Gymnastics Team

Sam's gymnastics team - Coach Spencer, with Mason, Sam, Josh and Nate. What a great crew!

Big Friends

Over the years I have prayed for older friends for our children to have in their lives. The Lord has so gracious provided that in abundance for us. We have two particular families in our lives that love our children in such special ways. They truly feel like family.

Over the Christmas break, two of those friends came home from being away for the semester, came over and spent an extended period of time with our children. I sometimes wonder if those kids know how deeply they are impacting my children's lives. But, in a way, I think they do. I'm fairly certain that their parents prayed the same prayers for them, they saw God provide and now they are loving our kids out of the overflow of their hearts. God is so faithful!

Pictures for Friends

Some of my best friends asked me if I could take some photos of them the day they found out the gender of their baby. I jumped at the opportunity. It just so happened that the grandparents were in town and I could sneak away for a couple of hours and head up to the most beautiful place in Charlottesville, Carter's Mountain. I had such a lovely time celebrating this miracle they have been entrusted with.

And then they thanked me with these puppies below!!! Amazing! I tried to horde them all to myself, but wasn't successful. I caved and shared due to a major sugar overload. That special cupcake in the back right is the famous lemon drop cupcake, which is supposedly responsible for putting around 200 women into labor. Me being one of them!

I could definitely get use to this... taking pictures for cupcakes? Yes, please!

Early October Happenings

One last visit with Miss Rachie before she heads up to Canada for a few months.

Samuel is now addicted to climbing trees. Thankful we have a good one he can do this in:

After we do our math lesson for the day I let them play with any manipulatives they would like. So in light of his recent obsession, Samuel made this:

 

My very helpful bakers. I think Joseph is just about to the point where he could bake bread for us w/o help. Very exciting for me!

Camping With Miss Kim

Trip to Sloans

We went for our 2nd annual trip to North Carolina to visit with the Sloans. We had a lovely time once again. Not only do I love Jennifer, but our children all love one another. It's the icing on the cake to a very special friendship.

We have done SO much traveling this summer. My little road buddies are such troopers.

Joseph snapped this picture while we were driving home. Such an angel from heaven.

Park with Kim

Root Beer Float Day

We had another Root Beer Float Day with Miss Kim. We're not sure if we did one last year or not, so most likely this was Annabelle's first root beer float. She quickly fell in love with the tradition. We love summertime, because it means more time with Miss Kim!

Lots to Celebrate!

In typical Eckert fashion we're celebrating again. This time Father's Day and Miss Kim's birthday. After church we went on a picnic and to swim at Walnut Creek Park to celebrate these two very special people!

And since we'll be gone on Annabelle's birthday, Rachel brought her birthday gifts to church. She got her a plate, cup, bowl, coloring book and bag all of Hello Kitty stuff, which Annabelle so affectionately calls "Hello Catty" or "Missy Catty". She loves it all! She has worn it on her shoulder almost the entire day. Here she is eating dinner with it on. Haha!

Weekend With Maddy

While Andy and I (and Rosemary) went to the homeschool conference in Richmond, our very sweet friend, Maddy, stayed with the big kids. She is such a blessing. She loves our kids so much and does such an amazing job with them. They adore her. She packed the weekend with fun activities - farmers market, splash park, bike riding, playground, tea party, you name it, they probably did it. She even took Samuel to his first awards ceremony for gymnastics where he got a trophy.

 

While they were home having a blast we were hanging out with 14,000 of our closest friends having our own kind of fun - filling our brains full of homeschooling information. We heard from so many speakers and browsed so much material my brain is still trying to process it all.

In most circles, I feel like the odd ball out, but I feel right at home among these families. Remarkably, it is the only place I've ever been where I use the words "only 4 children" as I'm describing our family. Homeschoolers sure do know how to raise large families. And most of them do it so beautifully.

It was such an encouraging weekend. It is sure to get us through another year until we go back for more!

Blueberries and Swimming

After a full morning of blueberry picking, we went to the Dumaresq's home for some swimming and a picnic. The pool was only halfway filled up, so it was perfect for the kids.

You can really tell how much Annabelle has grown. This bathing suit was hers from last year. All her ones this year were dirty.

Annabelle's Earrings

Annabelle and Kim have the sweetest relationship. She calls Kim Grasshopper and Kim calls her Ladybug. Kim was over one night, and while we were doing our nighttime routine with the kids Annabelle asked her to make her some earrings. Annabelle felt like such a big girl. It was precious.



 

Our Very Own Magic Show

Our dear friend, Kim, had some family visiting from out of town. Her brother-in-law is a magician and he brought some of his props to town. We packed our living room full of kids and he did a show for us. It was perfection. He was so thoughtful that each act was age appropriate. Example - he held off doing his swallowing a quarter act so that the kids wouldn't try to imitate it at home.

But what made it so meaningful is that he is a Christian. He uses this talent as a ministering opportunity to share the good news with others! How he incorporated the gospel into his act was so encouraging. It was such a good lesson to our family. We can use each and every gift God has given us and use it for His glory and to bless others. It might take some creativity, but it can be done.

Thanks again, Mr. Wayne! You blessed us!

Old Friends

Some close friends who moved away came to town for a visit. It is always wonderful when we can get our gangs together. The number of kids has dramatically increased over the years and so has the fun! Look at these precious treasures! Such a blessing to have friends who have been around for so long.

MomHeart Conference

Several moms from our church traveled down to Durham, NC to attend a Sally Clarkson conference. It was such a blast. The conference was so uplifting and encouraging. It was really fun to get away and spend such quality time with other like-minded mamas. We were close to a very dear friend of mine who lives in NC. Jennifer graciously drove the 40 minutes to come and see us so we could go out together for dinner during a break in the conference. She hadn't meet Rosemary yet so I was so delighted to introduce them to one another.

 

A bunch of women at the conference brought our nursing babies and while a handful of us were out in the lobby Sally Clarkson came over to say hello. She asked to get her picture with us. It was very cute.

I left that weekend with my cup so full. I am so blessed to have such sweet friends to live my life with and to share in all of the ups and downs we face in our many roles as women.

Mr. D.

My areas of ministry outside the home recently have been few. Part of me struggles with my lack of influence in my community. But, the majority of me realizes that this season is short, and that I am influencing my community in the best way I know how - to raise a godly generation that we will one day send out into the world to, as Andy calls it, "knock out the teeth of the wicked". We're raising up a generation of children who we pray will influence our world for the kingdom of heaven.

But, one thing that I can do as a mama to lots of kids is have people over to our house for dinner. If they are willing to put up with the chaos, of course. I'm already feeding lots of mouths, so adding more isn't all that big of a deal. Andy has a good friend at work that we have had over several times. The kiddos love him. This was his first time meeting Rosemary.

Rosemary's New Swing

Will she like it?

 

That my friends, is a "yes".

Hallelujah!

*Thanks to our sweet friends Eric and Jessica for letting us borrow it.

Daddy's Christmas Present

A wrestling mat. He's trying to convince me that it's for the whole family. Like here it's being used as a nice and cozy reading mat.



 

Sam wanted to stay off the mat to man the tape player since we were reading a new book on tape that we got from some friends for Christmas, but Daddy is confident that all of us can fit on there if we tried. Haha! It's amazing what makes this man happy.

Christmas Day 2012

I took one photo on Christmas, and this is it. So glad I was able to capture this precious picture. It will certainly be one to treasure forever.

Daddy got Annabelle a banjo for Christmas. She was so excited!

Joseph got a migraine on Christmas and started throwing up as we were getting out of the car for Christmas dinner. Andy ended up taking him home and caring for him while the rest of us stayed and ate. It was so sad. He ended up having the migraine for more than 2 days.

Our dear friend, Kim, joined us for Christmas dinner, which was such a special treat!