he'll make that mistake again.) Because of the large amount of people present, we were sitting in the kitchen (thank God they don't put carpet in kitchens) and only our friends, Gene and Denise, had to witness it. Everyone else was blessedly ignorant of what was happening. I got him cleaned up and Denise helped me clean the floor (that's a Godly woman!) We managed to get Luke some pajamas (Star Wars -- he was happy) and put him upstairs watching a movie for the rest of the evening. The rest of the Seder went off beautiful.

By 2:30 am -- it all hit me (for a while) and then Abigail ended up joining me about 4:00 am. We were so sick we could not move for a long time. It was probably 12:30 before I was able to make it out of bed. At least I lost 6 lbs out of the deal (which I've now mostly regained -- ugh!) At first I thought it was food poisoning -- now I've decided that we were already leaning to what Luke had and the food just put us over (I don't think anyone else was sick.)

So, definitely a Passover that won't be forgotten. Next year, we'll all be able to laugh about it.

Was this kid born in Austin or what!

Look at him -- sandals, pants, coffee (decaf), and a book.

Soccer

For some crazy reason I got the idea that I should sign the girls up for soccer. I asked them if they would be interested and they said yes and then Luke said he wanted to also. So, they all signed up through the 'Y.' The only thing I worried about was being able to see all of their games -- I thought they might schedule them at the same time or something. Never occurred to me to think about practices. Games turned out not to be a problem -- but they did schedule all of them with practices at the same time on the same day but at three different places. Crazy!!! It turns out that Mikaela will have two practices a week so she will be able to skip one but I still have Luke and Abigail to figure out. My sister has agreed to help me. Her kids have their practices on Tuesday -- so it worked out.

Last week was the first game. It was so much fun to watch them out there.

Luke ran right onto the field like a champ but ended up standing there for most of the game. His coach would take him by the hand and run him down the field, put him in front of the ball, and sometimes he would kick it. Every once in a while he would chase the pack. I took some pictures but Jason said it doesn't really portray what happened 'cause it actually looks like he's doing something. He had a great time during the game and talked like he did something great. His favorite part was the snacks afterward. I think that's what will keep him going back.

Mikaela did great. She ran the whole time -- usually behind the pack -- but she was there. For her first game ever she did pretty good. I have high hopes for her. It's only a few steps from the back of the pack to actually going after the ball. She smiled the entire game.

Abigail is definitely her mother's daughter. She said she wanted to play and she does great when she's here playing with the neighborhood kids. When she got out to the field she literally stood in one spot with her hands behind her back and refused to even look at the ball or move her feet. (this makes me think back to when I was in 5th grade and would tell the kid guarding me on the b-ball court not to worry about it 'cause I wasn't moving anywhere.) The coach ended up passing her off to his wife and she kicked the ball around with her for a few minutes. When she got back on the field she actually ran with the pack. It was so nice to see her move and gave me hope that she would not turn out like her mother. She told me later that she decided to run but not kick the ball. That's alright with me. She missed her first practice so tomorrow will be the first one she attends. I think attending practices will make all the difference in the world to her.

I'm going to put up a picture of all of them -- Mikaela and Abigail where the same color but are not on the same team. I'll put the rest on Facebook -- I don't know how to do slide shows on blogger. If someone would give me some instructions that would be great.

Love to you all,

mickie