The girls were excited to get back to school. It was a great summer, but toward the end we were ready for a new season. I am so thankful for the seasons of life!

Lydia misses 6th grade. It was a fantastic year but I am encouraging her to look forward to more good times. I know middle school is a difficult time.

Jessica was up at 5:30 this morning excited to try out middle school!

They outgrow picture taking!

Elaina is studious. She would love to go to school year round. At least that’s what she thinks!

Anjelia has the best imagination of any kid! Of course she loved first grade.

Anjelia is super proud of her Twinkle Toes Sketchers! They light up quite brightly when she walks.

Domino sleeping on the way down!

Our good friends, Robin and Larry, invited us to travel to Branson for the weekend. The highlight was of course, Silver Dollar City, a wonderfully clean and friendly theme park. It was a blast.

Anjelia was rather attached to Larry for the weekend. Robin and Larry were brave to invite a family of six on a get-away weekend!

Elaina and her daddy.

I enjoyed the ginormous Flemish Giant bunny!

And Anjelia liked the little goats!

The girls were curious about the old school house. Kinda wish things were still this way for my kids.

The girls loved the roller coasters. Elaina jumped on the barn swing with Lydia and my blood pressure went up. This thing is a beast of a ride. Elaina and I both survived the experience! Jessica and Olivia were roller coaster riding machines. Lydia was brave and tried them all. Larry bought the video of Lydia riding Wildfire, a 66 mile per hour ride with five upside down loops. Her expressions are hilarious the entire ride! I was proud of them all for being brave. Anjelia loved the Powder Keg. It starts by going from 0 to 60 in two seconds! Pretty daring for a six-year-old!

Our family at The Landing. It was beautiful. Would love to see the fountain show at night.

We toured Marvel Cave. It is a one hour walk underground! Very cool. It’s amazing that there are gorgeous water falls underground! The girls got to see some bats and lots of beautiful formations.

A big thank you to Larry, Robin and Olivia for sharing their bring-a-friend tickets with us! We had a great time spending the weekend with your family. Thanks for the memories!

Father’s Day 2009

Happy Father’s Day to my AWESOME hubby! I am soooooo thankful you are the father of my girls. They are very blessed! I am so very proud of the man you are and thankful you are the head of our home. (I don’t care if that’s not politically correct. I love it!) You provide a great deal of security and love to us all. Thank you for all your love, faithfulness and sacrifice.

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Yesterday, Lydia celebrated her eleventh birthday! In just one year she’ll move up to the youth group at church! Yikes! Lydia is a very thoughtful, generous young girl. She can be surprisingly selfless for a kid her age.

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Jessica had braces put on her teeth two days before her birthday

Jessica is now a double digit kid after turning 10 this weekend! It’s Tuesday and I am beginning to feel back to normal after her slumber party, birthday bash Friday night! Jessica had six girlfriends over for her sleepover. Ten kids made the night a busy blast! The girls settled down and seemed to be falling asleep at 4 am only to be up and going strong at 8! I know they would’ve stayed up all night if I had let them. I wanted their moms (my friends) to still like me the next day!

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Anjelia can finally look forward to starting the kindergarten process! She’s been cringing at the thought of kindergarten because of the dreaded kindergarten shots! She faced her fears today (she really wasn’t given a choice as I literally dragged her out of the van as she clung to the seat belt crying) and got FOUR shots. Poor baby. We are BOTH very relieved. I was dreading the shots myself because I knew how scared she was. Her friends Jaden and Evely went with her and they all three were given coupons for free sundaes at McDonald’s!

 All of my children have handled the shots differently. Lydia literally sat there stone faced and didn’t even flinch. No big deal. Jessica was scared but handled it well until the needles came out. Elaina was so excited she bounced up and down while waiting for the nurse. Anjelia, well we’ve been over that. It reminds me to be careful about judging behavior. A lot of it has to do with individual personality.

(Evely is in pajamas because she just left her Mother’s Day Out slumber party!)

 Now we can go to kindergarten enrollment next week and Anjelia won’t have dread in her gut. She is soooooo excited about kindergarten now. She’ll be going to pre-kindergarten summer school this June. All of the girls loved it.

 Anjelia keeps showing off her band aids and everyone comments on how brave she was. She emphatically says, “No, I wasn’t brave.”

At the beginning of summer, Jessica picked out a pair of new sunglasses. James and I went to her room around 10:30 PM to check on her. She was sound asleep in the dark, wearing her new shades! It was so sweet and funny! It’s a good feeling when the kids appreciate their stuff.

Dollhouse Poo!

I have very resourceful children!

My Lydia Grace turned 10 on Sunday!

Lydia wasn’t feeling well. I took her to the doc today. They did x-rays of her abdomen and couldn’t find any problems, so she’s on medicine to help with her stomach pain and nausea. Hopefully she’ll be able to go to school and enjoy her day tomorrow.

Happy Valentine’s Day! As with most of the holidays, I enjoy the time through the eyes of my children. This last week has been filled with Valentine box crafting. Jessica and I staged a photo shoot of her guinea pigs. We took quite a few Valentine-esque photos of the piggies. She taped them all over her box, inside and out, along with a number of red hearts. It was quite a tribute of love for her pigs.

Lydia’s box was topped with a Littlest Pet Shop disco scene, complete with a working disco ball! Elaina and I made a really cute monkey box and Anjelia did a bunny box, of course. I wish I had pictures, but I’ve all but given up on my camera. I miss taking pictures.

Speaking of pictures. . . I tried to take pictures of my homemade noodles! Yes, I made homemade noodles for the first time. Unfortunately, I have no documentation. They turned out very yummy. (Thank you Robin, for teaching me!) I was proud to serve them for James’ sis, Christie, who visited us last week after seven long years! It was so good to see her. She recently returned from being deployed to Iraq and we were thankful to have her home! I also had the honor of having James’ Aunt Kathryn over. I’ve missed these ladies!

Jessica has fallen in love with the music of John Denver. She has the BEST of teachers this year and Mrs. R plays John Denver music during class. Jessica borrowed her teacher’s cd so James could put the music on her MP3 player. Too cute!

Do you remember your Valentine boxes? What kind of music did you like in grade school?

Elaina spent days in front of our fireplace with a fever. Landon was right by her side the entire time.

Despite the bitter cold, I hope you have a warm and cozy, love filled week!