Landon's Blessing

On May 22nd, my Landon completed his time in elementary school and graduated from the 5th grade.  (My heart hurts a little as I write this!)  Where has the time gone? 
This picture is before the graduation started.  They are standing in front of Nichols-Lawson Middle School, the school Mason is finishing and Landon will be starting.

The graduation service was very well done but what was such a blessing was that Landon was chosen for the Star award in his class!  One girl and one boy is chosen from each class and Landon got it! 

Another reason Landon hated to leave Bayfield besides finishing his year as Student Council President, is that he wanted to see if he would be chosen for Citizen of the Year.  While that is something that his teacher chooses, the Star award is voted on by the students and then the teacher has to approve it.  How exciting that was for us to see God blessing his move to Alabama!

He also got the Presidental Academic Excellence Award for his all A's and an All A award.  He finally got some recognition for all his hard work.  Bayfield does not give academic awards out until 5th grade so he hasn't gotten any award since 1st grade when he was at Parkside.

This is Landon's teacher, Mrs. Harmon

And I was very happy that his Nuna was here for the graduation....

This is Landon with his best friend Max and Max's big brother Brooks

It's kind of neat that his best friend in Bayfield's name is Max and his best friend here is Max.  Not that they replace each by any means but it just seems that God is showing him that if we are faithful to obey, He is faithful to bless us...even in friendships!

CONGRATULATIONS LANDON!!

So Long Kindergarten!

Amazing how fast the school seems to pass by.......

Seems I just posted this picture of her first day at Kindergarten

And now she is an official KINDERGARTEN GRADUATE!

They have 8 Kindergarten classes so they broke up the graduation into 2 days so this is 4 classes performing together

They sang some really cute songs and then received their little "diplomas"

Look at the screen behind them and you can see Haven on the screen and her answers to her "favorites".

This is her classmates

And her teacher Mrs. Heath....

 Congratulations my Haven!  You learned so much this year and survived a move and change in schools beautifully!  We love you!

A Gift for Landon....

About 6 weeks ago, I received an email from Landon's music teacher (Mr. U) at Bayfield Elementary School asking if we would consider sending Landon to Denver to perform at competition with his D.R.U.M. group.  Our first reaction was "no way".....it's too far and too expensive.  So we didn't even mention it to Landon.  Mr. U continued to send emails, offering to cover most of the cost if we would send him.  By this time, I was beginning to feel sorry for Landon because he was missing field trips here that I know he would have gotten to go on IF he had started the year here such as the gifted field trip and the AR reward trip.  And I knew he was missing the fun times in Bayfield because he was here.  I started questioning Mr. U on what my expenses would be because I knew that I couldn't "send" him.  He emailed back and said that all my expenses would be paid while there so this meant I would only have to buy my plane ticket.  SOOOOOO we went for it......we felt like Landon was worth every penny to get him to this place where he was so heavily wanted.

Mr. U wanted to keep it a surprise to all the other kids so we flew to Denver last Friday and met them at Fun City.  Mr. U had gathered everyone together in a private room and said, "Boys and girls, It would not be DRUM competition without a special guest....straight from Alabama....IT'S LANDON!" And Landon jumps out and this is where the video begins  (click on the arrow at the bottom left of the screen)

It brings me to tears everytime I watch it!  How awesome that made him feel!  Those couple of moments were worth every penny of what I had to pay to come out there!

What this was the Elitch Garden Music Festival where the groups perform in front of 2 judges who critique their performance and judge them.  Every group from Bayfield Elementary won gold which was the highest you could win.  BES has a choir, several orchestra groups with violins, violas, and cello's, and then the D.R.U.M group.  While it would seem that the D.R.U.M. group would play the drums, they actually play all types of percussion so on trip they played the mallets and it was beautiful.  Here is a video of their performance....Landon is on the far right

It wasn't as if Landon was "needed" to do this performance.  They all played the same thing and it would have been fine without him.  It was the fact that he was so "wanted" by his music teacher to be a part of all the fun they would have on this special weekend.  It blessed my heart so!

This is the whole group from Bayfield Elementary.  This was about a 7 hour drive for this group to get here.  Below is the DRUM group that Landon perform with

Landon with the Gold!

 

After the competition they got to spend the day at Elitch Gardens which was an amusement part right in the heart of Denver

Landon and Mr. U

After Elitch, we went down town Denver to the Hard Rock Cafe for supper

We had to wait a while for them to get our tables ready so the kids ended up performing on the sidewalks and people stopped to watch.  It was a neat experience! 

So an extra special THANK YOU to Mr. U for making Landon feel so cherished and loved!  Landon has endured another major life change by moving and this was an awesome reward for his courage and endurance, and a reflection of how loved Landon is for being Landon!

My Softball Gal!

My Haven girl is finally getting to play a team sport!

She is playing Softball and her team name is the Cupcakes....I know....pretty awful team name and she wanted to quit when she heard it!

The team...well, let's just say they are improving but we've lost every game so far.  She has gotten a few hits and this is where she plays

But she loves it and she is awfully cute in he little uniform, isn't she?

A More Decorated Home

Just thought I would share pics of the house once it was decorated.  Here's our new furniture for the very spacious living room......

Landon finally got his own room to decorate!  When we lived in Holly Pond, we had a 3 bedroom house so when Haven came along, Landon's "room" was down in the basement because he slept with Mason anyway every night.  Needless to say, he didn't spend much time in his "room" because it was in a damp, dark basement.  In Colorado, he had to share a room with Haven.  So here, he finally got his own room to decorate and as you can see, it has a music theme

I had so much fun helping him decorate as we got all my old records and put them on his wall.  He wanted to listen to all the songs so thanks to You Tube, we did.  He really appreciates all music and I love that about him!

Mason kept the whole Alabama Crimson Tide theme.  I did promise him a "Fathead" for his wall when he can decide which one he wants.

It made me sad that he did not want to display his trophies.  He realized all the trophies he got in Alabama where not a result of anything he accomplished but were given just for participation so they really don't mean much to him now.  Maybe now that he is not far from high school sports, he'll start a new trophy case with some well deserved awards!  He did still want all those team pictures we paid for during the years on his wall so I made a nice little arrangement for him...............

Haven's room has a cute little horse theme.  I actually have the curtains for her room now and it is officially complete!  I'll have to say that since we've been here, Haven rarely plays in her room and keeps it really neat because she is ALWAYS outside playing.  I love it!  We had to leave her bicycle in Colorado because we ran out of room in the moving truck so we bought her a new one here.  She stayed on that bike all the time!  A week after we bought it, my sister-in-law ran over it because Haven left it behind her truck.  So she is now on her 3rd bike and loves it just as much.   She has to ride it to church for every service.  So cute!

This is our sun room....they put in outdoor carpet and it's a neat little reading room.  Lucee seems to think it is her bedroom too!

And this is our dining room....I really want to change the color scheme here and have done a lot of shopping to find something I like better but I just have not found it yet. 

I still need to pick out curtains for both the dining room and living room and that has been a challenge for me because they have such large windows.  Wish I could hire a designor to just do it for me but they are a little pricey.  I'm not good at all with arranging or designing but I do love this house and it is good enough for us.  The great part about the house is that it has a huge laundry room and several closets for storage so I feel much more organized now. 

WELCOME TO OUR CASA!

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

We're here and I'm loving it! Here's pics of our new church and home.....

Sycamore Baptist Church

This next picture shows how close our home is to the church

This is the pastorium and I LOVE it! The men have done so much to update it and even let me pick out flooring, counter tops, paint colors, etc. It is 4 bedrooms so no one has to share a room now.

I took a few pictures of the inside before we started unloading the truck. This is the bathroom that they totally gutted for me......

I wish I had taken a "before" picture. It was a blue tile 1950's bathroom complete with a blue toilet! I was so happy with the change!!

Below is the kitchen. They replaced the floor and counter tops before we arrived. They are now working on new cabinet doors and replacing the hardware. Before, everything was white...white floor, white counter tops, white cabinets and white appliances. Looks much better now!

This is our living room. It's very spacious and I love the windows and hardwood floors!


Now, this is dangerous. The pic below is taken from my front door and what you see there is a Dollar General. Yes, we live this close to Dollar General! Very convenient but we visit there way too often!

This is taken from our back door......

These make me REALLY happy!

I love seeing daffodils in February! And in my yard!! Oh how I've missed the colors of spring!! This next pic is a view of the back of the house

Nice, big back yard

Everything is so very well groomed around here and they are planting more shrubbery in the back of the house. They do all the up keep of the yard and shrubs so I am feeling a little spoiled around here!

I love this Bradford Pear tree in our yard too!

Playing around with the camera, I took this picture and it's a favorite!

The kids are doing well but Landon has had some school adjustment problems. His room is too crowded, and messy, and the boy who sits next to him likes to cheat off of his paper...stuff like that. Mason has done great and went to his first sleepover with 4 friends the other night. He would much rather be in Colorado still though. Haven is loving every part of it. It is such a blessing to live near my brother's family and we see them just about every day. The church family has been really good to us during our transition and now we just wait to see all the good things God is going to do for our family at Sycamore Baptist Church!