Geneva Choir

This week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday at our church, complete with a pancake dinner and concert afterward. The highlight of the evening for me was to see my children in the choir. This is the first year Geneva has a choir and both boys are in it. For this special occasion, the elementary school joined the choir. Even though I've been hearing the song for three solid weeks, I enjoyed the performance so much. I didn't have a good visual spot for recording, but you can hear the choir and if you look carefully, Caleb is on the left, Naomi is just right of the director, then Esther, Abby is next to Esther's hand (sort of hidden) , and James is on the top row, far right. The last verse is sung in the Zulu language. Hope you enjoy this...

Fun at the park

The kids love to go to the park. A great thing about living in Louisiana is that with the exception of a few cold, wet days, you can go to the park year round. Over Christmas break we were able to go twice. Once was on New Year's Day. Dan was off and after a morning of bowling with the kids, we were able to enjoy a picnic in the park. Its been a long time since all 10 of us were able to go together. A fun, memorable day.



Naomi and Becky

Caleb

Abby

Hope

Esther

Becky

The family picnic

Kids on a wall

Hope

Hannah and James have conflicted feelings about being at the park.

We did it!!

Daughter of the Year

Hannah devised the most wonderful Christmas/Birthday present for me this year. I just have to share this one. I suspected something was up due to some questions she was asking and by the fact that she was anxious for me to be out of the house most of the day. Here's what she did - with the help of her brothers, sisters, Uncle Peter, and some friends.

Last Monday (the week of Christmas) she arranged for me to go out to lunch with a friend - or so I thought it was just lunch with a friend. It turns out, two of my good friends planned a surprise birthday lunch at the Olive Garden - one of my most favorite places to eat. There were 7 of us all together and they each had such thoughtful gifts for me. I was sooo touched. What wonderful friends I've been blessed with and what a fun lunch! After that I did some shopping and finally got the "all clear" to come home about 5:30 PM.

When I arrived home I was greeted with a camera aimed at me and a bunch of giddy children - waiting for my reaction. Here's what they accomplished while I was gone for only 6 hours. First, they repainted an antique mirror that was Dan's Grandma O'Neil's and hung it in my dining room - something I've been waiting for the whole time we've lived here. Then they ushered me to the stairway, where they had painted the wall beneath the chair rail - all the way up the stairs and the upstairs hallway.
The greatest accomplishment was in my bedroom - which is the dump zone when the rest of the house is cleaned. First, they cleaned it, then Hannah had been shopping and was set to redecorate the room. Two multi-candle sconces for above our bed, rearranging other pictures on the walls, cleaned the top of my dresser and decorated it with two vases full of cinnamon potpourri, a beautiful flower arrangement that sits next to the TV, a new lamp for Dan's side of the bed and a matching shade for the lamp on my side. She bought and hung a curtain over the doorway to my bathroom, organized the bathroom closet, decorated the bathroom with some candles, and left a bath/lotion set on my counter for me.


I know she had help with manual labor and financing the project - 5 friends came in - but she really made my day. What a blessing to be able to retreat to my room and be at peace.

On top of all that, she still kept all the little kids at home and kept them occupied and out of the paint.

We are blessed with such a thoughtful and loving daughter! and a great group of children to work along side her on this.

The past couple of months have been full of stresses and pressures and this was exactly the kind of day that made me forget it all and enjoy the love of the people God has put around me.

Visit with Santa

Christmas at the Biedenharn Gardens

The kids and I enjoyed an evening at the Biedenharn last week. We listened to a Kindergarten handbell choir, then toured the beautifully decorated house and gardens.

Recent birthdays, Christmas pictures

Abby

Caleb

Naomi

Esther

Like the rest of you, we are in the middle of a busy December... baking, shopping, Christmas parties and programs, school finals. Just wanted to take a moment to share some of the last birthday pictures and some recent Christmas pictures.Hope you all are finding time for peace and joy during this season. Rachel

New at blogging

Good morning all,
I've decided its time to jump into the blogging world. Primarily, I want to use this site to be able to share pictures of my kids and things we're doing. I haven't had time to figure out all the fancy things like color, etc. but wanted to share this cute video I took of Hope last night and it was too big to send by email.
I went into the bedroom to tuck Hope into bed and was being serenaded. She's got a scratchy throat, which made it all the cuter.
In case you can't make out her songs, the "program" includes: "The Joy of the Lord is my Strength" (That was the one she was singing when I came in), Then "Holy, Holy, Holy" (which is a combination of the hymn and the Sanctus. They both start the same and she mixes them up) then you get a little "jingle bells" and her rendition of the "three-fold amen" that we sing in church.