Tessa Turns 7!!!

Happy birthday to our Tessa Girl!! We have absolutely loved being Tessa's parents for the last 7 years. She is so spunky, fun, and full of life. She has always been very good at seeing the beauty all around her. 

Tessa has always been very generous and thoughtful too. She loves to make other people feel good. Her combination of love for life and love for people makes her a great friend.

Tessa loves ballet, stuffed animals, real animals, reading, and playing with friends. 

I found Tessa writing in a notebook the other day. She told me she wants that notebook to be her Gospel Journal. She was writing her testimony, and it was so precious.

We sure love love love our Tessa Girl!!

We did Tessa's friend birthday party on Saturday, so she could have plenty of time to spend with her friends. 

I took Tessa, Damon, Jacob, and Gunner to Hang Time. Kylee had a soccer game, so she joined us at our house afterward. They all loved these new slides.

Tessa and Jacob had a great time running around full speed the whole time. They were so cute to watch. 

I caught a picture of Jacob clapping for Tessa when she made a basket. :) He's a super funny kid and a really nice friend.

They would help each other out if the other one was having a hard time at all.

Gunner was getting hurt frequently, and we learned that he had a much better time in the kid area with Damon than trying to keep up with Tessa and Jacob. They had fun together in there.

Tessa had a great time on the obstacle course, zip line, ropes, and trampolines.

 

After Hang Time, we went back to our house for presents and brownies and ice cream. Tessa loved everything her friends gave her!

They were able to play for a while before the boys went home. Kylee stayed a while longer since she wasn't able to come to Hang Time. It was a super fun party for Tessa!

Paul took the day off of work on Tuesday and made crepes for breakfast. Tessa was so excited for her birthday, she was literally bouncing with excitement from 7:00 Monday night until she went to bed Tuesday night. She had a great day at school, and her teacher made her feel very special. When she got home from school she wanted to ride bikes, so we spent the afternoon doing that. We opened presents before going to Cafe Rio for dinner.

She wanted an ice cream cone from Macey's for dessert. 

It was a fun day celebrating Tessa and how much we all love her.

Life Lately

Paul and I have decided to sponsor a child through World Vision. There are two ways of getting matched with a child. You can either read through the small bios about their age and where they live, or you can submit your picture, and a child can choose you as their sponsor. I really really wanted a girl, so I thought I would choose. But after reading through the bios and realizing I could never choose only one of them, I decided to let a child choose us. :) We got an email that our picture was being sent to Bangladesh for a Choosing Day in a city called Hazaribugh. And then a few days later we got an email introducing us to Fahima, a 4-year-old girl who had chosen us to be her sponsors.

Isn't she adorable?!?! I love that she's the same age as Damon. We were able to watch a couple videos, one from Fahima, and one from her mom. They speak Bengali, so we couldn't understand anything except Fahima's name and "Bye!" But it was still so fun to see her. There was another video showing some of the reasons World Vision has chosen to help their community. They are working to protect children from malnutrition, disease, and violence. They are also working to help all children receive an education. I truly hope our monthly donation can help Fahima and all the children in Hazaribugh to be healthy and safe. 

When I was telling the kids about our decision to sponsor a child and showing them where Bangladesh is, we were talking about the second great commandment to love our neighbors. We were talking about how Heavenly Father loves everyone on the whole earth, and Damon said, "Ya Mom. It's like the song, We're all God's children, holding hands around the world." I was so impressed that Damon listens in primary :), and that he applied the words that he's learned in an appropriate conversation. I'm so grateful that my children have been born into a loving family, where they are safe, healthy, educated, and happy. We are so very blessed, and I'm grateful that we have more than we need and that there are Christian organizations like World Vision working to take care of all of God's children around the world.

Here is another picture of Fahima from earlier this year. :)

EJ graduated from Army Basic Combat Training at Fort Sill on Friday. His family were able to drive out there for it, and Mel sent us this picture of him. They got seats straight across the aisle from EJ! The graduation was live streamed, so we were able to watch it too. It was a beautiful ceremony. He is now Private First Class Earl Reives III. We are all so proud of him!!

Damon and I went to his field trip at Hee Haw Farms. He loved seeing animals, the big slides, and the tractor ride.

I helped in Tessa's class for their 50's Day, celebrating the 50th day of school. It was the day after Halloween, so not many kids dressed up this year. I was in charge of the limbo station, which was entertaining to watch. :) Tessa and Damon both loved getting root beer floats.

Paul and I went to Phantom at Hale Center Theatre Friday afternoon. We were so impressed with the staging there! The talent was amazing. It was a really fun date for us.

We met Marissa and Matt at Red Lobster after the show. We have a tradition of going for Endless Shrimp every fall with them. It was so fun to meet Asher and get to snuggle him. He is adorable!!

Rockwell and Flynn have created a comic called King Plum Bum. They come up with ideas together at school, and then Rockwell has written them down in 3 different stories. Flynn came over last weekend and they drew all their different characters that have or will appear in their comics. He is really into this, and is so proud of himself after he finishes each story. It's adorable.

 

Rockwell has drawn pictures all over this box this weekend. He joined the art club at school and is absolutely loving it. I feel like he's learning a lot there. I was really impressed with his pictures.

Halloween

This year we had a banana.

Jasmine.

A pirate.

And one of The Three Amigos.

I absolutely love how Paul, Todd, and Ryan's costumes turned out. They look so good!

Tessa got to dress up for ballet, but her Jasmine costume hadn't come yet, so she was Elsa instead.

I got to listen to Damon's preschool class sing their Halloween songs on Wednesday. They usually do this on Roxi's porch, but it was about 20 degrees that day, so she moved it inside.

Grandma Ham came down for the costume parade at Northridge, and Tessa's 1st grade program. It was adorable!

Grandpa Ham came down later that night for dinner and trick-or-treating. 

We were all so excited to have him join us. And it meant even more to us that he came, considering how cold it was that night!! Grandpa does not like the cold! Al, Keith, Wyatt and Hallee came and joined us too since Grandpa was here. The kids said it was their best Halloween ever. :)