Winter Formal

Each year we host a winter formal for the youth group.  We have a sit down dinner where the leaders can serve the kids and then we play a few games and do a gift exchange.  This year we had a great turn out. 

Here were Richard's center pieces. I think he did an awesome job!!

Some of the girls came early for hair and make up!

Here are all the boys.

Here are all the girls.

It's always fun to get dressed up and just hang out with one another! We are blessed to be a part of this group!

A Christmas mishap

In the little community we live in they have started a fun little tradition call "you've been elfed" where a family will drop off presents to another family anonymously!  Then that family will pay if forward and "elf" another family.  So, today we came home to wrapped Christmas presents on our doorstep. 

They all had Christmas tags with the kids' names on them but none of them said who they were from. We immediately thought we had been elfed!  The kids were so excited to see what we got and then started thinking about who we could elf later!  As we got them all inside and they started opening the gifts we were surprised at what they got. The pictures of others who have been elfed were Christmas hats and hot cocoa and candy and a board game...but the kids were opening remote control cars, Cowboys hoodies and Under Armour socks. Richard and I started thinking this was too extravagant and I panicked!  I immediately called my sister to locate my mom and come to find out it was her!  We had just opened the kids' Christmas gifts in 30 seconds without her even being able to see a moment of it! I was devastated!! 

You see, I had yet to wrap any gifts for the kids so they don't have anything under the tree yet. Teague has been very distraught about this so my mom thought she could sneak her gifts under our tree to keep him guessing on where they came from for the next several weeks.  Unfortunately, I had no idea she was planning this cool surprise and she had no idea our community had a "you've been elfed" tradition, and the result was a horrible Christmas mishap!! 

On the bright side, I'm thankful for a Mimi that drives 3 hours to surprise the kids and laughs when it all goes wrong! 

So I guess in a horrible wonderful way, The Hollingsworth's were elfed...by the best Mimi ever!

Thanksgiving

This year my family is spending Thanksgiving all spread out!  The morning started with texts from the boys. They are in Fredericksburg with their dad and spent the morning hunting. 

Then I got a few pictures from Blake in Puerto Rico. 

Mom, Dad, Amber and the gang sent a few pictures of their afternoon.

And Richard, the kids and I spent the day with Richard's parents. 

I am thankful for all my family and especially thankful for the technology that keeps us all connected on a daily basis!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

A SUPER Party!

We finally made it to my parents to celebrate my birthday! And this year she picked the theme Super Mom! Everything was super heroes but in pink! The table had pictures of me with all the kids and special power goodie bags with a powerbar and a powerade.

The banner had each kid on it with a different saying.

She even got me a Super Mom shirt to wear!

And Abby got her a Super Dog dress, too!

Thanks, Mom for another great party! This Super Mom couldn't do it without having a Super Mom herself!!

A challenge...

A little over a year ago when we moved into our new home, I decided to get back into having my daily quiet time in the morning. I asked God to make it easy for me to wake up earlier and to fit it in on a regular basis. From then on all of last year I was awakened from my sleep consistently at 5:30am.  It was so neat as the days and months went on and it just kept happening. I knew it could not be coincidence and to think that God wanted to meet with me to was amazing. When the summer came, I was able to sleep in and whenever I got up I would have my quiet time for as long as I wanted. It was so nice to have the freedom to sit and visit with God for hours on end. 

Then, August rolled back around and I was nervous that I would have to readjust to getting up earlier. So I started setting my alarm for 5:30 AM. It has been a struggle to get up when I hear the alarm go off. So, that got me to thinking back to last year when it seemed so easy. The only difference was that my alarm was set this year and it was not last year. So I decided to ask God to faithfully wake me up again to see if that made a difference. And for the last three weeks I have been able to wake up at 5:30 without any hesitation, and I truly do feel more rested than when the alarm was waking me up. There is something about being nudged awake gently versus the startling jolt you get from the loud buzzing in your ear. The more I thought about it God showed me that the alarm wasn't bad, but it left room for the enemy or myself to whisper lies like "I'm too tired" or "I'll do it later", but when God Himself is sitting at you bedside telling me it's time to wake up, there is no room for lies.  So, I challenge you, if you are having difficulty with an early-morning quiet time, to ask God to wake you up. I have found Him so faithful and I know you will also.

10 months in

It's been ten months since I 

re-committed to my yearly word Legacy. And I feel like I'm doing much better this year...or maybe I'm just now starting to see fruit from a 2 year long pursuit.  Either way, it's exciting.

So a few days ago Richard and I were sitting in our old people rockin' chairs discussing life and we were talking about the education system. The 9 year olds are in a STAAR grade and we were informed that due to all the preparation needed that they will no longer have recess nor will they get any breaks throughout the day since there is so much to cover. This breaks my heart and infuriates me all at the same time. I'm wishing we could pull them out and home school them, but finances won't allow that. I'm wondering if I should make an appointment with the school admin to show them all the research on how kids flourish in environments where they are given free choice and brain breaks and exploratory play. I'm looking up state laws on opting out of the test all together...but then I'm reminded of the verse in the Bible that says we are called to be in the world but not of the world.  I have spent the last few days praying about what to do.

Just yesterday Baylee came home from a night of going to haunted houses with her friends and asked me about mediums and psychics.  It was neat to be able to share with her what the Bible says about that and that is when God confirmed two things in me.

1) Again, we are called to be in the world and not of the world. Even though I hate standardized testing, there is a lot the boys can learn from it. There will be lots of situations in life where the outcome is a lot less important than the lessons learned by going through it; like trying hard and doing your best, like being confident in your abilities, like finding your worth in Christ despite any score on a test.  So, in this inopportune education system I am going to choose to use it to stengthen the kids and teach them lessons that they can carry with them forever.

2) In the area of Legacy, I'm glad that Baylee felt safe enough to come to us to ask tough questions. If she wasn't "in" the world, there would be no opportunity for her to see something, question it, seek out answers and then to commit to her own belief. I pray that we will always create an environment where they can seek and find the Lord and that through that they will build their own faith foundation before entering this crazy world on their own. Maybe, just maybe, we are doing something right!!

Koby's Big Decision

On Wednesday, our church did an All Church Worship night. I always love these nights because there is no structure and no sermon and no agenda. The Holy Spirit is free to move and all of us are free to worship as we want. The band plays and we sing or just listen or go pray for others, it really is a special night every time we do it! 

So this night a youth came tapping on Richard's shoulder to tell him Koby was crying and to come talk to him. So as Richard went to Koby I began to pray that we would be prepared for whatever Koby was feeling and going through. The song lyrics that were playing stuck out to me. first and so I wrote those down.  The song said "the doors that God opens no man will ever close." Then, Acts 9:10 came to mind when God called to Ananias and Ananias responded with "Here I am, Lord." So, I wrote those two things down and just waited til Richard came back.  

To our surprise, Koby had never asked Jesus in his heart! Our pastor had just finished praying with him and spoke a word of encourager over him about feeling like Koby had a calling on his life. I'm not sure if that prayer was the catalyst to his decision or not, but we are so proud of him!  Koby has grown up in church and knows all the "churchy" answers, but at the end of the day, if you don't have a personal relationship with Christ you have nothing! 

So Richard and Koby went to the front and shared his decision and the congregation erupted in cheers and applause. I love how our church celebrates this huge decision!! It's so awesome! 

The pastor then came up and shared his thoughts about the calling on Koby's life and asked all the ordained ministers to come up and pray over Koby. It was cool and something I know Koby will never forget!!

Today, at church we got to see Richard baptize Koby! 

Then it was off to lunch to celebrate some more!

We are so proud of you, Koby and we pray you will be like Ananias and you will not only recognize God's voice quickly, but that you will also be obedient to His plans for your life! We love you!

Double Trouble

We celebrated Kelby and Troy tonight with a sleepover. They both invited 4 guys and the night was filled with lots of outdoor fun! 

Kelby was the Blue Team and Troy was the Red Team so they made flags and wore matching gear in all the games! 

First, the played baseball.

Next, it was capture the flag!

Then, it was go cart time! 

They all worked up an appetite so we took a break for hot dogs, cake and ice cream. 

Then, it was one last game of hide and go seek in the dark with flashlights before  they opened presents.  Richard and I got them new baseball bags and batting helmets to go along with the red and blue theme.

They spent the rest of the night playing in the basement and watching movies. It was another fun filled party and the boys had a blast having all their friends over at one time! We are so thankful that God has blessed us with such a great place to have the kids' friends over. I'm sure this is just the first of many boy bashes we will be hosting!