It's been a very Merry Christmas

I have about two hundred things to post about other than Christmas, but I only have a little time to post, so I'm gonna focus on today. Today was such an awesome Christmas! We didn't get to bed until 4 am because we were up wrapping presents. (Wrapping everything on Christmas Eve is tradition in this house, and one of my favorite nights of the year!) The kids woke us us about 8, we went to the front room read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, then prayed and opened presents. We had such a good time opening gifts and seeing the kids light up, it was wonderful!

For the afternoon, we went to my sister-in-law, Debbie's, house. We got there about 2, and got to spend time with his Mom and all of Jeff's siblings except the one brother that had to work today. It was so wonderful to just spend time with them! I hope next year we can make more of an effort to spend time with his family.

Praise the Lord for His blessings!

Pictures coming the beginning of next week!

A little late, but Congratulations Clark County!

Saturday, November 29, little Clark County,MO, played in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis for the Class 2A state football championship. Clark County played Maryville, MO, and won in a very tense, very exciting 10-7 game. In all the years I went to every football game we had, I think I learned more at that game than I ever have! It was a lot of fun to be at the game with Carmen, Rusty, Autumn, Arron, and Mom and Dad. We all had such a good time! (Even if it did mean getting up at the crack of dawn, before actually, to get everyone from Keokuk to St. Louis in time for the game.


Jeffery, Jeff, and Benjamin.

Rusty is thrilled to have his picture taken.

Dad and Morgan.


Christopher, Arron, Victoria, and Autumn.

The Indians during the introduction of the team. What a great team!!!

Jeffery didn't want his picture taken. I took this without him noticing I was taking it.

Gramma and Grampa McCoy.

Victoria and Autumn.


Rusty, Autumn, and Carmen. Carmen seemed able to turn her head everytime I tried to take her picture.

Arron.

Christopher, Jeff, Victoria, and Benjamin.

Gramma and Morgan before the game started.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I cannot believe this year has gone so fast. It seems every year goes faster than the last. I was thinking this morning during my prayer time about the last year. A year ago we were still at our former church praying and searching for the will of God concerning our church home. We hadn't yet started actually checking other churches yet, but we were praying and searching scriptures. It was this weekend that we saw the change in our boys at Calvary. The way they lit up while we were there. When we came home from Iowa we started checking out other churches. I remember thinking it was going to destroy my kids to move churches, that's what we had been taught for the last ten years. I am so thankful the Holy Spirit dwells within and guides us! I am so thankful we made me the move, my kids are completely different than they were a year ago, especially Morgan and Jeffery. I love the way they have grown physically and spiritually. Looking back over the past year, we have had our trials, everyone does. But we have had so much of God's grace poured on us over and over. I thank God daily for Grace Baptist Church, it is an awesome place to be able to serve!

I'm thankful for my family-extended and immediate. I have great kids! It took me a while to realize that, unfortunately. I see now in my kids their desire to grow, their desire to serve, and their desire to love others. When we are at the Learning Center on Tuesdays, I can just about guarantee they are going to volunteer to help someone in some way. I'm proud of that. These guys see a need and do their best to meet that need. I love it!

I'm glad my boys are all boy-even if that means Ben comes home EVERY Tuesday with grass stains on his pants. I am so grateful Ben hasn't had a seizure in almost two years! His migraines are better now, so long as he doesn't have MSG or caffein. I love the way he still wants to snuggle every morning. I love the way he just knows how to play rough, and loves it. I love how black and white everything is to him still. He is such an awesome little guy!

I love that Morgan, at 15 still tells his Momma he loves me, he even texted us a couple of times while we were in Branson just to tell us he loves us. I love that Morgan is starting to question what we believe. Understand, he is not being rebellious, he wants to know why we believe anything, from religion to politics, to why we homeschool. He is forming his own opinions, and I love it!

I love that Jeffery is so talented with his guitar. I love the way Jeffery has opened up in the past year. It's hard to believe how quiet he was just a year ago. I remember worrying about him because he would sit by himself most of the time at church, now he is constantly with someone where ever we go. It's amazing to see how he has changed in the last year!

Christopher. I am amazed at his memory! God has certainly blessed him with the ability to memorize things quickly, it blows my mind! I'm thankful God gave him that ability to draw, and I'm thankful he gets to take another art class in January. I love how Christopher loves people, anyone, he doesn't care. He just loves people. I love that Christopher loves to play with Ben, he hasn't gotten too "old" for his little brother yet. I love the way he has picked up the violin, that he can play by ear AND read notes! Christopher is a great kid, and I'm so glad he's mine!

I'm glad God allowed my daughter to be able to play rough and tough with her brothers, and yet in a flash be a lady. I love that she is 10, I love that she still plays with Barbie Dolls at 10. I love that she can wear my shoes, I do hope her feet stop growing now though. I love how social she is, she doesn't know a stranger, and can become friends fast with others. I love that she plays the flute, and piano, and I don't have to tell her to practice! I love that she is my daughter!

Now that you've heard about my family, I must say, I am even more thankful for my husband. He does work a lot to allow me to stay home with the kids, and I do appreciate that, and I love it. I value that tremendously. But more than his work, I love and am grateful for his growth this year. As we have learned together about communication and truly loving one another our relationship has just grown over the last year. It's so much better now than it was, and I'm excited to see where God is going to take it now.

I'm thankful I'm still close to my parents and my sister's family. I love that my neice and nephew still, at 11 and 13, tell me they love me when I talk to them on the phone, or we are leaving from seeing them. I love that I talk to my family regularly, that even though we aren't close distance wise, we are close in our relationships. God has certainly been very good to me and my family this year! Praise Him!

Am I bad?

Is it bad to post more than once a day? I don't know. I had a lesson in pride today. I realized all of our pictures from this year that were taken with our 35 mm camera have been developed. (I even have three roles ready to pick up from Branson and AHG, so I thought I was doing pretty good!) Then I decided I would check out the memory card in my digital camera. (The camera quit on me this summer, and I've been using the 35 mm since the end of July.) I put the little card in the printer slot to load the pictures onto my desktop, there are 1404 pictures on that card!!!! Most of them from this year. YIKES! I've been waiting for all of them to download for nearly an hour and it isn't near completed yet. Maybe half way! I should have started this when we were watching CSI tonight. Alas we live, learn, and get luvs. (Anyone else remember those commercials from the early 90's?)

Costumes

We had a lot of fun this year with costumes! The kids got to pick, and oh my, the number of stores we went to to get everything! Do you know how hard it is to find a Inigo Montoya wig???? Let me just say a lot!


Morgan as Inigo Montoya. (Don't ya just love the hair!)

Morgan and Ben, aka Inigo and Boba

Jeffery as Edward Cullen from Twilight (I can't wait to see that movie!) and Christopher as a mutant cow. He had so many kids scared of him, it was crazy!

Our very own Edward Cullen, isn't he handsome!

Christopher as the mutant pig. He had a great time coming up with the costume. Yes, he even had hooves!

Victoria's best friend, Monica, went with us. The girls were even dressed the same!

The "Twins"
Tori as a '50's girl. She loved this costume!
Boba Fett, aka Ben. We went to three counties to find everything for this costume! He found the costume at one store, and we went to two other counties to find the costume in his size.

My motley crew, Inigo (Morgan), Edward (Jeffery II), Boba Fett (Ben), '50's girl (Tori), and Mutant Pig (Christopher).
Yes, he even carried a sword. The shirt says "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" Gotta love Princess Bride!

Carving the Pumpkin

This is the first time in a long time we have done anything other than our fall party for Halloween. This year we decided to get one pumpkin and carve it, and we let the kids get costumes and dress up and go trick or treating. It was sooo much fun!





We had the kids each draw a face on a piece of paper, then they all voted on which design was chosen. Ultimately, Morgan's design was chosen.



Since Morgan's won, he got to draw the face on the pumpkin.


Victoria really enjoyed getting to scoop the pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin.


Christopher and Tori still working on the insides.


Boba Fett, aka Ben, stood watching. He didn't want to get his costume dirty.

We were able to get him to stand closer to Dad while Dad cut the face out.
FINALLY, he decided it'd be ok to help a little.


The guts. YUCK!

More Jeffery's Birthday

Ok, so I just realized there were pictures I didn't put on of the birthday party.
Oops!

Morgan and Christopher playing Marco Polo.

Asia, Jeffery, Victoria L., Kristen, and Olivia. I couldn't ask for better friends for my kids than the ones they have now!



Asia, Lawrence, Jeffery, Olivia, Kristen, and Morgan.

Mom, Larence, Ariel, and Christopher in Marco Polo.




My first time ever playing this game, trying to tag Christopher.

Lawrence "helping" Jeff play pin the tail on the donkey.




Krista and Jeff still playing with donkey tails.

These two pictures were taken in Ariel's car as they were leaving. We had Asia, Jeffery, and I in the backseat, and Kristen, Shanea, and Ariel were in the front.

Friends

We have the most amazing friends! Since May we have been planning a weekend in Branson with some friends. We had someone taking all the kids for the weekend until the Sunday before we were supposed to leave. By the time we got home from church that evening, all the kids had somebody to stay with. So the five kids ended up in four homes, three from our church, and we still got to go to Branson. I will be posting pictures on here in a few days, possibly the weekend, but I will say I can't wait to go again! It was incredible to be able to spend two days with my husband, and focus on him. We couldn't have asked for better company, and are ready to go again!!!

Ending our 13th week of school Yoo-Hoo!

Thirteen weeks have already flown by. I know as we were doing the work it seemed to be dragging, but now I am amazed at how fast this has really gone. We are still busy as ever! We go into St. Charles county three days a week for classes for the kids. It sounds much worse than it really is. For the most part, everyone gets the majority of their school work done before we leave for the afternoon, so there isn't a lot of work left when we get to where we are going. There are exceptions to that, and if they don't have it done, and it is a possibility, they do their work in the van or where ever we happen to be.

Morgan's biology class is getting more and more interesting as the year progresses and I've already told the teacher I would help in there again next year, as Jeffery will be in there then. They have a year project due at the end of the semester that includes watching videos from Mike Riddle and Ken Hamm. This has been incredible! So often you hear evolutionists say you can't use "real science" to prove a young earth. These two men do exactly that. It has stirred some interesting discussion with relatives lately, but it has only cemented in my mind the truth of a six day creation, and God's Word.

Jeffery and I started working in Awana at church with the Trek group (junior high). Andy, the director, has asked Jeffery II to play his guitar in class, and I have loved it! It thrills this Momma's heart to see her son up there doing what he loves, and doing it extremely well. His teacher has started him working on classical guitar, which is beautiful! I can't wait to hear him get proficient at that as well.

Christopher is still playing the violin, and loves it! He enjoys pittstaccato very much, I'm hoping he will learn to love the bow as much. He is in the Bel Canto choir, and is thoroughly enjoying the class and the teacher. He really admires Mrs. Horn, for that I'm grateful. It's so much easier for a student to want to do what is required for a class when they like the teacher.

Victoria is really enjoying band. I personally think she loves that what they are learning this semester she already knows. Choir, oh my choir! She thinks Mrs. Horn practically walks on water. She comes home every week telling me "Mrs Horn said" about ten times just on the drive home.

Ben is still begging to start trumpet lessons, but it's just not the right time right now. He still practices what he learned in his lessons before, but he has to give his body time to catch up to where it needs to be to be able to play properly. We finally called the School district about speech therapy for Ben. We went to the initial consultation, and he went for the evaluation. I was quite impressed with the staff we met at those two appointments. They didn't seem to have a bad attitude toward home schooling, which was a major concern of mine. In fact, they both told me how impressed they were with Benjamin's vocabulary and his manners. We have another appointment Dec. 15 to meet with the "team", that would be Mrs. Foreman (our liaison), the speech pathologist, and my husband and I. We will set up a schedule for therapy, and possibly have his first session then.

Jeff is still working hard as ever at the real estate business, as well as his full time job. The man doesn't have enough time to breathe sometimes! He is doing his best, and I'm quite proud of him!

Jeffery's Birthday party

Friday, October 17, we had Jeffery's birthday party at the church gym. We had a great time playing Danny Ball (my new favorite game!), volleyball, pin the tail on the donkey, and marco polo.

Here are some pictures from the party.

Our Guest of Honor.


Jeffery and his tail.

How on earth did he get big enough to light his own candles?


Present time: Morgan, Jeffery, Asia, and Kristin.


Morgan, Jeffery, and Kristin.


Brownie and ice cream time.



(L-R) Victoria, Benjamin, Daddy, Jeffery, Kristen, Lawrence, and Krista. What was Krista trying to do with that noodle???


Asia, Olivia, Victoria, Dad, Morgan, Jeffery, Victoria (And Christopher in the back)




Benjamin, Jeffery, Krista

Asia patiently waiting her turn for pin-the-tail. I believe she won.





Jeffery's best friend, Shanea.

Benjamin.


Morgan, Ben, Jeffery, most of Ariel, Asia, Kristin, and Dad.

He loved getting the presents, he received five pounds of skittles as presents.


Krista, Olivia, Morgan, Ben, Christopher, Asia, Dad, Kristin (checking out her new phone).



Shanea, such a doll.


Victoria L., Victoria, Ariel, Olivia, Shanea, Morgan, Jeffery, Asia, Kristin, Dad.


Jeffery and Dad.


Danny Ball!!! I love this game!



It was down to Christopher and Jeffery.

More Danny Ball. (We learned this in Awana.)


Kristin, Jeffery, and Lawrence. Kristin won this round.


Asia, Victoria, Christopher, and Olivia.