Monday, May 28, 2012

Judah at the Zoo

A friend invited Judah & I to the zoo last week & I jumped at the chance - Judah had never been!  We haven't had passes in a few years & I forgot how fun the zoo can be with one this age.  He was captivated by all of the animals & I loved hearing thim make their version of animal sounds.  He was happy just to be outside, but when I got him out of the stroller & held him up to see the gorillas, or giraffes, or lions - his whole face would light up.  He would smile big then roar, or growl, or meow - whatever he thought was best.  :)  When I'd put him back in the stoller each time he would say "more!  more!" until we'd find something else to see.  I forgot how easy & sweet it is to just have one to pay attention to - it was a great time to just soak up my boy.


He kept making this face at the fish & turtles??? Maybe he thought that he was doing fishy lips.







Monday, May 21, 2012

Field Day

Gotta love field day!  This year because of school construction they split the grades up - K through 2nd was on Thurs & 3rd through 5th on Friday.  Even though this meant two days of chasing Judah in the school parking lots, it was great to be able to focus on the girls individually.  Mae & Anna both said their favorite part was the water slide.  Now that field day is down, only 2 more weeks of school left! 







Sunday, May 20, 2012

Most Random Spring Post Ever

I've gotten very behind on blogging... mostly because playing with Judah all day doesn't allow much computer time, but also because when we are out at events I don't remember to take many pictures as I sprint around chasing him in 30 directions.  I have these random pictures taken from friends blogs (thanks Kristen & Alyssa!), from the few camera shots I've gotten lately, and from my cell phone.  I included those because I also learned a hard lesson this month... I washed my iphone in the washing machine with a load of sheets as I tried to do 10 things at once one morning.  I lost all my cell pictures & vidoes.  That made me resolve to download them every once in a while & post some of our day to day silly phone pictures.  Here goes...

Anna with friends at our church's elementary retreat at Pine Cove.  She loved every minute - but her favorite things were the "pitch black attack"game, horse back riding, and the snack bar.




Mae at our last mother daughter tea party (3 year olds through kinder girls).  It was a candyland themed wonderland of sweets & soooo cute. 


Judah boy with his awesome trampoline hair.  He would spend every waking minute outside playing with balls if I let him.


Mae dressed for her soccer lesson (can you tell she picks her own outfits?).  We didn't do extra curricular activities this year to simplify, but have let her go to a few lessons taught by a high school girl with her neighbor friend Emma.  Her favorite part about the lesson is getting to put her shin guards & tennis shoes on - it's all about the shoes for this girl.  She does not get that from me.


Bubby knows that if you get a hat & shoes on that means you are going outside, so he often finds someones' shoes (no matter what size), and something that can go on his head (here he is with a butterfly net as a hat), then waits by the door begging, "ca-cide, ca-cide, ca-cide!" - baby talk for "take me outside please before I have a huge meltdown".

Our first ripe tomato from our garden.  

The mother's day treat that she & her friend Abby made for Abby's mom & I one afternoon totally on their own.  They added fresh herbs from the garden on top of our fruit kebabs.


Our small group has been doing a "faith in action" series of weekly outreach in the community in place of our Bible class time.  We (by we I mean Tom & the girls, I spent 90% of the time chasing Judah) cleaned up & gardened in a widows yard, handed out gift cards at Sonic to unsuspecting customers, collected food in our neighborhood for the CEC food pantry, and restocked & organized food pantry shelves at a childrens' home.  The kids loved it & we were so blessed by the experience.  My favorite story from week 2 of our adventure - on the way home from Sonic we asked Mae what she said when she passed out her gift cards.  She said, "Here is some money for your dinner.  Thank you for choosing Sonic!"  I bet those people were a little confused.



Mae participated in the kindergarten Barnyard Moosical where she was the cutest goat there.  ;)  She had a very important speaking line, "Tin cans & paper, that's how most goats dine!" that she knocked out of the park.  Love our little grey goat.



Judah just learned to ride this wooden toy that my Papaw made for Anna when she was born.  It held up so well to the million miles Anna & Mae rode on it, we'll see how it does now with a boy driver!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day

In 2008 we planted a tree in the backyard on Mother's Day, and the kids & I took a picture in front of it.  I decided that would be a fun tradition to take a picture in that spot every year... and we've remembered every year but one.  I have a good excuse.  Just before Mother's Day in 2010 we found out about Judah being on his way, so my brain wasn't working too well during those weeks.  Sad to skip a year, but it was for a good cause :). 

I had a fabulous Mother's Day because I am blessed with 3 sweet kids & an amazing husband.  The girls made me cards at school & at home, & even put some of their allowance money inside!  I'm going to use the cash to buy some books for my big mother's day gift from Tom - a kindle.  I've never had a reader & I'm sure I'm going to love it.  I feel so thankful every year on this day when I realize how amazing God's grace is - I was blessed with a wonderful mom who I treasure, a wonderful mother-in-law who raised a godly son, & He has given me 3 precious kids to raise.  He is good!










Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Aggies for Christ Reunion

A couple weekends ago we headed to College Station for a reunion of the Aggies for Christ - whoop!  Tom's dad was a member of the "original 12" guys who went on the first trip that founded the AFC in the 70's.  This reunion celebrated 40 years of friendships, service, training, & fellowship... as well as honored the long time campus ministers - Bob & Myrt Davidson.  The AFC was so important to both Tom & I in college - it was our fraternity/sorority, church, friend circle, & mission field training all rolled into one.  We adore Bob & Myrt - I have so many fun memories of them from weekend trips & AFCO ("ya gotta be tough, flexible, & optimistic!").  It was fun to visit with lots of college friends & get to spend time with both sets of grandparents.  I, unfortunately, chose that weekend to get the worst head cold of the year, so I missed some of the activities, but we did get to go to a huge devo at the academic building Saturday night together as well as church on Sunday.  Mae came with us to the devo & it was a sweet experience to sing with hundreds of Aggies on campus just like we did every week as college students - only this time with a very sleepy blond middle child on our laps.  Friday night we also got to go to our first Aggie baseball game as a family of 5, plus Grammy, Dingdaddy, Nana, & Pappy.  They have built a playground right next to the grass seating area that was perfect for Judah, and the girls were happy with all the good ballpark snacks - very little baseball watching happened but we had a great time!