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.
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| 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.)
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| 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!
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| shadowglen pool slides |
Here is Rilyn going down! (She only went down about 15 times that day!)
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| wheeeee |
And here is Ella. Now Ella went 3 times before the lifeguard caught on that she wasn’t exactly tall enough. Oops!
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| 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!
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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.) 🙂
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| 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!
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| father’s day 2010 |
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| father son |
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| father’s day 2010 |
Happy Father’s Day weekend!!!
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| me and my dad circa 1985 (6 years old?) |
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| James and his dad circa 1980 |
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| Daddy with Rilyn (notice the spit up!) 2004 |
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| daddy with newborn Ella-2006 |
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| daddy with newborn Asher making the same face and both showing their Agge pride! |
Rilyn and Ella started swim lessons today. To mark the event, Rilyn decided the very minute before her lessons started that I HAD to pull out her top tooth that has been ‘hanging out’ for a couple weeks now. So, I wiggled a couple of times and out her 3rd tooth came! She then started crying- not because it hurt, but because she thought blood would go in the pool from her mouth if she went in. I assured her she was not bleeding, gave her a drink of water, and then she happily jumped in the pool sticking her tongue through her new gap as all kids love to do!
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| Rilyn’s new smile |
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| sticking her tongue through her new gap! |
Rilyn got to choose one friend to bring with her to her birthday dinner on Thursday to Gattiland and she chose Cole. Very sweet. Rilyn and Cole ride to school together every morning and of course we see them all the time since Cole’s parents are our best friends since college and they live on the street behind us.
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| Ella, Rilyn, and Cole |
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| Rilyn is finally tall enough to ride the bumper cars! She didn’t quite go anywhere,
but got bumped around a lot! |
On Friday, Rilyn had a birthday sleepover. When the girls were over we decided to let the butterflies fly free that emerged from their cocoons the previous day.
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| Ella with the butterfly |
At Rilyn’s sleepover, we did crafts, went swimming, ate Happy Meals, had ice cream sundaes, painted our nails, and watched movies! It was a fun-filled girly night and everyone had a good time! Rilyn was the last to fall asleep at about 11 p.m.!
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| ice cream! |
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| sleepy time! |
The next morning was her paint-your-own pottery party. I made a very special cake for her too that I was excited to cut into!
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| Ceramics N More |
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| Rilyn very carefully painting a rainbow unicorn |
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| getting ready to open presents |
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| The top of my 6 layer cake |
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| I love Rilyn’s friend’s face in this picture as James cuts open the Rainbow Cake! |
Rilyn is all about rainbows so making this cake for her was so fun! I learned about it from this blog.
Rilyn is six years old today! She is our precious first born. She is a leader, sensitive, a people-pleaser, and rule-follower to the core. She loves Jesus and the Bible and we are praying for her one day soon to accept Him into her heart. She is responsible, smart, and beautiful. We love our Rilyn Jalie!!! Happy 6th Birthday!
We start every birthday off with walking into their room to wake them up holding a donut with candles in it and singing to them!
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| wake up! |
Rilyn is on the top bunk and as I reached the flaming donut up to her face while taking a picture, part of her hair singed in the flames! Oops! We decided 5 candles will be the maximum limit in a donut!
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| blow! |
So after we stunk up her bedroom with burnt hair, she walked into the kitchen to find it all decorated for her!
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| This face is worth all the effort! |
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| Have to wear your birthday shirt! |
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| She got to open one present before school (from Ella)-a Strawberry Shortcake doll! |
Today is the last day of kindergarten too, so we brought cookies up to her class! How fun!
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| Rilyn and Ella |
And when we got home, the cocoons her Oma and Papaw got her for her birthday started ‘hatching’. What perfect timing! Rilyn and Cole got to watch butterflies come out of their cocoons! Very neat!
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| Rilyn and Cole looking into the butterfly house |
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| inside the butterfly house |
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| Rilyn watching the butterfly emerge from it’s cocoon |
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| monarch butterfly! |
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| As we celebrate Rilyn’s life today, we also celebrate God’s creation of new life! |
We had a great weekend with family here to see the girls’ dance recital yesterday.
Here is James and Rilyn’s dance to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire. This was the finale and it did not disappoint! We will post later some of Ella’s dances that were really cute (mainly because she was bossing girls around the stage!).
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| our family |
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Later that evening, we went to the Oasis to celebrate James’ mom’s birthday!
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| James’ family |
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| sunset capital of Texas |
I had fun taking pictures of the girls that night!
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| ella’s freckles! |
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| brown eyed girl |
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And this is what I caught Rilyn doing on one of the decks at the Oasis. A true girly girl who was probably wishing on a star and dreaming…
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Have you ever had a moment where you wanted to cry and laugh at the same time? Well, I could kick myself for not bringing my video camera to the girls’ dance rehearsal yesterday! And, I’m so glad for rehearsals because Ella would have been MORTIFIED if the same thing happened at the actual recital. You see, we discovered at the rehearsal that the stage floor is very slippery for tap shoes and my poor Ella tried her hardest, but fell while tapping to “Cotton-Eyed Joe” like 4 times! Each time she fell, her face got more grimaced, until finally, it was too much and Ms. Jen came out to rescue her from her tears. I felt so bad for Ella! She was really embarrassed and told us she wasn’t going to dance on Saturday because everyone will laugh at her. 😦 After seaching with my swagbucks last night though, I discovered that duct tape on the bottom of her taps will simply solve the problem! Here’s to hoping and praying! (And if not, I will have my video camera rolling this time!)
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| Jen tries to comfort a sobbing Ella |
Another “glad it’s rehearsal” moment for me:
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| Ella’s boa liner tore off of her tutu at rehearsal (you can see it hanging down a bit)I’ll be fixing that tonight! |
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| Anna and Ella dancing to “someday my prince will come” |
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| so precious! |
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| Rilyn is on the far left. About to dance to Defying Gravity from the Glee soundtrack |
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| another reason rehearsals are good for Rilyn! 😉 |
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| This picture was taken before the tap shoe debacle. Ella in the center. |
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| The finale is a dad/daughter dance to Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack!James and Rilyn at the far left. |
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| James and Rilyn at the center front |
If you live in the Austin area, please come to the recital! Saturday, May 29th at 4 p.m. (lasts 30 minutes) at Manor Middle School cafeteria!
the paquettes 