Wednesday, January 3, 2018

S is for September

We kicked off September with a visit to see our family.  We celebrated Mimi's birthday, & we took Grandpa his 10 lb bass!  It turned out awesome, & he loved it.  Crossed that one off his bucket list!


David was going around giving everybody kisses when we asked him.  He had never done this before! He was the sweetest his little Nora; kissed her right on the mouth!



Mimi set up a painting craft for the boys in her art room, and they painted Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  Calvin & David couldn't quite catch the vision, so Calvin painted a dinosaur in a storm.  David just painted green.  James & Hayden worked so hard on theirs!  Hayden's details were so impressive & surprising, and James bright colors & focus on 'completion' was fun to watch.


It always amazes me when we have so many little boys in one space, all playing separately.


All the Prose grandkids!


Prose grandkids + some of the Lyon grandkids!


The whole Prose crew went to Grandpa's church, all together.  We took up the whole church pew & all the kids got to go up to see Grandpa.  These boys did great, & they LOVED seeing Grandpa in his element.  They are so proud of him!


The Prose Family!


Baby at the breakfast table.



September brought us Hurricane Irma, which was the worst storm we've seen in our years in Florida. It flooded Jacksonville & the tributaries, which included Doctors' Lake where we live & all the way down the Black Creek.  The flooding was unbelievable, and Matt helped rescue 4 of our elderly neighbors who had not evacuated from the flood zone.  Their houses ended up 3-4 feet under water!


Even more surprising, we never lost power!  We bought a generator & prepped 5-7 days worth of water & emergency food.  So we invited over friends who lost their power & helped our neighbors & gave out water to those working on flooded homes & loaned out anything we could to help.  It was an incredible storm.


James, my big boy who gets taller every day.  Watching over his little bro & brought home that gem from school: What kind of scientist do you want to be? Marine Biologist baby.  I want to learn about fish.  Yay!


Poor little Calvin lost a toenail!  He ended up with an infection the weekend we were away for YL training, and he never complained.  I was impressed because I get those kind of infections in my cuticle & they keep me up at night!  So by the time I checked on it again, it was really nasty.  Thank the Lord the infection didn't spread; so we took good care of it from that day on.  The nail did fall off, and the older boys told Calvin maybe the 'toenail fairy' would come bring him a dollar!?! hahahah!!  But what could I do?  The Toenail fairy was born!


When the sun finally came out again after Irma, we played in the driveway till the mosquitos came out.  And they were BAD after that storm y'all.  Yiikes!  These gems were created in that afternoon sunlight.



This was all the clean up crew our house needed.  Picking up moss & sticks in the front yard & raking.  It was hard work, but they stepped up!


After clean up at our house, it looked so normal.  It was really odd in real life; we spent some time helping our back neighbors clean up their yard.  The boys absolutely love them, so they worked hard. I hope they remember these days of doing what we can to help our neighbors.



Matt had a work meeting to attend up in Myrtle Beach, so the boys & I tagged along!  What a view, and who doesn't love a chance to play in the ocean?


Calvin fell asleep at the dinner meeting & slept in Daddy's lap for nearly an hour as we finished dinner.  When we got home, my buddy was the Student of the Week!  He is looking so grown up to me these days.  Love my boy!


David & sweet Hattie.  What a lucky little boy!  His face: priceless.


Some of my favorites from OPHS at our YL football tailgate!  Love spending time with these girls.


We took our boys to see the new Lego Ninjago movie when it came out.  They had been waiting on it & hoping to see it for months, so when we went, it was with bells on!


I participated again this year in the Write 31 Days blogging challenge, and I posted them on my writing blog.  Check them out... this year was called Wake-up Call.  I challenged myself to get up and have my quiet time first thing everyday, and I wrote about what I learned.  It was harder than I expected, and I learned more than I would have anticipated.  I'm still trying to put this into practice!


Tball and Baseball boys at practice & at their first game day! Calvin was ready- nothing to dampen his spirit!  He's been waiting for this day for years.


Oh.My.  I got the boys' Halloween costumes in the mail, and we HAD to try them on to see how they fit.  This year's costumes?  So stinkin' cool.


Thank you Lord.  We have so much to be grateful for.  These little glimpses of a life so full of failure & mistakes, but looks so beautiful.  I'm so glad to focus on the good, because it helps me remember it.  I count these moments as gifts to me, gifts to my sons, and gifts from my loving Heavenly Father. "Every good & perfect gift comes from above, from the Father or Heavenly lights, who doesn't change like the shifting shadows." James 1:17.  This mess of a momma dwells in the grace of these good gifts.

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