Can You See 'Em?

Every Friday is "Spirit Day" at the kids' school and this year the school shirts are camo. We were actually ready a few minutes early yesterday (that almost never happens!), so I decided to take their picture in their matching shirts. They are striking a hiding-in-the-woods-about-to-pounce pose.

They all had a great first week of school, for which I am very grateful!

Thankful Thursday

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thess. 5:18

It's been a busy week, with much to be thankful for:

1. Amazing teachers! All three of the kids love their teachers. What a blessing!

2. Routine, glorious routine! The kids have fallen back into the routine of school pretty easily. I'm still trying to find my routine, but it's a search I'm happy to be undertaking.

3. God gives us what we need, and not what we deserve.

4. God's provision.

Cool Kindergartener

Camden was so ready for Kindergarten. He didn't seem nervous at all. At Meet the Teacher night on Monday, the teacher gave them a sealed envelope for them to open at bedtime. It contained a pencil and a letter from the teacher. She talked about how excited she was too get to know him and said it was okay if he was a little nervous, that she was a little nervous too. As I read that, Camden gave me a strange look and said, "I'm not nervous, I'm excited!"

That excitement carried through to yesterday morning. He could hardly wait for us to drop Kenna and Cullen off at their classes, so we could get to his. I had chosen to go to his class last in case I lost it emotionally and needed to make a quick exit from the school. He had no trouble and I managed not to cry - although I did tear up as I walked out of the room!

Camden's teacher is Mrs. Wallace, and she is wonderful. She's one of those "warm fuzzy" kind of teachers, but I've also heard that she "runs a tight ship". I think that's the perfect combination.




Here's Camden working on his name tag:

He had a great first day, but commented as we were walking home in the near 100 degree heat that he was really tired and even asked, "How long was I at school?!" Last night he went to sleep pretty quickly. He's taken to sleeping in his doorway. He's going through a "fear of monsters" stage and sleeping in the doorway makes him feel closer to the rest of the family and perceived safety. (Although I don't know what help the rest of us would be if there were any real monsters!) I hate for him to sleep on the floor when he has a perfectly good bed, but he seems to be getting enough rest, so for now we're going with what works. I thought he looked so cute last night, wrapped in his blanket, with his puppy dog standing watch:

Super Second Grader

Cullen is excited to be in Second Grade. His teacher is Mrs. Prickett. When Kenna found out who he had, she said that Mrs. Prickett was who she wished she had had for second grade, because she seemed like so much fun. Already, Cullen is enjoying it and said this afternoon, "School is fun!" Gotta love that!


The classroom desks are arranged in groups of four and Cullen already knew all three of his tablemates. That's great for him, but may be trouble for the teacher! Actually, Cullen is such a rule-follower, he shouldn't have too much trouble staying on task and keeping quiet when he needs to.

Fabulous Fifth Grader

Wow! Can Kenna really be in the fifth grade already? She was a little nervous about it, but after two days, she is loving it! Her homeroom teacher is Mrs. O. They work hard at our school at preparing the fifth graders for middle school, so they change classes; Kenna has her homeroom teacher for Language Arts and changes classrooms for Math and Science.


As part of the preparation for middle school, they focus on organization with the kids. They are allowed to keep their lunch and backpack in their homeroom cubbies, but everything else must be carried with them from class to class. In fact, they were told not to put ANYTHING in their desks, unless they wanted it to get STOLEN!
So, we bought a massive binder for all Kenna's folders, spirals, and supplies. Kenna had a great time organizing it and decorating it with stickers. When it was all full, it was very heavy and Kenna decided she needed to weigh it. She weighed 61 lbs. without the binder, and 71 lbs. while holding it! Ten pounds is a lot for a girl her size to carry around! But that's okay, I'm sure it builds character (and muscles, too!).

The Golden Year, Day 1

All three kids headed off yesterday to start a new school year. I jokingly call this my "golden year" because it is the only year that all three kids will be at the same school. As we left the house yesteday morning, Camden began pulling on the back of his shirt (see above picture). He has major issues with tags and we had forgotten to cut the tags out of his "first day of school" shirt. We didn't have time to go back in the house, but I assured him I would borrow his teacher's scissors when we got to school. He walked the whole way to school with his hand pulling on his tag. Once we got it cut out, he was fine!

I have great plans and goals for all that I'm going to do this year including personal improvement, ministry, and projects around the house. Before tackling my lofty goals, I decided to take the first day "off". As is often the case, things didn't go as I had planned and I ended up doing a little work, some laundry, cleaning up the house, and errand running. But, I did find time to meet my friend Kimberly for pedicures and lunch out, so it was still a great day!

Last Day of Summer

Today was officially the last day of summer vacation, as the kids start back to school tomorrow. Our school district always starts back on a Tuesday, which seems odd to me, but this year it worked out great for us. My friend, Kimberly, and I took our kids to a nearby lake for some last minute summer fun. The place was nearly empty, since most of the area districts have already started back to school. We had a fabulous time!

Kenna building sandcastles with Breyer and Sierra:

The boys getting sand in their hair:

Me and Kimberly:

Cullen, Kenna, and Camden:

Me and Kenna with our sandcastle:

Camden's Turn

Camden had his turn at Nana and Papa's house Thursday night. Read about his visit on my mom's blog by clicking here. Looks like he had a great time. Thanks Nana and Papa for all you do for our kids - they're going to have great memories of time spent with you!

While we're on the subject of Camden, I'll share another story. A few days ago he was in his room, supposedly cleaning, but was really just laying on the floor playing. As I walked by his door he asked, "Mommy, what's 9 plus 6?" After I answered, "15" Camden replied, "then that's what 5+4+3+2+1 is." Maybe I'm just easy to impress since he's my baby, but I thought that was pretty smart.

A Time to Dance

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven...a time to dance." Ecclesiastes 3:1,4


Kenna started dance classes yesterday at a "A Time to Dance", a Christian studio near our house. I'm excited about her taking lessons there; they pray before classes, memorize scripture, and use Christian music. She was most excited about getting the outfit.

Parents have to watch through a window outside the studio, so I don't have pictures of her doing any ballet, but here's one of her waiting to get started.



On Saturday after we signed her up we went to buy her outfit. The store we went to had just moved locations and was having a grand opening. We got several freebies (posters, keychain, etc.) and Kenna got to have her face painted with a ballerina.

Thankful Thursday

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

God is certainly good and we have much to be thankful for this week:

1. Rain - which has kept the temperatures (and hopefully our utility bill) lower.

2. Sunshine - as welcome as the rain has been, it's been nice to see the sun shining again today.

3. Grandparents - Camden will leave this afternoon for his turn at Nana and Papa's house.

4. An amazing fun filled summer - it's hard to believe that it's almost over!

5. School starts next week - this summer has definitely been amazing, but I'm ready for the routine that school brings!

Bottlecaps, anyone?

Yesterday we took advantage of the unseasonably cool weather and had a picnic lunch by the lake. We went to a Corp of Engineers park that we had never been to before, and let's just say it wasn't the most well cared for park. Apparently most of the visitors there weren't abiding by the "Don't mess with Texas" motto. There was quite a bit of trash, which was just fine with the kids in light of their latest passion - bottlecap collecting. Camden was heard commenting, "I found the jackpot of bottlecaps!" I love it that they find joy in the simple, if not clean, things in life!



This is what could appear to be a nice shell hunting shot of the kids - but, alas, it's dirty bottlecaps they were hunting:

Kenna and two of her favorites:

Camden with a handful. He's not a discerning collector - he even takes the plastic caps from water bottles. Be warned Papa, he has great plans for using some of his caps in building a robot with you next week.

Cullen collected a few caps, but soon lost interest and had more fun playing in the mud.

The Meeting Place

This week it was Cullen's turn to have a solo visit to Nana and Papa's. You can read about his visit on my mom's blog by clicking here.

When my parents have one or more of the kids for a visit we usually meet somewhere for the "hand-off". Our favorite meeting place is a church that's about half way between our houses (I get the better end of the deal, as it's a little closer to my house). The parking lot has a good bit of shade and there is a playset to entertain the kids if one of us gets there before the other. Yesterday we met there and Kenna spotted this really neat praying mantis. That girl loves bugs! Even I thought it was pretty cool.

Thankful Thursday

"In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy." (Author unknown)

I saw the idea for "Thankful Thursdays" on someone else's blog awhile back and thought it was a great idea, and then I ran across the above quote last week and decided I would definitely give it a try. I may not keep up with it every Thursday, but we'll see where it goes.

So here's what I'm thankful for on this Thursday:

1. Healthy kids! Cullen quickly recovered from his illness of earlier in the week and so far no one else in our house, and as far as I know no one in the Wood's house (who we were with on Monday), has gotten sick. Praise!

2. New shoes for Cullen. Shoe shopping is always a chore with the boys, as they are super picky about how their shoes feel. After much looking and trying on (Cullen commented a couple of times that, "shoe shopping is hard"), we found a pair of tennis shoes for him for school.

3. No crypto! As many of the pools in our area are being shut down due to the Cryptosporidium virus, we are grateful that our neighborhood pool has remained open and crypto-free.


4. Tomorrow is Friday! Which means Robert comes home from Odessa, where he has been working all week. Yea!!

Hope you all find many things to be grateful for this week!

A Trip to the Woods

Yesterday afternoon we went to visit our friends and former neighbors, the Woods, at their new house. We all had a great time - the kids loved riding in the golf cart, swimming, and just playing with their friends. Amy and I stayed up late talking and watching the Olympics. The kids also stayed up really late and mine were asleep by 8:30 tonight! Unfortunately our visit got cut short, as Cullen was up during the night with a fever and one episode of "puking", as he called it. So, we got out of there with our germs this morning. The Woods have an anniversary vow renewal ceremony coming up Friday night, and Brian and Amy leave for a second honeymoon on Saturday, so I'm praying that they all stay well. Here are a few pics from yesterday afternoon and evening.

Emily taking everyone for a ride in the golf cart:

Adiah had a great time trying on Camden's camo shoes:

Natalie and Kenna:

Silly boys - Ridge, Camden, and Cullen:

"Just a Minute"

I find I use that phrase with my kids all the time...I'll get that for you in just a minute...I'll be done with this and pay attention to you in just a minute...we're leaving in just a minute.
Today we were in the car discussing how far it is from Sonic to our house (deep conversations like this often take place in our car) and Camden informed me that "Daddy's five minutes takes less time than your one minute, because your one minute takes a long time." Okay, so I guess I should watch how I use that phrase or he'll never really grasp the concept of time; I'll start working on that...in just a minute.

Give a Dog a Bone

I thought I should post an update on Dixie. I took her back to the vet this past Wednesday and her ears are much better. She hasn't been scratching them at all. But, they weren't completely clear, so we're continuing with the ear drops - ugh! She's obviously feeling fine as she allowed Kenna to dress her up - what a good sport!



Yesterday I gave her a pigskin bone (not something I've ever given her before). She was super excited about it and was apparently afraid we were going to take it away from her, because she immediately headed for a corner of our bedroom where she stayed for a good bit of the afternoon:

Anniversary Stay-cation

We celebrated our anniversary with a brief "stay-cation". The kids went to Nana and Papa's for a couple of days (you can read a little about that on my mom's blog by clicking here), and we hung out close to home.
On Thursday we went out for a nice dinner at Abuelo's and then to see a movie. On the way to the theater, I realized we weren't going to have a picture of us on our anniversary (and I just couldn't have that), so we took this one while we were waiting for the movie to start:

On Friday we went to Frisco to do some shopping (mostly just looking, and not much buying) and to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!). But before we left Denton, I asked Robert to stop at Sonic for a Diet Coke. Nevermind the fact that we had just left the house where we had canned Diet Cokes that were a fraction of the cost of a Sonic drink - there's just something about that fountain drink over Sonic ice that I love. So my wonderful husband stopped for my Diet Coke - he knows what makes this girl happy! Being the goofy picture taker that I am (I have a small camera that is always in my purse), I decided to take a shot of him waiting for my Coke.

Friday evening a friend of ours got married. It's a second marriage for both the bride and groom, so it was a small at home wedding. The bride had hired a professional photographer, but also asked Robert to bring his camera to take some candid shots. We kept thinking we would ask someone to take a picture of Robert and I, but it never happened, so I'll just share this picture of me with the bride.