Olympics 2012

We had a blast watching the Olympics this year.  I've always enjoyed them, but this was the first year that our kids have been old enough to watch them with us, and that made them a lot more entertaining!  Madeline was especially enthralled with the Olympics, particularly gymnastics.  The first night she was asking us to build her a bar to swing on (aka the uneven bars) and was walking on the back of the couch for her balance beam routine.  Mike brought home a piece of wood he was needing to mount something with, and it quickly was turned into Maddie's balance beam instead, sending him back to Lowe's for another piece of wood.  Her balance beam, still sits in our basement even though the Olympics have been over for more than a week.

We tried a number of sports as a family throughout the weeks of the Olympics, soccer, volleyball, swimming, and diving. I hate I didn't get more footage, but below is some video I took of our kids try at gymnastics and track and field!

With everything we do as we family, we try to help our kids see what's happening n the world around them through the lens of Scripture.  The Olympics were no different. Watching the Olympics we of course saw people from all different nations, speaking all kinds of different languages,  which caused Madeline to ask a number of questions.  I think it was the first time she began to realize how BIG the world is, even though we have several people at church with different ethnicities and languages. So we used this as a valuable time to talk about the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and the origins of different languages and nations coming as God's judgement because of man's disobedience and wanting to do things on their own, apart from God. We talked a lot about how many of those nations don't have a Bible in their language, and many of the people have never heard the good news about Jesus.  We also talked about Revelation 5 and how God has promised to save people from all  nations and languages and will make all who trust in Christ into one Kingdom worshipping Him together.
Since Madeline has asked numerous times, if she can "do gymnastics like Gabby when I'm bigger."  I've told her it takes lots of hard work and sacrifice, so we will see :)  I also read during the Olympics a post on the Desiring God blog about Paul's reference to the Olympics in 1 Corinthians 9, and have been trying to encourage Madeline to "run" (or do flips in her case) for something far more precious than a gold medal, an eternity spent worshipping Christ!  If you want you can read the article here.

As much fun as the Olympics were, I'm glad to see it end.  We stayed up way too late, too many nights and I'm glad to be back in our normal routine.  We'll be anxiously awaiting Rio 2016, though by then it's hard to believe we will have a 8,7, and 5 year old!

Camp Hamilton 2012

Mid June Michael and another couple from church took some local inner city kids to a camp in Missouri called KAA.  It is a gospel centered, awesome camp that does fabulous ministry, and Michael and the kids had a blast!

Well while Mike was at camp the kids and I went down to Mississippi for a camp of our own... Camp Hamilton, as my sister, Erica directed.  She sent the kids agendas about at week before we left in the mail and they were so excited to spend two whole weeks at Marmie and Papa's house.  We also had a blast.  We swam everyday, went on "field trips", had awesome food, and got to spend lots of fun time with family and friends down there.  Below is a little video I put together of some of my favorite pics from our two weeks t here.  Thanks Papa, Marmie and Aunt E....Can't wait to come back next year!

Little Man turns 3!!!!!

Yes, this is exactly a month late, but I wanted to post some pics from our Little Man's birthday party.  I had it all planned out.  It was going to be the perfect day for Rivers.  It is not an understatement to say Rivers loves animals, so I thought it would be super fun to take him to Henry's Ark.  Its not your average petting zoo here in Louisville.  He would get to see zebras, buffalo, emus, etc. up close, and we would have a picnic complete with adorable lion cupcakes (which he had requested).  I had lunch packed up, the cupcakes finished, and all the kids in the car by 8:30.  We picked up Michael at the firehouse, stopped by McDonald's for a quick breakfast and were meeting his cousins and a neighbor at Henry's ark at 10:30.  We got there a little early.  As we drove up the kids could see the zebras and other animals off the road (they had been talking about this for weeks), we turn into the gates..... and they are SHUT with a sign that said closed on Mondays (It was a Monday).  Nowhere online had I found times, but knew friends had gone during the morning.  To say the kids were disappointed was an understatement.  Both of them broke down in tears.  Michael and I scrambled for a back up plan.  The zoo... no it was getting way too hot outside and we knew it would probably be crowded.  The only thing we could think of was the movies.  It's a treat for our kids to go to the theater, and I knew Madagascar 3 was showing... it had  animals, right?  So we took all 3 of our kids, including Gloria (during her morning nap, none the less) to the movies. Only the 3D one was showing so we thought that would be extra special since they had never seen a 3D movie.  Well, Rivers wouldn't even put on the glasses so poor guy watched a blurry movie the entire time!

We made it home, gave them naps, and concluded our festivities with Rivers favorite meal, hot dogs and mac n cheese.  I didn't mention we didn't get to eat the lion cupcakes because we passed them off to River's cousins so they wouldn't melt in the car during the movie.  Thankfully he forgot about them and we had chocolate cake instead that night.

It wasn't the birthday I had planned or had hoped for, but it was still a fun day celebrating the little guy I love so much!

It's no lion cupcake, but it was yummy!

He got a Woody to go with his Buzz

My little cowboy

Happy Birthday my Little Man!  I love you my rough, silly, moody, cuddly, rowdy, unpredictable, hard headed, courageous, melt my heart, son :) Still figuring you out, but you have brought me more laughter, joy, and gray hairs than I could have imagined these past 3 years! Thanks be to God for your life and letting me be your mommy!

Our girl turns 4!

May  19th was our sweet Big Girls 4th Birthday.  A few months before her birthday she started talking about having a birthday party with all of her friends, and decided she wanted a Garden themed party. If you know our girl, it's right up her ally.  She loves to dig, pick flowers, grow veggies (and eat them).  So that's what we did.  We celebrated at Brown's Park in St. Matthews, and the day was themed with garden-esq activities and treats :)  We had a scavenger hunt, our girls favorites... lots of veggies and fruit, dirt cake, and even planted some flowers to have the kids take home.  Mike even brought the old firetruck "Betsy" and gave the kids a ride around the park.  I think the adults might have had more fun with that than the kids did even!  Marmie and Papa even made the long trip from Mississippi to join us, and I don't know how we would have pulled it off with out them there!

 

Here's some of My favorite pics from the day!

Madeline anxiously waiting for the Party to start!

Some of her sweet friends from church

Getting ready to blow

She's LOVES her daddy

Taking a ride on Betsy

Planting flowers. This was the only thing she really wanted to do at her party with her friends , so we made it happen :)

With her planted flower

Her good friend Dallas

Some of the cousins

So thankful for this sweet girl's life!

Hubby's Birthday

 For hubby's 33rd birthday we decided to go to a Louisville Bats game to celebrate.  The opponents coach was Mike's favorite childhood Cub's player Ryne Sandberg.  Mike and Rivers got to go into the game early and get some autographs.  Rivers LOVED the baseball game and has pretty much been obsessed with baseball ever since. Mike's determined he's going to be a second baseman. It was definitely a fun day celebrating Mike's life.  I'm so grateful God has given me this man for a husband and such a wonderful father to our children!  Happy Birthday Babe!

Here's a video that day of Rivers asking for his own autographed baseball... He was so mesmerized watching the players. 

IMG_1166-1 from Mariah Frantz on Vimeo.

Baby Girl turns ONE!

We celebrated Gloria's birthday for two days really, because Mike was scheduled to work on her birthday and we couldn't get out of it.  That same day we also had a church picnic and a good bye party for Miss Lindsay, so it worked out well to have her birthday dinner the next day.  

The morning of her birthday Madeline and Rivers wrapped up some "presents" (some of their toys) to give to their baby sister.  It was pretty sweet to watch their generosity towards her.

 The birthday girl at the church picnic

 We took cupcakes up to the firehouse to celebrate with Mike that night.

 We love this precious girl so much!

 Spaghetti was the main course, one of our girls fans.  Here she is, one happy girl after digging into her cake!

 So thankful God has given us such a blessing.

 All cleaned up and opening her present.

Saying Goodbye to "Miss" Lindsay

Since January, a dear friend of mine, Lindsay, lived with us while she worked on raising support to go on staff with Revive our Hearts ministries, led by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Lindsay was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Louisville 7 years ago and has been a steady and faithful friend ever since. She was such a joy to have in our home and quickly just became one of the family. We all miss her so much and are so sad to see her go, but are really excited about what God has in store for her life with ROH. 

The whole Family

 She helped organize a sweet surprise birthday party for me with some of my close church friends.

 

We love you and Miss you, "Miss Lindsay"!