Help! Legos are taking over our house!

This family LOVES Legos! This blog is all about Legos. Notice some of the pictures are on the Lego City Space Center, a Lego set given to us today by Aunt Diane and Uncle Tim (for our March and April birthdays). We have a lot of Legos. Some of our favorite Lego series are Minifigures, Star Wars, City, and Racers. We also like the new series Lego Friends and Lego Dino. We also have Ninjago, Pharaoh's Quest, Creator, Bionicle, Atlantis, and Alien Conquest.   Legos are so awesome!

 All the kiddos with the Space Center.

 These are all of our Lego City sets.

 Sarah's Minifigures.

Sarah and her Lego Friends set.

 The Fire Station that one of our dear friends gave us.

 Tim's Legos. 

Joshua's Legos.

 Joshua's mini figures.

  Joshua and Tim created some worlds for our mini figures.

Samuel LOVED his space shuttle from Christmas

Anna, who does not have any legos (nor does she care at this time in her life) wanted me to get a picture of her and her babies (and her sweet sister Sarah).

(This blog was brought to you by Josh and Sarah - and a little help from Mommy.)

The Making of a Missionary

Dave and I have been missionaries with New Tribes Mission for 3 1/2 years now. We moved away from our home in Kentucky 4 years ago this coming May 1st. It seems crazy that it has been 4 years. Before we moved from Kentucky, we were raising our support for coming on board with NTM. Raising your own support for a family of 7 (or any size number, actually) is very stretching. Yet, the Lord has met us right where we are and has sustained us every step of the way.

It is funny. I have wanted to be a missionary as long as I can remember. I felt called to missions even as a girl. When I was at Grove City College, I actually was accepted to the Red Box Missions program (called this because they have a Red Box where they take collections in the chapel on campus.) I lived and worked in St. Petersburg, Russia for 2 months between my junior and senior years of college. It was a wonderful experience. I was able to work with professional Biology researchers and speak in Russian (some) - we were there to teach conversational English. We were able to share the gospel some and I was able to give one of my students a Bible in Russian. I pray that some of our work there the Lord used to bear fruit for His name.

Yet, I think I had to become a missionary to really become a missionary. Let me explain. I have never been very good at sharing the gospel. (OK, true confessions from a missionary, I know.) I was very often afraid. I didn't know what to say. So the Lord plucked our family out of our "comfort zone" there in Kentucky - with Dave having a good job, dear friends, a loving church - and moved us to the exotic location of ...FLORIDA? I know many of you are thinking, Florida is not that exotic. Really, is Florida even really a mission field?

We did not travel oversees, but I feel this time in Florida has been HUGE preparation for missions. We have dealt with cockroaches in our apartment (by the bucketful), a rat (fortunately, that was NOT by the bucketful!), and other various sundry things crawling around our floors. We have had to learn (or are learning still) what we believe, how to express it, how to learn to love when you don't always see eye to eye, how to persevere when things get hard. We have learned that missionaries struggle with the same things other Christians struggle with - depression; discouragement; striving to be like Christ, and yet knowing how short you fall. We have learned how to trust God to provide for our needs (and He has!) and learned to pray. The Lord has made us missionaries in the midst of becoming missionaries.

I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world. All I can say is "Thank you Lord."

We've traveled around the world this year!

This year in our home school and our co-op, we have been "traveling" around the world. What a blessing this has been! I know I have blogged about it several times, but it really has been cool. Well, we finished putting our flags on Africa today. Look how cool our world map from this year looks:

We really have learned about (almost) all of these countries. Well, in Africa, we studied regions. (For example: we studied Egypt, S. Africa, missionaries to Africa, animals in Africa, Madagascar, and waterways in Africa. We didn't actually study too many individual countries. I actually did a class on missionaries to Africa several weeks ago and even featured our dear friends Dan and Courtney Schmidt who are moving to Africa this summer. I dressed up like the great missionary David Livingstone and we talked about missionaries to Africa in the past, and then taught about missionaries today. I learned a lot from this class too!)

We use Sonlight curriculum in our home school and I have really loved this year.  We have been doing Sonlight for at least 3 years, I would say, and this has probably been my favorite year of Sonlight. We read a TON of books in this curriculum (which is probably why I love it so much.) Right now we are in the Middle East in our "travel around the world." This past week, we read a book that I really enjoyed. It was Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy. What a great read. We have been reading it outloud for 2 weeks and I ended up finishing it on my own one morning before school. The kids asked to finish it on their own on Monday and since I had already read it, I said they could. You'll have to read it yourself to see the plot. A very enjoyable read, though.

Our gift from Heaven - Timothy's seven

(OK, just so none of the other children are jealous - all of them are sent from heaven! But it rhymed and so I decided to use it!) :)

Timothy had a special day today. This morning, his Daddy took him out to breakfast, just the two of them. Then today was our co-op Around the World party and Tim was so excited that it fell on his birthday. He said he wanted me to bring cupcakes and have the children sing "Happy Birthday!" (This kind of surprised me because he tends to be more shy than everyone else in this family, but he knew exactly what he wanted!) We did get some cupcakes and the children did sing Happy Birthday to him, so he was excited!

Then after our co-op party, we came home and went to the pool for a little while. When Dave got home from work, we had Tim's special dinner and then opened presents. He wanted a Lego Dinosaur cake for his birthday and enjoyed receiving Legos for his birthday too. It was a special day!

 Tim with his Lego dino cake

and telling us how old he is!

Tim got legos (we REALLY love legos around this house) and he was so happy with all his presents! He also got a super soaker and a dinosaur puzzle that glows in the dark - too fun!

 Tim and some of his Legos!

It is hard to believe he is 7!

Oh me! Oh me! Look who is 3!

Our sweet Anna turned 3 years old on Tuesday. I know I say it so frequently, but it is amazing how fast they grow up! When we moved to Florida, I was halfway through my pregnancy with Anna. Just 4 1/2 months later, our little Anna joined our family. What a blessing she is! Our little red-headed beauty came right in and everyone loved her from the start. Now she is 3 and it is hard to believe!

Anna as a new baby...

and our sweet 3 year old!

Anna wanted a princess cake for her birthday. I had never done a cake like this before, but it was so fun! She was so funny and kept saying, "Oh, I love it! I just love it!" It was adorable.  

Anna blowing out her candles 

and enjoying her cake with Mommy

When Anna was opening her presents, she kept saying, "Shhh. Everyone be quiet I am opening my presents." I guess she really did want to be princess for the day. :)

My sweet Sarah loves birthdays; she always has. She always gets each person a present at each of their birthdays and at Christmas. This was her sweet present for her beautiful sister, Anna.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ANNA!

Sweet Sammy's St. Paddy's Birthday

Five years ago yesterday a little blessing was given to us from the Lord. Our Samuel David Mateer is 5 years old today. It is hard to believe how fast it has gone. He is such a sweet little guy. He plays hard, he loves to read and cuddle and at night when he goes to bed, he sleeps hard. :) When I was pregnant with him, and he was ready to be born, I remember thinking any day but St. Patrick's day - only because the main thing I knew of St. Patrick's day was green beer. Now I love that he was born on St. Patrick's day. We have such fun celebrations on his birthday every year and it is really easy to find all kinds of decorations. A friend here from Ireland also shared the story of St. Patrick and his commitment to share the gospel with his native country. It is inspiring.

Yesterday we celebrated Samuel's birthday. He had such a great day. In the morning, Dave took him to breakfast - just the two of them. Dave said that Sammy smiled the whole breakfast. Then in the afternoon, our friends the Whites came over to celebrate with Sammy. After we opened presents and ate cake, we went out the to pool to swim. It was a great, great day.

 The big 5 year old

 Samuel holding his "Happy Green Birthday" sign and his Leprechaun minifigure. The sign was one that Joshua made for Sammy's first birthday. We get it out every year on Sammy's b'day.

 Sam with his pirate's treasure chest cake.

 Sam with all his buddies. (Funny - this is just our family and one other family. I guess we are a party unto ourselves!)

 Sam in his police uniform from his Pop-Pop and Mom-Mom.

Sammy and Mommy with his Lego sets.

POOL'S OPEN!!

Crazy, I know. Our pool opened yesterday. The kids were excited - very excited!
I had to laugh, they raced another couple here to be the first ones in the pool. Our kids jumped in seconds before the other couple.

So does this mean summer has begun in Florida?

Ribbons, ribbons everywhere

Yesterday I went down to the fair and picked up all our stuff that we had entered. We had entered A LOT of stuff this year.
Here is the pictures of the ribbons that we won:

I entered lots of food items this year. I won first place in my whole wheat bread and my apple pie. Then I won second place with my carrot cake and third with my candy. Sarah was the next big winner. She won 3rd for her table setting and 2nd for her fair place mat that she designed. The dark purple ribbons are for participation ribbons. She entered LOTS of entries! Joshua also entered lots of things (not all of his participation ribbons are even in the picture!) He got 3rd for his popsicle stick garage that he made and 3rd for his Lego creation. He got honorable mentions for his muffins and his other lego creation. Too fun. My Timothy entered the fair for the first time this year. He entered a lego creation as well - a "dragon trainer." He didn't win, but it was fun for him. He got two participation ribbons.

Also, our 4H group won 4th place in our booth! Hooray! That is worth $400 for our little Hot Peppers 4H group! Exciting stuff. We are hoping to have a big party to celebrate the end of year and do some special things for the kids with the money. We had a great time with all these things.

To be perfectly honest, we are kind of glad that it has all come to an end now. Now we start the birthday celebrations!

Celebration Night for Basketball

Well, the Upwards season for basketball has come to an end. It was a good season. Josh and Sarah really loved it this year. Josh was so sweet. He said, "I really, really loved my team this year." One of his good friends on the team (who is also named Joshua) told his mom, "I don't care if we didn't win a lot of games this year, I really loved my team." My Josh said he couldn't agree more. Joshua had a really good coach. He was always encouraging and really taught the boys some good skills.

Sarah enjoyed playing basketball this year. She said that this season went much faster than last season. She made some really sweet girl-friends on her team as well. She scored quite a few points for her team this season, so that was exciting!

Sunday night they had their Celebration Night for Basketball. It was a lot of fun. They had a professional jump roper who came and shared his testimony along with the gospel. He also did a ton of jumproping tricks (including jump roping while on a unicycle - that was pretty cool.) He also did a program at the end with all the lights off and his jump ropes that glowed in the dark. That was neat and probably the children's favorite part of the program.

 Here is the guy doing his program - jump roping while on a unicycle - pretty impressive

 Sarah is like her momma - she wanted a picture with the "celebrity"

 

Joshua and Sarah with their special packages from Upwards. They each got an Upwards backpack. They were mildly disappointed that they didn't get a new basketball (but it's OK, because Dave went and bought a new basketball for them later.)

It was a great season of basketball! Go Upwards!

Fair Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came to visit this past weekend. We had such a nice time. They arrived on Thursday, and so we celebrated all of our March/early April birthdays that evening. Then on Friday afternoon, we headed on down to the fair to check everything out, see if we won anything and to ride some rides. It was a fun, fun weekend. They also wanted to come down to see Josh and Sarah play lots of basketball (they both have games on Sat) and G'pa and G'ma loved getting to see them both play. Sarah made two baskets yesterday and Josh made one basket and he got fouled and they gave his team another point for that too. They have learned so much this year and they have improved a lot. Saturday, after Josh's and Sarah's games, Dave and I went out on a date, so that was lots of fun too!

Here are a few pictures of our time with Grandpa and Grandma:

celebrating a few b'days with Grandma and Grandpa

 on the ferris wheel at the start of the evening - the only ride they get me on!

 Sammy on the fake Dumbo ride (the REAL one is at Disney)

 I am such a goofball - I love these things where you stick your head through and get a picture!)

Josh and Sarah at the end of the night

Central Florida Regional Fair

I have a good friend down here in Florida who LOVES the fair. She really loves the fair. She has always entered things into the fair ever since we met her. Well, it is funny because she has gotten us to LOVE the fair as well! We entered a ton of things in the fair this year. It is funny because the entries into the fair fell on the same weekend as the Disney Princess Half Marathon and the same weekend as our 4H booth set-up for the fair. It was a REALLY busy weekend last weekend.

Joshua entered a ceramic vase he had made at a little ceramics place in our town, along with a Popsicle stick creation (a Hot Wheels car garage), Legos, and even some strawberry blueberry muffins. He got two 3rd place ribbons! Sarah entered lots of different things. She tried a table setting this year, along with the challenge of the painting entry. Her table setting was so fun and she thought of it all by herself. She did "Knights of the Round Table." We think she won 3rd place for that entry.

 She also entered Popsicle stick creations, a fair placemat (which she won 2nd place for), and another drawing. She and Joshua also both entered dioramas that we had done earlier in school this year when we learned about habitats. Timothy entered 2 things - one Lego creation he had made and a craft kit. He got fun participation ribbons, but he did not place. That's OK, though, it is a great learning experience and it gives us all an opportunity to cheer one another on. (I also entered lots of food items and that was lots of fun too. My bread even won 1st place!)

Our 4H group also entered a booth into the fair. That is such a fun experience! The kids all worked together to create their booth and to make all the pieces. Last year with our entry money from the fair, our 4H group bought a Lego Robotics kid (Lego Mindstorms.) We have been learning basic computer programming of a robot that the children actually build themselves. (Dave kind of got pulled into helping me teach the computer programming aspect of it - because he is wonderful :)- and has helped so many times he is actually a part of 4H now.) This year was the 100th anniversary of the Central Florida Regional Fair, so we made a fair out of Legos and also displayed a video showing what we have done in our group. Very fun. Here are some pics:

Below is the model of our Mindstorms robot that the kids built

 Our 4H group is called "The Hot Peppers." The children voted on the name - because as one of our older students said, "We are spicy!"

Disney Princess Half Marathon

No, I didn't run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. My dear friend Katherine ran in it and I went to cheer her on. As it turned out, Dave's sister Diane and her other sister-in-law Jen also ran in it. They flew down from Long Island to be a part of the run. It was so fun to see everyone run and cheer them on. Maybe someday I too will run it...

Here are some pics from the day: