Character Building

I so should be cleaning my house right now, but my mind is all over the place and I just felt that sitting at the computer typing may help me clear my head.

Lately I have been super focused on character building in my children-I desperately want (even more than a new camera) for my children to have Godly values and use them daily. Being a mom for nine years now I have seen and witnessed some great kids who have not been taught how to behave. I have also witnessed my own children display inappropriate behavior which has hit home the lesson for me that character building should be a HUGE priority for us parents.

This world is moving at such a fast pace that simple things like reading to your children, taking them to the library, and even taking small moments through the day to teach quality character traits has gone by the wayside. Please do not think I am being judgmental-I am including myself in this trap. We as parents want to give our children EVERYTHING and allow them to participate in EVERYTHING so we spend all our time chasing our tails and forgetting the small important lessons that need to be taught-such as humility, forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and helping a neighbor in need.

I love my children but they can on a regular basis act like entitled brats that want more of everything. I know it is our job to train them up so we have dug out the devotional book, added bible reading to our devotionals, and I am scouring the internet for more character-building tips. I am consumed with this right now. I do not want "busyness" to be an excuse for having bratty children. It will not happen on my watch.

I know it is not popular, but we are training my children to say "yes mam" and "no mam" and I am scouring for opportunities for my children to serve OTHERS. I do not want my children to have such a sense of entitlement that they are unwilling ot help a neighbor in need. Kyle volunteered at a camp this past summer for special needs children and he will be back this summer to volunteer again. I want to find an opportunity for David to volunteer-maybe the nursing home? I am going to check about opportunities for him as well.

I feel better now. Getting my thoughts out and strategizing a plan always helps me when I feel overwhelmed with something. I want my children to have strong work ethic-my husband was blessed to have that as a child. I will let you know how it goes as we focus this time on building a Godly character. I have found some new websites and I got a great magazine at the library today on service opportunities:)

Divide And Conquer

The name of the game this past weekend was divide and conquer!! Mike and Kyle went to Knoxville for a swim meet and I took David and Hope to Radford so that David could go visit.....

The Hokie Bird! Virginia Tech played Wake Forest in basketball and so we went to the game with Pops, Chad and clayton. Poor Clayton was scared to death that the Hokie Bird was going to come see us, but we kept reassuring him that the Hokie bird would stay on the court. Late in the first half we looked up and the Hokie Bird was actually about 5 feet away from us! Neither Clayton nor David wanted a picture with him and Clayton made sure he kept his eye out for him the whole time! I am not sure why both of these boys are scared of costumed characters, but they are.

David had such a fun time that late in the second quarter he snuggled up next to Pops and fell sound asleep. Bless his heart:)

Earlier in the day we bought David some new shoes and he was so excited when he realized that Uncle Chad had some just like it!

Clayton and David. Chad sat between them and they were so cute and excited. David cheered every cheer and Clayton sang every song:) The game was actually kind of boring (because Tech beat them) but we had fun with these two!


After church Sunday our friend, Caroline had a skating party and while we waited on Kyle and Mike to come home we went and celebrated her ninth birthday!! Hope got some Tinkerbell skates for Christmas so Mommy skated with her-talk about a back breaker:)

Handsome Dave before church Sunday morning.

Sweet Hope before church:) I just bought this dress for her and I would LOVE to learn how to sew church dresses for her like this. By the time I would have time to learn to sew like this then I would probably have grandchildren! Ha! I am super excited that this is big on her so she can wear it next fall also!

These pictures have nothing to do with this post, but I wanted to share them. Our AAU team is super blessed to have two ladies that have professional photography equipment and take pictures for us! These are the two that Angel got of Kyle at our last tournament. It makes me so happy to have good pictures of my kids "in action" and it also makes me suffer with camera envy:)

I love this face-I love that he is finally not scared to go after those jump balls and even accumulate a foul or two! He is so ruled bound that he was so nervous about getting a foul! Ha! This weekend was super full to the brim with fun. The snow for now has melted on the roads and the kids went back to school today!! Kyle was sad about going back today, but I keep reminding him that each day we go the closer to summer break we get!

Spring Break in January!

Amazingly the kiddos have been out of school ALL week this week due to snow. We have had some cold temperatures and lots of inches of snow. I really have no idea how much we have gotten because of drifting. Yesterday Hope had a well check and I bundled all three up and off to the doctor we went. Hope had a great checkup-she is 32 inches tall and weighs 23.4 pounds. Poor baby got three shots, but we are catching up on her immunizations.

Since yesterday was spent running errands and doctor appointments on white roads, today we loaded up our friends and went on a road trip!

How cute is a car full of kiddos excited to head to Chuck E Cheese?!!
I am annoyed at this camera and I am annoyed that this cute picture of Hope is sideways, but anyway, here is sweet girl on my blackberry. All the kids in the car either had a Nintendo DS or an Ipod and at the time the Vreader and all other techo gadgets were being used, so Hope screamed for "da backburry."

This picture is also sideways (darn new camera) but Dave loved the street hoops game! He had such a great time today-we really went for him because he has asked to go there since the summer and we are just now getting around to it.

This girl is so brave and she and David and Macy took turns riding this horse! She wasn't scared and her new phrase is "dude it" which means let me do it myself now!

Kyle shot hoops a million times!

David at the end realized that by dancing in front of this camera he could get on the big screen and I had to drag him away from it to go home. He is definitely my music man/entertainer!

We had such a fun day out with friends on this cold, snowy day. Our roads are finally showing some pavement and the forecast for next week looks like we may get to pack up the backpacks for school again. I have honestly enjoyed this week with my kids-Hope is going to have withdrawal AGAIN when her two big brothers head back to school.

We have a busy weekend with a big swim meet for Kyle, Upward basketball for David, and two birthday parties! After suffering from cabin fever for once I am excited that our calendar is so jammed packed for the weekend!