Hiding God's Word in our hearts. Romans 3:23

Knowing that I was going to have the gift of being home with our four children this summer made me really desire to be intentional with our time together. Before school got out, I sought advice from other mommies, particularly those who home school their children to find out how they order their day. I used several blogs recommended and several ideas shared to develop our schedule for each day. One thing that I desperately desired was for us to spend time in God's Word together every day. I have loved it. We are using a Bible curriculum I found on this blog. I use her A-Z Bible memory verses. We memorize one verse every week. This week was our first full week to be at home together, so we began with the letter A, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23. Wow, it has been so sweet to hear my children, shout and whisper this powerful verse in God's Word. In addition to memorizing God's Word, we are talking about different character traits, also from the same blog mentioned above. The last part of our Bible time is spent reading the Jesus Storybook Bible. I have blogged about this book before, and I just can't say enough about this amazing Bible for little people. It so powerfully and simply reveals the redemptive work of God through His son. Most days my children are excited to hear the Bible stories and recite their verses. I captured them reciting the verse on my phone, and wanted to share the videos of them. So precious.

Carter reciting his Bible verse for the week.

Summer reciting Romans 3:23

Tilly reciting her Bible verse for the week.

I am so proud of the three of them for memorizing their Bible verse for week 1. We are well on our way to learning our verse this week, too. Thank you, God, for the summertime and the opportunity to be at home with the children. Teach me to make the most of this time.

Charlotte.

I know you're thinking, man there are a lot of characters on this beach trip, and you couldn't be more right. The thing about Charlotte is we go way back. Don't you remember reading this as a child? I loved the story of the pig, the spider, and the girl named Fern. It was an easy choice for a novel to read with my big 3. We have been reading it for a long time, though, and we are almost done. In fact, we only have one more chapter, so we should finish up this week. They are loving it, especially Carter. I am thinking he is going to have my passion for books, which I love! We are thankful to Aunt Karen and T, who readily keep us supplied with books!

So, what does Charlotte have to do with our trip to Grayton Beach? I thought you'd never ask. David and I went out on a date Thursday night when he returned from deep sea fishing. It was kind of late when they returned, and we were pretty tired, so we didn't go far, and we weren't out late. When we got home, we almost walked right into this. . .

Can you see her? The picture really does not do it justice. The web and the spider were HUGE! Thank goodness, we spotted it first. I love Charlotte's Web, but I do not like spiders. At. All. They have way too many legs.

Anyway, back to the story. I could not resist. I ran inside and got Carter and Summer out of bed to see Charlotte. They thought it was awesome! In fact, just the other day out of the blue Summer asked me if Charlotte came home with us, so cute! What a fun memory.

Well, that pretty much wraps up all of our people, places, and things of Grayton Beach. What a wonderful week it was! Thank you, Papa and Gigi, for providing a super fun vacation for us. Next up on the blog, what we've been growing and cooking in the garden.

The Back Porch and Pier Park.

Tuesday morning, we headed to PCB for the morning. We began our day at an arcade, where I failed to take any pictures, but we had so much fun. David and Papa worked the slot machines, so we ended up with hundreds of tokens to play. Towards the end, we gathered all of our tickets and cashed in on some toys for the children. Fun was had by all. Then, we headed over to a newer area called Pier Park. We enjoyed lunch at The Back Porch, and it was awesome! The Back Porch is one of my all time favorite places to eat in this area. There is one in Destin as well. So good!

Picture of the 5 grands after lunch.

And the silly faces!

After lunch we walked down the pier. It reminds me a lot of the Santa Monica pier if you've ever been there, so pretty! The children had fun looking at the people fishing along the pier. One cute fella, about 13, opened his cooler for us to take a peek and explained what all the fish were to us.

Mommy with the children at the end of the pier.

Take two. The children were really good sports. It was hot and past nap time, but they were great!

O'Dell party of six!

Stay tuned for just one more post of our adventures at the beach!

So, most nights we ate dessert. And it was good. Real good.

I don't know what it is about the beach and sweet treats, but they just go together. Maybe it's all that time in the sun, breathing in the salt air. Most nights we were craving something sweet, so here are a few of our stops.

This little place is in a really nice shopping center in between Grayton Beach and Destin. If you like fudge and ice cream, it's the place to be. I opted for a caramel coffee drink when we went, and it was divine.

My big 3 oooing and ahhhing over the ice cream choices. These days we choose ice cream, not by flavor, but by color. Could be interesting.

How cute are these googly eyes they put on their ice cream for the children? Summer chose yellow, so lemon ice cream it is. She said it was good. I think when you are little, anything sweet is good.

Story was not happy that it was taking us so long to get her ice cream. My story girls loves sweets!

Lincoln waiting patiently on his treats.

Carter, Summer, and Tilly playing after they ate their ice cream.

Another night we drove by this place, and the hot light was on, so we did what any good person would do. We stopped. We ordered. We demolished.

Look at that goodness. Seriously, how many of these could you eat in one sitting without thinking about how many calories you are taking in of course?

And here they come. . .

Summer was way excited!

Tilly getting her hat ready so she can eat!

Summer doing her best to prepare Lincoln for the goodness he was about to partake.

Watching them go down the line.

Lincoln with his hat. I love Summer in the background. I think she is saying, "He's coming! The doughnuts are coming!" Yes, they are!

Mommy and Tilly snapping a self-portrait in between bites of yummy goodness.

Carter takes his Krispy Kreme seriously!

Family photo shoot.

During our time at the beach, we had the opportunity for Ken Rada, a photographer here in Atlanta, to take our family pictures. They turned out so well, and I'm so thankful it worked out for us to meet with him and forever capture our time at the beach. Sidenote, I have been trying to upload some of my favorites for several days now, and I'm having trouble, so the ones below are just a snipit because I basically gave up trying to upload any more, ha! However, the good news is you can go here, to see some more sweet photos of our family!

Our party of six with Papa and Gigi.

Story. What you don't know and can't see about this picture is that our sweet girl was not happy about having her toes in the sand and was letting everyone within earshot know about it!

I love this picture of our party of six. Boy, are we blessed!

All of us!

My fab four.

Papa and Gigi with their 5 grandbabies, all 5 and under, wow!

My Tilly girl. This picture completely captures the essence of Tilly, sweet and sassy!

Carter trying to outrun the tide.

Summer running down the beach.

The original O'Dells. I love this picture of the four of them. They all look amazing! Gigi, especially should be on the cover of a magazine, so pretty!

Walking on the beach with my sweet little stair steps. We were actually playing red light/green light, ha!

Us.

Tilly could not stay out of the water. By the time the shoot was over, she was soaked and covered in sand. Of course she was!

Juie and Cory. Some of the pictures I was having trouble uploading were of them with their little guy, Lincoln. We love them and enjoyed spending time with the 3 of them for the week!

All of the grandbabies.

Story's sweet baby toes.

Fun in the sun and fondue.

Most of our days were spent between the pool and the sea. I know, it's a hard life, right? Well, somebody's gotta do it.

These two kiddos riding in style to and from the beach and the pool.

Tilly loved playing in the sand and the water. She has no fear. None. Oh, to be a child again and just plop down in the sand. At what age does one stop liking the sand? I like it on my toes, but that's about it.

Sweet Summer. She loved the sand and water, too. Funny enough, our last time at the beach (two summers ago) she wanted nothing to do with the water. We've come a long way, baby!

Carter couldn't get enough, snacks, sand, water, treats, he loved it all! Each day at the beach, Carter, Summer, and Tilly made friends with other children playing. It warmed my mommy heart and reminded me of days growing up when my sister and I would meet new friends every summer at Tybee Island. Fun memories. Thankful to be making memories at the beach with my own children, as it was such a huge part of my childhood.

Monday night, Gigi had a special dessert treat for us. Our only instructions were to be ready to leave the house at 6pm wearing casual clothes! She was full of surprises all week, and it was so much fun. Now that I'm home, I'm kind of going through withdrawals, ha! If you've never been to the Melting Pot, you are missing out on a treat.

We enjoyed yummy chocolate desserts! So good!

Is Summer's face any indication of how delicious it is? I think so!

And these would be the treats we used for the dipping. I think my favorites were the strawberries and rice krispies.

Thank you, Gigi, for planning a fun evening to top off a great day!

And don't worry, there's definitely more where that came from.