D6 Daddy Daughter Banquet

On Tuesday night the D6 Home Educators of Southeast Oklahoma held a banquet honoring dads and daughters.  The moms and sons hosted this event. 

The banquet room was elegantly decorated for the honored guest.  Each dad and daughter had their picture taken together soon after they arrived.  They then had time to mingle with the other dads and daughters and find their places at the tables.  A photo slideshow of our groups past events and activities played as the guests mingled and while dinner was being served.

The menu for the evening was

• Chicken or Brisket
• Pasta Salad
• Ranch Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Bread
• Individual Chocolate Heart-Shaped Cake or A Slice of Cocoanut Cake

After the wonderful desserts it was time to play some fun games.  The first game involved the oldest girls and their dads.  It was our version of The Newlywed Game to see how well the dads knew their daughters.  The second game involved the other dads in which they each had a deck of cards and a plastic cup.  They placed the deck of cards on top of the plastic cup and the goal was to blow all, but the last card off the top of the cup.  Their third game was to place an oreo cookie on their forehead and move it into their mouth without using their hands.  The finial game of the evening was to see who could empty a box of Kleenex the fastest.

It was a wonderful evening and a great way for us to end our time with the D6 Home Educators of Southeast Oklahoma.

Reflections

It was in Valliant

  ~where Wes began his first pastorate.

  ~where our TBC family loved and supported us.

  ~where Katherine & Sebastian will most likely consider their first home as they were 3yrs & 9 months when we moved here.

  ~where Katherine at three years old sat in church on a Sunday night listening to her daddy preach about Jonah and whispered to me "How does my daddy know about Jonah?"

  ~where Sebastian began walking and talking.

  ~where Katherine & Sebastian raced down the driveway in their  little tikes cars and later on tricycles & scooters.

  ~where Katherine and I made her first emergency room visit.

  ~where K & S began loosing their baby teeth.

  ~where K & S learned to swim.

  ~where God carried me (and my family) through a physically & spiritually difficult situation.

  ~where Katherine attended kindergarten & first grade at Swink Public Schools.

  ~where K & S were apart of TBC Christmas programs & Vacation Bible School.

  ~where I discovered my passion for VBS and for training VBS leaders.

  ~where God placed in us the desire and opportunity to homeschool our kids.

  ~where God provided the opportunity for Wes to finish his bachelor's degree.

  ~where my beautiful daughter, Katherine, stood before the church and confessed her need for a savior and her faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord and was baptized.

  ~where our family made many wonderful memories with  the wonderful people of Trinity Baptist Church.

The End of a Season

Since graduating from Liberty University this past spring, Wes knew God was leading him to attend seminary. The next step of his educational journey would be whether to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) or New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. God led Wes to SWBTS.

At the beginning of this process we believed Wes would continue to serve as pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Valliant and commute one day a week to SWBTS in Fort Worth; however, God would ultimately lead us in a different direction. After much prayer and a variety of circumstances we saw God leading us to step out on faith and make a move to the Fort Worth area.

On Sunday Wes announced his resignation to Trinity Baptist Church in Valliant. He will continue to serve as pastor until the end of August taking his last week of vacation the first week of September. Our official last day in Valliant will be September 7, 2011.

We are saddened to leave the many friends God brought into our lives during the nearly six years here. We've learned a great deal and will always look back with fond memories of the friends we've made.

Thank you Trinity Baptist Church members friends for loving our family. We will miss you and continue to pray that God will use you to show his love to Valliant and the surrounding areas.

The Sleepover

On Monday, August 8, 2011, Katherine invited several of her friends from our homeschool group over for her first ever birthday sleepover.  Katherine decided she wanted a big city shopping themed party, so with that we were off.  I brought part of the skyline decorations (paper covered boxes) used during this years New York themed vacation bible school to help transform the dinning room into a city full of places to shop!  Wes took care of decorating the table complete with a personalized mug for each attendee with their first initial and a party chandelier above.  Katherine was ready for her guest to arrive and the party began about 6:15pm that evening.

Katherine and her friends enjoyed a variety of activities over the next eighteen hours.  The girls ate, laughed, swam, watched movies, danced,  giggled, gave manicures & pedicures, made gift bags, played games including bible drill, and slept very little! They stayed awake until 2:30 AM, which was Katherine's time of birth nine years ago!  All but one of the girls was awake and up by 8 AM.  Sleep wasn't a high priority that night.

The first ever birthday party sleepover was a success!

Our family ended the day with Katherine's birthday dinner.  Her favorite meal is steak especially steak grilled by her dad!

Happy Birthday Katherine Grace!

June / July Recap

~TBC, Valliant Vacation Bible School.
~Katherine decided to take piano lessons through the summer.
~June summer school schedule.
~Wes attended the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
~I began planning 2011/2012 school year.
~Kate & Sebastian attended other local bible schools with their friends.
~Sebastian decided to put his head under water in the swimming pool and now he's a little fish!
~Kate & I spent a couple days of girl time with my sister in Dallas.
~Kate, Sebastian, & I enjoyed time with my brother & sister.
~The four of us enjoyed spending July 4th at Wes's brother's house with our extended family & their friends.
~We visited the East Texas Oil Museum and Rangerette Museum in Kilgore, Texas.
~We're spending time with friends.
~I've tried to de-clutter around the house.
~Katherine attended kid's camp.
~Katherine survived her first kids camp experience & had a great time.
~Kate & I attended a Paper Doll Brunch at Trinity Baptist Church in Idabel to benefit the Oklahoma Baptist Home for Girls in Madill.  
~We attended the Valliant Watermelon Festival.
~And there's a good bit of evening time spent in the pool! :-)

Kids Camp (Photos)

Is She Really Old Enough for Camp? Um, yes!

Yesterday I helped my precious first born, Katherine, pack her bags to attend her first Children's Camp at Lakeview Baptist Assembly in Lonestar, Texas!  At around 11:15 AM Wes loaded Katherine's things into his car and the two of them headed to Trinity Baptist Church in Idabel, Oklahoma, where Katherine would join her friends and the rest of the group.  When they arrived in the parking lot she was off to see her friends.  It never occurred to her to get her bags out of the car, but thankfully her dad reminded her she was forgetting something! 

Throughout the day yesterday and today I've been praying for Katherine and all those present at Lakeview Baptist Assembly, but as I've been praying for them I've been reminded that I should be praying for Katherine everyday with the same passion I've been praying for her over the last twenty-four hours.*

I'm praying she'll come home with a deeper understanding of God, her relationship with Him, and desire to obey Him.  I want to see her come home with a passion for her Lord and Savior.  I want her to have a "mountain top experience" while at camp, and I want to hear what God has taught her at camp. I will listen with anticipation as she shares with me, and even though I can't experience that "mountain top experience" with her I can be excited with her about what God did in her life and encourage her.

I can't wait until noon on Friday to hear all about what God taught my baby girl during 3 days at camp, along with all the fun girly girl stories that go along with any camp experience! :-)

*(Please don't miss my point...I do pray daily for my daughter, but my intensity over the last twenty-four hours has been much stronger & that's the point I'm wanting to make here.)

Way to Go Katherine!

I want to brag on my daughter, Katherine.  She decided to continue her piano lessons through the summer this year, which she has NOT wanted to do the last two years she's been taking piano lessons.

She's been practicing on her own without me reminding her for awhile now, but she's practicing more than what her piano teacher is asking her to as well as looking ahead in her book.  This week her piano teacher complemented her on how she could skip a few songs in her lesson book as she could already play them. She received compliments that she's doing excellent on learning the chromatic scale and how she just gets octaves and intervals. 

I am exceptionally proud of her, her love for music, and her desire to worship God through music.

Video Delay

Okay, well...um, yeah, I still haven't posted more video.  I don't remember what happened the weekend I was planning on finishing it up, but it got crazy and it's been that way since.  Not sure when I'll get back to the video editing, and I have several video projects to finish too!

Things ARE Coming...Stay Tuned!

I hope to have a vbs highlight video up by the end of the weekend after I get a few dvd's made.  For now I'm enjoying spending time with my kids and getting into a summer school routine.  More to come next week. 

Graduation

The Board of Trustees, Chancellor 

Provost and Faculty of

Liberty University

announce that 

Glen Wesley Kenney

received the degree of

Bachelor of Science

with a major in 

Religion

at the Commencement Exercise

Saturday morning

May fourteenth, Two Thousand Eleven

at ten o'clock

Williams Stadium

Liberty University

Lynchburg, Virginia

Congratulations Wes!  We love you and couldn't be more proud for you!

Jerry Falwell Jr. speaking at Commencement.










The 2011 Graduates

Verne, Debra, & Wes

Debra & Wes

 

Linda, Verne, Debra, & Wes Kenney

School of Religion Ceremony












GLEN WESLEY KENNEY

Done!

 

I love you Wes!

~Deb~

The Camping Adventure

While Wes and I flew to Lynchburg, Virginia, for Wes's graduation the kids stayed with my dad. My dad took the kids camping at Lake O'The Pines. Here is a slideshow of the pictures my dad took of their fun....

The End

Tonight my husband, Wes Kenney, took his last college exam.  The kids and I are very thrilled and excited for him to be finished, but no one could be more relieved (and happy) as he.

Tomorrow I will take the kids to stay with my dad so Wes and I can make the journey on Friday to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, for Wes's graduation on Saturday.

Wes, 
We love you very much and are so very proud for you!
Debra, Katherine, & Sebastian

Mother's Day Baking

A couple weeks ago we bought a Nutrimill grain mill so we could begin milling fresh flour to use when cooking & baking.

Yesterday Katherine and I decided we wanted to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and homemade bread, so we pulled out the Nutrimill and grain.

 In a few minutes we had fresh flour for our cookies and bread.

 Katherine & I decided we'd make the cookies first, so we dumped all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies into our mixer and in a minute or so we had cookie dough.  Katherine placed balls of dough onto the baking sheets and I placed them into the oven. 

 After about 10 minutes in the oven I pulled out a pan of flat, but good tasting chocolate chip cookies.

If I'm involved in the cookie making process the cookies turn out flat.  Not sure why, but we've made a family decision that Wes must be in the kitchen when cookies are being made!

 It was time to redeem my baking ability and make bread.

Katherine measured out our 16 cups of flour while I made a mess getting all the other ingredients ready to pour into the mixer.  (Yes, there is more to the story, but I'm not sharing as going through it once was enough for me. Let's just say I had a hard time holding onto things!)

 After allowing the mixer to do it's work I dumped the dough onto the cutting board and divided it into five loaves.  Now it was time to let it rise.

 In the oven and ready to bake for 25 minutes.

The finished product!  And oh it is so good!

Fun School Time Photos

This week Katherine and Sebastian took a book and retold the story by putting on a puppet show.  It was absolutely wonderful.

Several weeks ago Katherine and Sebastian practiced some math skills by playing the game Sorry during their free time.

Earlier this winter Sebastian reviewed matching capital letters with the corresponding lowercase letter. 

Fun Easter Photos

 The hunt begins.

 Who's going to get it first?

 Sebastian Kenney: An irresistible little dude!

 Katherine Kenney: Our Princess!

 Time to watch where they walk! The dog likes this part of the yard.

 Looks like she found one!

 He's still on the hunt.

 He's SO CUTE!

 She's SO BEAUTIFUL!

 Success!

 

SWEET SUCCESS!

(This would have been a perfect picture if I hadn't cut the top off, but it was a great moment!)

Still MIA

Well, so much for the one blog post a week!  As of tomorrow it will have been three weeks since my last post.  Did I mention spring is a VERY BUSY time for us?

Here's a brief recap of what we've been up since April 3rd:
School break (April 4th-8th)
Boys only trip to the Dallas Auto Show (Wes & Sebastian)
Associational VBS clinic
Trying to get caught up around the house after neglecting cleaning & laundry for a week!
Back to school lessons & SCHEDULE!
Day trip to shop at Sam's Club
Kids Zone on Wednesday nights
Kate's piano lesson on Mondays
Kate's piano recital last Sunday (April 17th)
School Day trip to the Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, Texas to watch the Frisco Roughriders.
Homeschool group on Friday mornings
Trip to Dallas to take cars to the shop! :-(

And tomorrow we'll celebrate Jesus' resurrection with our Trinity Baptist Church family!

MIA

Sorry there hasn't been a basketball video or any other post recently.   There is a lot of basketball footage for me to sort through, and I haven't had the time like I thought I would. 


Here's a brief recap of what's keeping our family busy:

School lessons
Family field trips (OKC Zoo, Dallas Arboretum)
Homeschool group
Association WMU Banquet
Association & church VBS preparation
Cleaning out & Insulating the storage building
Cleaning & Organizing at the church
Video editing (Basketball; Homeshcool group; VBS; Special project)


Spring is a very busy time around our house.  I am looking forward to the second week in June when it slows down around here. 


Blogging goal during spring...Maybe one a week starting with this one! :-)

In the Process!

This week I am working on editing video from Katherine's basketball games.  I hope to have a short clip to post on here by the weekend.  I stress the the word hope in the last sentence.  No promises!