Do you hear what I hear?

Some of these are songs that we sing in the Word, our children's ministry at church. I'll be adding more later. Enjoy!!

Randomnicity...

My sister, Denise, has tagged me to participate in a random challenge.



1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.

So, 6 random things about Me:


1. I wear glasses.
2. I have 3 children and 2 dogs.
3. I have 3 part-time jobs.
4. I'm named after nobody in my family.
5. I'm never without my cell phone (I wear it on a lanyard around my neck.)
6. I collect state quarters (I only have 6 left to complete the collection)

Well it took a while but there it is... :) My randomnicity...

Tag: Kari, Christi, Patrick, Shelia, Donna, Laura

Another Elizabeth Post

She's been one busy little girl. This is her cheering at the football game last week. She did a mini-cheer camp Saturday before last and they got to cheer at the game. This Saturday she is doing the same thing, only it will be with the drill team. I'm sure I'll have pics from it too.This is Elizabeth and Brooke, together again.

Go Bulldogs

When we started at McGregor 4 years ago, she would scream and cry if the Bulldog even looked at her. My, how she is growing up. (sob)

Our Little Twister

Elizabeth spent her birthday evening performing in her "Rockin' with the Oldies" program at school. Here she is doing the Twist. Once I get home, I will have a video of it.

Here she is with her best friend, Brookey. Aren't they adorable?

Grandmother and Papaw were able to join us for the evening, too.

New Sinks

Here are the pictures of our new bathroom sinks. Now we have hot and cold running water in BOTH bathrooms......YIPPEE!!!!

Melissa

Pictures from Baptism

Here are the backstage pictures I promised. Only 4 days late.

Elizabeth's Baptism

Here is how we spent our Sunday night at church. She giggled through the whole thing. Go figure. Tim's mom and dad were there and so was a couple from Westwood that we know well. See ya later.
Me
I'll have some still shots from "backstage" tomorrow.

Grace Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Grace Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family photos - Geneology

Grace Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Kitchen Pictures

Well, the cabinets are finally done. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished cabinets. All that is left to do now is have the countertops replaced, but that will have to be another time. Ignore the dishes on the counter. They are clean. :)

This is a curtain that we put on the island, both sides, to hide storage. The kitchen side will have plastic bowls in it.

This is the wall above the stove . I've hung some of my grandmother's plates up there. The cake pan will not stay. That is just temporary. The same thing on the other side above the fridge.

This plate is hanging over the sink.

Bitter, Sweet, Bitter Sunday

Bitter #1 - We woke up at 5am to be out of the house at 6am. That makes for a really looooong day. We drove to Dallas to go to church with Brian and Laura.
Sweet - We spent the best time at church with Brian and Laura. We enjoyed church so much. It was awesome. We got to see some amazing things that we want to bring into our children's worship time. We got to see another side of Brian. He lead the large group time for 2-4(?) year olds. He was so good with them. It didn't surprise me, but I was amazed. Then we all went out to lunch. I ate entirely too much. It was an awesome experience all in all. Thank you Brian and Laura for putting up with us. xoxoxo
Bitter #2 - After lunch we drove down to Mt. Lebanon to drop Patrick off at...........(sob!) youth camp. We got there and got him settled then went to Braum's for dinner. I was still full and happy from lunch, so I just had a shake. :) When we got back to camp, the cabin counselor was there and I met him. He seemed like a nice guy, and Patrick had already gotten into a game of Frisbee with the other guys, so I felt better about leaving him.
I just did some calculating and found out that the summer of 2014, will be the only year that all three will be there together. It will be Patrick's last year and Jacob's first year at Youth camp.
He'll be home Friday at 8:00pm.

News from Camp Gap

I've talked to the boys several time this week since they left for Camp Gap. They are having a great time. Apparently the zipline was not as thrilling to Patrick as it was 2 years ago. He got pretty shaken up by it according to dad. Tim said that he reached the top of the climbing wall and Patrick was within reach of it. They seem to be having a great time. I'm sure there will be more detail this weekend. We'll post videos on YouTube.
Me

The Graces on You Tube

Well, I've been putting it off, but I finally posted some videos to You Tube. Search for grace1217 and that will be me. There is one video I'm sure you've seen before from 2 years ago and then 2 of Elizabeth's Dance Recital this year. I'm going to try to get more up later.
Me

New List

Check out our new Summer Reading List on the right. These are the books floating around the Grace household right now. I've indicated whose read or reading each with a small letter after the item. I really love summer.

tim

Summer Fun

Hey, it's Tim. Our summer has been incredible!!! We had VBS last week with over 1000 in attendance and 63 decisions for Christ. One of those was our own little darling...Elizabeth! Melissa and I have been praying for Elizabeth for a while now specifically that God would move her to recognize her need for Jesus in her heart and life. We also felt that God was dealing with her from some of the questions she was asking lately. Kids sneak up on you with things. You never know when one of those life moments is going to blossom right in front of you.
We had just finished playing the kids out to "Untitled Hymn" by Chris Rice, when Melissa called my name and pointed to the second row. My mind was on playing so I didn't notice that Elizabeth had stayed in her seat. In our decision service the kids that want to make decisions or have questions stay while the other go to their classes.
There's a line in the song we were playing that reads,

...and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus...

I wanted to dance my heart out at that moment. My love for our Lord spilled over and the tears spilled out. We still have some counseling to do with her over her decision and the fullness of what it means. Because she is so young, pray that her sincerity is genuine.
As you may have picked up, our band played for VBS. Melissa sings and I play keyboards and sing. Our Youth minister and his assistant played guitar and bass along with our regular guitarist and drummer. We had a crowd of about 600 on family night. Probably the biggest crowd we've played for. Definitely a mountaintop experience for us.
This week Patrick and I went to band camp at Mary Hardin Baylor while Melissa, Elizabeth, and Jacob went to VBS at Westwood where my dad preaches. Fun times for everyone this week also.
Next week Patrick and I, along with 120 kids and counselors from our church, go to Camp Gap at Mt Lebanon.
I'll be shepherding kids and leading worship in our bible study time. Pray that we would all experience God's presence this week...that lives would be changed and kids come to Jesus...and that no one is seriously injured or gets lost or eaten by a rabid mutant kangaroo.

Two Posts in One Day......oh my

Elizabeth wanted to share her video with you......
She has the most stubborn teeth. If you look closely, you can see the new ones already in and the others haven't been out that long.

All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth.....she hates that song right now.

In the Mood for Summer Fun at the Pool

This is how we spent Friday afternoon. We had fun, but I forgot to put on sunscreen. It was crazy. We got there, I put sunscreen on the kids and sent them off to the pool and they had no more than dipped their toes in when the whistles starting blowing and the lifeguards were clearing the pool. There was a thunderstorm in the area. The inside pool was open, so we went indoors. While Tim watched the kids, I went and walked on the treadmill for about 20 minutes. As I was walking in the doors to the inside pool, they were clearing it out to run the clean up. By then the "storm" had passed, so the outside pool was open again. So we loaded up our gear and headed back outside. I finally was able to get in the pool, but with all the running around, Tim and I forgot sunscreen. I got pretty pink and sore. It's getting better.
Enjoy the movie.

Dance Recital 2008

Well, Dance Recital 2008 is behind us. Wanted to share some memories from t0night. Wish you could have all been here.

This is her ballet costume.










This is her Tap costume.

















This was Elizabeth's message to her audience during intermission.



This was Elizabeth's 5th year to Dance with Laurie's Stepping Out Studios. She got a trophy for it.

Jacob Grace up to bat

We had another good game tonight. I took some pics of Jacob with mother's new camera. He had a couple of really good hits tonight out past the infield. He's a good hitter, but outfield he tends to get bored and doesn't pay attention. We're working on that.
Check out this close play at home. He sure gave the pitcher a run for his money.

McGregor Youth Baseball 2008

Here is Jacob's t-ball schedule:

Saturday - 4/19 - 10:00am
Monday - 4/21 - ?????
Saturday - 4/26 - 12:00pm
Saturday - 5/3 - 10:00am
Thursday - 5/8 - 6:00pm
Monday - 5/19 - 7:00pm
Saturday - 5/31 - 10:00am
Monday - 6/2 - 6:00pm
Monday - 6/9 - 7:00pm
Thursday - 6/12 - 7:00pm

Jacob is #9 and loves playing. When he connects with the ball, he can really send it out there. He's catching better than ever. I'll try to get pictures at their first game on Saturday.
See ya
Me

Patrick 2

Hey there....if you're not a regular checker of Patrick's blog, be sure to check it out now. The link to it on the right under Family Sites, duh!! He has some pretty exciting news and would love to see some comments.
Me

Patrick

I've tried to get him to post his latest news, but he can't seem to get it done, so I will tell you. Last Monday, Patrick's science fair project made it to the Regional finals to be held tomorrow, 2/26. Don't ask me what it's about. All I know is that we bought some wire which he wrapped around some toilet paper rolls, then stuck a magnet inside and read a meter. Anyway, just be thinking of him tomorrow.
Later
Me

And the Tony goes to......

Patrick Grace..... It has just been announced that our own Patrick Ryan Grace will be playing the "lead" in the Children's Musical on May 4th...see post below. I'm very excited and very nervous. I know he can do it, but can't help worrying....that's the Tallant in me. Just wanted to share the good news....TTFN.

Dates to Remember

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on some important dates and reasons to come to Waco.

May 4 is our Children's Musical at church. This is a particular big event because it was written and directed by Tim Grace. As you may or may not know, Tim is the Children's Choir director at church and doing a phenomenal job at it. This year, he wrote the musical they are going to be doing, not the music, but the drama part of it. It's called JAM: New Kid on the Block. It's about a boy new to an inner-city neighborhood and he meets up with some kids who do "Stomp"-like music and they witness to him and he gets saved and goes out and witnesses to a bully and he becomes saved. He's done a great job and I'm very proud of him. Patrick and Elizabeth with be preforming in it.

May 31 - This will be the date for Elizabeth's dance recital. This will unfortunately be her last one with Miss Laurie. We are very sad about it, but she's to the stage where it's getting too expensive. This year we had to buy 2 costumes and if we stick with it, it will be 3 next year at $60-$70 each. There is a studio in McGregor that I think we are going to look into. It's cheaper and her costumes don't cost as much.

Come on down and join us for both or either of these dates. All is welcome. We have plenty of floor space for sleeping. : )

Hi there

Well, after a week and a half, I THINK we are on the mend. Tim's having good days and bad days. He was fine yesterday, and feeling icky this morning. I haven't talked to him since this morning.
Patrick is the same way. Sometimes feeling better than other times.
Elizabeth has not had a reflux pill or any stomach problems in 3 days. YEA!!
Jacob never had any problems.
I'm doing fine.
The kids are back in school and I'm back at work and other than the illnesses, all is right with our world.
It's been really nice having the van back. The only problem is that the hatch won't stay open in the back. It was working fine the day of the accident. I know this because I had it open cleaning it out before it was sent off to the shop. When we got it back, the shocks weren't holding it up. I took it back to them yesterday and basically they said that they were worn out and it would be $80+ to replace them. That's parts only, no labor. I don't know that they did anything to them, but I find it suspicous(sp?) that they stopped working while the van was in their care. She even admitted to me that they used the back to store parts, so I know they were back there. I'll try to get a picture of a before and after up, but you know how long it takes me to get pics up.....forever....if ever.
Well, guess I had better get back to work.
Love ya
Me