My Fundraising Page

My Fundraising Page


Please see the link above to help out my neighbor and great friend Pam Neff. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma 2 years ago after the birth of her 3rd daughter. She is currently in remission and in good health. We need to find a cure for this because currently there is no cure for this type of cancer. Any donation would be appreciated. There isn't such a thing as a small donation so thanks very much!!!!
Sonia

Sam's Arrow of Light and 11th Birthday

So I'm a little late this time in posting about Sam's birthday. He turned 11 on May 28th. One more year of primary then he will be in Young Mens and have the priesthood- unreal! Sam wanted a sports party so about 20 kids came to a local park and we played all of his favorite games. Flag Football, Volleyball, Soccer, Kick Ball and just ran around having fun.

We are so grateful for Sam and his sweet personality. He is such a huge help to me in the mornings and is willing to pretty much do anything I ask without complaining. He is a great example to his younger sister and brother. Sam is also very talented in sports. He is really good at all of them. I think one day he will get a sports scholarship and play something professional one day.

Sam also has been working hard on his Arrow of Light award and accomplished that. That required a lot of work, but I enjoyed working with him on it. We have some good memories of building things together and fixing things.

Sam has been on the A honor roll all year. We are proud of him. He will be going into 6th grade. Off to Middle School next year.

Sam is currently reading the Lightening Thief Series and finally enjoys reading.

I love my Sam very much and I know time will go by fast now once they are out of Elementary school the years seem to fly by.

Happy Birthday Sam and I'm so thankful for you!

Mom

Eliza turned SIX

My sweet Eliza is now SIX, where did the last six years go? She has grown so much this past year in Kindergarten. She went from barely writing her name to reading little small books on her own. I was lucky enough to be able to go on 4 field trips with her this year! We went to the Pumpkin Patch, Living Museum, Williamsburg and the Strawberry Patch. It was fun to be able to bond with her this way. The best part is that she didn't ignore me on the field trips like my other kids did-lol!

Eliza has also participated in a lot of different things this year. She tried Fall and Spring soccer. She took up ballet-following her big sister in this area- she was in her first Christmas program which was so cute. Her recital is in just a couple of weeks. She also has taken up swimming lessons again and according to her teachers, she is the "best" in the class and moved up two spots in one session. They want her to join their swim team, but she says "she is just too busy for that!" She is so funny. She will just tell you like it is.

Eliza would kill me if she knew I was writing this but she really likes BOYS! I'm going to have my hands full with her I can tell. She wanted a "star wars" party with all boys, (and I wanted a princess party with all girls) I was finally able to pursuade her to have a princess party! Which was really cute.

I love my Eliza girl so much. She is the "princess" of the house. She basically tells us what to do and for some reason we all give in to her. She still talks about her Connecticut friends to, but I am happy that she has some really good friends here in VA also!

I hope this year brings Eliza much happiness and growth.

Courtney is THIRTEEN!

Courtney turned THIRTEEN ON Feb. 21st. We celebrated by having a MAKE-UP party on Friday night. About 6 girls came and a friend of ours is a PROFESSIONAL make-up artist so she came and dolled up all the girls. They all looked like MODELS it was done perfect, not too much make-up but just enough for them to SHINE! Courtney had a blast.
On Saturday she got to go to her first TEMPLE trip, she said it was AWESOME! She got up at 4:30 in the morning and got home about 2pm. Then we treated HER and ELIZA to a PEDICURE AND MANICURE along with my sister and mom. We enjoyed our GIRLY time. We finished the evening with DINNER out. I think COURTNEY had a GREAT BIRTHDAY!


Courtney has accomplished a lot in her short 13 years! The lastest news is that she was nominated to be a part of the JUNIOR HONOR SOCIETY what a huge success. She has maintained a 4.0 GPA through ALL of middle school. She also recently joined the VISIONS which is the TALENTED AND GIFTED program. COURTNEY loves DRAMA....she is LITTLE RED this year in the school play INTO THE WOODS She has been practicing hard to learn all of her parts as it is a LEAD roll.


We are very proud of COURTNEY and she hopes to be a ROCKSTAR one day and I don't doubt that she will make it BIG one day!!!!

LOVE YOU COURTNEY!

we had a GREAT Christmas

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already- my favorite time of the year. It went by too fast. We did a lot of fun activities throughout the Christmas season, too many to name my favorite but some of the highlights were:
Courtney and Eliza's Christmas program
Christmas Town at Busch Gardens
Rockettes with some really great friends
visiting with friends and then going to see the lights in Hampton
Christmas Eve in Charlottesville visiting family
Christmas Day of course
Day after Christmas my parents came. We missed my sister this year, she didn't make it in.
Baking, time with the family and having Eber home.

I'm sure there is a lot more we did but can't name them all. We also got to enjoy a little snow here in Williamsburg which is unusual for this area!

So as we start the New Year of course I have some goals- they seem to be the same each year but this year definitely get into shape- Eber and I started in the fall and he has lost 15 lbs and I have lost 16 lbs so its a small start but we hope to go to the YMCA more often to work out. I also want more quality family time-so much running around always that we are going to have a schedule of how much TV is allowed each day, or Wii etc.. and have more family time.

Here are a few pictures through out the season. I also hope to blog more-ha.

my four kids as elves

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/hFX5cs3S20GFRfkw?cmpid=ey_fb_self

Long time since I lasted posted! A lot to update!

WOW- where did the months go- It was a fast summer! I didn't know it had been so long since I last updated.

We had a great summer- The kids joined their first Swim Team (Courtney and Sam) the were the "WAVES" They had a great time getting to know the kids in the neighborhood and also feeling more comfortable in the water and learning new swim skills. They both did a great job and earned many ribbons through out the season. Eliza hopes to join next year!

Our main vacation was going to Nags Head with Eber's two brothers and their families- we had a blast. We hope to do this every year. The highlight of that trip was seeing my kids try to drive Go-Karts- not very pretty! It was so funny. I already posted pictures from that trip so if you missed it go back and check those out.
The rest of the summer was spent at Busch Gardens and Water Country, Neighborhood Pool, Parks, Bowling, Movies and some lazy days at home (my favorite-ha) I tried to get the house organized but its back to being a mess already! We also did some landscaping which I got poison Ivy really bad! I had to go to the Dr. twice to get a shot for the pain and itching- it was miserable. The last little trip we took was to my parents house in Wytheville, VA. Its about 5 hours from us. We had a big cook-out with my aunts and uncles and cousins. It was fun to go see their house and to catch up with family.

Now we are back into school. Courtney is in 7th. Sam is in 5th and Eliza is in Kindergarten! Brady is stuck home with me for a few more years. I love having my kids home with me but now at least Brady can get back on a normal nap schedule! Summer was crazy trying to keep the house quiet for him to sleep! The kids are doing great in school. Courtney is back into choir and drama. Sam is taking an after school soccer club, unfortunately for Eliza's age they don't offer any after school programs just yet!

Sam and Eliza are in the county league for Soccer- it is so fun watching their games. They both have won their first 3 games! They also have both made a goal. Sam was goalie this past week for half of the game and he blocked a lot of shots! Eliza loves chasing the ball-sometimes she gets confused and starts doing her ballet moves out on the field though-too funny.

Courtney is in a couple of fall shows for her Dance Revolution Team. She auditioned for a solo and is singing a duet of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" She will be doing a dance to "Thriller" also. She is a "dead" ballerina for Thriller!

Brady is still scooting- but he has learned to crawl now (yes he is 14 months old and just learning to crawl!) He stands alone but refuses to walk to us. He walks around the furniture holding on but won't let go. He is so funny. He loves to make us laugh-he laughs at himself, and it sounds like an "old man" its so loud and deep- he's a cutie. Besides the last few nights he finally improved on sleeping, but now he has a cold so he is waking up more.

I love fall time- besides the Christmas season this is my all time favorite time of year. The crisp mornings- great for my morning walks, the leaves are changing and the excitement in the air for

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. I love pumpkin patches and hay rides etc.. I haven't done much with apple picking but that would be fun too. So enjoy this time of year.... I love it!

Would love to hear from everyone shoot me an email or join facebook! email is eberhoo@hotmail.com

Brady's first birthday!!!!

Brady I can't believe you are one! This has been the fastest year with so many changes! You are truly a blessing to our family. It was hard getting you here, then you were in the NICU for a week but are a strong fighter and have been ever since we brought you home. You bring so much joy and laughs to our family.

Your milestones:
first smile- 3 weeks old
first laugh - 6 weeks
rolled over- 5 months ( a little late!)
sit up- 5 1/2 months
NEVER CRAWLED
Scooting 10 months old
taking a few steps- 11 months to current

Only has slept through the night a handful of times! Need to work on that!

You are cute scooting around! I don't think you will ever crawl. You are taking a few steps so you might be our quickest to walk.
You are a people person, you don't like to be by yourself much. You are also a busy bee- have to be moving. When you were really little we used to have to stand and walk you around, as soon as we stopped you would cry!
You have us all (including Eliza now) wrapped around your little finger. We all spoil you because its so fun too.
This next year I'm sure will go by just as fast with you doing more and more cute things. We love you so much. Happy FIRST birthday BRADY BOY!

Beach Week was a BLAST

We had a GREAT time at the beach this year. We went with two of Eber's brothers (Calvin and Mike) and their families and lots of cousins, it was so fun! We were able to do some fun things, like of course go to the beach a lot. Courtney and Sam became experts on boogie boarding- well they tried but they had fun! A few times the waves were pretty choppy. Sam got wiped out once really bad and then when we were coming onto the land he got caught in the undertow; so you have to be careful that is for sure! Eliza mainly had fun playing in the sand and chasing Uncle Mike with buckets of water! Brady ate sand, so he didn't go to the beach much with us!

Besides being beach bums we did Go-Karts for the first time. My kids didn't have a clue how to drive! They have only driven their little power wheel cars and bumper cars at Busch Gardens- so braking was a new experience. I don't think Courtney ever learned to brake! It was the best laugh though, it was crazy. Little Eliza raced in her car too- she was passing everyone and then she would giggle! She got a little mad when someone ran her off the track!

One day we hiked up the dunes in the heat! It was sooo hot. We bought the kids kites so they could fly them up there- it was a lot of fun. Kids have so much energy; Eliza kept rolling down then climbing back up. One time of climbing was enough for me!

The kids also played laser tag and went putt-putt golfing and movies.

We are looking forward to next year. A HUGE thanks to my sister-n-law Darlene for everything that she did to make this trip possible, it was great memories for us and for the kids- we love you guys!
Here are a few pictures from the week. There is more posted on facebook under Courtney Cummings and Sonia White Cummings.

99 balloons

If you need an uplifting story...go to you tube and type in 99 balloons. Its a touching story. I thought it puts life into perspective to live everyday to the fullest.

Answer to a prayer

I'm documenting this so one day Sam will remember this....

This morning Sam woke up sad because he couldn't find his glasses. He looked everywhere and just couldn't find them. He asked me to look. I also tore up the bed, looked under things, no sign of them. He went back one more time to double check. Still no luck. I could tell he was still upset and I kept telling him he's just going to have to go to school without them. ( it was almost time for his bus). I finally asked Sam if he would like to say a prayer and I'll go look one more time. I was hoping he would say it, but he asked me to. So after the prayer I went back up to look and I was panicking because I wasn't having any luck still. As I was walking by the bathroom (after checking in there before) I checked one more time before going down the stairs, and as I was leaving the bathroom I looked behind the door and on the floor there they were!!! It was amazing to me and I felt the tears coming and I thanked Heavenly Father for helping us find them, but most importantly for giving Sam the faith that prayer does work and he can help us when we need him. I could barely talk to Sam after wards for being overwhelmed with the feeling that I had. A small little prayer was answered but probably a life changing moment for my Sam.

Brady Scooting from point A to point B

Brady's nickname is now SCOOTER.... We've never had a "scooter" before. He is cute getting around this way. He has NO desire to crawl, but shows interest in walking....we'll see if he walks before he is one. Only ONE more month until then though so the count down is on.

preschool days are almost over for Eliza!

Its hard to believe that Eliza only has two more days of preschool left! She has had a great year making a lot of new friends and growing academically! Its sad to say good bye to these precious years. She will however be going to the same school for kindergarten and will ride the bus with Sam so she will have fun doing that. She was a late talker but her teachers now feel like she is "caught up" with the rest of the gang so we are proud of that. I got to enjoy many days with her at her school this year. We love you Eliza and hope by chance you will remember some of these early days of school. Good luck in Kindergarten!!!

Brady trying to stay awake for dinner but he didn't quite make it. He is 9 months old in these pictures! He is a joy to have. He is a very good baby and loves to be around his older brother and sisters. He also loves to chase the doggie around the house now.