Sonshine Park

We are so thankful for our wonderful children's ministry. They seriously go above and beyond and not only take such great care of my girls but are genuinely interested in how they are doing and do a great job of partnering with us to teach them about Jesus! We love all the girls' teachers, the other volunteers, the curriculum they choose and the activities they do. The girls have had great teachers this year and we will miss them when they promote in August. We are excited to get to know their new teachers  though!

All of that being said, we struggle with Kendall going to her class e.v.e.r.y. Sunday. It is just crazy. She cries and throws herself on the floor or runs away from me every single time I take her to her class. She is in love with her teacher, she has great friends in her class, and she always tells us she has tons of fun each week, but every time - for two whole years - she has done this. It's just beyond what we can even figure out. We've tried everything. And she's fine 1 minute after I walk out the door, but dropping her off each week is just something that's not fun for me.

This week our children's minister and good friend Kathy went in after I left while she was still throwing a fit. She pulled Kendall aside and talked to her about how Mommy does a job every Sunday, Daddy does a job every Sunday and how her job, the way she can serve, is to go to class happy and smiling. She talked to her about how the other kids will be happy when they see her happy and how they will be upset if they see her sad. This seemed to click, at least for that day, and we're hoping it helps in the weeks to come!

I don't like to write about hard things like this, but even though they are hard, I want to remember them in the future. I want to remember how hard it is for me to drop her off every week - because I think it gives me good perspective for how hard it can be for some parents to drop their kids in class on Sundays. I also want to remember how helpful and patient Kendall's teachers and our children's ministry staff have been. In taking care of Kendall gently they have ministered to her mom and dad and we are so thankful!

So I don't have any pictures of all that, but I do have some pictures of Cooper playing in her class this past week. Every time I peek in I see her playing in this box they built to look like a castle. She's so funny. This is her friend Eli.

 This summer all of Sonshine Park has been learning about creation and what God made on each day of creation. Last week was Day 7 when God rested.  After church, Kendall said, "Mom, Dad, what did you learn in church today?" Cracked us up - we normally ask her that but she asked us first this time. :) We told her what we learned and then we asked her what she learned. She said, "I learned that God rested." We talked about this for a minute and then Kendall said, "Cooper, what did you learn?" Cooper looked at her and plain as day said, "Jesus." So cute!! Then she said, "My bed. Sleep." We're not sure exactly what she was saying, but we think she was either talking about how God rested or she just heard what Kendall said about God resting and she knew that must have meant that he slept in his bed. Either way it was pretty sweet. "Jesus." :)

We're so thankful for our children's ministry - on good days and on bad days!

Cousins Weekend!

A couple of weeks ago, Val said that Evy woke up saying, "I going." Val said, "Where are you going Evy?" She said, "I going to Cooper's." Val called and said "We need to come down to LJ!!" So after our weekend in Longview, Gigi, Val, Gracie and Evy all came down to stay with us for a couple of days. We had so much fun watching the girls play and they were so happy to be together.

They got here on a Sunday and Randy switched his day off to Monday that week. Monday morning when we woke up, Randy made pancakes and those were a big hit with the girls!

 After we ate pancakes, we took the girls to swim at the LJ outdoor pool. They had so much fun swimming and having a picnic. On Tuesday we went to story time at the library and that day the theme was all about boats. They each made a boat and after story time was over we all went to the fountains to splash around and float their boats.

We had a blast and the girls had some good time together. We were so glad they came - great idea Evy!!

Fun!

After beach baptism a few Sundays ago...

Strange?

We bought Kendall a bag of the pre-sliced apples at a restaurant the other day. This is the real conversation that followed:
Me: "Kendall, you need to eat your apples."
Kendall: "I don't want those apples. They are strange."
(Randy and me trying not to laugh): "Kendall, those apples aren't strange."
Kendall: "Yes! They are strange!"
Me: "Kendall, those apples aren't strange. You're strange."
Kendall: "I am perfect! I am not strange!"

Yes. Yes she is. Strange that is - not perfect. Ha!

Bandit Reunion 2012

Last weekend was our annual Bandit reunion! Once a year our group of friends from college gets together to hang out and catch up. We have missed having Michelle with us the past few years because she was in Mali, so we were so happy she was back with us this year! Here's our whole group: the Mitchells, the Vests, Michelle, and us. 7 grown-ups, 8 kids. All of a sudden we're outnumbered!!

We figured out that this was our 10th time to get together since college. We used to rotate houses but since we just keep having kids, we realized that David's parent's place in Longview is the easiest place for us all to stay. So we've gone there the past few years and it is so nice! Thanks for hosting us David and Amy!

These two girls swam like fish the whole 3 days we were there! They both had so much fun and were worn out after the trip!  

 Kendall and Madison. Madison is the oldest and Kendall is the second oldest. I think this picture was an attempt at taking a picture with all the oldest girls, but Kate was not interested. :)

 Kendall swam all over that pool - no lifejacket, floats or anything! She is a swimmer and is so confident! Love it!

 We loved getting to just sit around, watch the kids swim, and talk about everything under the sun. It was so relaxing and so fun!

 Such a nice pool and poolhouse!

 Other than swimming, Kendall and Cooper's favorite parts of the weekend may have been getting to play with the babies! Courtney and Trent's Karsyn is 6 months old and Amy just had Natalie 6 weeks ago! One time Kendall was swimming, Courtney walked out with Karsyn, and Kendall said, "Mom, I'm done swimming. Can I hold the baby?" That's the first time I think she's ever asked to get out of the pool! They just doted over both babies and I loved watching them be sweet little mamas. This is Cooper holding baby Natalie.

Here is a video of Kendall going down the slide! She was so brave - we were very proud of her. It ends in the deep end; she couldn't touch so she would just swim over to the side and walk on the step!

Cooper even started jumping off the step to Randy. I love listening to her count. I think she's saying "Ready set go."

We love our Bandit Reunion every year and are so thankful for friends that can just pick right back up where we left off! A lot has changed since college, but we love talking about funny stories from then together and sharing what our lives are like now together! Love you guys!

Wedding Weekend!

Our friends Chris and Chelsea were married July 7! They asked Randy to marry them so we got to go to Austin for their beautiful beautiful wedding. We were super excited about a weekend away, and so thankful for my mom and David who drove to Austin to meet us, picked up the girls, drove them back to Ft. Worth and kept them there all weekend. We were set to leave on Friday morning but on Thursday morning, after July 4th the night before, Cooper woke up with a very high fever! It totally came out of the blue - she had had a slight cough all week but nothing that even gave me pause. I called Randy when Cooper woke up with such a high fever and he said to go ahead and call the doctor because we were sending the girls to Ft. Worth for the weekend. They were able to get us in that afternoon, so I took Cooper while Randy came home and worked from home while Kendall napped. This picture shows how Cooper was all day - she just layed on me the whole day! She is never still, so I knew she felt bad. Turns out she had strep! We were able to start her on antibiotics and by Friday night she was acting like a new baby!

We left Friday and drove to Austin, met Granny and Papas to give them the girls and then headed off to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The wedding was Saturday night, so we got to spend some time with friends on Saturday in Austin. We had so much fun! Here we are after the wedding.

Kristin and me and the reception!

Johnsons, Erskines and us. It was fun to hang out with so many LJ friends that drove up for the wedding!

Saturday we played around Austin with Michael and Noelle and Debbie and Steve. We went to Zilker park and I made everyone ride the train. They were so happy with me. :)

While we were having fun there, the girls were having fun with Granny and Papas! They got to go swimming, go to their church, and play with the puppies. Mom sent me this picture Saturday after lunch - she said they were having lunch with fancy plates and cups!

They also had a guest for lunch - Miss Roly Poly!

Sweet Cooper!

We drove back to Lake Jackson on Sunday and then on Monday, Mom drove down (all by herself!) with the girls to spend the week with us. It was so fun to have her here for a few days! On Tuesday we went to story time at the library...

...and on Wednesday night we went out to eat mexican food. We loved having Granny with us!

Thanks for taking such good care of the girls for us while we were in Austin, Mom and David! We are thankful we are able to get away just the two of us every so often!

July 4, 2012

We had our annual July 4th party at Tony and Laurie Gryseels' house this year! This is something we look forward to each year and is one of our most favorite Lake Jackson traditions! This year there were over 100 people there, and we all hung out on their driveway, in the house and in the backyard. It was so much fun!

Just a shot of the driveway with everyone sitting eating. Tony and Laurie cook all the meat and we all bring sides and desserts. It is incredible how much food is there!

 We love having our Michelle here with us!! So fun to get to do all this stuff with her and introduce her to our favorite LJ traditions.

The girls ate a LOT of sweets! Check out Kendall's chocolate face! :)

Kristin and me

My sweet bug. Sorry her mouth is full!! Eating is one of the only times I can get her to sit still! She had so much fun at the party, running around and visiting with everyone!

 Sarah and Kendall ready for fireworks! Laurie had every light-up, fourth of July thing you could imagine from Oriental Trading, so the driveway looked so fun once it got dark! The girls both loved the fireworks this year! Our city has an awesome show and we missed it last year because of the drought. Kendall seriously talked about wanting to see fireworks after July 4th for about another 3 months. She loved getting to see them this year! This was Cooper's first year to get to see fireworks since we didn't have them last year! We weren't sure if she would like them or not but she thought they were so fun! I was holding her and kept asking her if she liked the fireworks and she would point to herself and say "Mine." I guess she thought those fireworks were for her!

We had a wonderful July 4th!

Visitors!

Our friends Angela and Aaron got married the last weekend of June and Randy was the one to marry them. (Side note: this is very confusing to Kendall. Randy has officiated several of our friends' weddings this spring/summer and when we tell Kendall that Randy is marrying them, she says, "But, Daddy is married to Mommy." Yes. "But why is he marrying Angela?" Well, he's just telling them that they are married.) Anyway.

We had a lot of fun getting to go on a date to the rehearsal Friday night and then the wedding Saturday night!

 Holly and I were in the house party. We were pretty awesome at passing out programs and cutting cakes. Thanks for letting us be a part Angela!

 Since we had several things to be at that weekend, my Dad and Lisa came down to see us and to play with the girls! We were so thankful they came down for the weekend and enjoyed our time with them. They went to Chick-fil-A, Target, watched movies, read books, went to the library and had a lot of fun playing at home!

 Loving the glasses they picked out at Target!

 Sunday morning we all met at Ihop for pancakes before church and then they came to church with us before getting back on the road. We had so much fun and were so glad you guys came!! Love yall!!

And so it begins....

I have been on a loooong break from blogging! I have a lot to catch up on. I'll just get started with a funny story about Cooper.

The other day Coop was sitting on our bed and Randy was standing in front of her. Some music came on the tv and Randy started dancing...shaking his booty. Cooper put her hand up and said, "Daddy! Stop! Tooooshie! No!" She said the last "no" really low and very serious like, "Dad, that is not ok!" It made us laugh so hard! We think that was probably her first sentence - "Dad! Stop shaking your tooshie!" :)

Cooper, what you don't know is that there is nothing that can make your Dad stop shaking his tooshie. He is always dancing!

Cow Creek 2012 Edition

We made our annual trip to Cow Creek a couple of weeks ago! Cow Creek is a camp that Aaron's family has close to Orange, Texas - really close to the LA border. It's a one room camp house on a creek and it's so much fun! About 3 or 4 years ago several of us started going in the summer and we were able to squeeze one more trip in before our friends Jason, Stephanie and their kids moved to Japan!

Kendall loves Cow Creek. Talks about it all year long. So she was very excited to be going and so was Cooper! Molly was not excited that we were going, and she decided to load herself in the van, even though she was staying in LJ with Frannie and Bud.

The creek is so fun. The cabin is up high with lots of sand underneath, so the kids just play under the house all day and get in the creek at some point each day. It's very relaxing and just great hang-out time! This is Seth, Blake, Lawson, Ella, Aubrey, Brynlee, Sarah, Kendall and Ethan. Such sweet friends!

Cooper was a great age this year - she loved trying to keep up with the big kids and did great just wandering and playing in the sand!

Seth and Brynlee designed a "boat museum" under the house one day. They made us all tickets and took us on a tour. Very creative! This is most of the adults in the box they drew that they had to stand in on the tour...

...and here Seth and Brynlee are telling about the different "boat exhibits." :)

Jason has been the worship pastor at Brazos Pointe since 2006 - the year before we came. The Beams have been some of our closest friends since moving here and we will miss them so much! They were feeling a calling toward some kind of mission work and God led them to a position at a church in Okinawa, Japan. He will be leading them in worship as well as leading their missions efforts. We know this is an exciting next step for them but Lake Jackson won't be the same for us without them!

Before they left, some of us made a little photo book with pictures of our families and notes from us. We gave it to them at the creek and they loved it! I think Stephanie is crying in this picture. :) We have all been through so much together and have grown a lot as we've raised our young children together. So much of all our lives is done together that it is going to be so weird not having them here, but we are excited to hear about their adventures in Okinawa!

I love this picture - Brynlee, Sarah, Aubrey, and Kendall all slept in one big bed together on Friday night. Kendall has always wanted to sleep in our bed at the creek - she's never been old enough to want to sleep with her friends. They were all very excited to be having a slumber party and they all slept all night. I don't think any of the four of them moved. Love it!

All the kids!

We have the best times at the creek! Already looking forward to 2013 and hopefully getting to plan it when the Beams are visiting!