Priceless

This is how it should be!

The older reading to the younger!

Big Brother reading to his Little Sis!

 

But not just reading, they are reading the

BIBLE!

 

I love it!

 

She watches

She watches...

 

She notices...

 

 

She mimics...

A sign

Last night we had another sign of growth around here.  I don't like that word...growth.  It means my babies are not babies.  It means the ones who call me momma are becoming more independent.  I just don't like it, and yet it seems inevitable.

 

Eli lost his first tooth last night.  It was only about a week ago that he showed us he had a loose one (2 in fact).  Well he hasn't quit messing with it since then.  Last night he was complaining it hurt.  I grabbed a hold of it and noticed how loose it was.  Eli jerked away and the tooth stayed in my hand.  He was pretty excited after the realizing it was out.  (He was so busy talking he didn't even realize it was in my hand).  So he was eager to show it off.

 

 

When the excitement died down, I realized that the youngest member of our family was not quite as excited.  In fact, she was in tears.  She didn't get it.  Her big brother was missing something she had never seen him without!  She was concerned for him.

 

Below he is "explaining" that he is a big boy now and it's OK!

 

I was on my way out the door when all this excitement was going on, but Ron said she continued to look at the tooth and seemed very deep in thought.

 

 

More growing up around here.  Sometimes I wish so badly I could keep them little!

Never Wanted to Hear

Last week Ron heard words come out of his little girls mouth that he never dreamed he would hear!  Let me explain!

 

Ron overheard a conversation between Maddie and Ronnie.

The two of them were playing and evidently got tired of what they were doing.

 

Ronnie says, "what are we going to do now?".

 

Maddie's response, "You can look at my tattoo, if you want!"

 

 

Yep, Tattoo!  That's what she said.  That's what Ron heard.

 

Maddie had been given a Cinderella tattoo from one of the little girls we babysit with her Valentine card, so she was very proud to show it off to her big brother. 

 

Daddy... well he wasn't nearly as impressed.

Craziness

Why is it that life can be rolling along and all the sudden...craziness hits! 

This week was suppose to be Wilmore Week #14!  However, Sunday evening the flu hit!  It hit Ron, to be specific.  He was down all day yesterday and I believe is beginning to recover.  Eli seems to have a "form" of it and so will be staying home today with us.  I'm hopeful that the rest of us can dodge the bullet, but only time will tell.

So the Adkins craziness continues...life goes on!

The Festivities

This is a day late, but I thought I would share what our Valentine's Day looked like. 
I had planned a Party for the "babysitting kids" as it was Valentine's Day and it is "Pp" week around here! 

 

So we partied, all 9 of us!

 

We had jello hearts,

Heart cookies

 and we even had Pizza.  Again because it was "Pp" week, I had each of the kids make their own personal pizza, then enjoyed it!

We also shared Valentine's!

 

Toward the end of their party, my handsome Valentine began to get to work.  He had been thinking about last year and how he spent Valentine's Day in Wilmore while I was here and well he wanted to make this year special! 

He grilled steaks (yes in the cold, gotta love that), we also had baked potatoes and yummy salad and he did it all!

Then the most amazing, and yummy part...he bought chocolate and strawberries and dipped them himself! :)

 

Last year he had strawberries sent to me, but these were by far superior! 

I kinda messed them up when I tried to add the white chocolate (as if chocolate can mess anything up), but really they were amazing!

he even did some pretzels when the strawberries were gone!

 So we had a fantastic Valentine's Day here. 

I am blessed to have such a wonderful man to share life, love and forever with!

I love you Babe, on Valentine's Day and every day!

Valentine

I Corinthians 13
Valentine's Day is a day of love,
For showing that we care,
And if we read the Bible,
God describes love there:
If we speak like celestial angels
From heaven up above,
All our words mean nothing
If we don’t have Christian love.
Love is patient, love is kind;
It doesn’t brag or boast;
Love conquers pride and envy;
It is never self-engrossed.
Love is not rude or angry;
Forgiveness counters wrong;
Love stays away from evil;
It sings a truthful song.
Love is full of trust and hope;
It always perseveres;
Love never fails; It’s faithful;
To the Bible it adheres.
And if you give this kind of love
To your special Valentine,
You’ll be loving right in harmony
With God’s own sweet design.
By Joanna Fuchs

Headphones or Headband

This past weekend, Ron was sorting through a box and found these headphones.  Nathaniel was so excited to try them out.  He loves them.  He's walking around the house, ignoring everyone and trying to sing with the music.  Yes we also dug out some cassette tapes (we have a pretty good size box of them).  He is loving it!

 

 

Then "little sis" was afraid she was missing out on something.  So she took  her headband out, stuck it in her ears and started singing and dancing! 

 

Now she is as "cool" as her big brother....maybe "cooler"!

Snow

Today we got nearly 4 inches of snow.  It was beautiful coming down!  The the boys got home and decided to "trample" it!  They all had fun!

 

The boys had a "snow bowl"

Maddie enjoyed her swing!

Maddie did join the winning team (Daddy and Eli) for a short time before coming in to warm up!

 

They all 5 had a fun time and enjoyed the beautiful snow!



Only God

So I just have to share with you how God provided. I shouldn't be surprised, but it's just amazes me how awesome He is!

Let me start by giving a little background. I am not a mechanic...however, I was with Ron last Friday evening when we were on our way to dinner with friends and the van started it's skip or whatever it was doing. It sounded to me (untrained ear) as if it was missing a gear! Not shifting. I said something and Ron kinda laughed that "even I could tell". We canceled our plans and turned around. By the time we got home we were missing at least 2 gears and couldn't get the van to go very fast at all.  It appeared as if the transmission was going!

We spent Friday evening online looking at vehicles and wondering how the world we could afford another vehicle right now. It was depressing. We knew a transmission would be expensive and we have put so much money in the van already. Then on Saturday evening when I followed Ron in the truck to drop the van off at the shop we had to go 25 mph the whole way in - it was not doing good at all. We were struggling with what to do. The mechanic said he couldn't get to it right away, but if it was transmission it would be $1500. We had looked on Friday evening and we would only get about $2000 in a trade in, if we could get it somewhere!

So...when the mechanic called and said, my guy can't find anything. He said, I'm going to drive it myself and see if I can make it do what you are saying. When he called back he basically said he didn't know what we were hearing, feeling, whatever! He said we did have a wheeling barring going out and it wasn't safe to drive out of his shop, so it had to be fixed!

Then Wednesday morning Ron's brake light came on in his truck. He happened to be on his way into Bryan and was planning to stop and schedule his oil change. The guy said it looked like a leak and he would check the brakes on Friday morning when he changed the oil. ....not good!

On Friday morning Ron's oil change was done and there no longer appeared to be a leak in his brakes. They couldn't find anything! Just the charge of an oil change.

So...we got the van back Friday night. No transmission problem, a little over $200 in a wheel barring.

God moved a big mountain and we are so thankful!

Only God could have missed gears come back to our van and allow bake fluid to stop leaking from the brakes! There really is no other explanation -only God!