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Sep

flashback friday-are you ready for some football?

Categories: James, Julie and Rilyn

My favorite season is upon us! Football season mixed in with cooler weather (that technically won’t get here til Novemberish but hey, a girl can dream!) Ever since I graduated from Texas A&M (2001), my parents have had four Aggie football season tickets in the Zone and we have shared them with my brother and his wife. Here we are at our seats before the game started in 2004.

Kyle Field before the game started

And here I am in 2005 all hot and sweaty because I’m 6 months pregnant with Ella!

Rilyn gets to go to her second Aggie football game tomorrow with grandpa, uncle Jeff, and aunt Becca. Next year, it’s Ella’s turn!

Rilyn’s first game last year at Kyle Field

Cheering the Aggies last year!

Aug

flashback Friday-back to school edition

By Julie P. 2 Comments

Categories: Julie

Rilyn is headed back to school soon! She starts 1st grade and I’m very excited for her! She is admittedly nervous though, because I told her that she would be ‘graded’ now on her work. What’s the big deal, right? But to this little people pleaser, IT IS A HUGE DEAL! I was ‘grading’ one of her summer workbooks earlier this week and she FLIPPED OUT when I wrote ‘-2 ‘at the top of her paper and I X’d out two of the problems that were wrong. She was crying so hard because she didn’t get 100%. Yikes! James and I both had talks with her about how no one is perfect (except Jesus!) and even mommy and daddy got things wrong on their school work all the time, (James more than me!) 😉 Getting things wrong is how we learn and no one is expecting her to know everything! Now, James and I understand where Rilyn is coming from, because we both were very hard workers in school and strived to get A’s. It will be an interesting year to say the least for Miss Rilyn! Pray for us! 🙂
So, in true flashback Friday style, here is my first grade ‘first day of school’ picture! (I had some fashion issues trying to get away with those white shoes over purple socks! Yikes!)

1985

And just for kicks, here is my second grade:

Getting some good use out of the

Snoopy lunch pail again!

And my fifth grade picture (complete with pink and purple socks scrunched, L.A. Gear shoes, a swatch watch, stone washed denim, and puffy painted shirt!!! Hello 1989!)

Aug

my protege

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Julie and Rilyn

Rilyn received a scrapbook for her birthday. (Surprisingly, not by me!) She recently became interested in filling it up with pictures. I have a stack of old pictures from when I used to print them for James to have in his office (before we had our blog), and so I gave her a bunch of those and she started her first ever scrapbook! I’m so proud! 🙂

She isn’t allowed to use mommy’s special paper and stickers yet (maybe when she is older and is really committed to this hobby), so she took it upon herself to design her own paper! So cute!

We’ll call this page ‘Sister Love’. I love how she made her own border!

This is my ‘sister love’ page way back when.

‘Big Sister Time’, she went with dots for this design!

my ‘Big Sister Time’ page

“Let’s go see the lake mommy and daddy” (I love the trees!)

my family portrait page

Aug

lake day

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Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

Here are more pictures of our afternoon at the lake on Saturday! We went to Decker Lake which is only 10 minutes away from us!

James and Ella

me and Rilyn

James

air borne

love this pic!

all good things must come to an end!

water skiing

Me water skiing after 12 years! I was really surprised that I could still get up! It is such

hard work on your arm muscles!

Aug

rough ridin’

By Julie P. 1 Comment

Categories: Julie

Saturday we went tubing and water skiing on our friend’s boat. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I am an adrenaline junkie and I appreciate a good rush!

Well let’s just say Eddie, (the boat driver), took full advantage of me wanting an ‘edgy ride’! (That’s what he called it. The other choice he gave was a ‘smooth’ ride.) Props go to James who got some seriously hilarious shots of me rough ridin’ at the lake!

All is well. I can handle this!

whoa-what’s this?!?

A little topsy turvy!

A blast of water shooting up my nose doesn’t feel great but I keep hanging on!

starting to panic

You know it’s a wild ride when your hair stands straight up like bunny ears!

High flyin’ and rough ridin’!!!

Jul

pine cove day 6

By Julie P. 1 Comment

Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

Friday was our last full day of camp. We took it easy because well, we were tired! James and the girls played frisbee golf during free time.

frisbee golf

interesting form Ella… 😉

That evening, Wild Kids (Rilyn’s program), had a “Character Quality” ceremony. Her counselor, “Half Asleep” presented her with her certificate.

Half Asleep reading it to Rilyn

It read: “Rilyn is a good listener and is thoughtful of others. She is insightful, making it easy for her to understand those around her. She is generous of her possessions and time.”
That night we prayed with “Spirit Fingers” and thanked her for such a wonderful week with us!

Ella, Spirit Fingers, and Rilyn

We thank God for blessing us with the chance to attend Pine Cove family camp last week!

mommy and her girls

Jul

pine cove day 5

By Julie P. 1 Comment

Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

Thursday was all about banana boating! I’m so glad Jen took pictures of our family because Ella’s expressions are priceless! (Once again, Ella was scared, but asked God for courage to ride!)

banana boating time!

Rilyn can barely keep her helmet on!

Ella is screaming!

Jen said she made this face the whole time!

ella: terrified

Rilyn being a little daring!

After we went, we decided it would be fun(ny) to have a ‘kids only’ banana boat ride. We were definitely the mean parents, making the boat driver go faster even though the kids would put their thumbs down to slow down. We were laughing so hard at their expense!

Cole had his thumb down pretty much the whole time!

I’m sad this next picture isn’t clearer, but I had to post to show these bff’s and their personalities! Anna is holding her thumb up to go faster and Ella is holding her thumb down to slow down! 😉

anna and ella

At one point, the boat started sinking because of the speed and it was hilarious!

sinking

they were so scared but we were dying laughing!!

After banana boating, we went to the pool where we all took turns going down the slide!

Rilyn

Always following the rules! Her arms are crossed perfectly!

The second time Rilyn went down, she didn’t enter as graceful!

Jul

pine cove day 4

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Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

Wednesday morning started out with a 7 a.m. trail ride. (We had a counselor come to our cabin and take our girls to breakfast for us!)

James and I in the stable

James

After the trail ride, we had a southern breakfast at a little cabin overlooking the lake. So yummy and relaxing!

relaxing

In the afternoon, during free time, the Richardsons and our family took the kids tubing!

Love this picture of Rilyn and Cole!

Go Rilyn!

Ella was very nervous about tubing. Once again, we took her fear to the Lord and asked Him for courage!

Ella scared before her turn

Ella going very slow!

looks like she had fun!

After tubing we headed to the pool so Rilyn could go on the Blob. Unfortunately she landed wrong and slid off quickly and was too scared to try again.

Rilyn jumping off the board to the blob

That night was the talent show! James and Rilyn did the Father/Daughter dance to Jai Ho with Dave and Anna Barrett that they did in their dance recital in May.

Rilyn almost hit her head on the beam above. The

whole audience gasped, but James had no clue how

close she came!

They got a standing ovation and if there was a prize for first place, I’m confident they deserved it!

Jul

pine cove day 3

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Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

On Tuesday, Rilyn got to shoot BB guns during her Wild Kids program!

wow, the counselor looks pretty intense here!

During free time, our family headed to the zipline! Both Rilyn and Ella were pretty scared (you start ziplining at about 3 stories high!) What is neat is that at Pine Cove all the counselors pray with you and your kids before every ‘event’. So when Rilyn was up there with James about to zip down, one of the counselors prayed with her for courage.

Rilyn with James on the zipline next to her in the back

rilyn

Ella’s turn was next and I went with her. She acted so scared before she went up and I honestly thought she wouldn’t go through with it, but as soon as she climbed the stairs up there she never said a word and just went into ‘game time’ mode! She was so brave! We learned a lot this week about trusting God when you are fearful!

I am ziplining first in the yellow shirt. Ella is next to me.

ella!

so ella screamed a little! too cute!

ella

At night, the kids went to their programs and the adults got to have a romantic picnic dinner and then a sunset cruise on the lake. Well, our boat never started and so we technically had a ‘sunset boat park’ 😉 It was still fun because we were with all our friends who came to Pine Cove with us (sans the Barretts).
Warning: kissing picture!

me and James

The Pine Cove photographer took this picture of our ‘cruise’. 😉

can you spot me? I’m fiddling with my camera of course!

from L to R: Shawnda and Jason Kovacs, Jen and Jeff Richardson, Kevin and

Leslie Peck, James and me, Olivia and Todd Engstrom…oh and our boat captain

“Rando” trying to dodge our picture!

Jul

pine cove day 2

By Julie P. 2 Comments

Categories: Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

We got some swinging time in Monday morning!

daddy pushing rilyn

high flyin’ ella!

In the afternoon, we had free time. James and I signed up for the ‘Superman Swing’ at the ropes course. (You had to be over age 12.) I volunteered to go first, (little known fact: I am an adrenaline junkie but have not had many chances since becoming a mom!)

all harnessed up-NOT COMFORTABLE!

posing like Superman before the freefall! 😉

To explain how this ‘swing’ works, I will have to show you the picture I took of James because I got a good angle of how high up they put you. (Estimation about 35 feet high)

James at the top ready to free fall and swing into the trees

Here I am free falling!

I’m swinging in the trees free as a bird!

James looking all manly and stuff before his swing

James’ superman pose

James swinging in the trees…I wonder why his arms aren’t spread out free as a bird…

Looks like he’s having fun, but you can see he’s holding something…

Here he is being taken down and you can only imagine how much pain he is in because of the tight harness! And I thought I was uncomfortable…poor guy!

Monday night was a theme night and our theme that night was “Great Scot!” and we were supposed to wear lots of plaid. Warning: this next picture goes against every grain in my well-being.

We were supposed to mix and match and clash-the sillier

the better! This is the best I could do.

I know I have officially engrained Rilyn with my OCD in fashion because when I took out the red, white, and blue dress for her to wear she stared at it for awhile and then said, “Is it still July? Oh, ok, I guess I can wear this dress. But NOT in August, ok, mom?” 😉
Monday night we played games in the field that were supposed to be “Scottish”!

we had war paint because we were in teams

The pretty girl behind Ella is “Spirit Fingers”. She was our assigned counselor this past week and took care of my girls and loved on us! She is super sweet!