Hart Happenings - Spring 2012

It seems that Spring has come & gone already!! The kids are down to their last week of school. We have signed up for multiple summer programs and we are planning our Ohio vacation! The kids are pretty busy as they prepare for the end of the school year. Katie & Alex were, once again, honored by their librarian for their literary work. One of the local John Deere estates hosts a reception for the students.

Here is Katie with her story & artwork:  Diary of a Giraffe

 Here is Alex with her story & artwork:  I am as unique as a snowflake

 Katie has been extremely busy working on her 3 part state project.  She chose Virginia because of the American Girl doll, Felicity.  After studying Virginia for the past few weeks, she is extremely excited about taking a vacation there!  She even volunteered to postpone our Disney trip next year.  I don't know if the other kids would go for that idea though!  Here she is with her Virginia poster.  She is turning in her final project today - an Alphabet dictionary of Virginia.  She did a wonderful job on all 3 projects!

Becki has been able to spend some great quality time with her sisters & mom.  It is so nice to have them all so close!

Will volunteered to wash the table one night.  Here he is after writing a sign to warn people of the wet table!

Easter - Celebrating Our Risen Savior!!

I love celebrating Easter!! I love the colors, the "newness" of everything around us...but the best reason is because we are reminded of how big our God is!! Nothing can hold Him back, nothing can hold Him down! The grave could not contain Him! But even better than that, this same God loves ME! The older I've become, the more I love Him & His ways - He loves me inspite of all my faults. He sent Jesus to earth to give us a living testament - a way to live our lives - only to have Him die on the cross. Now we understand the full extent of the cross. Thank you Jesus!

We kicked off our Easter weekend by heading to church Saturday night. What a wonderful service! Unfortunately, it had rained during the afternoon so we had to hold off on the kids' Easter pictures. We headed out Sunday morning to get some pictures.

After pictures & lunch, we packed up and headed to Becki's parents for the afternoon. The kids had a blast hunting for over 700 eggs! It only took the 8 kids 20 minutes to find all the eggs! Crazy!

We then enjoyed a wonderful ham dinner - thanks to Becki's mom for all her hard work!
It was a great afternoon with family & friends. We are truly blessed!

Another Year of Awana Completed

Our Awana year has come to a close. We are always sad to see it end, especially since it ends so "early" - usually the end of March. Matt & I get used to our built in date nights on Tuesday nights! The kids LOVE going to see their friends, say their verses & play games. It is such a wonderful program!

Maddie & Will finished their year strong - halfway through, I gave up on the goal of them finishing their book. We struggled through many verses, week after week...but God was faithful and surprised us all! One night the twins came home from Awana and it seemed like everything started to click for them! They double-timed it the next few months and finished their books with a month left to go! Thank you God! Here is Maddie receiving her 1st year book award. Will with his group - getting his award.
Alex finished her 3rd year as an Awana Sparkie - she will now be moving up to the T&T group. She doesn't seem old enough to do that yet!!! She's looking forward to the girls T&T sleepover - esp. after all the things Katie has told her!
Katie received her first trophy this year - last year she received a medallion. She did most of the book on her own this past year - with "gentle" reminders along the way (to work on Awana). She won "Clubber of the Month" early in the year - an achievement to be very proud of! She had a friend from school join her for much of the year - making the year extra special.
The kids all worked so hard this past year - what a special gift this will be in the years to come! I know that I have learned so many bible verses from working with the kids - I can only imagine how God will use them in the years to come in the hearts of my children!

Alex turns 8!

Our Alex turned 8 last week! I love that the kids are getting old enough to know what a day represents...and they can count how many days until their birthday, Christmas, vacation, etc. It makes life a little easier! Needless to say, Alex has been counting the days until her birthday for the past few weeks. She has been so excited!

She woke up on Friday to find streamers hanging from her bedroom doorframe. It was a fun way to start her day! After being at school all day, she came home (no homework Friday!) and got ready to go out for her birthday. Katie left to go to a concert with a friend while the twins spent the night with Becki's parents. Alex invited a friend to go with us to Incredible Pizza for the night. Once we ate, the girls were off - literally! I had to remind them numerous times to not run! They loved being together!On Sunday, we got together with Becki's family to celebrate Alex's birthday as well as Becki's mom's birthday and nephew Casey's #3 birthday. It was a beautiful afternoon and we really enjoyed our time together with family & friends.

Time to open presents!! Here is Alex showing off her new Barbie & furniture...
Here is Belle's new outfit!

She loves her new Lego Friends sets - Legos for girls!

Uncle Willy, Grandad & Grammy (Becki's parents)

Aunt Barb & Katie

Will, Maddie & Judah goofing off

Maddie's First Lost Tooth!

Maddie has had a very wiggly front tooth the past week. This was her first loose tooth and she was telling everyone about it!

While at Chick-fil-A last Friday - enjoying some ice cream - Maddie & I went to the bathroom to wash her hands. She was wiggling her tooth again so I asked if I could see it. It was hanging by threads! I told her if she pulled a little hard one more time, it would probably come out. She tried it and Yes! it came out!

Katie graciously volunteered a ziploc bag she had in her purse and Maddie excitedly showed a lot of the Chick-fil-A workers her tooth! #2 will soon be added to the tooth fairy's collection! Maddie is on a roll!