Ahh... summer life... wish it would never end! I love that I get to enjoy my kids without any pressure to sit down and "do school"... we've had so much fun playing together and playing with friends... I'm so sad September is around the corner!! I'm starting to dread that feeling of all the families that we love hanging out with going back to their daily grind as we go back to ours... pool days and park days have been the highlight of our past three months and I never want it to end! Here are the highlights through pictures from the past three months.
This is a glimpse of my blessed life with little girls... randomly tea parties are set up for me in the living room! I came out and for no reason at all my lovely little ladies decided that I needed to eat a bagel and sip some water while they waited on me hand and foot. I love the random thoughtfulness!
Last week they participated in a wonderful VBS around the corner from us! They learned so many wonderful songs and concepts!
But by far their favorite memory from the week was the pies the teachers got on their faces on the last day of VBS! What fun these teachers were!!
For the entire month of July Kenzie has participated in swim lessons everyday at 2:30 and the lake. On August 2nd she completed her band test and August 3rd they had a little reward ceremony complete with certificate, medal, goodie bag, and water ice! Here are Kenzie's cheerleaders... it will be their turn for "Five-year-old swim" before I know it!
Kenzie won the Best Attitude award... what mother doesn't want to hear that!! Woohoo!!
Officially a "banded" swimmmer! She can jump off the docks with the best of them now!
She shared her goodie bag and her water ice with her sister... and with a happy heart too! I was so proud of her!
Lucy trying out Noah's beach chair!
We ran into friends at the lake and they taught my girls how to catch fish! And the fish were really biting, it was very exciting!
A glimpse of daily life... doing everything we do normally, just in bathing suits :)
Jake and I got away for an overnight for our anniversary... we really enjoyed this concoction marshmallow and Reeses smooshed between two chocolate chip cookies! This was the yummiest thing by far that we ate on our trip to Hershey Park!
Just a normal playgroup day at my house...
Daily life with my beautiful girls!
Sharing bottles and blankets with Sophie!
Fun days in our backyard!
Special trip to Kenzie's favorite place to eat... Friendly's!
I found Jake asleep with Aubrey like this one night... what a guy!
Aubrey and her BFF Maddie... getting practice for when they get to be mommies together like me and Laurie :) These girls were due on the same day and have been inseparable since birth! I love that God has given Aubrey a special friend!
Another great day of dress ups with friends!
Walking around the block with my little mommies!
Cow Appreciation Day at Chickfila!
There is a huge frog named Kermit that lives in my friend's pool... it made for quite the exciting pool day when he jumped in and then watching my pregnant friend trying to run around the pool to scoop him out! Good times!
Their fun Aunt Amy made a lemonade stand with them one day... this might be the highlight of their entire summer!
Jake set up a tent in their room one night while I was out and I came home to find all three of them asleep in it! Poor guy, he works so hard that as soon as his head hits anything soft, he is out!
Kenzie teaching "Circle Time!"
Their babysitters were in the play "Annie" this year and ever since they saw Miss Sabrina in the role of "Annie" they've wanted to do nothing else but listen to the sound track as they scrub my kitchen and sing, "It's a Hard Knock Life!" If we could do this without this song on repeat, I'd say I'm getting a pretty good deal here... but I'm not... b/c I hear the words to Annie in my SLEEP!!
Cousins playing together at pool day!
Look how big my "baby" is!!
Baby sitting our favorite baby boy... poor guy... he has the best hair and his cousin's insisted that he needed a bow!
My beautiful cousin Kristie got married this summer... her wedding was beautiful!!
We went on the church camping trip! I swore two years ago to never return, but after taking a year off, I'm glad we reevaluated my vow... it was so much better going with a 3 and 4-year-old then a 1 and 2-year-old! Kenzie and Aubrey made the work of Lucy totally worth it! They were so obedient and had so much fun with their friends and their flash lights and living outside in constant filth!
Look at that dirty bum... and this is nothing! This is after being out of the camper for 1 minute!! This kid was filthy the entire trip, but she was a wonderful sleeper and so cheerful the entire time, it was totally worth all the work that it was to have her with us!
We took Kenzie and Aubrey to Boulder Field... Kenzie was unimpressed by the mile wide stone field dropped in the middle of the woods! Sheesh!! Jake was brave and walked all the way across the field carrying Aubrey, I stayed back with Kenzie and my dad trying to convince her of how cool this was! Oh brother!
On our way home to the bath tub!!
I got my wedding dress back from my Mommom who has been storing it for me... and it still fits!!! Three kids later and I can still get my dress zipped??? Highlight of my summer right there!!
Just some more super cute cousins sharing a meal together!
I got Aubrey's hearing tested because I thought maybe her constant ignoring had something to do with the fact that she can't hear me... but she can hear just fine!!! I think it is more of a parenting problem then anything and I'm grateful to have confidence that she CAN hear me and that I need to follow through and grow in consistency with her!
We took just Kenzie to the Canoe Carnival this year... and she felt like such a big deal!
I love when my minivan looks like this... 1,2,3,4 girls in it!! So glad God gave Sophie to Lucy and to the rest of us too!!
The above picture represents the saga of us moving! Still not sure what is going to happen with this story! We have sold our house and are trying to move around the corner into a bigger house, but there have ended up being a lot of foundation issues with that house and now we aren't sure if we even want to buy it. We need to have answers by next Tues. and either have to let our buyers know that we will not be moving, or we need to move forward in faith that God does want us to buy the house around the corner from us and the issues with the foundation need to be worked out by then. If we are moving, we are settling on Sept. 14th. I really hate living with unanswered questions... been a growing experience for me for sure!! But if this house does work out, it will be great for us in the long run! There is tons of space and I can see us having a bunch more kids if we live there, but we haven't out grown our house yet and we really love it... so I don't want to sell it and then not have the other house work out and walk away from a house that we loved so much! All in all, I'm grateful for two things: 1) if we stay here, it is certainly a blessing. We aren't talking about living in a yucky house that we've more then out grown, we are still very comfortable here and could add on in the future if we end up not moving. And 2) no matter what happens with either home, it's good to remember that these really aren't our forever homes anyway! If we buy that house around the corner from us, I'm calling it our "forever home until our forever home!" I mean, if we buy that house, I can't see any reason we would have to move again space wise. It could be our "forever house." But I get so excited when I think that these homes and these cares are just passing away... we have a hope and a future that is secure in Jesus and someday we will live forever with Him! As we talk about the foundation of the house we want to buy having issues, I remember that Jesus is our firm foundation, and He holds our future in His hands! Those hands that bore the nails that took away my sins surely can handle something as small as a move from one house to another... I'm so thankful for the good God who is sovereign over all the details of my little life!
