Exploring the Rainforest

Carley has been learning about different habitats in school. Each student had to pick a habitat and create a diorama to illustrate. Carley chose Rainforest. The crafty endeavor became a family affair over the weekend and everyone took part in helping.

Daddy was doing a great job of blow drying the spray painted shoe box when he could no longer resist....the lull of the dryer put him to sleep. ;-)

Nana helped by forming clay creatures....especially loved the cute monkey.

Carley and Zoe also made animals from clay and, colorful flowers and trees and vines.

I helped paint and glue it all together so little fingers didn't get burned by hot glue.

My gorgeous girl taking her project to school.

They will all be on display at Parent's Night this week.

iphone uploads

Fun times & little funnies from random snapshots....

Zoe dressed herself to go out front to play with the neighbor...

guess I need to clean out her clothes, looks like she has outgrown these a little. ha, ha

Typical Zoe moment: lost in concentration on a coloring page.

Don't you love the little hipster hat style she has going on in this one. :)

 Carley lost another tooth....and just in the couple of short weeks since this pic was taken that other front tooth has grown almost all the way in!

A typical "good weather" afternoon in front of our house. All the kids from our block love to play together and I love that they have these friends close in age so close together to ride bikes and hang out.

We didn't have any lemonade so we made orange Kool-aide to share with everyone. A couple of people even stopped and bought a few cups from the girls....then they got to spend their money on a little trip to town. :)

This was on Good Friday. On a spur of the moment suggestion Zoe decided she was ready to have her ears pierced like Carley so we went to Claires. She did great and they both got some new jewelry...they picked a special sister's heart necklace. One side of the heart said "big sis" and the other said "lil sis" with sweet little charms on each. 

 Both ears at once...no tears. :)

Not sure what this is but it's some kind of a bug in a jar from the day Carley's class had a "Buggy Scientist" come to visit. 

Easter 2014

To my daughters:

We joyfully celebrated once again the sacrifice and victory of our savior this Easter. It is a beautiful time of remembering, but my prayer for both of you and for all of us is that we hold this celebration and humble gratitude in our hearts each and every day of the year. My beautiful girls, I pray you walk through this life in grace, that you look to others through the eyes of compassion. I pray you seek the Lord before the opinions and advice or teachings of others and that His word is deeply planted in your hearts and minds that it may take deep root and grow to produce fruits of the spirit in you.

Love,
mom

cousins and sweet friends ready to take off in search of colorful little Easter eggs!!!

 I love this park. We came here the year Zoe was born and it is so quiet and peaceful. I was happy we decided to all come back again and have a picnic together.

This year there was even a gorgeous field full of bluebonnets to enjoy.

Love my gorgeous momma!

We set up the tripod after church and attempted a couple of family pics....

the sun was pretty bright. :)

The Ordinary Stuff

I sit cross legged in the middle of my living room floor with my 4 year old and we are surrounded by a little village of toys. Her precious little "baby voice" is a love song to my ears. I know it will not last much longer as time passes and things change without our recognizing it until it has already happened. I want to hold on to these times and enjoy being "in the moment". My precious little accident prone child who is constantly running into walls, tripping over herself or falling off furniture and jumping up quickly to say, "I'm alright!" She walks over in front of me and dumps out a pile of blocks ready to build with them. She sets up dominoes and squeals with delight to knock them down in a row. She plays pretend and makes up songs in her own little made up language with her tiny dolls and animals. She talks nonstop. Her smiles and exuberant expressions crack me up all day long. I think about how little time I have left before she is off to school and growing even more independent. My heart aches at the thought of my baby not being my baby any longer. So I sit with her and listen. It doesn't usually make a lot of sense, the stories she tells and songs she sings, but they are precious treasures to my heart and they come straight from the ordinary stuff of our days. The perfect ordinary stuff.

I make the short afternoon drive to get my 8 year old in the pick up line at school and she jumps in the back seat with a big smile on her face and eyes alight. This is our time together, just her and I. I ask her how her day was and what she learned about in class. She rattles off excited tales of trading snacks at lunch time, making up a new "bug rescuing club" during recess, and tells about how she loves working with fractions in math. She tells me she got picked to be the helper for a new girl in her class. She says she was so happy to make a new friend today. She has a beautiful mind. Her heart is full and open and always reaching out to others. She is getting so close to a pre-teen age now and I cry out to the Lord to preserve and protect her purity and innocence. I want to keep her in a bubble but I know that is not the way. So I pray even harder that the word of the Lord is etched upon her sweet heart and that wisdom guides her choices, that she feels safe in coming to me and her dad to talk about things, that we would listen and guide her in love through the years ahead. Today, I want to let her ride her bike, build forts in the living room with her sister, climb trees, and snuggle up next to me when we read together. Today I want to relish in the perfection of the ordinary stuff. I want to share evening prayers with her and her sister and extra hugs and night time kisses. I want to brush her hair and still be able to compliment her by saying that her outfit looks "cute". 

I love how our girls think it is so special to get to sleep on a palette of blankets on the floor in their bedroom on a school night.

I love how they dress up and have tea parties, or pirate ship adventures, or go on a mission as super sleuth spies trying to find clues and unravel a mystery.

I love how they sit enraptured as they listen to me read them a chapter book in the evenings.

It is the ordinary stuff that is so truly extra ordinary. 

Our children are the greatest extraordinary gift that God has entrusted to us. We have been given the blessing and responsibility of loving them, nourishing them, protecting them, teaching them, and lovingly leading them in the path of righteousness. I believe that no matter what else we do in our lives one of our highest callings and greatest joys is to share with our children the immeasurable peace and eternal hope that comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ and submitting to him as Lord of our lives. I could wish nothing better for my girls than for them to follow Christ wholeheartedly in all they do and say. 

My Monday Morning

Ever had a Murphy's Law kind of Monday morning? Yep. That happened.

Big fat super flat tire on the way home from dropping Carley off at school. 

Stopped on the side of Hwy 5 in house shoes, sweats, and Jeremy's flannel shirt with no makeup and hair a mess.

Thank you Shane for stopping to help a girl in need (and thanks to my other good samaritans Michael, Zach, and Jeremy .....and the AAA guy who got there 2 hours later after being sent from McKinney to Sherman by mistake) 

Never seen a tire that wouldn't come off to be changed until you crawled up under the truck on the cold wet ground to get behind it with a huge sledge hammer and knocked the heck out of it!. 

Nope. there wasn't a lock on it. yes, we checked that first.

Also kicked it, pried it and pulled....each guy taking a turn with no luck. 

In the cold, cloudy, wet weather.

Stupid stubborn corroded tire.

Sorry Shane about your truck not starting after waiting on the side of the road almost 3 hours with us. Good grief. Sure hope the new battery works for ya.

Happy Monday people. It's gonna be a great week.

Abundis & Patton Weekend

The long awaited weekend finally arrived! 

We were on pins and needles waiting for their flight to come in to DFW Friday night. The girls sat anxiously peering out the front windows looking for them to drive up in their rental car. And from the moment they walked up to our front door until the time they had to go on Sunday we had the very best time you could imagine! 

Tiff and I have been friends since we were in kindergarten. Jeremy and I got married only a few months after Chris and Tiffany got married (all those years ago in our early 20's). :-) And even though most of our friendship we have lived over a thousand miles apart we have stayed in close connection through our blogs and occasional AWESOME trips to visit one another. It was so great to interact in person again and spend quality time hanging out. 

The very first night we stayed up into the morning hours playing cards and talking while our girls bonded over crafting, coloring, and jewelry making in my Art room. 

Hailey is 12, Carley is 8, Tayla is 6 and Zoe is 4 at this point. I couldn't get enough of watching them interact with one another. My mind kept thinking over the similarities between our oldest girls and our youngest girls and also comparing how they are to how we used to be. I am filled with so much love for each of them and I just pray God's hand over them and His blessings on their hearts and minds as they grow and mature into the incredible young ladies He designed them to be. 

We introduced our friends to a fun new game called Sequence the first night, and the second night we played our long time favorite card game Screwie Louie. The guys won Sequence and the girls were victorious in Screwie Louie. :-)

On Saturday morning Jeremy made his famous waffles for breakfast and we lounged around, watched movies and let the kids play jungle girls adventure, obstacle course, etc. in the back yard. 

For lunch we all loaded up and headed to the famous little hole in the wall burger shack called MG's in Sherman for some delicious hamburgers, fries, fried pickles and milkshakes....wowza!

It was such a gorgeous day, sun shining, temps only getting into the 70's and a light breeze. Perfect for spending an afternoon at the park. There were tons of things to play on and places to explore. 

Jeremy and the girls and I had to step away for about an hour to make an appearance at a friend's little boy's birthday party and when we got back they had purchased a frisbee to play with. :) fun!

These precious gifts light up our lives! Aren't they so beautiful!

When we got back to our house we decided to grab the tripod and go do some photos together.

Our last evening we cooked campfire chicken on the grill. Hung out and played more games. Tried out some wonderful sparkling white and sweet red wines, drank Woodchuck Hard Cider and then had to have some strong coffee, lol. :)

 We let the kids play pirates, hide and seek and watch Frozen until they finally crashed completely exhausted from the day. They LOVED getting to have a sleepover in their room. They played and got along so great together. 

Here are some favorites from the little photo shoot. 

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

We love this family as our own. 

To our kids they are Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Chris and their cousins Hailey and Tayla. They are beautiful people inside and out and such an example of a loving family to everyone they know.

Look at these gorgeous photos....I'm thinking pretty good lookin' profile pics for your blog Tiff. 

wink, wink. ;)

Thank you Tiff for getting some sweet shots of us too. :)

Here's the whole gang. 

This one is definitely getting printed to go in a frame or hung on my fridge. 

Love you guys! We had a blast this weekend! Can't wait to do it again!

....and thank you for the awesome, artsy abstract puzzle. 

So fun putting it together with you guys this morning. xoxo

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, my mom went and had a very special weekend with my beautiful sister and her girls while Jodi's husband Chris had to be out of town. I think they had a pretty wonderful time too....just hope mom still wants to come back home today after being spoiled by Jodi's amazing cooking skills all weekend!!! 

Zoe's 4th Birthday

We celebrated Zoe's 4th Birthday with a fancy little tea party at our house. Her cousins Shayna, Katelyn, and Isabel along with our neighbor Maddie came to party with us.

Jodi made amazing tea party finger foods and bite size desserts for the girls. 

Jeremy dressed up and served like a fancy waiter from Downton Abbey. What a great daddy.

The adults enjoyed sandwiches and snacks and watching the little girls at play.

 pretty sisters.....love, love, love them!

Cake and presents, and playing with presents....especially the veterinarian dress up, super cute!

These little princesses were so much fun together.

We love you our sweet little Zoe. You are growing so fast and you are so very precious and smart and funny. Our lives are filled with so much joy because of you and we cherish you as our baby girl and are so proud of the "big girl" you are becoming. Happy Birthday!