2 posts in one day?

I know, I know...it's crazy! I usually can't get two posts in a week! But I thought I'd add some pics from our Meet the Team party with the Predators. It was such a crazy night but we had a good time.

The Blog Fairy...

...has struck again! I asked Verna to give us an updated look for our blog. Now we have an great new look and we are able to help out our friends the Shockleys! And Verna added the hockey background which is perfect for our family!!! Thanks V!

Family Guy-Annoying Stewie

I don't watch family guy but a friend of Aaron's showed this to him and it's so funny! This is soooo much like Aaron! He used to do this exact thing when he was little all the time. Make sure you pause my music at the bottom!

The Shockley's

Pam & Greg are friends of ours that we meet through our adoption agency when we were in the process of adopting Sarah and they were adopting Hannah. They are now in the process of adopting Shockley kiddo #2 - Ethan. They are trying to raise funds for their trip to China to get their little boy. A friend from their 1st travel group does an awesome job of designing templates for blogs and has offered to do a fundraiser for the Shockley's. It's really easy - just contact Verna HERE. She will get all the info from you and create an awesome new look for your blog. Then all you have to do is mail your donation directly to the Shockely's.

You will get a fresh new look for your blog and more importantly, help bring this sweet little boy home to his forever family. Click HERE if you would like to read about the Shockley's journey.

Just a few things

We had a crazy weekend (I know you all are surprised!). Jared and Kelsey both had a cross country meets and they both did very well. Aaron had 2 inline hockey games and he scored a hat trick in the 1st game (3 goals in one game) and scored 1 goal plus an assist in the 2nd game. Yes, we've officially lost our minds and let the boy play travel ice hockey AND rec inline hockey. What were we thinking?!? =] I've include just a few pics from this past weekend.

We are really looking forward to this comingweekend b/c we are packing up the suburban, hitching the camper on and taking off for a weekend away. We will be camping in Ky. with John's family which will be great b/c we don't get to see them very often. Also, I think the weather will be perfect for camping!

Happy Monday

Favorite Photo Friday

26 Days until Preds Opening Night!!!!

Okay, so most of you are gonna think I'm a dork but our Predators Season Tickets showed up today! WOO HOO!!!! I'm so excited and I can't wait for the season to start! =]

Organized Chaos

That pretty much sums up life around the Phillips household! :) I have really struggled lately with everything going on and figuring out who needs to be where and when. Hopefully we will get in a routine soon!

This past weekend Aaron had an ice hockey tournament in Atlanta and his team came in 2nd place in their division! Which is awesome considering the team only practiced twice together before this tournament. Jared had a XC (cross country) meet last Thursday. He did an awesome job-5th place in his division and we think, the only freshman in the top 10! Kelsey had a XC meet this past Tuesday and came in 16th out of 100 or so girls. And poor Sarah...we just drag her along to every practice, meet, game and tournament. But she has been a trooper and doesn't really complain about going.

Here are some pictures of my athletes. Maybe I can I get a picture of my "big kid" playing softball sometime soon!

Kelsey (on the right)

Aaron #22

Jared (in blue)

My Oldest

I will apologize ahead of time for the length of this post but it is so cool!

Jared is pretty much like your average 14 year old. He likes to hang out with his friends, listen to his iPod, talk/txt on his cell phone, MySpace and tends to roll his eyes from time to time. But he continues to amaze me how well he is handling this rollercoaster ride called "teenager". He is 2 weeks into his freshman year of high school and seems to have a handle on balancing his heavy load of school work, his intense love and commitment to cross country and, sometimes unsettling to me, a girlfriend. But over the last 2 weeks I've noticed something different about him. He has a new desire to follow Christ and lead by example. He has started a weekly blog on his MySpace completely dedicated to Christ, the bible and teaching his friends more about both. Below is this weeks' blog. It's a little long but I am amazed at his boldness and desire to share the love of God with his friends. I am so blessed and proud to be his mom!

Here is his blog for this week:

Being a Christian 101: Week 1
Hey guys. For the next four weeks, we will be starting a new series called "Being a Christian 101", which includes what being a Christian means, how to become one, and what rewards you will reap when you become one. And also, you'll need a Bible if you're following along.
Being a Christian 101 – The Background of Sin and What a Sin Is.
First, if you are serious about becoming a Christian, you need to learn sin's background and how sin came about. I will be reading a passage from Genesis 3 (this is the part where you'll need you're Bible) If you don't have one, it's OK. Just follow along
Genesis 3:1-5
(1) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
(2) The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, (3) but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
(4) "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. (5) For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
This is the first ever temptation in the history of humankind. God told Adam and Eve to stay away from this tree, and the serpent comes in and tempts them to eat this fruit. Sure enough, their eyes were opened, and they had committed the first ever sin. See, God gave them a command, and they disobeyed it, which is what a sin is. The world was perfect before they sinned and after, they brought sin into the perfect world. If they had obeyed God in the first place, we would be living in a perfect world right now. After they had disobeyed God, he punished them (including the serpent) and banished Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Basically, Adam and Eve lead the way for all of us

Let's skip to Exodus 20:3-17, which is the Ten Commandments.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. There fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

These are the main layouts of sin. Of course there are thousands of sins to commit, but they all stem from the Ten Commandments. There will be a series on the Ten Commandments later, but for right now, my message is over. Have a good week, and God bless you.


Next week: God's Love and "The Good Shepard"

My First Day School & More

I have to say it was weird being back at college. And I was definitely the oldest person in my A&P lab but I think there was one other lady about my age in my lecture. But I didn't feel as awkward as I thought I would. For the most part, my first day went smoothly with just a few minor glitches.

Those of you who see me on a daily basis already know how crazy our life is. But for my friends in bloggerland I thought I would share a typical week in our household. :) I am in no way trying to "outdo" my blogging friends in any way. But I noticed that the theme for the week was back to school and our schedules. Just know that you all are not alone in the chaos!

Here's a rundown of our week:
4 kids in 3 different schools
7 cross country practices
3-5 soccer practices
1 (soon to be 2) ice hockey practices
2 soccer games
2-4 cross country meets
class for me - 3 times a week plus a 3 hr. lab once a week
2 softball games (my big kid)
and most weekends are full with either cross country meets, soccer games or travelling for ice hockey tournaments. And if we're lucky we'll get atleast 2 kids in the same city/state!

Oddly enough, Wednesday night at church they are starting a series on parenting. I wonder if they will talk about cloning...I could really use another "ME". :)

On a more serious note: I'd like to ask you all to pray for me b/c I have had some serious issues with time management lately and I REALLY need to get better at this...quick!

I hope you all have a great week! :)

I'm a college student!

Ok, so I've been one all summer. I took two classes online over the summer and let me just say, I'm so glad that's over! But it seems more of a reality now...I went on campus Wednesday and got my parking tag, student ID, and books. Big, heavy, expensive books (I'm taking Human Anatomy & Physiology I) I'm looking forward to it but also very nervous. It's been a long time since I've had to go to class and it will be so weird sitting in a room with people who are almost half my age!!! Let the fun begin!

My little girl...

...isn't little anymore! :( As I type, Kelsey is at her first MIDDLE SCHOOL DANCE!!! For some reason that freaks me out a little bit. The time has flown by and now she is one short year away from being a teenager. Yikes! She is such a sweet, smart, and witty young lady. Of course, there are times she drives me crazy and I'm sure there are more of those times coming. But I thank God for the opportunity to have her as my daughter. She is such a blessing!

She's ready to go!

Last night, Jared and I had our "date" night. We went to Chili's for dinner (his choice), then we headed to Dick's Sporting Goods for some cross country gear. After that we went to the mall and then to finish off the night...a stop at Dairy Queen. Oreo Blizzard...mmmmm...yum! Jared has become quite the comedian so the night was filled with LOTS of laughter. I'm so glad that he's not completely embarrassed to be seen in public with me...atleast, not yet! :)

Camping Trip

We have been tent campers for several years now. But with such a large family and the kids getting bigger, we decided to buy a pop-up camper. We are hoping to have more opportunity to camp now that we have a camper with a/c and heat.

A couple of weekends ago we took our new camper and went camping with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their two boys. It was pretty hot but thank goodness for a/c in the camper! :) We rented a pontoon boat on Saturday and had a great time. The kids spent a couple of hours just jumping off of the boat into the lake. We are hoping to go again sometime soon and get lots of use out of this new camper.

Back to School & More

Malcolm & Aaron

We spent this past weekend at Aaron's last inline hockey tournament in Knoxville. They played some great games and their team came in 2nd place! We've wrapped up inline just in time to start travel ice hockey! :)

Sarah, Aaron & Kelsey

It seems like we had the shortest summer in history! But the kids are back to school and really like their teachers. Jared is a freshman in high school, Kelsey is in 6th grade at the middle school, Aaron is a 4th grader and Sarah is in 2nd grade. Here are pics of them yesterday - their first day of school. **Note: Jared is "too cool" to have his pic made! :)**

We got a letter yesterday from the ESL teacher at school saying that Sarah is fully English proficient and that she will no longer attend ESL class everyday. She will only go periodically to be monitored for progress! She may not follow directions well but she knows her English!! :)

It's Official...

I am now officially a "Blogger In Training" for the U.S. Blogging Team!!! :)
Thanks Verna!

Made you laugh

My blogging friend, Verna, challenged me to update my blog 5 out of 7 days and start with a "Made you laugh" pic. So, in honor of Nashville traffic I thought this was appropriate! :)

Jared driving????

I can't even begin to describe how weird it is to be talking about my oldest child driving. But in about 8 months Jared will have his permit!!!! So, lock your doors and make sure all small children are in the safety of their homes because my son will be behind the wheel!!!

As scary as this idea is for me, John decided to let him have a small "taste" of driving last weekend. We were preparing to leave for our camping trip and John let Jared back up his car and pull it into the garage. John is recovering nicely from his mild case of whip lash. :)

All joking aside, Jared did a great job at his first time behind the wheel. And, of course, I was there to capture this scary...I mean...monumental "first".

It's about time, huh?

Well, it's been months now since I've posted. And, at the sometimes not so subtle hints of friends (Julie and Pam), I'm finally updating our blog!!! :) We've been crazy buzy all summer with cross country, soccer and hockey practices.

Just to catch everyone up to speed I'll give you a brief description of our summer and how our fall is shaping up. We've gone out-of-town a couple of times for inline hockey tournaments with one more trip in August. We went to Dauphin Island, Alabama for vacation with John's brother Jeremy, his wife Laura and their boys, Benjamin and Grant. Jared has been practicing with the high school cross country team. Can you believe it? He's going to be a freshman in high school in about two weeks!!! Kelsey made the soccer team at the middle school (yes, middle school already!) and has been practicing with them all summer. Aaron made the travel ice hockey team in Nashville - the Ice Tigers so practice will start soon with that. Not to mention, the weekend road trips to tournaments. Sarah has been a trooper riding to all these practices. And she finally has a friend (more like partner in crime)who lives two houses down. For the most part, I am thankful that she has someone her age to play with! Okay...I did say BRIEF didn't I? So, I'll stop there and try to do a better job of updating more often.

I've added some photos from our vacation to the beach! Hope you are all doing well and had a great summer! :)

Bad Blogger Award goes to...

ME!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how busy we have been. I've regretted not keeping the blog up-to-date but really couldn't help it. Here is a brief update on what has been going on with us:

Jared's soccer season is almost over. They played the first game of the tournament tonight and won! So, they play game 2 tomorrow night. Also, he gets his brace off on Thursday! He is beside himself with excitement. I will have to try to remember to post a picture of his new and improved smile! :)

Kelsey and Sarah are loving soccer! A total of three practices a week and games on Saturdays. April 14th marked our 2 year anniversary of Gotcha Day with Sarah. I think she has somehow known this day was coming because she's been talking a lot about how much she likes her new home and family.

Aaron is still doing ice hockey twice a week and inline practice once a week with games on Saturdays. It looks like he will soon be joining a travel inline team so that should make things interesting! :) Atleast we can't say that we're bored all the time!

Jared's birthday...a day late!

I can't believe my firstborn has turned 14!! Where did the time go? It seems like yesterday that he was preparing for kindergarten and in just a few short months he will be on his way to high school!

Here are a few pictures from his special day. Yes, as crazy as it seems, he did get a cell phone for his birthday. And we have the pictures to prove it!

Happy 14th Birthday Jared!

Birthday Pictures

Our Siberian Princess turns 8 today!

That's right...today is Sarah's birthday! She has been so excited about this day for a couple of months now. That is all she would talk about and it's finally here! Unfortunately we will not be having her party until next week due to all the soccer and hockey practices we have going on this week. She has her first soccer practice tonight so when we get home from that we will have a small party with just the 6 of us. She is having a party at Chuck E. Cheese next week with some of her friends.

We are also quickly approaching our 2 year Adoption Day (April 14th). It is so hard to believe that 2 years has already passed. We are so blessed to have her in our family and cannot imagine our lives without our spunky little Siberian Princess!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

This morning before she left for school!

Spring Break

We stayed at home for Spring Break this year. One day we went to Nashville to watch the Predators practice and get autographs of some of the players. The only one the kids were able to get a picture with was Alexander Radulov. I guess Jared was feeling camera shy that day! :) Later in the week we went to the zoo and played a round of putt-putt. For some reason I didn't feel the need to take the camera so there are no pictures of a hole in one. We were so thankful for the beautiful weather (it only rained one day) and we spent a lot of time outside.

The kids headed back to school today and we are jumping back into our crazy schedule at full speed. This week includes 6 soccer practices, 4 soccer games, 2 hockey practices, 1 hockey game, 2 Predators games, Sarah and Jared's birthday, AWANA and church. That doesn't include the trips to the grocery, tons of laundry and a couple of trips to the gas station to fill up "The Bus"!

Favorite Photo Friday

I am starting to realize that about the only time I post on the blog is for the Friday picture!!! I'll try to do better. This week was Spring Break for the kids so they played outside alot! The weather is absolutely gorgeous! Monday we went to Nashville to watch the Predators practice and get some autographs. Yesterday John took off from work and we went to the zoo and played a round of putt-putt. I will try to post pictures soon of our "trips" this week.

Anyway, here is my favorite photo for today. This was taken just a few days ago and I am so glad. Jared will be 14 soon and I figure that this may be the last time I have a "sweet" photo of us together! :)

Favorite Photo Friday

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Our week has been totally crazy! And when I say crazy this is what I mean: 3 soccer games, 2 hockey practices, 1 inline hockey game, Jared's high school registration, our 2 year post placement visit, parent/teacher conference, a chorus performance and a Girl Scout cookie booth!!! Plus a couple of trips to the grocery store! And the girls haven't even started their soccer season yet so it's just beginning! :)

With our 2 year Gotcha Day approaching I thought I would post a "Then and Now" photo of Sarah. The first picture was our referral photo. The second one was taken a couple of weeks ago. It is hard to believe that it has already been 2 years since Sarah became our daughter. It has been an amazing (and sometimes difficult) adjustment but we can't imagine our lives without her!

Favorite Photo Friday

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when the girls figured out that I still had my prom dresses. Of course, they had to try them on! Sarah just kept looking at herself in the mirror and laughing. The scary thing is that the red dress almost fits Kelsey!!! I had to take a picture of them. I wanted proof that they actually like the dresses. I figure once they are getting ready to go to their proms the last thing they will want to wear is their MOM'S prom dress.

High School already?

That's right - high school. This fall my first born will embark on his high school career. How weird is that? Last night was Freshman Orientation at the high school and it was surreal sitting in that gym, looking at my son, realizing that all too soon we will be doing the same thing for college. Only 4 more years!!!! Where has the time gone? It seems like it wasn't so long ago when we brought him home from the hospital. We just sat there and stared at him and then asked each other, "Now what?" :) I have a feeling we will ask the same question the day we have to leave him at college. Jared is such an awesome person and I share his excitement of what the next few years will bring - loads of homework (ugh!), cross country, soccer, girlfriends (ugh again!), and the ever so delicate subject of DRIVING!!! So, please pray for us that we don't cause any irreversible damage to the poor boy! :)

Washington, DC

We had a great time in DC this weekend. We took tons of pictures but I'll spare you the pain of looking at all of them so I'm only posting my favorites. I was really disappointed that the Reflecting Pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial was drained for the season. We also had planned on going to Arlington Cemetery but we ran out of time (and energy!!) But other than that it was great! I think we are both still a little sore from all the walking but I'm sure we'll be fine! :)

16 years ago today...

John and I were united in marriage at Immanuel Baptist Church in Paducah, KY. Since then we have moved to TN and our family has grown from 2 to 6! And if that's not shocking enough, during the next 16 years all our kids will continue to grow up (too fast) and move out of the house (I hope!). Happy Anniversary to us!! :)

Hockey season

On Saturday, Aaron had his last ice hockey game of the season. Even though he's a little disappointed that it is over it had a very happy ending - his team won and Aaron scored a goal! So, in honor of his first ice hockey season I thought it was appropriate to share some photos.

Favorite Photo Friday

This picture is from our trip to Disney in the spring of last year. I like this picture because this trip was a complete surprise to the kids. We did not tell them we were going to Florida until we were getting ready to get in the car and drive to the airport!!! At that point, we only told them we were going to the beach for a week. Then on Tuesday of that week we woke them up bright and early and drove to Orlando to spend the day at Magic Kingdom. This was Sarah's first trip to Disney World and oh my goodness, she was excited!! Aaron rode his first roller coaster (finally) and we had a character dinner that night. I remember Sarah falling asleep, sitting up, waiting for the characters to come to our table! We've never surprised them like that before and I hope we can do it again soon.

Just gotta brag!

As most of you know, Kelsey is a Girl Scout and this is cookie season. We found out this week that she was top seller in her troop! She was so excited. But what is so funny to me is that we definitely weren't aiming for that and I didn't think she had sold a huge amount of cookies. But she was thrilled with it and so I had to brag! :)

Also, Aaron made his first appearance in the local newspaper - and it was on the front page of Sunday's paper!!! Long story short, he went to the Predators game Sat. night with a friend. They were standing at the glass watching the team warm up and the press is always taking pictures. Anyway, the picture is of the newly aquired player, Peter Forsberg, and Aaron and his friend are right behind him. So, he thought that was pretty cool! (If anyone would like to see it, email me and I can send it to you).

So far Sarah is the only kid in our family who hasn't been in the newspaper. But, hey, she had her own billboard!!!!

Favorite Photo Friday (a day late!)

This is my all time favorite photo of the kids together. This was taken on the last day of our fall camping trip '05 at Tims Ford and they were having a blast! Each time I look at this photo it makes me smile. It reminds me that it is possible for all four of them to be happy at the same time! :)

My 1st slideshow

Favorite Photo Friday

Favorite Photo Friday is an idea I got from a friend of mine (thanks Pam!). And since we don't get much snow in TN I thought this would be an appropriate picture. This was taken last Friday when the kids were surprised with a snow day. Poor Sarah - the snow here must be such a disappointment compared to the snow she's use to in Russia!! Jared is not in this pic because he was busy "snowboarding" down our neighbors driveway. Unfortunately, this snow was gone that afternoon and the kids are hoping and praying for another snow day soon!

Trying this once again

I decided to give this blogging thing a try - again! I didn't do very well with it the first time but thought it would be a good way to keep family updated (especially grandparents!). Here we go!!!