From coaching Carson and practicing karate with Reece to supporting Sarah Ann in all her dancing and making Hannah Jane smile as soon as you get home from work, you are definitely the best of the best! You make our world go round, and we are so very thankful for you! Thank you for loving us, serving us, leading us, encouraging us, and driving us everywhere we go! We love you!
Jeffrey finally had a week off from playing in the band and could sleep in, but he got up to help me get out the door before 8am, brought me my phone when I forgot it at home, and fixed my sink all before coming to church. We had a low key afternoon, and he let me take a nap while he snuggled with Hannah Jane and watched basketball with Carson. Tonight he shared his steak with Reece and Sarah Ann, while also holding a squirming baby! And now he’s sharing his candy while we watch “Raya” before bed. And today is just an example of how wonderful Jeffrey is each and every day. He’s always putting all of us first, and today and everyday, we are so very thankful he’s ours!
One year ago today, I sat outside in the hot sun at church, tired and nauseous and still in a bit of shock from the positive pregnancy test we had taken the day before.
At the end of the service, we sang “Goodness of God,” and I have continued to sing and pray that sweet song over our precious baby girl!
While we might have been completely surprised, the Lord knew exactly what He was doing, and He has been so faithful and so good to us! And now here we are, a year later, and Hannah Jane has brought us unimaginable joy! Oh, Jesus, thank you for this sweet, sweet gift!
May was marvelous! I started back to work at church. The pool opened! We celebrated Star Wars day and cinco de mayo. We took a trip to the Isle of Palms and had a great Mother’s Day weekend. We enjoyed park days, lots of time outside, a trip to the zoo, and soaking up the sun at the pool! The kids finished up their school year, and we celebrated Pops’ birthday and Memorial Day with family and friends. Sarah Ann finished her dance year, and Carson started summer basketball. We enjoyed watching the Voice together as a family and got to watch Cam win live! The days are full, but they sure are fun!
You love to smile and coo and talk all day long! You are always happy, unless you are riding in your car seat. You have started rolling over back-to-front and front-to-back. Your hands are always in your mouth, and you’ve also recently found your feet! You love to be held, which is great because your siblings always want to hold you! You like to ride the golf cart around the neighborhood with Daddy, and you love to snuggle with Mommy!
Oh, Hannah Jane, you bring us all so much joy, and we are so very thankful for you! We love you, sweet girl!
“O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country love And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine!”
After dinner on Friday evening, we took a quick trip down to the pool! This is the kids’ favorite time to go! It’s not usually crowded, and they don’t have to wear sunscreen!
We spent all Saturday at the lake visiting Grandpa and Ning! We ate lunch, took a boat ride, swam, rode the tube and jet skis, took naps on the boat, paddle boarded in the cove, and ate dinner before heading home! Hannah Jane loved her first trip on the boat, and we all definitely slept well on Saturday night!
Oh, Sunday! We had a full and wonderful morning at church, went to lunch at Mellow Mushroom, swam at the triplets’ birthday party, and then had dinner and watched a movie outside with the Seeby’s! What a day! I didn’t take any pictures that day, except this one of HJ after she went to sleep during the movie, and we successfully got her home and swaddled and into the bed still sleeping! She is a trooper!
We enjoyed a little bit of a lazy Monday morning and the spent the afternoon at Nanny and Pops’ house! We snacked, swam, played outside, grilled out, and celebrated Pops’ birthday! The big three then went with Nanny to visit Uncle Jeremy and Annalee, while Hannah Jane, Jeffrey, and I went to play volleyball with some friends. Jeffrey and I also ended the evening with a movie at home after Hannah Jane went to bed!
We had a wonderful weekend, and we are forever thankful for those that served and lost their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we experience each and every day!
Now you are deep in what seems to me a peculiarly selfless service. The spiritual training of children must be that. You work for the years you will not see. You work for the Invisible all the time, but you work for the Eternal. So it is all worthwhile. ~ Amy Carmichael
The last three months of the school year are a bit of a blur, but the kids continued to work hard and get it all done! I had the sweetest and snuggliest teaching assistant, and only by God’s grace, we completed our 180 days in the midst of the craziest year!
Here’s a quick peek into our last couple of months of school…
Our grammar and math were our constants. Our curriculum this year was 5 days a week, and the kids really enjoyed the pace and activities that went along with them! I was able to get Sarah Ann and Reece started, and then they could work independently while I held Hannah Jane and worked with Carson. The kids studied lots of Bible stories and scripture verses, read, memorized and wrote poetry, did book reports and wrote stories through observation, and practiced spelling. In math, we covered geometry, long division, measurements, borrowing and carrying, decimals and fractions, big numbers, and so much more. We loved the stories that went along with our lessons too!
MARCH: Read Across America day. Learning about our body systems and how they work with our senses. Going to see “Oz” the ballet with Nanny and the Koger Center. Reading the Boxcar Children together while I nursed Hannah Jane. Saint Patrick’s day books and activities. An Easter themed poetry tea time. Learning all about the states in the Midwest.
APRIL: Edventure and gem mining. The zoo and Hannah Jane’s first train ride. Celebrating Earth day with plant books and Art Hub for Kids. More Boxcar Children together. Doing school outside on beautiful, sunny days. Rocky Mountain and Southwest states. Working on our creation projects to show all that we learned!
MAY: Two weeks left of school! Finishing and presenting out Creation projects with an illustrated book, Legos, and a PowerPoint presentation. Learning about the Pacific states and U.S. Territories! Park days and pool days for PE. Lots of typing, cursive, handwriting and reading! And we had a fun last day of school celebrating a great 180 days!
Sarah Ann was super excited for the entire month of May about her dance recital! After learning, practicing, and working hard all year long, it’s always so great to see how it all comes together at the end of the year!
The theme for this year’s recital was “Dancing Through the Decades!” Sarah Ann’s hip hop class danced to “ABC” by the Jackson Five! And I know I say this every year, but my girl just knows how to hip hop! It’s so much fun! She was given the solo in her hip hop dance, and she did amazing! Sarah Ann’s jazz class danced to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Sarah Ann was the youngest girl in her jazz class, but she worked so hard and danced beautifully!
The ballet this year was “Cinderella,” and Sarah Ann’s class danced as the clock counting down to midnight! The ballet was wonderful, and I sure do love that number 9 and getting to watch her shine on the stage!
Mother’s Day was especially sweet this year because our family dedicated Hannah Jane to the Lord.
Hannah means gracious, merciful, favored by God. Jane means God is gracious, a gift from God. And our sweet girl encompasses all of those meanings! She is a true gift and favor from our most gracious and merciful God!
Her precious life was ordained from the beginning, and we believe that the Lord had some amazing plans for her life. We pray that God would draw her to Himself and that her life would be for His good and His glory!
We cannot imagine our family without Hannah Jane, and we are so very thankful that the Lord has entrusted her to us!
Oh, Hannah Jane, you sure are loved and adored!
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! —Psalm 139:13-17
Look at how much they grew this year! They are so grown up and have changed so much! I guess that’s what happens when you get a new baby sister during the middle of a global pandemic! Oh, it has definitely been a year to remember!
On Friday, May 14th, we completed our 180 days of school, and I’m super proud of these big three for such an awesome year! It’s been a unique year for us, but they have certainly worked hard, had lots of flexibility, helped each other, and grown so much! It’s been a year full of learning, both through our curriculum and real world experiences. We’ve learned, stretched, loved, and persevered, only by His grace! Thank you, Jesus, for this homeschooling journey and all that we get to do together!
We had a fun day celebrating our school year! We took our first trip back to Pelican’s and ordered pizza for dinner! The boys also had a movie night with Daddy, while SA enjoyed a sleepover with friends! Summer is here, and we are so excited!
On our first official day of summer break, we took our first visit back to the trampoline park in 14 months! The kids were so excited, and they had the entire place to themselves the whole time they jumped! It was a great way to start our summer break!
The day before Mother’s Day we had absolutely nothing on our calendar, so I told Jeffrey that all I really wanted for Mother’s Day was to spend a day at the beach! And that’s exactly what we did!
We loaded up Saturday morning and made the trip down to the Isle of Palms! It was a windy, but sunny and wonderful day on the beach! The kids had a blast playing, snacking, and swimming. The guys enjoyed lots of bocce ball, and Holly and I took turns holding Hannah Jane and chatting in the sun! After a fun day on the beach, we walked down to Coconut Joe’s for some delicious seafood for dinner! We then stopped for some ice cream on our walk back to the car, and we ended the day on the playground before driving back to Columbia! It was a wonderfully windy day, and Hannah Jane already has these day trips to the beach figured out!
Sunday we had a sweet morning at church dedicating Hannah Jane to the Lord, picking up a Moe’s taco kit to eat with Nanny and Pops, and spending the rest of the afternoon by the pool! It was a restful and fun day, and these are the sweet moments that I don’t ever want to forget!
All I ever wanted to be was a Mommy, and I’m eternally grateful that the Lord has entrusted these four babies to Jeffrey and me! It is my greatest joy to love them, serve them, teach them, encourage them, pray for them, fight for them, and watch them grow into the masterpieces that God has created them to be!
broadwell babies 