Another one of God's Masterpieces!

Last night I took these pics at sunset right over our house...

Words cannot express how much I adore looking at something like this...and it never lasts long enough...

I haven't seen one this cool or vibrant in quite a while so I was quick to grab the camera. I love how God paints!! :-)

1st Report Cards

The kids came home with their first report cards of the year!! By the look on her face I think you can guess it wasn't bad at all. :-) Shelby made all A's except for 1 B. She earned $11 bucks (James and I give $2 for A's and $1 for B's). She also received certificates for Perfect Attendance, All E's in Conduct and for A/B Honor Roll. Way to go Belle!!

And then there's the boy...Thomas did SUPER!! He made $10 this report card with 4 A's and 2 B's but what I'm really proud of is that he made E's for every Conduct grade in class, in art, music, theater, and P.E.!! This is huge for him because he is such a social bug! :-) Way to go T.J.!!

And from the look on this face, I think he's pretty excited about the all E's too or either he's thinking about adding that $10 to his stock pile for a new Lego set. HA!

As I say often around here, my two peas in a pod!! How did I get such two beautiful babies!?! Someone up there must like me...A LOT!!

James and I are SOOOOOOOOO proud of these two munchkins!! They get brighter and smarter, and grow more beautiful every day, braces, scars from football and all!!

Shelby's Braces!

Finally, I was able to get a few pics of Shelby posted! I wanted to show off what her cute little braces look like so, here she is:

What, you can't see them good enough?? Okay, this one is a little closer!

No, still not good enough? OK, then how about this one??? :-)
What a cutie patootie!!! She hasn't complained too much about the soreness YET and she's taking Motrin regularly right now (doctor ordered). Her teacher and friends at school thought they were pretty cool too which made her feel a lot better. And now Thomas wants to get braces and have NY Giants colors (blue and red) put on them. HA!!

My beautiful blue eyed baby girl in BRACES!!! I still can't believe it's already happening. I mean she still has baby teeth for crying out loud but after much debating and consulting, this is the best thing for Belle. You can see in the last picture that she chose red and pink colors. We go every 6 weeks for check ups and she will be able to change the colors on her brackets which she thinks is pretty cool. She will wear these top braces for about 8 months, get them off in the summer, and then she will have a retainer put in that she will have to wear for about 2 years! All the while, Dr. Williams will be watching her growth, especially her jaw growth. On down the road, we will straighten out her bottom teeth too once we know for sure what the jaw is going to do. Please keep Shelby (and us) in prayer about all of this.

Wunderlich Farm

Wunderlich Farm Tour

Each school year, the fourth graders in Klein take a trip to the Wunderlich Farm where they can experience the adventures of living in the past. This is where Belle went today!! Here's a diagram of the whole farm and shows all the things she will get to do today like washing clothes on a board, shucking corn, etc...

Some Background on the Wunderlich's:
In the 1850's, two Wunderlich brothers, Peter and Jost, came to Texas from Germany, seeking freedom of religion and better living conditions. By 1861 the two brothers were joined by their sister, Katherina Wunderlich Hassler, and her husband Wilhem. Peter homesteaded land, and in 1861 he was granted title to 577 acres. In 1864, during the Civil War, Peter was fatally burned in a gunpowder explosion near Spring Creek. Peter and his wife Katherina (was a Hofius) had six children. Their descendants have continued to farm the land for over 100 years. In the early 1870's Jost Wunderlich bought 100 acres of land on the west side of Kuykendahl Road, between Spring-Cypress and Rhodes Road. Bridgestone West subdivision is on this land today.

The Peter Wunderlich farmhouse, now surrounded by suburban housing developments northwest of Houston, stands as a reminder of a simpler time when this part of northwest Harris County was a rural area farmed by German immigrants. The farmhouse still stands where it was first built in 1891 by Peter Wunderlich II, son of Peter Wunderlich who came to Texas from Germany in 1852. The Wunderlich House was occupied by the Wunderlich family until 1995, yet the house retains much of its earlier style. Its wooden walls have never been sheetrocked, wallpapered or painted. With its chicken house, smokehouse, barn, and other outbuildings remaining, the Farm exhibits life in Klein as it was in 1890-1920. In March 1997, the Wunderlich Farm was granted a Texas Historical marker and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. As part of their Texas history curriculum, all fourth graders in Klein ISD visit the Wunderlich Farm and the nearby Klein Museum. Led by volunteer docents, students experience life of an earlier day through many hands-on activities such as corn-shelling, grinding corn, spinning, weaving, and washing clothes on a washboard. The Klein Museum and Wunderlich farm are opened to the public the last Saturday of every month, except November, December, and May, from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. For more information, call 832-249-5800.

Misc. Gymnastic Shots...

Here's a few shots we took of Belle last Wednesday night...

She is getting really close to doing a handstand...

she worked a lot on the eneven bars last week...that's her coach to the left...

Belle is doing chin-ups on the bar too...

which is making her very strong!!

She's really loving her class so far!!

I still have some film clips to go through so I hope to post some of those tomorrow!! Hard to believe we are in the last week of October ALREADY!!!

Season One 2009 Portraits

Team Photo - Season One

Thomas with Coach Bobby - Season One

I will have more team photos coming from Season One but I wanted to at least get these on here.

Season One Football Party

Last night, after practice, we all headed over to CiCi's for our end of Season 1 party. Three of the boys are not returning for Season 2, so it was a fun way for all of them to get together one last time. We ate pizza, the boys played games, I took football cupcakes, and then Coach Bobby presented each of them with trophies and gave a speech about each one!

Thomas eating one of my cupcakes...I made yellow ones with chocolate icing and on top I wrote "NY" in either blue or red. They came out pretty cute!

Coach giving his speech to Thomas...

I think he was pretty pleased with his 2nd football trophy!

As a team we also presented Coach Bobby with a football and team picture signed by all the boys. He loved it!! He is such a GREAT Coach. He really cares about these boys.

A proud football player...

A closer look. This trophy is actually a flag football figure.

Inscription...

Okay, I had to film all of this since James couldn't be here but I had to break it up in parts because Coach's speech to Thomas was sooooo long. HA! So, here they are if you want to listen in. It's loud in the restaurant but if you listen close, he says some really cool things about Thomas and the kind of player he is. In this first clip, he talks mainly about Thomas' defensive playing and how he would throw his body into the ground!


In this clip, he's mainly talking about what a great attitude Thomas has and what a great utility player he is on the team.


In this last clip he is telling Thomas how proud he is of him and that he's thrilled to have him back for Season 2!

Coach Bobby told me as we were leaving last night...he said, "When the day comes that Thomas puts the pads on, I want you to call me because I want to be there to see him play!" He said Thomas has "a lot of heart for the game" and he can't wait to see him play real football. He thinks Thomas will go far with it if he sticks to it.

Up next, I'll post the team photos! Season 2 starts October 31st!! And we can't wait!!

Family Fun Pics

Here's some misc. pics I threw together for today!
Us...

DUH...and I love this guy??? =)

Hug time with daddy...

Our furry, glowing eyes kid...

This is TROUBLE...

Belle drying her hair...

making a face at daddy for taking a picture of her drying her hair!! LOL!

Have a great day!

A Cool Poem

Christians

by Maya Angelou

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ
that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I'm not shouting 'I'm clean livin''
I'm whispering 'I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
And need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible,
But God believes I am worth it.

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I still feel the sting of pain..
I have my share of heartaches,
So I call upon His name.

When I say... 'I am a Christian'
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Pretty is as Pretty does...
But beautiful is just plain beautiful!

"Scar Face Hathorn"

I need to take a better picture than this but if you look closely or enlarge it, you can see under Thomas' right eye and above his right eyebrow the proof that he face planted with the ground during Playoff Game #1 on Saturday after diving for a flag. He cried for about a minute and then got right back in the game and he's fine now. He actually seems pretty proud to show off his war wound. Yesterday at church all of his friends were asking about it and he couldn't wait to go to school this morning so everyone could oooh and aaah over him there too!! Ha!

Sometimes it scares me how fearless my green eyed baby boy is with his little body!!
All I can do is PRAY!!! =) Have a great Monday!!

End of Season One & TD #3!!

After church today, Thomas and the Giants played in their final game of Season One against the Dolphins. The Giants gave it their all - in fact - we were WINNING the whole first half. Then the Dolphins came back and beat us in the second half. It was a very exciting game and as usual, our boys took it all in stride. They were just having a ball playing but if we would have won, we would have played in a 2nd game for 3rd place for the Season. Instead, I think we came in 6th place out of 8 teams.

Here's a shot I got of Mr. T on the run with the ball and a Dolphin is grabbing his flag as I captured it...

This was a shot I took right after Thomas got a touchdown - Yes, another touchdown!! Thomas is on the far right getting a hug from Keaton while Walker is celebrating with his arms up!! This was touchdown #3 of the Season for Thomas, the most of any player on the team. And not that I'm bragging but if anyone is interested in stats, Thomas led his team this season in most TD's, most knock-downs, most tackles, most assists, most pass completions, most injuries and even most personal penalties...can you say, "Be A-g-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e...Be, Be A-g-g-r-e-s-s-i-v-e"! That's what Thomas James is on the football field. I have this TD on film at the bottom of this post - I did NOT erase this one!! :-)

Thomas sitting with Walker and Keaton looking at the play book. Coach has a play they run now that is only for Thomas to run as QB because he's a lefty. It's called the Thomas Special. :-) Thomas was positive he wanted to play tackle next year but today he was talking about doing flag one more year and that was mainly due to the fact that his friend Walker (Coach Bobby's son) said he wanted to play flag again too. If Walker plays flag, that means Coach Bobby will coach again next Fall. If Coach Bobby coaches again, I know who Thomas will play for and that's fine with us. I think Thomas is aggressive enough to play tackle but I don't know if I'm ready for it. We could easily wait another year and let him grow some more. I hear the commitment for tackle ball is A LOT - like 4-5 nights out of your week!! Yikes!!

This picture was taken during half-time, right after Thomas got injured AGAIN. Yep, he was hurt about 5 times today - mostly all on defensive plays. He has a scuffed knee to match his scuffed up face from yesterday's game. He also got hit in the eye, pushed in the ribs, and fell on his flag belt on one hip!!


And here's the best clips I took from today:
Coach Bobby giving all the boys a big hug at the end of the game!


Thomas getting one of his flags, when no one else could...


Another tackle Thomas made. This was also his first injury of the game today - this is where he banged up a knee pretty good. He also received a personal penalty on this play. Even though it was accidental, he caused the runner to fall when he went for the flag. Thomas was SO upset over this play but he got over it fast. He felt like he didn't do a good enough job - he kept saying he should have been faster and stopped him sooner. We had a little pep talk about that. =)


This was a pretty pass by Thomas again but somehow Walker couldn't catch it.


And to save the BEST for last, here is Thomas' 3rd and Final Touchdown of Season One...

Today's game was a great way to end the season. We are already looking forward to starting Season 2 - practice starts this week (we have 7 returners and 2 new boys), plus we have our Season One Party on Thursday night. Thomas is very excited about getting another trophy!! I'll have pictures to post later in the week from all that. Season Two starts next Sunday but I don't know any game times or the rest of the schedule yet.

Go GIANTS!!! Go Thomas!!! We are so proud of you and love you so much!! =)

Playoffs - Season One

This morning, the Giants played in their first playoff game and we lost. They played super though, as usual. We passed the ball a lot more which we are liking, including the boys. Here's Thomas getting ready on defense.

In the action...

Thomas and Landry pulling a fake...

Thomas got to play QB quite a bit today...here's one of his completions to Brett...

Here's another completion to Landry...

This was one of Thomas' good carries of the balls, gaining several yards.

And in his typical signature move, this was one of the tackles (flags) he made today.

Overall, it was a really good game. Thomas finished out the game with 2 tackles, Best Effort play where he ran a boy down and was injured on the play (he ate some grass and has a nice big scratch on the side of his face!) He also scored a TD!!! Yes, another TD for his team and I accidentally erased it off my camera when trying to show it to Thomas. I was just sick about it. So, sorry, can't show you that one but it was a beautiful catch in the air and then he ran for 25 yard TD!!! It was sweet!!! Thomas earned $16 today!! We also had team photos done today so I should have those soon to post!

Tomorrow we have Playoff Game #2 at 12:30pm against the Dolphins. GO GIANTS!!!!! :-)

Who Cares?

"Who Cares?", an illustration of General William Booth's vision depicting the Church's apparent lack of concern over the fate of lost souls. (William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army).
This picture was used in our small group lesson this week. Enlarge it if needed and study it - really get a feel for every person and what they are doing. How many "churched" people do you see actually trying to save the lost souls?

Below is an excerpt I took from William Booth's Essay called "Who Cares?"

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters, you are on the rock, He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life, crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact-- a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Don't be deceived by appearances-- men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great White Throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea-- to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for everyone who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean -- and knowing, He still calls to you and bids to you to come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises-- very much of heaven on earth.

Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that is now broken in upon your mind and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them.

This is something I think a lot about...may it speak to you as well.

Phase 1.5

I have an exciting announcement to share:

James and I attended a church leadership meeting Monday night at church. Dave and the other ministers announced plans of already adding on to our new building. We are not yet ready or prepared financially to build another whole building (which would be the children's building), but our Children's Ministry and Youth Ministry areas are exploding at the seams now in their existing space.

For instance, the children (elementary age) run close to 200 kids during both services combined, so 100 kids per service is a lot of kids in the space that they have. Our Jr. Hi (6-8th) minister runs around 70 kids on Sunday morning in a small room that they meet in.

So, the leadership has decided to take a huge leap of faith and build Phase 1.5. They are announcing it to the rest of the congregation this coming Sunday. The building is basically a huge 2800 square foot room that will have bathrooms, a garage style door that can be opened up in nice weather and faces out toward the pond and volleyball court. It will also have a state of the art stage and sound system so the kids can rock out!!

Here's the catch: Dave (our Sr. minister) wants to pay for it outright. The room will cost only $200,000 (really, that is a great price!) They are going to announce it Sunday and then over the next few months until May, collect money from the church that are donated just for this building that is SO needed for our children (K-12th). The beauty is that even later on when the Children's Building is built, this room is a multi-purpose room so it can be used for other meetings and things. Or for small groups or other ministries.

This will be a great addition to our church and Dave really believes that we will have more than enough funds donated well before May gets here. So, if anything, I just ask anyone who reads this to please pray that this does happen and happens quickly. We already need this but it's going to be another year before the money can be given and the room completed.

God's timing is always impeccable. :-)

Passage for Today

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33

I just love that phrase that Jesus says, "I have overcome the world." How powerful is that? There is nothing more powerful.

Where does one find peace? At the cross - no place else. Peace is found only in Christ Jesus - Christ crucified and resurrected. Christ triumphant over every pain, every sin, every failure, every disappointment, every heartbreak, every tragedy, every hope for this life.

Christ...the Prince of Peace.

May you go out today and feel the peace that only Christ can provide.

Giants - Game 6 & 7

Yesterday, Thomas played in a double-header. Here they are in Game 1 playing against the Cowboys again.

Discussing a play...

By Game 2, this is what the back of Thomas was looking like...

Especially the legs, socks and shoes!! We pretty much had to strip him down before putting him in the truck!! :-) All of the boys thought it was pretty fun to get that dirty playing football.

I had to post this one...it's a beautiful pass Thomas made while QB'ing in Game 1 but Landry couldn't make the catch. It was very close!


Getting a flag...easy as pie!


Getting another flag...


Watch Thomas in the blue shorts cut across the field and once again, chased the runner down, in the mud and all. :-)


Thomas Quarterbacking again and making a completion to Jackson.


This was one of his best carries of the day with the ball...


Another example of why Thomas makes the most tackles on his team...he's fast!! He chased this boy down from a long way and got his flag before he scored a TD.


The last flag he got of the day!! He played so hard!! And had fun!!

Thomas made $12 more dollars off of us yesterday, mostly for tackles (flags) and a knockdown. He played great, as usual!! I'm not braggin' or nothing. HA!! Plus, Grandma Hathorn was here to see him play. Next weekend we will play THREE games!! Yes, THREE!! Our last regular season game and then the Tournament for Season 1, which is 2 games (double elimination). Don't know the schedule yet but more than likely we will be playing them ALL on Saturday or 2 on Saturday and 1 Sunday afternoon. Playing 2 games yesterday really wiped the boys out so I would hate to have to do 3 games in one day, but we'll see how they schedule it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Paw Paw!!
Happy Birthday to you!
And Many More...
(imagine Belle's little voice singing the above!)

Wishing my daddy a wonderful 64th birthday today!!
I'll see ya in two weeks to celebrate!!
We love you,
JKS&T