Celebrating Adah Resilia

This is a post with (most of) my favorite photos of our Adah Resilia. I think about her first mama every year on her birthday and wish she could see the beautiful girl Adah has grown into. Thank you, Resilia, for bringing Adah into this world.

What you should know about Adah:
- Her eyes are drop-dead gorgeous
- She can be sillier than ANY of the kids
- She is the quietest of all the kids
- She loves babies and begs me to have another about once a week
- She has a strong sense of right and wrong and wants to see justice done in the house
- She can pout like nobody's business, but she is trying so hard to curb that
- Math will never be her favorite subject, but she is delighted to see the fruit of her hard work when she is diligent
- She doesn't like to kiss anybody on the lips, so she doesn't think she's ever going to get married :)
- Her theme song is "I'm a Survivor"
- She is growing in the knowledge of the Lord and she is interested in the things of the Lord
- She is forgetful, which she gets from me :)
- She is loving and she is loved

Thank you, Lord, for Adah!! Happy Birthday, Adah Tomata!

The Girls' Project

Daniel's mom had a project for the girls when they arrived. She sketched out the design for the hex sign she planned to hang on their pole barn, and the girls were to paint the design. It looks like they did a great job!(What's up with Cora looking like a teenager? That is not okay with me. :) )

More Redneck Shots

Daniel and Jackson camped out on our land this week, and Jackson certainly enjoyed the fire. It was about 20 degrees that night!! Brr. The girls stayed in the nice warm house and enjoyed movie night.

That's my boy on his first hunt. He hasn't gotten anything yet, but it's not for lack of trying. Daniel says he's very patient and quiet, even though it's COLD.

In Which We Are Now Officially Rednecks

Yes, that's SHILOH with her first buck. I didn't even know she planned on going hunting with Daniel. Apparently, she actually volunteered. Where did I go so wrong that my girl would voluntarily choose sitting outside in the cold in order to shoot a deer over watching a movie and eating ice cream?

All kidding aside, Daniel is one proud daddy tonight. :)

Celebrating Early and a Sisters' Slumber Party

Because Cora and Adah would not be together for their birthday and they REALLY wanted to celebrate together somehow, we decided to have an impromptu party the Friday before they left to go to Tennessee and Ohio respectively. All four girls went ice skating together, and then we returned home to have cake and ice cream with Daniel before he had to go to a Cub Scout leader's meeting. Cora will have a cake at Daniel's parents' house while she's there, so Adah got to choose a cake. She chose carrot cake with mocha cheesecake ice cream. (What is it with my children and their weird combinations? Remember Abigail's red velvet cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream??) Cora just wanted some little brownie bites from Kroger so she could blow out a candle. We had our small celebration and THEN had dinner - pizza. Boy, I was setting new records for lack of nutrition that night. And it gets better! Scroll down and you'll see what was on the menu for the sisters' slumber party that night. They took their pizza downstairs to the guest room along with some Sprite and popcorn. It's amazing they didn't get sick. :) They played around and watched "Sense and Sensibility." That's really all I know about the slumber party. I went to bed. :) We didn't open any presents yet, so the birthday celebrations will continue once Adah arrives home. Cora has to pick out her present since it's a...rat. Yeah. I know. I'm a little crazy in the head for agreeing to this. Kittens haven't worked out too well for us, so we're trying this. I have made it very clear that I AM NEVER TOUCHING IT.

Okay, on with the pictures:

Abigail REALLY, REALLY wanted to eat those sugar things on top, and then she was really sorry when she did. I tried to warn her.

What a feast!

Felicity was invited to the party, I guess.

Wherever Abigail goes, her stuffed dog Cupcake goes. She even used her own money to buy that dog a sparkly collar.

Abigail is trying to get the very last dregs of popcorn. :) (I didn't take these pictures - Shiloh and Cora documented it for me since I wasn't invited.)

Cora and Adah are playing with the birthday balloons down in the basement.

Cross-Country Race

At the end of October, Shiloh, Adah, and Abigail ran in a local private school's all-comers cross-country meet. The course was a mile and a half. Last year, Greene County Homeschoolers had an official team with a coach, but this year they practiced on their own and had just enough runners to make a "team" once we got to the race. The girls' focus this fall has been soccer, so our running practices weren't as rigorous as they could have been. Regardless, the girls did really well in my eyes. They ran smart, keeping it smooth and steady instead of going out hard and then crashing and burning halfway through the race. All three of them finished strong, and Adah and Abigail were running against 10-14 year-olds. Shiloh placed second among the girls and 14th overall. Adah finished in front of Abigail in 33rd place and Abigail was 39th. Abigail decided to run the Turkey Trot with us after this race, so she's preparing now for a 5K. Shiloh will also run the 5K, but she'll have to push herself if she wants a better time than Abigail and I will run. :)Daniel has started running again, but he's not sure he'll get up to their pace from last year!