Maggie was Baptized Today!!

What an amazing day for the House of Hills. Lots of tears, lots of smiles, and lots of hugs. Maggie showed the world that she loves Jesus today by being baptized during the Family Birthday Celebration, and Daddy got to do the baptizing!!

The tears started when Mommy dropped Maggie off with the other kids who were going to be baptized (most of whom were bigger than she). Then the service started, and all the kids were just amazing! What a pure love of Jesus in their hearts. It was wonderful to watch. 

Then, right in the middle, my precious Maggie was on the screen. Her beautiful and succinct declaration of her love for Jesus made my heart sing. Then, there was my amazing husband, standing in the baptismal telling her how proud we are of her and how much God will love her always. It was obvious that he was Maggie's daddy, and I heard lots of "Oh, how sweet, that's her daddy!" around me. And saw lots of teary eyes. 

What was so beautiful was watching Maggie's earthly father clearly display the love of her Heavenly Father through his words and tears as he baptized her. I was so overwhelmed by emotion that I can't wait to see it again on video so I can enjoy it more thoroughly. 

Once all the kids were baptized, Danny Dukes led us in a beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace" and then asked us to rock it out with "We Shine" by Steve Fee. What finished off the tears was during the chorus - We are the redeemed. We are the ones who are free. And we belong to Jesus! - they flashed the pictures of the kids who were just baptized and who had just proclaimed that they belong to Jesus on the beat of the song. They a

lso walked the kids out to stand on the front steps of the stage. SO POWERFUL!!!!

Then, all the parents, grandparents, small group leaders, and prayer partners were invited on stage to pray with the kids. After that prayer, we headed to the Kidstuf 

theater for cake and party time. 

It was an amazing afternoon and one we will never forget. Many than

ks to all at North Point Community Church that participated and made it happen

Maggie's First Test

Maggie took her first ever test today! It was a vocabulary test. She has a list of vocabulary words and spelling words each week to work on. Vocabulary tests are on Thursdays and spelling tests are on Fridays.

Maggie had to read the words and sentences to her teacher. She made NO MISTAKES! We were very proud of her. It's hard to believe my kid is at the weekly test taking stage. 

Maggie is adjusting pretty well to the first grade schedule. She's looking forward to library and computer lab next week.

First Day of Gymnastics

Maggie started her weekly gymnastics class this afternoon and had SO MUCH FUN!!! She was so excited throughout the entire hour bouncing up and down and clapping with a big grin on her face. She wasn't the most coordinated girl in her group, but that did not keep her from trying her hardest to do all the things they asked. 

The best part of gymnastics is that Olivia M is in with her. Mommy had no idea when she signed up that Olivia was also in the class so it was a great treat. Mommy and Olivia's mommy were pregnant together and the girls are only a few days apart. In fact, going to see Olivia in the hospital was the first time Mommy left Maggie after her birth. Us parents were in small group together for three years so it's great fun to be hanging out with Olivia every week.

First Day of First Grade

We have started "real" school in the House of Hills. Maggie began first grade today, and it is VERY different than kindergarten.

Maggie went to Meet and Greet last Thursday and was SO EXCITED to start school. This morning finally came, and Mommy drove her to school so she could take pictures. Maggie walked in the classroom and didn't look back. I didn't even get a good-bye kiss. There are several kids from the neighborhood in her class as well as her good friend, Kate, from church. She was allowed to sit by Kate today which was a major treat.

Mags got off the bus this afternoon looking pretty worn out. When I asked if she had a good day, she said, "Not really. We had to just sit there a lot." I tried very hard not to smirk as I thought, "Welcome to real school kid." 

When we got home, we immediately started our new routine and made sure all the papers went in the right place and everything got unpacked.

Mommy had set up a homework area for Mags on the dining room table across from her computer so they could work together.  Maggie wanted to do homework right away so we sat down to do that as soon as possible. She had even brought a text book home! Talk about REAL school! She has vocabulary and spelling words and will have two tests this week - Thursday vocab and Friday spelling.  

After discussing the day some more, we discovered that it wasn't so boring, just very different from Kindergarten. She told us a lot about her day, and seemed to think it was actually pretty good. She is anxious for tomorrow when it won't be as much of "the teacher just telling us stuff."

Trying to fall asleep tonight was VERY difficult.  It took her almost an hour and a half to calm down enough to fall asleep. She came out and complained "I just keep having thoughts in my head. I can't stop thinking about stuff." I totally empathized and let her finish her chapter book, which seemed to do the trick as it is finally quiet up there. The girl is very much like her mama.

End of Summer

Maggie finished out her summer in style!

She did one week of gymnastics camp and then a three day cheerleading camp at Chattahoochee High School.  The best thing about cheerleading camp is that Maggie gets to be with friends from NPCC weekday.  

The craziest thing about cheerleading camp is that 

Mommy has flashbacks every time she walks in the gym since both of her brothers graduated from there.  Also, some of the high school girls are girls that Mommy taught way back when!

We spent the last few days of vacation hanging out as a family and got a couple more good swims in. 

Looking back, I would say it was an awesome summer.  Mags had a great time and so did her parents. I'm in the process of making a photo book for Maggie of all her summer activities and there were tons! She's already talking about what she wants to do next year!