Scholarship!

I grabbed this photo of Joel right before he went to work so you could see our good news. Sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy. A big whoop and hollar was heard after he opened that letter. We couldn't wait to share. We're very proud of him!

Here's the letter:

Dear Joel,

Congratulations Joel, you have been chosen to receive the President's Scholarship from Ozark Christian College. Your past achievement and future goals for Christian service have been recognized and appreciated by others. The capability and commitment you have demonstrated are a great encouragement to us as we look forward to your coming as a student in the fall.

We are looking for students who love the Lord, His Word and the people for whom He died. There is a tremendous need in our day for dedicated and well-educated Christian leaders.

The President's Scholarship is awarded to you with great pleasure. It will supply $11,220.00 towards the cost of a four-year degree, or $15, 300 for a five-year degree.

Joel it will be a pleasure to have you as a student at OCC. If you have any questions about this scholarship please feel free to contact the Financial Aid Office.....

Yours in Christ,
Matt Proctor

President

That's our good news. Keep praying for an obedient heart in Ryan. I think we're seeing junk from the past and it's not fun.

Until the next grand adventure,

Yvonne and crew

p.s. I'm going to try and post the picture I had of Kayla on Prom night here.

A Quick Funny

Yesterday was a yardwork day. We got the kids to pick up all their toys in the backyard so Joel could mow. Then we sent them out front. Joel came in a bit later to get me because he wanted to show me something. I told him that if it was a critter that I didn't want to see it. He just smiled so I followed. What it ended up being was a bird's nest on top of one of the fence posts right by the house. It had four turquoise blue eggs in it.

So, of course we had to get the kids to give them a little nature lesson. Ryan was the first to go up on Joel's shoulders. "What do you see, bud?"

Ryan's eyes widened and lit up with excitement. "CANDY!" Out of the mouths of babes....

Still haven't gotten Kayla's other picture up. When I do it will be in that post so keep watching.

Until the next Grand Adventure,
Yvonne and crew

This and That and Catching Up

It seems like there's never enough hours in the day (and night in my case) to get stuff done. I'm way past due on updating you on our happenings so here's a brief picture update for you from the most recent and working backwards.

Yesterday Angie went to "Aunt" Stacy's house and helped her plant flowers. Stacy even got her her own gloves! Stacy told me that she did the whole pot by herself from start to finish. After that Ang was off to play with Stacy's dogs :0) Angie had an earth day project to do so this is what we decided would be fun for her. She loved it. The fun thing is that Angie brought the pot home to me! What a cool surprise!

If you're on the kids' facebook then you have probably seen Prom pictures already. I'm sad because I only got one of Kayla in her dress. She had a SUPER busy day and when she got home she had about 15 minutes to change. I ran her outside and took this picture and then the camera died. (oops, the picture disappeared again. I'll add it again later) No time to change the batteries. Thankfully I had gotten a picture of her hair that morning. She went at 6:30 to get it done. It lasted the whole day thanks to bobby pins and hair spray :0)

Kayla went with a bunch of girls from church. They all went out to eat at a nice restaurant and then after Prom went back to Becca Stout's house (a girl in their group). Becca is the sister of Joel's date, Rachael so both kids ended up at the same house which I was glad for. Larry the dad has been all three of the teens 6th grade Sunday School teacher.

Like I mentioned, Joel took Rachael Stout. I remember way back when we tried out at Oronogo on Spring Break back in 2000 that the Stouts took the kids to the YMCA while we had a meeting so the kids all have been friends for a long time. Joel and Rachael hang out in a big group of friends from church. They went as friends since neither is dating anyone right now. They had a great time. Rachael has a laugh that is catching so she's a lot of fun to be around.

They went to the tux shop together so Rachael could help Joel match her dress and the shop suggested that if she didn't mind (which she didn't) they could use her shawl to make a tie and handkerchief for Joel's tux so they actually matched exactly. They looked sharp :0)

You probably got a notice on my "oops" post. I accidentally hit the wrong button when I was uploading pictures to get ready to post. Kayla has a little girl in her two year olds Sunday school class that she loves. This little one lost her mommy in a car accident this past year so it has especially touched Kayla's heart. Kayla had an art project to do so she took a picture of her and painted it on canvas with her hands. She did not have a brown paint color so she mixed her own brown. The only thing done with a brush at all is the eyebrows, eyelashes and the pupils of the eyes. I just know Grandma McQuistan is smiling from heaven because there's another artist in the family. I just look at her work and am in awe that anyone could do that kind of art.

I don't know if you can tell by the photo, but this is a fairly large canvas. I'm anxious to see what kind of a grade she will get. Her teacher already entered one of her drawings with colored pencil in a contest and she got second place with that.

Please be praying for Ryan. He's going through some REALLY rebellious times right now and we're trying to find the consequence that really gets him. He's so laid back that it's hard to find what works.

I just realized that I didn't do "Gotcha Day" photos so that will have to wait for another post. I've got to get ready for work :0)

Until the Next Grand Adventure,

Yvonne and crew

A Great Day

Today was a great picture taking day...lots to blog about.

As one of Kayla's high school courses she is working with a lower grade school art teacher and learning how to teach...kind of like student teaching. One of the requirements is that she turn in a scrapbook of her experiences so today Jim met her there and took pictures of her with the class. She's going to be a great teacher in whatever field she goes into.

Tonight there was an exhibition of winter guards and drumlines from Joplin and Webb City that we went to. Ryan loved the drums. His little hands were going along with the drummers. Angie of course loved the color guard. It's extremely hard to get good pictures because of the gym lighting, but we have a couple.

Noelle's guard did a performance to "What Kind of World Do You Want?" and it's actually on video that you can see it. Scroll down to the bottom of this blog to watch it. Every time someone views their video a donation is made to Fisher House which houses military families that need to see their loved ones in time of crisis. It's shot from far away, but Noelle is the first one that moves when it comes up. She also has the longest hair in the group.

Kayla's guard does a very cute and impressive routine to the song "Walking in Memphis". It's filled with fun elements and difficult tosses. I wish I had it on video for you because it's so fun to watch.

Anyway, that's our day. Tomorrow is another photo op day since it's Prom. Joel is taking a very sweet girl from church named Rachael. Kayla is going with a bunch of girls. Not only does Kayla have Prom tomorrow, she also has a flute solo to perform for competition and final competition for color guard. She's going to drop at the end of it, but what fun memories.

We love you guys,

Yvonne and crew

Wow! Where does the time go?

I keep meaning to post pictures of Sea World and birthdays and whatever else we're doing and it seems like every morning I've been hitting the ground running.

Sea World was very fun. It was a great mix of rides, animals and shows. There weren't too many shows that you couldn't see them all and they were such high quality that you did want to see them.

Of course the first one we had to see was Shamu. Jim had bought us rain ponchos because of course he wanted to sit in the splash zone. Everyone but Joel had something over them. I don't know if he just didn't want anything or what. He and Ryan were hanging out and being tough guys without the rain gear. Well, before the show even started Joel all of a sudden whipped Ryan way above his head and said, "You and me are NOT FRIENDS!!!" Ryan had wet his pants while sitting on Joel's lap! He was wishing that he had a poncho on at that point :0( He was such a good sport about it though and in Ryan's defense he only had two accidents all week and that just happened to be one of them.

Backtracking through the month a little...Angie turned 7 years old and had some friends over to help her celebrate. We found a motel in Carthage that rents out their pool so we had the place to ourselves for most of the time.

Kayla turned 17 this week. She's such a young lady. We are just so proud of her. Her celebration was small...just us...because both her schedule and the rest of the family's are packed. We celebrated with a meal of her favorites...salad, grilled chicken, baked potatoes (ok well that's a favorite of the rest of us since she's very health conscience) and angel food cake with strawberries and whip cream. She tosses the health food thing out the window when it comes to cool whip!

Noelle was honored with some other kids in her school for academics. She scored above average on her MAP testing last year. Also, each teacher nominated a student of theirs for a good citizenship award and one of her teachers presented her with that award. Here's what part of the letter from him said, "You have demonstrated outstanding citizenship through your positive attitude, outstanding work ethic, and excellent behavior, not to mention your surprising acting abilities (she's so quiet in class so he was surprised when he saw her sing and act in Wizard).

We are coming up on "Gotcha' Day" on April 10th which will mark one year since we adopted the kids. Of course they've been in our hearts a lot longer than that. We'll make sure to share pictures. Angie is very excited about that day :0)

We love you all!

Until the next Grand Adventure,

Yvonne and crew