Come Away

Our awesome children's choir, God's Musicians, performed for youth Sunday on April 27, 2014.

Onward Christian Soldier

Jesse played one of my favorites, Onward Christian Soldier, during Pine Level's Fifth Sunday Night Sing on March 30, 2014.  He loves playing at church and I am so proud of him for using his God given talent to glorify Him!  Blessed indeed! 

Sweet Hour of Prayer

We love our church and are so happy that they encourage children to take an active role in our services.  My boys are always excited to take part and Jesse jumped at the chance to play the evening offertory hymn on March 2nd.

NYC Awards Ceremony, Part 2

Here is the second song that the children's choir sang. Trey is in the front this time because he had a short solo!!! We are so proud of him!!! He did a great job and if he was nervous you couldn't tell it! I don't know exactly how many people were in the audience but it was well over 1,000! You couldn't have drug me on stage in front of that many people when I was Trey's age (or now either for that matter!) He definitely didn't get his stage presence from his Mama!  I am so proud of both my boys for getting up on that stage and enthusiastically sharing their love for God!!!  Watching Him work in them is one of my greatest joys and nothing melts my heart faster than hearing one of my boys spontaneously start singing their favorite songs that they have learned at church!

NYC Awards Ceremony, Part 1

Our last night in Memphis we attended the National Youth Competition Awards Ceremony.  The night kicked off with a children's choir comprised of children who were attending the convention from all over the country.  They only practiced 3 or 4 times and they did AWESOME!!!  Trey and Jesse particpated with the choir and we are so, so proud of them!  Jesse is in the front row, behind the microphone, in the blue and brown striped shirt and white shorts.  Trey is towards the back behind Jesse in the red long sleeved shirt and the black and red striped shirt.

Wonderful Wednesday: Laundry Edition

Both boys work very hard at their individual chores each week in order to earn their allowance. Jesse is still at the age where he absolutely loves helping out and is very determined that he do his jobs all by himself. One of his jobs is folding clothes and he always goes at it with gusto. A couple of weeks ago, after his nightly bath, he sat in the middle of our bed and went to work on the clothes. I was in the other room and heard him start singing the "Color Crayon Song" while he worked. It was just too precious and sweet not to video. Of course, once I walked in with the camera he became focused on it and slowed down on the folding quite a bit:-)

Old Fashion Sunday

Our children always treat us with some old fashion singing on Old Fashion Sunday. I didn't get video of our littlest ones singing, but they were just too precious not to share a photo!

Our big kids are pretty precious too:-)

"New Day Dawning"

"These Are The Days of Elijah"

"These Are the Days of Elijah" is one of Trey's favorite songs. Anytime you ask for song requests, this is the first one on his list!

Pray, Daniel, Pray!

One of Jesse's favorite songs is "Praying Man". He is so cute with his facial expressions when he is singing it too! "Praying Man" is one of the songs that our older children's choir, God's Musicians, sings. About six weeks ago, Jesse moved up to this choir and Grandparents Sunday was the first time he had gotten to perform with them. He was so excited that "Praying Man" was one of the songs that they were singing! And he did a fantastic job, as did all the kids:-)

Thankful Thursday: Jesus Loves Me

Sunday, September 11th was Grandparents Day. We love all of our grandparents and are extremely thankful to have them all in our lives!!! To commerate the special day our children sang a special version of Jesus Loves Me. It was too cute & I just had to share!

Praying Man

On March 7th our youth choirs visited another church in our community to participate in their revival services and to get some more practice singing in front of crowds. As always they did a FANTASTIC job!!! Jesse and I sat in the back row along with the other little brothers and sisters that were there and Jesse sang along with the choirs. I didn't realize that he knew this song until he started singing. I can't wait to get my copy of this CD, Country Fried Praise. It has several of our favorites on it, including Trey's competition song, Can He, Could He, Would He and the one below, Praying Man.

Thankful for a new year...

As we said good-bye to 2010 and said hello to 2011, I counted my blessings. I have many...my husband, my boys, my family, my friends, the good health of myself and my family and friends, my job, my hubby's job, Appling Christian Academy, my home, the food that we have to eat, the clothes that we have to wear...I could go on and on and on. But. My biggest blessing of all is that Jesus loves me. Even though I'm not perfect. In fact, I'm no where close to perfect. But He is perfect. And He loves me. And He forgives me for not being perfect. And for that, I am thankful.

These videos were shot back on October 10, 2010 during our Old Fashion Day Service, but they never got posted. My camera died while shooting them and I didn't get all of either one of the songs and none of the songs that the older kids sang. As we welcome in 2011, I thought it would be appropriate to remember just how much we are loved by our Father. And these little ones do a wonderful job of reminding us that love.

The B-I-B-L-E

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

I am Thankful for Grandparents...

The hubby and I were blessed with some amazing parents. Which means? That our boys have been blessed with some amazing grandparents. On Sunday, September 12, 2010, we honored all the grandparents at church with a special sing. As always, the kids did an awesome job. Thank you Papa & Ah-ee, Grandma & Da, and Papa Richard for all that you do for us and our boys. We are all very blessed to have you in our lives.

My God is So Big...

I've Got a River of Life...

Don't Make a Monkey Out of Me!
(I LOVE this song! It's one of my very favorites that the kids sing.)

Can He, Could He, Would He
(Another favorite of mine.)

I am thankful for these little ones & the big ones too...

Last Sunday, November 7, 2010 was Homecoming at Pine Level FWB Church. To celebrate this special day, we had a song service at 10:00a.m. featuring several of our talented singers, our adult choir, and all of our children's choirs. Our children never cease to amaze me. Not only do we have some talented youth in our midst, but their love for our Lord always comes shining through as they sing their praises unto Him!

Our Joyful Noiz Choir consists of our youngest children. Each week Mrs. Jessica, along with several others who always pitch in to help, lead these little ones in song and praise. I have been blessed to sit in during their weekly song fests and I know that we have some awesome singers coming up. However, getting in front of an audience always makes them nervous and they don't belt out their songs on stage the way they do on Wednesday night. Homecoming Sunday they all stayed on stage the WHOLE time and that is a big step for them. A few of them even danced. And it was such a blessing to watch them. I am very thankful for Mrs. Jessica and the time she gives and dedication that she has to these little ones. And I am thankful for each one of these little ones, and for their love for our Lord.

Jesus Loves Me

This Little Light of Mine

God's Musicians is comprised of our medium sized kiddos. They are led each Wednesday night by Mrs. Lora and I am so thankful that our youth have her. I am always blessed to hear our littlest ones sing. Their joy and exuberance bring a smile to my face every time. But I am MOVED when God's Musicians take the stage. They are accompanied by music but they do NOT have voice accompaniment. These strong, clear voices of praise are all our kiddos. When they sing you can feel the Holy Spirit moving in our midst. It is powerful stuff. And it brings tears to my eyes.

How Great is Our God

Shout to the Lord

I simply can not do a post about how thankful I am for all these kids and the people from Pine Level who dedicate their time to working with them and not mention Mrs. Kay. It would take pages to list all the things that Mrs. Kay does for our kids at church. She and Mr. Pete are simply amazing and we are all very blessed to have them!

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Our championship Eagles are having a spectacular year & we’ve had lots of pep rallies to help cheer them on to victory! Jesse always wants to leave his class and come sit with me, but he is slowing getting over his fear of Ace, our ACA mascot. Both boys really enjoy the pep rallies and getting a chance to cheer & scream as loud as possible! I mean, what kid wouldn’t? Jesse’s favorite cheer is, “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, that’s the Eagle battle cry!” He cheers it loudly at every pep rally. On September 10th, once we got back to my classroom, I got him on video. He does an excellent job even if he doesn’t quite spell “victory” correctly.

And I finally got my photo of us all matching!

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My boys and me ~ August 27, 2010

VBS: Saddle Ridge Ranch

Roundin' Up Questions & Drivin' Home Answers

Not only did Jesse take swimming lessons while Trey was at camp, but he also attended VBS at his cousins' church. And since he was so whiny and clingy and pretty much wouldn't do anything unless he was sitting in Mama's lap or holding Mama's hand the week before at our VBS I decided to try something new. I dropped him off and left him to experience VBS all by himself!!! Oh my goodness was this hard for me! Although he wasn't entirely alone, he did have Grandma Gwen, Aunt Janie, Cora Jane, & Vera Kate with him, I just about couldn't bear to leave him. However, I knew that he would enjoy himself much more if he wasn't busy hanging onto me & I was right! He had a fabulous time! I heard that he really enjoyed the singing & dancing & stories & especially the bucking bull. However since I dropped him off and didn't see him again until Daddy brought him home I have no photos of his fun times! Of course, Mama & Daddy were on hand for the big finale and I had my video camera ready. And what did my little stinker do...whine, and cry, and want to cling to Mama and NOT stand on stage and sing any of the songs! So while he's in the videos, right in the middle of the stage, if you look closely you will see that he is NOT a happy camper! Vera Kate and Cora Jane were a whole other story. They enjoyed every minute of the finale and sang and danced their hearts out. The songs were so cute & the kids did an excellent job! So enjoy the videos and feel free to sing along! I especially like the last one...Don't Be a Tumbleweed!



Cast My Cares

I Am Who HE Says I Am

Don't Be a Tumbleweed

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5

Jesse learns to swim…

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I mentioned a while back that on the very first day of summer vacation Jesse decided that he didn’t want to wear his swimmies (wings) to swim anymore. He could touch the bottom of the shallow end on tippy-toes and he was doing pretty good with jumping in and swimming to the steps, but he was making me a nervous wreck! I couldn’t relax at all when we were at the pool & you could forget about him going swimming without me there! Plus, he was terrified of the deep end. ABSOLUTELY. TERRIFIED. So we decided that it would give us all more peace of mind if he took swim lessons. He began swim lessons with Ms. Ellen on June 7th and for the next two weeks he went every afternoon and swam.

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By that first Friday, Jesse and his classmates were ready to give us a sneak peek at what they had been learning. Jesse showed off how to make superman arms, put his face in the water, and kick, kick, kick to get to where he wanted to go.

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Finally Jesse’s final day of swim lessons arrived and it was time to show off everything he and his classmates had learned to all the parents.

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Jesse was jumping into the deep end, swimming to the side, and then swimming all the way across the deep end to the ladder! He even went all the way to the bottom of the deep end with Ms. Ellen to get a ring off the bottom of the pool! Yea Jesse! We were so proud of him.

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Jesse was so proud of himself! As a graduation present Ms. Ellen let him pick out a blow up beach ball—he chose Nemo!

Wide, Wide as the Ocean

On our May 24th trip to the beach Jesse kept singing one of his graduation songs, Wide, Wide as the Ocean. He was so cute that I had to video him. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of wind interference, so turn up the volume and enjoy!

Pool Side

So how did we spend the very first day of our summer vacation??? Swimming, of course! School let out before lunch on Thursday and I worked until late trying to wrap everything up in my classroom so that I could play on Friday!!! I did have to go in for a couple of hours, but by lunch time we were at Grandma and Da's enjoying the pool with Aunt Janie, Cora Jane, Vera Kate, Whit, and our good friends the McClintocks! What a wonderful way to kick off summer! And this, this is how we've spent most of the summer---pool side!

Jesse DuRant chose this day to swim without his swimmies! Oh. My. Goodness! How he stressed me out! I could barely carry on a conversation for jumping up every time he got off the steps! He's come a long way this summer and is now swimming like a fish!

Cora Jane

Trey

Jesse jumping in without his swimmies!

Whitman...Don't you just love his concentration!

Mason

Trey & Whitman

Micah

Jesse jumping in without swimmies again!

I just love this photo of Lily! She didn't know WHAT Whit was up to!

Lilah & Vera Kate

Nothing like a little pool side baseball! The kids, both big and little, had so much fun!

And here is a short video of my baby Jesse swimming without his swimmies for the first time! What a great way to start summer!

We've only got a few weeks of summer left and we plan to enjoy every minute of it! I pray that each of you is also having an awesome summer!

May Blast Ball

We had three more blast ball games in May. These photos are from Jesse's May 3rd and May 10th games.

May 3rd we had individual and team photos taken.

Hammin' it up with Daddy

What Jesse liked best about blast ball...playing in the dirt!

May 3rd was also the first time that Jesse willingly shook the other team's hands after the game! A major step for him:-)

Fighting for the ball.

And a video of my baby boy hitting the ball and running the bases.