James took Asher to his first Monster Truck Rally on Friday night! It was our Valentines day treat to him! (We used to take the kids to the Sesame Street Live show when they were younger.) Asher is more of a “race car” dude, but he still had fun. James said Asher will probably remember the sounds, smells, and sights for a long time!
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| James had to buy him ear muffs there because it was so loud! |
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Asher: He drew his first family portrait today. Of course I had to bribe him with a piece of candy, but he did it! :) You can see he did draw five faces. I’m not sure when he will decide that bodies are important. 
This boy loves letters and numbers! He knows all of them, upper and lower case, and about half of his sounds, but writing/drawing?!? No way, not for him!!!
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| Asher’s first family portrait-3.9 years old |
Ella: Her teacher’s aide came up to me yesterday when I was at school volunteering and told me that Ella made her day when she told her, “I don’t believe in luck, only blessings.”
Here is Ella’s first “book report” in kindergarten. At least she’s honest!
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| “Because it was short and it was boring.” |
Rilyn: She wrote us a chore list recently because she wants to save money to help buy an iPad for her birthday in June. (I guess 8 year olds have iPads these days!) Anyway, so she wants a regular weekly allowance, (currently we pay her by the chore.) We decided that we would pay her $7 a week because she is 7 and we told her to write down some chores that would be good for her to do each week. This is what she gave us: (of course my favorite is #8!) ;)
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I bought Asher his first pair of rainboots the other week in anticipation of the rainy winter season. He loves jumping in puddles, and unfortunately, he hasn’t had too many opportunities lately because Austin has been so dry! Well, today was the perfect day to bust out the boots! It rained for hours and hours, and then as soon as it stopped, I took my camera, and told Asher to go at it! I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy because the puddles were almost 6 inches deep, muddy, and mommy was giving him permission to jump in them!?! (All in the name of good pictures is the name of my game! :) I will let lots slip by when I want a certain picture!)
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| contemplating what mommy is telling him to do |
And he’s off!
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| air Asher! |
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| splash down! |
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| up |
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| DOWN!! |
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| so happy! |
When I was tired of the people in cars driving by staring at me for being the crazy woman who was taking pictures of her son soaking wet in the freezing cold, we moved to the backyard!
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| it was a tad bit more muddy |
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| which meant even more fun! |
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| KA-BOOM |
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| I’m pretty sure this one soaked Asher’s face and we were done. |
Christmas afternoon we drove up to Temple to celebrate with my family. Here are the four grandkids in front of all the stockings! Next Christmas there will be one more! My brother and his wife are having baby #2 in June!!!
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Not sure what Rilyn is so happy about, but it probably has to do with opening presents!
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| grandpa with his girls |
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| Ella watching the boys play with their new cars |
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| one of Ella’s favorite gifts! To wear at her 6th Tangled birthday party! |
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| Rilyn getting a reward chart to play school at home! |
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| daddy showing Asher his new Cars 2 Leapster game! |
We came home from Fort Worth on Christmas Eve and went to our church’s Christmas Eve service.
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| Christmas Eve |
Christmas morning was unusual this year because Asher decided this was the one morning all year where he was going to sleep in! So after we waited and waited, we finally decided to wake him up at 9:30!
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| sleepy head! |
Then we did stockings! The kid’s shepherd’s pouches were replaced with their traditional stockings that I made for them filled with goodies! They made $18 this December in their shepherd’s pouches (Asher was too young to participate.) My favorite part was their public school teachers e-mailing us throughout the month with actions they saw at school that showed a servant’s heart. Both teachers really got into it and I loved that we could share this experience with them! Sadly, the girls didn’t have enough money to buy a goat this year, but they had enough to buy a chicken! I can’t wait to do this tradition next year!
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Christmas morning!
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This is my favorite picture of Christmas! We give our kids three gifts each. This was Rilyn’s “spiritual growth” gift. We bought her a nice Bible (with her name inscribed on the front in rainbow colors of course!) and a journal. Do I love my Bible this much? Convicting.
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| The girls both got nice ear phones for their “need” present b/c James gave them his old ipod. |
Asher’s “want” gift was a wall track! He loves it so far and I’m just happy he can’t step on it!
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| race track! |
After presents, we normally eat birthday cake for Jesus, but this year, I made cupcakes!
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| blowing out the candle! |
I still put the layers in them (as best as I could) to represent our sin (chocolate layer), His blood (red layer), our new life in Him (green layer), and His purity and righteousness that covers us (white frosting).
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| James enjoyed a cupcake too! |
After the birthday breakfast, we put the last ornament on the Jesse Tree and read Luke 2. A star to represent that our waiting is over! Jesus is born! The star is shining, the angels are singing, the shepherds are worshiping. Our savior is here!
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| our Jesse tree |
Last Friday we celebrated Christmas with James’ family! I think the theme this year could be summed up in one word: Props. Lots of wigs, hats, and just silliness!
We set up a fun photo booth to show off all the props!
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| aunt Mandy and Ella |
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| crazy sisters |
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| me and James! |
Christmas dinner Paquette style!
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| present time! |
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| now she can make her own spa masks! |
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| Happy Napper from Justice! |
We went to Fort Worth last Thursday to celebrate Christmas with James’ family. Thursday night we went to the Gaylord Texan resort and walked through an ice sculpture exhibit. It was all characters from Shrek and it was pretty impressive! The problem was it was 9 degrees in the building and they didn’t offer us gloves to wear, so all our hands were frozen!
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Waiting in line to go in…
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| James parent’s with Asher, Rilyn, and James |
Here are the jackets they gave out to wear. Asher’s was a little big, don’t ya think?
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Shrek ice sculpture!
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Ice slide!
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At the very end, they had a beautiful ice exhibit of the nativity scene!
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We went to grandma’s house for some pre-Christmas baking last week! This was Asher’s first time to bake!
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| pressing the cookie cutter! |
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| frosting time! |
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May your only excess this season be of LOVE and JOY!
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| photoshop fun! |
We chose this theme this year because we are going to be taking Rilyn and Ella to the Dominican Republic on a family mission trip in late July! We live with so much excess in our lives and we want the girls to see how truly blessed from God we are. We know He will do BIG things in the DR with each one of us. Break our hearts for what breaks His. Create in us a renewed love for others. Encourage us to go to the nations in the name of Jesus and spread His Love.
Here are some of the other shots that didn’t make the card, but still cute none the less!
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| my girls |
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| love Asher’s look here |
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| grrrrrr |
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| mamas boy |
We’ve been busy the last few days attending Christmas parties for the kids! Ella had a ballet Christmas party where she got to perform a short Nutcracker dance on stage!
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And last night, the kids had a Christmas party at our church, the Austin Stone.
First we watched a musical of sorts.
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Rilyn is mesmerized. I would be too when this is on stage, and he is rapping!
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Then the kids had a snowball fight outside with jumbo marshmallows!
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| I’m pretty sure Asher just got pegged in the back! |
There was cookie decorating, crafting, and of course, a dance party room!
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| James and Rilyn bustin’ a move! |
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| work it girl! |
