Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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| Ella, Asher, and Rilyn wearing their green! |
If you have no clue what is going on behind the kids, click here.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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| Ella, Asher, and Rilyn wearing their green! |
If you have no clue what is going on behind the kids, click here.
On our little spring break getaway in College Station, we also visited the Children’s Museum. I didn’t even knew they had one, but they do-it’s pretty small, but the kids still had fun!
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| the kids got to walk on the ceiling 😉 |
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| play “grocery store” |
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| climb into a rocket ship and get on “TV” |
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| James attempted to teach them checkers |
Sunset at the Octaranch.
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Bathtime for Asher!
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James took a couple days off and we went to College Station to take the kids to the Texas A&M campus. James and I walked the kids around and we showed them where we lived, our classes, our first kiss…it was so fun and a beautiful day!
First stop, to visit the Bonfire Memorial.
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| Both James and I had never been to the Memorial, but we both were in school
when it collapsed on Nov. 18, 1999 |
We went to the southside where we showed them my dorm:
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and daddy’s dorm across the way
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| southside commons |
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| Dunn |
Then we went inside to the Commons lobby and showed the kids something very important to James and I-the ping pong tables. These tables are where our relationship started…long talks were held in this very room, getting to know each other…
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| James showing the kids how he played ping pong and lost to mommy a lot! 😉 |
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| class of 2026 |
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| class of 2028 |
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| class of 2030 |
No campus tour is complete without visiting Heldenfels. We both took classes in there and James was an supplemental instructor (SI) for many Chem 101 classes. We went inside the classroom to show the kids what college is really like. Rilyn asked if my teacher would remember me. 😉
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| pretending to be students in class |
We walked this route many times…
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| Academic building in background |
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I did the best I could with this picture…it was waaaaay sunny and the fountain was drained, but here is Fish Pond, the site of James and I’s first kiss.
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All Faiths Chapel, where we went to Upstream every Thursday night. Many lifetime friendships were formed here, the Spirit moving in ways we could have never imagined…
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| Kyle field |
This is new in front of the “ring building”
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| future Aggie ring wearers |
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Ella took this picture-not too bad!
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| class of 2001 |
Dr. Seuss turned 107 years old yesterday! To celebrate, Rilyn’s school has Dr. Seuss Day today and you can dress as your favorite book character! Rilyn chose Cindy Lou Hoo which is a little stretch since Cindy has blue eyes and blond hair, but Rilyn was insistent! Here is what we came up with.
We combined this picture:
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| from the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon |
with this picture (Cindy Lou Hoo from the Jim Carrey movie):
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and got this!
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| she got to wear her pjs to school! |
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| I probably would of been too embarrassed to wear this
hair do to school, but Rilyn? No way! |
I am going to Rilyn’s school today and reading Dr. Seuss books to various classrooms (even 5th graders can appreciate Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!) I will be wearing “the hat” and busting out some theatrical skills. I’m so excited!
(Forgive the early morning picture, no one looks their best at 7 in the morning!)
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Having Asher is God’s way of reminding me, “Will you trust Me while parenting this child? Will you rely on My strength and not your own? ” With the girls, I feel like I didn’t get on my knees and rely on the Lord for strength all the time. I should of, because I should be giving EVERY DETAIL to Him, but I didn’t. Rilyn and Ella were pretty easy kids and still are compared to this affectionately known “Busta’ Man” (because he busts everything up.)
As of late, he has been getting up every night for the past few weeks in the middle of the night to tell us “I’m scared” or “Good morning mama! (at 2:30 a.m.)” We take him potty because he is dry, and put him back in his bed. This week, he has been doing it twice a night and now I officially feel like I have a newborn again! Thankfully, James and I can take turns each night getting up with him (unlike newborn days when only mama had ‘the goods’). So today, here is a glimpse in our house when the busta’ man goes upstairs for a prolonged period of time. (All we have upstairs is a giant play room.)
I used to think, (waaaaaay back in the day), this was a big mess!
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| Rilyn age 10 months |
But Asher? He makes his statement loud and clear: “My sister has nothing on me!”
| granted we have more books now then in 2005… |
| Dear Lord, help me! |
I was itching to take some photographs today.
I was searching around in my pantry for a snack and I found a big lollipop!
I know these are two random facts that seemingly have nothing to do with each other, but I have always been wanting to take pictures with a big lollipop, (is this strange?) and I totally forgot that I had one in there! Never mind that the lollipop was almost 2 years old, (from Disneyland in April 2009!). I was going to use it, (because once an idea is in my head, I want to do it asap!), and anyway, the girls wouldn’t notice! Besides, I wouldn’t actually let them bite it, just pics of licks! 😉
I had a little fun editing these because James isn’t home tonight and I have some time on my hands while I’m waiting for the Oscars so I can watch it without commercials!
Enjoy!
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| my fav pic of rilyn |
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| I love color |
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| and flowers in hair |
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| and color coordinating dresses to match lollipops |
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| and color coordinating earrings too! |
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| Having girls is sweet, |
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| almost as sweet |
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| as a giant lollipop! |
On Sunday afternoon, I caught Rilyn doing this on our porch.
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| I zoomed in on her, I was really far away and she had no
idea I was taking a picture of her. |
Do you know what she is doing?
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| I took this picture behind the window glass/screen in our
house! I’m so sneaky! |
Rilyn wanted to enjoy the beautiful afternoon by taking her Bible outside to study it. She told me later she was highlighting verses that daddy taught her on the way to school this year and she was writing out some verses on paper for her classmates.
3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
After the sermon today, and Rilyn’s story this week that I’m about to tell, I am more than aware that I lost the joy of evangelizing and it is a burden for me. I don’t have ‘the gift of evangelizing’ I tell myself. Let others who are “people persons” start up Gospel-centered conversations.
Rilyn came home this week and told us she is teaching her 2 classmates at her table in school Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Wow. James had taught Rilyn that verse on the way to school the week before and now she was sharing it with her friends! I had to know more. She said, “I teach them a little each day, and if they say it right by Friday they get a prize. It’s a little hard because of the big ‘c’ word.” I told her “condemnation” is a hard word for most first graders to say/understand. 🙂 Then this weekend she told me that she needs to bring 2 pieces of candy to school to give to them on Monday because they memorized the verse on Friday! She goes on to tell me how the girl at her table doesn’t even go to church and doesn’t even know the story of Goliath. “Can you believe that mom?” she said, “And she wants to read Bible stories at bedtime like me, but she doesn’t have a Bible. Can I give her one, with a highlighter, so she can highlight the verse she memorized? But she needs to have pictures in the Bible because she can’t read all the big words.” Such joy to share the gospel at such a young age. Truly convicting.
Then the sermon today was about evangelizing. I really liked the illustration he gave of how when a girl gets proposed to by her boyfriend, what is the first thing she does? She calls her family, her friends, she shows people her new ring…she shares her joy! When I know such good news, (the Gospel), about my Savior, who I adore, what am I to do? What should be the overflow of my heart? Share with joy my friends!
This girl knows it. Share the gospel with joy.
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Valentine’s Day was celebrated here in grandious style! James and I went out on Friday night to the Cheesecake Factory, (I am a simple girl with simple tastebuds, and I like to go to restaurants where I know that I will LOVE the menu, especially the dessert menu!) I got 2 bouquets of flowers, chocolate dipped strawberries, brownies, and cookies from Tiff’s Treats (which are my favorite), and a boatload of scrapbooking stuff from my momma! James took the girls out to IHOP last night for a sweetheart dinner (or rather breakfast!)
Here is Rilyn at her school Valentine party. She is at the age where she gets excited about every Valentine. It’s cute to watch!
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| Ella loves to come to Rilyn’s school parties! |
We went to my mom’s on Sunday afternoon for a Valentine dinner. She always outdoes herself for any holiday, and this year was no exception! My kids are very blessed indeed!
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| Valentine gifts from grandma (cousin Caden far left) |
| Valentine treats galore! |