Fishing on the Dock of the Bay

Last night Shawn and Jase, along with Grandpa and Shawn's 3 nephews (Christopher, Alexander & Benjamin) went down to Morgan's Point and did a little fishing.  A lady that Shawn's parents go to church with lives on the water there and have a pier.  Their house is currently for sale and Shawn says I would love it...built in 1938, original wood floors, character...right up my alley!!

Jase loves spending time with his Daddy, especially when fishing is involved!!  Shawn said that he was so excited!! Jase ended up catching 3 fish!  Here are some pics from their manly excursion!

Astros Game - July 17

Shawn and I took Jase to the Astros game after church on Sunday.  PawPaw signed Jase up for the Astros Buddies Club, so this was the game we chose to come to for free!! While we were in section 417, the view was actually not that bad.  We had a clear view of the entire field and could see the scoreboard just fine too.  No complaints here.

We decided not to take Ally along on this trip and just to make it about Jase.  She does ok at the games, but she'd rather not be confined to a seat for 3 hours! Jase cheers on the players and team and yells out his chants...I love it! Can I also say that it was nice not carrying around a bag? I just had my little purse and that was it! Missed you Ally, but glad you had fun swimming with Nanny! :)

So, this was the BIG GAME where Jase had an opportunity to run the bases...oh man, he was PUMPED!! We went down to to Section 132 during the 7th inning and got in line.  We could stand with Jase in line, but once they opened up the gate, all parents had to leave and the kids walked down themselves...yikes...he's 4!!!!

So we get down to Section 132 and stand in line, and he is probably about the 10th kid in line...yippee! LONG story short, and I'm talking a 1 hour long story, Astros went into extra innings and they ended up losing in the 11th.  It wouldn't have been that bad, but we stood up the whole time from the middle of the 7th to the end of the 11th, and Jase was really good, but kept asking after every half inning "is it time to run the bases yet?" Poor thing.

When they opened the gates I headed for the stands and Shawn waited up top and watched Jase walk down to the field to make sure he was A-ok.  What a big boy he was!!!

He absolutely LOVED it!!! I'm so glad that we stayed and waited in line, so awesome! And he kept saying  he looked like Hunter Pence. I guess Hunter Pence wears a necklace, so Jase wanted to wear his memory verse dog tag from Church to look like him; it was cute!
  

Jase showing off his necklace: Proverbs 3:5



Jessica, Jase & Shawn...Making Memories!

It's a JUNGLE out there!!

This week the kids learned about the Jungle and our vocabulary word was Vine.  We looked up interesting facts about jungle animals and read jungle books we checked out from our local library.  Jase also has a set of books he had in his room that we really haven't read, but he loves them...The Jungle Book and The Jungle Book 2!! We will be renting that movie soon to watch, as Jase LOVED the books.  I played "Bare Necessities" with Baloo and Mowgli from The Jungle Book and Jase got a tickle out of it every time.

We finished up the letter "A" and the number "1" this week, along with the nursery rhyme we introduced last Friday: Hey Diddle Diddle.  This week we took on the color green, letter "B", number "2" and lastly we added our nursery rhyme "I Had a Little Nut Tree" (which is new to me too! lol).

Today we did a craft where they picked out their favorite jungle animal.  To no surprise Jase picked a Tiger and Allyson picked out a Monkey.  I printed them out and taped them onto a piece of construction paper.  Next I gave them green strips of paper I had cut and they glued it over the animal.  I explained to them that the animals in the jungle hide in the grass, and then threw in "well, monkeys are mainly in the trees, but they might hide behind vines." LOL! We only glued the bottom of the grass, so you can bend the grass down and you can still see the animals.  They turned out cute. Oh and today I remembered the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" so I YouTube'd it (a great, free resource) and played it over and over...it will not hurt my feelings if I do not hear that song for a while! haha!

Next week is kittens. I'm more of a dog person, but hope to make it purrrfect for the kiddos!! :)

Everyone needs dinner...and Jesus

Tonight the college/singles class met up at Church and instead of having a normal Wednesday evening service, we all brought sandwich meat, cheese, bread, chips, water and candy and made little sack lunches.  We then loaded them all up in the back of a truck and and took them to Downtown Houston to deliver.

Jase joined us on this trip and it was great to be able to talk to him about what was going on.  That these people we were taking food to did not have any food, a house, a room, a bed...nothing.  I told him that they were people just like us and just need a little help right now.  He handed several bags of food and bottles of water out to the men and women on the streets.  He told them you're welcome and God Bless.  :)  He even shook some of their hands and gave one guy knuckles. 

We stopped and had conversations with a few of them and to hear their stories...just breaks your heart.  One man is a Vietnam Veteran and now he lives on the streets with a brain tumor.  Another man was telling us about his 6 grandchildren (oldest is 13-14 years) and he hasn't seen them in years because they live in Florida.  Makes me want to go buy a plane ticket and send him home.  I know how much my mom loves Jase and Allyson and she would probably follow them to the end of the earth to see them and it just breaks my heart knowing this man (and many more) cannot physically or financially go home.  We were able to pray with this man, Dave.

On the car ride back home we were talking about these men and women and their stories and when you get right down to it, their sin is no bigger than our sin.  Shawn mentioned that is the beauty of the gospel...it is for everyone! Thank you Jesus.  In God's eyes we are not above these people, although looking through man's eyes one might say so.  I'm sure it takes a lot of faith to live on the street and not know where your next meal is coming from, but praying that the good Lord will provide.

I had a great time preparing and delivering the food.  I hope we do it again soon.  And as for Dave, if he never sees his grandchildren on this earth again, but if he and his grandchildren put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ, they will be reunited in Heaven...what a glorious day!

Easter in July

So for 2 days Jase has been asking me to get out the Resurrection Eggs for him to play with.  They are a set of 12 Easter Eggs that tell the death, burial and resurrection story of Jesus.  Each egg has little figurine inside, starting with the Donkey, which represents Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a Donkey. And ending with an empty egg to signify that Jesus is alive and well and no longer in the tomb!!  Praise God!

So, after I laid Allyson down for her nap I found the Eggs and we walked through every egg and read the resurrection story to Jase. On one hand it completely blessed my heart that my 4 year old son wanted to play with these and hear the story.  Then on the other hand...shame on me for thinking "it is not Easter right now." Jesus please forgive me...everyday should be "easter" as I celebrate the resurrection of your life.  You are the reason I have hope and are able to find peace in tough situations and I know that all our blessings come from you.

What a great time with Jase this afternoon, as we read Your resurrection story.  We are looking forward to meeting you one day.  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not persish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

School is in Session!!

So this past week I started doing a lesson a day with the kids for about 15-30 minutes, depending upon how attentive they were. Each day we add one thing to our board. On Monday we started off with a Theme and a Vocabulary word, then Tuesday we added a shape or color, Wednesday we added a letter, Thursday we added a number and Friday we finished up with a nursery rhyme. 


Completed Board (Learning Poster) at the end of the week

Tomorrow we will have a new theme, but everything else stays on our board.  So you are basically incorporating something new everyday to learn while continuing to reteach what is already on the board.  I have really been wanting do this for a while.  I mean, this is one of the reasons I wanted to stay home: to teach my children.  With the exception of Jase wanting to be the teacher Mon-Wed everything went great.

Here is what we learned this week: Cows/Calf/Square/A/1/Hey Diddle Diddle.  We also learned interesting facts about cows.  For example, did you know that cows can smell up to 5 miles away?  They also have 4 digestive parts in their stomach and we even got detailed where they chew their food, swallow it, spit it back up and chew on it some more (aka cud).  Jase was very intrigued by these facts.  And Allyson can now tell you that a baby cow is a calf!!

A couple of the days we had a snack while I was reading or they were working.  Some of the fun snacks we had: square wheat thins with greek yogurt dill dip (cow), mozzarella string cheese (cow) and ice cream (cow).

By the end of the week both of the kids loved it and enjoyed the activities we did and of course stickers!! Allyson now thinks it is sticker time all the time!! I am hoping to keep this in our M-F daily routine.

5 Generations!

So today was...perfect!! Went to Church this morning and Pastor Todd Dunn preached and it was awesome.  The Lord is definitely blessing him, his family and his ministry in Irving.  Thankful to have heard him this morning.

After Church we came home, ate lunch and headed down the road to Livingston to visit Nana.  She has been out of the nursing home for a few weeks now so it was time we visited with her.  My mom and Alisha were driving up as well and they were bringing my Great Grandma Smith.  She is my Nana's mother-in-law, my Poppa's mother.  My Poppa passed away in March 1985 when he was 47, and I was 4 years old.  He had a brain tumor and lung cancer.  I still remember him...a great, loving man.  My mom and I lived with Poppa and Nana for a few years after my parents divorced when I was 1. I still am very close with my Nana today.

It was awesome to have 5 generations in the same room, so I did not pass up the opportunity to take pictures!! Now here is the part I wish I could go back and change...my lovely camera decided not to work while taking some of the pictures.  So some of them look grainy, others have white spots.  I didn't take any of the group pics, so I had no idea that they did this.  :(  Oh well, nothing I can do about it now...but I can buy a new camera! ;)

Nanny brought a slip-n-slide so the kids got a little water time, which they loved and I'm sure felt so good!!

Before we left we all gathered around and Jase opened us up in prayer...there is nothing quite like a child's prayer...so innocent and pure and very thoughtful.  Just when you think they are not paying attention and then they go to God asking for Him to watch over Nana and Grandma Smith...just blesses your heart.  Daddy closed us in prayer and we said our goodbyes and headed home. 

Daddy ran into Subway for dinner and the kiddos and I stayed in the car.  I couldn't pass this up!


Kids had a great day!