 |
 |
He is PRAYING of course! 😉
I just had to snap these shots before dinner one night because I had been noticing how funny he looks when he ‘prays’. (Yes, sometimes I peek when I pray just to see if my kids are really praying. Shhh, don’t tell!) Not sure why Asher has to have his mouth open or his eyes squinty closed but it sure is cute!
When we got home from Pine Cove, we were very anxious to pick up Asher! We missed him! After we unloaded the car on Saturday afternoon, James wanted to wash the car. A perfect father/son photo op!
 |
| precious |
 |
| Asher even cleans tires! |
Asher got a little carried away with the soap and soon he looked like this:
 |
| soap in your eye is never fun! |
So naturally, someone had to spray the soap out of his eyes!
 |
Who volunteered to do this? Ella had no problem spraying him!
 |
| getting hosed |
Now that he was ‘clean’ and could see, he could get on to other activities!
 |
| soaked (and loving it) |
He got his truck and we filled it with water, and then his job became pushing it up and down the driveway!
 |
 |
Asher this summer:
 |
| blue frosted cupcakes! |
Ella last summer:
 |
| I can’t imagine what flavor ice cream this is! |
And just because I didn’t want Rilyn feeling left out, and I’m feeling patriotic:
 |
| Rilyn 16 months old eating ravoli. |
I don’t know what is up with all the critters in our house as of late, but I’m getting sick of it! (mouse in the kitchen in May(didn’t blog that), snake last week, and now…)
So before I tell you what happened this morning, I have to tell you what happened last night.
While I was cooking dinner on the stove, I turned on the overhead stove fan and I heard thumpity thump thump! First thought was that the fan was broken. Second thought was there was a dead mouse up there, and my third thought was a bird. I had remembered hearing faint chirping noises in the vent last week.
Now if you know me, you know I loathe birds. This happened to me a year and a half ago and I still get chills thinking about it. So anyway, I tell James I think our fan is broken or there is an animal up there and so he turns it on and of course, it works fine.
This morning James wants to make breakfast on the stove. He turns the fan on and the thumpity thump thump happens and my first words were “I told you so!” (I love saying that a little too much.) He turns the fan off and on again and no noise. “I’ll deal with it later” is James’ response. Now I’m cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast and I see a bird’s head peeking at me from the vent!!!! (Bird must of used his beak to pry open the vent a little.)
 |
| bird’s eye and beak creepily looking at me in the upper left hand corner of vent |
So of course I immediately scream bloody murder but James is outside and can’t hear me. But all the kids can and Asher and Ella immediately start crying. Rilyn comes running in the kitchen and I am yelling “There’s a bird in there! I hate birds!” and more screaming ensues from me. Rilyn looks at me and asks, “Why do you hate God’s creation?”
Ouch. That one hurt, but have no time to deal with my sinful state because THERE’S A BIRD IN MY HOUSE! (God understands me.)
So, I calm down enough to take a picture for the blog, (your welcome), and James comes in and I tell him he will get the bird NOW.
Here is James brainstorming.
 |
| “Maybe I can catch the bird in the bag?!?” |
So James decides the bag probably won’t work and he goes into the garage to think of something else to do. Meanwhile, THE BIRD FLIES OUT OF THE VENT INTO MY LIVING ROOM!!! At this point I lose it and start screaming again (but still remain cool enough to take a picture-give me some credit!).
 |
| The bird perches on top of the middle curtain rod. |
James comes running in from the garage to find this:
 |
| rilyn |
 |
| ella (with some MAJOR bed head) |
 |
| asher |
So you can safely say that I’ve managed to make sure that all three of my kids will be scared to death of birds for the rest of their life. At least they can look back on this blog and find the exact incident where mommy screwed them up and not have to go to a psychiatrist for it.
So James gets a broom and after about 5 minutes gets the bird to fly out of our house via the back door. I grabbed the kids and put them in their room like it was a scene from the Panic Room.
James now has a new honey-do list and you can bet the first item is “go into attic and do what needs to be done.”
We had a great July 4th weekend celebrating at my parent’s new (tree)house in College Station on their 14 acres. This house is 10 feet off the ground on stilts! (I will post pics another day.) The kids had their first experience with sparklers and Rilyn even lit fireworks(with daddy supervising)! Asher was freaked out and Ella didn’t like the noise. Rilyn proved to be the family pyro along with James!
 |
| sisters |
 |
| Ella’s first sparkler |
 |
| Had to include this picture since it looks like Rilyn is lighting James bottom! |
 |
| Asher getting some sparkler action |
 |
| watching our own private fireworks show! |
 |
| love Rilyn’s face in this one |
 |
| Asher and Ella losing it with Grandma and Rilyn showing her pyro spirit |
 |
| James living out his boyhood! He could of played all night with the fireworks. |
 |
| Rilyn getting brave and lighting the ‘big’ fireworks! |
 |
| trying to write letters |
 |
| showing off |
 |
| we watched George Bush library firework show afterwards |
 |
| Too loud for Ella! |
 |
| Here is our attempt at a ‘cute’ family shot. You can see Asher doesn’t want to be
tickled! Oh well, we tried! |
 |
| screaming “Happy July 4th!” |
The kids were very loved on while we were gone! When we got home,(at 11 p.m. but once again we were supposed to be home at 8:30), on Monday night from California, this is what we saw at my sister’s house.
 |
| sweet sister love |
Then on the drive home on Tuesday afternoon, Asher fell asleep with his beloved cars. (We always put a big plate on his lap so he can drive his cars around on road trips.)
 |
| dreaming of cars I’m sure |
We are blessed to have a wonderful neighborhood pool that is only about 200 yards away from our house! This pool has some really cool slides and just this past weekend, Rilyn and Ella got brave enough to try them!
 |
| shadowglen pool slides |
Here is Rilyn going down! (She only went down about 15 times that day!)
 |
| wheeeee |
And here is Ella. Now Ella went 3 times before the lifeguard caught on that she wasn’t exactly tall enough. Oops!
 |
| You can tell by Ella adjusting her goggles before she
goes in, that this slide is not fast as long as you are sitting. But if you lay down, that’s another story! |
And here is Asher sporting his new floatation device that we love!
 |
It’s really nice to have such a fun, clean pool near us to swim in everyday. Why is it so clean? Well, because we have very specific rules. (The last rule is my favorite.) 🙂
 |
| It makes me shudder that they even have to print rules like the last one…really,
are people that gross? |
When I try to stop, (that’s hard to do!) and think about how amazing a father James is, I start to get teary-eyed. (In my old age, I cry all the time!) 😉 But seriously, “spiritual leader of our home” is the first thing I think of when I think of James as my children’s father. What a blessing to know that he wants to point our children to Christ everyday in every situation! And, he is smart and creative in the ways he chooses to do it! Seriously. This man came up with, (on a rainy Saturday), for the girls to do chores to earn money so they could buy ‘supplies’ for a person who is homeless. They went to the store later and bought a thermal blanket.
I think of James as the “funny dad” who is super goofy and loves to kid around. I am very, let’s say, ‘realistic’ and ‘down to business’ type mom and I tend to forego the ‘funny business’. James brings the laughter in our home, and even though half the time it annoys me, the kids love it and need it! Okay, maybe I need it too. 😉 Example: James declares as we are pulling in the driveway backwards that this is our ‘backward house’ because we are driving in backwards. So everyone has to walk in the house backwards and do things backwards. Drives me nuts! But the kids love it! 🙂
James is the dad who makes up stories about princesses and knights for his daughters at bedtime that will last a couple of weeks. Every night is a new ‘chapter’. He takes his daughters on dates and plays soccer with them to teach them the rules. He massages their feet after soccer games. He dances in their dance recital, not to mention all the ‘dance parties’ he has in our living room with the kids! He spends 2 hours making a birthday card for our daughter. He drives Rilyn to school each morning and practices memorizing scripture with her. They get donuts together for every scripture memorized. I could go on and on. We love you James! Happy Father’s Day!
 |
| father’s day 2010 |
 |
| father son |
 |
| father’s day 2010 |
Happy Father’s Day weekend!!!
 |
| me and my dad circa 1985 (6 years old?) |
 |
| James and his dad circa 1980 |
 |
| Daddy with Rilyn (notice the spit up!) 2004 |
 |
| daddy with newborn Ella-2006 |
 |
| daddy with newborn Asher making the same face and both showing their Agge pride! |
the paquettes 