Yesterday I took the kids for what will likely be our last Hawaiian Falls trip for the year.  On Tuesday I remembered we were out of sunscreen so I ran by the store to pick some up, and then had the realization that I won’t be buying any more sunscreen until next summer.  I’m not particularly sad about not having to buy sunscreen, but it just all went by so fast.  It was just a few days ago that the kids were wrapping up preschool and getting good at swimming, and then today  the kids were talking about their Halloween costumes (btw – today Rachel wants to be the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and Ethan wants to be a leprechaun…really).  This would be a really boring post without any pictures, so I’ll do the exact opposite and post way too many to appease some grandparents out there who think I’ve abandoned my poor little blog. 

In July we visited the MOLA for the first time at the Ft. Worth Zoo

The kids spent a lot of time this summer in their dress-up clothes

We did a lot of swimming and have some nice tan lines to show for it
 - Ethan will not swim without his swim shirt and goggles
 - Rachel will argue with you that she can swim just as good as Ethan
 - they are both jumping off the diving board – Rachel needs someone to catch her but Ethan can swim to the shallow end by himself
 - we went to Hawaiian Falls a lot - Ethan’s fave is the wave pool and Rachel’s fave is the blue slide without the tube

We were able to hang out with Addi, Libby & Levi quite a few times this summer
 - and a big HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY TO LIBBY YESTERDAY!

We had VBS at our church earlier this month and had a great time learning about Joseph
 - Rachel earned the most bands (points) in her age group (thank you Allie & Kate for coming as her guests) which meant she got to throw a pie in our youth minister’s face…she’s still not sure why she did it
 - Ethan earned the most bands in his age group (thank you Jack, Josie, Lauryn & Zachary) which meant he also got to throw a pie
 - E also earned the most bands of all the boys at VBS which meant he got a new bike!

The kids had a blast at their friend Scarlett’s circus-themed birthday party

Cara and I took all the kids to the airplane musuem a couple of weeks ago and were pleasantly surprised when they allowed us to eat our packed lunch right beside this airplane

Rachel took a trial gymnastics class a couple of weeks ago and she’s hooked.  I’ve been telling her all summer that when Ethan started kindergarten she could start gymnastics…better add that to my weekend to-do list

Monday night Clay & I had 3 other families over who are all sending their oldest child – all boys – off to kindergarten on Monday.  We enjoyed dinner together and then all of the Dads prayed over their son.  I definitely want to keep doing this as we move forward in our school years.

And then today we went to see a live production of Alice in Wonderland to celebrate Allie’s 4th birthday.  The kids LOVED it.  I think this was their first play so hopefully they’re hooked.

I wish I would have done a better job this summer of photographing the ordinary and every day moments.  We really enjoyed pajama days, catching bugs in the back yard, trips to the library, summer Bible study, having friends over to play, riding the carousel, dollar movies, and picnics in the living room.  I’m sure that in 20 years I’ll be wishing I had pictures and video of these things. 

Goodbye summer and hello school!

A couple of weeks ago I took the kids and invited a bunch of friends to go see David Chicken Live at the Levitt Pavilion here (if you have one in your area then you should definitely check it out – free outdoor concerts all summer long!).  Even though it was super hot, we still had a great time.   Throughout the concert David Chicken would have kids come up on stage to help sing and dance.  Rachel thought she wanted to do it and then chickened out (I couldn’t resist!).  But, with some prompting from Ethan, Brant & Kendall, she was all for it.  I thought I would be the mamarazzi and snap photos, but boy was I wrong.  So, Kelly decided to take pictures of all of us on stage making our big debut.  It actually was a lot of fun and the kids got a kick out of it so that’s all that matters. 

This has been an interesting week to say the least. 

Sunday morning started with me taking Rachel to the on-call pedi to tell me what I already knew – another ear infection.  She also said we need to be seriously talking about tubes so we’ll see what the future holds there. 
  (Marc & Heather had us over Friday night for dinner and our post-dinner activity was riding 4-wheelers.  How many places – besides Texas – can you ride 4-wheelers, shirtless, in a super nice neighborhood on a random Friday night?!?)

Sunday evening we had our senior recognition and I got sad thinking about saying goodbye to two of the best and most beautiful young ladies (and babysitters!) in the entire world. 

Monday morning started off with me getting the kids and I packed up to go and visit Amy and her fam in East Texas.  Apparently I was gunning for the worst mother of the year award because I fixed Ethan’s cereal with the wrong milk.  He took one bite, started drooling and screaming, proceeded to throw up and curl up in a ball for the next hour with stomach cramps.  I am so thankful that he knew after only one bite because I don’t even want to think about how horrible it could have been.  There aren’t many things worse than hearing your five-year old say, “Mom – how about I just get my own milk from now on in case you’re distracted again.”  I still get teary-eyed just thinking about it.  On a brighter note, this is a pic of E eating his first brownie.  I found a mix that is milk free and just substituted the egg with unsweetened applesauce.  There were very sticky but very good.

We did end up going to Amy’s and had a great time just relaxing, laughing, and trying to find the cows that apparently like Interstate-20 more than they liked their own green pasture.  That really happened.  We came back home on Tuesday and a 2.5 hour trip turned into a 4 hour trip because of horrible construction traffic.  I want to give an award to whoever invented portable DVD players and Fun Dip.  Seriously. 

Wednesday morning seemed promising.  I got up a little early and got everyone ready so I could go to Ladies Bible class at church.  Rachel was sitting in the laundry room putting on her shoes and eating a Ritz (or Rich as she says) cracker – the girl can multitask with the best of them – when she hit her head and started crying.  When she realized how bad it hurt she took a big breath to let out her hurt cry and the cracker went right into her throat.  Praise God that I was right there because she couldn’t breathe – at all.  She was trying so hard and just couldn’t do it.  And God took it from there.  I grabbed her and turned her around and started doing the heimlich.  After three tries the cracker finally came out and we just sat on the floor for a very long time holding each other.  I really felt completely confident in what I was doing, however, my mind (or maybe my heart) had already gone to a very bad place that involved CPR and an ambulance.  After I came back to reality that sweet baby said, “Mommy – why do you keep thanking God so many times?”  And it’s really strange because it’s like she doesn’t even remember it.  Clay asked her about it and she just said she choked on a cracker and then I gave her some water.  Needless to say God has been working overtime at our house this week.  And just to keep things in perspective:  We obviously left late for Bible study, and on our way came up on a horrible car accident.  Who knows if that would have been us, but I think we sometimes get so caught up in how bad things are that we forget to thank God for protecting us from how bad things could be.  So, today is Thursday and the kids are and I are gearing up for a fun and hopefully very uneventful weekend. 

And my PSA for the week – if you haven’t been through CPR training (it includes the heimlich manuever) or if it’s been a while – DO IT.

Last week Cara and I branched out of our comfort zones and took the kids to the Dallas Zoo.  I’ll be honest and admit that I had pretty low expectations.  I’m not even sure why except that we’d never been and I had never felt this strong desire to visit a zoo that is literally right off of a major interstate.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised.  While it’s definitely not as aesthetically pleasing or as fancy as the Ft. Worth Zoo, it seemed much bigger and just had a different feel to it.  We saw a few animals we had never seen before, got to ride the monorail for the African “safari,” and one of the cutest things were their little birthday signs for the animals who had recently had babies.  One of the oddest things for Cara and I was witnessing the unnatural obsession Ethan and Josie had with all of statues scattered around the zoo.  Seriously, they were on the hunt for animals statues and wouldn’t let anything get in their way.  You never know with those two.  Afterward we stopped by Clay’s office for a quick visit and Rachel told him her favorite part was the train (monorail) and Ethan said his favorite part was the tunnel.  We should have just bought a DART light rail pass and called it a day, but then I guess we would have missed all of those awesome statues! 

Just a sampling of our statue-mania

And I don’t want to forget that this little guy was with us!

The kids and I have been loving the weather lately and have been trying to take full advantage of it.  I think we visited 5 different parks in 8 days and have now mapped out the quickest route to the restroom (or disgusting blue stall) at all of those parks.  Do any other 3 year olds out there hold it until the absolute last possible moment?  I keep reminding Rachel that she’s not a camel but she’s not getting it. 

Park with Lauryn & Allie 



Hard to believe all of these kids are old enough to just take off on their bikes

Park with church friends

After school play

Ethan wanted to invite Luke & Zachary over after school (a little tricky with a car that only holds 3 car seats), so we sent Rachel home with Luke’s sister and had a great afternoon full of boy adventures

Park with Brant & Lincoln


I love that five-year olds aren’t too old to skip through the parking lot holding hands

Botanic Garden with Luke & Olivia




E was very excited that a butterfly landed on him during the butterfly exhibit – Rachel, on the other hand, declared all the butterflies “big meanies” because they didn’t land on her

Post-outside

All that springtime pollen fun was bound to catch up with Ethan’s eyes!

Since I finally got around to taking down our Christmas decorations today, I thought I might just keep the ball rolling and post some December pictures. 

December 1 – the kids and I played lots of games that week while Clay was in Vegas for a business trip

December 4 – We picked Clay up at the airport and headed straight to the Gaylord to look at Christmas lights, see the trains, we did the ICE exhibit, and went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner

December 5 – We had my parents over for dinner to pray for my mom and the surgery she was about to have

December 7 – My aunts, grandmother, Dad, brother and I spent the day at the hopsital while my mom had double cochlear implant surgery, and my wonderful SIL kept all of the kids so we could be there.  My mom is doing incredibly well and will have her second processor “turned on” tomorrow, Jan. 7.  We are praising God for His faithfulness through this entire process.

December 8 – The kids had their Christmas program at school.  Rachel sang Jingle Bells as loud as she possibly could, Ethan portrayed a wonderful Joseph, and they got to sit in Santa’s lap.

December 14 – I spent the evening puking my guts up – along with other things – and Clay ended up having to call the ambulance to come and get me since I couldn’t stay conscious long enough to get to the car.  Thankfully my Dad was able to come and sit at the house while the kids slept, and I felt much better after several bags of fluid and some Zofran.  Aren’t you glad I don’t have pictures for this day?

December 15 – The kids had their Christmas parties at school and I stayed home and slept off my IV fluid high from early that morning.  Clay – aka Super Dad – came to the rescue and took care of everything, and even remembered to take a picture of Ethan at his last preschool Christmas party.

December 22 – Nicole and I took the kids to Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth and it was so much fun!  (You’ll notice the marked improvement in photo quality – especially if you click on the pictures – because Nicole remembered to actually take her camera inside the place instead of leaving in the back of her car.)


Rachel asks me almost every day if she can go back to lawcalabijan (log cabin village) for the sole purpose of getting more blue candy.

December 24 – We spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house with my grandmother and my brother and his family and it was the best Christmas Eve ever.  My mom was feeling good and able to hear the kids laughing and playing, it was very cold that day and we spent the entire afternoon watching the snow fall, and Clay and I got a wonderful surprise trip to NYC for Valentine’s Day!

five little Santas sitting in a row…

the kids were THRILLED with their capes from Aunt Ginny and their scooters from Nana & Poppa

sk8er girl

December 25 – We actually had to wake the kids up at 7 because Clay and I couldn’t wait any longer for them to see what Santa had brought.  Rachel fell in love with her dollhouse and Ethan hasn’t put his Leapster down since then.  Unfortunately the roads were icy so that squashed our plans of driving to see my grandparents, but the kids were thrilled to play out in the snow and just enjoy a Christmas Day at home playing with their new toys.  Clay also surprised me with a GPS and I am in love with it (and in case you’re ever in the car with me – yes, I do know that you can change the language but I happen to like the British lady’s voice so that’s what I’m keeping).

December 26 – We spent the day in Frisco with Bryan & Ginny and the kids and had a blast.  We took them to Grossology which was hilarious, educational and disgusting all at the same time.  Ethan is asking when we can go back and Rachel is begging that we never go back.  To any families out there with a bunch of boys – I highly recommend that you take them to this exhibit … farts, boogers and burps have never been so glamorous.

December 27 – Despite the cold, you’ll find the kids – cape clad – scootering around the driveway most days.

December 28 – Clay had a couple of days off from work so we took our last 2009 zoo trip.  It was so cold that very few animals were out, but we had a great time wandering around with the place almost to ourselves.

December 29 – This was my niece – Libby’s – ear surgery day so we lifted up a lot of prayers for her.  We also took a trip to the newly re-opened Fort Worth Children’s Museum.  There were only about a thousand people there so we’re looking forward to using our season passes and going back soon when we can actually enjoy it.

Phew – I feel much better now that I have all of that documented.  Happy New Year!

Just a sampling of the things I’ve been thankful for in the past week.  Unfortunately I don’t have any good pictures from the Thanksgiving gatherings with both sides of our family, but that was partly due to an ER visit for Ethan after the worst allergy attack we’ve seen for him.  But at least it made the holiday that much more memorable, right?!?  I don’t have a photo of the Centennial Hospital ER, but if I did then it would be at the top of my thankful list for the past week because of how quickly they got us back.  Oh, and I’m thankful for oral steroids because they made a shot-fearful child VERY thankful. 

being able to stay home with these 2

having old friends to picnic with on a beautiful day

a husband who is strong enough to do this so I don’t have to

Little Hearts School

friends who are up for random visits to the park

zoo passes

parents who taught me to always thank God first for His abundant blessings

A few years ago when we were house hunting one of the things at the top of our list was to find a house in an established neighborhood with lots of great trees.  We definitely found what we were looking for and every year I remind myself that a house with 20+ trees in the front yard is a blessing in the summer and a curse in the fall.  Well, it’s a curse in the fall for Clay and me because we have to rake and bag the leaves from 20+ trees, but it’s a fall wonderland for the kids.  Ethan had a friend come over last week and his friend asked if he could take some of our leaves home with him to play in.  It’s all about perspective…

One of my favorite fall traditions is taking the kids to the pumpkin patch every year.  Unfortunately Clay wasn’t able to meet us there this year, but we did get to meet up with the Pilgrim and Davis families for some fun. 

Ethan with the camera

Rachel with the camera

2006

2007

2008

2009

Ethan 2006 vs. Ethan 2009

Despite my best efforts at scouring Craigslist and eBay, we weren’t able to go to the Aggie game last weekend at the new Cowboys stadium.  However, we were able to finally introduce the kids to the Aggie Band and march-in and what it feels like to be in a sea of maroon.  I had that odd giddy feeling in my stomach as we were driving there.  And all of a sudden I had an urge to search frantically for my ID card or remind myself of when step-off was or to find my parents on the quad while we staked out a spot behind the basses or make sure my denim shirt and floral skirt were ready to go (ah, the memories).  It was so much fun to be there with Cara, Jack & Jo, and then my SIL and nieces and nephew showed up and then we ran into some old college friends and I felt like I should have been in the MSC.  If we had just stopped at Freebirds on our way there instead of McDonald’s it would have been absolutely perfect.