Thanksgiving week

We went to Lubbock for the first part of the week to do Thanksgiving at my parents' house.  Here are some fun moments I captured:

The kids love taking baths in my parents' jacuzzi tub.

Dawson can be found just about anywhere these days!

Brady fell asleep in my dad's lap.

Then Lee and I and kids #1-3 hopped on a plane and flew to South Padre to watch Texas Tech play in a basketball tourney.  The beach was definitely the highlight of the trip.  We stayed in a house about 100 yards from the ocean, and despite the cool weather, we managed to spend several hours there.

Brady's first airplane ride! He cried the whole way down the aisle, but once we got seated, he realized it wasn't so scary.

The girls loved watching the water wash over their feet.

Addie tried to catch the birds.

Brady's feelings about the situation...

He was much happier in the dry sand!

Annalee got taken out by a wave...brrrr!

A jellyfish washed up on shore, and the girls tortured inspected it for quite a while.

Since we've been home, I've been busy preparing for our Disney trip!  We're taking kids #1-3 (Dawson gets to stay with my parents again) to Disney World this Friday, and I think I'm just as excited as the girls are.  Brady doesn't really know what's coming, and Lee...well, he's just happy to be along for the ride.  But here are my favorite pictures and videos from the last few days:

Addie loves to sit with Annalee when she does homework.

Dawson loves to suck his toes!

Watching the girls play...so happy!

He's looking at Camper out our back window...

Had to get a closer look!

And finally, here are a few good videos from this past week, hope they make you smile... and maybe laugh a little. 

Brady learning some geography

Brady, Journey (our friends' dog we're babysitting), and the donut

Dawson crawling

more crawling

Fall Festivals and Campfire

Our annual group photo at the MCA Fall Festival with the Voskamps and Smiths... my how we've grown!

2005

2010

Annalee got her hair colored and face painted at the MBC Fall Festival, and both girls got their faces painted at the MCA Fall Festival.  

Annalee also got to show off some of her new ballet skills at the MCA fall program a few weeks ago.  Here she is anxiously awaiting her turn:

I love how she pinches her bottom lip when she's nervous.

Lee & I and Luke & Lindsy took all the kids out to the ranch to go "camping"....without the actual camping.  We spent a couple of hours building a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and letting the kids run around, as sort of as a test to see how close they are to being ready for a real camping trip.  I'd say they're really close!  They loved it and did great!

Lee & Luke started off by gathering rocks for the fire pit.  The kids wanted to help, and here's a "rock" that Addie found...I'll give you a hint as to what it actually is: cows roam this ranch.

 Yep, it's a cow pattie.  I could barely hold still from laughing long enough to take her picture, which I did before telling her what she was holding.  (Is that mean?)  Then Lindsy immediately sanitized her.

Gathering sticks...

Luke started the fire, but Brady tried to blow it out.

I love this picture of Joe, I just wish it wasn't so fuzzy.  I had a million shots turn out like this because I don't know how to shoot in the dark with a fire going.

Roasting marshmallows!

Mmmmmm, s'mores!

Dawson was content in Aunt Lindsy's lap.

I have a bunch of pictures ready to do another post or two, but I've got to go make dinner...stay tuned for Thanksgiving pictures and more adorable-ness from Dawson!  He's a full-fledged crawler, sitter, and pull-to-a-stander!

Dawson: the latest

CRAWLING

Dawson crawled for the first time about a week ago! We've been expecting for the past few weeks.  He finally got the strength and coordination to hold his body up, pick up a hand, and set it down again without falling or rolling onto his back.  His previous failed attempts looked kinda his arm was a kickstand, and he didn't know how to balance himself when it wasn't on the ground.  At 5-1/2 months old, he's definitely our earliest crawler!  He is really slow, unless he's going in reverse- he's mastered that and often gets wedged underneath our entertainment center.

FIRST HAIR CUT

I also decided to trim his hair (just the sides) last night.  I wish I'd taken a before shot, but I went back a few weeks and found this picture so you can see how long it was before...

After!  So much better!  No more Bozo the Clown, as Uncle Luke described him the other night. (Totally accurate!)

FIRST TABLE FOOD

His appetite has been insatiable lately, so I decided to go ahead and introduce baby oatmeal at dinner the other night.  He couldn't get enough!

And this is how he reacted when Lee didn't get it to him fast enough...He ate all 3 ounces in about 5 minutes! Then he wanted to hold the spoon; notice he's holding it with his left hand!  We're pretty sure he's left-handed since he has a definite preference for it.

earrings!

Annalee has been asking for months to get her ears pierced.  You never know how serious a child's request is until you realize they've been persistent through your attempts to blow it off.  At first I didn't think she was serious or knew what it entails; so a few weeks ago when she was asking for the 50th time since last spring, I sat her down and explained what the process would be like.  Afterward, when she said she still wanted to do it, I knew it was time to talk to Lee.  We agreed that she is old enough to handle the responsibility, so I told her we'd wait and do it on the weekend, mainly because Claire's only has 2 workers on the weekends and you HAVE to get both ears done at the same time.  I gave it a 50/50 chance she'd chicken out, but the closer it got, the more excited she got.  She never once asked to delay or not do it.  And she was so brave and tough!  Not one tear.

before...

during...ouch!

after!

Happy Birthday and re-birthday, Addie!

Addie turned 4 on Sunday, October 10th.  I'll talk more about that later, because something even more special happened to her 5 days earlier...

October 5^th, 2010

We were driving to Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday morning.  Out of the blue, Addie says, “Mommy, I really love God.”  I said, “That’s great, but why do you love God?”  She answered, “Because I get to go to heaven.”  I asked, “How do you know you get to go to heaven?”  She said, “Because I’m nice to everybody.”  I explained that doing good things isn’t what gets us into heaven.  Then I said there is just one thing we have to do to get into heaven, and I asked if she knew what it was.  She just sat there, and I didn’t want to just give her the answer, so I gave her a hint: “You have to believe in something. What is it?” She immediately shouted “GOD!”  I added, “And Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe He died on the cross?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why He did that?”

“To save us.”

“From what?”

“Our sin.”

We talked about what sin is.

“So do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you and that He came back to life?”

“Yes, on the third day!”

“Well Addie, then that makes you a Christian!  You’re a Christian now!”

“Yay! I’m a Christian! And Annalee is too, right?”

“Yes, and Mommy and Daddy too.”

“And Dawson and Brady?”

“No not yet, but hopefully someday.”

“Mommy, do you believe in God?”

“Yes I do.”

I still vividly remember the day Annalee believed in Jesus (you can read her salvation story here), and I know I'll never forget the day Addie did.  One of my kids' favorite things to listen to is our set of "Psalty" CD's, which teach kids about God's word with cute stories and songs. In one of the CD's, a couple of kids believe in Jesus and the other kids call it their "re-birthday", referring to the Christian term "born again" as starting your life new in Christ.  I'm so thankful that both of my girls now have eternal security in heaven, and that nothing can take it away from them. 

On to the birthday party!

We had a full house...my parents, Lee's parents, the Voskamps, Carter & Mason, and Luke, Lindsy, & Joe all came over for pizza and cake. 

The cake: Addie requested a spaceship with the alien toy from Toy Story, so here's what I came up with...

Having it as a centerpiece on the table turned out to be a bad idea. Brady got to do quite a bit of quality checking by the time we caught him...

Presents!

memorization

I can't believe how much of a sponge kids' minds are.  I'm getting to see another level of this with Annalee's school work.

Part of Annalee's daily homework is a set of phonics flashcards.  I've learned that doing them at mealtimes is the best time for us and also the easiest.  (I'm all about multi-tasking.)  As you will see, Addie and Brady love to do them with her.  In fact, if I skip one of them, they will quickly let me know so they can have their turn.  Let me do a quick set-up for this video.  On the front of the card (the side they see) is a picture and the letter that object starts with.  On the back side (the side you see) is the answer; they are supposed to say what the picture is and then pronounce the sound the first letter makes.  So if the front side is a picture of a monkey and the letter "m", they are to say "monkey, mmmm." 

This is a picture of Annalee's first ever graded assignment.  She had to memorize this poem and then recite it in front of her class.  She has never liked being up in front of people, so we were so proud of her for doing it!

I know, finally a new post...

I kept thinking Best Buy would call to say the computer is ready. After all, how long does it take to replace a hard drive?  It's been over 5 weeks since The Crash.  I got fed up and finally called them yesterday.  They haven't even started working on it. (I'll spare you the details.) I threw a child-sized temper tantrum.  Immature, maybe.  But I really need my computer back so I can create more posts.  Not that I can't do it using my mom-in-law's computer that she has so generously let me borrow, obviously; but it's just nice having your own stuff.  You know what I mean.

So thanks for nothing, Geek Squad.  Maybe you're good at fixing computers when you don't lose the case number I gave you and claim to have called and sent emails asking for it.  (Never happened.)

Thanks for listening.

On to the post.

So many fun things to talk about.  I'll begin with me & Lee and work down.

Lee has witnessed several of my recent near-breakdowns over the fact that we are busting at the seams in our house, and has spent the past few weeks helping me clean out closets and rooms.  We have taken approximately 15 garbage bags to the dumpster, and took 3 suburban-sized loads of stuff  over to a friend's house who had a garage sale last Saturday.  I can breathe a little easier now.

I'm nearing the end of my 10th season of coaching Cross Country at MCA, and I love it just as much as I did that first year.  I really love getting to hang out with the kids and have a passion for teaching them how to run, set goals, and have a healthy lifestyle. 

My absolute favorite thing is hanging out with my family, and it's a bonus when Joe gets to come over.  Recently we were outside after dinner enjoying the beautiful Fall-ish evening.  Not sure who is having more fun here, Luke or the kids...

Annalee is 1 month into Kindergarten, and absolutely loves it.  She can already read easy books like Peg and Ted, Hop on Pop, and others that have words that obey the rules of the English language.  Now more than ever, I'm so irritated that the people who were in charge of spelling decided to make so many exceptions to the rules of grammar and phonics.  Makes it harder on a newbie.

Addie is about to turn 4, and is in her first year of AWANA as a Cubbie.  She really enjoys it and looks forward to it every week.  She loves getting to memorize the verses.

Brady turned 2 on the 15th, and we had a small get together with the Midland fam to celebrate.  I made a Toy Story cake since that's what he's into, and a friend let me borrow the Woody costume that her son wore for his Toy Story party the previous week.

At 4 months old, Dawson is growing and changing so much, it's hard to keep up.  He's generally happy, sleeps and eats great, smiles and laughs a lot, and loves being around people.  He can roll over and pushes up onto all 4's.  Bet he'll be crawling soon.  

I adore his smile because it's contagious. How can you not smile when you see this?

It's not that I haven't had anything to say...

Our computer crashed.  Again.  For those of you not keeping track, this is the 3rd time.  Pretty much hating Apple right now.  So the iMac is in the trusty hands of the Geek Squad yet again.  Praise Jesus for my awesome husband who had just backed up all our pictures and videos for me just days before this happened.  It's possible they will have to replace the hard drive.  Again.  So for now, I'll have to give you a picture-less synopsis of the past 3 weeks.

The most exciting thing recently is that Annalee started Kindergarten!  I can't believe it!  She is absolutely having a blast, and when I picked her up after her first day and asked her how it went, she said very emphatically, "I LOVED IT!"  I haven't once had to ask her to do her homework (yes- about 2 hours per week!), she asks to do it!  She's working on writing letters and numbers, phonics, and spelling. She has already memorized about 15 sight words, and is working on memorizing her first poem that she has to recite in class at the end of September. I'll definitely be posting that video!  I love the MCA schedule.  She is in school from 8:30-3:30 on Tues/Thurs with Mrs Miller (whom she adores already) for the core curriculum, and 12:30-3:30 on Fridays for enrichment day...Science, Art, and Ballet classes were the ones we chose, and she loves those classes and teachers as well.  We feel so blessed that she is attending such an amazing school!

We've been spending a lot of our time at Terri's pool, since the weather has been too hot to be outside just playing.  Brady is quite the swimmer, and is fearless in the water...which is both good and bad.  We have to watch him constantly.  He can now jump off the diving board and swim to the side!  The girls would swim all day if I let them.  Even Dawson enjoys the water.  He has become quite the little cutie recently.  And he's been rolling over for a few weeks now!

One final thing is that Lee took the girls on a weekend-long trip to a friend's house on a river in Leakey, along with Luke & Joe, Travis & his girls, and Cameron & his boys.  You can only imagine how much fun they had catching fish, throwing rocks, riding a 4-wheeler, sleeping in a sleeping bag (even if it was indoors), and swimming in the river.  That same weekend, Brady went to Lubbock to do Nana Camp with my mom, so it was just me and Dawson for 2-1/2 days!  That was very weird, but quite relaxing.

I hope my next post is full of pictures and videos, and that we get our computer back soon!

San Antonio

We went to San Antonio this past Thursday-Monday to go to Lee's cousin Allison's wedding, and turned it into a mini-vacation. It was equally fun and exhausting, and I feel like I need a few days of rest to recover. We were so busy I hardly had time to pull out the camera. One of the things we did was go to Sea World on Friday. Probably not our smartest move as parents, taking 4 kids 5 and under to an amusement park on the weekend during the hottest month of the year, but the kids sure loved it. Then on Saturday we went to the Children's Museum, and wow...wish ours was that big!! We could have easily stayed hours longer than we did.
Annalee & Addie were bell ringers at Allison's wedding, which was so beautiful and something I'd never seen before. The reception was a blast, and the kids were so fun to watch...they all stayed on the dance floor for most of the time we were there...till 9:45! I so wish I'd taken pictures or a video, it was really cute to see them so happy.