Our little kindergartner

Somehow we blinked and our little Lucy isnt little anymore.  She is now officially a kindergartner and we (mostly me and Anna Claire) hardly know how to handle it.  It helps us trememdously that she only goes til 12:20 each day.  She on the other hand is loving every.single.minute!  She has a sweet teacher who we love and lots of old and new sweet  friends in her class. 

Before school started we bought Lucy her own alarm clock..princess of course and she has amazed us!  As soon as the alarm hits 7:00 a.m. she pops out of bed on her own and is ready to go.  She has proven to be ready for kindergarten with loving homework, reading practice, new friends, and her new school.  We couldnt be more proud of her!

The school year has kept us busy with lots of fun activities.  A few weeks ago her school celebrated their tradition of Jr./Sr. Kindergarten Clown Parade. 

There were the cutest little clowns prancing all around and a really fun carnival with games, candy, popcorn, and cotton candy.

 It was all culminated with a parade around the campus and across the football field.  How cute are these little clowns?

Before Lucy's first birthday I began praying that the Lord would give me a verse to cling to and pray over her life.  I wanted to be able to share this blessing with our family and closest friends who would be at her  first birthday party.  I didn't want her party to be about fun and decorations but about this blessing He had given us for her life.  He was faithful to give me both a blessing and a promise for her.  Her birthday is Feb. 14 and on Feb. 13th in my One Year Bible these words stood out to me over and over:


Exodus 33: 12-17
 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ ¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
¹⁴ The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked,because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

and Exodus 34:5-9
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
⁸ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. ⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us.Although this is a stiff-necked  people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”


I prayed from that day on that His presence would go with her.  That it would be His presence that distinguished her from all the other people around her..not her outward appearance, not her friends, or her possessions but His presence.  I pray that He will be pleased with her and find favor with her.  I pray that mine and Micah's sin although repented of shall not follow her. I pray that she will share in His inheritance as His daughter. 

From her first birthday to her last breathe I pray that He will be with her and that she will walk in His rest.  And while I wish I could be with her at all times I can rest in knowing that He is and that brings such comfort.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Our Mid Year Review

I forewarned that this blogging thing was not my gift and after Christmas I had almost decided that I would be a one and done blogger until...the busyness of life constantly reminds me the days are long but the years truly are short.  Our little ones are changing almost daily and I feel so guilty that I am not doing a better job of recording it.  I have watched a precious little girl fight for her life at erikandkatekrull@blogspot.com and have been even more convinced that I need to enjoy and remember every moment God has given me with my own family. So here goes the Holton's Mid Year Review...

January was a fun month.  We spent alot of time at home which is what I love to do on cold days.

Angelica is the newest member of our family and she had a birthday!

 WE celebrated this sweet girls 21st birthday with lots of friends and lots of love.

 My friend Ashley helped get Angelica ready for her Winter Banquet.  Didnt she look beautiful?

February started good until my dad gave me the scare of my life.  I received a phone call after church on a Wednesday night which led us rushing him to the hospital at 10 p.m. because he was unable to breath.  He spent one full week in ICU and two weeks in a regular room receiving treatment for blood clots in his lungs, an infection in his right lung, and a slew of other medical issues.  Praise God that He heard our prayers and chose to heal my dad and give him strength to fight.  He suffers from COPD and after that three week hospital stay I am so proud to tell you that it has been 18 weeks since he has stopped smoking! This was such an answer to prayer because he has tried numerous times to stop with no success.  We give credit through Lucy's persistent prayers each and every night that Pawpaw would stop smoking and that God would give him the strength to stop.  God answered in so many ways and we are so grateful. 

During this time we squeezed in a BIG celebration of this sweet girl turning 5!!

I blinked and she is all grown up.  We had a "sorta sleepover" where her friends sorta slept over but were picked up at 9.  We did all things you would do during a sleepover in three short hours.

 We had pillow fights in our jammies

we had a slipper swap

 made head bands,

adopted a new sleeping friend

 ate teddy bear pancakes

 hit a pinata, and ended with cake and presents. 

It was a fun celebration.

March was a month of catching up and rejuvenation. Micah and I took our first trip away from the girls to the beach.  We spent alot of time on the beach tanning and reading.  We also ate lots of yummy fun and we actually had conversation while we ate:)  We missed our girls but my how we enjoyed quality time getting away together.  We hope it will be something we can do every year. I am still regretting that I didn't take my camera so we have no pics to look back at.

I did however have my camera handy for the annual tulips and cherry tree pics at the Botanic Garden. 
Here are a few:

We started April off by celebrating two years of blessing and exhaustion all bundled up in this little body. 

We had warm weather early so we celebrated Anna Claire turning two with a water slide and moon bounce party.  She loved every minute of it!!
 

 Anna Claire had lots of sweet friends and family come to celebrate.

In May Micah took us to our MOST FAVORITE place to vacation EVER and I watched my girls do what they love to do at the beach..play!!

Lucy is now able to walk to the second sand bar without the water measuring over her head and Anna Claire would have been content to be held and playing in the ocean for the entire day.

 Micah also did what he loves most which was play with both girls doing what ever they commanded.  (Have I mentioned that he truly is THE BEST DADDY??).  A few examples of what his vacation looked like were "battling" the waves with Lucy, watching for fish and even a baby shark, building sand castles, playing silly games made up while in the ocean, dancing like a prince with his two princesses, riding the bike for miles and miles to get yummy treats, etc. 

building a perfect sandcastle

playing on the Alys Beach playground

taking a walk on the beach

This was the first year that we let Lucy ride her bike along 30A and she loved every minute of it. 

Anna Claire had so much fun doing all the same things but as I was uploading my pics I noticed I captured alot of these moments:

not sure about the slide

stop with the pics mom

 a trip in the sand

mischief

no more pictures!

Can you tell that this girl has personality??

I sat one night after we put the girls to bed and flipped through old pictures on my phone and Facebook with tears streaming down my face as I was reminded of how fast Lucy is growing. 

With AC being so busy and keeping me on my toes all day I feel like I lose sight of the fact that they are both growing up so quickly.  And in a little over seven weeks Lucy will be starting kindergarten!!  How did that happen?  I'm not sure but what I am sure of is I want to savor every. single. moment. 

June has been fun so far with lots of swimming in our pool

with our newest and favorite friends from the Neighborhood School

and our cousins

learning to float

lots of popsicles outside, vacation bible school at our church

 a visit to see our favorite Dyersburg friends, Red Birds games

playing in the sprinkler

 Lucy's new best friend Callie joined in on the fun

working on our tan

 
and then the mundane things that comes with life. 

Whew, so thats the highlights of our year so far and hopefully I will do better in the future.  These guys are truly a gift from the Lord and I want to take captive every moment and recognize that every day, every minute I get to be apart of their lives is truly a blessing.