"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3

Monday, August 27, 2012

The firsts of fall...

Noah started 1st grade last Thursday. It was the first time he's been gone away for that long, a full day. But, thank Jesus, he loves it!!
Yay for 1st grade!



No tears this year for Noah or Mommy!
Sunday was promotion sunday which means we got a brand new class for our 4 year old Sunday school class. We sure will miss our old class and those sweet boys and girls that grew on us over the year. But this year we have a small class. We only had 3 on Sunday compared to the 12-15 we would have last year. The best part of our small new class is that we have Nathan this year!! Yay! We love getting to have a chance to teach our own kids in sunday school.
Sweet 4 year olds! Nathan threatened me if I didn't have play doh he would run away to the old 3 year old class!


Nathan started homeschool today! It was a little rough for the first day. But when Noah got home, Nathan couldn't stop talking about it and even showed his brother some of his newly learned skills!! So thankful when there's some positive.
Heading to the basement!

His class

Doing some coloring

Pitching a fit :/

Character trait movie

Snack time
I'm excited about all our fall firsts, and looking forward to what God is going to do in the lives of these children, and me and the upcoming year!!

Monday, August 20, 2012

What's Heaven like?

My original plan for this week was to start homeschooling Nathan today. However, Noah doesn't start first grade until Thurs. and I wasn't sure how this would all work out. So I prayed for direction and this is what I felt led to do...a 4 session curriculum kit by Anne Graham Lotz titled Heaven: God's promise for Me. We started last night so we could be done by Wed. It has been so fun to talk about Heaven, to read scripture about what Heaven will be like and just let the boys' imaginations go crazy about what it will be like. I have enjoyed this little mini bible study so much and we have only done one day of it. And, how perfect that God would lead me to such a short lesson just do do something really special and fun right before back to school!! God is so good! Have you thought about what heaven will be like? I don't know the specifics, but I do know that the very best things we have, on the very best day of life, with everything going absolutely perfect, will not compare to the glory of being in God's presence. If you're reading this, and don't know Jesus as your personal savior, I want to tell you more about it. I want you to be able to experience what God has in store for you here on earth, and especially in heaven. Send me a personal message at 4ogies@gmail.com if you have questions. Jesus is my favorite subject to talk about! And if you have children ages 4-8, this is a great mini- study that I would be happy to share with you once we are through, so feel free to send me a message about that! Happy Monday! I wrote this on facebook, but I'll share this here too:
Encouraging verse for the day: "the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exalt over you with loud singing" Zephaniah 3:17 ...Have a happy Monday, keep in mind someone is over you singing and encouraging you to start this day with gladness!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Summer's almost over...


 These 2 facts hit me today....summer is almost over, and I've done a horrible job blogging this summer! So sorry!! Here's a little recap (pictures below in random order)...

No big vacations after the Lighthouse trip. Lots of family time...lots of fun friend time. Lots and lots of brother time!!



8 years later, he's still the man of my dreams
Eric and I celebrated 8 years of marriage this week. We were blessed to find a sitter so we can celebrate tomorrow night for a long overdue date night!
Our Honeymoon bliss




We had a week of surgeries. Noah got tubes in  (for some conductive hearing loss and lots of ear infections) and adenoids out. I got my gallbladder out after lots of gallbladder attacks. I am so very thankful my mom came that week to help us and to watch Nathan. I'm happy to report that Noah and I are both better than before....Noah regained all his hearing back and I haven't been sick anymore!!

Cuddle time with Nonna
Post surgery, his color looks awful but he did GREAT!
pre surgery
presurgery    
merry go round at the mall, fun brother day

Friday, June 22, 2012

Ephesians 1:18-19

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" Ephesians 2:10

These 2 verses have been on my heart, engraved on my heart, for the past few days. This week has been amazing. I'm changed forever. Can't wait to share more...here's a few more photos in the meantime.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The journey has begun

We are almost midway through our Lighthouse trip and I wanted to give a little update. The journey for spiritual growth has begun as well and I can promise that God has already brought numerous blessings and growth opportunities so far. I will give the big report when I return but here are a few prayers requests and pictures of our adventure.
Prayers requests:
Just really prayers for health of the little girl Eric and I are taking care I this week. And also for her family to have renewal and just a time of being able to feel God's presence.
Physical strength for me. I am very tired. I want to be at my best this week and I just really need the strength and energy so I can serve at my best.
For my children. Noah has had a few episodes of being homesick and Nathan had been testing his limits every chance he can get. And I miss them. A lot.
For the volunteers and families present in this retreat. There have been so many smiles and laughter so far and it is all genuine. God is here and I pray each and every person here is moved to a point that it is life changing.
I will come back and label pictures later since I can't figure out how to do it on my phone. I can tell you one thing this week that has been so funny. Last night the volunteers did a flash mob style dance, look it up if you don't know what this means. I was mortified to have to do this rehearsed dance in front of everyone but I did it! I was horrible and I was totally uncoordinated. But our worship leader told us to remember this for this week, "it's not about you". What great lessons in humility that cannot be taught in normal daily life.

Monday, June 11, 2012

The balance act

Here's my goal for this summer...a perfect balance between productivity and FUN!!! I want to be a cleaner and organizer. I want to work on academic things with the boys. But I also want to have the most fun ever!!! My prayer is that we can do it all this summer, the fun stuff and the not so fun stuff. Here a few pictures of things that make my productivity more fun for me....And things that are just plain FUN for the O boys.  Here's to a fun productive summer for you also!
I enjoy this so much for daily cleaning
Movies with friends on rainy days!! The boys love this!
This is a random elf that has been thrown way high, fun for the boys, not so fun for short mom
Starbuck's - way fun for mom
Newly organized pantry made fun with my label maker! Yay!
I love these little guys and they make me want to do laundry every day
Bubbles - what's summer fun without bubbles?!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Great Wolf Lodge summer trip

Here are some pictures from out latest trip. This was our summer family vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. We had a blast in the waterpark, went kiddie bowling, mini golf, ate way too much food, and laughed a ton! It was not relaxing at all, but we know the memories made plus a super fun time made it ALL worth it!
The boys loved the wave pool, it was their favorite!
Mini golf and beaver faces
Yes, that was me on the big scary slide with the boys
This time we were upgraded for FREE with our own private bedroom, the boys had their own room
It's hard to say who was having more fun here
Pizza dinner
Cuddle time
Free chocolate popcorn at bedtime! The Great Wolf always spoils us rotten!!