August 2017

It's November!  And, before I forget any more of what happened the past few months, here are pictures of our August.

Emma loves matching her baby doll.  And, this particular summer day, she even took a nap!  It looks like she just collapsed on her bed.  :)

My mom turned 65 on August 1!  My dad, sister, Uncle Jon, and I had been working for months on a big surprise party for her for the weekend after her birthday.  We didn't want her to get a hint of what was happening, though, so we did dinner at her house on her actual birthday.  Obviously, my sister wasn't here yet to make an amazing cake, which is why this cake (that I baked) collapsed!  (It did taste good, though!)

My sister flew in on Friday evening, August 4.  The kids and I all drove to the airport to pick her up.   (She said she'd never had such an enthusiastic welcoming party!)  We all went swimming at our Heritage pools that evening, and then we all brought Panera bagels the next morning to my mom.  She was so shocked when Emily was there with all of us!  My cousin, Anna, was also there as a surprise.  She just kept looking from Anna to Emily and back and forth again.  We swam all morning and then convinced her to come over that evening to our house for pizza.  Instead, she pulled up to see this flashing sign that my dad set up and a surprise party!

"Sweet Memories Cakes in Keller made her cake!  My favorite part was the "Mom-o" license plate with three carseats in the back--that was my dad's idea! 

This is the beautiful dining room table Dave built just in time for the party!  Actually, the reason he didn't come with us to the airport to pick up Emily is because he was still attaching the legs.  It is 10 feet long, and we look forward to many happy celebrations around it through the years.

The next morning, we all went to Countryside together.  I love these sweet pictures of my dad walking in with my kids.  After church, we went to Mac's, a favorite after-church restaurant of our family.

My mom's dear friend, Dema, came from Iowa for all the birthday celebrations.  Demo has always been like an aunt to my sister and me.  At Mac's, she shared a beautiful tribute to my mom about how my mom and her family were instrumental in leading her to the Lord decades ago.  It was such a special time!  And then, we all swam the rest of the afternoon.

Anna spent the night with us, and the next day we dropped Isaac off at Camp in the City and then went to the FW Museum.  Anna is a huge help with me and the kids and is so fun to have visit.

August life at home...

eating Spaghettios--they had never had them before and did NOT like them

playing in the rock box with friends

wrapping up "gifts"--they love to put toys in gift bags and LOTS of tissue paper and then give these presents to each other and David and me!

One of the presents I received in a gift bag from Emma was her dolls!  And, she insisted I leave them displayed on my dresser for weeks.  "I gave those to you!" she'd say.  

Isaac was getting excited about starting football, and Emma was talking a lot about ballet, so Josiah said he was going to play basketball!  (He still talks about this!)  

Emma started ballet at Trinity Valley School of Ballet.  I knew she was concentrating so hard at her first class because her little tongue was sticking out just a bit from her mouth as she listened and did what her teacher said.  :)  I posted on a women's group page from church asking for suggestions on where to take ballet lessons, and I'm so glad someone mentioned Trinity Valley.  A lady from Countryside teaches lessons there; she's not Emma's teacher, but I'm glad for the connection.  I absolutely can't say enough about Emma's ballet lessons.  The teacher plays beautiful orchestrations and hymns for the lessons and weaves the Lord into the lessons.  It's just wonderful!

Isaac started playing flag football on an Upward team!  He knew one of the boys on his team from Trail Life last year.  Isaac looks so grown up to me in this picture! 

I know it won't last forever, but I love that in this sweet season my boys usually always end up on the same bunk together.  

Josiah started sorting silverware after breakfast.  The bigger kids are glad he pitches in on kitchen chores.  ;)

This is Isaac's awesome counselor that he had for Pine Cove Camp in the City!  His name is "Life Alert."  (All the Pine Cove staff members have nicknames--you never know their "real" name until the last day of camp.)  We absolutely love Camp in the City and the awesome staff who invest in Isaac there!    On the last afternoon of camp, all the parents are invited to a closing celebration.  The staff and kids sing many of the songs they've sang in worship during the week, and the director shares about Pine Cove.  Then, each cabin breaks into small groups, and the counselor brings each camper forward one by one and shares the awesome qualities he sees in that child that the Lord will use in his/her life!  It is so moving!  

This year, Isaac's counselor said his qualities were "engaging, compassionate, and bold."  Of course, I was crying the whole time.  David and I see these qualities in Isaac, but it was special to have someone else that Isaac looks up to say the same things! 

These are some fun pictures of Isaac and his cabin from his week at Camp in the City, but by far the most exciting part of this week was that Isaac accepted Jesus as His Savior on August 9.  When I picked up Isaac that afternoon, I asked his counselor, "Did Isaac have a good day?"  He smiled a huge smile and said, "Yes!!  Actually, he just accepted Christ a few moments ago!"  I was in SUCH shock. I teared up a bit but really wanted to hear all about it from Isaac.  Later that evening, Isaac told me all about it.  He told me how his counselor asked him questions about Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and then they prayed together.  He said, "Mom, I feel different!  I feel happier and stronger.  My old self is gone!"  David and I were (and are!) so humbled and grateful.  We had talked about this with Isaac for a few months previous to this.  We praise God for calling Isaac to Himself and pray for the Lord to continue to lead and guide Isaac all his life.

My friend, Tiffany, and I had a fun time shopping at the Rhea Lana sale.  These are fun nights for moms!  :)  A few days later, I took my kids back to the sale for the half-price day and let them each pick something.  They seemed as excited as Christmas!  They looked, wondered, changed their minds, but finally Emma and Josiah chose poppers and Isaac chose this hockey jersey. 

The Heritage pool was open a few more afternoons after public school started, so we enjoyed swimming a few last times.

We bought this new convertible stroller in anticipation for fostering!  Emma and Josiah tested it out one afternoon when we went to the airport to buy tickets to Colorado! 

Emma is nearly always my first kid awake.  This particular morning, I was working in the schoolroom when she came out of her room.  I had to laugh to see that she had dressed herself in her Ariel costume (another awesome deal at the Rhea Lana sale for $3!).  "Mom, can you believe Ariel is a good cleaner?" she asked me as she cleaned our board.

We traveled out to the Palo Duro Canyon on Friday, August 25 with my parents to see the canyon and attend the "Texas" musical we have heard about for years!

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we drove out to the canyon and hiked for hours.  The canyon was just beautiful!  We kept wondering how we've lived in Texas for 12 years and had never visited?!  

The boys had a lot of fun finding collared lizards.

We went to the "Texas" musical on Saturday evening.  First, we had the chuckwagon dinner (so good!).  

The Texas musical was absolutely fantastic!  The backdrop for the musical is the canyon itself, and as soon as it gets dark, you can see millions of stars above you--stunning!  The acting and singing were so well done.  We are studying American history this year in our Classical Conversations curriculum, and so we said this was a good "kick off" to our school year as there was so much history in this storyline.  At the end of the musical, there was a huge musical tribute to all current and former US military members.  I don't think there was a dry eye in the audience!  It was incredible and made us so proud to be Texans and Americans!

We hiked for a few more hours the next day before driving back home.  This time, we took a trail to find Charles Goodnight's original sod house!

Emma walked down hills like this "with her wings out" :)

the view inside the sod house

It was such a fun weekend!  I'm so thankful for special times such as this with my family and my parents.  

We officially started our new year of homeschool the next morning!  I can't believe I have a 2nd grader and a kindergartener.  I also have a very busy 2 year old!  

We had our first day of CC on Wednesday, August 23.

Emma's buckled her ballerina doll into the seatbelt for the first day of CC.  

One of my favorite parts of CC is that each child does a presentation each week!  Emma talked about her doll and her doll's ballet outfit for her first presentation.  I was so proud of her for even standing up and doing this on her very first day of CC!  She has a precious class of 7 girls and 1 boy.  :)  After her first day at CC, she said she was changing her doll's name to "Brielle," which is one of her sweet friends in CC class.  :)

My kids had a lot of fun at their cousin Amanda's birthday party!  Isaac loved getting his picture with Batman.  

One morning while Emma and I were doing math, she told me, "I know everything about math!"  Ha!

These are a few more pictures from CC.  The kids learned all their states and capitals in the first 10 weeks.  Emma's class loves when they get to put mini M&Ms on each state as they practice!

Emma did her presentation the second week about Dave's trombone.  For being petite, it is shocking how well she can buzz her lips and make an excellent sound on the trombone!  She even can do it while moving the slide!  

Isaac has no trepidation when he's presenting.  I spend most of my CC mornings in Emma's class, but I try to catch Isaac's presentations as often as I can.  

One day while Isaac and Emma were doing chores, Josiah lined up all their chairs.  He said he did it "to make a train."  I'm so thankful for these three kids and the friendships and relationships they are building.