Perfect!

Thoughts from Madison's Momma

We all have goals - you know those things in life you really want to achieve. Growing up I really liked the idea of achieving straight A's, but I never really wanted to work hard enough to achieve that level of greatness. Chalk it up to being a social butterfly! Grades came fairly easy for me so I knew that I would do above passing so I never disciplined myself to achieve that next level.

Someone in my family has though and I wanted to share that GREAT news with you. Madison brought home her third semester report card and it is PERFECT. I think that rocks! Madison is incredibly smart and enjoys learning. If she keeps that mind frame I can only imagine what God might call her to do.

Right now though she is leaning toward veterinarian. I know she is only 5 but she thinks 8 years of school doesn't sound so bad. Trust me - she did not get that from her momma. : )

Hats off to 5 year olds 'cause they rock!

Happy Easter!

Sending you a bit of Easter cheer!

http://home.att.net/~solos_holiday/2008/_011/egg.htm

Crisp Parent's House Fire

Last night around 11PM, Paul's parent's house caught on fire. Likely caused by a lighting strike, they never knew anything was wrong until the smoke alarm started going off. When they went into the kitchen they found the microwave on fire and immediately called 911. Fortunately, Dad, Shirley & Candy (dog) were able to get out of the house with no problems and since the Fire Department is just around the corner, they got there in just a few minutes. Obviously, the damage is pretty bad so they will be unable to live here for a month or two.


Kitchen view from the broken out windows.


Kitchenette area.


Kitchen view from living room.


Kitchen ceiling.


Front entry & formal living room.


Spare children's bedroom.


Spare children's bedroom ceiling.

Cheerleading

Let me hear you say YEAH MADISON! Here a few pictures from her recent games. She cheers for other kindergartners learning to play basketball. Turns out her coach had too many conflicts with the program schedule and I am the new cheer coach. I am enjoying this new ministry and the girls are great. They get sidetracked easy so it is hard to keep them focused on just cheering but it's proving to be a ton of fun!

Ending the Year with a Bang!

A New Family Addition

IT'S A BOY!

Jodi and Jerry are now the proud parents of Jaedyn Michael.
(I'm not sure the spelling is correct, but I think I am close.)

He arrived on December 28 at 7:55 p.m.

Welcome to the family little boy!
And yes, that is a head full of hair.
He weighs in at 6 lbs. and 5 ounces.

This is Aunt Teresa's first time holding him.

Noah is checking out his Momma holding this little guy.

He sure is a sweetie!
Congrats Jerry and Jodi!

Pappy gets to hold GREAT grand baby #13!

Christmas with Grammy and Pappy

The Lewis Family Christmas

Ginger and Luke gave Noah this Cars racer and he refused to open any other gifts after he got this. Do you know of a kid who does not want to open more presents? He sit quietly in the corner and kept racing. He still loves it. Thanks Gin and Luke!

This is Grandma and Grandpa Lewis or Grammy and Pappy if you are a great grand kid.
We were lucky to have Grandpa with us this year. He was just out of the hospital and quite tired but he spent some time with all us hoodlums any way. Aren't they sweet?
Merry Christmas you two!

A Crispy Christmas

Christmas with Mom and Dad Crisp

This year we had the Crisp Christmas on Christmas afternoon.
We were thrilled to spend a little time with Uncle Phil along with John and Shirley.
Thank you for the yummy lunch!

Madison sits patiently but can you tell she's excited?
Can you say "Cheese"?

Noah enjoys a very Thomas Christmas.
He has listens to this CD story when he goes to bed at night.

Avery Christmas 2007

Christmas with Mom and Dad Avery



Christmas at the Avery's is on Christmas Eve every year. Our tradition is a dinner with steamed crab legs, cheddar biscuits, and this year Dad through in a little shrimp scampi too. Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting us every year.

Makayla gets the party started in her Santa hat.

These two take a moment to give us a quick pose with Santa Mickey.
Grandma decorated her tree with cartoon characters this year and the kids were thrilled to touch all the fun decorations.

Mickey has been good this year and Noah felt like he needed a hug.

Our family

My brother's family

A fun gift of character towels was a picture moment in the making.
Too funny to pass not posting.

Think she likes her Leapster? The face gives it away! We have barely seen her without it since she opened it. And Noah gets his own set of tools. Paul was tired of sharing his tools with Noah. (We found them scattered all through the house.) So, when Mom and Dad asked if this would be a good choice Paul jumped at the chance.

Uncle Scott and Aunt Jen got Madison and Noah a race track. That's the first toy to be played with every morning. Uncle Scott "shows" Noah how to race. Who's having more fun?

And no Christmas is complete without the classic kid in the box picture?
Thank you Makayla for making our post complete!

Christmas at the Crisp House

What's Christmas like at our house?

Well, it's filled with pajamas and bed head, but as Madison shows you below the excitement of opening gifts is quite entertaining.


What's Christmas without a little juice? Noah and Madison live for breakfast but on Christmas morning even breakfast waits until all the gifts are opened and played with a little. Noah needed a little hydration though to keep going. : )

Noah's big gift this year was Thomas the train tracks. Madison and Noah play with his set every day and even Daddy gets in on the fun Christmas morning! By the way, Madison received a digital camera and she shot over 200 pictures at just Grandma and Grandpa Avery's house.

We trust you had a lovely Christmas too as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.
Happy Birthday Jesus!

Give me a C H E E R!

Let's hear it for my CHEERLEADER!

Madison has started a new sport this winter. It's UpWard cheer leading and these are shots from her first practice. Can you imagine 6 Kindergartners getting their cheer on for the first time? Quite entertaining!!!




Madison is a natural! Below you will see her with her coach, Miss Stephanie. Her team name is the Angels quite fitting I would say. She is stoked about having a megaphone and pom-poms. I'll be posting pictures of her first game in the new year. For now we can send cheers of encouragement to Madison for trying something new and liking it!

Christmas with Kindergarten Style

There are 90 Kindergarten students enrolled at Kendell this year and here they are in all their glory! Just wanted to share with you a few pictures from Madison's Christmas program! Too cute!

Madison loves to sing and dance and you can tell from this picture. And below...they were wearing jingle bells around their necks. One of Madison's best friends is in the Santa hat in the front row.

There is nothing like the kids at Christmas!
What joy! I hope your holiday is filled with much joy too!

Redefining Thanksgiving!

There is reason to CELEBRATE in Kazakhstan!!!

Thank you to all of you who jumped on board to support children in Kazakhstan. Because of your ministry support the Ideas in Motion department was able to raise enough money to provide warm clothes and coats to 18 children at the AppleTree house this winter. What a blessing to be part of this project and what a blessing to children in need.

If you did not get a chance to be part of this project you can start your own and it's easy). If you are interested in learning how just click on www.co-missioncatalog.org to see what projects still need your help.

A Very Avery Christmas!

All I Want for Christmas

We had the privilege of having Thanksgiving and Christmas with Grandma Avery over the weekend. Friday the ladies of the family made a mad dash to get all the presents and supplies to pull off Christmas on Saturday. We had a fabulous time and Madison is counting the days when she will get to open presents again. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the family pictures. Enjoy!

Some of the Avery guys hanging out together

Our family photo

Noah looks like he is up to no good : )



Abby is playing with Noah's Christmas present. Can you say Little Drummer Girl?

Makayla and Grandma Shirley share a moment.

And to our family unable to be with us we missed you.

A Slight Set Back

Monday's ER Trip

We had a slight set back in Noah's progress on Monday. He went to bed as normal on Sunday and when we woke him up on Monday we found that he had tore off his bandages. "Oh no!" became the theme of our morning. We called his surgeon and found that he was out of the office for the week and the docs office asked us to take him to Riley just make sure the wounds are clean and there were no signs of infection. So off we went. We received good news when we arrived. Every thing looks good they say. The wrapped Noah back up with bandages and wouldn't you know those came off even before we left our ER room. We all enjoyed a big laugh and they wrapped him again and sent us home with lots of supplies because they anticipate more wrappings. We re-wrapped on Monday night and so far so good he has left the bandages on. However, he is two (need I say more?) so we'll be in touch...

Hooray for Bath Time!

Leaps and Bounds!

Noah had a wonderful evening and I wanted to make sure you all knew. We had our usual bath time and this time around we were tear free!!! He was excited again to take a bath and he willing went feet first into the sink. He kept his little arm back out of the way just as I had showed him to do last time and he even washed himself. Your prayers are working! Our little guy rocks!

Bumps and Bruises

Share the pain!

Noah has found himself with a few more bumps and bruises since his surgery. We have found that our toddler is struggling to use his hand to catch himself and unfortunately his noggin is taking the blunt.

He thinks Madison should share in the pain and
suffering so he offers her a turn with his ice pack.

Doesn't he just scream, "Feel sorry for me!" ? He did better today taking his bath from the sink. It took me 3 towels to soak up the water after his splashing fun, but there quite a few less tears.

Bring it on!

YUMMY!

I just wanted to share a couple photos with you of Noah taking his medication.
These were taken on the day after his surgery.
I am so blessed that neither one of my kids struggle with taking medication.

I think it is funny how far he opens his mouth for me.
He makes it look easy!

Say Goodbye to the "M" Word

No More Meds!

Noah made it through the whole day without pain medication. Hooray! If you ask me, that is a great achievement. We are now four days after surgery and the only time Noah is really acknowledging his bandages is when he changes his clothes. He thinks they should come off every time he changes his shirt, but when I tell him that it is not time yet, he does not argue.

My parents and I took the kids to the Bee Movie tonight. This was the first time Noah has been to the movie theatre. He did a great job for the most part. Towards the end he got a little restless and he drank all of his soda and his sisters, but that's far from being the end of the world. : ) By the way, I'd give the movie a big thumbs up! The movie was really cute and certainly kid friendly (it kept Madison's attention). If you got some free time this weekend - go check it out.

Warmer Kids in Kazakhstan...

Three more kids in Kazakhstan have been been given warm clothes this winter since my last update. As you can see we are 73% of our goal. Even $10 can make the difference in the life of an orphan. Place your donation now at www.firstgiving.com/kazakhkids!