Home Sweet Home

Well after all, it appears that the Patterson house has been on city sewer system all along. It had a little clog and is fixed. We are headed home with a minor bill~Praise the Lord! It is amazing what good friends will do to help you out and we have some amazing ones. Hopefully no future problems are headed our way but we will get through it with family, friends, & our amazing Lord!

Update on First Christmas in Our New Home

Apparently the septic tank has been located. It is all the way on the other side of the yard then where the plans said it was. However, it is like 7.5 feet below ground because the yard slops. We had to have a different plumber come today to use a camera to locate it. We have the approximate location however, the camera was underwater indicating that we have field line issues. The latest word from the septic tank guy is to hook up to the city because it will cost us about the same amount of money (which could lead to more issues because we have some crawl space and some slab foundation). That is not exactly the news we wanted to hear on Day 6 out of our house. Please pray for us as we seek guidance from the plumbing experts, head to the bank to pay for what ever choice we make, we get to go back home before school starts, and patience.

Our First Christmas in Our New Home

Yesterday, December 23 we had an interesting turn of events. We had some plumbing problems which turned out to be major plumbing problems. It turns out we will not be able to stay at our house until (at the earliest) Monday, December 27. You can imagine how upset my children are to not be able to stay home our first Christmas in our new house. I completely agree with them but am trying my best to remain positive for the kids. We have talked a lot about all the blessings we do have: We have a house that we will be able to return to; We are all healthy; We have great friends & family; and Most important of all we have Blessed Assurance through a Holy Baby Born the very First Christmas. So from our home (wherever that may be) to yours Merry Christmas!

Well the Christmas sickness has finally hit our house. Kerr woke up in the middle of the night running fever and sounding like he is going to cough up a lung. I noticed that he was not really feeling well the day before but I thought it was more because of the horrible nightmare he had. Anyway, about the nightmare, Kerr woke up about 3:30 in the morning screaming and crying. He was actually trembling, he was absolutely terrified of something. It lasted about 30 minutes. The next morning I asked him if he remembered having a bad dream. He said no. I started asking him about things he was screaming and He said Mom I think we had the same dream. I started laughing and said no that was just your dream.

A Little Wisdom from Brown

Bette has been stressed about what she is getting for Christmas. She is begging everybody she knows to buy her an IPOD Touch. This is the advice Brown had for Bette about the IPOD Touch:
Bette: "I really want an IPOD Touch."
Me: "What else do you want for Christmas? ... Besides the IPOD Touch."
Brown: "Bette, Mom will not even buy you a candy bar, there is NO Way she is going to buy you an IPOD Touch!"
* I can't wait to see their faces Christmas Morning! *

Wisdom from Bette & Kerr

Just this past week I learned some great lessons from two very wise little children:

Kerr~ Last Thursday night (12/9/10)- I had to run some errands to Hobby Lobby and Sam's. I was getting Christmas craft stuff for the kids classroom, classroom gifts, and snack stuff. While I was at Hobby Lobby I was picking up some napkins that say "Happy Birthday Jesus" for the children's musical at church. Kerr asked, "Who's Birthday is it?" I was playing with him and said let me whisper in your ear because it is a secret. I told him, "It is Jesus' Birthday!" Kerr said, "Are you serious?" He had the best look on his face~ I wish I had taken a picture. It was the greatest news he had ever heard. He asked me, "Is Jesus going to be there?" I said, "Yes." He said, "We get to go to Heaven to celebrate his birthday?" Then I realized his excitement was not about the party but about the possibility of seeing Jesus' face and getting to see Heaven. I thought would that be my reaction. Of course, I told Kerr, "Jesus will be there but just like he is here with us now. We won't be able to see him, but he will know why we are celebrating." I was amazed by the wisdom from my sweet and innocent 5 year old. He wanted to celebrate Jesus' Birthday so that he might get the chance to see him face to face.

Bette~Last Wednesday(12/8/10)~ Wednesday's nights can be quite hectic for us because it is usually a late night and Mark is even later getting home. Bette and I were doing homework and reading her books so she could take an AR test the next day. It was past her bedtime and she was extremely frustrated. She said, "Mom, I don't think these are a good fit book for me." The books were pretty difficult reads but I thought she could handle reading them. I told her if she did not feel good about taking the AR test on Thursday, then it would be fine to not make her AR goal for this week. After all she did miss Monday because of Disney. Well she came home on Thursday and said I took my AR test on both of the books. I asked her how she did and she made an 80 and 100. I told her that was awesome. She said, "Mom, before I took the test I went to the bathroom to pray." She told me, "My prayer worked and that is why I did so good on my test." I am amazed by Bette's faith. She takes everything to God in prayer. Isn't that what I am supposed to do also~be confident in my prayer and pray about everything?

Kerr's Thanksgiving Feast

Kerr is having the best first year of school. He loves his class & his teacher! Of course she has the patience of Job to put up with my wild child. Mrs. Pate was also Bette's teacher & I assured her that Kerr was quite different from Bette & that it would be interesting to see how different. Just a few difference in Bette & Kerr. Bette yellow & red days= 0; Kerr yellow & red days=5. Only 79 days into the school year! Haha This is a picture of Kerr with Mrs. Pate at their classroom Thanksgiving Feast!


This is all the yummy food & his adorable place mat.

Kerr's newest accident

Kerr is one rough and tough boy! And I mean he is all boy! He has had quite a few accidents. This one was a run in with a tree at my Mom's house. We were at her house getting our tree that was stored in her shed. Kerr was running in the backyard and tripped over a tree trunk. He ran smack into the tree. He told my Mom, "Bebe you have to cut down that tree!" Of course the accident was all the trees fault.

Brown TURNS 10!

I can not believe I am the parent of a 10 year old! Brown is an awesome kid & I am so proud of the little man he is becoming! He is a blessing to our whole family. He is the best big brother in the whole world. Here we are opening presents. A few of the gifts he got were a new razor scooter, electric drum sticks, DSi games, books, legos & of course his favorite...money & gift cards. We had a blast celebrating with family and friends at our house. The boys stayed around to spend the night.

I love this picture!

MawMaw's Pumpkin Party

We attended MawMaw's (Mark's Mom) annual pumpkin party. The kids decorate pumpkins every year. This picture is all the grandchildren & some of the pumpkins.
Our family~ I actually sent out Halloween Cards with this picture.
The best part of the party... the cake, of course.

Halloween 2010

Bette dressed up as a witch; Kerr dressed up as an army man; & Brown dressed up as a skelton. We went to the Birmingham Zoo for Boo at the Zoo.
Riding the Train

The kids liked the Scooby Zoo show.

Bette in 2nd Grade

Here are a few pictures from Bette's 2nd grade year! She is having a blast. She absolutely loves her teacher and school. This is her at the planet & alien parade. She was the planet Earth. Mom and I made her costume from some map material.


Bette on her field trip to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Mark went with her.

Bette after her choir performance in Walt Disney World.

Just Kerr

Kerr keeps me on my toes! He is so much fun! This is him fixing his hair so that he looks like a "Cool Dude!" He picks his clothes out each morning according to whether he wants to be cool or not.

Kerr did not want to get up today to get ready for church. I took the sheets off my bed to wash them. Kerr didn't have any covers so he decided to crawl into a pillow case!

Beginning of School 2010

This is how tired Kerr has been from kindergarten! He has been so exhausted; we find him asleep in some random places.

This is Brown & Bette on the first day of school! Kerr refused to have his picture taken but he loves kindergarten! Brown is in 4th Grade & Bette is in 2nd Grade! Where does time go?

Bette's Baptism

Emily Bette was baptized this past summer at our new church facility! She was baptized by her daddy!

Bette was baptized in the same dress as Mark's Mom, Sister, & Niece. Here is a picture of the 4 women!

This was them talking before the baptism.

Old News

Okay~so I have been great about keeping my classroom blog up and going and horrible about our family blog. I am going to play catch up and get pictures up and going today!

Sillyness at Disney

Brown & Mark on a game show called "What's Your Problem?" Brown had to work with other boys see who could build the tallest tower. Bette was on the girls team. The girls won but Brown got to spin the wheel. Mark had to compete against another Dad to see who could put the most babies down for a nap. He had to change their diaper, give them a bottle, and attach it to his apron.

Kerr on my shoulders to watch the Fairy Godmother light up Cinderella's castle. It was freezing!!

About to head into "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show in the Tree of Life.

Performance Day

Brown singing with the Children's Trio.
Bette danced with John Thomas Galloway for the reindeer dance.

Brown co-directing

Bette is in the middle behind the microphone.

Bette's choir (just the ones that traveled to Disney)

We traveled to Disney World with Bette's choir~Taylorville Primary Singers. They did a fantastic job performing in Downtown Disney Friday, December 3. Bette was a reindeer dancer and she loved it! Brown was asked to help co-direct one song with Bette's choir and he was also asked to sing as part of children's trio in the Hillcrest Middle School performance. He absolutely loved it!! We had a blast~ It was Kerr's first time to ride Soaring (we ended up riding it several times) and Test Track (which he secretly loved).
A few of our Disney World photos are posted below:

Disney World 2010