Archive Page 57

09
Aug
10

wild things

My girls have really gotten into playing ‘pet hospital’ with their stuffed animals.  I’m not quite sure they have the ‘hang of it’ though (no pun intended!). What do you think? Would you like to be this giraffe in their ‘waiting area’? I’m not sure if he is at the hospital because he is sick or because he is getting strangled.  I guess they have strict rules about only pets allowed with a leash on.

And in the spirit of animals, here are two pictures of my wild things all dressed up to go to Dancelife earlier this summer during Jungle week! By the way, you can sign up for Dancelife now for the fall!

Rilyn the zebra
Ella the giraffe!
08
Aug
10

that hat!

We attended my nephew’s 1st birthday party yesterday and it brought back a lot of memories of my babies on their first party day!  There is something so stinkin’ cute about party hats even if most of the time the kids hate wearing it!  I mean, who doesn’t love a cone sitting on top of your head with a strangling piece of rubber band wrapped around your neck?  😉

Caden was not a fan of the hat!
Asher was not a fan of his hat either!
Ella agrees-NO PARTY HAT!!
Rilyn was apathetic to her party accessory, in fact, she wore it for her whole party!
07
Aug
10

octaranch

I said in a previous post that I would post some pictures of my parent’s new house in College Station.  My parents bought 12+ acres of land in College Station (about 6 miles southwest from Kyle Field.)  They bought the land in hopes to put a house on it so we could all stay there for Aggie football games(10 year season ticket holders)!  My parents bought the land about 2+ years ago and long story short, they bought a double wide to put on the land and then found out they couldn’t put it on there because of the 100 year flood plain!  

So on to plan B!  Plan B was to build a house on the land.  The catch was it had to meet the flood zone criteria which meant to build a house on stilts of course!  🙂  My dad found a company that specializes in this and the house was just finished in late June.  We have named it the ‘octaranch’ because it is shaped like an octagon, (and it is sitting on several 10 foot pillars!)  How cool is that?!?
the octahouse

It really is beautiful with a wrap-around porch and a great view. The inside is so nice too! We look forward to having little getaways here or maybe a girls’ weekend or two!

the kids on the porch looking out at the land
The cows on the land staring at us while we were eating breakfast!
06
Aug
10

walking lessons

We took a family walk on our family night last week.  We used this great FREE resource from Family Time Training.

First lesson during our walk:
Phil. 3:13-14 “But one thing I do:  forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The “Walk”:  Each of us takes turns walking backwards while the others walk forward.  Notice if the walk slows down or if stumbling occurs.

The “Talk”:  Is it easier to stumble moving forward or backwards?  Can you see the goal ahead of you when you are walking backwards?

What happens when you are always looking behind?

Second lesson:
Mark 12:31a “Love your neighbor as yourself”
The “Walk”: Have each person trade shoes with another family member.
The “Talk”: The Bible tells us to love our neighbors. One way to do this is to try to understand them better. There’s a saying about putting “ourselves in the other person’s shoes” when we are having a hard time understanding someone. (This is especially important to talk about with Rilyn who will encounter children at school that are very different from her.) Talk about if you had to suddenly live in one or our neighbor’s lives would it be easy? How can we be more understanding? Pray for them!

James trying to walk in Rilyn’s flip flops!
Rilyn trying to walk in daddy’s flip flops!  Too heavy!

Third lesson:
Galatians 6:2a “Bear one another’s burdens…”
The “Walk”: Have one person sit on the ground as if not able to move. The others will have to help carry the immobile member.
The “Talk”: How can we all get to our goal together if one person can’t walk? How did it make you feel to know you were helping someone else?

A helpful thing we have started this past year is ‘family night journals’.

The girls record what they learned immediately after the family night.

This is Rilyn’s entry.

Fourth lesson:
John 12:35 “Then Jesus said to them, ‘A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.”
The “Walk”: Take turns blindfolding each person one at a time and have them walk a distance without being able to see.
The “Talk”: Could you walk in confidence when you couldn’t see? Why do you think Jesus warns us to not walk in darkness?

How is walking without Jesus like walking blindfolded?

Fifth lesson:
Proverbs 11:3a “The integrity of the upright will guide them…”
The “Walk”: Have everyone crawl on their knees with the exception of one person. Have one person walk upright.
The “Talk”: Which person automatically moves to the front of the group? What kind of person is the Bible referring to when it speaks of someone who walks upright?

We plan on using this family night every year because it is so easy and our discussions will hopefully just get deeper and deeper! 

Oh, and where was Asher?  He was with us, just along for the ‘ride’!

He now only cruises with his feet lounging like this.
05
Aug
10

my one and only is one!

Today my one and only nephew is one year old!  I love him so much and he is such a tender-hearted, easy-going little big boy!  He usually is smiling and toddling around with a ball!  I love that we live close to my brother and I will get to watch Caden and Asher (15 months apart) grow up together!  We got to babysit Caden last weekend and of course I couldn’t resist taking some pictures of him!  (And I also couldn’t resist letting him try on his birthday present we got him!  Go Angels!)

Caden
look at those baby blues!
adorable angel
04
Aug
10

my protege

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
03
Aug
10

the new guyliner

Asher’s version of guyliner:

To get this look, eat an Oreo, then carefully let the juices from your saliva and crumbs mix and drip just ever so slightly under your bottom lip and voila! The NEW guyliner!
Sorry Johnny, your guyliner was so last year! 😉

02
Aug
10

lake day

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!

01
Aug
10

rough ridin’

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’!!!
31
Jul
10

what is he doing?

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!