Archive for the 'Rilyn' Category



27
Jan
12

sample work

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!!!

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! 🙂

“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!)  😉

21
Jan
12

this is how girls fight!

playing Barbie and the Three Musketeers!

Ella in the purple, Anna in the blue, a friend from school in the white, and Rilyn in the light blue!
love Rilyn’s sword jig
fighting with ribbon!  Take that!
19
Jan
12

musings from a 7 year old

Rilyn has a writing prompt each morning at school and every Tuesday afternoon she brings home all her writings from the week.  I always enjoy reading her musings, and thought I would compile some of my favorites into one post and keep record!  It brings much joy to my heart to read that she tries to include her faith whenever possible!  I know her teacher knows that this girl loves Jesus!  🙂

Writing prompt:  What rules do you have to follow at your house?  “I have to do the laundry and the dishes.  Boring!  I also have to do my homework right away.  We can not murder.  I can not be guilty of adultery.  I can not steal.”  (This one cracks me up!  She knows her Ten Commandments, doesn’t she?  I wonder what her teacher was thinking when he read this?!)

Writing prompt:  What do you like about your style?  “I like my style because I think I look cool.  I have a lot of make-up at home.  But there’s something else more important, my belief in God.  Now that’s important.”

Writing prompt:  What do you like best about your appearance?  “I like my appearance.  I think I look good.  But God cares about the inside of your heart.”

A Christmas Poem by Rilyn

“Under this tree are presents you know

But the real Christmas is real without a doubt

It’s about a little boy you see that came down from heaven

He’s the King of Kings

See the star up top?

That represents Jesus.

There’s a clue.”

Love this girl’s heart for Jesus!

And just because it’s cute to remember:

I was checking her spelling homework and one of her words was “recall”. The sentence she wrote was “We called him and he didn’t answer, so we recalled him.”  🙂

She had to write a sentence for “focus”, her sentence was, “I focus on my testes.” That extra “e” can really change things, dear…

30
Dec
11

christmas at grandma’s

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!!!

Not sure what Rilyn is so happy about, but it probably has to do with opening presents!

grandpa with his girls
Ella watching the boys play with their new cars
one of Ella’s favorite gifts!  To wear at her 6th Tangled birthday party!
Rilyn getting a reward chart to play school at home!
daddy showing Asher his new Cars 2 Leapster game!
29
Dec
11

Christmas morning

We came home from Fort Worth on Christmas Eve and went to our church’s Christmas Eve service.

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!

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!

Christmas morning!

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.

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!

race track!

After presents, we normally eat birthday cake for Jesus, but this year, I made cupcakes!

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).

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!

our Jesse tree
28
Dec
11

a props kind of christmas!

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!

aunt Mandy and Ella
crazy sisters
me and James!

Christmas dinner Paquette style!

present time!
now she can make her own spa masks!
Happy Napper from Justice!
27
Dec
11

Shrek the Halls

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!

Waiting in line to go in…

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?

Shrek ice sculpture!

Ice slide!

At the very end, they had a beautiful ice exhibit of the nativity scene!

26
Dec
11

baking!

We went to grandma’s house for some pre-Christmas baking last week!  This was Asher’s first time to bake!

pressing the cookie cutter!
frosting time!
25
Dec
11

Merry Christmas!

May your only excess this season be of LOVE and JOY!

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!

my girls
love Asher’s look here
grrrrrr
mamas boy
21
Dec
11

Christmas parties for the kids!

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!

And last night, the kids had a Christmas party at our church, the Austin Stone.
First we watched a musical of sorts.

Rilyn is mesmerized. I would be too when this is on stage, and he is rapping!

Then the kids had a snowball fight outside with jumbo marshmallows!

I’m pretty sure Asher just got pegged in the back!

There was cookie decorating, crafting, and of course, a dance party room!

James and Rilyn bustin’ a move!
work it girl!