"Parenting101" w/ Denise Lopez...

My dear friend, Denise Lopez, is the Director of Women's Ministry at The Church at BattleCreek where Brian & I both served at years ago in Tulsa, OK. Denise is such a WISE woman and an amazing wife & mother!! I so wish we were closer to their sweet family, because I just love being a "sponge" when I'm around her. She has been such an amazing mentor and friend to me over the past 4 1/2 years since we met when we first moved to Tulsa. She has four children who are all amazing!!
She wrote a GREAT blog entry the other day on parenting...some great tips, I just had to share her link with you guys! Check her blog out here.

**NEW ADDITION** ~ Hairbows!!

In my first attempt at trying to save money for decor for my kids bedrooms...that is where this business of mine originated from. Tonight, as I was thinking that McKenna needs some new hairbows, I started to think to myself...I have a TON of ribbon in the closet that I use for my wall hangings that would make up some cute hair bows....so I began tinkering around with some and here are a few pic's of the finished product from tonight....

"Zebra" ~ Size: Large

"Arkansas Razorbacks!" ~ Size: Large

"Multi-colored polkadots" ~ Size: Medium

"4th of July" ~ Size: Medium

"Cheetah" ~ Size: Small (infant)

If you ever are in need of a hairbow for your little princess... just send me an email, hangupsbyjennifer@gmail.com

**Two clips you can custom order along with your ribbon:

"French Clip"

"Alligator Clip"

Houston Children's Museum on Friday

For more pictures from our weekend with Brian's brothers family....click here

The Mills - All 8 of us...

This weekend we have had Brian's brother and his family in town to visit. We have had a blast and had a full weekend full of eating and swimming and a few other outings here in Houston/Katy...lots of laughs and the kids had a great time seeing eachother again for the first time since Christmas! Back when we lived in Arkansas we all lived in the same area and we saw eachother and got to spend a lot of time hanging out. Since we've moved our kids talk about their cousins everyday! Have a great Memorial day & enjoy spending it w/ family! :)

We took lots of pic's this weekend...I'll post some later...

Prayer...

Sending up a prayer today for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family... They lost their 5 year old little girl, Maria Sue, yesterday afternoon at their family's home in Franklin, TN.

Read the article found on this page...

"Maria Sue Chapman, adopted and youngest daughter to Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman, was killed Wednesday night in a tragic accident in the family driveway on Wednesday evening. She was LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital but for only reasons God can explain she went home to Him... not to Franklin as we all so desperately wanted. Your prayers are needed for all in the Chapman family. This is a family who has so generously loved and given to so many. Just hours before this close knit family was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman's completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago. These words are unthinkable to type. And yet we trust in a God who was not surprised by this and because of Jesus I am certain through faith in Him we will see Maria again."

As a mother, this is one of my greatest fears...my heart goes out to SCC and his wife, Mary Beth, as their are mourning the loss of their precious daughter. Please join me in praying for this sweet family that has touched so many of our lives as they walk through such a tragedy!!

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

Corkboard for our "JUMP" director

I finished this corkboard today for a birthday gift for Sarah, (Director of the JUMP team here at our West Campus). Her friend, who I also did a corkboard for last month, ordered this for her for her b-day tomorrow. Happy Birthday Sarah!

JUMP is our worship service for children in the 1st-4th grade. It is AWESOME, so if you live here in the Houston area with children of any age...you have to visit Second Baptist!

Amazing programs for kids!

Mr & Miss Mischevious....

This is what I walked in to find going on in my laundry room

today while I was cleaning house! :)

~

What lil' stinkers!

McKenna's class singing...(& alot of yawning!)

McKenna's end of the year party!

Today was such a great time as McKenna and her class held their end of the year party at HisKids preschool! It was a lot of fun seeing them"perform" their songs they

sing each day with their teachers, for us parents.

McKenna has had two great teachers this year, Ms. Heather & Ms. Jen!

She has loved being a part of their class this year!

Parker loves bananas!

Here is a cute picture of my big boy eating a snack after

playing outside on Sunday afternoon!

I can't believe that he is 21 months!!!

Canvas for Jacob

Here is a picture of the 16x20 canvas I did for a customer of mine in Tulsa, OK. I did one for her son Jacob last year when I first started painting for his dinosaur theme room...but since then he has gotten new bedding and his mom wanted a new canvas for to go with his new space theme!

Here is a picture of his new bedding that I copied his canvas off of...

Cute picture from bathtime tonight...

I just had to share this picture of my sweet kiddos from tonight. We've had a full day with Mayfest this morning, naptime, then we went swimming at our pool that opened today, and Daddy ended the day grilling hamburgers for dinner!! What a fun family day!

I am SOOOO blessed!!

(Look how tan my son is....it's crazy - it's only the May 10th!!

And McKenna will kill me someday for posting this picture but I just had too!)

Mayfest 2008

Today was McKenna's special day at Westwood Gymnastics, "Mayfest 08" which is their version of the Olympics! What a fun morning we had as we watched our little gymnast go through each of the stations they had set up for parents to watch them "up-close" and see just what great progress they made this year. McKenna is just a natural...that's all there is to it! She is so great at the bars & the beam... I am really impressed with my lil' 3 year old!

She did so great! And she even won a gold medal!! ;o)

Way to go McKenna...Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you!

Here are some pictures from today...

The balance beam~

Her handstand...with some assistance ;o)

The bars...she can do it "all herself" (That's what she told her coach today!)

Receiving her "gold medal"!!

Family pic - Mayfest 2008!

McKenna & Parker - Mayfest 2008!

Even Parker had to attempt to do some of the stunts they had set up...
(with the help of his Daddy of course!)

Click here to view more pictures of Mayfest 2008!

Houston Astros game

The view from our great seats. Front row of the left field section!

Tuesday night, Brian and I went to dinner and the Astro's game with Steve & Benita Seelig who serve on staff at our Woodway campus here at Second Baptist. They are such a wonderful couple and we had a great time getting know them and enjoying the cool weather that evening at the Astro's game. The seats were fantastic and you had to pay attention, we had several balls hit our way several times!
~
Way to go Astro's!!
(They did win by the way...at the last minute and by 1 point!)

Happy 2nd b-day Andrew!

(Okay, so obviously I'm late on getting some things posted on my blog, so sorry!

I just dumped all the pictures off of my camera that I forgot were on there.)

Last Saturday, we went to Andrew's 2nd b-day party which was tractor themed with John Deere....SO cute! Parker and McKenna had a blast with all their friends and in the Bounce-Around castle in the backyard. It was such a gorgeous day for a fun b-day!

Gymnastics - "Mayfest" this Saturday

McKenna has been working very hard at gymnastics getting ready for "Mayfest" which is Westwood's version of the Olympics and kind of like a end of the year recital of all their progress from the year. Mayfest is this Saturday, so check back grandparents for new pictures from that!

McKenna has only been taking gymnastics since January but she is fantastic at it!!

Here are a few pic's from last weeks class...

McKenna ~ swimming lessons

Yesterday, like every Wednesday, is swim lessons for my two kiddos. Parker usually screams the entire part of his lesson but yesterday he did SO much better! I am so proud of him!!

McKenna was just a born swimmer! She does excellent in the water! Yesterday she pretty much was floating on her back without assistance kicking across the length of the pool! She did great!! Here are a few pic's of her and Ms. Nancy (who is fabulous with them by the way!). We love swimming!!

Cool website

http://poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf

This is a cool website that has a clock and based on the current stats of our culture today it calculates, the stats change with every second! It is very eye opening to just check it out for a second.

Youth Sunday

Yesterday was "Youth Sunday" at Second...it's a tradition every year when Dr. Young opens the pulpit (as well as the leading of the whole service) for the youth to stand up & lead. What a great day it was! Our Sr's did & great job leading, speaking, and Tyler did a great job in worship. For more stuff & pic's see Brian's blog...

Great job guys...you did a great job yesterday! I was so proud!!

Ty William...

Here is a picture I received by email this past week from my sister-in-law in Arkansas.

My nephew, Ty, is 4 years old and is a lil' T-ball stud! :)

Mckenna misses getting to see Ty as often as we use to when we all lived in the NWArkansas area...they are great buddies and she is counting down the days until they can play together again when they come visit us at the end of the month!