New Floors

We were finally able to replace our floors!!!  The carpet is 28 years old and had held up well but it was time.  The night before demo I had the brilliant idea to let the kids color all over our carpet, it was fun and hilarious and hours of entertainment.

 I wish I could find Caleb's finished project because this looked so neat.  He colored each space a different color… he's my little artist

 The floor company called me bright and early the next day and told me they couldn't come out that day….

Only a one day delay and the kids got to color more the next night.  I'm loving the new floors :)

At the End of the Day

At the end of they day, they really do love each other

They are my joy and my crown…

Hands down their most favorite thing to do together is to mess with Michael… Savannah has perfected her skill of jumping out and scaring Michael, I'm dying and trying to get it on video because it's hilarious.  It's a good thing we have a fun Michael :)

Becky's Birthday

For Becky's birthday we took her to the Beckham's lake house in Arkansas for a weekend.  It was wonderful, we slept and ate and talked and April got us matching PJ's :)

 Saturday night for dinner we had wine and cheese, it was a prefect little getaway to celebrate an amazing women!

Bugs and Storms

The kids shared a fever virus (how come its never a problem with sharing if its a sickness… but legos or notebooks or heaven forbid THAT exact stuffed animal, WW3 can break out in the Clay home :)  Luckily it was short lived

 We've been having some bad storms recently.  One night Michael fell asleep while I was watching the news and when he said "ITS HERE AND COMING TO YOU, GET YOUR LOVED ONES SAFE"  I made the decision to put all the kids in our bed, because at least we would be together… So I run and wake up the boys and they both blank stare at me, I tell them "Go to my bed, theres a bad storm"… Continue to stare at me.  I shake their shoulders and talk louder "go get it my bed"…. Sirens start going off.  Caleb starts to stir so I go to Savannah's room.  I wake her up and she is so confused and talking in an intangible language and clearly dreaming of something.  By this time I'm laughing but frustrated.  I'm going back to the boys room when I trip over Caleb laying in the doorway of Savannah's room only to find Cohen standing in the hallway staring at the WALL!  So now I yell  "Everyone go to my bed a TORNADO is coming" side note Michael is in a sweet restful slumber during all of this.  They finally maybe reach 10% consciousness because all 3 start walking like zombies to my bed.  I get Norah out of her crib and shepherd the tiny zombies to my bed.  I get everyone tucked in nicely and realize 6 people will not work in our bed, only to hear the news man tell me "whew, looks like we lucked out of that one", I gave that newscaster my meanest look and slept in Savvy's room… :)  All 4 (5 including Michael) of them are insanely deep sleepers and have no idea who or where they are when woken in the middle of the night… I'm on my own.  Like that one time I heard an alien baby screaming in our backyard and terrified shake Michael "what is that!"… intangible language… "Michael listen!"… alien baby screams… Michael "its a deer snorting"…. what are you even talking about it is clearly extraterrestrial … Then he wakes up to hear the alien baby scream.  We are pretty sure it was a fox screaming and is a noise out of horror movies. But again,  I'm the only reliable source in the middle of the night.
This is how I left them the night of the storm, Savvy is on the other side of Michael and NOT 1 of them remembered anything that had happened and wanted to know how everyone ended up in my bed

          Caleb and Norah made their own tornado shelter during one of the storms :)

February

I don't think I can be convinced that there has ever been a 5 year old boy who loved a dog as much as Caleb loves Indie.  EVERY morning when Caleb wakes up he finds her and they lay together for at least 5 minutes.  The other kids love her but Indie is Calebs "gurl"

 I'm not sure how Norah ended up in this outfit but we all just thought she was the most precious teacher ever

 We were supposed to have a blizzard, the schools closed before a snowflake had even fallen because it was going to be so bad… and we got maybe 2 inches :)  We soaked it up though, any day with no school is a good day

We accidentally discovered Indies secret talent

Basketball Season 2016

Savvy and Cohen were able to play on the same basketball team and it was so fun.  Michael helped coach and the Mcdaniels and Kensley were on the team so it was a party for all the practices and games.  Savvy said she will definitely play next year, Cohen said he is still on the fence.  They both did great and I loved cheering them on!

Savvy

Savvy has been talking about baptism for over a year now.  She is so amazing and my heart literally feels too big for my chest when I start to think of her.  Michael and I have spent hours upon hours talking to her and answering her questions… because when sister doesn't understand, she isn't going to stop until she gets an answer.  Sometimes when I'm talking to her I forget that she's only 9 because her little brain can go to such mature places and question things that we as humans will never understand.  This fall she came to me and said that she knew she wanted to get baptized but was scared.  She was scared of getting in front of everyone …. and we talked and talked and talked ;)  I told her that when we know God is wanting us to do something but we are scared, that is the times when he shows up BIG.  And that is faith, doing something because He has asked us even when we are terrified.  She was such an encouragement to me during all of this and the love that was flowing this day was insane.  She invited our family, friends even her teacher from last year.  We had over 40 people there supporting and cheering her on, it was amazing and my eyes are tearing up remembering it.  From Little rock to Nashville they came to see her.

Everyone came over to our house afterwards for Taco Soup (per her request).  I'm forever grateful that she's mine and I pray that she always knows her worth and her love for Christ grows more than I can ever imagine.