operation stocking stuffer

our church has a chance to make the christmas holiday a little brighter for the students & staff at pink elementary this year. we want to make sure every student & staff member receives a stocking packed full of goodies from their new friends at the bridge. there were 721 stockings that needed to be filled & our church was on a mission to make sure there wasn't one left. so a few sundays ago we were all invited to take 1 stocking or 21 stockings, but just make sure the stocking you grab is completely filled up & returned, so everybody is able to have a stocking full of fun.

 we picked a stocking for a girl in kinder-2nd grade & a female teacher. we went shopping as a family & stocked up on lots of goodies to stuff the stockings... which is always fun!

yesterday all the stockings were turned in & we can't believe how many stockings were made!!! there are stockings everywhere, everyone at pink elementary is going to have an extra merry christmas. i'm so happy that our church loves our community so much & is always looking for ways to DO GOOD & help those in need!

fun with hay bales

one of the coolest things about visiting nonie & helpa in the fall is seeing their town decorated with all different kinds of hay bales. they used to just be on one road in one place, but over the years their popularity has grown & now their everywhere! who knew you could get so creative & crazy with hay bales?!?! we had so much fun looking out our windows to see who would spot the next one, it turned into a game who got to yell next for them to look out their side of the truck. we stopped to take pictures & have fun with a few, but it rained about 85% of our visit so we didn't get all of them. we still had a great time pretending & hanging out with the ones that we stopped with. maybe at christmas time they'll be more for us to say "hi" to!!!

mimi a special message just for you

happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday to you cha cha cha, happy birthday dear mimi, happy birthday to you cha cha cha. we miss & love you so, so, so much. we're blowing birthday kisses to you in heaven.

we're thankful for:

since tomorrow is thanksgiving we wanted to share with you all the things livi & i are thankful for (in no particular order, just the way they came out) & we would love for you to share also. we hope everyone has a happy gobble gobble day & you're stuffed by the end of it!

i'm (beane) thankful for:

in one word, I'm thankful for everything, but here are a few specifics 

air to breathe

my family

trees

the sun because it gives us light

colors

the creations God has made

charity's that help people

my friends

traditions

food & clean water

music

ms. lori for helping so many people

shoes

teachers

doctors

transportation
hygiene products

i'm (livi) thankful for:

sadie

my family

food & water

daddy making people feel better

God & Jesus

clothes

sausage (monkey stuffed animal) & ee (blankie)

my teachers

daddy's good looking hair

safety

that i can help the homeless

the seahawks

my body 

music

medicine

cars so we can get around
trees

super sized saturday

yesterday we had a SUPER sized saturday! we started the day with dropping off all the boxes we made for operation christmas child. as you know it's the 3rd week of november so that means it's national collection week & we're super excited to be taking part again in operation christmas child, a project of samaritan's purse, a world wide christian relief & evangelism ministry led by franklin graham. the mission of operation christmas child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the good news of Jesus Christ. people all around the country are filling shoe boxes with small toys, school supplies, hygiene items, candy & other gifts. these boxes are then delivered to needy children around the world. since 1993 more than 85 million boxes have been delivered to children in over 130 countries across the globe! this year we packed 9 boxes!!! livi & i have been saving things for the past year to pack & of course we bought some things too. we were so excited that we were able to pack boxes for all the age groups for both girls & boys!  we packed up puzzles, markers, notebooks, a my little pony, dolls, bracelets, hats, hairbrushes, journals, coloring books, crafts, gloves with matching socks, silly putty, coin purses, string backpacks, books, tooth brushes with toothpaste, lots of toy cars, monster truck, scarves, abc's flash cards & of course some candy. we had the best time ever, knowing we were giving someone a christmas that they might not have had. we also printed out signs to put on top of the inside of our shoeboxes so the children receiving them would feel even more loved from us! when we dropped all of our boxes we prayed that they would arrive safely, that the children would like their gifts, be able to use them & to feel really really loved! we're really excited because an email will be sent to us in january or february with the delivery location of our shoe boxes & hopefully the little boy & little girls who receive our boxes will write to us to tell us about where they live! last year our boxes went all the way to the niger... wow! this is such a wonderful way to celebrate the meaning of christmas & we're so happy we got to work on this project as a family.  this is our fourth year doing this & i know we'll be a part of it for a very very long time! if you would like to know more about operation christmas child please click here, there are tons of children that a shoebox would mean the world to them... never underestimate the power of a simple gift!!!

then in the afternoon we went to help out lunches of love pack up their thanksgiving care packages. "LoL is a non-profit organization that is designed to help end childhood hunger in richmond-rosenberg by providing children in need a free nutritious sack lunch during extended school holidays & weekends. many children living in families facing food insecurity rely on school lunch as their only meal of the day. Lunches of Love helps fill the gas during extended school holidays (christmas break, spring break & summer vacation). LoL offers children in need a nutritious sack lunch & snack. in addition, the also sends home child friendly, non-perishable, vitamin fortified food for the weekend to those in need." if you'd like to check out more about this amazing organization just click here!

then we ended the day with going out with kylie's prayer to love on houston's homeless. kylie's prayer is a christian ministry dedicated to sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the homeless of downtown houston that was started with a 5 yr old's (kylie) prayer to help the homeless. now a few yrs later, the last saturday of the month a group of people meet together to help serve kylie's mission to spread the Word and Love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the homeless, through distribution of supplies, food, love, and prayer. it's so wonderful going out with our old friends & helping new friends. last night a cold front came in so we very happy that we moved the november date up one week so we could be out there with lots of hot chicken soup, scarves (that we had made the night before with some friends), blankets & jackets. we also brought shoes, clothes, snacks, toiletries & bibles. of course we had to bring all 210 socks livi collected to pass out to help keep lots of feet warm. the 1st pair she gave out she was super nervous but the man was so nice & thankful that she couldn't wait to pass out the rest & pass out the rest she did, she didn't have any left! one of the stops we made was at the star of hope which is a shelter for woman & children & they were all very much in need. there were children everywhere without jackets on & wearing shorts in the freezing wind. there was one little boy in a stroller wearing a short sleeve t-shirt shivering from the cold so ivoni (yay, my best friend came out with last night) & i wrapped him up in a blanket & stayed with him while his mom stocked up on things she needed from us. unfortunately we didn't make enough scarves for everyone so mommy & lori took off their scarves they were wearing to give to these 2 sweet little girls to help keep them warm. one of my friends hayden (she's 9) couldn't stand it & right before we left she gave away the jacket she was wearing to someone who really needed it. it's always harder seeing the children out there & we just want to love on them as much as we can. daddy even helped rescue a lady who had gotten her car stuck in a deep mud puddle. after 10 mins, she realized she just couldn't get out so daddy hopped & saved her day. it was so awesome because the whole parking lot started cheering when daddy got her vehicle out & i was screaming "that's my dad!" next month we'll make sure that we bring lots more scarves made with lots of love & more child items which we have bags & bags of in our garage to pass out. remember there are just so many ways to help & if you'd like to find out more about kylie's prayer or how you can serve please click here 

turkey in disguise

our homework for this week was to disguise tom turkey to keep him safe from farmer brown. we love turkeys, but we are trembling with fear. we are scared that many turkeys could become thanksgiving dinner if we don't act soon. the more tom doesn't look like a turkey, the better because we really don't want him to be eaten on thanksgiving day. we had to come up with some really really creative disguises, like some made their turkey into a football player, a ballerina or other animals! i turned my tom turkey into a bubble gum machine! since i'm a 5th grader now i know this will probably be my last turkey in disguise i'mm make so i feel pretty confidant that we saved tons of turkeys!

my story

This month at our church the virtue the kids are learning about is service. A few weeks ago we were asked if I would be interested in doing a mini documentary that captures my heart for service and make that something that our kids want to be apart of. We just want kids to know they don't need to wait till they are older & they can start making a difference now. So earlier this week we went to the church & filmed for over an hour & it had to be edited into 2 & half minutes long! I was super freaked out about being filmed & not sure what to do at all. At the end they surprised mommy & pulled her in to be filmed also. She had been at work that day with the babies so she was a mess, but she was super happy that she at least slapped on mascara that morning. They even included Livi in the filming & she felt really special. So today at our church's KidJam for our November FX they showed my story & I was super nervous about what everyone was going to think. I'm so thankful that the video came out AMAZING & I got lots of high-fives, hugs & blessings. Let's all hope that my story inspired some kiddos & they'll be out serving somewhere soon, making a huge difference.
Ella's Story from Natalie self on Vimeo.

dickinson day of respect

today we were asked to please show support to the dickinson no place for hate coalition in their efforts to encourage respect for all students and staff at dickinson by wearing yellow to school. of course we were going to be supportive because it's very important to respect one another & thought this was a great idea on getting the word out at school.

dynamite daily news

i started my 2nd rotation on our school's tv station, kiva etv last week. i'm so super happy to say that we've finally figured out our new system & we're on the air live now!!! it's super awesome being in the media room with all the lights & cameras. i'm in charge of the camera, the slides that we show, counting the anchors down. we have to be really on our toes because if we forget something (like what's for lunch that day) we have to be quick on our feet so there's no dead air & we know to direct the camera's off the frozen anchor's face. livi loves when the news comes on that my face pops up in the credits & she can tell her whole class every day "look, there's my sister!" we're still a work in progress, but we're definitely getting the hang of being  of live.

210 pairs of socks

ok, it's officially november & socktober is over. we're super duper proud to say that livi collected 210 pairs of socks to give to the homeless. we had people shipping us socks from all over & all of our friends bought us socks too. we even found out about a company called mitscoots in austin & for every pair of socks you buy they donate a pair to the homeless. mommy's friend bought livi 4 pairs from there so 8 homeless people will have warm toes now this winter! by the way just because socktober is over doesn't mean that we won't still take any socks you have to offer because socks are always always in need. so you can keep them coming & we'll make sure they find some happy feet. we were supposed to go out with kylie's prayer at the end of october, but with all the rain we had to cancel. then in novemeber we'll be out of town the saturday kylie's prayer goes out so that leaves december & we can't wait. we'll also be making scarves to take out that month so hopefully everyone will be warmer this winter.

service

our virtue for this month is service which is lending a hand to help someone else. out of all the virtues this one is closest to our hearts & one we always try to live by.

our DO GOOD mission at our church (the bridge) is simple. we want to lead people to fall more in love with Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve people in our community and around the world.  we believe that the best way to do that is through long term relationships with communities in our own backyard and around the world. this month our church has a handout of all of our 2016 opportunities that you can be a DO GOOD partner locally or globally. well on the local page there's a picture of livi & i!!! we didn't even know, mommy's  friend told us & gave us a high-five. then we looked online & there we are again on our church's website. we're so thankful that our church gives us all these opportunities to DO GOOD & believes that we're doing a great job.

our report cards

YAY YAY YAY!!! i got my 1st 4th grade report card today & i got all A's & 1 B!!! let me tell you 5th grade science is kicking me in the bum, but i'm not going to let it stand in my way. i can't believe it... i'm so proud of myself & all my hard work... WHOO HOO!!! i spend over 2 hrs every night on my homework & i always try to do my absolute best on everything i turn in. so for my first nine weeks of 5th grade i got "AB" honor roll, perfect attendance & good citizenship... hopefully i can keep it up for the second nine weeks also. my teacher also printed out a list of my averages compared to the whole class for each subject & i'm ahead in major grades for all subjects. yes, i know i need to chill out... i'm doing excellent. my teacher also said that i'm a avid reader & she's proud of me & all the ar points i have so far!

YAY YAY YAY!!! livi got her 1st, 1st grade report card today & she got all A's!!! she's so proud of herself & all her hard work... WHOO HOO!!! this is the first year that she's getting A B C's & she was super nervous because that is a lot of pressure! her lowest grade was a 94 & her highest was a 98... she's rocking 1st grade. also her reading level is on a 3rd graders, that's my girl! her teacher also said that livi has a strong imagination & is very creative. she has excellent behavior at school. she participates well in small groups & large group activities & often raises her hand. she adds great ideas to our class discussions. livi also has great social skills & nice manners & she is truly a pleasure to teach! so she's on th "A" honor roll & good citizenship.

needless to say mommy & daddy are beyond proud of us & were pretty happy with ourselves too. now bring on the next 9 weeks, we're ready for ya!