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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Grandparent Updates

It has been a while since I really did an update about our family and all that is going on and boy is there plenty going on!  The Fall time of the year seems to get really busy.  From now through the first of the year is nonstop.

I'll start with the big folks.  

There are lots of things going on at church, so that keeps Mike pretty busy.  He is working hard along with the choir on "From a Blue Christmas to a True Christmas", a Christmas program involving songs Mike has put together and drama written by another gentleman in our church.  I think it is going to be a different kind of Christmas musical, but a message that is much needed.  I hope to be able to get a video of it to post here some time in December after it is presented for you all to enjoy.
Mike is also working with the youth on Wednesday nights and is involved in the Senior Adult Gatherings.  He also does alot of visiting.  Seems as if he has fielded several calls lately from people interested in finding a church home, so he will have alot of those to follow up on.  And of course he leads worship each Sunday and occasionally teaches a New Member's Class and will fill in for a Sunday School teacher when needed.

I stay at home each day with Bentley and JennaBeth.  Enough said!  No really, I love it, but my days are FULL.  It seems like I get up in the morning and turn around and its bedtime.  We get Cecily off to school at 7:15 a.m. and the little peeps usually get up about 8:30 a.m.  On Thursday mornings, Bentley, JennaBeth and myself have a morning out in South Fort Myers to Southside Christian Church.  Bentley and JennaBeth both have classes they go to and I am able to attend a Bible Study with a sweet group of ladies for a couple of hours, usually 10 to 12 a.m.  Presently we are studying James MacDonald's "Downpour".  It will end before Christmas and then in January we will be doing Beth Moore's revised "Breaking Free" study.  I've done the original one and it was powerful.  I can't wait to go through this one!

Now an update on all my little peeps:

Cecily is thoroughly in the trenches of Middle School.  And can I say I don't like Middle School very well!  Kids are really cruel to one another.  She has had to deal with a couple of incidences that just make mama bear want to roar right on some little guys heads.  Yes I said guys!  It seems the new trend is for these little punks to want to pick on the girls!  I could rant on forever, but I won't.
Cecily is in all Advanced classes and she stays in the books alot!  Staying on this track, she will be able to work on some high school credits in 8th grade and have them completed when she leaves Middle School.  Her electives are Computer Applications, Drama, and Keyboard.  She really enjoys her drama teacher.  Cecily has a monologue she is doing Thursday and is a little nervous.  So you guys say an extra prayer for her!
We are really surprised at how she has really gotten excited about Keyboard.  She has never been interested in piano lessons before and we have not pushed them on her.  However, Cecily is doing really well in this class.  She also has a science project due in her Advanced Science class.  She and Mike are putting together a Chrystal Radio.  I have helped her with science projects in the past and I am so relieved to hand this one over to her dad and just be the photographer for the project.  And speaking of photographs, I don't have one single one of Cecily to post! Not a recent one anyway.  She stays so busy and isn't crazy about pictures anyway.
One last thing, Cecily will be 12 in December!  I feel so old saying that...12, I can hardly believe it!  She is in the youth group and choir at church.  Moving on before the tears start flowing...

Bentley is still going full speed ahead!  He is into transformers and his trains and race cars.  He is really the sweetest thing most of the time, I think.  No, he really is.  He is just 100% boy.  I don't think there is a drop of estrogen in his little body!
He has officially graduated from the nursery at church :(.  This past Sunday, was his first Sunday to come out in big church with me for the song portion of the worship service before going back into Children's Church.

Thankfully, the couple that teaches him in Sunday School have Children's Church this month, so it wasn't so different for him.
 

This was him when I went to pick him up after church.  They had learned about the story of the talents in the Bible and Bentley had doubled his!  He was working on this picture...

The verse at the bottom is Colossians 3:23.  The version we are working on him memorizing is "Do everything you do for God not for men."  That's a shortened version easier for him to understand right now.
He got a New Orleans Saints football uniform for his birthday back in September.  This past Saturday, he and his dad had a football game in the back yard... so without further ado.... meet the newest recruit for the New Orleans Saints....number 9... replacing Drew Breese....Bentley Terrell McIlwain!




Sweaty head after the game...


JennaBeth is growing every day!!  We just noticed yesterday that it looks as if her hair is turning strawberry blonde!  We affectionately refer to her as the "Princess Beast", because she growls at you now, and guess who taught her that?  She is very verbal these days!  In certain lights her hair looks really red almost.  We go some of these this past weekend...

and can I tell you she knew EXACTLY what they were for...
 

 
She has been a very good eater from the beginning.  She was the best at breastfeeding and knew exactly what the spoon was all about when we started solids.  Not sure how this puff made it to the forehead...
 

We have also begun letting her experiment with the sippy cup some...
 

She just can't quite get the hang of the handles and thinks she can do it with no hands!

We plan on going to the Island Coast homecoming game this weekend, so I'll have plenty of pictures from that next week.  And yes, I will make sure I get some of Cecily, whether she likes it or not!!!


Counting it all Joy,
Jennifer

 

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